Elayna's 4th birthday

Elayna got a table with 2 chairs for her birthday. She really liked it.

They had to eat breakfast at it, of course. After this, it went downstairs with the rest of the toys. 
Elayna wanted eggs and toast for breakfast. And lunch. And dinner!! That was all she wanted.

Katie gave Elayna one of Katie's toys. This is Elayna thanking her for it.

Opening a Barbie Ariel. Elayna looks very concerned, but she was really happy about it. 

I took a cake decorating class earlier this summer. This is my attempt at a fancy cake. I like the basket weaving stuff, but the frosting was too soft by the time I tried to make flowers. So they are just blobs. 

Almost every picture I have of Elayna is blurry. She just moves so much and so fast. 

Irma brought over a cute Cookie Monster cake for Elayna.

Irma and Jerry got Elayna a Purpalicious (based around a girl that loves purple) art book. 

Jerry, Irma. and Elayna. See? Always blurry. 

The cute dress they gave her. 

Elayna's look of joy when she pulled the outfit out of the bag.

Paula, Elayna, and Craig, with the outfit they gave her. They also took her to DQ for lunch. 

We love Elayna so much! She is such a joy. She has so much enthusiasm and energy. She loves to be with her sisters. She is affectionate, happy, loves to sing, and plays well by herself. It is hilarious to watch her play by herself. She is so involved and does different voices, and can't ever keep her voice down. It just makes you laugh. She dances and sings around the house. We are so grateful she is in our family!!

Young Women Camp July 2012

I am the Second Counselor in the Young Women's group in my ward.  One of the leaders had this great idea to have cute pictures of each girl. For my own records, I wanted to put their names with their pictures.

Aubrie Marsh

Megan Strong

Jesseca Owens

McKenna Stewart

Emily Urban

Jessica Dickie

Kat (Kathryn) Coughanour

Me

Chris Judd (camp leader)

Crysania Pickering

Emilee Thompson

Ali Taylor

Stori Hopper

Miranda Urban (she came up to help her mom do crafts)

Juliet Preston (Laurel Advisor)

Marianne Parsons

Summer Hopper

Heidi DeGraffenried (YW president)

Rachael West (YW secretary)

Julie West (my Beehive advisor)

The outside of our cabin. Yes, we are spoiled. Our idea of  "camping" was mattresses on bunk beds, in dorms. That is about as "roughing it" as I want. Our theme was "Arise and Shine Forth that thy light may be a standard for the nations" for the year. They based camp around the Olympic idea of reaching for the gold.
Our country was Tahiti.

Marianne and Kat designed and drew our flag. (I can't get it to rotate)

( Karlee Romero wasn't here for the close-ups. She is next to Marianne)

What a silly bunch! 

 I had such a great time at Camp! I didn't spend much time at camp last year because Anna was so young. This year I was blessed to have Irma, my Mom, and Ryan take care of my children while I was gone from Tues-Friday.  I felt so close to each of the Young Women and also to the leaders after those few days!  I'm grateful I was able to go.

July 2012

Katie was in T-Ball this year. She really enjoyed it. This is Ryan showing her how to swing at the ball.

And this is how Katie and Abby walked out of the park after the last game. So cute. It isn't as though they see each other almost every single day.

Annalisa at my Mom's house, dirty and looking for more food.
She got her 4th tooth in on top, for a total of 6 teeth on 7-3-12.
Anna has learned how to go down stairs backwards, but she still wants to go down like everyone else.

Katie and Elayna in a little reading nook that Irma has upstairs. They fit perfectly.

My girls at the play area in Walmart. They like to just sit on the things and watch the demos. For now. I'm afraid they will figure out someday that if you put money in those things, they will be a lot more fun.

I was exercising with Mom and Amanda one morning when we saw something fly by the window. We weren't sure what it was, so Katie said she would go see. She came back with this picture. It is a huge moth.  It just hung out in the plants for a bit, then flew away. It was neat.

A beautiful sunset. I don't like clouds very much. But sunsets just wouldn't be as beautiful without them.

Again, the clouds were just amazing. 

For the Fourth of July, we went to a park with some of Ryan's family. We had dinner, and camped out on this big hill. Ryan took Annalisa home, but Katie, Elayna and I got to stay and watch fireworks. I love fireworks. They are just incredible. It was a little distracting having to make sure Katie and Elayna were still close by and okay, but I still had fun. They did too. They enjoyed the fireworks, but I think they had more fun with the glow sticks that someone had brought for them. 
When we started home, I turned a wrong way or something, and kinda got lost, but while I was talking to Ryan on the phone about where I was, I realized I was driving right next to the Stadium. Where the fireworks were actually being set off at. Which meant that all 100 million (I don't really know how many people the stadium holds) were trying to get out and drive away. Right where I was driving. Anyhow, it turned out fine. I wasn't too delayed, the girls were asleep, and we got home around 1230. It was a really fun night.

A cute little fort made out of our cushions.

This is Katie's swimsuit. Anytime Annalisa sees it, she puts it around her neck and walks around the house like that. So cute. 

Anna on a tractor that my parents have at their house. She isn't old enough to steer or push the pedal, but, by gone it, she was going to sit on it. 

Agh!! This was a little cup of chocolate pudding. She seemed to like it, although I'm not sure how much of it actually ended up in her mouth. 

Katie lost her 2nd tooth on July 6. 

The rest of July was taken up with Girls Camp (July 10-13) and Newport Beach (July 20-28).