Rylee's 8th Birthday!

 We had so much fun celebrating Rylee's birthday this year and Rylee loved turning 8! 

We started off her celebrations the weekend before her birthday. Our tradition for turning 8 is they get to pick a date out in the city. Rylee wanted Wendy's for lunch and to go to Uptown Jungle (a fun park) in Sandy that we went to a couple years ago. 

We got Rylee some Wendy's and then went over to Five Guys for Ben and I. Rylee loved the fry sauce dispenser there 😂 It was a long drive, made longer by the fact that Rylee got carsick for most of the ride. Getting food at Wendy's helped her a lot. She wanted to listen to Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians on the way out. 

Then it was over to Uptown Jungle!

She started off doing their area with different climbing things. You wait in line for a harness and then they have different climbing areas that you can do. 

Then she ran around the play area for a couple hours. Ben went and did some basketball and different things with her and she found some kids to play with. She had a total blast and kept telling us how much she loved the place. 

After Uptown Jungle, we went over to Eric and Alison's for a surprise birthday party for my grandpa. We planned to do Rylee's birthday date to coincide with the party because we really wanted to attend. Rylee was super excited to go—when she would tell people about her upcoming date, she would tell them all about how she got to go to her Papa's party rather than mentioning the fun park or Wendy's. The party was fun, it was really nice to catch up with some family and to be tehre for my Grandpa. 

Rylee wanted an "animal" theme for birthday, so the night before I set up some streamers, balloons, and put party hats on some of our stuffies. She loved it. 

We had her open our presents before her party, since they get a "friend" party when they turn 8 (and a family party for their baptism). Ashtyn spent a lot of time leading up to her birthday making her different presents and she loved them. 

Rylee has been wanting a Kindle for over a year now, but we felt like waiting until she was a stronger reader was the right move. She was super excited to get her Kindle and now we have a hard time getting her off it to do anything else.

And homemade donuts! 
We had an Activity Days activity at the park the morning of her birthday. I made the donuts, we ran over to the park for the activity, and then we came back to enjoy the donuts!

Rylee picked her invitation on Canva from the different templates. It was not what I was thinking and definitely not one I would have picked, but she loved it, so we went with it. 

Rylee wanted to do a swimming party at her Grandma Lindi's pool. It was great, because all the kids had fun and I didn't have to entertain a group of kids for two hours. I loved it and so did Rylee. 

Our decorations were minimal because it was outside at someone else's house and the wind did come up a little. 

Rylee wanted an ice cream sandwich cake and Ben helped me decorate it, I was happy with how it turned out and Rylee loved it. 

Happy birthday Rylee! 
I only got the end of the singing because I had left my phone outside.

Opening presents!

And swimming! 

The kids all had a blast. When parents showed up, we had a hard time getting the kids out of the pool because they were having so much fun. 

After the friend party in the afternoon, we stayed at Lindi's house and had family come over to swim and have pizza. It was a fun evening and Rylee loved having a friend party and then spending time with family. 

It was a great birthday. We are so glad Rylee is part of our family and loved celebrating her in a way that helped her feel special and loved 💗

Our Family Memories July 2026!

 July was a little bit of a rough month for me. I was right in the thick of morning sickness, on top of working on figuring Ben's business, coming to terms with the change in our plans this new baby is bringing, and tyring to balance giving my kids a fun summer and staying on top of all the household responsibilities while feeling sick enough that I didn't want to do really anything. We made it through, though, and made some wonderful memories along the way. 

The biggest highlight for me was telling the kids that we are expecting another baby. We weren't actually sure how excited they would be, but they were ecstatic. 

To tell them this time, we told them we had something for them. We had them do a scavenger hunt around the house and with each clue, they collected a letter. At the end of the scavenger hunt, I had Leah's onsie (which said upgrade to Big Sister) wrapped up. Before they could open it, they had to unscramble the letters, which read A New Baby once unscrambled. 

The kids were very excited when they found out and can't wait for the baby to get here 🩷

Another highlight of the month for Ashtyn was her first year of girl's camp. She was a little nervous leading up to it, but she had a blast. 

We missed her at home and the kids made a bunch of "welcome home" decorations for her 🩷

And we spent time with cousins.

Leah loves kissing Neal's toes!

Their chess game 😂

Had to celebrate Ice Cream Day with an ice cream cone at Bee's!

Even Leah got a cone. She loves ice cream and it's adorable to hear her say it.

The kids caught lots of bugs and snakes.

Leah discovered Ashtyn's cookbook and loved looking at the pictures of food in it 😂

I love watching my kids' love for books and reading grow, and I love watching the older kids share that with the younger siblings.

Lots of snuggles from Leah!

Leah has been learning to talk so much recently and we all love it. Her favorite things to say are her siblings' names, ow, no, hungry, and anything the kids tell her to say. They'll have her repeat after them one word at a time until she completes a sentence.

Leah also loves to draw. We have to be careful of stray markers and crayons on the floor now.

A chair just her size!

Whatever her siblings are doing, Leah wants to join in 🩷

One thing we did in July (near the end of the month when I was starting to feel a little better) was change up a chicken fried rice recipe I have had for years. With the old recipe, we always ended up with too many leftovers that no one wanted to eat, so we halved the recipe, but the kids liked the changes so much, we ended up making it again the same night because half the recipe wasn't enough. 

Leah with some oranges after her nap 💗

Leah's selfie.

Collecting all her waters and sippy cups of hot chocolate.

Oliver was very excited when he learned to do the monkey bars!

Ben also got into a game called Typtee in July. You play it on a pickleball court with a foam ball and junior tennis rackets. He loves it and has found some people (including Ashtyn and some of his brothers) who love playing with him too. 

Overall, July was a month of survival for me, but also a good month for our family 💗