Memorial Weekend and Jackson's 2nd Birthday!

We went up to Wyoming this  past weekend. I have a ton of pictures, so bear with me! I was too lazy to reorganize all the pictures, so it's a bit out of order.

First off, meet the newest members of our extended family, Lizzy (3 mos; Mark and Ashley) and Crew (3 weeks; Scott and Brooke). Lizzy was blessed on Sunday by her dad.

We also celebrated Jackson's 2nd birthday!

When we sang to Jackson, he got all embarrassed and covered his face. It was pretty cute. Lately he's started to do that. When he gets shy he covers his face.

Daddy helping blow out the candles.

He loved the tractors from his cake!

Here is all of the Pendleton side after Lizzy's blessing.

We had our own flag raising ceremony on Memorial Day. I love this pictures of all of the grandkids! (Minus the sleeping babies)

We went up to the Thayne Cemetery after our little flag raising, but we only heard the end of the taps since they started a bit early. Justin's grandparents are buried here.

It was such a beautiful weekend!

We fed some grass to some horses.

I made a piñata for Jackson's birthday. My neighbor has made some and I wondered why I have never tried one?! I had this box of snacks that we ran out of the week before, and I figured it would be perfect for making a piñata.

It was pretty simple. I just cut out the corner, taped it back together, and added a little string to hang it from.

Here it is! I just took strips of crepe paper and hot glued them on in rows. Then I took black crepe paper to make the rest.

Here is Jackson taking a swing.

The box was a bit strong, so Justin had to finish it off for the kids.

A highlight for the boys (and some girls) was shooting Val's guns.

Here are some close ups of the birthday cake! I had a few ideas from pinterest and I had my mil and sil help me with the design. I used green gingham cupcake wrappers all around the edges to look like grass. I found these small tractors in a package at Target for $6. I used hershey kisses, a peanut butter cup, mini chocolate chips and shaved some chocolate for the rest of the dirt.

It was really fun to make!

I also made a pin the wheel on the tractor game.

Jackson's favorite part was riding on Grandpa Val's tractors! We rode them on Monday after the cemetery and grandpa was nice and got all of the tractors out so we could take turns on all of them.

I have a lot of pics of the kids because the tractors are up for sale, so this may be the last time we get to ride them :(

Grandpa Val and Jackson on the tractor.

We had a great time! It is so beautiful in Star Valley this time of the year. Monday was very hot, and of course I didn't bring anything other than pants because it's usually still cool enough. You never know up there!

Dear Jackson,

We can't believe you are a big 2 year old! You are the sweetest, most charming boy we know. We love how you give hugs and kisses all on your own. You are a great brother, even though you often pull your sister's hair, knowing it will make them scream! You love any machine that moves-tractors, cars, helicopters, planes, etc. You know how to make their sounds and you get so excited when you spot any of them outside. You have started putting words and sentences together and you have started saying, "who's that?" or "what's that?" or "look at that!". You are very curious! You still love your doggy stuffed animal (we had 4 and are now down to 1) and take him to bed and you still take a bottle of milk. You are so happy and smile all the time. You take a great nap and sometimes it even lasts up to 4 hours! You are a pretty good eater and will eat most things. Of course you love sweets. You aren't really interested in TV. You will maybe watch for a few seconds, but you are always on the go and busy! You love playing in dirt and just being a boy. Although you do like having your hands clean. You love tools, especially hammers. You love golf clubs and you love to "whack the ball" as you call it. You love balls. You love animals, especially dogs. You love Barkley and Cheeto (your Uncle Brad and Uncle Todd's dogs). You say when things are "cute" and we think it's adorable. You love getting into toilet bowl brushes playing in the sink in the bathrooms. You love taking tubby tubby's as you say.

We love having you in our family and the joy and smiles you bring to us!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy
(mommydaddy as you say)