Makayla Turns 7

I know I say this every year, but how in the world is my baby 7 years old this year? Makayla is growing up and becoming such a cute girl. She does so well in school and takes on a lot of responsibility at home. She is a great big sister and only teases her brother and sister sometimes. We figured a cutie this cute deserved three days of parties, and that's exactly what she got!

We started off Friday with her friend party. When we were making out the invitations, Makayla started out with a few friends... then the list kept growing, and then she forgot to include some of her friends. Pretty soon the list was so big I told her she had to cut it back a little bit. She ended up inviting 10 friends for her Moana "late night" party. We had everyone come in their pajamas, and as soon as they got there it was pure chaos! They were all so excited... I don't think they stopped screaming the whole time they were here. 

We had pancakes for dinner

 And then the girls played "Hot Pu'a" (like hot potato, but with Pu'a the pig from the movie, Moana). We also played Moana bingo

 Makayla opened her presents. All of the girls were so excited that they kept crowding her and we had to keep telling them to back up just a little bit, but a few seconds later they were right back to crowding her.

Makayla was spoiled with a lot of toys, arts and crafts, and treats. 

Then we tried to get them settled down to watch the movie, but they lasted about 20 minutes before they were running around our house. 

 Savannah snuggled right up to Tracy, and it was probably the cutest thing.

 Before the girls went home we sang Happy Birthday to Makayla and she blew out seven candles on her donut.

 The party was absolutely exhausting, but we were so glad Tracy and Terry were there to help us out.

 On Saturday we had Makayla's family party.

 We had tacos for dinner and then played "hot Pu'a" again. Then Makayla got to open more presents. This girl is so loved! She got a lot of American Girl things, clothes, barbies, and arts and crafts.

 We have the best family around. Here's a few pictures of our family who came to celebrate with our cutie pie!

Karen gave Makayla this cute shirt with her nick name, "Kay Bugs" on it. I almost started crying when she opened it because that has been the one nickname from when she was a baby that has just stuck with her. 

 Makayla really wanted a pinata for her birthday because she has never had one, so we got her a cupcake pinata and all the kids had a blast hitting it.

 We sang Happy birthday and blew out more candles on her Moana cake.

 Did you think we were done celebrating yet? Nope, because Sunday was Makayla's actual birthday. We opened a few presents before church...

 And a few more after church.

 Makayla got a kitty and some toys for her American Girl doll, an outfit, and a Precious Moment figurine from Mom and Dad.

 We headed up to the women's basketball game with the Jones family and Grandpa and Grandma Evans. The kids got to make posters

 Makayla even made it up on the big screen!

 After the basketball game we headed to Chilis because Makayla really wanted ribs for her birthday dinner, and man, this little girl can eat! She ordered an adult size dinner and ate every single one of her ribs.

After three days of partying we were exhausted!

Oh Makayla, where do I begin? 7 years ago you made me a Mom, and it has been the best years of my life so far. Growing up with all brothers, I always thought it would be fun to have a sister to hang out with. I realize now that even better than a sister is having a daughter like Makayla. You are happy, fun, thoughtful and caring. You look out for your younger brother and sister and help and support them. You're smart, determined, dedicated and always try your best. You are an absolute joy to have around.  I love when we get to have our M & M days and how you love to run errands with me. You are doing so well in school, but I really miss having you around during the day and I look so forward to 3:40 when I can go pick you up from school. You are so smart and have developed such a love of reading so far. We are all so impressed to see that you are reading chapter books. I love how you try so hard at tumbling and dance and how you are really excelling in both of those. We feel so blessed to be your parents and love that you are in our family. Happy Birthday Kay-Bugs!

I love to see how their answers to their birthday questions change from year to year. Here's Makayla's answers at 7 years old: 

1. What is your favorite color? "Purple"

2. What is your favorite toy? "Makenna and Ruby" (American girl doll and kitty)

3. What is your favorite food? "Tacos"

4. What is your favorite show? "Moana"

5. What do you like to eat for lunch? "Chicken Fried Steak... school lunch is the BEST!"

6. What is your favorite thing to wear? "Umm...My flippy shirt"

7. What is your favorite game? "Beat the Parents"

8. What is your favorite song? "How Far I'll Go"

9. What is your favorite book? "Ready Freddy"

10. Who is your best friend? "Haylie"

11. Where is your favorite place to go? "Hanna Land"

12. What do you want to be when you grow up? "A gymnast"

13. What is your favorite thing about Caden? "He's nice"

14. What is your favorite thing about Brynnli?  "She's fun"

15. What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? "Play games"

16. What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy? "Have M & M Day"

Welcome to 2018!

I am so excited for the new year and new possibilities! I'm even more excited for our goals for our family and to see our family grow and progress. This is going to be a great year, I can just feel it!

So far our year has been off to a great start. Here's some of the fun things we have done this month:

We have been to a lot of University of Utah events. Between our gymnastic season tickets, and Grandma and Grandpa's men's basketball season tickets, we also try to go to a few women's basketball games which means we have had a lot of nights here. The kids have so much fun because they usually have a kids zone where they have face painting and balloon animals.

 Sometimes our late nights mean all our cuties fall asleep on the way home.

 Kenzee turned 4 years old and had a Cinderella party, complete with Cinderella herself! She read the kids a story, did a craft with them, and then posed for pictures. Our kiddos had so much fun!

 I'm still in Young Women's and LOVING it! We had a night where we played get to know you games. It was fun to see the girls act silly and get to know them a little better.

 This little stinker cracks me up. She loves to go shopping with me. This particular day we had to go to Kohl's and while I was looking at the clothes, Brynn found a shopping cart and filled it up with toys. Brynn's walks around whatever store we are in and says, "I want 'dis for my birthday" to every single item we see. At first I tried to tell her that her birthday wasn't for quite a few months, but she would get so upset, so now I just answer, "sure, Brynn, you can have that for your birthday."

On this particular shopping day we walked past the underwear section and Brynn found this and yelled to me, "Mom! I found your boo-boobs! Do you want it for your birthday?"

I was laughing too hard to respond. 

 This is our first year with gymnastic season tickets, and we are absolutely loving the meets! The U of U gymnastics team is ranked 2nd in the nation and they are SO good! We have great seats and love going to watch them. My cutie pie Kay-Bugs came with me to this particular meet.

Makayla had her winter dance concert. She danced to the song, "Friend like me" She did such a great job and we were so proud of her!

This winter has been very unusual. We have hardly had any snow and a lot of record warm temperatures. This was the one and only snow storm we got so far this year. The kids had fun playing in the snow and trying to build a snowman. 

Makayla and Caden had spirit week at school so they got to do a lot of fun things. They had pajama day:

 And crazy hair day: