#12 Grandchild!

Lyla Mae Merrill is here! She was born on Thursday, February 17th at 4:38 p.m., weighing in at 7 lb. 11 oz. and was 20 1/2 in long. Isn't she adorable?!!

But I am way behind as usual so first I want to post some pictures of the baby shower my sister Debbie and I gave Natalie on January 22nd.

Natalie loves owls so we decided on an owl theme and she and I made these cute invitations to send out.

We had it at Debbie's house and she did an awesome job as usual decorating everything. We had yummy salads and rolls for starters.

Natalie loves crepes so in the kitchen we had a crepe bar for dessert.

Stephanie made some adorable and delicious owl cake pops for favors.

Just a couple of the cute things people brought for Lyla.

Kimberly did a great job planning some fun games and also got this cute piggy bank for Lyla and had everyone write down some advice for Natalie.

Kim, Nat, Steph and cute Emma.

My sister Debbie with Natalie and I.

Thanks to everyone who helped bring the yummy food and came and supported us, it was a hoot!

Now on to the main event:

Here's Nat laboring away!
If you can call laying in bed with an epidural labor :)

Lyla in all her glory.

The new little family.

She has the chubbiest cheeks I have ever seen on a baby. Too cute!

And here's one with her eyes open.

She's a doll and we are so glad she is here safe and sound. Natalie is doing awesome as a first time mom. Welcome to the family Lyla!

Sakes Alive Matthew's 5!

Matthew turned 5 last week and had a party at Peter Piper Pizza. It was a Batman theme and Stephanie went all out making him a darling cake and some cute cake pops for the guests. Lots of people, presents and of course pizza made for a good time for all.

The cool Batman cake and cake pops

The cute birthday boy

We love you Matthew!

Girl's Getaway!

Last weekend we had a fun girl's getaway. Melanie wanted to do something with all the girls before Natalie has her baby and gets tied down. So we loaded up and headed to Yuma without husbands or kids! Gabe brought his kids to the valley and stayed at his mom's so we had the house to ourselves. We left on Friday afternoon and came home Sunday afternoon. Everyone was in charge of bringing a project to work on and we crafted the time away. We also managed to fit in a Saturday morning work-out, shopping, eating out, going to the movies, and hot tubbing! We also came home with some cute projects. Here's a look:

Kneaders is a staple in Utah but they also have one in Yuma so we hit it up for some yummy salads and sandwiches!

Went to the movie Country Strong and I've been overdosing on the soundtrack ever since!

The workout babes!


Now for some of our projects:

Charm bracelets we put together from a kit.
We also made candy bracelets to take home to the kids but I didn't get a pic of those.

Cute valentines baskets we dolled up with ribbon.

Photo clips we made from a large clothespin.

Cute holders made with twine and empty cans.

Adorable flutter capes they made for their girls

Didn't quite finish this cute wood project. We still need to modge podge family pictures on the empty blocks. And we also wanted to do a banner out of chipboard and scrapbook paper but didn't quite have enough time to get to that. Oh well, next time!

All in all a fun and relaxing weekend. The daddy's had diaper duty and did a great job. Thanks guys, we couldn't have done it without ya! We definitely need to make this a monthly, (well maybe annual or semi-anual) event. : )