Jamie's Little Peanut! (Baby Shower)

On Saturday we had a baby shower for my sister Jamie and her new baby Kaeden. The theme of the shower was elephants, which match Kaeden's bedding. I just love the banner that says, "Mommy's Little Peanut!"

There was a lot of candy

Then there were three jars with lemon water, lemonade, and ice tea. I just love the tall glasses that are behind the jars that my mom purchased at Ikea.

My mom made elephant table runners

Each of the guests had an elephant cupcake.

The guest could take a basket and fill it with candy

Here is the clothes line

Decorations on the mantel of the fireplace

Each guest received a hand made key chain that we put on the cupcake stands.

Here are the center pieces. There is grass and then elephants in the center piece.

My mom ordered labels to go over the chocolate candy.

Just like my other sister's shower, we did a devotional by putting Kaeden's name in verses. Various people read the verses out loud as a prayer and then my mom shared the story of how Kaeden came to our family. It still gives me goose bumps that God was so faithfully to answer our two requests: Jamie would be a mom by the end of the summer and that the process would go quickly. Which it was almost 3 weeks when Jamie was told she was picked by the the birth parents that she had Kaeden.

Here is my cupcake!

My sister and her adorable baby Katie Mae

My mom and Katie Mae

Here is the daddy, Chris with Kaeden

Here are the proud parents, Jamie and Chris

Family Reunion in Michigan

A few weeks ago we were able to go to the Chevrier family reunion in Michigan. They have the reunion every first Saturday in August and the location varies each year. This year it was at Chevy's uncle's house who lives on the same lake as his other two brothers. That is actually the lake that all 6 boys grew up on and now 3 of the boys live on the lake. Parties are always fun! Chevy is French Canadian, so a lot of the family came in from Canada. I just love the way they talk with their accents. We left Friday night at 9:00 from Illinois, because we didn't want to miss a good friend's 30th B-day party! :) So we got in at 3:00 in the morning. I slept for most of the way and my good husband drove. When we woke we decided to go to the zoo. Grandpa's work, Detroit Eddison, gave free passes for the whole family to go to the zoo!

The kids had a lot of fun. It was a little crowded, but it was a Saturday.

They just love Nana's wagon!

Here is Avi with Nana and Grandpa!

Then we went to the reunion. The kids just loved playing in the lake.

They also had a lot of fun playing with their cousin Ava.

The girls kept wanting to get deeper into the lake and before long......

We took off their dresses and let them swim in their underwear and diaper!!!!

The next day the kids had fun on the trampoline!

We were off to Illinois with just Ellie. As the other two stayed for the week. We always try to go get a smoothie from Auntie Rachelle's work. She just make such a yummy smoothie!

Great Deals!

For my birthday, back in July, mom my took me out to get some clothes as a gift. I just love that quality time when I don't have the kids that I'm rushing out the door for and that my mom can help pick things out that compliment me. We only went to one store to find all these great deals and my favorite store is The Loft!

I love great deals. I will never pay for anything (meaning clothes) that are for full price. I think that is just silly to pay full price when in a few weeks they will go on sale. My husband is so proud!

This dress is so comfortable. I really like the way brown looks with my skin tone. This dress at final sale cost $19.99! Good deal for a dress and you can put a jean jacket with it or a sweater for the fall!

This dressy shirt cost $9.99 final sale from the Loft. I just loved it, but didn't really think about how I was going to wash it. I guess in all my spare time I will hand wash it!! HA!

This outfit is daring. Chevy told me it took a little to get used to. I just love the shorts print. So I got it, because I don't want to be predictable. Though I really am predictable in my clothes choices.

These cute petite (for short people) size jeans only cost $9.99! Can you believe a pair of jeans cost that much? It was a good day!

Our Arizona Friends!

I was privileged to have my friend Stephanie, a college friend, come stay with us. She is originally from Illinois, but moved to Arizona after college. My friend Jenny also from college (seen in the picture below) spent the day with us. They are both friends who we can just catch up with each other even though we haven't seen each other in a while. I just loved spending the day with them. We had plans of going places, but once we met up we just stayed at the house for the whole day. The kids played so well together!

Stephanie is having another baby in November and I was so proud of her in how she came to Illinois with her two beautiful girls and being pregnant! She is brave!

Here is Jenny playing with Avielle and Leah! Jenny is so good with the kids!

Here is Anderson, Avielle, and Abi playing together. Abi turned 4 in April, so the kiddos are close in age!

Here is cute miss Leah. Leah and Ellie are only two weeks apart.

Yea for Redheads!

When the kids met, Anderson said to me, "Abi has red hair just like me!" They bonded together well!

Such a Big Girl!

Tonight we put our youngest, Ellie in a toddler bed. We used Anderson's bed and as of right now Chevy is putting together Anderson new bunk bed. We got his bed from Ikea and let me just say it is not easy to put together. I'm so excited to see Anderson's face when he comes home from Michigan and sees his new bed.
Ellie was excited to go to bed and I'm interested to see how tonight will work. She still gets up about once a night when she is in her crib! When Anderson was transitioning to a toddler bed he would get out of bed in the middle of the night. He once went to the kitchen and got spoons from the kitchen and then went up to his room and started banging on the walls. I'm just praying that Ellie takes after her sister and asks to get out of bed. Though for the last two weeks Ellie has been climbing out of her crib.
I was disappointed about Ellie's crib. The crib is a conversion crib and moves into a toddler bed and then into a twin bed. Chevy and I looked at the directions and found that we were missing a rail for the toddler bed. Then I read you have to purchase it and it costs $60.00. We were bummed about the price and then just decided to use Anderson's toddler bed. I then looked at the twin bed parts and they cost $150.00. I guess I should of done more research on the crib before I bought it. I just assumed that this crib would save us money and I don't think I thought of these extra costs.

Only Child!

Our little Ellie is without her big brother and sister this week. They are spending time with Nana and Grandpa in Michigan. Ellie gets some quality time with me and daddy. I think that she is enjoying it, but seems to be more high maintenance than usual.

Today we headed to Lamb's Farm with our neighbors.

We got to see animals!

Ellie loved bouncing in the bouncy! When it was time for her to get out she threw quite the tantrum! I love those moments! HA!

Here is Ellie and Alana on the carousel

Then we rode the train

They had these cute little benches that were perfect for their size and for us to eat our lunch.

Then we went to a little play area they had for the kids. It was an extremely hot day so Ellie and I were just dripping! We had a lot of fun! Unfortunately Kara and my plan was to tire out the kiddos and then take them home for a nice long nap. They both fell asleep on the car ride home. Fortunately Ellie transfred to her bed and took a little nap!