4 Years Old....cue the tears!

Ok so my baby girl Maile decided to grow up over night and now she is a beautiful, outgoing, stubborn and sassy 4 year old little girl. This is the hardest birthday that I have had to to deal with so far, it makes me sad that I will never have those baby years back with her, she is only going to get bigger. But I can say I am thankful for that too. It is so exciting to see her discover herslef and the world around her. Maile is my silly girl who loves to goof around with her Daddy and brother. She also loves to boss her little sisters around and is pretty much at the helm of most destruction around this house. I adore Maile so much, even if I am hard on her. I know she is growing into an amazing person and I feel so lucky to have been blessed with her in my life. Happy Birthday Maile! I love you more than words can describe!

Sisters

For the most part my kids are probably like most kids when it comes to interacting with their siblings. More often than not they are fighting over toys, hitting each other, pulling hair, tattling on each other ect. They do play well together for all of 10 minutes before someone ruins the fun by stealing the others toy or something else to that extreme. With all that said I can honestly say that some days I think it is just hard plain frustrating having three girls (think attitude city) so close together and I don't always handle it well. This all leads me up to the main point of this post. Even with all the fighting, yelling and crying they really do truly love one another and some of the things they do and say prove just that. I love when I hear concern for one of their sisters like, "Maile are you ok?" or "don't worry Betta (Becca)" or "I will get your doggie, Lexi". These little sentiments that I get to hear fill me with love and give me hope that one day they will love each other as much as I love my sisters. I remember when we were kids and then teenagers how much we fought but now I feel so lucky to have such great sisters. I know Maile, Alexis and Rebecca love each other dearly and so I hope I can guide them to show that more often than not.

Our July 4th

I could be repeating myself from last years post but I have to say that the 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I just have the most fond memories about this day from my childhood that I get so excited for this day every year. I really hope that my kids will have those same type of memories and be able to pass them on to their kids too. We started the day sweating like crazy, making super long trek to the parade out in Summerlin. (We will get their earlier next year so we can park closer! ) Even though we got there somewhat close to starting time we still got pretty good seats. Nothing like a curb and some sidewalk! Actually is wasn't bad and it was a perfect spot for the kids, they ended up getting tons of treats and were able to run out to see the floats and balloons. I am so glad we decided to skip sleeping in and get up early for the parade because the kids loved it and Zach and I got to hang with our good friends for the morning! Next we headed home for some lunch and a nap. We have to make sure that we have some downtime during the day or else we would never make it for firework time if we didn't! After naps it was time to go to Auntie Lezlie's and Uncle Dustin's for a BBQ. It was delicious! After dinner we loaded up the trucks and headed out to Boulder City for the firework show. We got there at about dusk and the kids were able to run around for a bit and play with some sparklers before the big show started. Last was the grand finale of the night. The firework display was amazing. The best I have ever seen, even better than last years. It is so worth the drive out there because it was perfect! The kids all loved the fireworks and only were "scared" of the loud noises. Overall we had an amazing day. I am so thankful to live in this country that allows me the freedom to make choices. We truly are so lucky to be American! I am also so thankful for all my family and friends who make day's like these so fun. I hope everyone had an amazing day!