Halie and Lucy come to visit

This summer my darling nieces came to visit us for a week. It was so fun (and helpful) to have them here. It reminded me on when my sister and I were kids and we would go spend a week at our aunts or grandparents in the summers. Great memories! I can't believe my sister and I are old enough for this. My kids absolutely adore these two. We had a mini photo shot to try and capture some good pictures of the cousins. We failed for the most part to get a group photo, but there were a few good ones in the mix.

Happy 2nd Birthday to the Triplets

I cannot believe that our kids are already 2 years old. The time has really flown by. Taylor Carder and Cruz are so fun to be around, they are almost always happy, and we love watching them learn and explore (even though that usually means lots of messes). My parents came into town to celebrate with us. It was so nice to have them here and get to share the kids with them. I consider it a big accomplishment to have 3 healthy, thriving, cuter than ever 2 years olds, the Green and Bell families (all siblings and grandparents) have helped us make that happen and we are so grateful for all of the help, support, and love given to us and our children. We celebrated the kids birthday with some family and friends in our backyard, here are a bunch of pictures from our celebration.

Our family of 5

fishing in the swimming pool

pin the nose on Elmo

Lincoln helping open presents

waterslide form Jeff, Kathy, and Ivan!

new towels from Ms. Lacey

Birthday Cupcakes

Taylor was very "dainty" and ladylike eating the frosting with just one finger 

our favorite neighbors came to celebrate

Peter couldn't resist pulling out the water slide. It was a huge hit!!

kids friend, Bradley

Ivan

just hanging out 

pretending to play tag with the big kids

kids got a new outdoor playset for their birthday

Taylor

Ivan being a cutie!

Cruz

Carder

Pictures over the last few months

I'm not very good at keeping up to date on my blog about what's going on in our lives. Here are a few phone pictures of what our kids have been up to.

playing in the toy bins is always fun!

We took the kids to Chuck E Cheese on a raining Saturday. There was so much to play with and see! 

These pictures are of Cruz. I let him help me make cupcakes one day (which never happens because it's usually a pain fighting off the other two from helping also), as you can see, he loved licking the spoon!

St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes

We've started wearing ponytails.

This is how Taylor plays!

General Conference Picnic

Carder Boy

Cruz playing with a princess wand and a pirate sword, one in each hand.

Crazy haired Taylor got my headband around her arms and back and got stuck! She was crying for help and I couldn't stop laughing, so then she started laughing too. Silly girl.

Taylor loves her Papa! My parents came to visit a few weeks ago, all three of them thought Papa was so funny!

Visiting the Family

In March we took a little drive up north to visit family. It was so fun to get to spend time with them. We have missed them so much over the years and it was great to be able to play with their kids. Our kids were in heaven because there were so many people to play with, new toys, and freedom to roam. They really loved being one of the big kids playing, eating at the table, swimming, etc. Thanks for letting us come visit and for taking good care of us. We love all of you!

 Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures, here they are:

Dance Party

My kids love a good dance party. For some reason they enjoy them even better with their clothes off! It's almost instantly once the music is playing that they request their shirts off. I love to see their sweet moves and they definitely egg each other on. Here are a few pictures from our dance party last week.

 Carder getting his groove on with his pants on his head.

The boys trying to do the splits

Cute little Tayzor Cakers