Brianna is 4!

Brianna turned 4 years old on July 18th. The time is flying by! It's true what they say...this is the longest shortest time.

These past four years with her have been an absolute joy. There are so many wonderful memories and funny times with her. She brings such a great spirit into our home!

The morning of her birthday I went into the girls' room to wish her happy birthday, and discovered Maya reading her a little story that she had written. It melted my mommy heart!

Then it was present time! She got some fun gifts from the family. Not pictured was a My Little Pony stencil book.

This year for her birthday she had her first friend birthday party. She loves horses, so she chose a horse/cowgirl theme for her party. I had so much fun planning it and putting it together. 

Ryan built this horse for the party. We used pom-poms for the mane and tail, and the party guests used hula-hoops as lassos.

Maya helped me create the cardboard Western town. It turned out so cute!

The birthday girl! I told her she was making a silly face and she said, "I like making this face!" Well all right then, let's go ahead and immortalize that face.

She requested a blueberry cake with horse candles. The cake was a white cake (I used Greek yogurt instead of egg whites and the result was extra fluffy and moist, albeit a little flatter) and the frosting was a whipped cream cheese frosting that is pretty much amazingness. That horse on top fell off pretty quickly so it ended up standing on the table.

The food spread! We had pink lemonade to drink. The items on the tray next to the cake are hay bales and tractor tires. 

The start of the party! She had seven friends come and everyone had a great time. 

Delicious food was created in the saloon.

We didn't have a ton of chairs for eating on, but the kids didn't seem to mind the floor. 

After presents and cake Ryan took the kids outside and played some games. It was HOT! I had originally planned on having the party outside but decided I didn't want to deal with sunscreen or heat stroke or melted children, but I am glad that the kids were able to go outside for some of the time.

The party ended at 5:30, so then it was time to figure out dinner. We had picked up swordfish and shrimp for Brianna's birthday dinner (at her request) but I was not really in the mood to fix a big dinner after hosting a party. And then Brianna said, "I want to go to the pool!" You got it, birthday girl! We ordered pizza and had it delivered to the pool. It was a great way to end the festivities of the day. The yummy seafood was consumed the next day.

I forgot to get a picture of the cute party favor bags! They were brown lunch sack type bags that looked like horses, a little toy horse, a horse finger puppet, stickers, and then something I created with hair ties and a tag that says "For Your Pony". I found something similar on Etsy and really liked it, but it was more money than I wanted to spend on party favors. It was simple and fun to make myself, and Brianna was able to help with threading the hair ties on to the jute. I think she was pretty proud of them; she took them out of the bag to show each guest as they were leaving.

And FINALLY on Saturday morning we went to The Silver Grille for breakfast to celebrate her one more time that week. Happy birthday, sweet little cowgirl!

Dallin's 1st Birthday!

Dallin turned 1 year old on July 7th. What a fun day it was! He woke up very happy and ready to celebrate his first birthday.

We started off the morning by going to help clean the church. He had a fun time playing in the nursery. After his morning nap we met up with Grandma Cindy and went to the neighborhood pool. Dallin was excited about our new pool donuts.

It's always a little more fun when Daddy is with us at the pool!

We got home and he took another nap, and I decorated his birthday cake. I forgot to take a picture of the inside! It was yellow cake with chocolate ganache frosting, filled with vanilla bean Swiss meringue buttercream, salted caramel, and shortbread. My avid readers (I know there are so many of you) might recognize that mouthful of filling from my father's day cake. I had enough leftover from that cake to use on Dallin's cake. Worked out perfect. I topped the cake with crushed golden oreos and put pirouette cookies around the outside. Dinosaurs added the illusion of a real life Jurassic Park in our kitchen!

After his nap it was present time! He got lots of fun gifts from grandparents, parents, and his sisters. 

The photo below is from a couple of days later after we used a gift card from Papa and Nana.

I think it's safe to say that his favorite new toy was this light up dinosaur. It plays music and rolls around on the tile. He was really getting a kick out of it. It was the gift that Maya picked out for him, and I think she was pretty happy with herself!

Papa took the kids outside to play after presents while Daddy grilled chicken kabobs for dinner.

Dallin's favorite food is pasta, so I made sure to have a pasta salad as one of the sides for dinner. 

Dallin was SO excited for his birthday cake! After we sang to him he jumped out of his clothes to get himself a piece. 

He was pretty cautious at first, but eventually he started taking little pieces and eating it. 

Nothing too dramatic with this one. His plate didn't even end up on the floor, but he did eat the whole thing!

As far as updates go, he still has 8 teeth, can crawl up the stairs and is starting to crawl down safely too. He weighs 17 lbs 8 oz (4%) and is 29.5 inches long (35%). His weight percentage is dropping so I have to try to give him high calorie foods until a weight check in a month. He pretty much chugged a sippy cup of heavy whipping cream mixed with whole milk. When he is excited about something he does a growl that sounds like he has a frog stuck in his throat. He loves to click his tongue, especially when someone does it with him. He signs more, milk, and all done. He is still nursing first thing in the morning and right before bed at night, but is on cow's milk otherwise. He can stand by himself for a few seconds and cruises along furniture. He loves music, giving hugs, and his blankie. We are so in love with this little boy!! I look forward to seeing him continue to grow!