August so far!

We had a family dinner at the beginning of the week to celebrate the coming birthdays and I got to get a few pictures of this little cutie!

Bens really loves his new shirt!

My handsome hubby for the last 10 years and the eternity to come!

My nephew was trying to slurp the cheese like it was spaghetti!

Our little birthday girl!  I can hardly believe that she is four now!  Where did the time go?  She is still a little baby just starting to walk and talk and now she will be going off to preschool in the fall!

She blew out the candles while we were singing happy birthday!  We gave a little reminder on the order of things when she blew out the candles on her cake today!

The younger two got to stay at Grandma and Gramps' for a camping trip after the party.  They were pretty excited!

They had a fun filled day with Gramps.  I think this will be a favourite for them!

Kimber and Bens went camping in Jasper this week with Gramps as well and just loved their time hiking, swimming at some hot springs and going on the gondola up the mountain.  I am glad they are able to make these memories!

July Picture Overload!

July went by in a big hurry!  It sure was packed with a lot of fun though!

Kimber trying out her new hula hoop.  I love this, it looks like the hula hoop is levitating!

Daniel and I went and saw Newsies at the Jubilee as part of our anniversary celebrations.  It has been 10 years.  I couldn't have asked for a better man to be with through all of our ups and downs and the crazy that is our life!

Our actual anniversary was spent being Ma and Pa to 10 amazing kids on trek this year.  This is 8 of our kids with us and our 'uncle'.  If you ever get the chance to go on trek, DO IT!  Same goes for your kids!  It was amazing to see how these kids worked together and the change that came through our 4 days together.

Just my feet after trek.  Yikes!

My bottom lip swelled up the day after trek from sunburn.  I know now that I really don't want to get botox.  This was not the worst swollen lip that was seen on trek though!

After getting our kids from my parents house, thank you for babysitting, we went to the Heritage Festival.  We ate lots of yummy food from around the world and had a few cute photo ops!

We were happy to find any shade we could!  We also got to eat some delicious lemon and raspberry sherbet in the shade.  It was a hot afternoon but once we got the bus to leave the clouds rolled in and a major storm rolled in.  The festival ended up closing early and people were evacuated out due to flooding.  We had great timing!

Riding the train home.

They enjoyed being able to take the bus and the train.

The older enjoyed standing on the train with Daniel's rule of anybody older than 6 could stand.

We also tie-dyed some shirts that week and the kids love wearing their colorful shirts!

June Picture Overload!

So much has been happening in our family but it seems like nothing at the same time.  Best way to catch up a bit is to put up a bunch of pictures, right?!

Kimber's birthday this year was fun.  I took her and 2 friends to the beauty school and had their hair styled and nails painted.  Cost me $10 a girl and they got a bag of candy as well.  Can't beat that!

Hair all done and waiting for their nails to be done.

Showing off their nails.  We finished the afternoon with pizza and cupcakes.

We also celebrated all the June birthdays on the Bateman side of the family.  Kimber and her cousin were 2 of the guests of honour.

Grandma painted Kimber's toes with her new nail polish she got.

Mr G trying to blow out the candles.

3 generations of Bateman men in a massage train.

There was a tri-ward Daddy/Daughter prom night.  The girls loved getting dressed up to go out with Daddy.  They insisted on having matching hair!

Kimber got to wear my hair clip/piece and necklace that I wore on my wedding day.

The girls ready to go out with Daddy.  He took them to the Olive Garden.  Kimber has a new favourite restaurant!

Last day of school brought on a kindergarten celebration.  McKay even got to walk across the stage and shake hands with school admin.

McKay with a couple of his buddies from class.

Kimber loved her teacher this year.  I really hope that McKay get Mrs. Parker this year.

Poor Miss T got a bad case of Skeeter syndrome.  After the Kindergarten celebration we went straight to the hospital to get her checked out.  Her body just over reacted a mosquito bite.  We put Benadryl cream on her face but rubbing it on made the reaction even worse.

The same day after going to the hospital it looked even worse, this is as bad as it got though.

Next morning her eye was more swollen but the bottom of her cheek was doing better.  We have been super cautious with her and applying bug spray anytime she plays outside.

She was a real trooper though and didn't complain much.  She tried not to touch it and was really quite happy.  It probably helped the Bens let her use his iPod pretty much all day long!

Utah Trip 2016

Brooke and I did another whirlwind trip to Utah last week for a wedding of our good friend.  We took Taylor and Sylas with us and were actually surprised at how well they did with all the driving we did on our trip.

The wedding was at the Provo City Center Temple.  What a neat place!  There is a visitor's center that looks like a gazebo that the kids were able to wait in.  When we came out we got a picture of the kiddos in front of the Christus statue in the visitor's center.

Miss T had a melt down or two.  I love crying pictures but don't like the drama that goes with them!

My nephew waiting by the fountain.  He had a great time walking around the edge of the fountain.  He would get off whenever he came up on somebody and walk around them and get back on.  Except for me, he asked me to move every time.

The newlyweds with the groom's parents.

I love this family.

I grew up with them and the easiest way for us to explain who we were was saying we were cousins.  It was wonderful to be able to go and share in the joy with them.

Miss T was just taken with Kristen.  She wanted to talk to 'the bride' so after about an hour there was a good moment to snag a hug and a picture.  My nephew declared that he was going to marry the girl in white the next day.

Miss T loved smelling the flowers and wanted a billion pictures of it.

The next day we went to Grandma Lynne's and got to enjoy the backyard.

I love this jumping shot!

Miss T in the playhouse.

They loved being able to swim in the pool!  We had been bribing them with a swim since we left on  our trip and 3 days later it finally happened!  We spent about 3 hours playing in there.  Once we had enough (big) people we made a whirlpool for old times sake!

We ended the trip up at our Aunt and Uncle's house in Park City.  We enjoyed a day of shopping and little bit of visiting.

It was a great trip and I was glad to be home but wish we could have spent a little more time each place we stayed.

Lights at the Leg

We were able to get out and do a few fun things with Daniel's family at Christmas.  Seeing the lights at the Legislature was one of them.  I had my camera and was able to capture a few of the things we saw.  Some are too blurry to share as the flash ruined the picture but my hands aren't always steady!

T loves her Gramps.

This is what I get when I try and sneak a picture.

This is what I was going for!

The kids loved playing in the snow!

After listening to a song sung by a choir in the Leg we went out and had some hot chocolate and cookies Grandma brought.

Grandma and Gramps in front of the tree.  It was too dark here to not use a flash!

Family photo Christmas 2015.