Going to Miss Addison Whipple's Party

Addison Whipple is Ben Whipple's niece. She was born exactly one month before Gram. It was love at first sight. She is a tiny little girl and looks adorable with our little stud muffin. Her first birthday was yesterday and they have a cute little party at a park in Chandler. Our whole family went to celebrate and play with Gram's little love.

We got to enjoy a yummy BBQ made by the Whips, go for a train ride around the park, feed the duckies, and watch the birthday girl lay one on Gram! Oh, young love... Gram was seriously GIGGLING when we were riding the train. He was bouncing up and down while eating his Dumb-Dumb sucker. This kid loves life, every single day. 

We seriously love the Whipple clan, they are like our second family. So any chance we get to see them, we definitely are there!

Lydia's Third Birthday

Saturday, September 15th, we took Gram to his little friend, Lydia's, birthday party. It was his first time getting invited to a friend's party. He's growing up! They had a super cute Circus theme with the most awesome decorations. They had a BBQ with swimming, a bounce house, face painting, and a bubble machine. 

All of Gavin's friends were there just hanging out and catching up. He seriously has the most fun friends. Gram got to play with all the other babies and kids and of course the grown-ups loved him too!

{The Entry Hall}

{Hoang and the babies}

{Uncle Ben, Gram, Elba and Josh}

{Gram and his favorite uncle, Ben}

{Elephant Bounce House}

{Gav letting Gram dip in the pool}

{Hoang and Gram}

{Ben BBQing}

{Tia Elba with Gram}

{Grammie and Mommy}

{Scary baby scaring babies}

{Bubble Time}

{Birthday girl Lydia and Grammers}

{Ok, he's partied out!}

Date night!

Finally went to see Batman!

Grandma Tami loves to watch Gram and play with him, so Gav and I snuck out for a little date. We rarely go on dates anymore, feels like once or twice a month! We love our little guy, but it's nice to remember how this all started, with my hubs. 

Guthrie Family Photos

It's a very rare occasion that we get the Guthrie parents, their seven kids with spouses, and all ten grandkids together. So family photos were a must! We went down to the Mesa Arts Center and took our pics outside. 

They all turned out amaaazing!

 

Gavin's 27th Birthday/Camping

Happy Birthday, my Love!



I always want to make a big deal out of everyone's birthday. It's the one day someone can feel they are totally special. My husband, however, doesn't like making a big deal out of HIS birthday. That's what wives are for.
Every year I always make his favorite cupcakes (Rainbow chip with Rainbow frosting). Then, we usually go out to dinner as a couple, celebrate with dinner and cake with each of our families and friends, and then I get him something small. This year I wanted it to be a little different.

First, we did the usual cake and dinner with Gavin's family. We homemade those 2 and 7 numbers if you can't tell. Haha. We ordered him a new part for his "race car" so it would go even faster I guess. (I'm a girl... it was already fast??) Then, that next weekend we celebrated with Gav's friends by going camping and having a bonfire in Payson, Az. SUCH a good idea, I know. Gav wants this now to be our "thing".

Josh and Elba came for the bonfire and Ben, his gf Haley, Amy, Hoang, their little girl Lydia, Gav, Gram and I stayed for camping. We left Saturday around 3 or so and got there about 1 1/4 hours later. Not bad. We set up our tents, hammock and cabana thing when we arrived. Later, we ran to Walmart for some more camping stuff and Rootbeer floats Josh had to have. Haha. That night we roasted hotdogs and made s'mores. Some people played campfire Texas Hold 'em while I crashed with my Gram baby. I was supposed to be helping Gram to sleep but I just laid there while he turned on the flashlight and held the glow stick and crawled around. It was super funny to watch.

It was surprisingly one of the best nights sleep. Gram sleeps best next to his parents and without having to worry about him rolling off the bed, we slept sooo nicely. Our tent was HUGE and we just slept on a little foam pad with our sleeping bags and blankets. It was so satisfying knowing that Gram could crawl around and play in the middle of the night and not have to worry about him escaping. In our next house, I'm setting up a tent in our family room and throwing Gram's toys in there. Genius, I know.

The next morning we woke up and started the fire for breakfast. Hoang had brought everyone stuff to make breakfast burritos. It was cool watching them use the dutch oven to make eggs. A huge centipede crawled right by Hoang's foot and I freaked out. Aren't those things the poisonous ones? While we hung out and packed up, Lydia and Gram watched a movie on the iPad. It's 2012, of course we take electronics to the middle of nowhere. They are so cute together.

All in all, our camping "redemption" was a success. And hopefully Gav had a fun time doing something different.

{Gav's race car part}



(Early morning after Gram passed out in Daddy's arms)



{Swinging in the Hammock with Haley}



{Good Morning}



[Back down for a nap]



(Future Boy Scout right here)



[Gav just set up our tent mansion]

{Lydia, Hoang, Ben and Haley}

[What women and children do best, lay back and let the men work!]

Mallory Marries Ben

My sister-in-law, Mallory, got married August 4th to Ben Coombs. They were married in the evening at our ward building on Gilbert and Brown. Debbie Whipple was the wedding planner and omg it looked amaaaazing. It was great that the whole family could be here to celebrate their union.

When everyone was walking down the aisle, they changed the music to "Teach me How to Dougie" and Jourdan, my niece, started doing the Dougie. It was awesome. Then they switched the music back to the regular song. It was so sweet watching my FIL, Sam, walk Mal down the aisle. He is such a sweetheart and a great dad! After the ceremony we had a bunch of country food! They served BBQ pork sandwiches, corn on the cob and cobbler for dessert instead of cake. Adorable. Mal loves all the vintage stuff so it was so her!

{Eating my accessories, as usual}

(Looking like such a little boy)

[Ah! Those big blue eyes!]



Congrats Mr. and Mrs.!!