Smiles

 Cora showed us some of her cute smiles at 5 weeks and by 6 weeks, we knew that her smiles were for us.  This little girl loves attention (which is great because she is very popular in our house!)

Some tidbits about Cora at 6 weeks:

• She is a trooper.....she is pretty happy on all of our summer outings 
• Is easy going and only cries if she is hungry, has a gas bubble, needs a new diaper, or needs help getting to sleep
• Loves her swing
• Sleeps in a swaddle in her bouncy seat (our room just doesn't have much space.)
• Makes a cute noise when she smiles excitedly
• Takes a bottle
• Has reddish highlights in her hair
• Is the perfect addition to our family

Faux Camping

To celebrate Father's Day weekend/ Dave's last weekend we decided to go on a little camping trip (minus the actual spending the night part.)  Faux camping is GREAT....we get to enjoy all the fun outdoors stuff while still getting some pretty good sleep in our comfy beds.  

The girls before we left.

Friday, we met some friends at Crystal Reservoir.  The day started off with helping everyone set up their tents in gale force winds with looming black clouds.  We felt very good about our decision to not spend the night at this point :).  Fortunately, the storm blew over then we had a beautiful day.    The kids had a great time playing in the water, which led to getting soaked (luckily, I anticipated this and brought extra clothes.)  

Milan and Dave tried out some fishing. 

Eden went off for a nap in one of the tents.

We also enjoyed some tin foil dinners and smores then headed home with some very tired and dirty little girls. 

 Saturday, we met with some other friends at Vedauwoo for a picnic and 4-wheeling.  We took our Rhino and the kids had SO MUCH FUN!  The four oldest kids sat in the back and giggled on every bump.  The other kids were such a good influence on Milan.....it was definitely the most she has ever enjoyed the Rhino.  There was one point when Dave took them on a little course and I could see their little heads bobbing around and hear happy squeals!  Eden is still pretty timid on the Rhino....she has fun at about 11 mph :).  

Such a fun summer night!

5!!!!

Milan celebrated her 5th birthday in style!  To kick off the celebration, she woke up to balloons and birthday decorations everywhere.  She picked Pop-tarts for breakfast and homemade pizza for dinner.

Of course, she was spoiled with presents.

The only thing that she wanted from us, was a Wuzzle Pet, which she loved! 

 Here we are making the pets.  (Milan's expression is awesome in this picture!)

 After dinner, we had some friends over for frosted brownies.

The next day, we had an unicorn party at the park complete with rainbow cupcakes, rainbow appetizers, Red Light Green Light, Pin the Horn on the Unicorn, and lots of friends playing and having fun.  (It was a little hectic, so I wasn't able to get many pictures)

I made this invitation for Milan and she loved delivering them to her friends' houses (I think that is one of her favorite parts every year!)

Blowing out her birthday candle.

Milan had a great time and loves being 5!

Milan's favorite things are:  

Color:  purple

Food:  chocolate

Drink:  chocolate milk

Animal:  unicorn

Show:  Barbie and the Mermaid Tail

Game:  hide 'n seek

Thing to make:  paper snowflakes

Thing to wear:  poofy skirts and dresses

Friend:  Brooklyn

Place:  Disneyland

Song:  I Love to See the Temple

Restaurant:  Burger King

Thing to do as a family:  go to the jump house
Handsome guy:  daddy

Milan is such a fun little girl!  She is super social and loves to make new friends everywhere we go.  She has a great sense of humor, even her preschool teacher said that she likes to kid around with Milan because she "gets it."  She is a chatty little girl, who is constantly bringing up memories from a year or two ago...I love hearing her thoughts and the things that are important to her in memories.  She spends more time playing independently and I know that she is more than ready for Kindergarden next year.  Despite her dad's efforts, she is very much a girly-girl.....she loves to play Barbies, Polly Pockets, school, house, and do crafts.  She will play with other toys, like Legos, but usually to build a Barbie castle or something similar.  We love Milan (Mee-wan as Eden says) to pieces!

Butch Cassidy Days

A couple of weekends ago we were watching an Milan's friend, Rowyn, so I thought it would be fun for all of us to check out the Butch Cassidy Festival in town.  They had a ton of fun stuff for kids.....petting zoo, kite show, jump house, balloon animals, broom making, and my personal favorite.....

Llamas!!!  The girls thought they were neat, but didn't have the same excitement I did.

We also ran into our friends, the Chamberlains, and took a little carriage ride with them. 

The girls had a great time and were definitely worn out when we left (Eden was in "needing-a-nap-meltdown" mode, Cora would not tolerate her stroller, and the older girls were tired and thirsty!) We had some down time at home, then enjoyed the rest of our afternoon outside while Dave went riding with a friend.

Summer

School is out, we are getting this 3 kid thing figured out, and the weather has been beautiful!  Summer is my all-time favorite time of the year so we are enjoying every second!  We started off the day with a picnic at the park......

Eden has turned into quite the little climber!  I love that she just runs off to play with her friends and has a great time.

Cora is almost a month old.  Here she is with daddy sporting some crazy hair!  (Daddy was supposed to leave this week to begin training for his summer job, but the company is still waiting on all his background check stuff.  We are happy to have dad home for another week!  He should be heading to San Antonio on Sunday instead.  Dave is definitely ready to get to work and start making money.)

 Cute girls.  Both girls got haircuts on Saturday.  (Milan initially wanted long hair like Rapunzel, but hated having her hair combed every morning.  When she was complaining about tangles, I tried to sell her on short hair.  It worked!  I think they both look super cute with short hair and the best part is that it shortens the whole getting ready process in the morning!)

Laying out in the front yard.  We busted out the sprinkler this afternoon the girls played outside for hours! 

We finished off the day with a family walk and a pit stop at the park!  Love it!

Bigger, Bigger

Cora is growing fast and we just absolutely love having her in our family.  I just had to share a couple of pictures from the past week.

The other day, we snuggled up and took a nap together.   When I woke up, I thought she was the cutest little sleeper and had to take a picture.

Dave snapped this picture. 

All the ladies in our family :) 

Thank You Grandpa Bob!

Grandpa Bob sent a package with cute clothes for Cora and some fun gliders for the girlies!  The gliders were a huge hit with Milan and Eden!

Eden couldn't quite figure it out on her own so we did some team work....she would get her pinchers ready then we let go on the count of 3 :)

Milan had it all figured out!

We nearly had a glider emergency, then dad came to the rescue!

Thanks Grandpa Bob for the surprises!