the 4th

As always, we had a GREAT 4th of July holiday
and like every holiday, I tried desperately to get one picture of everybody smiling, but of course, it didn't happen. But here they are in their 4th of July church clothes.

In case you haven't noticed, all our 4th of July's go in the exact same order every year. There was one difference this year, the Dawson side was out of town:(, so we didn't get to celebrate with them. I won't go through all the details, here's just a bunch of pictures from this year.

Uncle Luke and Aunt Lisa brought some awesome Indian reservation fireworks down from Montana this year.

I asked Ben to take a gal pal picture, and he took it, and said it was good. Well, I should have not taken his word, because Lisa's eyes were closed, and Jess and Shan are in the shadows. Next time we'll have someone else do it.

waiting for the parade to start

Lisa and Luke

my bright-eyed baby

Grandpa in the parade

Uncle Luke scouting out left over candy for Carly

Oh, the excitement of the parade

impromptu picture of the Jay Jenkins posterity minus Elder Jenkins

Hailey squealed when ever anyone other than miss Emma got in the baby pool with her

I had to crop out the rest of Carly's 2 sizes too big x-rated swimsuit

They didn't last long in the baby pool, they cried to be in the big pool

Abigail with her pink hair and her favorite pink swimsuit.

No pictures of Luke during the swim party... I forgot his swimsuit, so he was only in his bum huggers.

1st annual Larry Dawson family reunion

My sis-in-law, Courtney, wanted to go to Manti this year to see the pageant. I've never been, so we decided to make a trip out of it and call it our family reunion. Larry, Sharla, Ben, Abigail, Luke, and myself drove down to Courtney and Ryan's house in Spanish Fork, Friday. She cooked us some dinner, then we all drove to Manti.
The kids had a great time. They kept themselves entertained so well while we were waiting for the pageant to begin. They loved the pageant. It kept their attention the entire time. Abigail was so excited to see angel Moroni appear on top of the temple, but so sad when I told her it wasn't the real angel.
That night we drove back to S.F. and spent the night at Courtney and Ryan's. We got up the next morning and went to seven peaks. The kids did awesome for being sleep deprived and in the heat all day. We got home Saturday night and I was so excited to see my little girls. Grandma Barb babysat them for us.

Next year, we will plan ahead of time so maybe Freddie, Heather, Ryan, and Eli can come.

For Uncle Eli

With Eli being in Iraq and all, we tried several times to e-mail a birthday video to him, but it wouldn't work. So I put it on here for him to see.

Eli, hope you had a great bday, we love and miss you!

lots of randomness

We haven't had too much going on the last week or two, but In an effort to keep family members far away updated.... here's some of what we've been doing.

My nephew, Kael, was blessed a couple of weeks ago. All the grandkids happened to be wearing pink and green, so of course we took a picture. Adam, Emma, and Hailey were not happy, Luke, Abigail, Beau, and Kael were bored with all the picture taking, but Carly was looking and smiling for the camera. One out of 8 isn't too bad, right?

I thought maybe we'd get a family picture to hang on the wall. It wasn't bad, but I really think I'm just going to have to shell out the money and get a professional one done soon.

Sometimes Abigail loves barbies, sometimes it's babies. Never both at the same time. Lately it's been back to babies. She wanted her picture with Heart (definitely not the name I would have picked, but Ben said I need to let the girls name their own baby dolls) in front of the flowers

I walked into Carly's room, and Abigail was sitting in bed snuggling her baby in her p.j.'s. I think she was a little embarrassed, but I finally got it out of her that she was a new momma in the hospital with her new born baby. She will be the best little momma some day.

Carly doesn't dress up in princess dresses very often, but she does love random outfits. This one made me laugh, because If you've seen Arrested Development, you'll agree that she dressed like Mr. F.

Carly loves taking pictures. We have lots like this.

I can't even begin to tell you how much Luke likes Star Wars. So I'll let the pictures do the talkin. His friend across the street also loves Star Wars. These two can usually be found walking around the neighborhood like this.

one of the many Star Wars pictures lining Luke's wall

His Favorite thing in the world is playing with his Star Wars legos. He already has a list of more S W legos that he wants from Santa.

This girl is so happy! This is definitely one of her favorite places to sit. I never let Luke and Abigail sit here when they were babies, but by Carly I didn't care anymore.

Hailey takes good care of babies. She especially likes the ones that Carly and Abigail happen to have at the moment.

T-Ball

Luke has LOVED T-Ball. His games couldn't come soon enough. Every night he'd ask if he had a game. It has been fun watching him improve with each game. He's so sad that it's over already. The girls also loved going to the games and making new friends. They were especially excited for the treats that their Grandmas brought to each game.