Good bye to Vegas!

My sweet friend Dawn Brown threw a little get together at the park for us a couple days before we moved. It was sure fun to get to say goodbye to a few friends before we took off! Things got so hectic before we left, so this worked out great! She even made a cute journal for people to write in and I loved getting to read everyone's sweet notes. Sure wish I could have snagged a picture with everyone but the night went by so fast!

Last time pushing one of my kiddos in the swings at Gilcrease Park, going to miss that place!

Brinley and Marlee with Gracie!

Jackie Sue I love you! Sure miss this lady! She even brought me cute birthday presents to decorate my new house with!

So glad my paths crossed with Callie! Such a positive personality!

Oh Grace, could she be any sweeter!? Even my kids talk about how she is just one of the nicest people ever!

And sweetheart Dawn, the super Mom! Some how even with 4 kids she always has it all together! The more I learned about her the more and more I just loved her!!

Mariah! She is one strong woman, awesome friend and mother! I will miss smelling her yummy baking from over the fence!

Rebecca is someone I have ALWAYS looked up too! From the day we moved into our ward in Vegas I was always telling Ryan how I wanted to be just like her one day (She is 10 years older so it was my 10 year goal :)).  We became close friends towards the end of my time there and I loved her even more! One day she said to me "When I grow up I want to be Becca Nelson".  I just about died laughing and was totally beaming, meant a LOT coming from her!

I know this picture is totally blurry, but I had to post it. Darlene kept telling Marlee to do the "shakey shakey dance" :)   Even a few months later Marlee is requesting for "my Darelen say shakey shakey a me?"

Casen and DJ, best little buddies! Casen REALLY misses this fun friend of his, I think he was kind of like a big brother to him!

Dale caught this shot of all of us, so glad they stayed after to say goodbye! The kids were all crying when we had to leave them!

And here is my angel Darlene, what would I do with out her?? She is just the sweetest friend and I am SO grateful for her! I know she will always be there for me :)  We thought this was our "final good-bye" and bawled our eyes out! Little did we know we would get to see eachother over the next couple days since moving took longer than expected!

Brinley Boo and her bestie Daphne! These two play so well together, I am so sad they won't get to see eachother for so long!  Daphne is just the type of friend I want Brinley to have!

Michelle isso amazing! She wasn't able to come to the get together but brought us these travel bags for the car. One for each kid. They were only allowed to take out one surprise every hour. The kids loved them! She is so thoughtful and always doing stuff for other people. She made me feel so loved when she said goodbye and we both couldn't help but cry. Just love her and have been so grateful to have her as a friend the whole time we were in Vegas!

Brinley turns 7!

Brinley's actual birthday was on one of the days we were literally packing our moving truck... poor girl! I am so glad we were able to do a fun party for her earlier because packing is not a fun way to spend your birthday! She remembered someone else having a "donut cake" and requested one! It was the perfect thing to make on a day like this! :)

Brinley is loads of fun! She is definitely an independent girl and loves to be a leader when possible. She loves anything art related and has at least a dozen "journals". She is such a good big sister, especially when she wants to be :) And I just love when she helps me. She is becoming a good reader and will often read the children's scriptures to our family at night. She loves animals, especially bunnies and owls.  She loves talking to adults and seems to make friends everywhere we go! She loves to dance, ride bikes, play soccer, do gymnastics, play with friends and do almost any outdoor activity with our family. She is thoughtful and kind. I love when she writes me little love notes, or apology notes :) She has so much personality and I am so grateful to have her in our family!

Brinley helped "make" the "cake". She put in all the candles herself :)

                           These two kiddos really wanted to help big sister blow out her candles!

Love this face :) She may look happy to have a donut but she really doesn't like them, she just licks off the sprinkles and a little frosting, and then she calls it good :)

Casen on the other hand loves donuts and was very happy about Brinley's choice!

I wish I could have caught her face when she opened these... posing just isn't the same. She was so excited!

She was also really excited to finally get some Legos, Casen is always playing with his and she really wanted some of her own.

Marlee and Casen (mainly Marlee) felt a little too left out and wanted to keep re-lighting candles, singing happy birthday, and taking turns blowing them out. Casen was done after a couple times, but Marlee could have gone on forever :)

Brinley and Casen's EARLY Birthday Party!

Because we would be moving before both Brinley and Casen's actual birthdays, I decided to do an early combined party for them so that they could have one last party with all of their Las Vegas friends. It turned out to be lots of fun and I think they had a great time.

Casen signing is name on the thank you cards we attached to cotton candy... I know we would run out of time to do real thank you's to everyone.

All the thank you's ready to go!

Casen with DJ and Koda. He sure does play well with the older boys!

LOVE this picture! He looks so happy. Love these crazy boys!

Brinley Boo, keeping the rules and going down all on her own :)

One huge group of crazy kids!

Not the best picture, but the only one I have with everyone. It was fun having so many different friends in one place.

This picture cracks me up. Little miss Marlee was feeling a little left out with all the big kids running around. We found her sitting like this against a post, Ryan tried to save the day. But I would say 90% of the party she had a smile on her face :)

Brinley and her besties from 1st garde... Ali, Ella, Breelyn, and Bridget/

They were excited to sit in the birthday throne, even though it meant not sitting with their friends.

Happy Birthday to you!

Classic Marlee... all done once the colorful frosting is gone :)

Handing out thank you's to all their friend on the way out.

The kids had a lot of fun and I am so grateful so many friends came to celebrate with them and make them feel so loved before we moved! They sure miss thier friends... and so do I!