The Girls

Just some random pictures I took of the kids before school today. The girls were loving their matching curly hair. It was also pajama day...AGAIN! I think that makes the 14th time this year :)

Easter 2011

We had a great Easter party at Nana Blair's today, and then we came home and dyed eggs. Lila says she doesn't appreciate that she is naked in this picture, but I didn't want her to get too dirty, so I stripped her down.

Busy at work. Egg dying is serious business.

A random picture of Sunny someone must have taken this morning. How cute is she?

I wanted a picture of all four kids before we went to Nana's. These are what I got. I decided to post them all because someone looks good in each one. I just can't get one single shot with everyone's eyes open and looking at the camera. Such is life :)

Jackson's Baptism

April 9, 2011 was a very special day for Jackson. It was his baptism day. It means that he has officially chosen to become a member of the church, and is a huge right of passage.

I am so proud of Jackson. He was so excited. He said he wasn't nervous, but I think he looks it in this picture. (Check out the mohawk on Little G. Pretty awesome. It has since been buzzed though.)

Our family of 6. I can't believe it will soon be 7.

Jackson and Nana Blair. I love this picture. They both look so happy!

And of course, one with Mimi and Bear. (Told you I got a good one Mom)

We had a really nice party after the baptism. We had originally planned on having it at our house, but turns out we had way too many people who love Jackson and wanted to be there, so we moved it to the church.

Aunt Jess was in charge of most of the food, and she did a fabulous job, as always! If you need a baby shower/wedding shower/some kind of fun event catered, she is the best.

Apparently Lila was very happy to be there.

My sweet girls with their good friend Caitlin.

Griffin was a super big grump for most of the day. He did consent to one of his cheesy smiles for this picture though. Our good friend Kathy took care of him during the whole baptism. It was so wonderful to be able to focus on Jack and not deal with Griffin. I think the food was the only good part of the day for him.

For the sake of record keeping I'm going to try to make a list of all those who attended.

Dad, Mom, Sunny, Lila, Griffin, & even Baby Cam (kind of :)
Bob and Mary Mikel
B.J. Mikel
Josh & Jess Mikel

Nancy Blair
Carl, Zoii, & Jared Nethery (and Jack got a super nice email from Nathan, who is on his mission)
Troy & Sarah Blair, and kids
Clint & Jonette Webster, and kids
Julie Gunderson and kids
Tony and Marcia Lono

Tony & Kathy Alonzo, and kids
Ashley and Maci Pitcher
Aaron & Brittainey Timothy, and kids
Keith and Kim Mayhugh

Thanks to everyone for being a part of Jackson's special day!

Uncle B.J. Was Here

...and all I got were these crappy pictures!

Seriously though, B.J. flew out for Jack's baptism/birthday/yearly visit. It is the best time of the year around here. The kids look forward to it for months and B.J. never disappoints. He is such a great uncle.

Unfortunately I didn't realize I needed to take some pictures until his trip was almost over, so this is all I got. Here they are in random order.

They played a lot of Wii. And by a lot, I mean a freakish amount.

Sunny could always be found in his lap. She is so snuggly.

There was also a lot of climbing, sitting, and jumping on B.J.

Love Sunny's crazy face in this one.

Lila and B.J. played dollhouse all week. She is a really good toy player, just like B.J. used to be. He is so sweet and spent hours playing Mommy and Baby.

One day they decided to make a band. Griffin loved it. They took turns swapping instruments and singing. I wish I had it on video.

Of course you remember the "No Paparazzi" pose.

Of course Jack was playing Wii during band time.

All the kids loved having him here and cried when he left. We won't see him again until Sunny's baptism...Sept. 2012. Good thing it's coming up fast. We love you Uncle B.J.

Let It Rain

This would be the view from my backyard. The rocks are the retaining wall at the end of my yard. We affectionately call the gully behind our house, "the pit". As in, "I will throw you in the pit!" or "If you don't clean up your toys, they will go in the pit!" You get the picture. Usually the pit is dry and kids play in it.

Today, there is a river running through it. It's okay, it's supposed to happen (or so I've been told.) The real name for the pit is the Tickville Wash (don't know how it is really spelled, but who cares) and it is for excess water drainage/run off. I've been told it fills up every few years or so. This is the first time we've seen it.

I'm a little freaked out, b/c it is pretty close to my house, but the water would have to rise a lot to get up here.

It's running pretty fast right now. It looks really dirty and gross, but the sound is gorgeous. Like my own private river...sort of :)

All Things Lila Cate

This is mostly a birthday post, but I've thrown in some other recent pictures of Lila since I haven't posted any lately. She loves her Bear!

I think Sunny took this picture of Lila at Jackson's birthday. Lila looks like a ragamuffin a lot of the time. Mostly because I'm sick, so Sunny is in charge of dressing her and doing her hair. Sometimes she looks cute, other times, not so much. Oh well, Sunny does a pretty good job for a 6 year old.

"That's me! I'm "yicking" my candle at my "birtday" party."

Lila turned 3 on March 14th. She was all about having a party, so party we did. On her actual birthday we went to Nana Blair's to celebrate. Nana gave her a snap and style Dora with color changing hair. She loved it.

The next week we had a party with my family at Uncle Josh and Aunt Jess's house. She got lots more presents and had a ball.

These were taken a couple months ago. I thought the girls looks so cute. I am enjoying the fact that they love to match still. I hope Sunny doesn't grow out of it anytime soon.

Lila also had her 3 year old check-up. She did great and didn't even cry when she had to get a shot. I can't remember all the exact numbers, but her stats look something like this:

33 lbs - 75th%
38 inches - 75th%

I could hardly believe how big she has gotten. Where did my itty-bitty 3rd percentile baby go? I remember the days when she was so freakishly small, and now here she is, a big healthy girl!

Some of her favorite things at 3 are:

Playing dollhouse
racing cars
Lala Loopsies
Playing school, doctor, or mommy/baby with Sunny and her friends

She loves to eat anything and is not very picky at all.

I feel especially blessed to have my sweet Catey girl. She is such an easy child. I really feel like she is 4 or 5. She is very self-sufficient and she talks extremely well for her age. We have a good time during the days while the kids are at school. Mostly she helps me chase Griffin around, although she is also usually his target. She's taken lots of hair pulling, tackling, and now biting from him, but she loves her brother a lot.

We love you Lila!

My Reason For Not Blogging

I've been a really bad blogger. I've got lots to catch up on. I still haven't posted about Disneyland, Christmas, Lila's b-day, Jack's b-day, or Jack's baptism (which was today, and it was awesome!) I'm working on it all...kind of. I figured I'd better introduce you all to my reason for not blogging...

Here he is...baby#5 at 16 weeks.

Cutest little skeleton baby I've seen in awhile.

Waving hello. (This one is super blurry, sorry. I just took pictures of the pictures.)

We are so excited to be expecting our 5th baby. This little guy is officially going to be known as...

Cameron John

Cameron is just a name we have always liked, and it seemed like this was the baby to use it on. John is my grandfather's (my Mom's Dad's) name. He is an amazing, brilliant man, and I hope Cameron can grow up to be just as wonderful as him.

Cam is due on 9/22, so hopefully we can make it into Sept before he's born. I'm guessing the 8th or 10th. Whatever day he picks, I am totally looking forward to meeting this little guy, and his big brothers and sisters feel the same. He is one lucky little boy!