Maci is 1!!

This year has gone by so quickly, to think that a year ago I was meeting this little girl for the first time. From the moment she came into our family she has made it feel complete, that little piece that was missing is now here. Maci has seemed like she wants to catch up with her brothers from the day she was born, she started crawling before any of my boys did, she's walked early. She always wants to be with her brothers, I especially love watching her with Cole. They have this special bond, he was the only one who could make her laugh for the longest time. She loves to love on him, giving him hugs and kisses all the time. They love to wrestle around, I often have to tell Cole to stop sitting on his sister. But she just laughs while he's doing it, needless to say I think she'll be one tough girl. I haven't noticed a huge difference between raising girls and boys yet, but i'm sure I will soon enough.

I have been getting ideas and planning for a couple of months now,(thank you Pinterest!) and I tried to not go overboard. Which I think I did pretty good, even though Dave does not agree :-). I think the party turned out soooo cute! I am so blessed to have wonderful family and friends who were willing and able to help make it a success, especially Dave who never once complained. Even when staying up late to help make pinwheels, cake pops and cleaning up messes. I was trying to keep it simple and do as much prep work in advance as I could, but things never go according to plan so as usual I was stressing a bit Saturday morning. Thank goodness my mom and sisters arrived early enough to help out.

I love this time of year down here, the weather is always beautiful and Saturday was no exception. We have this nice little park down the street from us and no one is ever there, so it was the perfect place to have the party. All of the family and our closest friends were able to be there, Maci had a blast even though she had no clue what all the fuss was about. All in all it was a perfect day, I loved how everything turned out.

It was hard deciding what pictures to post there were soooo many that I loved, but here are my favorites. Enjoy!

Sprucedale Ranch

At the end of July I took the kids up to Sprucedale Ranch for one last summer get away before school started. And it was an adventure from beginning to end. Dave wasn't able to go with us so my sister and I caravaned up there, well about 3 hours into the drive it was suppose to be a 6 hr drive) all of a sudden my car started to overheat as we were going up a canyon. So I pull over of course call Dave freaking out, I then call our mechanic who happens to be a good friend in our ward. He had actually worked on the car the night before, so we figure out that the radiator cap wasn't tightened all the way. So I THINK I've tightened it all the way so we get back in the car and as soon as we make it out of the canyon it starts over heating again. So I pull over again and call our friend once more he's thinking he didn't do something properly but is sure that he can fix it. So he, his wife and Dave jump in their car and head out to come fix it.

My sister and I debate about what we should do, we are about an hour from Showlow and it will be at least 3 hours till help arrives for the car. We have 7 children between the two of us and they are all getting hungry and already tired of being in cars. As horrible as this may seem to some we all piled in her minivan. We really had no other choice, we really didn't feel comfortable sitting on the side of the road with 7 children. So we loaded her car up with as much of my stuff as we possibly could and carefully made our way to Showlow. Once there we grabbed some food for the kids and found a park we could hang out at till we figured out my car situation. I wish I had taken a picture of all of us piled in her car it was pretty crazy, and you should have seen the looks we got as we were all climbing out of her car at the park. It was like one of those clowns cars where people just kept on coming.

We spent about 4 hours at the park waiting for my car to get fixed, turns out it was just the radiator cap needed to be tightened. I felt so stupid for not being able to tighten it enough, apparently you have to twist and press down and lock it into place. Not just twist, so next time I'll know better. So once we had the car back we all piled back into our cars and finished the rest of the drive. Sprucedale is located just outside of Alpine, AZ and as a child I use to spend my summers camping in this area. I love it up there, and as we were driving there it was so sad to see the devastation that happened up theredue to the Wallow fire. But I must say that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was still very beautiful and things were starting to turn green. It was so worth the drive and the long day, to be out in the mountains and enjoy the cool weather wasamazing.

The kids got to ride horses, milk the cows, feed the animals, practice and participate for in rodeo. They loved it! It was so nice not having TVs, phones, video games or computers around my kids were outside playing from sun up till sun down. And when it was time for bed they were out really quickly. It reminded me of how when I was a kid I was always outside playing, my mom would have to make us come inside. The kids loved getting dirty, finding frogs and catching insects.

We did have one injury the day before we were to come home, Jaden was out on a horse back ride and the horse got spooked. I wasn't there so I don't know exactly what happened but he says the horse reared back and then tookoff running. He tried to hold on as best he could but eventually fell off, his leg took most of the fall, hitting a large rock. He was pretty shaken up but had to get back on a horse and ride the rest of the way. I met up with them at another ranch and he was acting so brave, I didn't realize how bad it really was. He didn't break anything but WOW he has the largest hematoma. Needless to say he took it easy the rest of the trip.

The last night there we got to have a little skit night with all of the ranch hands and the other families that were staying there. The kids had so much fun, I loved seeing the sparkle in their eyes. It was such a fun trip that my kids will always remember, Cole keeps asking when can he go back to the ranch.

Jaden Practicing for the rodeo, before his fall.

They even let the little kids participate in the rodeo, here's Cole riding with Mr. Whitney during the rodeo.

My best friends daughter Isabelle went with us, she was such a big help with Maci.

It was so beautiful up there, every where I looked was the perfect picture!

Here's the whole gang, as we were getting ready to leave. My mom has been working there the whole summer as the head cook. It was so good to see her! The staff there is amazing, they were all so willing to help withe kids and get you anything you need.

Ok so I am enjoying dressing up a little girl, I just had fun with this outfit!!! So I had to take a few pics of her in it.

Maci Brooke Knudsen

So we have a new addition to our family! (yes i know I am a few months behind on posting this)Her name is Maci Brooke Knudsen she was born on March 9, 2011 weighing 7lb 14oz and was 21 1/2in long. We were kind of in shock to say the least when we found out we were having a girl, but we now can't imagine life without her. She is such an easy going baby, sleeps well, has the sweetest temperament and she has made our family complete. As I post this she is now 3 months old weighs 15lbs and is 24 1/2 inches long. She loves to smile and is starting to roll over. I must say that I am loving having a girl, buying cute outfits, making bows and flowers for her to wear. I love dressing her up and I can't help but buy her a cute outfit when I see one. Dave thinks she has enough clothes but I beg to differ. Her brothers love her so much, when she cries it's not for long. They are rushing to her side and trying to make her smile. I love to watch them with her. She will definitely be a very spoiled little girl with three big brothers and her daddy wrapped around her fingers.

This is two days before I was induced