Mckenna is ELEVEN!!

Mckenna turned eleven years old on June 19th!  We had a  party for her that night at the house! We had a great time with all the family that came.

Kayley and McKenna at the party.  They are both looking so grown up.  It is hard to believe that a year from now Mckenna will be twelve.

Mckenna busy opening up her presents.  The kids were lining up to bring her all the presents.

 

Mckenna loves Oreo cookies so that is what I made for her cake this year.  It was not too hard to make and it tasted good too.

The middle of the cakes has a cool whip and cream cheese spread.  A closer view of the cake.  I was also excited to use my new cake pedestal.

 

Mckenna getting ready to blow out the candles and make a birthday wish.

 

Mckenna received a lot of gifts in her favorite colors of black, white, hot pink, and zebra stripe.  Here she is modeling her presents.  Aunt Amy made the cute scarf she has around her neck.  We are so glad that Mckenna is a part of our family.  Her younger brother's and sister's really admire her.  She continues to be very responsible in all that she does.  She worked really hard in school this last year.  She received an award for scoring a hundred percent on her end of the year testing.  She was selected to be on student council next year.  She is really looking forward to that.  She needs to give ten hours of service this summer to participate.  She has already earned six so far.  She is a kind and thoughtful daughter.  She is always willing to babysit and help out around the house.  We have a lot of fun together.  We enjoy working on crafts together and baking treats.  We love our Mckenna!

Dad's Day!!

We had a memorable day celebrating all the Dad's in our life.  We went up to Kev's parents house for a BBQ dinner that night.  I took a picture of Kev with his Dad, Grandpa Foster, and all the kids. There is four generations of our family in this picture.

The kids and I made cards and presents for Kev.  I cut out this certificate on my cricut machine.  Addy was so happy to deliver it to Dad on Father's day.

I am so grateful to have such a fun and loving man be the father to my children.  These are some of my favorite pictures of Kev with the kids.  They have all been taken in the last few months.  Mckenna has fun when Dad takes her for motorcycle rides.

Parker was happy when Dad helped him make his pinewood derby car

Halle was so excited when Dad surprised her by taking time off from work to come to her graduation.

Hayden loves spending time with Dad at the cabin.

 

Addy adores her Dad!  She loves all the attention he gives her.



Performance time!!

The girls had their dance performance the beginning of June.  The production this year was The Secret Garden.  The dance studio always does a good job with the sets.  They even brought in real flower pots for the stage.

 

Mckenna danced to Michael Jacksons song "Bad".  Her teacher did a great job of choreographing the dance.

Mckenna really liked the costumes!  Her favorite colors are pink, black, and zebra stripes.

My favorite picture of Kenna leaping through the air.  I was really excited to take dance action shots with my camera.  It did a great job of capturing all the movement.

 

Mckenna taking a bow with her class.

 

Her second dance was her ballet number to music from Swan Lake.

 

It was creative how her teacher incorporated the umbrellas into their dance.

Halle performed a ballet number called Awakening of Spring.  It was another song from Swan Lake.

Halle having her moment to leap across the stage.  I take all my pictures during dress rehearsal that is why there is a photographer on stage.

Halle holding her ending pose of the dance.  She got an award in her class for being the most flexible dancer.

Halle's class was right up front for the finale.

 

The girls were so happy that Grandpa came to see them perform!  They both did such a great job.  We are so proud of them!  Their technique has improved a lot this year.

Memorial Day!!

I always enjoy celebrating Memorial day.  It is a great time to spend with family remember those who have passed on.  We actually visited five cemeteries  this year.  Our first stop was to the Taylorsville cemetery.

Hayden being silly with flowers and sticks in his hair.  This was our second stop and the Salt Lake cemetery.

 

Our third stop was at the Larkin cemetery off of  Foothill drive.  It was fun having Mike, Amy, and the kids with us this year.

My Grandma shared this picture of my Grandpa with all of us.  I don't think that I had ever seen it before.  This is my Grandpa the "Naval Aviator".  It was not long after he received his Naval wings.

She shared this picture with us also.  My Grandpa is on the right, my great Grandma Orlean in the middle, and my Great Uncle Lee.  My Grandpa looks so young and handsome in his Naval uniform. 
I am grateful for the sacrifices they made to serve our country.

My Dad by his father's grave with all the Grandkids minus Hayden who was using the bathroom at the time.

My sister-in-law Amy had a great idea to let her kids do a crayon rubbing of the grave.

The kids always like to decorate My Great Grandparents grave with pinecones.

My Grandma sharing pictures of her Mom with Parker and all of us.

Our traditional family picture at the graves.  We had a good turnout this year.  It is always fun spending time with my cousins.

 

We went to Olive Garden for lunch afterwards.  Kayley and Mckenna can't get enough breadsticks.

Hayden and I enjoying our food.  He  always seems to be making goofy faces for pictures lately.

Our next stop was to visit Grandma Fosters grave in Sandy.

 

Our last stop was to visit my Mom's grave in Provo.  Addy looked so sweet putting flowers on her Grandma's grave.  We have such a great family heritage.

Our New Deck!!!

We are so happy that our new deck is finished!  It has been a huge project that has been a couple years in the making.  Kev took down our sorry excuse for a deck in the summer of 2011.  It was only held on by a few bolts and screws.  We also poured cement for a new bigger patio.

Funds ran out for that year after we put in a retaining wall and RV pad.  Kev got back to work in the Summer of 2012.  He was just putting up the main posts for the deck in this picture.  You can also see the new cement patio.

Here is another picture of the work in progress.  He was working on the stringers for the stairs.

 

In the fall he started to put on the Trex.  It was exciting to see it coming together.  We chose two different colors of Trex.  We chose a darker for the outside trim and a lighter one for the inside.  This was how far along the deck was before winter came.

In the spring of this year Kev started to finish the stairs.  Thankfully, we had a really nice March and he was able to make a lot of progress.

 

Thursday May 23rd was the big day when the railing was put up.  We chose a wrought iron railing with a mid rail.  Gregory from GB Welding did the railing for us.  We were very happy with his work.  He runs his own business and takes pride in his work. 

 

It was very exciting to see it all come together.  Kev said, "It is really cool being able to actually see what I had pictured in my mind a reality now."

 

We chose a shiny black powder coat for the railing color.  Here is another picture of the stairs.  They ended up being the most work of everything on the deck but turned out fantastic.

 

We also decided to replace the vinyl railing that we had on the front porch.  Here is a before picture.

 

This is the after picture!  I was really happy with the results.

 

It is a belly rail with a scroll pattern across the top.  I think it really adds to the overall look of our house.

Here is a big shout out to my hard working husband.  He put in so many hours of building this deck for us.  He is a perfectionist and took the time to get it done right.  He saved us so much money by doing the work himself too.  The deck turned out amazing and it is thanks to him.  He has even had a couple neighbors even ask if he will build them a deck. 

 

We have been out enjoying the deck everyday since.  We also bought our patio furniture over the Memorial Day weekend.  It is so nice being able to eat outside together as a family!