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This is Brian doing the "sprinkler".
When it was moms turn she was laughing so had it made everyone else start laughing and so her "little sally walker" dance was "LAUGHING". She says that she will work on some dance moves for the next family reunion. It was hilarious...as you can see from everyone else laughing in the picture.
After "Little Sally Walker", we sat down in a circle to share our cousin scrapbook pages. We started this 2 years ago for Christmas. This year we decided to do it for the family reunion and it worked out great!! Each family brought a scrapbook page of each child in their family with enough color copies for every other family to have. We went around the circle and each child took a turn sharing their scrapbook page and telling us about themselves.
Because our families are all spread out, this helps all of the cousins to remember each other better in between get togethers. All of our children love looking at their "cousin books".
This is Callie Rae sharing her page with a little encouragement from mom and dad. She is known as the "domestic diva" in her family. She gets it from her mom!!
This is Spencer sharing his page!
How cute and proud is Tanner showing off his page!
As our treat for bringing scrapbook pages to share, everyone got a big ice cream sundae with lots of toppings.
You can't have canned whipped cream without someone spraying on someone. Miralyn busted it out on Sarah and Sarah retaliated. This was the best picture I got! They were moving too fast!
One minute the boys are showing off to the camera. (I was sent out to distract them and get the whole attack on camera.) They can make some really nice dunks with the trampoline.
And the next minute they are being attacked with water balloons. They moved fast!
Todd, Brian, Gary and all of the little girls were in on it. The girls were really excited about it!! They filled lots of water balloons. They had some water guns and a few bowls of water. While the boys were jumping, the girls(and Uncles) were making the necessary preparations.
As soon as the first balloons were thrown the boys ran for the fence and were in the neighbors yard.
I hope the boy's revenge is atleast somewhat kind!
Dredge chicken in flour, then eggs, then crumbs mixed with 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Bake 400 for 20 minutes-uncovered. Melt butter with flour until smooth. Add milk and boil until thickens. Add seasonings. 
Pour gravy, tomato sauce, mushrooms, mozzerella cheese, and parmesan cheese over baked chicken. 
Bake for 15 mintues at 400.
My kids all love getting morning hugs. On this morning Charlie just kept hugging and hugging Eliza. It was so cute!! So I had to grab a picture to post.
Brenna just had her end of the year performance with the acting school that she goes to. That is her in the blue dress. She is being kissed on the forehead(hand to forehead) by the king. Her princess name was Marla Lee. We have a friend from Nashville named Maura Lee. So we couldn't help but call Brenna Marla Lee all the time and think of our good friend. 
This is Todd and Charlie heading out on their first Father's and Son's campout. Charlie, of course, had no idea where he was going but he was really excited to be going with Dad all by himself. Once they got their, Todd said Charlie was in heaven. As soon as they got out of the truck, a couple of boys in the ward said, "Awesome, he brought Charlie!". Charlie had the best time being with all of the boys and dads. He explored, got dirty, loved petting the lizards that Dan Palmer and Kent Udall brought, and fell off the bench of a picnic table and hurt his elbow. Russ Crawford, who is a doctor, popped his elbow back in place. It still took Charlie until the next night to really use it though. That made me a little nervous!! 
Rigatoni noodles just somehow lend themselves to being played with. My kids just can't help themselves. So the noodles very quickly start going on fingers. Then Todd joins the action and gets out the dry noodles and does his little tricks for the kids. He puts a dry noodle in his mouth and then pretends to crack his neck or any other bones. Oh the laughter! This just encourages him to keep going. This night he was acting like he was cracking Charlie's neck. Then the girls just had to have their necks cracked. Watch out Dr. Brimhall...Todd might just take over your job!
This little face is all too familiar around my house. There is never a dull or quiet moment when Charlie is awake. He is either entertaining everyone or fussing so much that we all want to stuff our ears with ear plugs. Until you are a mom, you can't experience the true roller coaster that comes with raising children. Charlie can drive me crazy one minute and the next pull at my heart strings. Through all of his fussing, he still seems to brighten up every day around here. He begins each day by insisting on handing out hugs and then demanding to be put in his chair for breakfast. Then he struts around like he really is the king of the castle. He swings his left arm as if it helps him to go forward....a funny little quirk! He knows what he wants to wear in the morning. Yesterday morning he just had to wear his swim suit and then fussed and fussed when I didn't put a swim diaper on him. I would have given in but those swim diapers don't hold very much. Heaven forbid we put anything other than his tennis shoes on his feet. Doesn't he know he is an Arizona kid and therefore must wear flip flops? There is nothing better than a Charlie smile, a Charlie hug and kiss, and when he rubs your arm when you are reading him his bedtime stories.
Now take a look at this picture. When she "poses" for a picture this is quite often what you get. A crooked smile!!! But it's still pretty cute! Eliza loves her preschool teacher, Mrs. Kerri. Really, she thinks Mrs. Kerri hung the moon. Heck, she probably did! She's amazing! Eliza had a wonderful preschool experience this year. It took me two weeks after the last day of preschool to convince her that it was summer time and she wasn't going to preschool. Everyday she would ask, "Is it a preschool day?". She is counting the days until she goes again in the fall.
We played lots of games that all had to do with BUTTERFLIES!! Susan Eck, the queen of all children's games, came to the party with her daughter and helped me out! These are some of the things we did....
In the weeks before Eliza's birthday, we watched five caterpillars go into their chrysalids and then turn into butterflies. So, although I did not plan it this way, it just happened to be a great theme for a birthday party and the kids loved the real butterflies. And, of course, you can't have a four year olds birthday in the desert heat without including "otter pops". The kids ate their otterpops and watched the butterflies in their habitat.
The birthday cake for Eliza and her friends were simple cupcakes with little butterflies on the top.
Eliza blew out candles three days in a row!! The first day with her friends. The second day in a stack of pancakes with her mom, dad, sisters, and brothers watching. And the third day she blew out candles on her birthday cake along with Uncle Brad. He celebrated his birthday only four days before Eliza. Happy Birthday Brad!!
To add a little bit more fun to opening presents, we love the tradition of hiding the presents. We hide the presents around the house. Then we play the "hot and cold" game to help the birthday girl find them. The kids think it's the greatest thing!! In this picture, Eliza is dashing over the treadmill to discover the present we hid under the blanket. The treadmill really does get used every once in a while!
We even taunted Brad by making him search for his birthday gift.
