Ella's first day

Today's the day... Our big girls starts pre-cool.  Miss Ella was so excited this morning. 12:30 couldn't come fast enough. She looked darling in her school outfit from grandma Cindy, and her pre-cool shoes and backpack from grandma Kathy. Ella is a luck little lady. We sure love her! 

Zoo trip

First zoo trip of the summer with the cousins. Had a great time. Thanks grandma Cindy.

Hunter and baby Reid.

These boys are best friends. Love them

Ella's favorite animal this trip was the giraffe

Which one is the monkey?

Ella's First Fairy Party

Grandma Cindy has taken the granddaughters to the 

Provo city library Fairy tea for the past 10 years. 

This year Ella was old enough to join in the fun.  

Ella loves to dress up and have a tea party so she was very excited.

  

I was excited to do a little girly sewing, 

I figured out a fairy dress that she could wear to church too.

Ella was sweet and told everyone "my mom made my dress."

The best part about the dress was the awesome twirl.  

It's so fun to have a little girl!

All the fairy cousins

At the party they had a professional photographer taking pictures,

he gave Ella and Kadence the creeps.  He was kind of a creepy old man...

The look on Ella's face says it all.

Ella and Ally looked so cute in the group shot, I couldn't help but zoom in.

That little Kadence is a crack up.  She makes me so happy with her silly personality.

It was fun to be with all the girls.

Over all the party was fun. Thanks grandma Cindy for the memories, 

and all the girly joys.  It's a new world for me, 

but it's my dream come true to 

play and dress up and

 make sweet memories with my daughter.

PS. for next time I will remember Ella needs a nap before a big event like this... She was so excited all day and wore herself right out. She zonked out before we even left the library parking lot...Little girls NEED their beauty rest.

Disneyland Highlights 2013

Our disneyland trip started in Las Vegas where we stopped to break up the drive.  We went to the Walker's home where they treated us like special guests.  Aunt Jessie made us a yummy dinner, and the kids had a blast playing with Jensen and Lucy.  Thanks Walkers for your kindness and love.  

First on our list in California was a trip the the beach!

We love the sand between our toes... 

Some of the highlights... the Jedi training.

Meeting the princesses...

Riding all the rides, and stopping for a treat...

All the Disney Magic

Having fun with the Family.

Thanks grandma Kathy for a fun trip.  We loved every minute of it!

Reflection winners 2012

 Hunter and Grant are proud medal winners in this year's reflections contest.  The theme was "Magic in a Moment"  and they both created art work that represented magic to them. No surprise to anyone Hunter drew horses and Grand drew a hunting scene.  They were both thrilled to receive awards and they were well deserved. The boys worked really hard on their projects.

 James also drew a magic moment... His drawing was really cute and he won a yellow ribbon.  I think he was a little disappointed, but there is always next year.  James is a really good artists so he will have lots of opportunities for the big trophy. He is a big sweetheart...

 I'm sure proud of my boys and all their hard work. They really try their best and I'm so happy they had fun today...

Happy Halloween 2012

 Ware Wolf  Hunter

 Grant the Mad Scientists.

 Both Hunter and Grant had school parties and a parade at school. They both had a lot of fun.  Grant was worried about wearing his costume because he couldn't run to school with his head on.  I thought that was funny.  Hunter really got into character as the ware wolf... he should be an actor someday.

 James and Ella and I went to the school parade, and then to McDonalds for Halloween happy meals.  James had a class party and a little parade around the playground for the parents.  He was so excited about his captain America costume.  He even bought the shield with his own money.

 Ella kept telling everyone her name was Jessie...  she too is quite the actress, totally in character.  She is also all girl and wanted make up on.  I gave in because it was Halloween.  It's not fair, her eyelashes totally kick the trash out of mine.  Check out how long and pretty they are... so jealous!

We had fun with the cousins, trick or treating and yummy food at both grandma's houses... Whoosh what a night. Can't wait til next year.

Hulk Smash...

 Cindy hosted an adult Halloween party this weekend.  Matt and I are typically not costume people, but this year Matt got really excited about being "Hulk Smash" as ella calls him... The kids are  into the Advengures, even little ella who wanted to be the Hulk for Halloween.  When we talked Ella into being a girly costume instead, Matt decided to go all out.  Even after 12 years together Matt still surprises me... He really got into character and looked super hot in all those green muscles...  After the party we went to my mom's and Hulk scared the crap out of she and Brooke.  It was priceless...

Haven't blogged in a while...

Wow it's been a while since I've had the time to blog... The formats have changed and it has taken me a while to figure everything out again.  I'm not super computer savvy, but I try...  Things have changed in our family too.  The kids are "growing like weeds"  as my grandma Phillips always says.  The boys are all doing well in school.  Ella is finally potty trained which deserves a big Woo Hoo!!  Who ever said training girls was easy didn't have boys... Both Matt and I are in new callings, which is a big change for our family.  One thing that hasn't changed is we still love to be together and we love adventures... So I hope to blog about all the new Knudsen adventures... Instead of trying to catch up I'm just going to start and then maybe throw in a few from the summer fun.  Happy Blogging...

Our new Easter Tradition...

I was so not happy about the Easter Bunny expectations around our house. It had gotten out of control this year, and our kids had lost the true meaning of the holiday. Plus they had already received clothes and treats and surprises from all their grandparents... I decided we needed to do something different.
So sunday after chruch Matt and I spent some time writing little notes and thoughts to the kids. We each rote 4 notes on egg shaped papers for each of the boys, so they had 8 eggs to find. We hid them all over the yard...

The egg hut was a little bit tricky because the papers were white and flat so it took quite a bit of time for them to find all their eggs.
I was worried about how the kids would react to this new idea, but I was pleasantly surprised by the feeling of the activity.

Once all the notes were found the kids lined them up on the porch and read them one by one.
It was such a boost to all the boys to read notes from their parents, expressing love and encouragement, testimony and support. Sweet Hunter probably needed this the most because his eyes were teary and he jumped into my arms the moment he was finished reading.
It was an amazing family strengthening experience. I hope to do it every year from now on. I'm not sure it will always feel this powerful, but I do know it felt better than any Easter basket...

Easter fun...

Hunter and His friends started our Easter fun off with the great rabbit hunt.
They were so cute in their hats and gear on, chasing the rabbit that lives on the farm.
They were so proud when they finally caught him. We played with the rabbit for a while and then let him run wild again. I'm sure there will be many more rabbit chases...

James and Ella invited their friends over for an Easter egg hunt in the hay field.

the kids had a blast finding eggs, blowing bubbles, eating bunny treats, and laughing.
We are thankful for fun friends to celebrate with.

Aunt Valerie invited us to her annual easter egg hunt in Ogden.
It was amazing how many eggs she colors and how much candy is on her back lawn.
I didn't take too many pictures because I was distracted by all the cute new baby cousins...

Saturday we went to Great Grandma Phillips's annual easter egg hunt and BBQ.

The kids were once again spoiled with lots and lots of treats and fun.

Grant found the lucky golden egg, a tradition started by Uncle Rod when we were all teenagers. Grant scored $38.00, which burned a hole in his pocket all the way home.