Emily's Baptism

Emily has been looking forward to her baptism day for a long time. Here is the cute invite my sister made.

About a month before her baptism, Jen took her out and took some photos of Emily in her baptism dress. I think she looks so beautiful and grown up!

Cute photo she took of herself right before we left our house.

This picture was taken right before Em was baptized, she was so excited and a little nervous. But, Mike had practiced with her and she felt a bit more confident. It was such a neat experience to see my little girl get baptized. I am so proud of her and the choice she made to become a member of the church.

Afterward, we went to the house and had a BBQ and her Birthday party. I will show more pics of that later. Here she is with her Granny. Granny gave her a picture of Jesus with the children that had a baptism quote, and a picture of Emily too. We have it hanging above her bed so she can remember her special day.

Great Grandma and Grandpa Frenette, so happy they could come!

Emily with her Grandma. She gave Em a journal, and she has already written in it, remembering how she felt when she was baptized.

Emily and Grandpa

With Papa and Liam.

When I turned eight, my mom made me a baptism quilt, and I wanted to carry on the tradition and make one for Emily. I couldn't have done it without every ones help! I had each family make a quilt block and then I put it together. When I gave it to her I reminded her that the Holy Ghost is a comforter. I hope that she will always remember how much her family and Heavenly Father love her even when things get rough.

Love you Emily!

Las Vegas - final post.

Last Vegas post! Sorry there are so many, but I make a book from my blog and I want to capture a lot of the pictures! Here we are by "The Vegas Sign", you truly haven't been to Vegas unless you get a picture by the sign. This view must be shared by all, because there are always so many people waiting for their chance for a photo shoot.

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the giant fish tanks at Caesars Palace. We were there for over an hour looking at all the fish and chasing the sting ray - awesome entertainment, especially since it is free!

There were a bunch of interesting people in Vegas, always providing the best entertainment in people watching. I think to many we provided a great chance to gawk as we walked past them, Mike pushing Savannah in a stroller, Emily and Brett running to keep up and me holding Liam in the baby carrier. People would just stop and stare, many would be counting out loud as we walked by. Seriously, you would think we had 10 kids! I think we were great entertainment. A lot of people stopped us and either said we were so brave to attempt such a feat or that we had a very cute family. I agreed to both statements.

Here is a guy on the sidewalk with a snake, we saw a couple of them. Brett was impressed and was excited to touch it.

Another random character, Spiderman was super chatty and continued talking to Brett as we were walking off; telling him to stay in school, make good choices and to not do drugs. He was a preaching Spiderman, Brett thought it was pretty amazing, to meet Spiderman on the streets of Las Vegas.

Treasure Island! We didn't stay for the show, it is no longer "Family Friendly" apparently. The kids were excited to see the Pirate ships.

Emily turned eight while we were on the trip. We celebrated by going swimming and then going out to dinner at The Rainforest Cafe. Super expensive place for the mediocre food, but the kids loved the atmosphere and had a lot of fun. I will post later about Em turning eight and her baptism.

M&M World is a must when on the strip. The kids had fun looking at all the fun M&M characters.

One of our favorite places to eat is a restaurant called "Gonzalez Y Gonzalez" in New York New York.
We shared a yummy drink.

I thought this picture was too cute to pass up! Liam's hat says "Lil' Ute"

In front of the Luxor.

We found a park on our last day there and the kids had a great time running around and playing.

A Daddy is a perfect place to snuggle and take a nap.

The rest of the kids napped while in the car on the ride to the airport. It was so funny to see them all doing the head bobbing while falling asleep.

Savannah in one crazy position! Mike and I couldn't stop laughing!

I love Liam's face here, so funny! This is in the plane on our flight home. We had such a fun trip, but honestly, the best thing was being able to spend so much time together.

Bellagio

Cute little Liam chillin on the bed while we unpacked. I was a little nervous about the adventure of taking a baby on a vacation. Especially one that involved flying. But, Liam did great! He really is an easy going baby, and such a happy guy.

One of my favorite places to go in Vegas is the Bellagio. I love the beautiful gardens they had and it was fun to see it with the kids.

Savannah liked all the pumpkins.

Next door they have an amazing store that makes crepes, cakes, chocolates. The kids are standing next to a chocolate fountain. Now, that is my kind of fountain!

Emily and Brett loved watching crepes being made.

Beautiful flowers everywhere.


Family picture!

I have always loved watching the fountains at the Bellagio. We went two nights and were able to see a few each night before Liam decided that he was exhausted. I loved watching the kids faces as they watched the water, they especially liked the really big blasts at the end!

Swimming

The condo we stayed in while we were in Vegas had 4 swimming pools! The lazy river pool was the favorite, and the kids loved floating around on the tubes while they went around and around. We spent a ton of our time relaxing in the pool.

Even Liam went swimming, he was so adorable!

Now every morning when Savannah wakes up, she asks me if we can go swimming.

Hoover Dam

On September 30th we woke the kids up with a surprise trip to Vegas. Mike started singing, "I'm leaving on a Jet Plane....." The kids were so excited to go on a plane ride that they didn't really even care where we were going! Back in July Mike got an excellent deal on air fare and with staying in the condo it made for a pretty nice cheap vacation!

This is what Liam did most of the time on the trip, snooze while I carried him around.

When we got to Vegas we drove to the Hoover Dam. Mike and I have never been there, but thought it might be a fun thing to see with the kids. We hit traffic when we were about 5 miles from the Dam and it took forever to get through! We couldn't figure why it was so busy, especially since it was a Thursday morning. When we finally got to the Dam it was packed, people were everywhere! Later we found out that it was a big celebration for the 75th Anniversary of the Dam. It was fun to be there on such a special day, crazy that we just happened to go! The kids were really excited about the free cupcakes.

They also had a car show for the celebration.

The President at the time of the dedication was Teddy Roosevelt, so they had an actor recreating the role. Emily and Brett were both pretty concerned about him smoking, lol.

The Dam itself was really amazing and we all really had a fun time being there.

Savannah sleeping on the way back from the Dam. Poor thing did a lot of quick naps in the car on the trip - every day we wore her out!

That night we went to the Hoferauhaus, a fun German restaurant. We loved the food, and the kids loved the atmosphere.

It was such a fun way to start out our trip. More Vegas pics to follow!