Happy 4th Birthday Gracie Girl!

I can't believe Gracie is 4 years old! Her birthday was Sunday so on Saturday we had a little (very little, as in invite one friend...thanks Riley for coming!) party for her. We have some friends who have horses so we took her over there to ride them. Both Gracie and Brynlee LOVE horses but I honestly thought they would be scared to get on them when they saw how big they were...boy was I wrong! They both couldn't get enough of the horses. Brynlee kept telling Jake she wanted to go faster so he finally let the horse run...again I thought for sure she would hate that and would be done riding forever. Wrong again, I believe her response after running with the horse was "Go faster... I want to do it by myself!" Gracie didn't mind going fast either...looks like I've got a couple cowgirls on my hands! Thanks Sorensens for letting have our own personal pony rides!

I don't know when I'm going to remember that the last picture becomes your first when you upload pictures on here...so the pictures are a little out of order.
Here is Gracie on her actual birthday Sunday morning.

A new "big girl" princess bike and equally exciting...

her very own "puter" (Thanks G'ma and G'pa Bennion!)

Gracie requested a pink pony cake...the little girl who came to her party asked if it was a mouse...sadly I had to agree with her, it looked more like a mouse or a poodle than a pony, oops!

I made these pony ears and tails for them and it was funny to watch them run around with them on. Brynlee hasn't taken her tail off since and shakes it for you anytime you ask.

Here are a few things I want to remember about Gracie:
*Besides horses she loves cars, trucks and tractors
*She often asks to play "puter games on PDS kids" (computer games on PBS kids)
*when we play outside she always finds a patch of dirt or a pile of rocks to dig in...even when there are swings and trampolines around
*She has a very kind heart, I've never seen her hit anyone and she always wants everyone around her to be happy never crying
*She's a great hummer...she only has to her a song once or twice before she's able to hum it without missing a note
*She likes to Clap...not like after seeing a performance or anything, just at random moments she enjoys inserting a clap. I don't think she even knows she is doing it...it's just a part of her
*She is very easy to please and takes joy in the simple pleasures of life...the other day I told her if she took a nap she could eat some pretzles outside to which she replied (after a clap of course) in the most thrilled tone " Oh Wow Mom, Thanks!"
Happy Birthday Gracie Girl We Love You!

Chucke Cheese, Photo Shoots, and Smores (Montana trip part 2)

I was finally able to download some pictures from our trip to Montana. It started out with a trip to ChuckE Cheese. Now I'm not typically overly germophobic, however, this place really brings it out in me. I really had to talk myself out of going around spraying every square inch of the place with my Lysol to-go (yes there is such thing!) In the end it was a lot of fun and I was able to get over the germ thing and just make sure I scrubbed the kids down afterwards

Of course it's all about the tickets! Krista was really gettin into the Whack-a-Mole so she could rack up the kids ticket count...you know so they could get some 10 cent piece of junk that they can lose in the car on the way home!

Brynlee was't very impressed by ChuckE...I don't understand why she wouldn't like a giant rat coming right at her??

Our next item of business was a photo shoot with the grandkids. We took over my mom's kitchen, gathered some props and let the fun begin. I think we went through 5lbs of jelly beans bribbing the kids to cooperate. Here are a few of my favorites.

Playin play dough!

And of course it wouldn't be a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's if we didnt' roast marshmellows and make S'mores!

Gotta love the Marshmellow roaster stuck to my dad:)

My dad trying to tell his classic "scary" story about 2 polocs sitting in a boat. As you can see from Emily's face it was really "scary"!

We had such a great time on our trip and were very sad to leave. We can't wait until the next time we can all get together again!