We moved!

It's been a long time since I've put anything on this blog. I pretty much just use facebook now, but these photos are really just for my own records and to share with some family members that haven't been to visit yet. Over the summer we bought a bigger house very close by our old one and spent 3 weeks fixing it up. New carpet, paint, added and refinished the wood floor, and lots of repairs. After we moved in we had some trees and bushes taken out of the yard since it was so overgrown and we have spent many hours pulling weeds and trying to clean things up. We have lots of work left to do to make it a nice yard and lots of work left in the house too. But I love the difference these photos show of the yard. It opened it up so much. More photos of the inside to come! I realized I have lots of before photos on the inside, but I need to take some after photos. We are loving our new home and having more space!

My Little Crafter

Nicole started this all on her own and has been busy for hours now. I haven't helped her at all. She says she is making crowns for her friends to wear at her birthday party. It's hard to explain to her that her birthday is over a month away. She has been a busy, happy girl today!

August Birthdays

Angela and Ashley's birthdays are one day apart, so we celebrated together. Angela got breakfast in bed on her birthday. Emily got it ready all by herself, including buying the candy bar ahead of time and wrapping it up. What a lucky girl!

Clip on earrings!

Angela turned 8 this year, so she got her own scriptures in preparation for her baptism.

Yummy chocolate mousse cake! She has my love of chocolate!

I took some pictures of her outside.

Emily helped Ashley open her presents.

She got a pretend make up kit and she knew exactly what to do with everything.

My sister-in-law Ashley helped me make this cute flower out of fondant for my Ashley's cupcake. That way I didn't have to make two cakes. It worked perfectly.

Blowing out the candles.

When I told someone the other day that I have 4 girls, they smiled and said exclaimed, "You are so blessed!" and I thought, yes I am. I am so blessed to have 4 wonderful girls!

Cousins' Visit

Matthew's sister and her family came to visit for 10 days in August and we had so much fun with them! We were essentially on vacation, but still at home, the best of both worlds. Our girls had so much fun playing together and they had lots of time to!

Two Ashley's-aren't they both beautiful?

Chloe had her birthday party while here, a princess party. We were instructed to come "fancy", so we spent a lot of time getting ready at home. All the girls wanted their hair curled and make up done.

The primping continued at Nana's! Chloe got her wish of pink hair for her birthday.

All the girls

Ashley is an amazing cake decorator! She spent 3 days on this cake. She taught me how to make marshmallow fondant which was really fun and pretty easy. Maybe I'll try it myself sometime.

Children's Museum: Looking at this picture makes me realize how old Emily is, she had a great time there, but compared to the rest of the kids in the kitchen, she looks old!

The weather didn't get hot while they were here, but we finally got in the pool anyway. It was freezing! But the kids didn't seem to mind.

Ashley is really good at hair too and my girls were more than happy to let her do their hair. This was a pretty crazy hairdo, but the girls loved it!

We had a fun day at the beach, but it was much warmer back in Portland, so we didn't stay too long.