Family Pictures!

We have had so much fun this week. We had all my siblings together for an Aird family reunion. On the 23rd, we had a photo shoot with everyone. It was a bit chaotic, but fun. We have 15 grand kids and two on the way due in just a couple of months. It is crazy how a fast our families are growing.  Here are some fun shots of everyone.

My mom and dad

 

Michelle and Robby and their family

 Dan and Amber and their family

 Amberly and Spencer and their family.(Amberly is expecting a baby girl in a couple of months)

Ali and  Ben and their family. Ali is also expecting a baby in a couple months. She is going to have another boy.

  

By little bro Ben. AND my kids favorite person.

 All the grand kids. 

 Me and my siblings with my mom and dad

 Pirate Heather. Totally normal right??

 Tyler

 Jacob

Lily. She was a VERY unwilling participant the whole time.  This is the best we got of her

  

Alyssa was tired and just wanted to go to sleep. but you know me, I like the crying pictures just as much as the smiling. 

I did get her to sleep eventually though. She is such a sweetheart.

 

The girls

 The boys

 I love my brothers!

 the kids had more fun doing THIS than the picture taking...I wonder why?

Children's Parade

The float

 This year our primary decided to make Noah's ark for our "float" and all the kids were supposed to dress as animals on the ark. The night before this, we went and saw the fireworks in Bountiful and didn't get to bed till after 1:00 in the morning. so getting up, getting painted faces and getting dressed was a little difficult  for all of us. We were asked to be there by 9:00 and I was asked to paint the primary kids faces who didn't come as an animal or needed something to add to their costume.

Jake and Lily waiting to start the parade

 Lily was my little bumble bee. She let me paint a bee on her cheek.

 Jake let me paint his whole face! Needless to say, I was SUPER excited to paint a tiger. He loved the teeth.

 Tyler insisted on making his own costume. He was absolutely sure that none of the kids would try to be an elephant. He was right.  I was so disappointed he wouldn't let me paint him to look like an elephant. Oh well.I think he did a pretty amazing job though.

 

It was really hot, but we had fun watching all the wards in the stake with their primary kids rolling down the road. It is a fun Tooele tradition.

Rise and fall of a tree

 We had quite the windstorm blow through here the other day and unfortunately we lost one of our trees. I know it is lame, but I'm pretty sad about it. It was one of our free trees that we asked city workers for after they ripped them out of a park because they didn't think the trees would make it. This tree lasted for over three years and it was finally starting to look decent.

Here is a picture gallery of our sweet little tree.

 

Right after we planted it. It was the tallest and best looking tree of the bunch

 How it looked after one year.

 Year three

 Almost 4 years old and then it blew over

 Randy cutting it down

It doesn't look quite the same without it

Hopefully these other two trees will last because they are actually providing evening shade on the house now.

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During the windstorm we also feared our neighbors trampoline would end up in our yard and take down the fence. It flipped over and was close to coming over. They weren't home, so Randy and another neighbor went out in the wind and rain and tied it to the deck.  A free trampoline would have been nice though. :)

 

The 4th

For the fourth of July, we were lucky enough to have Randy's brother and his family come stay with us! Steve and Micah and their six kids were visiting us all the way from Kuwait. We hadn't seen them for a couple of years, and though we both blog, it was fun to catch up in person. Randy's sister Amanda also came to visit from Boise, ID. (Unfortunately, her car broke down a couple of hours north of us and she had a heck of a time dealing with all of that. Lucky for her, she had two brothers close by to help take care of her. But that is a whole other story.)

We awoke early on the 4th and headed to the ward breakfast before the parade. Amanda was a sweetheart and took some pictures for me.

This is how I think I must look most of the time...always nursing the baby.

 Connett holding Alyssa

 Jacob, Eliza, Connett, Amanda, Alyssa and Abigale.

 Benjamin holding Alyssa. Can you tell she was loved by everyone? I don't think she was put down once while they were here.

 She was loved by Eliza as well

One of the Tooele city floats

Micah holding cute Eliza with her flag

 Only in Tooele...

 I must say, I was looking forward to the goat we had last year, but he didn't show. Luckily we had a hairless rat to pet instead. totally normal parade stuff right?

 our dinner that night

 Randy cooking the burgers

 I made some fruit pizza for dessert. I didn't do a flag because I like to think I  am a nonconformist...plus, don't you want blueberries on every bite?  I know I do.

Steve holding Eliza

 Jacob and Peter

  

Amanda and the girls hanging out

 

Water balloon Fight!!

 Cute Cousins Lily and Peter hanging out

 Jake joined in on their fun.

 We enjoyed fireworks and glow sticks at a friends house. Lily thought it was pretty loud.

we had so much fun with everyone while they were here. It was a short visit, but totally worth it!We were sad to see them leave the next morning.

Lucky for us, Amanda stayed the rest of the week looking for a new car to replace the one that broke down. Here is a picture of her with our little Alyssa before Church on Sunday.