Blair gets baptized!

Blair was so excited but so nervous at the same time.  Roger and William flew in just for Blair's baptism!  Valerie and William gave the talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost.  Nathan and Easton together played the guitar for the opening (I am a Child of God) and closing (Teach me to Walk in the Light) hymn.  I wish I would have got a video of Nathan and Easton practicing at home.  They sounded really good!  I'm really kicking myself that I didn't get even one picture of the decorations/food table.  We were so rushed that we barely got it put together before everyone showed up.  It was so cute though.  I did a rainbow theme based on the song "I like to look for rainbows"  We had rainbow cupcakes, rainbow fruit on kabobs, sugar cookies with rainbow sprinkles, mini donuts on a kabob stick in the shape of an 8, skittles, and punch.  I also had rainbow suckers but accidentally forgot them at home.  I had a white table cloth with tissue paper pom poms in each color of the rainbow decorated on top of the table.  I had the song "I like to look for rainbows" printed up and framed.  I had a "great to be 8" banner hanging from the table and pictures of Blair in her baptism dress framed as well.  The baptism turned out great!  It was definitely a very special day for a very special girl!

I wasn't quick enough to get a picture before Roger changed out of his suit.

Baptism flowers from Gma Gretch!

We got a family picture the day after for McKinley's baby blessing.

Happy 8th Birthday Blair!

Blair reminded us over and over again that this was her golden birthday so she got golden candles!  Not only was this birthday special because it was her golden birthday but it was also the year she turned 8 which means she got to be baptized!  Blair was so excited to get baptized!  This sweet girl almost didn't make it to her 8th birthday.  The night before she kept putting a marble in her mouth.  I told her not to do it but of course she doesn't listen to me.  I even said, "Do you want to live to see your 8th birthday?!?"  She just kind of chuckled and then ignored me.  Luckily for her she also ignored me about going to bed and was sitting on the floor in front of me as I was rocking McKinley to sleep.  The next thing I hear is her gasping for air.  Yep, she swallowed the marble and got it stuck in her throat!  I jumped up and yelled, "She's choking!" and then continuously slapped her back hoping to get the marble out!  Ya, that didn't work...Thankfully Nathan was there to give her the Heimlich!   

Chocolate chip pancakes were requested for breakfast.

The birthday girl wanted to go swimming for her birthday

All the kids in the pool!

McKinley wasn't too sure about the pool at first but eventually she warmed up to the idea of swimming and actually enjoyed kicking around.

Tired little one!

Cheesecake!

Tinker box from Gma Gretch

Body board from mom and dad

Monster high doll from gma whiting

$$$ from gpa and gma whiting and Valerie!

Lincoln Park and McKinley

The kids absolutely adore McKinley

We decided to take the kids to Lincoln park to play in the water.  The kids had fun jumping off the dock with some other kids that were there.  

Indoor soccer

Easton and Blair both played indoor soccer over the summer.  I didn't do a good job of taking videos this year.  Most of the time I forgot my camera but it was also difficult to take videos when you have a baby to hold.  We missed two games because we were on vacation visiting family.

Blair had a rough year this year for indoor.  I think they only had one game where everyone was there.  Most of the time they didn't have any subs.  One game they only had three players.  Blair's coach was really nice (he's in our ward at church) but I'm pretty sure that Blair didn't learn a thing.  Blair did end up with 1 goal though!  Blair decided not to play outdoor soccer this year either.  She wants to try ballet!  Hopefully I can get that started sooner rather than later. 

Blair's pretty quick and hustles a lot

Easton did really well this year.  He had a great coach that also taught him to play offense as well as defense.  He ended up scoring 2 goals!  I was hoping that playing indoor would entice him to play outdoor soccer instead of football but he decided to give football a try this year.

Happy 10th Birthday Easton!

Wow!  I have a kid who is in the double digits!  How crazy is that?!?  Nathan was on call that day so we had to celebrate early before he went to work.  No complaints from the birthday boy!

Donut request for breakfast

$$$ from gpa and gma Whiting

Also money from Valerie 

Star Wars figuring from Gma Whiting

Tinker box from Gma Gretch

Amp for his guitar from mom and dad.

Chocolate cake!

Beach

Labor Day = Day at the beach!

Ninja Party Time!

I wasn't planning on doing a BIG birthday party for the three oldest this year but somehow I got talked into it...I told them that if we were going to do it this year that they all had to agree on the same theme.  We finally decided on Ninja theme.

 First up...Dyer:

Valerie came out again for the kids' birthdays!  It is always so nice to have Valerie here to help especially since I had a 3 month old to take care of.  Valerie made a Dojo on the screened in porch.

Valerie also made the sword rack with the kids' names on them.

Ninja cupcakes!  

Of Course we had to have Ninja swords!

Goody bags!

Ninja's fighting

Ninja balloons

Sushi!  

Nathan made most of these himself.

Birthday boy!

We rented the same water slide bouncy house we did the year before.

 Next up...Easton!

Last but not least...Blair!

I didn't do a great job of taking pictures during the parties.  The kids of course had a blast and are already planning next years parties!