Princess Dance

Rielly turns 4!

Rielly was so excited for her birthday this year! She wanted to have a Dora party with just girls! We colored Dora pictures, played pin the tail on Swiper, used "the map" to find a Dora surprise, and then had fresh fruit and cheesecake! Not to mention the night before when it was her actual birthday we took her to Chuck E Cheese to use the free tokens she got for her birthday! I'd say she had a pretty good Bday this year!

We got her a princess bike, and after she fell and cut her head, we got her a princess helmet to match! 

Kennedy Hoopes, Rielly, Peyton Howard, Molly and Lucy Atkin
All adorned with Dora necklaces, bracelets, rings and lip gloss!

Chocolate Cheesecake with Dora Candles!

One of the gifts Rielly got was a Jewelry box with stickers to decorate it! The girls spent like 30 minutes doing this- they loved it!

Family visit

Alyssa and Scott came to see us!! And Daniel drove us down a car from NM!! It was so much fun to see everyone! I think we were all exhausted by the end, but it was totally worth it!! We had some great food (including some KC BBQ of course), went to Union Station, Liberty Jail, Legends Outlet, a Royals game, saw the new Batman movie, and stayed up late talking! Kayla and Lexi (and Halle too) stayed with the kids on two different nights so the adults could go out- and it was so nice!! Thank you girls!!

Halle quickly became Gavin's best friend. He loved having her hold him and play with him!

In Tessa's words- "Best Friends" These two had way too much fun together!

Union Station

Custard from Sheridans!!

The Royals game- the Royals even won!

Gavin caught a ball! Ok Chris caught it- and it was just a soft toy ball that the cheerleaders threw to the crowd- but still cool!

At Jack Stacks with Alyssa, Scott and Daniel

Ready for church

Gavin got a new suit (from Aunt Addie) and Rielly got some new high heels!

Lake of the Ozarks

John has been in Missouri for training and Addie came out for a week to see him- so we all met up at Lake of the Ozarks for the weekend to have some family fun! Rich was able to get his timeshare right on the lake that we were all able to stay at! Thanks Rich and Mary!! It was beautiful! We swam in the pool and  jumped off the dock at the lake as well. We did some shopping at an outlet mall and of course did some catching up! It was so great to see Addie and John and spend time with Rich's family too! I couldn't tell if Rielly had more fun playing with her cousins or following her Aunt Addie around everywhere!

Max, Uncle John, Aunt Addie, Lucy, Uncle Rich, Molly, Me and Rielly

When we started getting waves from the boats Rielly wanted to go back to the pool, but Gavin loved the lake!

Aunt Addie left their kids in Arizona, but we had plenty to go around! ;)

This restaurant gave us mustaches with the kids menus!

KC Fun

We spent a day in Kansas City with friends- yeah! First we went to Kaleidescope and the Hallmark visitors center and then we went to the dinosaur exhibit in the crown center mall. Such a fun day!!

Watching the machine make a wrapping bow- they each got their very own bow!

Kennedy, Boyce, and Rielly

Gavin loved the "balls" of course

July 4th

We had so much fun on the 4th- despite the sweltering heat!! We started out with the Lenexa parade, which was only a block or two away from our new townhome, so we just walked there- very convenient! We took our squirt guns though and plenty of water bottles because it was HOT! The kids loved it though! Then we went swimming with some friends and got cooled down in the water- so nice! After that we went to Uncle Richard's house for a BBQ and then walked from there to his park to watch fireworks! Gavin wasn't a huge fan of the fireworks (I think he was just exhausted) but the rest of us enjoyed them!

Some people gave out American flags and the kids loved waving them during the parade!

Watching the bubble machine before the fireworks started

I think my camera got shot by the squirt gun- can you see the water spots?

Best Buds- Max and Gavin

Nauvoo

The wagon ride around Nauvoo

smelling the flowers

Rielly made beds and put the baby dolls to sleep- my little mom

Even Chris got into the Pioneer spirit

Rielly got to make a hat and walk in a children's parade

We stayed in Keokuk and spent two days in Nauvoo. We went into a lot of houses and saw some funny shows (Rielly's favorite part was the dancing and singing boys and girls!). It was such an amazing feeling to be in that historic town where so many faithful saints lived and gave everything they had to live the gospel. What a tremendous example of faith and devotion that those early saints are! How wonderful it is to see the Nauvoo Temple built there again after the saints had been driven out of the state so many years before and had to leave it behind. God works in miraculous ways!