McKenna's 6th birthday!

McKenna turned 6 on November 6th. sniff sniff. I just can't believe how big she is getting. She had the best birthday ever! That is what she says. :) We had a great birthday weekend!
Friday night we took the family to see MegaMind for her birthday. I ended up outside the whole time with Thomas, but luckily the theater had a Mother's lounge, so I could go relax on a couch with a closed door so he couldn't get out! Very nice! Danielle was out for the most part too, so they ended up giving us two free tickets, which was so awesome! Date night!! ;) We always tell ourselves we will never take all the kids to a movie again, bc they are just in and out of their seats so much, but give us six mos... it will happen again!
Anyway, McKenna loved it! She was so funny. As soon as we got there and sat down. Some people were talking behind us and she just shouts out, "ssshhhh!" lol, it was so funny. As if we were ANY quieter. But she was just so excited! Sat through the whole thing and loved the 3D affect! Ashley did pretty good too. But started getting antsy towards the end. They had fun. Then we took them all to Burger King. They were SO excited to go in. Normally when we get fast food, we just like to be quick and eat it in the car. They had their first Whopper Jr's and LOVED them!! They had crowns too and just thought it was so much fun! She said she was so excited for her birthday Friday night that she couldn't sleep.
For the kids birthdays I always try to have balloons lining the hall and family room. Just cheap ones that sit on the floor, but they just LOVE them. Isaac and I blow them up before we go to bed. It was actually McKenna's idea one birthday, she said that what what she wanted....so, it's now just what we do. I love it too! We had a birthday breakfast! Opened gifts, and then got ready for McKenna's first FRIEND party!! Oh my goodness, they were all so excited! Isaac and I were crazy, we bought one of those birthday card packets at Wal-Mart with 12 cards and sent them ALL to her friends at school! Can you imagine McKenna's excitement to basically invite anyone she wanted. We ended up having 2 boys and 7 girls. Including her cousins Kiley, Marissa, and Ava. She was so happy they came. She loves them especially Kiley. When the kids were leaving Isaac told her she needed to stop running around with Kiley, bc there was one more girl who still needed to be picked up. She was a little disappointed. It was sweet though, Kiley said, it's ok McKenna and ran away, McKenna was a little sad, but it was sweet on both girls part. :)
The party was so much fun! First everyone just played on the tramp for a while while everyone got there. The weather was perfect! I have never been able to have a Nov birthday outside in Utah. It was great! Then we played pen the tail on the donkey and that was a lot of fun. Then we did presents, cake, and ice cream. And then....drum roll!!!!! We had a pinata!!!! Isaac set it up across the street at the baseball fields. We had so much Halloween candy that we just filled it right up! It was perfect and so much fun! Our birthday girl had a blast! Then they all just ran around and played outside until their parents got there. We just sat and watched with Aunt Roni. ...Oh, and we had a party crasher. One of the boys Mom stayed. I was a little irritated by it, but whatever. Awkward.... :) Anyway, it was a great party!
Where was Bev you ask? The Visentin family decided last minute to go to St. George the Friday before. Yes, yes, of course she knew about the party a week in advance. Ah well, we gave them a very hard time and we were all pretty bummed she nor the boys weren't there. But ah well... there will be more birthday's for McKenna. Never a 6th one, but we'll have more. (just kidding :) -see, we are good at hard times!!)
We just had a good rest of the day. Kind-of lax. Then we had a surprise visit!! Uncle Ryan and Aunt Brianne came over!! It was so fun to see and hang out with them. AND they brought McKenna and bday card with $5 in it! She was so excited! It was a great end to a fantastic day!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEAUTIFUL SIX YEAR OLD!! She has grown into such a creative, smart, talented, and beautiful little girl. She is a great sister, daughter, and friend. We love her so much!!


Pictures to come..... :)

Our Birthday morning!

So sweet!

Can you just see her excitement! So cute! She has been asking for this ice cream maker forever! We finally gave in. She was thrilled! :)

Waiting for everyone to get there.

Our results of the pin the tail on the donkey. :)

Look at this group! She has so many friends. :)

Waiting for cake and ice cream!

6 wishes and 6 spanks! Happy Birthday dear McKenna!

Isn't that a cute pinata! Isaac found her.

Swing birthday girl!

She actually hit her pretty hard!

Danielle hit her too, this was the after shot. :)

Thomas got a try! Thanks Aunt Roni.

ATTACK!!!!

What little boy wouldn't love this!

McKenna with her cousin Kiley. She loves her.

BEST FRIENDS! I love these pictures. So cute! This is Tandi, McKenna, and Avery and they seriously are such great friends! Since pre-K.

This is Avery's sister Holland, and her and Ashley are such great friends too. I love this!

We are so thankful for McKenna! What a blessing she has been in our lives for 6 wonderful years! She is turning into such a beautiful lady. All too quickly, but she is so much fun and always so happy! She is a wonderful sister, a wonderful daughter, and a great friend. What a blessing she is in our lives. We love our McKenna!

My men

My two men in uniform. So handsome! I love these boys.
And Samson. I pretend to dislike him, but secretly, I love this dog. He takes care of us. And he protects us. He is so loyal!

HALLOWEEEEENN!!

I love Halloween! My kids LOVE Halloween. This year I almost liked it better than Christmas. It is so much less stressful. It is so simple. A costume and candy. Could a child be anymore happier!? It truly brings so much joy!

The kids had great costumes this year. I was very happy with them. McKenna and Ashley wanted to be princesses, but I was able to persuade them into waiting until we found something else. And we did! McKenna was the cutest cowgirl ever! Ashley had the most adorable Taylor Swift dress ever. People even said she looked like her. She was so cute! Danielle was a lady bug. She was adorable. And Thomas was a soldier. ...aka, Uncle Scott. Isaac wanted something really "boy." He tried to find Super Man or something, but a soldier is what we ended up with. I talked to Scott and he was able to send his Dedelow and soldier badges down to FL and sent them back with Ryan for Thomas to wear. He looked so handsome! He was a proud soldier!

Our Halloween actually started the Saturday before, with a Primary activity, that was very fun.

Monday night was the traditional chili night at Grandma's house. They had a lot of fun and lots of family was there. Aunt Molly and her family dressed up as the Kardashians. It was really funny!

Tuesday I actually think we didn't dress up.

Wednesday Ashley had a Halloween party at school.

Thursday we went to Ryan and Brianne's ward party. By far the best Halloween ward party I have ever been to! It was so much fun. The trunk or treat was huge, and inside was endless crock pots of chili. Not to mention the fun games, musical chairs, face painting, and haunted houses! They had one for little kids and big kids. The little one was so cute for Hunter and Danielle. Zachary, Nathan, McKenna, and Ashley went in the big kid one and Ashley came out balling! She was terrified, my poor little dramatic lady. :) I did go through afterward, bc I wanted to see, and actually was a little surprised to see a bloody chainsaw and bloody sheet. Thought it was a little borderline for a church party, but those kids did a very good job. Kudos! We had a blast!

This was my poor little lady, terrified from the Haunted House. :( On the way home, McKenna started talking about the haunted house. Ashley just says, "don't talk about it McKenna, I was so scared." It was so cute and sweet.

Friday we dressed up two times! One for my work. They just walk through the whole office and FILL their buckets with candy. I love it though. My work is so fun and they just love my kiddos. Thomas Moore- one of my best friends (he jokes that Thomas was named after him) says my kids are by far the cutest of anyone's there. I know all the kids are cute, but I am bias, and it is flattering. :) Then we got dressed up again later that night for Bev's work trunk or treat. It was great! They blocked off part of the parking lot and they walked back and forth. Good times. :)

Saturday we had our ward party. Probably the worst I have ever been too. Of course it was nice to sit and mingle, but I think the kids got about 4 pieces of candy. Not much more to say! So, afterward we went to Bev's neighborhood and walked around the block. It was so rainy, so we didn't do much, but we had fun. :) And, if you couldn't tell, it was my last attempt at taking pictures of all my little ones. I know, I know... so stinkin cute! :)

Sunday, the 31st, we went to Park City. They closed off Main Street and had a block party basically. Dogs included. All were wearing costumes which were so cute and fun to see! We walked up and down to each store and they gave out candy. It was MADNESS! Isaac said we will never go again. :) It was a lot of work, for not very much candy.

Halloween lasted so long this year. As much as I loved it, I was so glad for it to be over as well. No more curlers in Ashley's hair for weeks! Momma needs a break! :)

This was the first year since we moved out to UT, that Isaac has had Halloween off. It was so good to have him, but I was bummed that it was so rainy that we couldn't actually take the kids door to door. I have never done that with them. I just have always felt so outnumbered taking the kids door to door by myself. I was looking forward to it this year. But maybe next year he will have it off again! Here's to hoping! :)

Nicknames

Life has just been craaazzzyyy.... crazy good! The kids are SO much stinkin fun and keep us busy constantly. They say the funniest things. Isaac and I just love to talk about where they come up with some of the things they say, it is so funny and cute!

I am going to update the blog so keep up! Halloween, McKenna's first "friend" party! Can't believe we have a 6 year old. We try and shrink them, but they just won't let us. :( I just don't want them to grow up any more. I like them little and at home with me. Isaac on the other hand, can not wait until they are all in school. :) He calls it his freedom! It just breaks my heart. :)

Isaac has the funniest nick names for them. Most of the time, the girls don't like them, but Danielle has settled on Dani cha cha. lol. She is so funny. Other names he calls her are Roasty toasty (bc she loves her footsy jammies), Dani boom boom, baby D, or Danielle belle... Ashley doesn't like any nicknames and gets very upset when Isaac calls her ATG (her initials). He just tells her, one day you will understand. :) (Ashley Tanna Garner) Her first nick name was Ash a fras. Bc when she was born, we lived off a street called Sassafras. She does not like that one one bit! :) We also call her Ashes, and Ash. She is ok with those. :) McKenna likes nick names. She wants her nick name to be Kenzerinz. hehe She made it up herself. She is so funny. We also call her Ken, or Ken Ken sometimes M C Kenna, or just M C. My family calls her Kenners. Thomas doesn't have too many yet. I ONLY call him Thomas. The girls call him Tommy or Tom Tom. Which they made up themselves, but I do remember Tanna calling Isaac Tom Tom when we were dating, although the girls didn't know that. Isaac doesn't have many nick names for Thomas yet. I'll have to check on that.

Thist post wasn't meant for nicknames, but I just started writing and that is how it ended up. :) Isaac was playing around with the girls tonight and all of their nicknames. Mostly teasing them, but it was fresh on my mind, so I just started writing. :)

Other than that, we are doing great. Really, just so busy. Work has been so busy. We are just constantly non stop working on projects, recs, and month end. It's overwhelming, but it has to be done. I also started selling Lia Sophia jewelry. I'm nervous and excited. Mixed feelings that I will be away from my kids that much more, but then I think, it can just be something that Isaac and I could put towards paying off debt, or something for the kids... Just something extra. We will see how it goes. I am excited. And I love jewelry, so why not! Isaac is still working graves. It is best for not having to have sitters for the kids bc we can work it where we both are always home. But he definitely gets the raw deal and never gets any sleep. I am starting to worry about the wear and tear it does on his body. I am a professional worrier anyway, (I'm really good at it. :) ). He says he is fine, but I know he is constantly tired and worn out. :( He works hard for us.

Stay tuned....