Had to snap a couple of the younger ones since they were so cute together!
Ahhhh! Wait, I thought Kiana was going to marry Ayden! Hee, hee!
They all (minus Gabriel...I didn't quite trust that he was safe up there) got to take a ride on a camel!
I took this the morning that we left! Such special friends! We were sad to go...thanks for having us Gjovigs!
The day before we went back home, we drove out to the County Fair, not far from the Gjovig's house. What a great idea that Kenji had...the kids loved it!
Hoodies for the little ones...it was rainy that day. :)
Brother shot!
Best friend shot!
We got them all to pose again! Not really smiles on all their faces, but they are still cute posing in front of the tractors! :)
Here is my good friend Bonnie's newest little addition, Little Miss Annika! I had to take a photo of her in the little outfit that I gave her, isn't she a doll?!! :) Don't you just love the little hair clip!
Ayden and Elijah having a grand old time at the playground!
Wheeee...down the slide!
We actually got all four of them to smile! Annika was probably asleep in the baby carrier, so she didn't make it for this shot. :)
Cheeeeeeeese!!! I think Gabriel learned this whole squinting his eyes thing from me! :) Here they all are watching a movie while us girls partied! :) ha,ha!
It had been way too long since we went out to Arkansas to see the Gjovigs! Over a year! Her friends in her neighborhood threw her an outstanding and beautiful baby shower to celebrate the birth of Little Baby Annika! Since Bonnie picked out a black and white damask baby car seat, this color scheme (hot pink added!) has been the theme of choice for Annika! It was a gorgeous shower!
Such a fun night! (the baby shower was in the evening!)
This was a part of the "Motherhood Blessing" that Sonja's sister in law, Elizabeth put together for the shower. It was a very special part of the shower!
This is a photo of the awesome quilt that a good friend of Elizabeth's sewed together with all of the quilt squares that each shower guest created ahead of time and sent to the seamstress. It was quite the unique and beautiful creation and so special with personal wishes from each guest!
Another and the largest floral arrangement that I put together along with a little birdy in a nest and some pine cones and foliage to decorate the food table.
A "mother and baby" birdies display along with the fruit tray!
The food table (the dessert table was separate)! It was a great shower!
I had so much fun putting together a baby shower for our Cousin Sonja in late August, the month before their first baby was due! Here are all the paper creations I worked on prior to the shower! I had so much fun with this theme of "little birdies!" Sonja and Frank had an overall theme in their baby's room of forest animals and focused on the colors of blue, red and mossy green. Above is the invitation I created.
Here is the welcome sign, name tag table and game ribbons to split the guests up into teams to play a couple of games. There is also a photo of 9 month pregnant Sonja in case you can't tell what the photo is. I caught a photo of this table after most of the guests had arrived, so it isn't all put together, oh well!
Here are a couple examples of the name tags I made for each guest.
I couldn't get this photo to post landscape, but this is one of the prayer cards that each guest filled out and read to Sonja since she was journeying into motherhood for the first time. After the party was over, I took all of the prayer cards and put them into the book (in the photo below) that I created for Sonja and Frank for a keepsake.
The main point of our trip out to CA this time was to see Papa and Linda in their new place in Carlsbad! We had not seen them in over a year! They had not yet met Gabriel! Here are the kids and Papa out by their courtyard near the pool.
Cheese!
Pancho took a bunch of photos of the boys and I couldn't help but post a couple! Aren't they cute!
Another in font of the waterfall!
We left Papa and Linda's and stayed with my other Aunt Diana for the night before leaving in the morning. We went over to the waterfront area in downtown San Diego and had to take a ride of the Merry go round! All in all, it was a great trip!
I thought this was so cute after we found the child made out of legos that was Ayden's size, here is the equivalent for Gabriel! Legoland was certainly a hit for our family! I don't have any photos of them (forgot to take any for some reason) but Jan and John, my aunt and cousin joined us! It was great to have them along!
After visiting the Lukacs, my mom, dad and other family up in Northern CA, we flew down to San Diego to see my Grandpa, his wife Linda and my two aunts. We of course had to make a trip to Legoland since Ayden is such a Lego fanatic! He was in awe the whole day!
Before we even entered the park, we stopped and posed with a lego boy and his dad (made entirely of legos) that were the heights of real people! Crazy time it must have taken to build these things!
Lego Darth Vadar...all made of legos, except for his cape! Ayden couldn't resist a good sword fight!
This is the white house at the inauguration...all made out of legos! You could even see Obama and Michelle, etc. if you looked up on the stage!
All wet from some great rides!
After the baptism and lunch, we all went home and relaxed. Well, not really! We got the slip n slide out and the kids had a blast! Pancho and I even gave it a try! We had Granny, Papi and Brandon there too. It was awesome!
A quick last visit to see Grandma Jean before we left that I snuck in this group of photos!
Gabriel and Benji playing on the floor!
Ayden landing in the splash zone!
Jake taking a run for it! :) They had so much fun that afternoon! They were adorable! :)
On Sunday, August 16th, we finally had Gabriel baptized at my sister's church in Brentwood, CA. This is Pastor Alexis up front during the church service with all the kids (it is a small church!). The name of the church is Brentwood Community United Methodist Church.
Here we are up by the baptismal fount. I am in the process of getting some better photos from Julio's dad and will add some that have a better view of all this. :)
Here is Gabriel getting baptized!
Here we are at the reception lunch after the baptism with Pastor Alexis. It really was a great day!
I even got to have the pleasure of having two of my great friend join us, Kristin and Lindsay!! And Garett came too! (Lindsay's son)
