birthday boy...

We celebrated this one turning 35 today.  Man I love this guy!  Happy Birthday baby!

G turns 4...

We celebrated this little darling turning 4 today!  Gwen we sure love the special little girl you are!  you are a little sunshine in our home and we love every bit of you.  Happy Birthday baby girl!

These two turned 7...

Oh man, are we ever crazy about this duo.  I think my favourite thing right now is the relationship that you to have.  You have always been close, but you really are special friends and I love it!

Oliver, you are such a sweet little boy and you have so much of your father in you which makes you even more special!  I love how you can't go to sleep without a good night kiss and I love how your favourite thing to do right now is cuddle on the couch and read a book (in particular Calvin and Hobbs)!

Ava, you are a beautiful little girl, inside and out.  You have a happy spirit and you are a joy to have in our home.  I love how you love to dance play with your little sisters.  I love that your favourite thing to do right now is to listen to a new story on your iPod and put together puzzles (you are a puzzle maniac, you know that right)!

Happy Birthday Oliver and Ava.  We sure love you both very much

nine...

Happy Birthday baby boy (he just loves it when I call him my baby)!  We are so proud of the little man you are becoming.  You are a joy to have in our home and you are a very special young man.  I love that you are obsessed with anything Star Wars, especially lego.  I love that you love to read and learn new things.  You are such a sweet boy to the girls in this family and I love how you take your role as big brother very seriously.  You are determined and confident.  You will do amazing things!

34...

celebrating with all the family that near.  

yep I am 34.  I am ok with 34.  I think it is going to be an awesome age (last year in my early 30's)!  I love that I am growing older with my guy all the while surrounded by my babies.  I am one lucky lady... Oh and tomorrow I get to spend the day in Victoria, sans kids, with Jacob...double awesome!

one...

 This little darling turned one today.  We hardly can believe it.  This whole day I just wanted to squeeze her 1,000 times and kiss her 1,000 times more and somehow let her know the significance of this day, how special she was and let her feel all the light that she's brought into our lives.  But maybe we'll just let her first taste of chocolate cake do all the talking. ;) We sure do love you lucy goose.  Our family is complete because of you.

Gwenneth Ree turns 3

#3 cake by Auntie Emily...she loved it!

celebrating with cousins

getting a homemade gift from Ava...her face was priceless

opening presents on dad's lap...doesn't get better than this!

We had a great evening celebrating this little sweetheart.  Pizza, cake, family and fun, it does not get better than this! We sure love you Gwen, you are such a special part of this family!

And then they were six...

The two of them right before the party began...can you tell how excited they were?!

The "boys" table

Lucy loving all the chaos! 

Oh Gwen...

The "girls" table

Auntie Emily made them each their own fancy cakes, they were thrilled to say the least!

I am amazed that these two are six years old today! You both bring so much joy to our family!  Thank you Oliver for your compassionate heart and your helpful attitude and Ava thank you for your sweet disposition, your creative mind and love for all things beautiful.  Life in the Ellis home would not be the same without you both.  We sure do love you!

Jackson's birthday bash...

The spread...

These two just hanging out before lunch was served

Oliver and cousin Silas never too far apart when we get together

Grandma and Grandpa Holt, flew in for the special occasion!

momma and lucy

Cousins all watching some poor man walking along a trial just beyond our backyard...exciting stuff I'll tell ya!

mom and the birthday boy

Cake c/o Auntie Emily!

No birthday ever complete without a box of these...

Jackson getting his first set of scriptures c/o Grandma and Grandpa Holt!

After Jackson's baptism, all the family gathered at our house for lunch and his birthday celebration.  We had such a great afternoon spent eating good food and celebrating this special guy.  Jackson we couldn't be more proud of the person you are and are becoming.  Thank you for bringing so much happiness to our family and for being such a great example to all of us.  We love you buddy!

33

Morning walk after a rainstorm.  A. MAZ. ING.

I seriously love it when they do this!

Stopping to watch the neighbors cows

Another one of our stops, the canal, which the kids decided looks just like chocolate milk river would from the book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

Gwen with "white bear" (a constant companion) wearing half jammies, half outfit for the day.  LOVE it!

The boys doing "doughnuts" in the mud

Mud bogging at it's best...bummer of a shoe choice though!

One satisfied participant

Lucy and the smaller kids hung out with me in the Yukon while we waited our turn to ride, listening to the local country radio station.  Awesome.

Blowing out my candles (shhh, don't count the candles, we just used what we had hanging around the house).  

I had a fantastic birthday, and getting to spend it in Arizona made it even better.  The day started off early with our morning walk, but this morning in particular was gorgeous because it had just rained the night before (and Arizona is breathtaking after it rains)!  While walking we realized that it would be a great morning for 4-wheeling because of the mud the rain would create so we headed home and drove to the dugg-outs! Later,  I went to brunch with my sister Becca and my mom and then relaxed until that night when Jacob took me to my favorite local Mexican restaurant.  The kids would have been sorely disappointed if we didn't have cake and ice cream, so we had it before Jacob took me out, so we got to have dessert first and believe me, I had plenty of room for mexican food afterwards! We ended the night with a drive around the town via the back roads while playing country music on the radio (of course) which included driving by the Gila Valley temple which ended my day quite nicely!