Hailey turns 5

I can't believe our little miss turns 5 this week!  She will be starting pre-k this year and she is so excited.  Her teacher is going to be a young teacher that we already know well, so I think she is in for a fun year. Hailey is going to be having a frozen birthday party later this week so we will post lots of pictures afterwords.  Some things that I want to remember about Hailey right now:

She still loves her pink polka dot blanket.
She is as in love with Hello Kitty now as she ever was.
Her favorite color is pink. She loves anything fancy, frilly or sparkly.  
She could eat cinnamon french toast sticks for every meal if you'd let her.
She loves to dance, sing, swim, play outside and she wants to be an artist when she grows up.
She loves to cuddle and still takes good naps for me.
She is very kind, tenderhearted and soft spoken.
She is quick to pout, but quick to stop as well :)
I often find her looking at me throughout the day and smiling.  When I ask her what she's thinking about she usually says she's thinking about me and gives me a big hug.  She makes me feel really loved and lets me know it everyday.
We are so thankful for her beautiful spirit.

Callie's first swim meet

Today Callie had her first swim meet.  She was really excited and has been working hard on her different strokes to get ready for the big event.  

Misti and I ended up helping as volunteers getting the kids lined up and ready to go.

Callie getting ready to dive in.

Callie's favorite part was that her cousin Kennedi and Reagan were part of the swim team as well.

 She even got a little extra coaching from her dad.

And she ended up winning 3 ribbons and got a new shirt!  Way to go Callie.

What we've been up to

I just got reprimanded by my mom because I have not blogged in over two weeks.  Whatever is wrong with me!  I don't know, I guess we have just been so busy that I haven't slowed down to document it that well. So this post is going to be just a bunch of random pictures that I've taken over the last few weeks (all from my cell phone), so sorry for the quality. Mainly we have been busy with a bunch of activities for the girls, but I have also been training for my work and Brad has been doing well with his side business.  Overall we both have felt so many blessings this year.

The other day our church group volunteered to help out an abuse shelter for kids.  We helped shuck approximately 18,000 ears of corn!  4-5 hours of straight shucking, but the weather ended up being really nice for us. Here is Kayla with some of her friends.  Kayla has also been babysitting for me some this summer and for other family, she has been doing a great job.

 Last week the little girls attended a birthday party for a little girl from our branch.  It was their first "Monster High" party.

Sometime last week I cut Brynlee's hair and gave her a blow out.  She's such a cutie pie.

The girls got in several new outfits that their grandma ordered them.  They look so cute in their matching clothes, and I have to wonder how much longer they'll love dressing alike.

Callie attended a basketball camp last week.  She won the "hot shot" award for her age division (one of only five kids to win the award overall) we were sure proud of her.

A few weeks ago we decided to make some slime or "ooglemeck" I think it is called.  I thought it would be better outside, but turns out with the mosquitos outside we ended up slapping slime everywhere!  They had fun anyway.

The girls have been loving their gymnastics.  Callie has been going with her cousin Kennedi and they have had a lot of fun together.  Here is Callie working on her splits.

Working on her back walk over.

Hailey and Brynlee have been taking them too.  This is Brynlee's first year and she loves it.  She is so serious about doing each move right.
This is Hailey hanging on the high bar doing a flip.

Doing some stretches.

The girls just wrapped up their summer reading program at the library.  They all won prizes and Hailey and Brynlee won gift cards for being the top readers.  Callie came in close for top reader, but won some other things in her age group. They have had so much fun doing crafts, attending programs and having story time. 

Last week the girls got a frog at their cousin Kennedi and Reagans house and they brought him home, made his a nice little habitat with a swimming pool, grass and crickets and mosquitos to eat.  Hailey really thought we should put a Barbie toilet in there for it too.

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July.  We love to get dressed up in our red, white and blue and celebrate!

Last year I painted the girls faces, and so of course they wanted to do it again this year.

At night we stopped by grandpa and grandma Sheltons house and lit some daytime fireworks for the little kids.  We got mostly the classics.

 Except for these two new ones, which were my favorites.  The pooping puppy and and egg laying chicken!

 Hailey was more interested in the swing than the fireworks.

Grandma may have bribed Hailey a dollar just to hold a sparkler :)  Baby steps....

After that we headed to the fireworks show in Cabot.  We lit a lantern before the show started, just like one of the ones from Tangled.

 It was a great show, Happy 4th to everyone!