Fitzgerald Family Reunion 2014

This weekend was the Fitzgerald Family reunion. We all headed up to Oma and Opa's place for some family bonding.

  There was a lot of playing on the swing, crazy games the kids made up, going down the slip and slide, tubing the canal, four-wheeling, star gazing and movie watching. We missed Brittany since she was finishing up EFY.

The little kids are always one of my favorite parts of hanging out as a family. It seems my son feels the same way. Little Jaden had Matt totally wrapped around his little finger. He was his little buddy all weekend. Unless he had a dirty diaper and then he was all cousin Klarissa's!

 

 

It was so fun to get to see baby Giselle too, even if she was kind of afraid of us! She does love her big sister though!

A great weekend in beautiful surroundings! We sure are grateful to Oma and Opa for making it happen!

Bear Lake 2014

This is one of our most favorite weeks of the year! It is our Butler week at Bear Lake. Today was the first day at the beach. Which sometimes means some fun surprises like Grandma jumping in the inflatable raft for a ride.

 

  It also means a lot of digging in the sand for us. And castles and sand sculptures are a big part of this week.  Grandma, Grandpa and I helped Josh with a Castle and village, Brittany sculpted Thor's hammer, Matt made two connecting holes, and Uncle Nate made a dead elephant. He specifically told me it was a dead elephant. Yikes! Those are just theones I got pictures of! It was a great day, even if it was a little rainy and overcast

Bear Lake Day Two

Joshua's Baptism

This weekend was a busy one for us. Joshua was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Here are my wonderful kids as we got to the church. Josh was a little nervous. I can't believe  all three of my kids are now baptized members of the church, time is going too fast!

 Josh with Mom and Dad before getting ready to be baptized.

 Joshua with Grandma and Grandpa after getting dressed. Love how happy they all look. I can't believe I didn't get one with Oma and Opa!

 This is Josh with his friend Jordon Kokkola who also was baptized yesterday. Such cute boys!

 Already to go with Dad!

 And with Mom jumping into the picture.

 

 Brittany took this cute thumbs up picture, ready to go! Joshua's Dad did a beautiful job baptizing and confirming him a member of our church. I was so proud of them both. Then after our Bishop asked Brittany if she would bear her testimony which she did, completing a perfect day for me!

Then we went back to out house with all of our wonderful family, most of whom I failed to get a picture of. There are so many things to do when having such a party that I forget important things like that! But it really was a wonderful day full of great memories!

July 4th 2014

 

 I love the Fourth of July. So much fun for relatively little stress. This year ours was even better because the Sorensons decided to spend it with us. These are all of the Butler cousins waiting for the parade to start. Aren't they the cutest?

Face painting while waiting for the parade to start is a tradition among my kids. Josh is patriotic puppy in case you wondered.  

 Brittany and Libby being fabulous while Matthew tolerates me taking his picture.

Brittany and Matt trying to catch something good.

After the fireworks we had our annual Meatfest. I tried to take pictures but there just was too much meat. It was awesome. Then we took the Sorensons to our favorite spot for fireworks. Half of the reason the kids like this spot is because there is lots of room to throw a Frisbee and horse around while you wait for the show to start.  It is even better when our friends the Dopps join us too!

The cousins all lined up, ready for fireworks. I love moments like this. I know it won't be long before these kids want to spend the Fourth with friends or have  a date or some such thing. But for now I sure loved having them all together.  

Happy Fourth of July! 

Brittany turns 15!

We had another birthday at our house this week! This time it was Brittany's turn. I can't believe my baby girl is fifteen! We had a great time celebrating her.

 

Sunday Grandma and Grandpa came with the Sorensons for dinner, cake and ice cream and presents.

This is Grandma's cool new birthday gift. Money balloons. Big fun!

 

After she woke up we zipped over to Boondocks to get a little driving practice in. We lucked out and Abby and Libby were spending the night at Grandma's so we got to spend the next day shopping with them.

 

See Brittany in her pretty birthday crown? Kind of an evil smile, it does showcase her new braces though.

 We ended our fun day with gelato. Yum!

 I love that theses girls love each other.

 

Then went home to more presents! It was a fun day, I hope Brittany had as much fun as I did! She is a fantastic kids and I'm so grateful she is ours!