Cora's baby blessing

A couple weeks ago Prestons parents were able to come out for Cora's baby blessing. We are so happy they were able to make it. Preston gave her a beautiful blessing and Cora didn't make a peep through the whole thing. I am so thankful to have a wonderful husband who holds the priesthood! The whole day was so much fun! We planned a party at our house after church and my mother-in-law was so nice and cooked some really delicious food for it that morning. We had burgers, baked beans, shrimp dip, potato salad, salsa, guacamole and a really good cake. Thanks Jill for making the great sides! Everyone want's those recipes! We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends here in Virginia who helped up celebrate Cora's big day!! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Grandma and Grandpa! We are so glad you guys were able to come!!

Here's our Virginia family! Thanks so much for coming to celebrate our baby girls big day everyone!!

Beach Time!!

 We were lucky enough to go to Outer Banks North Carolina again this summer. We went out there last summer with some friends and loved it so much we decided to do it again. This year we went with a couple different families and had just as good of a time! Evelynn is such a water baby. She loves the ocean! She would just start running out into the waves and wouldn't stop. Our friends had these little skim board things that were attached to strings so you can pull the kids around over the water. The first couple days we were there that's all she wanted to do but she must have taken a spill on it cause by the end of the week she didn't even want to sit on them anymore. All over the beach there were little sand crabs and I'm pretty sure that was Evie's favorite part of our trip. Preston would catch them and put them in a bucket for her. She is so brave. She would stick her whole face in the bucket and talk to them. She would try to pick them up and when they would run away from her she would say "you need to calm down" over and over again. They would eventually calm down enough for her to pinch them with her thumb and pointer finger and place the crab softly in her hand. Once in her hand they would run away and she would yell "they tickled me". She LOVED it!! What a funny little girl! Well there is so much more we did there but I will let the picture do the talking. Wish we were back there right now!

 This is how Cora spent her days at the beach for the most part

 Evie just had to pull Preston around too.. he didn't get very far

 what kid doesn't love digging in the sand??

 This picture is missing 2 kids but it's the only one we tried to get

 Sleeping again

 While we were there we were able to get some family pictures taken. Here are just a couple of our favorites!! :)

We can't wait for next summer to get here!!

Handy Man

Preston continues to surprise me with how handy he can be. When we first moved into our place he built our fence and then just a couple months later he built our patio. Both of which are beautiful! He did such a great job. I'll admit that when he told me that he was pretty sure he could build our deck I thought he was crazy. After meeting with a few companies and getting a couple quotes for a deck including Preston giving me a quote of how much it would cost for him to do it himself, I let him talk me into it. He told me that if I let him do it I could have patio furniture and a new grill and still spend less than hiring someone else to do it. SO I guess I was convinced. It took a while to get started with all the paper work and crazy storms we were having but once he got started it went pretty fast. From when he started to when he finished it took just over a month. Could have been worse! It would have gone faster but I went into labor the day he started and he had to take a little break. Anyway, he did a fantastic job, as usual, and we are loving having a deck while the weather has been so nice! Here are some pics I took to record his hard work! GREAT JOB BABE!

Evelynns Birthday Party

One of the many many things we love about our sweet 2  year old is how much she LOVES Mickey and Minnie Mouse. They are the first thing she asks for in the morning and have become the best baby sitters since Cora joined our little family. I don't know what we would do with out the Mickey Mouse Club House! So of course we decided to do a Minnie Mouse birthday party. We waited till 2 weeks after her birthday this year to have the party because my parents were going to be in town and I really wanted them there. So that is why this post is coming so late. Anyway.. It was supposed to be at our community swimming pool but of course that was the one day it rained all week so we had to move it to a park nearby. I wanted to have a hat making station where all the kids could decorate their own hats the way they wanted but at the pool that would have been impossible so I just made all the hats for them. They all LOVED the hats and wore them for the entire party. Even my friend Tammie's older boys, who started off thinking they were to cool for Mickey Mouse hats, were wearing them while getting in their car to leave. Who doesn't love a party hat right? Evie helped me make her birthday cake and to this day she still makes a birthday cake in her play kitchen 6 times a day for me. When we all sang her Happy Birthday she just smiled from ear to ear because along with loving Minnie Mouse so much she also loves her birthday. We had so much fun and are so thankful all our friends could make it! Hope you like the pictures!

 The Invitations

 Minnie Mouse Cake

 The Party Hats

 Minnie Mouse Juice

 She couldn't wait to blow her candles out!

 What a Cutie!

 I love this picture cause of all the hats in it. These 2 little girls love Evie so much.

 Now THIS is how you eat cake!

 The inside of her cake

 Family Picture! Preston is such a good sport! :)

 Thank goodness for our friends!

Oh the hats!! :)