Ella and Ava

I absolutely love my mornings with Ella and Ava. It has been so much fun to have time with the two of them while Addison and Olivia are at school. Ella is a little mom and is so great with Ava! She is darling! This morning we met up with some of the girls from my running group for a morning run. Ella filled the stroller with toys and took very good care of sweet little Ava. It was a beautiful morning-the girls loved it and so did I.

Pumpkins

So, we took a trip to the Farmer's Market and each picked out our favorite pumpkin. We love to do our annual glitter pumpkins, and this year we tried to mod podge a few as well. I think that our little Ella could mod podge all day. She thought it was a lot of fun to make a mess...and we did! My kids loved this project and I loved how they turned out. They were SO easy and last through Thanksgiving!

Here is our sweet little pumpkin.

She is growing up so fast!
She is such an easy baby. We love her so much!

Pumpkin Festival

On Saturday, our family spent the day at the Denver Botanic Garden - Chatfield Nature Preserve. Chatfield was hosting Denver's annual Pumpkin Festival. The festivities included a pumpkin patch, corn maze, pony rides, wagon rides, games, crafts, face painting, art exhibits, bands and so much more. We enjoyed every minute of it. Love this time of year!

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent:

4 Cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup Washing Soda
1/2 Cup Borax
8 T Tang drink mix (to brighten and crisp colors)

-Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over
medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.


-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing 
soda, Tang and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top
 with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.


-To make it easy to use, pour it in to an old laundry detergent container.


-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once 
soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.


-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 5 gallons.


-Top Load Machine- 1/4 Cup per load (Approx. 320 loads)


-Front Load Machines- 1/8 Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Each 5 gallon mixture costs just about 2 dollars...under a penny per load. Hooray!

Berry Patch Farm

This week we took a delightful little trip to a berry patch farm. We spent the morning with friends picking raspberries. The kids worked so hard picking and eating and eating some more. It was such a beautiful day and so much fun!

The berry pickers.

Ella-hard at work!

Addison and Olivia

We picked enough raspberries for
3 jars of raspberry jam and

raspberry mousse for dessert- DELISH!

Ballet

Addison and Olivia started ballet this week at their new dance studio. They love their new studio that allows them to be in the same class (so much easier for me). Their first class was so much fun, they loved it. I had to snap a few pictures of them dancing around on our front yard. They like to show off their moves. They keep Brad and I very entertained. So darling.

Nederland Carousel

Last weekend, we experienced the "Carousel of Happiness", located in the heart of Nederland, Colorado. Nederland is nestled in Boulder Canyon along the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway. This 1910 carousel features 36 whimsical, hand carved animals turning to the music of a 1913 Wurlitzer band organ. Each animal is carved out of basswood and decorated with acrylic paint. It took the wood carver over 22 years to finish! The carousel is fascinating, unique and absolutely adorable! Our girls went round and round, trying out most of the animals. They loved it and can not wait to go back!

Ella riding her favorite...the peacock.

Addison riding her favorite...
the moose with little birds on his antlers.

Olivia riding her favorite...the kitten.

This weekend was very special.

Saturday,
Addison was baptized and confirmed a member of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
She has been looking forward to this day for a while...
it was perfect.

Our family after the baptism.

Sunday morning,

our little Ava was blessed at church.

She is almost 4 weeks old, we absolutely adore her.

Thanks to our awesome parents who came

to share this weekend with us.

We were so happy that you were here, we love you so much!

Addison's Birthday.

Addison is 8 years old!

Her birthday is just 5 days after Ava's.

She was SO HAPPY to have a new baby sister on her birthday.

We celebrated with an outdoor party with thirteen of her darling little friends. It was so much fun!

Addison is such a sweetie. We love her so much!

First Day of School

Addison and Olivia have started school this year and they absolutely LOVE it. They are so happy about their school, teachers, bus driver (Brad and his fast truck) and all of their new friends. We are so glad that they have adjusted so well to our new home in Colorado and that they are having such a good experience at school. I am loving the time that I have at home with Ella and Ava. We are looking forward to a great new school year!

Sweet little Ava-1 week old.

She's here.

Ava Claire Daybell
Born: Tuesday, August 10th @ 1:30 a.m.
6 lbs 8 oz 19.5 inches
We could not be happier!

It's time.

Baby Ava will be arriving this week! We are SO EXCITED to finally meet her. I am scheduled for induction on Wednesday. We have had so much fun this month preparing for our new

BABY GIRL!

Olivia has been busy drawing pictures for her new baby sister.

This is a picture of Ava in her cradle. :)

Our new rocking chair.
Our girls really wanted a rocking chair to rock their new sister.
I found this on craigslist.
It needed some clean up and paint, but it will do the job.

Sweet Ella is very anxious to be a big sister.
She goes through all of the baby clothes every morning.
She is so excited to dress and take care of a new baby.
She will be the best little helper!

A few days ago, Addison made us a cute candy countdown chain...

3 days to go!

My girls love to help in the kitchen. We have had a lot of fun preparing food from this great recipe book for kids by Williams-Sonoma. Addison can prepare some of the recipes by herself. Here is one of our new favorite summer recipes that our whole family loves. We make them almost every day.

Fruity Morning Shakes:
1 container (8 oz) low fat vanilla yogurt
1 cup of fresh fruit. We usually use peaches, strawberries, mango, bananas or blueberries.
ice cubes

Simple, healthy and so YUMMY.

Farmers Market

Today we took our weekly trip to Sprouts Farmers Market. If you have a Sprouts nearby, you need to check it out. We seriously love this place. They have incredible prices on fruit and vegetables and everything is fresh, organic and delicious.

Today we walked away with...

1 large bag of carrots

20 yellow peaches

3 cartons of strawberries

2 cartons of blueberries

2 bags of red grapes

2 bags of green grapes

1 bag of cauliflower

2 bunches of radishes

1 pineapple

Total: $22.00

Broomfield Family Festival

Life is good.

Happy Father's Day!

We have had a great Father's Day weekend! Brad was very excited to get a subscription to the Denver Post, a new hat and tickets to the Colorado Rockies. We have had a fun weekend of swimming, shopping, yummy food and golf. Happy Father's Day Brad! You are the perfect dad for a family full of girls. We LOVE you so much!!!!!

SUPER DAD

Relaxing by the pool.

Olivia and Ella, playing in the sand at FlatIron Crossing Mall,

while Brad is in the mall hunting for a new hat.

Learning the game of chess from an expert.

Afternoon in the pool.

Evening at the golf range.

and the highlight of the day...

Dinner from Brad's favorite Asian Market.

DELICIOUS

Colorado

We are so excited to be in Colorado again! We are finally settled into the area and we are loving it!!! The weather has been fantastic, so we have been spending a lot of time in the pool. We live in the Denver Metro and absolutely LOVE the area that we are in. We have a beautiful view of the mountains, so many fun things to do close by and we live near an open space filled with trails, ponds and parks for running, biking and playing. Brad started his new job and is very happy with it. It has been fun visiting old friends and getting to know new ones. We look forward to a busy, fun-filled summer.

California

We vacationed in California a week before our move to Denver. We thought that before Brad started his new job, we should take our sweeties to Disneyland. They loved every minute of it and so did we. It was a relaxing vacation...the perfect break before a busy move to Colorado.

Ella was so excited to meet all of her favorite

Disney characters- so cute.

We celebrated our 10th anniversary while we were in California.

10 amazing years with the greatest guy in the world.

After a lot of hard work, Addison finished her masterpiece.

Brad is hilarious.

Olivia- ballet on the beach