Amelia's Birthday and Our Company

When I was looking through my past pictures I realized I forgot to post about Amelia's birthday and our company. I made Amelia's birthday cake. I was looking around my kitchen after I was done and just laughing about what a mess I made of everything!
Here's Amelia's smash cake.

The aftermath :) See that cake on the right? That used to be on top of the other square cake but it was looking so ridiculously huge so I decided to take it off. I was so worried I would totally wreck both cakes - and this was about 10 at night - but it worked out (thank goodness!)

I pretty much only remembered to get out my camera for cake time. Here's Amelia squealing with laughter about something!

Playing with her mommy!

What a cutie!

Elizabeth wanted to be right next to her for most of the party. She loves Amelia!

This is the outfit Janet and I got her for her birthday. We had a friend make the shirt and I made the skirt. She was such a cutie in it!

She was just starting to walk the week of the party.

The next day Tom's brother, Jim, came into town with his wife and three kids. (see Jim on the right - Tom looks a lot like him)

The same friend who made Amelia's shirt made our 3 boys a 4th of July shirt. They loved matching each other.

Cousin Sarah was setting off fireworks in the backyard on the 4th.

We then headed out front to see more fireworks being set off.

The big kids in the back are Steve, Tom, and Brittney - Jim's kids who are from MN - they flew down to visit over the 4th of July.

We had a great time watching fireworks that Uncle Mark set off for us. Elizabeth and Brittney

The young TX cousins all dressed in their finest 4th of July gear.

Amelia's not all about sitting still anymore, now that's she's getting big and walking.

This is the cake I made - can you tell it's a flag when you cut it open??

Ben and Tom

Steve - enjoying dinner I guess :) (Tom had my camera at this point so I don't really know what he was doing! I had quite of few weird and random pictures after this! :)

Tom and Brittney

Mary, Jim's wife , and Janet

Elizabeth and her Uncle Jim

Last, but not least, Grandma and Grandpa H and all their grand kids that were in town. We are a very blessed family with so many kiddos.

We had a great visit with our out of town company! We have more coming in about a week so I'll have more pictures to come.

Catching Up

After we got home from Minnesota we have been super busy. 2 of Tom's siblings came into town for a week, and we've had lots of playdates and time at the pool. Unfortunately I haven't really gotten out my camera! I did have my camera for 2 events so here they are.

We had a group of friends over to play and had a great time. Here are Jackson and Kason - they are only a few weeks apart.
Baby Jena - once she woke up Elizabeth didn't want to leave her alone!

Dana, Janet, and Amelia.

Zach, me, and Jena. Zach was loving Jena, too.

Kristi (Kayson's mom) and Suzanne

Joanne with her hands full! (Jill and Jena)

There's Jane. We had pizza and other goodies for lunch.

Josh and Drew

Then the fun with the photo shoot began . It was difficult to get this many kids together at the same time - but we did it!

It was an active photoshoot!

My kids had a great time with all the babies - I caught Jena mid blink!

We also went to the Fort Worth Water Gardens. Elizabeth made a list of about 15 things that she wanted to do before she went to kindergarten (insert sob!!!) One of the items was going to the Water Gardens. Neither of our kids have been before and I think they really enjoyed it.

Here's Elizabeth and Ben following their daddy's lead and are getting in the water (even though it's not allowed).

The Water Gardens are just filled of cement structures you can climb up, and a variety of water areas to enjoy.

There's Tom breaking the rules!

Ben climbed the mountain with daddy (and mommy down below praying they would be careful!)

We had a great time - we want to go back again (maybe when it's not so hot!!)

We have quite a few more things on her list, I hope we get them all done!

I had to add this. Elizabeth took my camera outside and got a picture of this frog that Tom found in the front yard when he was mowing. She's getting so good at taking pictures!