Fire

There was a fire on the mountainside up the street from us.  There are a few friends of ours that were fairly close to this.  They luckily didn't have to get evacuated but were ready to go a a moments notice.  Apparently a transformer blew and the sparks caused this to happen.  We have had 2 fires near us but thankfully the local Fire Department got both out within a 24 hour period.  It also helped that there was no wind either day I am sure.  We still think that our Fire fighters here are amazing. :)

Fourth of July

Summer Fun

 Playing on outdoor toys.  Oh and my oldest learned how to ride her bike without training wheels.

 My daughters car that we helped her make for the last day of school.  She told us what she wanted and then helped attach it with mod podge.

 My husband took this picture.  He is such a good dad to let his daughter dress him up all pretty.

 We went to a birthday party for our friends son.  The kids had fun in that foam pit.

 Look I can hula hoop!

  Our girls being cute.

She finished her first Chapter book.  

It had a recipe in it and we made the recipe as a prize for finishing her book.

Swim Lessons

 Both kids had swim lessons this year and they are doing great.  Our oldest is very close to independently swimming.  Her biggest thing is building strength in her swimming.  And our little guy is very comfortable in the water.

And this little girl got to come a few times with me and hang out wishing she could play in the water too.

KIndergarten Graduation

She graduated from Kindergarten with Flying Colors.  She is testing a year ahead and loves to learn.  She had so much fun this last year making friends and pushes herself to learn constantly.  My favorite part of the program was when she sang about being mail and when she said sang I want to mail myself to you she would look directly at me and point.  It melted my heart and I couldn't help being proud that she is my daughter.  I would mail myself to her as well.  Enjoy the pictures and video.

Marching in with all the Pomp and Circumstance.

Sitting in her place ready to sing.

 

Here she is with her Kindergarten Teacher, who will also be her First grade teacher as well.

Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer......

Oh what do you do in the wintertime.....

3 Bears

Mail my self to you....

To Grow Where there seems no Reasonable Place to Grow

There is a woman in my life ( a dear friend of my family) that I have heard on occasion tell me and others that if there was someone who had an excuse to no longer live the gospel and walk away it would be me and my siblings. I know that she is praising us and trying to tell us that she is impressed with our decisions. And yet I can't help but see it differently. For those of you who may not know I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka Mormon). It is deeply ingrained into who I am.

Some back story is that my Mom died when I was 14 years old. She had joined the church 2 years before I was born. My Mom had some rough patches in the beginning and eventually came to a point that I knew of active involvement in our church. My Dad made it a point to never keep us from church and at the same time regularly questioned our belief. I feel that he did this simply to make sure that we were not simply mindlessly following a path because our Mom did or because that is where our friends were. We always had an easy out if we wanted it. Maybe that is what this dear friend of that family meant. We never would have been told that we were wrong for leaving.

I have at regular intervals in my life had to stop and reflect of my membership and really my philosophy on life and try to know if deep down I still "believe". I can honestly say that belief has never been my issue. Always doing the daily things I should do like praying and reading my scriptures admittedly not as well as I would like. I try to be a decent person and hope that I somehow can make a difference. I am not perfect and even more admittedly not always kind. I struggle with pride and vanity as much as the next.

I have had great examples in my life. The Home Teachers who came monthly and built relationships with my family. The Bishops who were there ready to help at any given moment. Young Women leaders who were there to let me cry on their shoulder because I missed my mom so. Dear Friends of the family who never forgot us and still are actively apart of our lives. Family who has been there ready to help lift each other up. Random people on airplanes and people who I have run across on my walks. School teachers and counselors.

Experiences are also a factor. You can take two people and they can have the same stuff happen to them but how they experience it is different. How they feel about it will be different. And some times they will come away with the same outcome and sometimes very different outcomes. I can't help but feel that maybe we had less of a reason to leave the church. It was always our choice. It was something that helped us deal with our mothers death and gave us hope for a chance to be with her again. We could have been angry I guess, not sure that we haven't all been angry at one point or another about our mom no longer being on this Earth. But we had hope. We had each other. And we had a love for a Heavenly Father who I know for my part always knowing that he loves me. When I make a mistake or not he still loves me. I have learned that I do not have to be perfect, I only have to strive to do my best and to learn and grow daily in my life. Allowing the master to shape me into the Woman he desires me to be. My church encourages personal growth and revelation. I have felt the Saviors hand in my life.

I love this friend and if she is reading this I want to tell her how thankful I am for her and her family and for them being there for me and my siblings. She has made a difference in our lives. My nieces, nephews, children, siblings, husband and I have always felt loved by her. I know we are better people for having her in our lives. Thank you.

Preschool Graduation

 Our Little Guy graduated from his first year of Preschool.  He learned a lot there but he will go to a different Preschool next year.  They were 2 sweet older ladies just wanted more communication with them.

He was cute.  At one point it was his turn but he couldn't say anything because he had a booger in his nose and needed a tissue to take care of it before he would say his line.  Unfortunately I couldn't turn on the camera fast enough to get him saying his line.  SO I had him say it at the end just for me.  He is just too cute.  Hope you enjoy the pictures and videos.

 

Here he is with his teachers.

  

Teddy Bear Teddy Bear....

 

 Let's sing the Alphabet Song

Blue Stand Up....

 

Two Little eyes....

Sleeping in his "Office"

Fun day in the Water with the Fire Hydrant Sprinkler and Neighbor kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Spring Day at Lagoon

This year we decided that we would get season passes to Lagoon.  So we have had lots of family fun there this year.  These pictures are from our first day at Lagoon this year.

On the Sky Ride.

 On the Tea Cups

 Cute baby girl enjoying her stroller.

 He was the Map Keeper.  Also not happy to get his picture taken.

 Enjoying Caramel Apples.

 

 On Puff the Dragon.

 Our kids love to Fly

 

 

 

 

Tilt a Whirl

Pulling self up to stand around 9 months

I was a lame mom and didn't get her learning to crawl.  She did learn to army crawl around 7 1/2 months.  Then around 8 1/2 months she started really crawling and pulling herself up to stand about the same time.  Here she is at 9 months holding onto a chair.

Making Discoveries

 At Preschool for this little guy he got to bring home some activities.  Here he is watching his dinosaur grow in water.

 

Here is his experiment art project made from stuff sent home in a bag for them to create something with.  He says it is a boat.