Great Niece Eva

 My niece Caitlin had a sweet baby daughter way back in August. Still catching up here on the blog! I thought I'd share a few sweet shots of Eva the Diva for the Howell family. 

 Mom and Dad with another great grandchild, Eva is number 6 of 7, soon to be 8 of the greats!

 And great uncle Adam, getting a whole slew of emotions from the darling dear.

 

 And me. I joked that I was glad I was having a boy so I wouldn't be jealous of her beauty, and her hair! It/s downright glorious!

4th of July 2013

 Alright! Let's do this! Blog catch up with lots of pictures and minimal journaling! Ready, go!

4th of July- we went to Tom and Jenni's. That's about all you need to know. Here is our little fam.

 Again!

 My boys!

 Little Winston was all tuckered out from all of the running around at night, so he just plopped right down to look at the stars.

 A super over-flashed picture of my brother Tom, a very sunburned Megan and Shane and E. Megan and Shane had gone boating and ended up spending another 4 hours helping out a stranded boat, so what was supposed to be a 2 hour jaunt turned into a horrible day without enough sunscreen.

 Clayton's brother Tyler, his wife Rachel and their Audrey were in town and got to play with us that night. Here are Ty and E.

 Rachel and Audrey.

 Eleanor helping "teach Audrey to walk". Ha ha, she loves to think she is helping littler kids learn new skills and words. She cracks us up.

Fun weekend as usual. More to come!

Modesto Quick Trip

 A few days after Easter we joined Clayton's parents for a quick trip over to Modesto for Clint and Alison's baby blessing for Peter. They lived (They just moved back to Utah last week!) right on the Stanislaw River in a beautiful yellow house. They kept chickens which the kids adored. Here is a snippet of Winston getting a bit too close. Ha ha.

Bless his heart, he wanted to touch one. I love how he just shakes it off for a minute.

Eleanor loved seeing her cousins, especially Autumn.

Their lawn was truly magical. Here are Gabe, Autumn, Natalie, Eleanor and Winston playing.

Gabe is a character.

We took a wonderful walk down to and along the river, where Winston found his true calling in life: throwing rocks.

He loooooved that.

Cutie.

Posing on the bridge.

Micah! He was such a doll, he helped me with Winston the whole way.

There is a pretty little park on the walk.

And he was just cute, so... more pictures.

Natalie and Autumn.

My soaking wet boy.

As he spent a good amount of time half in and half out.

He was killing me with all the cute, dirty, little boy-ness of it all.

Walking back home. Autumn helped Eleanor.

And Micah, bless his heart, helped and helped and helped Winston. A wiggly, almost two year old is not an easy thing to wrangle. The good news is, no one went swimming!

Back at the house, Eleanor gives Asher and Gabe some orders.

Then stops to pose, of course.

Inside, we got Winston and Asher into their matching shirts! I tried to get a shot, but made the mistake of standing in front of the tv.

 Better, once I moved to the side.

After baths. Eleanor followed the big boys, Jonah and Micah, outside in the dark and ten minutes later she came back in with about 37 bug bites. No lie, we counted. I guess she just tastes delicious.

Family scripture study, I love how Win is looking at Jonah and Gabe is barely being restrained by Grandma Kathy.

The blessed baby, Peter.

Who is the cutest, happiest little guy!

I am sad they moved from their picturesque home on the river, but am thrilled to have them back in the state so we can see all these cuties more often!

Easter 2013

Easter was lovely this year. We all went to Tom and Jenni's house for dinner after church and an egg hunt. I was determined to have a fun one for the kids since the BYU one turned out to be a bit of a wash. Winston was adorable in his new bow-tie I made him. He kept it on all day!

Eleanor wasn't as competitive as I thought she'd be. She was more than happy to pose for pictures while she collected neat rocks and pretty leaves.

Winston was a typical one year old. Find a candy, call it a day. He had no motivation to collect more than two eggs at a time.

Rosaline's first egg hunt! So stinking cute! She had just turned one the month before.

Hello, pixie!

Mouth full, hunt over.

Cute Allie actually found some of the harder ones.

Even with Abby's help, Winston wasn't much for searching.

Trampoline!

Sweet air!

I hid three "golden" eggs for the adults to find that had corresponding "big-kid" treats. Well, just whole bags of candy. It was hilarious how excitedly everyone looked for these. So much fun. I will so be doing this every year. So our three winners were Megan, Shane and Clayton. Actually, that should be Megan, Megan and Clayton, as Megan found two of the three. Go Mims!

 The guys were playing bocce, and Winston was trying his best to keep up with them. He is the tiny blue and beige dot in between Clayton and Shane.

 Megan and Shane recently got baby chickens, so they ran home and brought them back for everyone to see. The kids were over the moon excited about that.

How sweet is her face?!

She renamed them, and then proceeded to talk about them all month long.

Allie and Jasmine, or whatever they were named.

He heee! Holding it on her own!

This made my Easter, not sure about you.

And a small clip of Winston, nearly squashing the baby chicks and Jenni making the save of the year!