Myra turns 1!!

Holy moly how time flies.

How is it that my youngest baby is already a toddler???  It sure doesn't feel like it's been a full year since she joined our family.

Since Brandon had to work, we had a little party for Myra the day after her birthday.  My sister Sabina, Darcie, and Robert and his wife, Sarah, were able to come celebrate with us.  It was fun. Giselle and Darius were more interested in opening the presents and Myra was more interested in what was inside the paper.

Since we weren't sure how Myra was going to react to cake, we (meaning Giselle) decided to do cupcakes.  We made them extra special though.

Yup! Those are Minnie Mouse cupcakes. We also decided to break out our ice cream maker and made up some homemade ice cream.  That stuff was SO. GOOD.

All in all it was a good birthday party with family. Fun and low-key-the best kind of parties.

Myra's Blessing Day

Myra was blessed in our church on July 2nd.  Most of Brandon's family was able to make as well as a few of my family members.  We missed having Alyssa and Andrew, and Savannah and her family but there were some conflicts with work schedules.  Due to the personal nature of the blessing, I won't be posting any details, but when family gets together- pictures need to happen.

It took a little bit for Giselle to warm up to Myra but now both kids love to dote on their little sister.

I feel this picture captures Giselle's personality a little too well.  Poor Darius...not sure what to think now that he is outnumbered.

Proud Grandpa and Grandma 

Our first "Family of Five" picture 

Brandon and his siblings (minus Alyssa) 

Darius was attached to his Grandpa.  It was challenge to get the above picture without Darius in it. 

Huffaker women 

Huffaker Family shot 

It's customary to get a picture of us showing our true selves 

Sabina, Robert, and I (missing Savannah!) 

A year and 3 months later.....

Here we are again, getting caught up clear back to Spring 2016 (now that it's July).  Since there is much to update about here's a bullet list (and a few pictures here and there):

Father's Day
We were able to take a short vacation to Lewiston for Father's Day weekend since Brandon had some vacation time saved up.  It was a short visit but it was a lot of fun.  The kids loved jumping on the trampoline with Emma and just hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa in general. We were able to get a 4 generation photo of the Huffaker men and a 4 generation photo of Huffaker women.

Birthdays

At the beginning of July, we celebrated Giselle's second birthday.  She didn't know quite what to think of us singing Happy Birthday to her, but she LOVED her presents and the cake.

Darius turned 1 at the end of August. We didn't do a cake for Darius, but we did do cupcakes. He just made a mess of it but he enjoyed every minute.  He also got his first haircut and after it was done, he didn't look like a baby anymore.

Holidays- Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's

For the Fourth of July we did two firework shows. One was with my cousin and her family (and all her neighbors).  Giselle didn't really care for the big flashy fireworks so Brandon went and sat with her in the car where she felt safe while Darius and I sat on the sidewalk.  We did a small fireworks show in our parking lot the following night.  We only had sparklers, ground flowers, and smoke bombs and Giselle seemed to like those MUCH better.  She loved identifying the color of the smoke bomb as it went off.

 For Halloween, we did fairly simple costumes.  I say "fairly" because I ended up making Pokemon costumes for Giselle and Darius.  Giselle went as Pikachu and Darius went as Bulbasaur.  Since I wasn't able to finish mine and Brandon's costumes (also Pokemon), we went as a voter and a "scary ballot."  Thanksgiving was spent here in Utah with my uncle and his family along with my brother and one of my sisters.  We also made an announcement on Black Friday after we got the Christmas tree up and decorated.

For Christmas, we did our own small Scandinavian dinner with my brother seeing as Giselle and Darius were sick and I wasn't feeling the greatest.  A couple days after Christmas, we made our way to Lewiston for New Year's and Emma's baptism. We also had family pictures taken since all of Brandon's siblings were there. Here are some of our family.

Job change

The end of April brought job changes for both Brandon and I.  Brandon was hired on at Vivint Solar as a Customer Success Manager and I was hired for a local sewing business as a seamstress.  I was able to stay at home with Giselle and Darius and it was a job I could do while on bed rest.  Brandon's new job brought a solidified work schedule that didn't require him to work past 7 pm and gave him weekends off.  Needless to say, Brandon's new schedule is so much nicer than his fluctuating schedule as a manager at Big Lots.  Brandon also stayed on at Big Lots as a stock associate, so he works a couple early mornings every week before he goes to work at Vivint.

New baby
Our biggest change has been the birth of our second daughter, Myra (pronounced MY-ruh) at the beginning of June.  She was born a week and a day early and labor was quick.  Giselle was very skeptical of her new baby sister at first, but Darius has been all about Myra (and dinosaurs) since she was born.  Recovery from Myra's birth has gone fairly smooth for which I am grateful.

And there you have it! I will attempt to be more diligent at keeping this blog updated about our adventures as a family of five (!!!).