The Bushman Blog: last moments of utah and grace's birthday party

We spent our last week and a half in Utah with family. It was such great quality time. My dad flew out to Tulsa to pick up Laura and the kids, and lucky us they happened to be in town while we were here. They are here for a three week visit while my brother Ben is doing his rotations in Michigan. She is awesome handling three kids and one on the way for three whole months. Simply amazing! I love it when the Roberts cousins can get together, but we were missing Connor, Ashley, and E. They had a great time with Shell playing

ring around the rosie...

we all fall down!:)

I think they must have played it twenty times. What a super aunt!

I was glad to get these way too cute pictures of them. We were missing Jefferson, he was a little too old for ring around the rosie;) and miss Tenley was not quite old enough.

Grace, Madeline, Owen, and Talmage.

love. love. love.

{Owen Boy!}

I thought Owen deserved his own highlight. Over the summer Grace and Owen made the sweetest little connection I have ever seen in two little human beings. :) They would scream in excitement (yes, both of them) every time they saw each other. For Grace, it only took me mentioning Owens name and she would gasp and put her hand over her mouth. He is such a fun little boy and SO sweet with Grace. He is so affectionate with her (which of course she loves!) and they could race each other and play for hours. My favorite is their way of communicating, they would often babble and then laugh as though they totally had this secret language. The other night we were praying with Grace and we were naming people to bless in the family, and she interrupted us by saying Owen, owen, owen, owen...over and over.

It was the sweetest thing. Makes me cry that we don't live closer,

but I am so glad they had this summer to build such a cute little relationship.

{Bushman Visit}

We made so many fun memories over the summer with the Bushmans. It was fun to live so close to Regan and having him drop by, sometimes just to show us his sweet new shoes! We loved getting to know Brad, seeing Landon and Steph nearly every day we were there, and seeing Mckay in his new sheriff car.:) Ha ha, awesome. I loved spending hours talking with Christa, especially about redesigning her basement. Neil and Christa are experts at heading up the handcart trek, so Christa had some props that she wanted to try out on Grace. Ha ha, she is a cute little pioneer! :)

Of course, none of us (especially Grace) can get enough of Bryan and Ashley. They are so good with Grace. Here she is watching Elmo on Ashley's phone. The true way to Grace's heart. I told Steph there is no way that I can be the favorite Aunt for Madi with Ashley around. So true, she is awesome.

{Grace's Birthday Party}

Her birthday is not until September 8th but our sweet family insisted that we throw her a party before we left. Not only that but they planned the whole thing and it was so much fun. Matt told Grace that was the best party he had ever been to. :) Cute. I love getting both families together, it is the best.

This picture of Talmage on the left kills me. He is the cutest. The two Madi's had so much fun in the jeep. Madi was so nice bring it and share with everyone, it was a hit!

Below is Landon and my dad, and Scott and his cute girlfriend Brittany. We love her!

Regan and Tanner

Tenley. I miss her so much already. She is the sweetest thing ever.

Grace LOVES babies and couldn't stop touching her, sorry shell. :)

We are missing some people but it's the best group shot I got the entire night.

The kids loved the pool. Jefferson loved getting everyone wet.:) He had me running pretty good.

I was wondering why I never got a good picture of him.

Grace loved all of the attention and blowing out her candles! My mom made her the cutest cake, it was the one we always do for birthdays at my house and I am convinced it is the best in the land. Thanks mom!

Grandma Bushman made all of the kids cute little cupcakes with suckers. At one point Grace had two in her hand at once. I don't want to even think about how much sugar she had that day!

Mckay bought Grace this amazing elmo balloon bouquet. I thought she had died and gone to heaven.

Opening gifts, everyone was so generous. Thank you so much!

A funny and super sad moment of the party was when the balloons flew away. I don't think I will ever lose the visual of all of the kids crying and Grace just sitting there waving goodbye. Hilarious.

Lastly we played a mean game of pin the bow on Grace. I loved that all of the adults got into it too!

Have I mentioned that I love our families? :)

Me and my fester. Cried and cried saying goodbye to family. It was such an amazing summer!

Before the party started and Grace was actually dressed we took some pictures. She is adorable I must say. Michelle made her this tutu and brought it to the party. Perfect! Grace LOVED it.

She is lucky to have such a talented and thoughtful aunt.