Blake's birthday

Blake is one lucky and spoiled boy. This was his year for a friend party.  I tried to talk him out of it by telling him I would buy him more presents if he didn't have one but he still wanted one.  Then he told me he wanted a mountain man party.  Say what? So we did a hunting party. I found this idea on pinterest for his invite and loved it: 

We had 6 friends come along with my 4 boys.  Lucky for me my mom was in town to help me because I need it.  First off before school we: 

 Watched Blake run through the crate paper around his door.  It's our birthday tradition.  They love it.  He got to open a couple of presents and headed for school.

 My mom bought him a camel back backpack with a water thing in it.  He totally loves it.  Already took it  hunting this year.

 Before the party started we noticed a mouse in my garage.  I HATE mice.  Seriously.  It looked dead so I had my friend send her 13 year old boy over to help me throw it away and it stated to move when he went to scoop it up! Ahh! It was poisoned from the decon and was dying but still moving.  Yuck.  He got it all cleaned up before the kids came.  We started by having them decorate a mini pumpkin from my garden with hair and eyes.  Whatever they wanted.  Then I bought some more nerf bullets and let the kids shoot at balloons with pictures of animals on them.  The two girls did alright with it but the boys went nuts over it.

 We did a scavenger hunt and a stack the cup game.  Also pin the bullet mark on the target.  I tried not to have too many killing animal games because ya know.  Didn't want to bother any of the kids.

 That's why our pinata was a dragon.  Not a zebra like he kind of wanted.  I thought it was cool looking anyway but broke easy.

 Stockton cried for most of the party.  It's hard to be the little brother I guess.  He went nuts on the dragons dead once it broke off.

 His friends brought him awesome presents.  I bought (gasp!) instead of bought his birthday cake this year.  He liked it better and if I bought the little hunter guy on the top off of amazon it was 12 bucks and the finished cake cost me 19.  So it was worth a few dollars to have it taste and look nice.

 Sorry I didn't edit any of these pictures. Takes too long.  Loved his face in this one though blowing everything out.

 I'm glad Blake has so many cute little friends.

 After the kids left I let him open the rest of his presents.  He was so excited.  I love when he lets me take his picture because he is such a ham.

Blake is really such a wonderful little boy.  His teacher told me at teacher conferences that she wishes she had a classroom full of Blakes because he is so good at getting his work done and helping those around him.  He has a kind heart and likes to make lots of friends even though he is really shy.  He is really emotional at home.  He gets upset with his brothers a lot but no brother is more loved them him.  Stockton and Brett love to play with him.  Stock just told me he likes playing with Blake because he plays games that he likes and no monster games.  Ty loves to play monster games. He still loves all things with being "manly" and hunting. The other day he told me he was pretty much the most manly man in our family.  Even though he doesn't act like it he really loves to get attention from me.  He will just come up and hug me sometimes which he doesn't do to everyone.  I feel very lucky to be his mom. He has always been my buddy.

Photography

I love photography.  I'm not artist at all.  I feel like I can sort of be one with my sweet camera.  

I'm doing a weekly challange and the these one week was reflection.  Bryan left to go hunting so I put the boys in the van and we drove around until we got to Benson and found this:

 I'm pretty sure I would live there if it wasn't for the mosquitoes


Then there was the night (Bryan was gone again and I forget where.) we had a crazy lightening storm!! I've never seen anything like it! There was a bolt every few seconds for a very long time.  My neighbor Kristin was over and I was dying wanting to get a picture so she stayed with all the boys but Blake and we went up the hill to get a picture.  I've really wanted a lightening picture for a long time.  The storm didn't disappoint!

I got more photos too but these were my favorite.  Have I said I love my new camera?  Because I do.

Antelope success

Bryan has a bunch more pictures on his phone I'll try to add later but this was Bryan's one and only animal tag this  year.  He did end up getting his antelope after like 13 shots at it.  Blake loved it.  Like LOVED it.  He is a nutty hunter already. Bryan's brothers Cory and Joe went with their boys too so it was a fun mans weekend.  

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 Ty has hugging this gross thing.  HUGGING.  What is wrong with my kids?

 Bryan  has already taught Blake had to pose with a dead animal as you can see.

Laycee Lou

I have had some thoughts on this sweet little girl I wanted to remember.  My little niece Laycee was baptized this last weekend.  To say she was excited about it is a major understatement.  I offered to take some pictures for her.  My favorite photo shoots to do are baptism ones.  The little girls are SO excited to be there.  They are more willing to smile and be silly.  They love their dresses.  It's so fun.  I didn't do much when Ty turned 8 but you but your buttons I will for Blake and my other kids.  Boys wont be as fun though because girls love the attention. 

When Laycee was born she was missing the part of her heart that connects to her lungs.  When she was 6 weeks old she went into cardiac arrest and a nurse pumped her little heart by hand for 45 minutes doing CPR.  We all went down to the hospital that day to be with Bryan's sister and husband and to say goodbye to her.  I'll never, ever forget going to her little "room" in the NICU and hardly see her little body under all the tubes and cords attached to her little body.  You could just see this little diaper under it all.  She has had multiple open heart surgeries since then and her little heart is still pumping.  We are grateful for every day we have with her and hopefully there are many, many more! I love her so much! 

She was so excited the day of her baptism.  She gave us a little fist pump right before she went up for her turn to be baptized.  Her mom told me this story so I hope I get it right.  She really wanted to bare her testimony the next day at church.  So her parents went over things she might say and reassured her they would be there to help her if she needed it. She went up there and instead of ratting off some memorized thing she started to just speak from her heart.  She said that she loved the feeling of the "ghost" (holy ghost) and she liked being able to shake everyones hands after her blessing.  She also said that when she came up out of the water she let out a big gasp and said she the holy ghost told her "I love you Laycee."

Bryan loves her to pieces.  He posts so many pictures of her on facebook that some people thought she was our kid. She has so my life in her little body.  Congrats Lou Lou!