Our World

Lainey's first sport!

2011-11-17T14:10:00.000-08:00

Of course I got roped into being the "coach's helper" which basically meant that I was the coach when the coach didn't want to show up or was late (which was A LOT)! Lainey really loved it at first, but by the end of the season she was so done, I was done, and frankly the whole team was DONE! 3 and 4 year old's playing sports is hilarious and fun, but a lot of work! Here are some of the fun pics!

Gotta stretch!

Yeah, I pretty much rocked at being the pitcher:

Ball to the face:

And she misses!

Lovely Lainey-Bug:

Ethan rocking a faux hawk:

Bet that felt good!

I saved the best for last:

Has it been THAT long?!! OOPS!

2011-10-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, my mom (Barb) is living us right now. Not only do the kids get lots of "grammy time" they also get LOTS and LOTS of time with animals! The kids (and I) have loved it!

Diesal and Betty the pot bellied pigs

Close-up of Diesal..so ugly he is cute!

I love this picture that Andy took...

It should be a surprise to no one that Lainey is a "natural" at riding and all she wants to do is RUN on her...we are working up to that!

Ethan is really enjoying Dancer as well, here he is trotting on her!

Love this kid!

Dancer is old as you can see, but she still has LOTS of spunk!

My baby

Lainey LOVES to stir Dancer's mush..it's part of her daily morning routine. Lainey goes every morning with Grammy Barb to feed Dancer and to play with the new barn kitties. It's little kid heaven out at the stables!

Unlike her mom, Lain doesn't mind getting dirty!

We brought Dancer to Lainey's school for show and tell. She was a hit!

These guys are just a wee bit bigger than Dancer:

Lain on GREAT BIG Morgie!

Ethan riding Belle, a Percheron draft horse

Lainey and her stable friend. I am trying to get used to the new blogging layout and have not yet figured it all out (obviously!) I will work on it and I will also work on updating the blog..promise, I am just SUPER busy, but I will definitely try to post more! Love you all!

Utah Part 4...finally

2011-09-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

She loves to do "projects"

Budding little artist.

can you tell she loves to hold babies?

You can not get away from me.....i will hold you and you will like it!

See, I told you

Who doesn't love these things?

She wants this in her room.

She loves G'ma Rass

And G'pa and G'ma Pat too!

Gotta love the look on both kids faces...

Just admire my eyes and move on please.

Jam Session!

He really wants a little brother. Sorry Ethan.

Save me from this girl.....wont be the last time he thinks that.

I am not tired, I swear.

"You be a horsey okay"...the things she can get you to do

She loves her G'pa Jay

And her crazy cousin

Gettin tall

can you tell they are related?

Cute smiles!

They love their G'ma Reading too!

Utah Part 3!

2011-08-18T13:15:00.001-07:00

Lainey LOVES babies...she is a bit obsessed actually. She keeps asking me for another sibling (not gonna happen) and even pretends that she has a baby in her belly. It totally reminds me of myself when I was a kid. I too was obsessed with little ones. Thank goodness for friends and family that have kiddos that are younger than Lainey!

We went and visited my childhood friend, Dalis and she has two darling kiddos one of which is shown here...how cute is she?! I just want to bite her cheeks!

Lainey still thinks of Owen as a baby..even though he is almost BIGGER than her! Here she is giving him a loving headlock:

The aftermath. I can just imagine what is going on in his little head..something along the lines of "Damn, she got me again."

*I have enough pics of Baby Brody and Lainey to have a whole post just on them..so I am saving them for another post down the road.!*

We had many group baths!

I took Jackson and Lainey to Wheeler Farm. Jackson actually fed the geese and ducks!
Lainey didn't go near them. I don't blame her though, they are as big as her!

Beanie posing for me! For all of you who know bean, it is pretty close to a miracle if you can get this kid to pose or smile for a photo. I got him to do both! Lainey was busy watching the cows to see if they would poop. One pooped and she kept saying " I wanna see the cow poop again mamma"...oh dear! I won't even tell you the conversations we have down at the horse stables about males and females. Let's just say, she is mighty curious!!

I love pigs! You can tell this one is in heaven!

New baby calf:

The kids loved sitting on the tractors:

(see the smile on bean?!)

We went and got sno-cones while at Breck's and this is a cute picture of the big kids pushing the double stroller. Such good helpers!

Utah Part 2!

2011-08-13T13:03:00.001-07:00

Part 2 begins with our trip to the zoo! The kids had a great time and well, let's just say that Breck and I survived, but we were ready for a beer once we got home!

Lainey and Quinn were out back playing and Lainey came inside and asked me if she could jump in the puddle. I figured that there was a small puddle that the sprinklers had made. I told her yes and she looked at me with raised brows and said "Yes?" and I told her "sure, go ahead" and so off she went...a few minutes later we went outside to check on them and this is what we found:
No wonder why I got the raised brows, I had NO IDEA she meant a MUD PUDDLE! But boy, did they have fun!

Our little girls love to be dirty, but they do also like to dress up. Here is proof! Breck threw the girls a tea party..it was DARLING!

Tomorrow..part 3 of our Utah adventures!

Utah Part 1

2011-08-09T08:17:00.001-07:00

We started off the Utah trip in Salt Lake at Aunt Breck's house. Ethan got to hang out with Jackson, Quinn and Owen before heading up to Logan. Here they are eating their super yummy sno-cones:
Lainey and I spent the night at Grandma Pat's house while Ethan started his stay with Uncle Josh and his family. We all met up for fireworks..Lainey wasn't so sure about them at first, but quickly warmed up to the idea.

We got to see Matt and Nancy's kids for a second before Lainey and I headed back down to Salt Lake. Here is Lainey with darling little Claire. Can you tell that they are both 3?!

Josh and Brigitte sent us some pictures of his time there. He had a BLAST. Thanks again guys!

The boys spent a lot of time riding bikes:

Ethan biffed it a lot...here is one of the particularly bad ones:

Poor guy!

He sure does clean up nice for church though!

The kids at the 4th of July parade:

They also went swimming:

And to the dam:
He loved spending time in Logan with all of his cousins! Next up...Post 2 of Utah!

Pismo Beach!

2011-08-03T07:16:00.000-07:00

I know that I have my UTAH post that I need to do, but I figured that I would do this post first since we went to Pismo before our trip to Utah! The kids and I headed there with our good friends and former neighbors, the Villasenors. We had a great time!

We went to the beach for a short while, but it was still SOOO cold that we didn't last long!

Poor Lain, she got sand in her eyes!

The boys went to the pier to fish and the girls headed off to window shop and buy treats!

The only catch of the day...they used it as bait!

James lost a flip flop off the pier so we went for a little excursion to buy him some new ones:

At the pier:

Before going home we went to Shell Beach and climbed around for a bit:

There was a park right by so the kids played around a bit before we went for dinner at In and Out Burger (my fave). Here they are doing silly faces:

Next up: UTAH posts!

Bryan and Trish came to visit!

2011-06-26T10:04:00.000-07:00

Grandpa Bryan and Grandma Trish came out to visit and we had such a nice time! Thanks so much for making the trip out! The kiddos really loved having them here and Lainey sure warmed up to them this time.

We took advantage of having them here and had our family photos done! Wahoo! We got a few of them as well.

I love this photo!

Here is a sneak "peek" of our family pics. You'll have to wait until Christmas to see the rest!

End of Season Baseball Party!

2011-06-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

I have quite a few posts that I need to do, but I figured that I need to do them in order so I don't leave anything out!

They had a great season and ended up winning the championship! Go Braves!

Andy with most of the team:

Notice how Lainey is right up there waiting for a cupcake:

Ethan loves to swim and do tricks:

I SURVIVED!!

2011-06-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

So yes, I survived another camping adventure! This time it even rained almost the ENTIRE time we were there and I still managed to somehow stay...my friend Jessica threatened not to be my friend anymore if I left, so that might have been a tiny reason why I decided to tough it out!

We arrived on Friday afternoon and set up camp:

Remember how I said that we use air mattresses..I wasn't kidding! This is Andy's, Ethan's and Mio's side of the tent:

The girl side (minus Mio):

Yes we brought the dog again, but this time she totally redeemed herself. NO PUKE!!

In the Villasenor's tent there was this awesome hole. I am not sure what it is for.. a doggy door?!
The kids had fun sticking their heads out of it!

Jamesy boy being silly:

While we unloaded all the camping stuff the kids played a game of horseshoe's:

And shot the bow and arrow:

Then they went on a hunt for fire wood:

While I was getting our tent ready the rest of the clan headed on a little excursion:

When they came back we roasted hot dogs:

After dinner we headed down to the lake:

Ethan caught his first fish!!!

Later that night Lainey and I got in the shower (which was my SAVING GRACE) and we had this little friend in there with us:

That night it started to rain and didn't stop...we played games to pass the time:

This was Lainey's horse:

Proof once again that I was there!

Dinner the second night:

My Love:

After dinner we headed back to the lake even though it was raining and lo and behold Ethan caught a SECOND fish!!!

Each night we made sure to make yummy smores:

And we all got really messy!

All the kiddos after a long day of rainy day fun:

Lainey photobombing:

When we woke up that morning the rain had cleared up..surprise surprise right?!

We were all excited to see some beautiful weather come our way, but we were all exhausted and ready for home! Here are a few pics of us before we headed home:

The Jackson Family:

The Villasenor Family:

Our Family:

Annie went camping..what?!!

2011-05-16T13:31:00.001-07:00

Let's start this blog post off with one of my projects that I had to do this semester...this was for the urinary unit in my physiology class. I had two other classmates who helped with the project and believe it or not, we got the best in class and received an extra 10 points!

This photo should have been in the previous post, but it was on my camera and I haven't put any photos on in well, almost a month... better late than never right?!
Let me begin this next part by saying that I haven't camped in over 10 years so cut me a little slack when you read this okay?! If my memory serves me right, as a teen I thought it was a blast... Now that I am a bit older, I have realized that the comfort of my bed is FAR better than sleeping on an air mattress in a tent (yes, I know that some of you are scoffing even at the idea of "camping with an air mattress" because real campers don't use them!).
Our original plan was to spend two nights up there, but after one, Lainey, the dog and I went home. I know, it is sad, but so SO true! I found out that in my old age I have to be eased back in to this whole "nature" thing! I will get there, I WILL, but next time I will be armed with allergy medication and ear plugs! Ear plugs you say, why would she need ear plugs?! Let me just tell you WHY:
Between Andy and one or both kids snoring, to Mio licking herself all night, to the racoons who got into our food at midnight, to the squirrels who woke me up at 3:00 a.m, and finally to Lainey waking us all up at 5:20 ready for the day, let's just say, I didn't get much sleep! I was one itchy, crabby mess! Andy was sweet and realized that I wasn't doing so well and told me that really, I could go home if I would like just as long as I take Lainey and the dog with me. DEAL!
As a side note: Our dog is a bit retarded. Lovable, but retarded. This was her first and probably last camping trip. She was nervous and drank a bunch of water when we first arrived. She then proceeded to puke all of it up (plus her breakfast that hadn't fully digested) right in our campsite. Needless to say, the puke that she didn't EAT AGAIN (dry heaving as I type) I stepped in...multiple times. If that wasn't bad enough, the entire time we were there she kept eating leaves and what not. Can you guess what happened next?! Yup, she saved her last puke for our ride home, in my nice new car! Luckily she puked all of the grass and leaves onto her beloved sleeping blanket that promptly got thrown away. There was no way I was washing that nasty thing.

Proof that I was there!

This is what I got when I said "smile":
We did have quite a bit of fun BEFORE the night from hell...I have proof! This is partly in here for your enjoyment as well as to convince me that I did have fun and that I CAN do it again and that camping can be enjoyable! I just have to be like the little engine that could...

Every time the boys go camping Ethan sets up their flag to mark their camp site. This was my first "project" on the sewing machine..don't look too close!

Lainey brought some friends along:

Ethan doing boy stuff:

Lainey tipped over right after this was taken:

The kids loved to go and find sticks for the fire:

SMORES:

After we left the boys went on a hike:

I am going to try try again...actually quite soon in fact! We are planning a multi-family trip with our friends the weekend the kids get out of school. WISH ME LUCK! I am sure I will have many stories and many pics!

Adventures with Grandma Pat

2011-04-30T07:29:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the pictures of our adventures with Grandma Pat. She made the voyage to the middle of nowhere California again. We really are in the middle of nowhere but close to tons of stuff. Morro Bay was first.

Off to Montana De Oro and probably one of my favorite beaches in the world, Spooners Cove.

Then to Sequoia and 15 feet of snow still. So much for the hike we had planned.

Find Ethan

Sequoia was scattered with these blossoming trees...so cool.

Off to Yosemite now.

Bridalveil Falls, we got soaking wet from the mist. Lainey decided she didn't like waterfalls after this.

Lower Yosemite Falls.

I love this picture of Ethan...handsome man.

Thanks for coming to visit Mom...we had tons of fun!

Easter Weekend

2011-04-27T07:41:00.000-07:00

First off, I haven't posted in a week because we have been a bit busy. Grandma Pat is in town and we have been having a wonderful time with her. Andy will soon be posting pics of all the adventures that we have gone on this past week, but in the meantime I thought that I should put up an Easter post before I started getting phone calls about not posting on the blog ;)!

We started off the weekend by baking cookies! I should clarify, "I" didn't take part in any of it other than eating more than my fair share of them!

On Saturday we got up bright and early and headed to Morro Bay for the day (those pics will be in Andy's post). Before we left we decorated eggs.....

On Sunday morning the kids woke up and found their Easter baskets:

I remember as kid that I would have to be all dressed and cute before we were able to go and hunt eggs.....as you can see, that tradition has not been passed on... my kiddos are still in their jammies!

I didn't get the kids Easter clothes this year (nor did I make Easter dinner!). Lainey did have a really cute dress on later that day, but the Easter bunny left colored bubbles in her basket. DAMN that Easter Bunny, worst idea EVER! She had dye all over herself and her dress. Yes, it is washable, but my daughter looked like she was Dexter's daughter after she was done blowing bubbles.
So, I mentioned that I didn't make Easter dinner...we (I) decided that spaghetti with cheesy breadsticks sounded like a much easier...er....better plan. It was delicious and who knows, we might just have ourselves a new tradition!

This last picture has nothing to do with Easter, but I thought it was super cute and it kind of fits because she was in an "Easter" colored outfit.

More spring stuff..

2011-04-21T12:49:00.001-07:00

Andy had to work all weekend so the kids and I went with our neighbors (who also happen to be wonderful friends) to the annual Lemoore Pizza Festival. This was the first event that we attended when we arrived here in good old Lemoore. Can you believe that it has been a year already?! Wow, how the time has flown by!

Lainey bug on the way to the festival...she is impersonating Elton John:

Here are the kiddos LAST year:

Here they are THIS year:

Ethan LAST year:

Ethan THIS year:

Lainey LAST year:

Lainey THIS year:

What a difference a year makes!!

After the pizza festival we headed over to a park to feed ducks:

Lainey isn't in these pictures because she started to get sick..poor thing had the flu for the next few days. We are going to go and feed the ducks again because I know that she would love it.

Gotta love the baby ducklings!

These guys, well, not so much. They are UGLY!

The last pic of have is of Ethan and his crazy slide hair:

Spring time!

2011-04-15T14:15:00.001-07:00

It is so nice to be able to go outside and get a little fresh air. I am so over winter. I know that all you Utahns (what a weird word) are probably rolling your eyes about now, but it is all relative people! It was COLD here for us Californians :). Anyway, back to my point....what was it again? Oh yeah, it is beautiful these days! It is still a bit chilly in the mornings, but by afternoon it is very pleasant out. The kids love to venture out back to play....here is what we do on a typical day:

Of course, Ethan is always skating...he and Jacob had me take these pics of them. They wanted me to print them out so that they could glue them into a skate magazine (so that it looked like they were in it). It was so cute! I told them after about 5 shots of the "tough" faces, they had to give me a least one smile pic!

While the photo session was going on the girls were busy picking flowers and what not to make "salads" for us. Lainey did her part by applying sunscreen for the dressing :).

Lainey is OBSESSED with sunscreen (not the cheapest thing to be obsessed with either). She will chase you down and douse you in it so beware! She literally CHASES the kids outside yelling at them "YOU HAVE TO WEAR SUNNNNNSSCCREEENNN!" Oh miss Lainey, what ever shall we do with you?!

Sequoia Afternoon

2011-04-11T19:39:00.000-07:00

I gave Annie the afternoon off a weekend or two ago and took the kids up to Sequoia. They both love to be outside and didn't mind the 2 mile hike. Lainey was done by the end but she still did it without any help. We all had a great time and maybe we can go camping soon if I can get a day off (I have worked 140 hours in the past week and a half).

She thinks this is cute....it was the first time. This is the 1,000th time.

E..on the rocks. Shaken...not stirred.

Wandered up on a cool waterfall. Lain was a little scared of it....it was loud.

Indian pictographs. They were on Hospital Rock...mom, we had lunch there and didn't see these.....thought I was observant.

The kids

Me...bored.

He could have done this all day.

...would like to hike up there....The kids said no.

Herculain

Playing in the water and making dams. I used to love this. I have the scars to prove it...no shirt+wet road+running=fall on my chest and slide.

I hope they aren't pretending that I am standing down there...cause they throw hard.

Lain looks happy but she wasn't. She sat down as soon as I said we were close to the car. 4 miles is a lot for her little legs to walk!

Catching up...again!

2011-04-07T12:26:00.001-07:00

My mom and dad have both told me that since I caved in and got a facebook account that my blog has gone to shit. Trust me, I know it has.
Facebook does account for some of the neglect, but I am also going to school now and that seems to take up most of my spare time! So, to try and redeem myself I promise to do a better job at keeping up on this thing. That being said, this post is for all of the grandparents who don't have a facebook account!

I showed Ethan and Lainey the art and fun of going down the stairs in a sleeping bag. I remember having so much fun as a kid doing this! Jayson and I would even put our heads in the bottom of the sleeping bag and go down that way. I didn't let Ethan even attempt that because as you will see from the video, he had a hard time just doing it the normal way!

Lainey tried it once and decided that it hurt her butt too much, but she had a blast pushing her brother down the stairs. Imagine that!

Here is a hug before she launches him down!

Andy got creative the other day while doing play dough with Lainey. I thought the pics were kind of cool:

Here Ethan is on his 8 year birthday!! He decided that he didn't want a party this year and instead wanted to have one of his best friends, Jacob sleep over. Wahoo for me! It was such an easy day! Hopefully I can convince him to do the same thing next year! We tell him that if he has a party that is fine, but if he just wants to have one friend that we can do something pretty cool since we will spend the same amount of money either way. The plan for the sleepover went like this:
Pizza for dinner
Cake that evening
Sleepover in the garage in a tent
Wake up and go to the skate park (but they got rained out)
So instead Andy took them up to Visalia and they went to the Adventure Park.
They came home and it was nice out so they skateboarded outside on Ethan's new skate ramp.
Easy peasy!!

We recorded the kids singing and Ethan blowing out the candles, but I forgot to get a before picture of his cake...oops! It was a skateboard cake...

Ethan and Jacob:

Andy and the kids being silly:

She was taking monstrous bites!

Again, I forgot to take pics of him opening all his stuff, but I did get two at least! I know, I need to step up my game in the birthday party department!

Here they are playing with one of his new toys...notice little tag along lainey. Now I know what my poor brother went through!

Chillin in the tent:

Next up are just some random pics:

We had to take this picture because this is the FIRST time in her entire life that she has fallen asleep anywhere but her bed. Poor tired girl, must have been a rough day at preschool!

Can I tell you enough times about what a good dog we have?!

Yay, the sun came out the other day and we took advantage of it!

This child loves to get dirty:

Andy had to do a uniform inspection at work so he had to put on his whites. I love a man in uniform! BTW, the pants he has on are the ones from boot camp. Not many guys can say that they still fit in their boot camp pants. I know that my pants that fit just fine last week are a bit snug right now so I can't imagine what a pair from 8 years ago would be like! Wait a minute, yes I can...I was fat then because I gained over 50 lbs with Ethan but you get my point!

And there you have it folks!

Go Braves!!

2011-03-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

Ethan's baseball team this year is the BRAVES and guess who the coach is?! Yup, Andy!

Ethan loves the fact that his dad is the coach and all the kids on the team really like Mr. Felt. Andy has had a lot of parents comment on how the kids are really liking baseball this year and that he is such a good coach. I agree!
Unfortunately, I haven't made it to a game yet because it has been raining and I just can't muster up the energy to go out and play in the mud for an hour with Lainey. There is a park right by so that is of course where we end up after about oh, 3 minutes. I haven't been able to see much action, but there still many games ahead. I think I might just drop her off at the babysitters so I can actually watch the game!

Here is a shot of Coach Andy and Ebear:

Lainey of course didn't want to be left out!

Lainey's First Camping Trip

2011-03-13T15:46:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I took Ethan and Lainey camping at Millerton Lake. It was Lainey's first time going and she had a blast. She was in heaven playing in the dirt and squirting anything she wanted to. It was really cute watching Ethan show Lane the ropes. Next time Annie says she will come...I guess it helps that they have bathrooms and showers close by!

Our camp site

....still has to watch a show while camping. Junky

Cant tell you how many times I refilled her squirt gun.

Ethan would live out of a tent if he could.

Heading down to the water together. On the hunt for fire wood.

Guess who loves fire?

We had a nice sunset too!

A few random pics...

2011-02-24T11:39:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend we decided that it was about time for Lainey to graduate from her toddler bed into a big girl bed and she absolutely LOVES it!! We went to Target to pick out her comforter and sheets (they had so many cute ones to choose from). I chose this one though because it matches her drapes that hang over her closet and I just loved the pattern.

The kids got these for Christmas and loved them...they have since passed on, but they did get to cut their hair once before they got all moldy :).

Ethan's cut:

Lainey's cut:

The Beach

2011-02-13T21:32:00.001-08:00

We decided to take a Saturday and get away to the coast. We went to Morro Bay. It is a little less than a 2 hour drive from our house and the weather was perfect. Lainey and Ethan were in heaven to be on the beach again. I am having a hard time being so far away from a beach. Ever since I joined the Navy I have been no longer than a 10 minute drive from the beach. We started our day off in Morro Bay, then went out to Morro Rock. The beach there was awesome and nobody was there. From there went to Montana De Oro state park and hit up another beach. Both were very beautiful. It was about 75 out and it must not be tourist season yet because everywhere we went was surprisingly not crowded. I think we will be heading to the beach more often now.

Morro Bay

The bay and Morro Rock

We had breakfast right on the water.

The kids were itching to get to the beach!

Of course Ethan was the first to the sand

Off to play

They could have stayed here all week

Lainey thought it was so cool to sit in the trunk to get cleaned up

I love this one

Spooners Cove in Montana De Oro

Skippin rocks

Can you see the joy in her face?

The boys

Trying to hit some ducks

Cute little hands

Plumbers butt
The end

Soccer Mom

2011-01-28T11:40:00.000-08:00

So Annie has been getting back in touch with her athletic side. Nothing better than playing soccer with a bunch of over competitive moms, who take our their rage on other moms. Well not the blue team (Annie's team). It is very fun to watch and see and how dirty some of these girls play and how foul their mouths are. The kids and I go every Sunday to watch the girls duke it out. Ethan and Lainey have a blast and Lainey cheers Mama on from the sidelines yelling "go Mama go!".

How nice is that form? Well her and the throw in, both nice.

You can just see the focus and determination in her face.

Soccer Moms, notice the Brut (32), looks tough huh?

Oh PLEASE dont hit me!!!!! Not so tough now.

The kids running on the track.
Ethan, after he got yelled at for going on the field. Very handsome man, he looks so old though.

And a final shot of Lane.

DISNEYLAND 2011

2011-01-15T08:16:00.000-08:00

Are you ready for a ridiculous amount of pictures?? Here we go!!!

We arrived in Costa Mesa on Friday afternoon and headed to the beach. Our first stop was at a yummy pizza place, I can't remember its name, but it was delicious!

Shmeck and I doing a close-up!

All the kiddos except Quinn who was fast asleep:

Newport Beach:

After a little beach time we headed over to get some Balboa Bars. This was my first experience getting one of these tasty treats and they were AWESOME!!

The next day we were up bright and early for a day at Disneyland!

We had breakfast with the characters:

Lainey didn't like the chipmunks so much...

Lainey loved meeting all the characters and wasn't scared a bit!

Here are the boys, they had a blast together!

Andy and Ethan:

I LLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOVVVVVEEEE Churros!

Aunt Breck with Jackson (and Ethan doing a nice photo bomb):

Silly boys:

Lainey and her 3 year old smiles...sigh...notice them throughout the post:

While Breck, Andy and Ethan went on an awesome roller coaster, Jackson, Lainey and I went on the Ferris Wheel:

How I love my Beanie!

See what I mean with Lainey?!!

Andy might have helped Lainey and Jackson with their prizes :). Ethan however got his all on his own!
Our little Lainey Bug!

Aunt Breck with her bug glasses :). We love you Shmecky!

I saved the best for last...

Is this not THE BEST picture ever?!!!!

As you can see, we had a blast at Disneyland. Thanks again Grandpa Rick and Aunt Breck. We love you!!!!

Lainey's 3 year photos

2011-01-06T16:28:00.000-08:00

We lucked out and it just so happened that Lainey's school picture day was right around her birthday. It was good because let's face it, this was the only way it was going to happen. I think with both kids I got their first year photo professionally done and well, that's it!

I think that they turned out darling! You have to love her boots, they were her uncle Jayson's when he was a kid!

Next up will be our pics from DISNEYLAND!!!!!! We are heading there tomorrow morning! I can't wait to spend some time with my best friend Breck, her darling kiddos, her pops and brother and even my sweet nephew Jackson! It is going to be a blast!!

It's been a whirlwind of a month!

2010-12-29T16:13:00.001-08:00

Trust me, I know that I am a slacker when it comes to blogging. I don't really have an excuse other than it has been quite a crazy December. I had finals for 2 weeks and in the middle of them there was Andy's birthday and Lainey's birthday. Andy just turned the big 3-0 and is having mixed feelings about it. I on the other hand have come to accept that I am getting old and actually welcome my 30's. I feel like you spend most of your 20's just trying to figure out life and in that process one makes MANY mistakes. I hope that in my 30's I have already experienced most of the really stupid ones...Anyway, enough about getting older...here are the DECEMBER photos:

Ethan and Lainey playing in the garage:

Decorating for Christmas:

We attempted to take a family picture in front of the tree for our Christmas cards, but after about 100 failed attempts, we gave up. We didn't end up making a holiday card this year, but I PROMISE next year we will have professional family photos taken so that we can have a nice holiday card....RIGHT ANDY?!!

We got a couple of the kiddos that turned out nice:

Andy wasn't smiling for pictures on his birthday so this is all I've got....he did love his cheesecake though!

Lainey loves to put her babies to sleep...she got to Mio too. She is SUCH a sweet dog!

Lainey playing with my baby from when I was a kid:

MMM...my mom's cookies are the BEST!

Christmas Eve in their new jammies:

Here are the kiddos on Christmas morning seeing what Santa left them:

Ethan made snowflakes in his past time at school so we hung them from the ceiling:

Santa brought Lainey a new red wagon and Ethan got a BB gun:

Stockings:

My mom came down to visit us for Christmas. It was SO nice having her here. We had such a good time....I already miss ya mom!

Andy and I gave the kids bean bags as one of their gifts...Lainey hates hers and only wants to sit in Ethan's......I did get one shot of her pretending to like it:
Lainey's Christmas loot:

Ethan with his new bean bag and gun:

Ethan's loot:

Lainey got this scooter from her daddy:

Grammy Barb was a trooper and was Lainey's first sleepover guest! Lainey bug loved it and woke up at 3:00 a.m. just for a hug...she was up at 6:00 singing Grammy songs and cuddling and didn't go back to sleep after that. We just had one night of sleepover because Lainey had school and Grammy Barb unfortunately caught our stomach bug. Oh yes, I forgot to mention, Andy and I were sick sick sick from the 23rd to the 27th....Ethan was sick before us and then my mom of course caught it the night before she had to leave. Ugh....rotten stomach bug!

Sitting in a Christmas box watching some t.v.:

Here are a few shots that my mom got on her phone:

Notice Lainey's dirty fingers, this girl LOVES dirt!

Phew, that was a LOT of pictures! That should hold ya for a while right Dad?! Love to all and HAPPY NEW YEAR a bit early because we all know that even with the best of intentions I won't be back on here until at least mid January!

Princess Party

2010-12-13T07:39:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Annie and all her hard work and planning, the princess party was great. Lainey was in heaven. I hope the party lived up to her expectations because she has been talking about having the princess party for about 6 months. Yesterday she said that next year she wants a Dora party. All least she gives us a year advance for planning purposes!

She woke up first thing in the morning and wanted her picture taken before she did anything. Don't mind Ethan's bed head.

Pre-party

The pin the tiara on the princess set-up.

The princess getting ready

How cute is she?

Can you tell that she is happy?

Her buddy Rylan.

She even told us exactly what she wanted to eat for her party. Surprise....pizza.

Pin the tiara in action.

Digging for treasures.

Lane opening her gifts.

Cake time. Lane had to look at her cake about 100 times throughout the day. She was so excited to have a princess cupcake cake.

Happy birthday to you!

She had to get the arm up to help her blow out the candles.

In heaven

I dont nots have a my cupamacake yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lane and all her princess (and prince) friends.

Even Amber came dressed up in her princess dress. She said she would, we did not believe her. It was too cute!

Grandpa Jay and Grandma Reading's Visit!

2010-11-25T08:59:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun having my pops and Reading come for a visit. It was SO nice seeing them! Reading and I even got to go on a Kohl's run...oh how I love that store! Thanks again for coming to visit, we all really enjoyed it.

The kiddos got to bake some super yummy cookies with Grandma Reading. Lainey got her birthday present a little early..how darling is this apron?!

Me and my Pops:

We love you Grandpa and Grandma!

For those of you who do not know Reno 911

2010-11-04T18:31:00.000-07:00

I was not trying to be just some random gay bike cop...I was that guy!!!!!!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

Halloween 2010 was a great one! Grammy Barb came down from Redding for a visit and it was SO great to have her here. We LOVE when family comes to visit! We feel so spoiled, Grandma Pat last week, Grammy Barb this week and Grandpa Jay and Grandma Reading are coming in a few weeks!
This year Ethan was a Ninja...he hasn't deviated much in his theme over the past few years :). Lainey Bug was a fairy/princess, I was a fairy as well, Grammy Barb was a cat and Andy's costume is epic...he was a cop from Reno 911.

I stole my child's fairy wings and tutu....it was a last minute decision to dress up and this is all I could come up with.

Yes, you are seeing right, I dyed my hair AGAIN...I am digging being a red head!

Isn't Andy's costume HILARIOUS?!! Gotta love the mustache!

Grammy Barb with the kiddos:

My Chester:

Me and My mamma:

We couldn't leave Mio out of the fun. These stayed on for about 10 seconds:

We went over to our friend's house for a pre-trick-or treating party. She made this cupcake cake:

I have never seen a pizza this big before:

Grammy Barb and Lainey:

My dinner:

Isn't this just the sweetest face?!

Our Jack-o-lanterns:
Ethan is a pro now at trick-or-treating and Lainey bug is well on her way. She still stays clear of the scary houses and refuses to budge if she is scared, but all night she kept asking "just one more house?!"

Grandma Pat's Visit

2010-10-28T08:52:00.001-07:00

Grandma Pat came to visit again and we all had a great time. We went to Yosemite, Sequoia, a pumpkin patch and all kinds of other fun places. Here are a few pictures from her visit. Thanks for coming out to visit Mom...we all miss you already.

At Yosemite Valley

Can you spot the climbers?

Way too crazy to be climbing El Captain

El Cap

Here is a cabin that I would die to live in......the next picture is the view from the front yard.

Harvest Hallow!

Lainey loves wagons. That is her sole request for Christmas, a wagon

She had been waiting weeks to go pick out a pumpkin.

Ethan trying not to look excited.....hes too cool for pumpkins

Tharps Log in Sequoia. We hiked up to the log not having a clue what it was. Turns out it was the home of the first white man to enter the Giant Forest in Sequoia. In 1858 he made a summer home out of a hollow sequoia that had fallen. It was very cool to see and go inside.

The inside of the log

And the rest of the photos are from Yosemite and Sequoia

Half Dome

Merced River and the Yosemite Valley

El Cap

The Valley...one of the most breathtaking places in the world. Well in my opinion.

Our hike to Tharps Log in Sequoia. It was amazing the be in the fog and have such cool colors.

Love the fall colors and the fog....very Halloween...ish

Closeup of the moss growing up the trees

Camping....again

2010-10-02T16:25:00.001-07:00

A few pictures of Ethan and I camping at Hume Lake in Sequoia NP. Ethan was very excited to go fishing and shoot his wrist rocket. We had a blast and even convinced Annie to come with us in the spring. Lainey saw the pictures and asked if she could go next time too. Time to buy a family size tent (anything other than a tent is NOT camping, don't lie to yourself).

Our camp site

Ethan being a pyro

one happy boy

Sunrise through the woods

A few Lainey pics to brighten your day!

2010-09-30T12:39:00.000-07:00

The other day Lainey decided to dress up to "go shopping". She had to have a purse for each hand:

And she's off!

Yes, Lainey got a hold of the sunscreen.....

Here are a few shots of my little grease monkey:

She said WHAT?!

2010-09-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

Here is a fun story that shows a little bit of Lainey's personality:
We take turns each night saying the dinner prayer. The other day it was Lainey's turn. She usually just repeats the last word that I say in each sentence. At the end we say "in the name of the Father, the Mother and the Holy Spirit. This was how it ends according to Lainey: "In the name of the Father, the Mother and the HOLY CRAP! AMEN!
Our dear Ethan almost peed his pants he thought it was so funny. Andy and I thought it was quite amusing as well!

Here are some of our recent photos:

She is SUCH a monkey!!!

I put this picture on just to show how high up that window is!!

Andy got Ethan with the tape:

Lainey just HAD to make cupcakes the other day so I indulged her and we made some. Little did I know that she would have to eat them every morning for breakfast for 3 days in a row (please don't judge, YOU try to quiet down Lainey when she wants something!). I did however make her eat some cereal each morning before she devoured her cuppy cake. We had to sing her happy birthday each morning as well. Here is a clip of her this morning. Notice how pretty my icing job is, I just slapped that stuff on..it's not like it is her REAL birthday!

Wow, it's September already!?!

2010-09-02T06:28:00.000-07:00

This past month just FLEW by! We all started school...Lainey is at the CDC doing incredibly well, loving going "to school" like a big girl, Ethan is now in 2nd grade(and is loving it too), Andy is doing online studies and I am FINALLY back to college. Needless to say, it's been a bit busy around here!

Both the kids started Gymnastics about a month ago and they love it! Here are a few photos:

The other day Andy did crafts with the kiddos. They they had a great time! Ethan and Andy decided to make a bird house and as you can see, Lainey painted, glued and glittered to her hearts content.

Another favorite activity is to play in their dad's car:

We went to a Sesame Street Live show and it was okay, but the sound sucked so we really couldn't hear what they were saying/singing. Oh well though, the kids had fun despite the sound issues and hey, it was free so I guess I can't complain too much.

Even though it looks like an 11 year old made this cell model, it was in fact, ME. I know that it doesn't look like much, but this sucker took me so long to construct! I ended up getting extra credit on it so I guess the instructor liked it despite my lack of artistic skills. Next up is a model of a knee or shoulder joint. Fun times!

Yet Another Sequoia Adventure

2010-08-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

So I took Ethan for one last day of fun up in the mountains before school started. We went back to Sequoia for a hike. Before the hike we decided that we needed to see tunnel log. It was amazing. Then we headed over to Lodgepole for a hike. Ethan said it was the best day of his life. We had a 1.7 mile hike into some waterfalls and when we got there, I showed E how to do a little rock climbing. He was in heaven. He even fell into the waterfall.....surprise surprise. Here are the pics.

On the way to the hike

Tunnel Log...doesn't it look like a rear view mirror from this POV?

Ethan sitting on top. He loved it. The tree fell over in 1937 and they cut the 8 ft by 17 ft tunnel shortly after.
My car in tunnel log.

The whole log is all carved up with initials.
Here is another tree that fell over on a calm clear day. That is Ethan right in the middle of the root system.

Trailhead
It was such a beautiful hike.

I wanted to be that person just floating in the pool of water....what a life.
The view down the canyon once we made it to the falls.

Ethan at the falls. There obviously isn't much water flowing down the falls. If it were the beginning of summer, Ethan would be underwater.

Can you spot E?

The rock was super slick and pretty steep. Ethan thought he was really cool now that he knew a couple of the basics of climbing.
Taking in the view.

The hair disaster..

2010-08-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

So like I mentioned in the previous post, I tried to go blonde ( i know, it was a BAD idea) and it didn't turn out so well...here are the pics of the adventure:

This picture really doesn't do it justice..my hair was gray, green and somewhat golden.

Here I am rocking my hat getting ready to head to the store to get dye:

Thank goodness I have a best friend who knows something about hair, she came to the rescue (and has MANY times with this same ordeal). I know, when will I ever learn.....
I am happy with how it turned out. I promised Andy that I wouldn't post this self portrait because he told me that he would take a better one of me with a MUCH better background, but if you have learned anything from this post you will realize that I don't have much patience when it comes to things that I want to do. I just get this overwhelming urge and just HAVE to do it. I figured that if I get the urge to do a blog post I better do it NOW, or else the urge might pass and it won't get done for another few weeks and by then I will have had to dye my hair again...you see where I am going??!!! Promise though, I am staying a brunette for quite some time. I have learned my lesson..well, at least for a few months ;).

August Adventures (thus far anyway...)

2010-08-11T18:13:00.000-07:00

The boys ended the month of July by going camping. This time they brought along a fishing pole for Ethan. He was in little boy heaven!

This past weekend we headed up to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. I really liked it because it isn't HUGE so one can spend a few hours there and see all there is to see and not feel too overwhelmed. We all really enjoyed it.

The kids got to feed this giraffe:

People who know me know that I am not a fan of birds, but I can appreciate a beauty when I see one!

To finish off our day we headed to In-N-Out Burger....man I love that place!

The next post will be of my hair DISASTER...I thought it would be a good idea to try to go blonde again on my own. Yes, I know, I am not allowed to buy store hair color on my own, but I just couldn't help myself. I just HAD to. So, I went from brown locks to blonde roots and green/grey striped hair. It was awesome. I had to wear a hat and sunglasses to the store to buy brown hair dye. I called Breck and got advice (and a much deserved scolding) and kind of fixed it. I have to wait a few days so I don't make my hair fall out before I post the final product. I will be basically the same color I have been for awhile but hopefully without the greyish tint it has to it now :).

Pictures from our trip to Utah

2010-08-02T17:44:00.001-07:00

With the recent discovery of the Ansel Adams negatives, I had to do an imitation of his work.

Yosemite Valley with El Capitan and Half Dome in the distance.

Half Dome

Yosemite Falls

Yosemite Valley and the backside of El Capitan

Tonopah, Nevada. An old mining town where we stayed on our way to UT.

More Tonopah

And more

Wellsville

And a fun one of Mio

Boys trip to Sequoia National Park

2010-07-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

Last week Andy and Ethan went to Sequoia National Park for the afternoon.

This was an enormous tipped over tree..it also made a pretty awesome slide!

Glad that I wasn't there...I am pretty sure I wouldn't have let him go across that!

Don't ever buy Glitter Lava!!

2010-07-24T06:47:00.000-07:00

So the other day we were at the craft store and I decided to buy this for the kids. Notice on the box how it says LESS MESS..yeah right!

This stuff was everywhere and stuck to their hands...it was awful!

Really, less mess? Less mess than what?! I had to scrub their hands off quite a few times before this crud came off them.

Glitter Lava=BAD IDEA!

The final vacation post...

2010-07-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

I know it took awhile to get them all on, but wading through all those pictures takes time! These first shots are of my step sister Tavan's little boy. He was 7 weeks old at the time and is just a doll. Lainey ADORED him. She had to remember to be "soft" with little Brody.

It was so much fun to hold a little one again!

Here is Lainey gently petting his head...yes, I said petting, not patting :).

On to the ears:

Gotta touch his mouth too:

She just loved holding him:

We went over to my dad's house for our little get together and we had The Olive Garden for dinner. It was SO good! Thanks so much guys for organizing the get together, it was fun! After dinner we took the kiddos to the park to run off some excess energy.

Uncle Jayson and Lainey have this special bond, she thinks he is about the funniest guy around...here they are goofing off with each other:

This shot is minus Lainey because we took about 20 pics of the kiddos and she just wasn't cooperating. Holland looks real pleased to be doing this huh?!

The kids played a fun game of tag:

Aunt Lisa played too and here is a great shot of them right after she tagged Ethan:

Lainey just wasn't cooperating at all with pictures:

We decided to try another route and have them all look at the baby instead of the camera. It worked!

Here are two shots of Grandma Reading and Grandpa J with all the grand kids. This too was quite a feat!

Lainey loved to pet uncle Jayson's beard:

Daddy chillin with the kiddos:

Thanks again everyone in Utah, we had a really a good time. I was a bit exhausted after it all, but we REALLY enjoyed seeing everyone. We probably won't be back until next year, but we want you to all know that you are all more than welcome to come and visit US here in Lemoore!

This last shot is of the kids in our hotel room in Vegas (Henderson to be exact). It was a themed room and they loved having bunk beds. Too bad that we had no water when we first arrived and I was stuck being all nasty for the evening, BUT we did get a discount on the room and a couple of free beers out of the ordeal so it worked out just fine :).

Utah part 3

2010-07-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

We had the Felt Family dinner over at Matt and Nancy's house. They have a great big back yard that is great for entertaining. The kids all played well together and the food was delicious. Thanks again for everything guys, we had a fun time hanging out with everyone.

I tried to find a shot of everyone, but I came up a few short...

Here is one of Nicole being silly:

Corrine: (She was such a great helper with Lainey)

Paige and Ethan:

Uncle Matt:
Grandma Pat:

Me holding Claire. As you can see, Lainey didn't like to share :).

The boys playing:

Grandpa Bryan:

Lainey was being a little stinker:
Claire and Charlotte:

Paige:
Charlotte:

G&G Ras:

Lainey and her papa:

All of us sitting down for dinner:

The little ones sure like Uncle Jake:

I love this pic of Koler:

Grandma Felt:

Spencer:

Little Koler was upset:

Beautiful Aunt Lisa with Lainey bug:
That pretty much does it for the Logan pics..next up are the Haws Family party in Salt Lake.

UTAH part 2

2010-07-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, so here is part two of maybe 3 or 4 Utah posts. Like I said before, Andy took an insane amount of pictures. However, he didn't manage to take ANY while at the Cache Valley Cruise-In. I managed to take two. Yes, pitiful, I know. We met up with my good friend Kate (from high school) and her darling little boy, Benjamin and her husband Bart. It was great to see her and I wish we would have taken a picture of the two of us together. Oh well, better luck next time!

I just had to put this pic on...she is pointing at something. Promise we didn't teach her that, although tempting as it may be, we really didn't!

One night while in Logan we went over to Grandma Pat's house for dinner and dessert. Here are a few pictures of us putting the finishing touches on the creme brulee. It was SOOO good!

We went for a walk with Matt and his family one afternoon. It was so nice to get to hang with Andy's side of the family and get to know our niece's and nephews a little better.

Little Claire and Lainey:

Ethan really did have the time of his life on this vacation. He got to shoot a bb gun, go on a four wheeler and even got to ride on a water weenie! He also got to stay up REALLY late the entire vacation. He was in heaven!

I wanted the kids to experience the Hyrum Parade. There is nothing better than a small town parade. I had forgotten just how "small town" Hyrum is though!

Yes, you are seeing that right...MISSIONARIES in the parade! Only in Utah!

I find this last shot so random...WHAT?!

Utah Vacation Part 1

2010-07-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

We just spent 2 weeks in Utah visiting family and friends and had a wonderful time. We have over 700 photos to go through (no surprise if you know Andy) so I am going to do these in installments. I am in charge of the people photos and Andy is in charge of the scenic ones. So, here is my first go at our adventure to Utah:

We decided that it would be neat to drive through Yosemite National Park on our way to Utah. It was AMAZING. Although there were too many tourists and we could have spent a day or two there, it was nice to get out of the car, stretch our legs and have some lunch in such a beautiful place.

We drove to middle of no-where Nevada and stayed in this little town called Tonopah. Andy took some great pics of the town and here are the few shots that I took on my camera:

Lainey is really into making "funny faces" for the camera:

The boys thought it would be funny to give me this face when I told them to smile:

The next day we made it to Utah and stayed with Breck for a few days. Our first part of the trip we did a horrible job at taking pictures...I don't have any of me and Breck, none of Owie, Ethan or Andy and only one each of Lainey and Quinn. Man, we suck. Anyway, we are so appreciative that Shmeck let us stay at her place, eat her food and take over the downstairs. Not to mention letting Mio hang in the house. We love you so much, thanks for everything!!

Darling little Quinn:

We headed up to Logan for a few days and stayed at Grammy Gayle's for a night. Ethan had a blast swimming in the pool. Lou and all her girls and their kids came up to hang with us and we had a nice afternoon chillin by the pool. Thanks for taking the time to come up guys!

Here are a few of the boys doing tricks:

Lainey holding 7 week old Felicity:
Lainey and Grammy Gayle getting ready to swing:

We headed over to Grandma Pat's for a bit on Friday afternoon and then the boy's went and watched the fireworks with the cousins while Lainey and I hung out at Grammy Gayle's.

Andy telling Lainey how the popcorn maker works:

Lainey and Charlotte *trying* to play catch:

Calvin:
Ethan:
Here are the kids playing in the field waiting for it to get dark for the fireworks:

I think that is good for now, more pics will be posted soon!

Farmer's Market

2010-06-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

We went to the Hanford Farmer's Market last week and had a great time. Having fresh produce was awesome, but there are tons of other things to check out as well. They have vendors selling homemade jam, hummus, veggie chips and jewelery just to name a few. They also had a bunch of food vendors and there was one who sells my FAVORITE treat, CHURROS!! I ate mine as well as 3/4 of Lainey's. That was my dinner, super healthy I know :). They have a beer garden, bands playing, carousel rides, pony rides, bounce houses and the best people watching ever. The farmer's market goes until October so we will for sure be heading there a few more times. It was really fun. We didn't take many photos, but here are two of the kiddos:

I had to attach a clip of how FAST this merry go round was:

Camping Trip!

2010-06-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

The boys went for their first father/son camp trip and let me tell you, Ethan LOVED it! He got to do all sorts of "boy" things. Here he is standing on top of a huge boulder doing wolf calls:

He is SO happy to be there!

Here is the one and only shot of Andy:

A view of their camp site from the top of a "HUGE HILL" (as described by Ethan):

Their campsite:
Here is a picture of my first sewing project: A flag for Ethan. I made it out of an old GTMO t-shirt of Andy's. It was the first thing they put in at their campsite and the last thing they took down.

Andy gave Ethan his very own Gerber...I can't even tell you how elated this boy was!
Making his mark on a tree:

They even whittled their own hot dog/marshmallow sticks:
Chilin by the fire. They had hot dogs filled with cheese (gag), beef stew from a can ( i don't even have words to tell you how that makes me want to retch) and marshmallows. They loved their manly dinner! They had a great time and they both look forward to many more adventures just like this one. As for me and Lainey, I am planning on a mommy and me date when she is a bit older, but our trip includes the Hilton hotel and the spa.

Ethan's Summer Fun!

2010-06-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

Ethan still loves to do nerf/war. There aren't really any kids to play with like in Okinawa, but he makes the best of it and often recruits Lily to take part in his adventures. Right now he is obsessed with wearing gloves. Not just any kind of glove, they have to have the fingers cut out..awesome! I have to wash them everyday though because they get nasty and I have had to tell him multiple times "no, you absolutely cannot eat with them on Ethan". Ah, boys!

On the last day of school my friend Hillary and I thought it would be a fun idea to fill up as many water balloons as possible and let the kiddos have a water fight. We can't take all the credit though, our hubby's helped out with filling the balloons as well as taking part in the water fight.

Here are Ethan and Lily getting ready for the war:

There were SOOO many that the kids actually got a bit bored! Here are some fun pics of the kids biting the balloons:

Ethan got his to squirt...
Lily's well, not so much...ha!

All four of the kids playing:
Ethan got hit HARD, oops!

That night we had a sleepover at our house. Lily and her little sister Aubrie came over for a night of movies, candy and sleeping in a tent! Here they are stuffing their faces with candy:

We survived the sleepover (it went surprisingly well) and the next morning Andy made pancakes:
They all ate enormous amounts of them and then later on that afternoon after they went home we took a long family nap!
So far summer is going well. It's only been 10 days since it let out, but so far, so good! Ethan is doing swimming lessons right now and is also doing summer day camp through Youth Services. We are keeping him busy which is a good thing for both mom and son!

Ethan and Andy went camping this weekend so I will post those pics next!

Lainey pics..

2010-06-10T11:25:00.001-07:00

Lainey loves tattoos..here she is sporting her Hello Kitty half sleeve:

This child constantly has a wedgie when swimming:

Remember in Parenthood (the movie from the 80's) when they have have a kid who wears a bucket and runs into things...yes, Lainey is his twin sister!

I love this picture that Andy took. Lainey was upset about something and he caught the perfect moment:

She came downstairs wearing these:
I'll post some Ethan pics tomorrow!

Grammy Barb came to visit!

2010-06-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

My mom was able to drive down this past weekend for a quick visit. It is about 6 and a half hours from here to Redding and so it isn't too bad of a drive. The kids LOVED having her here and it was so nice to see her face again. It had been far too long. There is just something about having your mamma around that is so comforting even when you are a "grown up".
My mom brought down her sewing machine to patch up a few things for me and gave me a quick lesson on the machine. I seriously haven't touched a sewing machine since 7th grade home ec where I made a pillowcase and a hot pad. My sewing skills are at about an 11 year old's level and that might even be exaggerating a bit! She had to show me about 10 times how to thread the machine. Just so you know people, I am going to practice and if you are lucky, you will all get a wonderful homemade Christmas gift from yours truly....I just hope you all like pillowcases :).

Here is a picture of Lainey with Grammy Barb. Lainey thought Karl was such a wonderful puppy..too bad he didn't have the same feelings toward her. We told Lainey not to point her finger at him, but of course she did. She thought it was funny that "the puppy bite my finger"..we heard that quite a few times a day. Ethan on the other hand is old enough now that Karl likes him. He was able to pet him whenever he wanted and Ethan thought that was so cool. He told me in the car today, "Mom, Karl used to not like me when I was 3, but now that I am seven I can pet him on his fat and he doesn't growl." Awesome Ebear!

Me and my mamma:

Ebear and Grammy Barb:

Lainey giving Grammy loves:

Notice in the pictures how my mom is holding Karl. He would try to run away if she didn't. Hmm..wonder why?!

Fun at the Pool

2010-06-01T19:41:00.001-07:00

They just built a new Community Center right behind our house and it is beautifully done inside and out. It has a gym with a playroom, a game room, banquet rooms, etc . I tried out the gym, but Lainey won't go near the playroom unless I am with her. It makes it difficult to actually get any sort of work out in. You should have seen how many times I had to walk her back into the room, it was a joke! Anyway, our favorite part of the new center definitely has to be the two swimming pools. We are so lucky that it is a hop skip and a jump from our own backyard (albeit big ones). I wasn't really thinking and didn't take a picture of the actual Community Center, but I did get the most important ones:

The small toddler pool:

My handsome Ethan:

At first Lainey was a little scared, but that didn't last long!

She LOVED jumping in the pool. She loved it so much that she jumped in when Andy was playing with Ethan. I was sitting on the edge catching some rays (the pool water is still WAY too cold for me). Sure enough, I jumped on in after her in my shorts :). Andy giggled about it because she did have floaties on and he was only about 10 feet away, but still, it freaked me out. She swallowed a bit of water and was fine, but I am not sure I was... She is such a daring little thing!

Ethan and his friend Hailey:

Ethan doing some water tricks with Hailey's dad:

We had a great afternoon at the pool even though it was a bit chilly!

We need a foster home for a week!

2010-05-29T11:05:00.001-07:00

So we are planning on driving up to Logan (and Salt Lake) in late June. We will be arriving on the 29th. However, we are looking for a loving family who will let us (and our dog...but she is the best dog ever) stay with them for about a week. Any volunteers?????? Please?!?! --Andy

Random pictures

2010-05-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few random shots from the past few days....

Lainey loves to eat her frozen gogurt:

Ethan with some awesome bed head:

The kids new swimming pool: (notice our lawn... the damn dog pee is ruining it!)
Lainey was all ready to go swimming at our new community center pool. I took some pics of our swim yesterday and will post those soon. She is such a daredevil, she scares me to death! The child has NO FEAR!

The kids and I had some yummy fruit with orange cream cheese dip. YUM!

Lainey with a mouth FULL of bananas:

The kids are making their own personal pizzas on english muffins:

It is rare that Lainey will hold still long enough for me to do her hair. I got lucky the other day!

Finally, the rest of the house!

2010-05-24T11:35:00.001-07:00

See, what did I tell ya, we got our butts in gear and finished the house! Wahoo!

Here is the view of the living room from the stairs:

Now from the other direction:

We incorporated some of the Japanese stuff into the house:

Here is the kitchen:

Our family photo wall:

The upstairs hallway:

The Master Bedroom:

If you are wondering why we don't have a comforter, you can ask Andy. He is what one calls a "blanket hog." So to remedy that, we bought separate blankets. We got these ones in Japan and although they aren't that pleasing to the eye, they are SUPER comfy. Lainey likes to roll around on the "two beds"while saying "mamma's side, daddy's side, mamma's side, daddy's side."

Our new dresser:
Lainey had 3 sliding doors on her closet and they kept slipping out of the tracking. It was driving me nuts so, in true Annie style, I ripped them out and put up curtains (well, Andy put them up)! I like this so much better anyway!

Et Viola! The house is done! It is such a nice feeling.

A few more pics

2010-05-22T05:54:00.000-07:00

I know that I have really been slacking on posts lately... I don't even really have a good excuse! I wanted to post a few more pics of our excursion to Sequoia to show that we did in fact have Grandma Pat here for a visit! She was here for a week and it was so nice to have her here. I truly enjoy her company and wanted to thank her for coming out to visit us! I know that Lemoore isn't as exotic as Japan and that there isn't a whole lot to do around here, but we hope she enjoyed her visit as much as we did. The kids absolutely adore her and even though it takes Lainey a bit to warm up, by the time Grandma Pat was ready to leave, Lainey wanted to leave with her!

Ethan found himself a huge walking stick:

This last photo is a bit out of place, I know, but I just had to show Lainey's use for her headbands. She refuses to wear them on her head, but sure seems to like dressing up in them! Just in case you are wondering what is on her arm, it is the remnants of her Hello Kitty tattoo. I made her a half sleeve, it was awesome!

Andy is off today and tomorrow so we are going to get the last of our pictures hung up. I know that I have said this before, but really, I am going to post pics of the rest of the house soon!