July Adventures

Wow!  I have let way too much time lapse between updates so I'll try to do my best to catch us up month by month.  Gabby's 3rd birthday was on July 7th.  We celebrated with grandparents coming over.  First we did gifts:

As you can see, Gabby loved it all!

She wanted a Rapunzel cake so this is my sad attempt.  At least she knew who it was!

She's seriously so adorable!  We love our big Gabby girl!  She started potty training the day she turned 3.  She was off to a great start and struggled when Daddy left for training but she has it down pretty well now!

Will went to Kangaroo Zoo to celebrate Parker's birthday!  We sure miss Parker and his family!

Will with Kameron, one of his best pals that lives next door!

 The whole neighborhood crew!  Will sure had a blast!

The best thing that happened in July was....Rebecca was born!  We had been at some neighbor's playing games the night before and they must've gotten me laughing just enough to induce the labor 3 weeks early.  My water broke at 3:30am and we rushed to the hospital.  Luckily it didn't completely break and I actually made it to the hospital and even had time to get an epidural!  After going natural, it was a piece of cake!  My blood pressure dropped but they were able to remedy that before she was born.  Rebecca Ruth Russell was born at 5:54am weighing 5 lbs 14 oz and 17 in long on July 15th.  She was so beautiful!  I was in such a happy place and could enjoy her beautiful self! 

 She was struggling to breath so they put her on C-PAP for an hour and that seemed to do the trick!  She was just fine after that!

 Daddy was sure in love!

 He got a few weeks of enjoying her before he had to leave for 4 months of military training.

My favorite visitors!

Gabby is pointing at her new victim for smothering!

She sure does looooove her sis!

Will took a few peeks at her before he explored the room!

Lydia is so adorable with her too!

Rebecca looked so tiny when we put her in her car seat to go home!  She looks the most like Benjy out of all our children and I was so happy to have a part of Benj that was so familiar and loveable while I tried to cope with Benj's absence.  She has such a mild and easy-going personality and we couldn't be happier with our new addition!

Sweet Cody and Hayden gave us a nice surprise coming home from the hospital.

We ended the month by having Family Home Evening on the Title of Liberty.  Benj told the story from the Book of Mormon and then we made our own Title of Liberty, drawing the things that we will defend and treasure in our lives.

Some of it is upside-down but I think it's a pretty awesome symbol of what we treasure and love!