Kaitlyn turns 9!

Happy Birthday to this spunky girl!

Kaitlyn is a huge Star Wars fan, loves to read (loved the Harry Potter series and is big into a  Warriors series- a fantasy world of animals).  Kaitlyn loves to keep her room messy, hates it when it's clean,  is amazing when it comes to puzzles, plays the violin, loves to rock climb, is an awesome big sister and does a great job of helping Devin and Alec, and she loves to play with friends.  She is quite the jokester and has an infectious laugh.  Happy birthday to a wonderful girl!

Now that Gigi and Gpa are back from their mission, birthday breakfasts/lunches have resumed.

 This was an off year for a friend party but we always celebrate with cousins! Chuck E Cheese,  swimming, and spaghetti were Kaitlyn's requests this year.

Since she loves Star Wars I made a simple cake with light sabers. 

Hugging cousins after opening their gift - a nerf gun!

 Gigi and Gpa gave Kaitlyn a nice little tea-cup for her birthday.

Kaitlyn's Favorites At Age 9:

Color:  Blue

Book:  Warriors Series

Song:  Shut Up and Dance

Friends:  Prina, Katie, Ryan, Ava, Ellison

Food:  Pasta

Treat:  Anything chocolate

Cereal:  Honeycombs

Movie:  Minions and Star Wars (the original trilogy)

School Subject:  Social Studies

Thing to Do:  Read, Play Legos

Favorite Book of Mormon story:  Nephi's

Primary Song:  I am a Child of God

When Kaitlyn grows up she wants to be a mom.

Misc. August

Alec got bite by some bug and his leg was swollen almost double in size.  This is just some of the redness before it got bigger.  We are finding his body really reacts to bites!

We had this nice big visitor on our playset!  It was huge and this picture doesn't quite show it's size.

I had a little pre-cancerous spot removed from my backside that made me lay on my stomach for several days.  Now I need to get checked every 6 months for melanoma spots.

Devin loves to play inside the ottoman - peek-a-boo!

Love it when the kids fall asleep especially when they say they're not tired.

Alec is starting to get into playdates and loves having friends over.  I love that he can play a little rougher with someone his size instead of Devin.

Many faces of Devin.  I've been trying to switch from bottle to cup and Devin just loves that bottle!

Kaitlyn learning how to make fruit arrangements in Activity Days.  Love the leaders that teach and help expand her talents.

One of our favorite babysitters, Breanne, was home from BYU-I and came over for a visit.  We took many pictures and this was the best one.

Enjoying mornings playing in the backyard.

The many faces and cuteness of Devin:

Devin loves to help put up the hymn books after sacrament meeting!

Family Reunion Fun

One night we went to the Playmill Theatre and watched Mary Poppins.  It was pouring rain when we left so we pilled as many people as we could into our car and headed over.

Ice cream treat after the play!

One afternoon we headed up to a site where a dam had broken and destroyed a campsite.  We learned a little more of the history around there.

All the Yost cousins 

 After the dam we headed out for a picnic in a ghost town.  When the dam broke it flooded the town and it was never rebuilt.

 Spiderman hiding in the grass

 We took some old-time photos and I was able to quickly snap this one of Olivia.  She fit this outfit perfectly.

 Alec was a little disappointed that his gun didn't really shoot.

 Kaitlyn and Olivia went Huckleberry picking with Aunt Vi and her kids.  They loved it!  It was so nice to have them go and tag along.

 We were all staying in about 7 different rooms.  To let others know that we were home and ready for visitors we would stick a shoe in the door.  I loved walking down the hall and seeing shoes sticking out of the doors.

 One night of Minute to Win It made for a crazy, fun night!

 My in-laws gave me this shirt for organizing Minute to Win It - haha.  I think I'd get shot if I wore this in Texas.

 Every night was spent with lots of game playing.  Kaitlyn loved beating her Uncles at Dominion.  There were many late nights staying up and playing Settlers, Power Grid, and many other games.

 One night of fun lip-syncs.  Abby and Taydem doing a Veggie Tales song - I Love My Lips.  It was fun to see everyone ham it up.

 The Yost cousins!

 Spell check should have been used on this sign.

 The girls have always wanted to go fishing and when Tracy mentioned that he was going out with Megan, they kindly invited the girls along to try.  The water was cold and they loved the experience, were a little upset they didn't catch anything, and Kaitlyn ended up falling in.

 Olivia did more hanging onto Tracy than fishing.

The first night when the reunion started, Olivia had come out of her room from a nap and saw Tracy sitting down at the table playing a game.  Thinking it was her dad, she clung to his arm and put her head on his shoulder.  She sat like that for awhile until she finally realized it wasn't her dad.  Once she realized, she started crying and was really embarrassed.  

Sharing a seat on the flight home.  Devin had a lot of fun with lots of older cousins and aunts and uncles help looking after him.  He'd run up and down the corridors of the hotel and in and out of rooms.  We all had a great time and was sad to say goodbye to everyone.  Until the next reunion!