Emma's 3rd Birthday

 Our cute little girl turned 3!  Her latest love is babies, so she got a few baby accessories and had a baby birthday party.

 Her fun new dollhouse, she is so excited!

 We made pink baby cupcakes for her baby party.

 Her cousins brought along their babies to the baby party.

 We had some baby friendly finger foods for lunch.  Baby oranges, baby carrots, grapes, olives, edamame, and a baby sandwich.

 Cute little babies of their families eating their lunch.  They got to decorate the table while waiting for their food.

 Yay!  More baby stuff!!

Happy Birthday to our adorable little girl, who is not so little anymore!

First Day of Kindergarten!

Cute little stud all ready for his first day of Kindergarten!!!

Waiting at the bus stop with all the other kids.  We have the boy line and the girl line of backpacks.

The 3 Kindergartner's feeling so big and ready to go!

Payton was so excited to get on the bus and head to school with all the big kids.  ( This is when Megan started to cry, it was a lot harder than she thought!)

He made it home, all by himself! (What a relief!)

"Kindergarten is so great! I love it!!" -Payton

St. George

We had to go to St. George at some point this year! Here is Marcus, Payton, and Grandpa Mitch (the one Payton is named after).

 Wading through the stream by Mathis Park.

Our friends the Baer's joined us down there.  One night we hiked around up where is says "Dixie" on the hills.  It was so pretty and we found a really cool dwelling!

 Marcus being Spiderman.

 The cute little kids just taking a seat in the wall.

 Emma is all ready to go for a bike ride.  This is how a helmet goes, right?

 Marcus and Eric playing an intense game of tic-tac-toe.

A sweet action shot of Payton catching the football!

Fun with the Dutchies!

 We love it when Megan's family from Holland comes to visit.  

Here is Marcus and the Boys (it had been 4 years since we last saw them).

 Megan was able to head south with them and the kids.  On the way to Lake Powell we stopped outside of Goblin Valley and hiked Little Wild Horse Canyon.

 The kids loved it and did really well.  Payton really loved getting to use his own CamelBak.

 On to the beach at Lake Powell.  The kids we so happy they got to go back!

 Payton really enjoys sitting in the front of the boat and going for a ride.

 Watching the kids on the tube.  They kept wanting to do a submarine, so Megan's dad made it happen.

 Klaas Jan, I think your life jacket is too big!

 Cute little Emma showing off her pretty flower swimming suit.

We love you and miss you Prakken family!  Until next time!!

Fun at Home

 Payton learned how to curl his tongue, he was pretty excited about that.

 He also attempted to fly with a grocery bag.  Thankfully he only tried this jumping from the bed. He even had great sound effects to go with it!

 Emma is sporting some hand-me-downs from her mommy! That's right, that nightgown and "baby" used to be Megan's.  Emma LOVES them!

 Megan straightened Emma's hair one day for fun.  It was really weird for all of us to see her with straight hair.  Definitely prefer the curly hair!

We kept finding Payton and Emma in the same bed at night.  They would fall asleep together at least twice a week for a month or so.  It was very precious!

Lake Powell

 We had our annual Witkamp family Lake Powell trip. 

 The kids outnumber the adults, but they sure love being with all their cousins!

We had lots of fun tubing time, even the little ones wanted to go for a ride!

Megan and Emma looking stylish with their sunglasses. 

 Payton had lots of fun on the beach and in the water and back on the beach.  He was in heaven and spent all day out there!

 We had a "ski trainer" for the kids to try out water skiing.  Payton was one of the first and youngest to volunteer, he was actually able to get up for about 10 seconds, then realized he was alone (Marcus was in the water helping him get up), so he let go to swim back to dad.  He was so awesome!

 Here are the 4 "babies" who just keep getting bigger!

 It was really cool watching the moon rise at night.

 Sleeping under the stars is a favorite for us all.  Here we are all set up for bed.

Another brave thing Payton did was jumping off the top of the houseboat!  He jumped with Megan two times, he is such a brave little boy!

July Festivities

Oh how we love the 4th of July, definitely one of our favorite holidays!

  We met up with the neighbors in Megan's parents circle and had our own annual firework show.  Such a fun tradition for us!

Emma was not too fond of being close to the fireworks, so Megan had to move way back.  Silly girl!

 But, she was not afraid of holding a sparkler, Payton was more timid than she was.  We are so grateful to live in America!

Payton's Birthday Party

 For Payton's Birthday this year he wanted to have a water party! So Megan made him an ice cream "cake" that looked like a swimming pool.

 We set up a large piece of plastic and some PVC pipe and made our own big slip-n-slide.

 The kids had a blast on it! (Payton's facial expressions are the best!)

 And the adults were able to enjoy it too!

We had a few different water activities set up for the kids including a kid pool, squirt guns, and water balloon toss.  It was a lot of fun!