Summertime

To begin our summer we headed to Disneyland for a few days, as you can see from my previous post. On our way home we stopped in Fresno to see the family since my oldest brother and his family were in town visiting. It was a lot of fun having all the grandkids together.

Happy Father's Day! Joel is such a wonderful father and husband. We are so lucky to have him. We celebrated his day with gifts and good eats!

So, after we got home from our vacation we got an email from a Ward member saying they were looking for a home for this cute little Toy Poodle. Uhhhh... well not that we were looking for a dog, we knew we needed to do something to get our kids over their fears of... well... things that move. Willie was the perfect fit for our family, so we took him in. I have to admit, when I told the kids we were going to meet him, Megan burst into tears and Ethan ran to his room to list the reasons we "should not get a dog". After about 15 minutes with him, they were in love.

 Ethan was able to attend Twilight Camp for the first time this year and thought it was the greatest thing ever. He is young and ignorant, but I am glad he had so much fun. He got to experience a lot of new things like archery and BB guns.

I signed the kids up for swim lessons for the first time ever. I guess I should not have waited so long, but since we don't have a pool, I didn't see the point. Well, they hated it. By the end they all made progress, and since Austin was in a "mommy and me" class, he had a lot of fun. But honestly, Megan and Ethan endured it and, that was it. It was the longest 2 weeks of my life.

Joel was traveling on his birthday so when he got home we celebrated both his and Austin's birthdays on Saturday. I can't believe how big he is getting, Austin is growing so fast too!

We had a great 4th of July. We started the day off at the parade in Old Town Roseville then headed over to the park for a picnic. We didn't mean to, but seem to have started the tradition of buying something new for the house on Independence Day, last year was the TV for the living room and this year Joel and I got a new bedroom set. (Finally, I have been looking for so long! It is beautiful. I will have to post some pictures later.) When we got home we BBQ'd  and played with fire in the street. Between our fireworks and our close neighbors, we put on quite a show.

Disneyland 2012

 We just got back from an amazing Disney vacation. The parks were incredibly busy (what were we thinking... holiday weekend!) but always loads of fun.

 There were several attractions open this year that were not last time we were there. The kids loved exploring Tom Sawyers island and we even found a pirates treasure in the end.

 Austin was good about finding a place to lay down and take a nap when ever he felt the need. We were were in line for Pirates of the Carribean when Joel nudged me and said, "uh... is Austin awake?" He slept through the whole ride, thank goodness! I can only imagine his reaction waking up in the middle.

 We played two days at Disneyland and one day at California Adventure, with a day at the beach in the middle. Austin was asking to go home after day two, but was asking to go on more rides at the end of day four. The kids were all troopers and had a great time. I wore my pedometer and tracked about 20,000 steps per day at the parks. I can only imagine how many steps that meant for the kids.

 The Disney Junior show is one of our favorites at CA Adventure. Megan is not too sure about the "characters", but this was a safe way too see them.

 We got to see World of Color for the first time also and it was wonderful.

We all fit into one tea cup and after about 6 trys, Joel was able to get a shot of the whole family. Now it is one of my favorite pictures from our trip. Here we are at 8:30 PM on our last day. How are these kids still going? We had so much fun, we are already planning our next trip... although I think it will be a few years. Hotdogs are expensive here!

May

Happy Mother's Day!

  My kids (and hubby) spoiled me. Notice I am the only one who had time to get ready that morning.

Open House

Second grade is quickly coming to an end. We are really going to miss Ms. Anderson, she is an amazing teacher! Ethan did a dinosaur project, above is his model.



Tiny Vikes Graduation

Megan did it! She officially graduated preschool and is ready to start Kindergarten.

We celebrated Megan's 5th birthday with a little tea party. She invited 5 little girls and we made crafts, ate a fancy little lunch and decorated cookies. It was lots of fun. Take a look at that watermelon, do I love my daughter or what!


Ethan is so excited to be in Scouts. At his first Pack Meeting they made scripture cookies. Megan and Austin joined in the fun as well.

It is fun to be the mom because dad does all the work and mom gets the credit during the awards.