Update {Packer Family Reunion | Grandma Packers 90th Birthday}

This weeks post is just my attempt to finally document our Packer Family Reunion we had in May!  Then next week my hope it to finish July….then I’ll be CLOSE to catching up!
There is SO much I could share about this reunion. I wrote PAGES in my journal about it. BUT….I’m going to spare you all the details because to those who would even care…well, they were all there and know how AMAZING it all was!
It was my Grandma Packers {Grape} 90th birthday and her birthday wish was to have all her posterity there. She ALMOST got that wish. One of my uncles ended up in the hospital the day we started so they never made it.  We of course all understood!
WE started off with family pictures. Isn’t that a great way to start a reunion? Okay, actually lots of us got in the day before and had already had plenty of fun…we were ready to get serious.
I have lots of pictures to share, but not one of our whole family. There is too many head, eye, mouth, BODY swaps to make it what I want it and I wasn’t about to spend the time doing that right now. 

So here is the Steve Packer Family:
Mom and Dad of course   |   Austin & Emma
 
Nate & Dixie

Becca didn’t have a picture done of JUST her {so this is one of my faves from her missionary session}, and we didn’t have a family one done because we had JUST had one done in the exact same clothes. Plus the chance of getting all my kids to even look at the camera let alone be happy was WAY past a possibility, so I didn’t even bother

Jaron & Vanesa

Janine & Adam Hunsaker

Brent & Shalamar

Jordan & Larissa

Updating | June {Utah Stuff}

These are just some pictures we took the Sunday after Ky’s Baptism.  I was supposed to have June posted last week, but can I just say…if I thought I had a lot of pictures from  May….nuh uh.  TONZ more for June.  Sheesh.
 

Celebrating the June Birthday’s at Grandma’s.  Monthly they have a Family Party for all the birthdays’ that month.  We don’t get to participate very often so this was fun!



My niece had her Dance recital and the next night my nephew had his Karate Demonstration.  So fun to see our cousins!



Okay, I hope this works.  Janine put together a birthday party for our three kids that had birthdays close together.  It was definitely a party to remember.  We rented a large water slide bounce house, Janine and BEcca made amazing cakes and I had a photo booth set up.  It was a blast!!!  I had way too many fun pictures so I put them in a slide show.  Here's to hoping it will post.

Father Day | Family Time

Since we were traveling in Utah for Ky’s birthday, he had to wait to get his ‘big’ birthday gift.  I think the pictures speak for themselves…..later that Day Duck took Ky out golfing. He. Loved. It.

 

That morning though, we took the whole family up to the Praise in the Park. It’s a large event that a local church puts on yearly.  They have all kinds of free events, and booths that people set up for all kinds of reasons.  The kids’ fav part was by far the bouncy house, but the Ambulance and Emergency Helicopter sure came in a close 2nd!





They had princes and knights, dressing the kids up, telling stories and taking pictures of kids in this beautiful carriage.  (top right images are the kids getting tatoo’s)

 

The next day was Fathers Day!  We love Fathers Day,  Mothers Day,  and birthdays around here. Any excuse for the kids to scrounge the house for things to wrap up as gifts is a hit.  We also worked together to make Dad a special gift to wear at church.



Tie tacs, with pictures of his very own beloved children.  We made them with Shrinky Dinks and after a few tries we finally got the hang of it and made them work!  Let’s just say, he had a tie full.  We also made tie tacs for the kids. A pic of Duck’s head that said the Best Dad EVER.  Lol, it was a bit of a humorous picture, the kids got a kick out of it.  Below are the images we used on their tie tacs for dad.








Dad’s choice for Dessert.  Emma…yeah. She loved it.  I think I have about 30 pictures of her eating her pie. She cracks me up.

May Cont…again {Kyson’s Baptism!}

ON our way home from New Mexico (well on our way to Utah) we stopped by 4 corners. We weren’t sure if we would ever get the chance again so we did. Well, the kid really could have cared less. I guess it would have helped if I would have given them a little geography lesson before hand, but by the time we got there, it was too late. There was no interest in anything, but buying something from the many vendors that were there.  I was able to get Maliyah to at least come down on ‘the spot’ and Emma copied her.

Once in Utah we spent a couple days at Duck’s parents house. WE had a tiny birthday celebration, and of course enjoyed swimming with Grandpa, as always!

Kyson got a new Remote Control car from them, so bright and early the next morning, first thing kids did was head outside with the car….Jammies and all!  THE best picture of the trip?  Savannah Sneezing a snot bubble and I just happened to catch it!

LIke I mentioned before, this trip was our Family Vacation for the year, so we wanted to make sure and take advantage of this time with Duck and fill it doing fun things.  A couple things we did while staying at the Duckworths was visiting the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point, and the Church History Museum.



The best event of the trip though, had to be Kyson’s Baptism.  He is such a neat kid, and it was a really spiritual baptism. He definitely has a sweet spot for the spirit and really recognizes it.  I’m so grateful to have such a wonderful son!



PIctured Below:

Grandma & Grandpa Duck
Our Sweet and Adorable Friends the McAllister Family! (Oh how we miss them!)
THe White Treat!  The funny story about our refreshments?  While we were setting up for everything there were some kids playing outside and riding bikes. During the Baptism My sister went out in the hall to get Emma and she caught those boys shoving their pockets and mouths with handfulls of our refreshments!  She told me she chased them down and scolded them and made them hand back everything!  Lol, I was quite humored when she told me and figured that they got punishment enough!  Luckily we made lots and they saved some for us.

 


One last thing we did do before Duck went home was take the kids to Lagoon.  Oh my gosh that was so fun!  We arranged for my parents to have the little girls halfway through the day. so we did all the kiddie rides in the morning and then the bigger rides later.  Both my sisters joined us and we had a blast!  It’s been so long since I’ve been able to just ride roller coasters and thrilling rides! Maliyah and Jayden are definitely my dare devils, but mostly Maliyah.  We stayed until the park closed.  It was a perfect day! (minus getting TOTALLY soaked on Rattle Snake Rapids)

Ending a great month

April was a great month.  We had some good school weeks, a great trip to Corvallis (which included some super fun times!), a couple fun Friday’s, many amazing dates with my amazing hubby….definitely great.

May is in full swing. It’s a month I’ve been looking forward to AND dreading at the same time, for months.  It’s going to be my busy month this year. And if you already know how busy I am regularly, then you can just imagine then what a BUSY month will be like.  I look foward to it because Amy Earle of  Simply B Photo’s is coming out from Florida to teach a couple photography workshops. I’m totally stoked for what I will learn and how I will grow from this. 

I’m super excited because of our Family Reunion for my Grandma’s 90th birthday. I LOVE my cousins and am so excited to see them.  I’m also excited about my POsitive Notes recital this weekend because instead of our typical formal recital, we are having it at a Ball Park because our theme is Take me out to the ball game!!  That will be fun.

What I’ve been dreading?  The busy that all these things create.  (I’m not even going to mess with all the other ‘stuff’ I wanted to do this month).  BUT, I’m trying to stay organized, fit in all the necessities first (like time and attention for and to my kids) and then see how much I can get done after that.  Pray for my sanity.

Onto pictures

Last weekend one of our three freezers stopped working.  Unfortunately we didn’t catch it soon enough and most of the food was thawing.  Some of the food we needed to use right away, so dinner Sunday night was PIzza Rolls and Shrimp.  Lots of shrimp.  But because Duck and I are selfish, and only care about our health and not that of our kids (totally kidding there)  the kids got the pizza rolls, and we got the shrimp? Fair?  We thought so, but once dinner was served up…the kids didn’t quite agree.

What would you prefer?



OKay, more collages. I love that they are quick and load faster so here they are.

Emma snarfing town the cheeto puffs at Ky’s baseball game. It was windy, and freezing….good thing we had those cheeto’s or else the girls would have been pretty crabby!

Took some newborn pictures of my friends baby, and her mom and Aunt were visiting from Japan. They don’t speak English. BUT that didn’t stop my girls from making best friends with them.  Emma sat reading books with them nearly the whole time we were taking pictures!

Then last in this group, Maliyah’s good friends Ashlyn & Morgan were Baptized yesterday. It was a beautiful service for two amazing little girls. 



Last, but certainly not least…it was Maddie’s birthday party yesterday! Yup, she turned one this week and Joann threw a super fun carnival birthday party.  I had to leave in the middle with Maliyah to go to the Baptism, but I got back just in time to snatch these pics of her after smashing her cake!  She is just a doll, as cute as ever!

 

The kids were thoroughly entertained by the bounce house and obstacle course and we stayed for a few hours!  There was a lady to paint faces, she has fish in bowls for party favors, AND pictures of maddie in frames! (the last picture in this post)

I laugh at all these pictures because the kids are hot, sweaty and their hair all got a great workout! lol



OH yeah, and a bubble Machine. It’s the same one we used for Emma’s party and I love it…so much fun!



Both the girls were pro balloon punchers!

And here's the pic that JoAnn gave as a party favor to everybody.  I finally finished editing the rest of this session and can't wait to share the rest!  Hopefully next week I'll have time.

Happy 2nd Birthday Emma!!!

I can’t believe my baby is two!  I feel like I’ve talked about her so much lately on here or on facebook, but it’s so hard not to! she is such a fun girl.  She is animated, loving, cuddly and about the funniest 2 year old I know!

Duck was gone ON Emma’s birthday so we didn’t do much, but the next day she got a package from Gma and Gpa duck, so we had a little celebration and let her open their present.



Thanks Ducks! She LOVES her little baby!

Once Duck was home from his trip, and we had a few minutes to settle down and plan something, we had a little birthday party.  Emma LOVES bubbles and books. Originally I was going to plan a party with her 3 little friends her age and the theme was going to be bubbles and books. Instead we had a family party, read her bubble book and then did bubbles outside!

These pictures are of our prep for our little party…..  (oh, and Ky took the picture with the three mini cupcakes and the picture of me….he’s gettin’ pretty good)



Oh, yeah….see that tiny pic on the bottom of the strawberries?  The day before walmart got in tonz of strawberries so they had to price them super low. Like $ .50 low.  I’ve NEVER seen them go under $1.00 so I got excited and got 21 of them. I should have gotten more!  Thus why we had strawberry cupcakes! (actually they are watermelon flavored with cool whip on top and obviously then strawberry slices.)

This first pic on the left is the kids waiting patiently in line to get their bubbles.

We also got a new bubble machine and it rocked!!



Emma tried and tried to blow bubbles herself, but mostly she just ended up eating them

Here you can see the bubbles all over her lips!!



After we had enough of bubbles, we headed inside to let her open her presents. Of course this is the favorite part of every party, but my kids especially love finding anything around the house to wrap and give on birthdays. Luckily I had found enough little things for them all to wrap and give her.



Cake time!  Oh my she was so excited!  She blew hard and was so excited she got the flames out without burning herself (which happened last year) that she clapped!



I think about 100, of the nearly 300 pics I took of her party were of her eating her cake. She just cracked me up. I have never seen her devour a cupcake like that.  Then she pounded another. Either they tasted REALLY good, or all that work playing in the bubbles really made her hungry!



then last random pic of Savannah….who didn’t seem to love the cupcake quite as much.

Last random things….

One day for school the kids gotta make fossils out of clay, well pretend ones.  They would find small objects around the house and the idea was to imprint it in the clay, we would cook them, then bury them out in the dirt hill and later they could go find them.  Well unfortunately Savannah and her friend found the clay, and since it was still soft….figured they could wad it all up and play with it again.  Bummer….fossils gone.

Also pictured:
Emma’s bandaged up chin so she won’t keep splitting it open!
Playing in the bath on her birthday….her favorite thing

 

Our neighbors and friends, Michi and Bryan, had their baby girl last week.  We got the pleasure of having their other two kids at our house for a couple nights.  A few days after they were home we were able to go to their home to visit and bring in a meal. They even let Maliyah and Ky hold the darling 4 lb 13 oz baby!

And yes, she is sucking her thumb in that picture….how cute!

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The kids were asking how to cross eyes and I explained to duck that I can’t very well.  Either my eyes are crossed facing down, or if I move them up, then one eye starts to go straight! So we both tested our cross eyed abilities.



The kids finished up their session of swim this week. Savannah did awesome for her first session. She never did make it off the board, but she got really good at walking up to the edge to show the teacher her toes, and then would jump off the side.  The rest of them LOVE the diving board.



Fun Friday this last week was a trip to the childrens museum. We didn’t used to go much because the daily price was, well, pricey. But we finally got the year membership so I think we’ll go a lot more often! We stayed for a good 2 hours and the older three weren’t ready to leave and hadn’t even visited half of the museum (and it’s not that big, just THAT fun!). 

Weekly Update (4 weeks I think?) and Sunday Best!

**There is a second page of posts this week! Don't forget to look at those too!**

I can't believe soon it will be a year doing our Sunday best!  We have about 9 weeks left!  Crazy. It's been really fun, and especially fun to look back and see how the kids have grown over the year, little by little.  I just might keep doing it even after the 52 weeks!

I'm so behind on here because we spent a Sunday in Denver, the next Sunday visiting with great friends, then last week I started to get caught up, but just didn't quite have enough time and since I POTTY TRAINED Savannah this week (yes I'll have to share more about that later)  I didn't have time to work on anything during the week!  But today I was determined to at least post what I had been working on.

So although this post won't be completely caught up through this weekend...it's a great start! 

We did though have a great week working with Savannah. I love the time Potty Training forces me to spend with that toddler child.  She is so funny and such a joy to have in our family!

I also had a few pictures from celebrating the rest of her birthday that I never got around to last month.

Dressups from Grandma Duck



Her Yummy Watermelon Cake! Oh, I'm drooling just thinking about it! And she was afraid of the flame on the candles.

   

But! She loved the cake too!



And one more for kicks......how to entertain your one year old while you are trying to clean house? Stick her in an empty bathtub with all the bath toys!   She was happy forever!



This weekend we have also had company! My old roommate Rhonda (and great friend!) and her family came down from Corvallis for a visit. It's pathetic to think we have lived here in Oregon for 6 years and I have only seen her one other time about 4 1/2 years ago, breifly at a wedding reception!  So pathetic. It's been an awesome weekend and visit with great friends. They have two adorable kids that have gotten along great with our kids.  Lol, I don't know if Emma would agree after spending the weekend trying to escape Ellie's arms (who's constantly trying to pick her up)...lol, it makes me laugh every time!  I can't wait to share pictures and details about our fun weekend next week!

In the mean time, here is our Sunday best from the last 4 weeks!

DENVER  (just outside our hotel)



LAYTON  (oh man looking at the light in this picture hurts my eyes!)



BACK AT HOME



WITH FRIENDS!



HUGS!!!