Grandma Rays birthday Party

On Saturday we celebrated Brads Grandma's 75th birthday. Can I just say how AMAZING she looks for being 75. I am pretty sure she is in better shape than most of us too.  We had a great turnout with all the family.  We all ate at Whole Hog Cafe and then had birthday desserts and present opening.

Chowing down on some barbecue....

The birthday song

All the little girls wanted a hug from Great Grandma

And of course they had to help her blow out the candles, you know in case she couldn't do it by herself :)

Happy Birthday Grandma Ray!  We all love you, you are such a beautiful person inside and out.  We are so blessed to be a part of your family and so thankful for the love you show to all of us.

Water fight

When it's a hot day and there isn't anything else to do, my girls love nothing more than to put on their swimsuits and to play outside in the water. They decided to have a water fight with cups that they had brought outside.

Even Brynlee was joining in on the action.

I saw Kayla walking around with  a bucket on her head and wasn't quite sure what she was doing. I thought maybe it was her armor.   Then I realized what they were doing with it.

I guess the cups just weren't holding enough water!

Brynlee was so proud of herself that she could balance on this ball.

To be young again...

Don't you ever wish you could go back to a time when your biggest concern of the day, is what you will eat for your tea party or what movie you will watch next? That's the best thing about having kids. You actually do get to live that life again every day. You get to see things through there eyes, and feel their excitement for even the smallest things in life.

Trip to Memphis

The other night Brad and I were talking about how nice it would be for just the two of us to spend a weekend together. We realized that we hadn't ever spend the night in a hotel without kids during our entire marriage!?!! How did we let that happen? Who knows, but we decided it was about time. So after calling Brad's mom to see if she could watch the girls, we had our little mini trip all scheduled. We had a blast. It was exactly what we needed, and it felt so good to pamper ourselves and have a little fun. Seems like parents can get put on the back burner a lot when you have little ones.  We stayed at the Peabody hotel, it was beautiful!

The hotel lobby is always packed with people.  That is where they have the parade of ducks and also have mingling/ piano music going on.

We knew right away that we loved the mattress in our room! It was so comfortable that I even asked one of the workers what kind it was. I was just excited for one night of not having to sleep in our taco bed, ha ha... (that is what we call our bed since we need a new mattress, ours makes us roll towards the center like the shape of a taco.)

After we explored the hotel we headed out to eat.  We debated a long time over where to eat the best barbecue.  We finally went with one of my favorites that Brad wanted to try called Blues City Cafe.  We had barbecue ribs and catfish.  Probably some of the best food I've had!  I even tried the catfish, and I hate fish.

We also had a few minutes to walk around Beale Street.  It wasn't exactly what we had expected.  There was a lot more druggy/ homeless crowd than we had planned on.  There were a lot of police everywhere, and I'm pretty sure I came close to someone trying to steal my camera.
Basically there were two guys that looked high who ran into me on purpose, then circled back around to make another pass next to me.  When I got eye contact with him trying to swipe against me again, he licked his lips all creepy and then laughed and took off.   I would have loved to see him try to rip it off my arm.  I have a little bit of fiesty in me, and I'm telling you right now, I'm pretty sure I would have drop kicked him.  Sooooo, after that little incident Brad decided to carry the camera, and we decided that walking around Memphis was maybe not the best idea. So we went back to our beautiful hotel.  

This is one of the shops in our hotel, they had some really nice things.

After we let our dinner digest, we decided to ride the trolley to the "Cheesecake Corner", a place that one of our friends recommended. It was really good.

We finished off the night swimming in this pool and soaking in the hot tub.  It was so relaxing.

We woke early so that we could make it to a session at the temple. It was so nice getting to go there alone with Brad and not have to hurry because we had a baby waiting for me that needed nursed or cared for. We just relaxed and were able to really enjoy our morning. Thanks again to my mother and father in law for watching our kids.

Finally cooling off

This past week has been a little better weather, thank goodness!  Last week was just to hot, and then 3 of my girls ended up getting high fevers of 103-104 and so it was just no good. We are finally all over the sickness at our house and have been having fun getting out and about again.  It seems like I have not been taking my camera with me as many places lately.  But some of the main things we did this last week was doing some mall shopping, went to chuck e cheese, got a flat tire, fed the missionaries, did my visiting teaching, been practicing my piano at the church, went to splash zone with aunt Jillian and her girls, have been going on morning runs, date night with my hubby at El Torrito (our favorite) and much more.  The summer has been going quickly and there is only a month left before we start school again.


I love it when the girls play all together.  They are starting to be interested in the same things, and so it makes it easy for me when they entertain each other.

We got a new toy at our house.  A nice couple from church gave us their basketball hoop.  Callie is getting pretty good!

I can't believe how long Hailey's hair is getting.

These are from the girls at Splash zone.

Video

This is a great video from one of the leaders of our church about the importance of not letting technology consume our lives.  It is a great reminder for me to not substitute virtual reality for real relationships. 

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/things-as-they-really-are?lang=eng

Girls Camp

Kayla had the opportunity to go to girls camp for church a few weeks back. It was her first time going. She went Tuesday-Friday and had a great time, I knew she wouldn't have a problem being gone from home that long, she has always been very independent. They stayed in cabins, so she got lucky because they weren't stuck in tents like the girls were last year. I knew she would love it. I have fond memories of when I went to camp with my best friend Chelsea. I wonder if she remembers when we tried to curl my hair (by making our own curling iron out of a stick wrapped in tinfoil) that we stuck in the fire to heat up. Yup, you guessed it, it burnt off most of my bangs. Ha ha... we were crazy. Anyway, back to Kayla.... Kayla loved getting to meet some other members of our church that were her age. Since she is the only kid in her entire middle school that is a mormon. Such a crazy thought, coming from where we used to live where 3/4 of the population would have been mormon.

She came home with so many great stories, and had a really spiritual experience there as well. I noticed her reading her scriptures on her own several nights throughout the week, I love seeing her doing that on her own. Speaking of Kayla growing up, she has been such a huge help to me this summer. I was just thinking the other day, how lucky I am to have her. So many people always ask me how I manage it with four kids and how I always have them well put together and how on earth I take all of them shopping with me. Honestly, I'm not super mom, it's just because I have Kayla. She is a huge help to me and I count on her so much throughout the day. She is always willing to give me an extra set of hands and I love that she is such a sweet girl. She has started babysitting a little bit, so that Brad can take a drive together, or I can make a trip to the store. It is so nice getting a little freedom.

Room makeover

When we were in Wyoming Kayla made a quilt for one of her Young Women projects for church. Well it turned out so good that she wanted to redecorate her whole room around it. So while she was at girls camp I made a few of the decorations, and when she got back we went shopping for the finishing touches. I think it turned out pretty cute!

I found her initials at Hobby Lobby and then painted them.  Kayla bought the sign below it to add to it.

She REALLY wanted zebra striped curtains.  I wasn't so sure about that, but I figured it was more important that she loves the way her room looks than whether or not I like zebra.  I hand painted the zebra print frame next to the curtains, it took a while, but since I was recovering from a root canal that day, I had nothing but time.  I also just recovered her old pillows in fabric that matched her bedding, and her room was like new!

Reagans Birthday Party

Last Saturday we were invited to our cousin Reagans 3rd birthday party. It was at the wonder place, the girls favorite place to go! Mary's daughter Kelli and her boys were also in town, so it was nice to see all of them as well.

Cousin Aden is on the left with Hailey and Brynlee.

Kennadi, Brynlee, Hailey and birthday girl Reagan.

Aiden and Reagan

Kelli's son Charlie, Kayla, Aunt Mary, Jennifer (Kelli's friend), and Kelli

Misti holding Reagan and Aunt Jillian holding Olivia

Jennifer's daughter Falon playing with Callie

Pretty girls!

Misti had everything decorated so nice.

Thanks for having us!