Big 4th Bday for Ellie

The last four years of our life has included this sweet girl..... we are so lucky!




Our little girl Ellie turned four on August 18th. She was super excited to be the birthday girl. She's not listening to us at all when we tell her not to grow up....she certainly is!! Her birthday was fun... it included a trip to Wendy's for lunch, cake, ice cream, presents and a party a few days later with some of her cute friends. What a special girl she is in our family. She is so thoughtful to her family, and always shares with her brother and sisters. She's so sweet with Isaac and always is quick to get him whatever he needs and watches out for him. She's my extra set of eyes to give me "Isaac alerts" which lately has been "Isaac's standing on the table again MOM!!". We love her so much.


Ellie Jane on her 4th birthday!

Opening presents with the family.

Ellie's bday party...which included a "dance party" portion thanks to her cute friend Eva Larsen.:)

She loved being the "birthday girl"!!

Back to School....

Our school starts EARLY here in Kentucky...we headed back to school August 11th this year! I think its too early to start...but I guess we don't have to much say about that. It's been so HOT here this summer....they might at well be sitting in class because its been too hot to be outside anyway!
Cam and Kelsey were excited to start back up I think. 1st grader Kelsey has Mrs. Beaty and 3rd grader Cameron has Mrs. Allen. Both seem like great teachers. Cameron is excited to have almost all of the LDS kids from last year in his class again...especially his good friends Liam and Boston. So its back to getting up early for that 7:10 am bus pick up, homework, lunches, backpacks....it's good to get back on schedule!! What a fun summer we had though. I really loved having the kids home (most days :)) and we had a great time at the pool this summer.

Summer Visitors....

We had just a few more visitors over the summer. We love seeing good friends and family!

Uncle Matt and Grandpa Blood and family came for a nice afternoon visit.

Our fun Uncle Matt

Dear friend Holly Morgan drove up from Tennessee to spend a day with us! SO FUN. Thank you Holly so much! Poor thing got stuck on the freeway for like 2 hours because of a big accident that happened. Uggh.


We were all so happy to see Makai, Beck, and Baby Sadie and get to have a sleepover with them! Woo! Hope to see you soon guys.

Busy 2 weeks of FUN!

My Mom and Dad came to Kentucky for two weeks to visit us! Here is just a sample of what we've been up to!

Isaac wanted to look "nice" for Grandma so he got into my lipstick.


Went to the Newport Aquarium in Cincinnatti. This place is one of our favorites (ok...one of Cameron's FAVS). He loves sea creatures you could say. It was fun and all the kids are excited to say they got to pet a shark.

Celebrated my Mom's birthday! Fun to be with her for her birthday this year! She is such a great Mom.


We went to Michigan to welcome home my nephew Briton who just got back from
his mission in Uruguay! So good to see him and have him home. Ellie was happy to
see her cousin Caitlin...she loves her lots! (We all do.)

We took a ride on Uncle Mike's Boat on Lake St. Clair....so so much fun!

We all got turns on the jet skis...here's Kelsey and Ellie on
with their cousins Caitlin and Briton

Everyone (even Isaac) went for a swim in the lake and loved jumping in off the
side of the boat!

Here's a picture of Uncle Mike's boat...he let everyone have a turn
to "drive" the boat. The kids loved it!

Fun at the Louisville Science Center! In typical Kelsey fashion...she had the whole
pretend "market" store all organized and whipped into shape as she pretended to
be the Store Manager. She takes charge!

Chuck E. Cheese's....my kids LOVE this place. It's heaven on earth for them!

Visited the Louisville Slugger Musuem...where they make the famous Louisville
Slugger Bats! It was fun and pretty interesting to see how they make all those bats. At the end of the tour, they give everyone a real miniature bat (which of course all ended up being put up on top of the fridge at the end of the day because kids were whacking each other with them). This is Cameron holding one of Micky Mantle's bats.

So its amazing how fast two weeks go when family comes to visit! It was a great trip. Blaine got to know my Dad and little better on the drive up to Michigan which was good, and we made some good memories with our great Grandma and Grandpa Despain. Thank you Mom and Dad for all the fun!! We love you...see you in October!