The kids just keep getting older!

Jaden went and did what all the girls keep doing...he had a birthday! About two weeks ago, the boy turned 2!!

And man alive, is he a true two year old. We LOVE and ADORE this little guy more than anything. But I'd by lying if I didn't say he gave me a run for my money every day. 

He's learning SO much, and talking a ton. In this picture, he heard the train...and he LOVES trains!!

And then he was crying, can't remember why, but he is a two year old after all, and that's what they do!

He was a little spoiled this year, but that's because the poor kid has nothing but girl toys to play with, so we really needed to get him some boy toys! He is in love with lightning mcqueen, so the majority of them were cars stuff.

We did the traditional balloons and streamers for his room, and playing with them all day afterwards was one of the highlights for him!

Yep, this boy doesn't sit still all that much!

We ate a yummy dinner at home, cause we decided to go out the following night, and after dinner it was time for some scrumptious chocolate cake. 

He was so excited to get to blow out the candles. He knows what birthdays are at this point and he loves them.

Oh no, I love his face. He seems slightly panicked that he only got one of the candles.:)

Had to try that again!

There we go!! That's how its done!

Nothing better than cake...or frosting if you're JJ!

After that, it was time for presents. I just love all his expressions. he is a truly happy boy, and he loves life and lets you know it!!

The whole gang got in on playing with the cars.

He was very careful about his unwrapping. I think it was driving the girls crazy how slow he was going!

We couldn't love this little guy any more than we already do. He is a joy to have in our family and for the most part, the girls love having him around. (I'll admit that they're not big fans when he's getting into their stuff though!), He absolutely loves to give kisses, all the time. he's a great hugger, and he's obsessed with his sippy cup. He's also very, very good at repeating whatever he hears or sees. 

I can't wait to see him in the role of big brother, and watch him change and grow over the next year! Love you little man!!

Swim team wrap-up

It's been about a month since swim team ended, and while we're enjoying a little more free time, especially on the weekends, we sure do love and miss our pool time! 

I can't wait for the day when I have the majority of the kids competing at the meets! These two have had so much fun at the meets together! I really have to cherish the moments when they're acting like best friends!:)

The little two missed out on quite a few meets this year due to weird illnesses that plaqued our family for almost a month of swim team. Kevin and I got to take turns at the meets, while the other one stayed home with the younger ones. ahh, the joys of lots of kids!

Miss Peyton got into the swing of it all and became an old pro at the meets.

Sometimes she was a little more focused on me, or those cheering than on the actual event. This was taken during a relay and it was almost time for her to jump in, but she just sat there smiling for me!

Love all the 6 and unders in their train on the way to the ready bench!

Pretend this isn't so blurry, I just had to get a good shot of Peytons dive. I love this girl!!

Halli really is like an old pro at swim meets now. Ive said it before and I'll say it again...how did she get so old? She really is, so much fun to watch race!

The 7/8 girls medley relay did awesome this year and they were so fun to watch! 

Lexie and Izzy at one of the meets Lexie was actually at. They found the jewelry guy and I don't think they hardly left all day! These are some true girly girls!

The final meet of the regular season was divisionals, where the girls had a decent meet, but not their best. Halli should have won a couple events and while she did great in them, some other girls came ready to take it that day and Halli ended up with a few second places. I don't even have any pictures from divisionals. It was miserably hot, and long, and I was too busy with JJ to even think about taking pictures! Peyton did great as well, and she just keeps on improving, that's the most important thing. 

After divisionals, we had the annual recognition ceremony. They all get to get together and play and eat, and run around like crazy, and to top it all off, they get a trophy to take home! 

Because Peyton has a late birthday, she gets to be in six and unders next year too, and I think that'll be good for her! 

Halli got MVP for the 7/8 girls. She had a great year and has decided that she loves swimming so much that she wants to try out year round swim this year. That's going to be a whole new ballgame, but I think it'll really help her with her technique. I'm just hoping she actually enjoys it and doesn't get burnt out!

Peyton and Lexie had a best friend during swim team, armand. He is seriously the best babysitter! If I couldn't find the girls, all I had to do was look for him and there they were. I don't think they bothered him too much, he seemed to like the attention, but I was grateful for the extra eyes on them for sure!

Once all that was over, we just had one last meet to go. Halli qualified for Ponderosa this year in the freestyle. She qualified for allstars in the breaststroke and butterfly, but those are both on sunday, so we only had this one event to go! She actually qualified at the first meet of the year, I was kinda shocked, but I shouldn't have been, that girl never ceases to amaze me.

Lucky for us, Blake qualified for ponderosa as well! It's always better when you have your best friend with you to cheer you on, and keep you pumped up for your race! This also meant more play time for the girls! I think Izzy must be the so patient, Lexie is constantly manhandling her, and she just lets her. I  always feel bad, but they have a very lovey friendship for sure!

Halli was coveting all the trophies. Someday Halli, someday! That's always a good goal to have!

She doesn't really get nervous, I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but she was excited to go race one last time. I think this venue might have been slightly more nerve-wracking than a regular meet for her though. 

She's all the way in lane 8, and was one of the last people in the pool. Someday she'll figure out her start!

When she finished, the time on the scoreboard said 17.7, which was her worst time of the entire year. The timer told her she finished in 16.4, but Kevin gave her a little pep talk, cause we were pretty sure the timer was wrong. It wasn't the best note to end the year on, but she was at ponderosa, so she couldn't be too upset with herself.

we had to get the picture of these two. I should compare it to their first year! Hopefully these two will get to stay side-by-side for a very long time when it comes to swim team! I'm just glad they're different sexes so theres no competition between them, just pure excitement and cheering for each other!

We came home after the meet and I decided to look online and saw that the timer had actually been right, the scoreboard was wrong, and she had qualified for the finals at ponderosa. That's a pretty huge deal and lucky we saw it at about 3pm and she didn't need to be there till after 4. She was beyond excited that she got to go back. They have two final heats, and she was in the slower of the two heats, but it was still in the top 16 of the "best of the best" (ponderosas slogan).

At the finals, both girls on either side of her false started. Not a great way to get ready, I don't know if that threw her off or not, but she ended up swimming 17.4, which was accurate and really was her worst time of the year! Go figure.:) But she still finished 15th overall. When she got her ribbon, which is super pretty, lavender and very fancy, she said, " it's my prettiest ribbon, but it's also my worst.":) 

Hey, last time she went she didn't even get a ribbon, so we're just super proud of the job she did, and can't wait to see her and her sister improve even more in the years to come!

Fourth of July

On the morning of the fourth, we packed up everything we needed, got dressed in our fun fourth of July outfits, loaded the kids all in the car, and took off for Austin.  It took up most of the day just getting there, and stopping for the few things we needed on the way, but the kids didn't seem to mind missing out on swimming and barbecues on this fun holiday....cause, when you're going to the lake house, how can you feel like you're missing anything?

The kids played and ran around, while we unloaded both ourselves and grandma & grandpa williams. Then after dinner it was off to the boat to go watch some fireworks.

ps, I can't believe how old Halli is looking lately. I'm so excited to watch her grow up, but it's kinda weird how much she's grown up already. These next few years are going to go by way too fast I think!

Before Grandma & Grandpa came up, they stopped to get a little surprise for Halli...a kids wakeboard. She was SUPER DUPER excited. The fact that it was all pink and girly made it that much better!

The kids slightly complained about the obligatory posing I made them do. But I needed some cute pictures of them in their fun outfits...right? Plus they're the most gorgeous models I know, so they're going to just have to get used to it!

I just love the lake at sunset....seriously so gorgeous. Especially when I get to share it with the people I love.

The J-man fell in love with boating this trip too. He's a handful out there on the water, but he loves every minute of it. Especially when he gets to play with the steering wheel and all the buttons on the boat.

What am I saying, all the kids love the lake. They are so lucky to have this while growing up. 

Its even more fun at the lake when you have your grandparents there to play with the whole time too.

Grandpa let the girls have a hand at driving the boat. They both thought that was pretty awesome.

Then it was time for the big show. I tried to get some fun pictures of the kids too...but taking pictures in the dark, on a moving boat, of moving kids is REALLY hard to do. I'm lucky i got a couple pictures of the fireworks!

Theres a lot more to come from this fun/long weekend, but there are WAY too many pictures so I'm going to break it up into a couple posts.  We had a blast, and can't wait to go back!

Look who's 4!!

Holy cow, is this girl ever excited that she's 4 years old!

can I just say how much I love and adore this overly expressive and spunky little girl? She steals my heart, all. the. time.

Plus she can be incredibly sweet, so it makes up for a lot of her spunk. 

She got very into this impromptu photoshoot. She was posing up a storm for me. It was awesome.

We decorated her room while she was sleeping that night. There were balloons everywhere, and they were inflated. Unfortunately, cheap balloons just don't stay up for all that long. So her floor was covered in them! She loved it anyway, and I think I'm going to be buying a lot of helium every year for all the kids birthdays. They all thought it was REALLY cool! Especially Halli, cause she got to stay up late and help Kevin and I decorate.

On her actual birthday, we spent the evening at the swim recognition night, so at 9:30 or so when we got home, it was a quick happy birthday song with a cupcake, and opening her presents. She was a doll, and patiently waited all day for her daddy to be there.

We did have some friends over to swim at Grandma Williams pool, but being the pregnant blonde that I am, I was lucky to get out of the house with all the kids and their swimsuits, and left the camera behind. She absolutely loved it, and after being homebound for the last month with sick kids, they all had a blast finally playing with their friends. I'm sad I didn't get any photographic evidence of it though.

So we had to push back her actual birthday cake, and it got pushed back all week, until finally on sunday, almost a week after her actual birthday, we were finally all home and had time to celebrate this sweetie with a proper birthday cake. 

She just wanted a candy cake, that was all I was told. Hopefully this didn't disappoint. She seemed excited, so I think it was okay.

JJ was loving all the "hap birday" going on, and was seriously upset that he had to wait.

I mean look at all that candy and "hap birday" Which just means cake to him. All cake means birthdays. It's very sweet.

I mean, is that not the sweetest sad face ever? I would say I gave in, but after having listened to him cry the whole time I was decorating the cake, it was just slightly annoying by this time, so he just had to wait it out like everyone else. He may or may not have gotten his fair share of left over M&M's though, just to keep him quiet.

Yes, this girl LOVES to be the center of attention. She was on cloud 9 while we sang. 

Make a wish!

She did it, our baby girl is a whopping 4 years old. Not eight like it looks like in the picture. She was just so excited, there was no way she could use only one hand! 

She needed to make sure everyone really knew just how old she was!

So, in honor of our big girl, here are 4 things we absolutely LOVE about Lex.

1. She LOVES life, and while her super high pitched laugh/scream can be a little piercing, it's also a sign of just how exuberant she is. She may be little, but that's about the only thing about her that's small. 

2.  She is in love with her siblings, and while they may think it's not always fun to have her following them around, she just adores them and wants to be a big girl like her sisters. It's incredibly sweet.

3. She can sing, and she's pretty good at it. I especially love when she sings her mermaid song. You can only love a barbie song sung in a sweet little girls voice!

4. I love all her expressions. Seriously, this child is beyond expressive. There is NEVER a time where you have to wonder or guess how she's feeling or what she's thinking. 

and one to grow on.

5. She has a mind all her own. It's very hard to change her mind unless you just flat out manipulate her. I know that sounds bad, but she's a stubborn girl, and there will be many times in life that that will serve her well. It can get tiring, especially when I NEED her to change her mind, but it's also such a huge part of who she is. She wouldn't be the same sassy and spunky girl if she weren't as stubborn as she is.

We love you sweet girl, and we look forward to watching you grow up into the amazing young woman you're going to be!