We celebrated the 4th of July with the Banks family this weekend!  

The dessert table!  Uncle Jon & Aunt Mary always have such wonderful, delicious food.  My annual cupcakes were firecrackers this year!  🙂

                                  Noelle, Brighton, Blanche, & Berekley!

I never thought we would have a blonde hair blue-eyed daughter!  She is just so sweet and beautiful, and our hearts overflow with love for our little Noelle!  She’s singing "Amazing Grace" in our bed right now as I write this… 

                                                  "Say cheese!"

John & sweet Nancy!

Kim & Melissa with Berkeley & Noelle!

Thanks to Uncle Jon & Aunt Mary for hosting such a special time of reuniting & sharing life together!  We love you all!

We had so much fun at the Science Museum with Brook & Jamie this afternoon!

One of the girls’ favorite stations was the grocery store!

Jamie was taking everything in and looking precious in her summer dress.

Aren’t they so cute talking on the phone!?!

Noelle and Mommy posing in front of the dinosaur!

Jamie discovers Noelle on T.V.

Noelle saying "Hi" to herself.

I love this picture of Jamie watching Noelle on the T.V. as she walks back to the store.

Big Tyrannosaurus Rex teeth! 

Noelle and Jamie hanging out inside a dinosaur footprint. 

Crazy lady at the wheel!

The girls had a blast in the footprint!  Heather painted Noelle’s toes red for the 4th – she keeps talking about how pretty her toes are!

Pressing buttons on the big screen!

Noelle became quite the dinosaur expert reading to us about the footprint.

Noelle read about Zacchaeus in her little Bible with Daddy on Monday.  All week long she has been saying, "Zacchaeus (Zi-Kiuss) Daddy" when she wants a kiss… then she starts cracking up because she knows she’s totally silly.

I’ve been filling orders this week for Tulip Sparkles, and Noelle will walk up and say, "Make it pretty, Mommy."  I say, "Okay, Noelle. Thank you!"  She’ll say, "Thank you, Mommy" and go on about her little business.

Emily & Tiffany saw this doll cupcake and couldn’t resist bringing it as a treat for Noelle last night.  We were all cracking up and thought the doll cupcake was so funny (and a little creepy).  Noelle had a blast singing "Happy Birthday, dear Noelle" while she was eating her cupcake… 🙂

Excerpt from this week’s journal entry:  You love to play this game where you say, “Ba-doom, Daddy” and he says back to you, “Ba-doom Noelle.” Then you say, “Ba-doom, Mommy” and I say back to you, “Ba-doom Noelle.” If we have friends over, you go around the room saying “Ba-doom” to each person. Everyone cracks up at how funny you are. You also made up a song for when we walk up the stairs. You sing, “Up and down, up and down” every time we step up one of the steps. Daddy and I always get your silly little song in our heads and giggle because you’re so creative and cute.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Jillian!  We have so much fun playing with you all the time, and you are such a sweet friend!

I love this picture of Jillian!

Lindsay made all the little girls’ tutus (with a little help from her friends – wink wink) and there were pink poofs everywhere – all the girls looked so so cute!

Enjoying some birthday cake!

As many of you know, I’ve started a custom girls’ bracelet line called Tulip Sparkles, and I’ll have to find a spot for this picture on the website once it’s up.  My goal is to have the website open for business by the end of the summer, but of course, I’m always taking individual orders, so let me know if you’re interested.

Noelle was so happy to show off her tutu & wand to her daddy!

Jamie and Noelle having some girl time.

Sam is the sweetest big brother figure – he’s always taking care of Jillian and Noelle and checking on them to make sure they are okay.  We love Sam!

We had so much fun today!  Happy birthday, Jillian!

Noelle’s new favorite word is polka dot!  We love it when she scrunches up her nose when she smiles.  She is so cute and funny all the time and is such a joy!

The excitement of spotting an ant (second picture)!

Discovery! 

Noelle and I got ready early for Bible study and were goofing off outside until everyone got here.  It was a lot of FUN!

Noelle’s two pieces of art work this afternoon looked so complementary together.  We’ve painted with a brush with our paint with numbers books, but today was the first day she used a brush with paint and even chose her own colors.  She’s into circles these days and did a great job painting them today!  Noelle loves art!

Noelle’s hair is kind of crazy right now.  We are growing her bangs out, although she’s never had bangs cut, that’s just the way her hair grew in… so, hopefully they’ll grow out soon!  She’s such a cutie!

Sam really wanted a posed picture – it was so funny watching him round up the girls!

There was water splashing and coming out everywhere – this pool was over the top and right down the street from our house – we can’t wait to go back!

Lunch time! 

The big girls kissing and loving on their little buddy Jamie!

We had so much fun at the pool today!

Bekah spent the night with us on Tuesday.  We went to Gloria’s, had a sewing lesson (taught by yours truly), made bracelets, had a hidden talent show, and told really funny bedtime stories.  Bekah slept with Noelle in her room, and Noelle felt like such a big girl to have a friend spend the night.

Mike’s hidden talent was that he can sing and play "Row, row row your boat" in ways you couldn’t believe, I can walk in a really dorky way, and Bekah’s hidden talent is:

WALKING ON HER TOES!!!

WE LOVE YOU BEKAH!  Victoria is finally back from camp, and we need to have you guys over again really soon!  MISS AND LOVE YOU TOO, TORIA!

Noelle spent the night with Bo, Sharon, & Rebekah while Victoria was at camp.  They went to Chick-fil-A, made a sun visor, went swimming, colored in the bathtub, played with sidewalk chalk, and made another craft for Mike for Father’s Day!  Noelle had the time of her life.  I love the last picture in this sequence – I told Noelle to show her teeth & Bekah was helping her figure out what I meant!    

Someone’s getting sleepy!  Bekah & Toria have the coolest rooms – their parents painted murals and decorated them so fancy!  Noelle loves coming over to Uncle Bo and Aunt Sharons!

Thanks for keeping our girl!  We love you like family!!!