Sacramento - Part 4 - Grandpa & Family Park Gathering

On Sunday, our last full day in Sacramento I went to visit my Grandpa Cliff with Danny, Emily, Michael, Kim & Jonathan.  Kenneth was napping when we left, so we decided to leave him behind.  I haven't seen my Grandpa for a long time, and his health isn't so great.  He is in a nursing home and suffers from dementia.  We recently learned that he has various tumors in his lymph nodes, and he probably will not be with us much longer.  We (as in me and my brother) wanted to see him and introduce our kids to him.

When we got to the nursing home Danny, who was walking with Uncle Michael got really scared because all the ladies in their wheelchairs wanted to touch him and were saying what a cute boy he was.  Poor Danny didn't like random strangers reaching out to him!  He ran to me and kept saying, "Up!  Up!"  He wouldn't let me put him down at all while we were there.   At least he let us take a picture with Grandpa without getting upset!

After out trip to see Grandpa we headed to the park by my dad's house and met up with all of my siblings (minus Alisha's family in Germany) and let the kids play together.  It was relaxing and so fun to see all the kids playing.  Here are some of the photos:

Kenneth pushing my nieces (Belen & Victoria) and nephews (Daniel & Tytus Andrew)

My mom, nephew Issac, brother Tytus, & his son Enoch

Sister-in-law Sharon - married to Tytus

Kenneth being a kid

Just hangin' around

Brother Michael w/ his son Jonathan

Danny having some time alone with his hand in his pocket - a MUST for him.  Also my brother Nathan in the background with nieces and nephews

He LOVED this thing!

Danny with his cousin Tommy

One more of my boys flying together

Before we left Monday morning, my aunt Jennifer and her two sons came over to say hello.  The kids all went in the backyard and ate some more cherries and blackberries.  They were delicious!

Jennifer & kids, Michael, Kim & Jonathan, Pa A & Jayne and Us

Well, that's all of it!  We had such a wonderful time!  We'll be out there again in about a month and a half when my sister Alisha and her family will be in town from Germany!  Whoo hoo!

My Cute Boy!

Here are some photos of my little boy! I thought he deserved a little post dedicated just to him. 

Taking his baby for a ride!

Here are the many faces of Danny. He is so funny, and he always cracks himself up!

Cheesy Smile

Excited Smile

Surprised or "Uh Oh!" face

Random park day -

My child is a monkey

I think this girl thought Danny couldn't walk or play by himself.  She went down every slide with him, held his hand going up the stairs and dragged him everywhere she went...

Did I mention that Danny is now in a big boy bed!!  We skipped the toddler bed stage, because we just don't see the point, and went for twin bunk beds instead!  Danny LOVES to play on them, and spent most of the first few days just climbing up and down the ladder.  We initially put him on the bottom bunk, but he fell off, so now he sleeps on the top bunk - because it actually has a rail!  He likes it much better up there.  I heard terrible stories about transitioning a kid to a big bed, but we only had the first night that was kind of rough.  And "rough" in our case was putting him back in bed like 4 times - and it took him about an hour longer to fall asleep.  Not too bad!! After that he was a pro!

Don't look at the major mess of toys behind him...

Love you Danny! Thanks for bringing so much laughter into my life!

Emily at 2 Months!

My sweet little girl turned 2 months on June 11th - I can't believe how fast the time is going!  We're headed to Utah next week, and by the time we get back she will be 3 months!  Crazy!  Anyway, she had her 2 month appointment, and was 9lb. 14 oz. and 22 in. long.  She is definitely growing!!  I can't believe she is getting so big, though lots of people remind me that she still looks like a newborn!  My friend's baby was over 10 lb. so she laughs that Emily is STILL smaller than her kids ever were!  Ha!

Anyway, Emily is adorable! I love her so much and am so happy she is part of our family.  She just recently has started smiling a little more, and we've found some tricks to help her be less fussy...she is definitely a drama queen, though is getting better.  Danny loves her so much and is so concerned about her.  Whenever she cries he yells, "UH OH!" and then RUNS over to her.  If she's sleeping in our bedroom he knocks on the door, or if she is in her little chair he runs over and rocks it to help her stop crying.  He constantly wants to hold her, and when he does he likes to give her kisses on her head.  What a sweet little boy I have!

Emily is working on her smiling...sometimes she does it, and other times she's stubborn.  Here is a smile we FINALLY caught on camera!

Also, Kenneth gave Emily a baby blessing at church on June 5th.  My dad & stepmom Jayne were able to come down as well as my mom and her husband Ron.  We were so happy they were able to make it and were able to spend time with us and share in this special moment.  The blessing was beautiful and I couldn't ask for a better family!  We were terrible and didn't get pictures that day - Emily was pretty fussy after church with all the hype, but we did manage to get picture of her in her blessing dress a little later.  Here are some of them:

Well there you go!  Hope you enjoyed the pictures of my favorite little girl!!

Sacramento - Part 3 - Family BBQ & B-Day Party

On Saturday we went to the park for a family BBQ and birthday party for my 1 year old cousin, Shannon Ruth!  It was so wonderful to see so many aunts, uncles and cousins - some I haven't seen in over 5 years!  Happy Birthday Shannon Ruth!  Here are some pictures:

My brother Nathan wanted to do a pull up contest.  Here were the results:

Kenneth - 13 - WINNER< WINNER< WINNER!

Nathan - 12

Michael - 4/5

Karen - 1

Papa - This was his funny attempt...0

I cheated and did a chin up...only 1 - I just had a kid 1 month earlier!

My brother Nathan and his wife Karen

It actually started raining and people were leaving before we sang Happy Birthday.  We hurried and gathered those still there, sang Happy Birthday (twice because it was recorded the first time) and ate some fabulous cake.  The weather didn't cooperate very well, but we all had a wonderful time still.

Shannon Ruth's Strawberry Shortcake cake

Aunt Yvonne (pregnant with a little boy), Uncle Erik & Shannon Ruth

Danny enjoying his cake

Brother Michael, his wife Kim and son Jonathan

Sacramento - Part 2 - Fairytale Town!

On Friday afternoon we headed to Fairytale Town with my brothers Michael and Tytus and their families.




Jonathan - love that kid!

"The Crooked Mile" - it was so fun!! Danny almost fell off a couple of times. He couldn't control his momentum!

Pretty sure the stairs leading up to this slide wouldn't pass safety codes, but it was so much fun!!

Hanging out with the donkey

Danny & Cousin Jonathan checking out the goats from "Billy Goats Gruff"

Choo Choo!! Danny loves his trains!

I think Danny is the cutest Tin Man! I'm thinking we may need to do that for Halloween!

Jonathan, Danny, Tommy & Elijah - Danny likes to set the example by climbing on everything

Danny loved the ducks! It took forever to get him to go see something else.


And here are just some random photos from my dad's house:

That is a spring wreath on his head...he's been really into hats lately!


EMILY! My good friend Heather made the shirt for her.

She started to smile in this trip, and this is as close to a picture of it as I could get. I love that she just stares at Daddy! Adorable!