Holladay Happenin's: Week ending 7-14-19

Last Sunday: We had a great Sunday. Lori and Misty came to church with us then left for Boise. We had lunch and relaxed and then put together a 3D Salt Lake Temple puzzle Lori gave us. We had popcorn, wrote in journals, and did a photo shoot with the 10 children. The past two Fourth of July Sundays we've done a family picture but since Nathan was in Spanish Fork I just did the children. We all had a great time and I was so happy that nobody was too grumpy to cooperate.

Madalyn and Talea are the popcorn makers and after they try it they declare it perfect by doing thumbs up. We'll miss Maddie when she goes to college because she loves to make us popcorn several times a week. I love watching Tilly come running as soon as she hears the popper turn on. She jumps into Madalyn's arms and gets swung up onto the counter to help.

Getting ready for a photo shoot.

You might want to click on a picture and then scroll through them that way to see them better.

Everyone with their buddies:

Thomas and Talea, Kylie and Kaitlyn, Madalyn and Makenna, Spencer and Samuel, Alexis and Anderson. Each of them are 10 years apart. Several are having birthdays soon so I'll say what their ages will be at the end of the summer: Thomas and Talea are 12 and 2, Kylie and Kaitlyn are 19 and 9, Madalyn and Makenna are 17 and 7, Spencer and Samuel are 15 and 5, Alexis and Andy are 14 and 4.

Trying to do a "shoulder angels" pose.

Kylie never could get Kaitlyn on her shoulders. :)

Comin' down from the shoulder angel pose.

Such a cute shoulder angel.

More buddy poses but not so obvious--they weren't hanging on each other.

I absolutely love Tilly and Andy in this picture. You'd have to click on it to see it.

Kylie called everyone over for a selfie and I loved all the kids gathering close to her, laughing and bonding as siblings. Even Andy was concerned that Tilly be in the picture and pulled her over.

Buddy picture!

Not official buddies, but Alexis has adopted Tilly as her buddy as she helps with Talea more than anyone else does.

Not official buddies, but best friends.

Wanting a buddy picture after coming in.

Sillly buddies.

With the finished puzzle.

Tuesday: Decorating cupcakes for a fun sister tea party. It took them 2 days to prepare for it.

Eating at the school lunch for a break in tea party prep.

Back to work: making fancy British hats.

After everyone showered they did face masks.

The spa room where they did hair and nails.

Getting the table ready.

The hats turned out great! They all made one with the same colors to match their dress.

Finally after 2 days of preparations: Let the tea party begin!!!!

It was so tender watching my 6 beautiful and precious daughters enjoying a delightful proper British tea party complete with accents.

Kylie made all the food: cucumber sandwiches, blueberry and raspberry scones, truffles, and mini cupcakes. She even made clotted cream (a 2 day process) for the scones. And there was plenty of cheese and crackers, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries.

It was a hard to get a good picture because of the poor lighting as it got dark.

Wednesday: We dropped Madalyn and Alexis off at the stake center and our van to get the tire replaced and walked to the park to eat breakfast. Then we walked home.

The kids ran to the fence every time they hear a train coming.

Spencer came home from a job with black all over him from spray painting the underside of a fancy Chevy truck.

Thursday: Doing chalk and bubbles with one of Sam's therapists, Luis. He's awesome and all the kids love him.

After the little boys were in bed Kylie ran Kait and Kenna (the others were at camp except Spencer who was with friends) to 7-11 to look for slurpies but I guess they missed them. Meanwhile Tilly and I hung out outside with popcorn waiting for them to come home, making our own fun.

Saturday: Going to check on our plants in Brother Tarbet's garden. Look how much everything's grown!

A tomato plant taller than the kids.

Thomas came home from his first scout camp. It was a week long and it's hard to tell from the picture but he came home covered in dirt. This is after he washed. :)

Lexi was at girl's camp on Friday when it was her 14th birthday so we celebrated some on Saturday and Sunday. Here I gave her a cell phone medicaid gave us and she was super excited to get her very first phone. I think it's only 8g, but it's a phone. :) Every time she goes babysitting the families want her to have one. Plus, she's going to be taking several classes at the high school this year with after school practices so it'll be nice to have a phone.

Sunday: We pretended today was her birthday so we started off with breakfast outside.

She made a healthy chocolate cake that turned out really good.

Several aunts, uncles and cousins came. I'm really glad she could have more people than just our family here to celebrate her. For 15.5 years we lived states away from any family so it's really nice to have real parties. :)

She blew them all out in one try!

It was Aaron's birthday today so Kylie made him the fanciest cake ever. It had a layer of cheesecake, brownies, chocolate chip cookie, and graham cracker.