Alexander Maximus Brinkerhoff

 I have a new nephew! Garrett and Emily welcomed their first son August 1. Camille, Brett, and I decided we needed to meet him asap! We drove up to Logan that evening and were able to meet him when he was only 3 hours old! We only stayed for 20 minutes but it was so worth the trip. We had lots of fun visiting on the drive and meeting Xander was awesome! He is so sweet and perfect. And his hair! He has the cutest hair ever!

July Wrap Up

New swimsuits

AND new goggles (which has helped the girls learn swim underwater. They are little fishes now!)

Nap time, these two make me laugh. Each sleeping half way under the others bed, while the unicorn pillow keeps the peace, ha ha!

Excited to wear Dad's shirts as nightgowns

Enjoying the cool 80 degree park weather at 7 am

"Mom, Timothy's a lady!"

It takes a special kind of patience to feed a 7 month old an entire jar of baby food

I just love my sleepy babies

Our cute friends. My girls love these two cute boys. We played together almost daily and we miss them dearly.

They get their style from their father...100%

Audrey was excited I let her do her own lipstick...until she saw this pictures and said "Oh that's why you have to do my lipstick mom"

Swimming with some of our cute friends for the last time. Becca and I had the same gender within months of each other every time. We loved to play together! (L-R Gabby, Audrey, Olivia, Kirsten, Zack, and Timothy)

Enjoying ice cream with the Coopers on our new back patio

Kirsten and Baer playing the piano

Cute Kirsten

School sopping with Abby and Allie (she was shocked I didn't buy the outfit for her)

Poor Kirsten's nose slid across the carpet in the basement

Cute Vegas decorations don't go so well in my (brown) Utah house

We love our back patio

Aren't they the cutest!

Cirque du Soleil

Our last night in Vegas Kirk took me to a cirque du soleil show at the Bellagio. It was one of the things I really wanted to do before leaving Vegas. It was nice to do something fun in the craziness of moving. The show was different than I thought it would be, but by the end I didn't want it to end. I'm really glad we had the chance to go.

BFFs

Corbyn, Kirsten, Audrey, and Kason. BFFs

Kashina and I the morning of the move

I made a lot of very good friends in Vegas. The women I got to know there where my kind of people. Kashina was the friend I was closest to. I knew when I met her we could be good friends if we ever had chance. About a year and a half ago I kind of just stalked her until we became good friends, ha ha. My girls and her boys quickly became best friends. My girls played better with her boys than anyone else. They were the perfect amount of easy going and rambunctious for my girls. We have done so many fun things together. Our husbands got along and even hung out just the two of them a couple times. Kashina is incredibly talented and has taken all of the cute family/kid/newborn pictures of us. She sews, runs, cooks, is sarcastic, thinks her husband is the best and I just can relate to her on so many things! It was really hard to move away from her, especially since she was due to have a baby within a couple weeks. We hung out almost everyday from the moment we found out we were going to move. Going to Jamba Juice in Henderson, driving back to her house, then driving to Hobby Lobby, then back to her house was probably our most eventful night, ha ha. She came over the morning we moved away and her and I both had red puffy eyes as we drove away. We happened to drive out of Vegas together which actually made leaving a lot easier. Thanks for being one of my favorites Kashina!
The exciting news is that Kashina and her family are moving to Idaho tomorrow where her husband becomes a dentist! She will only be 4 hours away! I'm so anxious to meet her new baby boy tomorrow night!!!!

A Few Scenese from the Move

Accepting the offer!

And the packing begins

Packing the kitchen for FHE

And everything is officially out of the cupboards.

I caught these cute girls playing with their princess's in their playroom one last time the day before we moved.

Saying goodbye to our first home the morning of the move.

Mount Wilson Street will always hold a special place in my heart.

There is no backing out now!

And we finally made it to Utah. That truck was very (VERY) full.

Rainstorm

A couple days before we moved from Vegas I mentioned to a friend that I wished a monsoon would drop buckets of rain on us. We both laughed because we knew the chances were about zero. Later that night the clouds suddenly got dark and the sky lit up with lightening. It was the most amazing storm we had ever seen in Vegas. We watched the lightening for hours. Then the rain came and we made chocolate chip cookies at 9:00 at night (rain=chocolate chip cookies)! I couldn't have planned a better farewell from Vegas myself!

29th Birthday

I'm 29! And finally blogging about it. It was crazy to throw in a birthday celebration in the middle of a move but I was excited I got the chance to celebrate with my Vegas friends. The night before my birthday I went to dinner with Sarah and Layne. They are my first Vegas friends and I just love them. We have spent lots of time at each others houses helping with projects, letting the kids play, and lots of visiting. After dinner they had a surprise moving away party at Sarah's house for me. It was so fun and very sweet of them. I love all the girls who were there and wish I would have taken a picture!
I woke up to celebration! Kirk had gifts for me to open all day and I was absolutely spoiled. The girls drew the cutest pictures for me. Kirk took the girls shopping the night before and Audrey led the present search party by declaring "I know what Mom wants, follow me!" and then she led them through the store for 25 minutes before finally deciding on fingernail polish. Kirsten picked out a cute laptop case for me and Timothy a pizza stone. Kirk spoiled me with a globe, a pamper kit, a sunglasses clip, and pepper spray. We enjoyed a slow morning and then took the kids to the Shark Reef aquarium.
My awesome friends Sara and Kashina took me out for dinner. It was delicious and I always enjoy their company and the good conversation we have together. These two ladies are some of my favorite people on earth. I hated moving away from their friendships and was happy to have an evening with them. After dinner we met Kirk and the kids, Kashina's family, and Emily for birthday cake and fireworks. It was the very best way to celebrate my birthday! Sara made the cake so of course it was delicious. It was a fun evening (even if Timothy would have much rather been in bed).

Sara and me

Emily, Sara, me, and Kashina (this pictures makes me tear up!)