Birthday Girl

This is what we wake up to every morning... the happiest girl in the world.  She is always smiling and galloping (like a little pony) around.  Everybody argues over who gets to get her out of her crib in the morning.  It's a rare occasion when I let one of the kids get her, because it's my favorite part of the day.  She's smiling before she even opens her eyes.  She's a little doted upon, being the baby and all.  The kids love her and they're always trying to take care of her.  Sometimes she loves it and other times, she just wants to be a big girl.
Some of Hailey's favorite things...
her bem (blanket)  I don't know why she calls it that, just always has
wearing dresses
any of her cabbage patch cutie dolls
cottage cheese and mandarin oranges
playing outside
going for walks
smiling (she's always smiling)
and reading

Everybody was overly excited on her bday.  All the kids ran in her room singing to her that morning.  She seemed to know it was a special day because of all the extra attention.  She kept pointing to herself saying "birthday girl"  Or something that sounded like that.  

Hailey loves hearts.  She likes to  bring me her magna doodle and request for me to draw little hearts.  So we decided to do a heart theme for her bday

Pancake hearts... which she loved and squealed about.

blowing out her breakfast candle

Later that night we had our usual grandparent party.  She got lots of her favorite things, she has the best grandparents.

Hailey loved her doll, chair, squinkies, books, outfits, and swimming pool.  

I had a hard time thinking of something to get her, because I feel like we have every girl toddler toy there is after having two older sisters.  So we got her a big swimming pool, which I had wanted to get for all of the kids so it was convienient.  She loves the pool, and they've had lots of fun swimming so far this summer.

She also squealed over her heart shaped cake.  It didn't even matter to her that it was a bit lopsided ;)

blowing out the candles

Playing with some squinkies.

I thought how funny these two pictures are, because all our bday pictures are the same.  Men in one corner...

And the women in the other

Daddy's girl

Me and my sweeties.  

Two other important events happened this day, or didn't happen I should say...

1.  Luke lost his tooth.  It had been flappin in the wind, and so Grandpa Larry pinned him down and got it out.  He has also since lost the other front tooth, which was also pulled out by Grandpa Larry per Luke's request.

2.  This is the first time that I've had a 2 year old birthday, and I didn't have a new baby.  Yay!  I had my kids close, and that's how we wanted it, but it feels nice to have a break.  My kids are all about the exact same apart...

Luke and Ab- 20 1/2 mos.

Ab and Carly- 21 1/2 mos.

Carly and Hayes- 20 mos.

So I feel a little liberated to have more freedom and be over the baby stage.   Not that I don't have a little sadness creep over me when I see baby pictures of my kids... but I love seeing them grow up.  The older they get the better, which I never would have thought possible considering how much I loved having my babies.  I love having a family of little people.

Abigail's preschool graduation

 Yea!  She has graduated!  Abigail LOVED preschool,  She LOVED her teachers,  and she LOVED her friends. She's a little sad that it's all over.  Now she is looking forward to Kindergarten.  She was also a little sad when I told her that Kindergarten wouldn't start immediately after preschool.  She can't wait to get on the school bus with Luke each day.  Luke also pipes in when she talks about going to school together with, "ya and then if someone teases Ab, I will punch them in the face!"  Ben told Luke then only time he could ever hit someone is if they're hurting one of his sisters.  I think he might be a little too excited for this.

Usually every time I take Abigail to the store with me on a school day,  some cashier will ask why she doesn't have school that day.  I always explain that she's in preschool, she just looks like she's older because she's so tall.  I then tell them that her Daddy is 6'6, and then they understand.  It will be nice next year when she'll actually be in school, so no more questioning.

Her preschool graduation was at the Kangaroo zoo in Ogden.  It's just a massive building with tons of jumpy things.  It was so much fun for all the kids.

 With her teachers, Mrs. Shelly and Mrs. Amy.  They are the best!

The next few pictures are of my sweaty kids.  That's the only negative thing about the Kangaroo zoo.  It was SO hot and the kids were SO sweaty!

DInner and Reception

 The Dinner and the reception were so beautiful!  They had them both at the Castle in Layton.  The grounds were beautiful and had a big pond and waterfall.  It was hard to get pictures of the kids, because they were all running around having a great time trying to get wet.

The four Jenkins granddaughters

 My handsome boy.  I didn't get one of all the grandsons... they were having too much fun.

 

Abigail was in love with everything at the reception.  She thought it was all so beautiful, and she kept posing for pictures

 The best parents a girl could ask for

little miss sass

 Shelley with all her sisters

L-R-  Shannon, Lisa, Shelley, Lauren (Shelley's actual sister), Me, Jess

 

 Matt, Jess, Adam, and Emma

 

 Jed, Shannon, Beau, and Kael

My little family

Shelley with all of her flower girls.  The little girl on the very left is Lauren's daughter, Emma

 Brothers

 Grandma and little Kael

  

 handsome couple

 

Luke and Lisa

Carly said it was double great... meaning Brent and Shelley got married, and Luke and Lisa were in town

 Us

 

And the couple of the hour

So happy Brent and Shelley found one another!  we love our new sister/aunt, and it's fun seeing Brent so giddy in love.  

Brent and Shelley's wedding!

What a beautiful couple! 

Coming out of the Temple (Bountiful) for the first time as man and wife

I think Brent looks just like Grandpa Donald in this picture :)

My favorite one of them

Shelley's dress, hair, and bouquet were all so pretty

Me and my love

My oldest brother with his lovely wife

 My baby sister with handsome husband

For some reason, I didn't get a picture of Luke and Lisa together, I would have titled it.... My second oldest brother with lovely wife :)  So this picture will have to do.  It seems as though they may be having a deep discussion.         We are all so happy for the newest Jenkins family.  Congrats Brent and Shelley!

Also... you'll notice we didn't have our kids at the temple.  Well, it's because Ben's parents are the best.  They took them during the ceremony and the dinner, then brought them to the reception.   Sharla even painted the girls toenails to match their dresses, and covered up Carly's huge bruise on her forehead with a bit of makeup!   I love them, they are so wonderful!

 A few random pictures to get out of the way before I post Brent and Shelley's wedding pics... because I know that everybody wants to see those :)

 

 This was a few weeks ago when it had been hot, then got cold again.  The girls were still determined to play outside in their summer clothes.  After a few minutes, they came back in for shoes, then back in for jackets, then back in for good for some hot chocolate. 

 

 Hailey still thinks that she's small enough to have a bath in the sink.  She barely fits in there, but she loves it so much, and is so happy that I let her in.  It's actually a little convinient, because she always manages to get her breakfast everywhere, so I stick her in every morning while I'm  making Luke's lunch.

 Luke has been doing a 4-h group this school year called, Lego robotics.  Obviously we all know Luke LOVES legos, so he also thought the class was awesome.  He did it with a friend, and he would build a robot according to that week's plan and then program it on the computer to do different things.  Each week the challenge got harder and harder, but he always got it done.

 This was on  the last week and he was so excited to build whatever he wanted.

We don't get out to the movies that often... but we had heard the Avengers was pretty awesome at the IMAX 3d.  Jed and Shannon came along with us.  I loved it, but the 3d glasses gave me a headache by the end of the movie.

That is what's been going on the last little while.  We're so excited to have school out in a couple of weeks!  Can't wait for some summer fun!