Father's Day

You gotta love Father's Day at church! The girls brought these cute pictures home from primary the week before saying that if their Dad wore them to church he could come and get a cookie from the primary. Too cute. :)

Father's Day Weekend

Here we go...I can't even count how many years it's been since I've been on a bike. I'm really glad it's one of those things you really don't forget how to do b/c I was actually just a bit nervous when I first got on.

Stopping for a picnic lunch

Lance as trying to take pictures of all of us in action!

Ella has gotten very into "posing" for pictures lately. This is her trying to put her hands on her hips. :) It's hard to find them under that cute little belly and cushy diaper!

I love their cute matching dimples!

Ella is the only child that has a dimple and you can't really see it in this picture very well but it's on her right cheek just like Lance.

When I was a little kid I REALLY wanted dimples. :)

Father's Day Weekend we planned a fun family outing...that turned out really well (we have plenty of things we plan that DON'T turn out well!) We had plans to go to the temple and afterwards we decided to rent some bikes near Santa Monica and go on a family bikeride. Lance and I don't currently own bikes, so we don't get to do this very often and it was a blast. The place we rented from was great and really affordable. We were able to rent beach cruisers for Lance and I and a trailer for Maddi and Ella. And it was so fun b/c the bike trail we used goes right through the beach which was beautiful. We only rode for an hour and had time on our way home to stop by a beach we hadn't been to before. I don't know if I'll ever get tired of living near the coast. :) It was so fun to have some time together as a family.

Blueberry Picking!

Some friends invited us on an impromptu Blueberry-picking excursion. I loved the little farm we went to and the fact that they ENCOURAGE eating WHILE picking. This works great for the 5 and under crowd.

Mia's Last Day of School

The Growth Chart....if you look close you can see Mia's name twice which shows how much she's grown...crazy!

Mia's last day of school was fun for all of us. We got to stay with her the whole last day, enjoy a breakfast with her class, watch a slide show from their year, and watch them play games and have fun. Maddi was completely thrilled by the whole experience and I was pretty surprised to see her willingly sit with Mia the whole time (you would have thought she starting kindergarten THIS year...thank heavens I get another year with her). Ella just enjoyed running around on the playground. :)

What do you do with all those adorable school projects???

Someone gave me this idea years ago and I thought it was great so we decided to try it out this year. Instead of keeping or throwing away all those cute little projects my kids made all year in Kindergarten and Preschool we saved them in one box and on Mia's last day of school we went through the whole box together and they got to pick 3 things to keep the hard copies of and the rest we took a picture of and then threw away. And what will we do with those pictures???? We have a digital frame that we will upload the pictures to and set on slide show mode to display in our house throughout the next year. I thought it was a fun way to save memories and let go of the clutter. The girls surprisingly had no problems throwing everything in the trash afterwards!

Now I just have to actually follow through on uploading those pics to the frame. :) We'll see how long that takes. haha

Ella Growing Up

My cute little Ella is starting to look (and act) so old.....but I think I will still think of her as a baby for awhile longer! This is the first time we have had a 2 year old and NOT had a newborn as well. It's a totally new and different exeperience for us and while she has her very two-ish moments, and I'm sure she get's spoiled too much, it's nice to not feel a need to push her along to grow up because she doesn't have to yet!

We're going to enjoy it while we can. :)

The Big 3-0

The month of May was really crazy for me in mostly fun ways but by the end of it I got to spend my Birthday just the way I wanted...having a low-key, LONG weekend. (it's fun when it lands on Memorial Day). I had fun going out to breakfast with one of my favorite friends, getting to sleep in (until 8:00 Woohoo! That REALLY is sleeping in for me), doing a movie night with Lance and the kids , having a bar-b-que with friends, going shopping all by myself (no distractions, no one waiting on me), and coming home to enjoy some time swimming at the pool with my family.
Oh and a KitchenAid recently showed up on my doorstep so my next project....Bread Making!!! I've been wanting to try this for about a year now. I'm excited.

I haven't ever had any reservations about getting older so...30...Bring it on!!!

Last Day of Preschool

My cute cute little preschool class on our last day. I will miss being their teacher, but thankful we are all friends and will still get to see each other for other fun reasons.

The End of Preschool

Maddi and I getting ready for our End of the Year Program.

Well I officially decide to NOT teach preschool next year. Things went great this year and I loved it....Maddi GREW to love it...and I could have had a great little class next year but after much much debate, thought and prayer we decided it was in the best interest of me, and our family to take a break. It was very difficult decision but one I am really glad I made. :)
I am excited to soak up all the time I can with Maddi next year before she heads off to Kindergarten!

Coloring

Ahhh! I love it when my kids pass the eating crayon stage and can use them in the way they were intended. I found Ella like this for the first time...she was having such a great time!

Mia's Dance Recital