A Birthday and a Visit Home

OK, this post is over a month late but I guess it's better late than never. My baby turned five on the first of October!! Where has the time gone? This year her birthday was a little crazy. Here's why.

My whole family gets together the first weekend in October to go duck hunting. I wasn't going to go but my sweet husband convinced me and so I decided on the spur of the moment to go. Josh couldn't go because of school so we celebrated her birthday a few days early so he could be there. She also wanted a Halloween birthday party this year but her birthday is so far away from Halloween we decided to wait a few weeks to have the party when it was closer to it. I'll post pictures of her party in the next post. I hope she felt special because she got to celebrate her birthday three different times this year!! I'm so grateful that Emma is a part of my life!! Though sometimes she makes life challenging she is a sweetheart!! A strong willed little girl but a sweetheart as well. I don't think that I could handle having my boys as close as they are without her help. I really enjoy spending time with her and I hope that she knows how much I love her. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father made her a part of our family.

I took her to McDonalds for a special birthday lunch. She and Jaxson had a lot of fun playing on the big toy.
I didn't make a big cake before we left because she would get one for her party and I knew Josh wouldn't eat it while we were gone so she got cupcakes.
I had another picture of her opening her presents but I accidentally deleted it and it's too complicated to try and get another picture on in the right place so this one will have to do. She was really excited about the My Little Ponies and the Barbie swimming pool that she got.

Our Trip Home: We were really lucky that the weekend we were down Josh's brother and his family were there as well. We hadn't seen Jess and Adam for a long time so it was special to be able to spend sometime with them.

It was so fun to watch this soccer game with all the kids playing along with the adults. It was hilarious!! Even Mom and Dad Hill joined the game. My camera died somewhere during the game so I didn't get any pictures but we sure appreciated the time and effort they put into to spending time with us. We really are lucky to have them in our lives.
My kids really enjoyed playing on the swings and the slide. Isaac is borrowing Jaxson's hat in this picture, that's why it's so big. Grandma Bean worked so hard to make hats for all of the grandchildren and they turned out great. Thanks mom, for loving us so much!!
Brinley and Jaxson are not quite a month apart so it was so fun for them play together.I love these two pictures because they show what a wonderful grandma my kids have. Thanks Dianne for taking time with and loving my kids!!

I don't know why I don't have any pictures of my time with my family but I'm so glad that I went down. I had a great time with my brothers and sisters and it was worth the nine hour drive it took to get there. Life really is all about family and I'm so grateful to be a part of two incredible families.