My new niece

I have a new niece!  She is so beautiful and her name is Olivia Nicole Esau.  It was fun holding her and Sophia loved seeing and touching the baby.

Ben was very nice and gave everyone a turn to hold the baby.  I made a few bows for her that turned out so cute!  She is a very snuggly baby and loves to be curled up.

40th Anniversary surprise

Ben's Mom and Dad have been married for 40 years!  We threw them a surprise anniversary party and family reunion.  They had no idea that we had been planning this for over a year and they would not stop calling to see if their kids could be in town this weekend.  We had to lie and come up with things we had going on, so we could not be there.  I redid their wedding cake and they loved it!

All but one of the kids were there, so we did some family pictures.  From the left is Monte, Misty, Ben, Craig, Illona, Jared, Tara and Heather.  Ben's sister Tonya couldn't make it, but she would be between Misty and Ben.

Each family choose a color so we could do individual family pictures as well.  This is Ben's older brother Monte and his wife Kim with their five kids Britton, Chandler, Kaitlyn, Sydney and Connor.

This is Ben's older sister Misty and her husband Tom with their five kids Alex, Brooke, Christopher, Timothy and Jacob.

Here is our cute family!

This is Ben's younger brother Jared and his wife Noel with their three girls Ruth, Joyce and Aubrey.

This is Ben's younger sister Tara with her husband Nat and their  two kids Jeremiah and Raiah.  She is also very pregnant with their third and they don't know what they are having.

This is Ben's youngest sister Heather who is not married yet.  We had such a fun weekend and it was great visiting with family we don't see that often.  Love you guys!

4th of July

Sara got to walk in the parade this year with the Girl Scouts, so we got up nice and early and I dropped Brandon off with some chairs to save our spot.  I then had to get Sara to the float and drive back to Brandon.  It was really cold and we didn't have any blankets, so Brandon curled up in his jacket while we waited FOREVER for the parade to start.

It was fun, but we were at the end of the route, so there wasn't much candy left for the kids to collect.  Sophia was bored most of the time and it was hard to keep her contained and busy.  I had to walk around with her a lot!

After the parade we went to our friends house for a bbq and fireworks.  They have a tradition where everyone brings some fireworks and they set them all off at the same time.  Of course the kids love it and we have fun visiting with friends.
Since I got up so early I got to take a nap for a few hours before heading out to another friends house for another bbq and to watch the big fireworks display.  The kids love playing with each other and running around the soccer fields.

Sophia loved the fireworks and even though it was cold we stayed warm under lots of blankets.  The kids were very tired when we got home so we went straight to bed.  Overall we had a busy, fun day!