4th of July

4th of July fell on a Sunday this year, so of course Hallie kept asking, "Why are we going to our friends house for fireworks on Sunday!? That's not keeping the Sabbath Day holy!" So, after feeding Hallie a silly line or two about why we were breaking the Sabbath Day, we headed over to our neighbors house for fireworks and it was so much fun! Does it help that we had the missionaries over for dinner just hours before?


These were only some of the fireworks that our neighbors bought. I don't think there were enough hours in the night to put off all their fireworks, but they put on a great show! Here's Lana, Hallie, Sydnee and Rose.

Hallie's enjoying a s'more.

The girls' favorite part was doing sparklers.


Sydnee caught a parachute guy from one of the fireworks.

Ohio Friends, Grandma, and Eclipse, Oh My!

Sarah and Jessi visited from Ohio last week, and while it was a bonus that they were able to see us and do fun things with us for a couple days, the real reason why she came was the same reason why my Mom drove down from Michigan: for my Eclipse premier party and midnight movie premier! I should be... no, correction... all three of us should be embarrassed for admitting we attending and held another premier party for the release of the Twilight Saga's Eclipse, but nonetheless, we all had so much stinkin' fun and so did the other 16 people at my party!!

While Sarah and Jessi were here, we surprised Sarah with cupcakes to celebrate her 29th birthday!
We visited the splash park and went to see Doogal at the movie theatre.




I don't know who the girl is behind the girls, guess she just wanted her picture taken too.

Then of course, the festivities began when my Mom arrived hours before my party began. Sarah, being the best friend ever, gave my party that special touch with some fun decorations, and even an Eclipse Jeopardy game that we made up with trivia from the book.

Sarah even bought matching shirts for all three of us.


I even splurged this year and ordered Eclipse plates and cups for my party which turned out perfect!

Here's the other "Twi-hards." Cam came down to take the picture for us, humoring himself as he said, "Say, Edward!" As we all screamed, "EDWARD!" Then he had us scream, "Jacob" for the next camera, and well, you get the picture.

(Front row: Sarah, Marci Stewart, Lisa Lewis, Christy Hinds, Summer Stump, Sarah Suddarth, me; Middle Row: Mom, Liberty Stump, Ginny Wing, Stephanie Newhard, Ali Spagnolo; Back row: Darla Albert, Michelle Winter, Kirsten Winter, Rachel Swing, Mary Palmer, Kari Gregory)

Here are two of my friends, Sarah and Christy, sporting their Twilight shirts they made for the premier.My party ended around 10pm so we could head to the midnight premier. Before we left, my mom gave everyone who went these cute "Bella" bags with Bella's scent, Eclipse gum, and Eclipse chocolate in them. When we got to the theater, they were having a blood drive outside (how appropriate!) and there were Edward look-a-like's there, and of course, Jacob in his wolf form. Everyone else was too scared to get that close to him, so Michelle and I toughed it out for a fun picture.
We were SO hyped up and excited for the premier, we could barely stand ourselves! And we were so tired at this point, that we were almost delirious, but it was worth every minute :)

Here's the gang at the theater as we waited in anticipation for the next chapter of Bella and Edward... eeekkk!!!

Happy Kid's Day

What?? You didn't know that two weeks ago was Kid's Day!? It's okay, neither did we until Hallie made it up the night before. Although we should have known that it would come because of this conversation I had with Hallie numerous times in the past couple weeks...

Hallie: Mom, when is it going to be Kid's Day?
Mommy: Kid's Day? Every day is kid's day! We do fun things all the time!
Hallie: No, I want a Kid's Day like when it was Mother's Day and Father's Day.
Mommy: Well, there really isn't a Kid's Day cause you have a birthday, then lots of holidays in between where you get gifts and treated special.
Hallie: But I don't get breakfast in bed like you did!
Mommy: Ooooohhh. Well, if there was a Kid's Day, what kind of breakfast in bed would you want?
Hallie: Donuts! And I want a balloon like we got for Father's Day.
Mommy (after deciding there was no way around avoiding a Kid's Day, so I quickly pretended to look at the calendar): Well, what do you know? It's Kid's Day tomorrow!!

So, the tradition began. I frantically called Cameron and asked him to stop by the store on the way home from work to pick up two balloons and donuts to celebrate Kid's Day. Hallie even wanted us to perform a song about Kid's Day, but we figured that was really milking this for all it's worth!? We do have some sort of dignity to maintain :)

They didn't get breakfast in bed, but they did get a dang good breakfast!


The rest of the day ended up being so fun, not really on purpose either. We took the girls to a new splash park and then out to eat for dinner. Cam and I even got some shopping in at the outdoor mall, it was such a laid back enjoyable day to be together as a family.

Little Kickers Soccer

Hallie was on the Little Kickers soccer team again this year and being one year older really helped her focus at practice instead of getting distracted with picking flowers for me and Cameron!? Her friend, Jaxton Routsong was on her team too and they had so much fun together! Their coaches taught them how to "squish the bug" (stop the ball) and how to be the "monster in the net" (be the goalie). Some fierce soccer lingo huh?


During practice, they would break into mini-classes and each coach would teach them something new, then towards the end, they played Sharks and Minnows, Hallie's favorite part! The point of the game was to run away from the coaches who were the sharks, but Hallie ran toward them every time!? I don't know if she liked being a shark or just didn't get the point of the game, ha ha.
Daddy, Sydnee and I were always there rooting her on each week and most of the time soccer practice ended in a "We love soccer" cheer from the team and a trip to Zesto's Ice Cream... yum!

Jaxton's younger brother, Cooper, is Sydnee's age and they entertained each other by picking grass, running around, and of course stealing the coaches cones and using them as megaphones or hats.