Thursday, June 07, 2012

Awesome 80's Dance

 Joseph helped plan a 70's/80's dance for a ward activity (sans kids) that was so so fun.  A bunch of us dressed up for it with our neon colors, jelly bracelets, leg warmers, big earrings, and shirts tied at the waist.  My friend Hollie definitely won best look of the night.

 Jennifer (a.k.a. Madonna) taught the Electric Slide and got everyone on the floor to do it.

I love 80's music and could dance to my favorite songs from that decade all night long. 

I look totally ridiculous here but I had to include this picture because of the bishop bustin a move in the background, and his wife, too.  If that's not awesome I don't know what is.

Joseph had a great get-up too and they all did a fabulous job throwing this fun party.  We heart the 80's!

Monday, June 04, 2012

April Showers Bring May Flowers!

 I love my May flowers!  Gerber daisies are my favorite and when these finally are in full bloom in my front planter, it makes me happy every time I step outside.

 Joseph took Will to his very first Fathers and Sons outing.  They just went up for the evening because Joseph wasn't ready to try sleeping in a tent with William, but it was the perfect amount of time for them and they had a blast.

 He said Will was mesmerized by the fire and loved throwing a ball around and watching all the big guys do stuff.

We took a fun, quick trip to Monterey to visit Uncle Scott and Aunt Tesha.  Joseph wasn't able to come, and we missed him a lot, but we still had a great time.

 First stop was Monterey Baby and the sand.

 Will thought he'd flash a few signs at the camera.

 It was a cool day, of course, and I don't know how the surfers were out there learning to surf, but they looked like they were having fun.

 Here we are!

 My favorite part of the beach was watching Scott and his new bride flirt.  He put sand somewhere I can't say on Tesha, and she wanted revenge.

 She spent the rest of the time trying to get him back, but wasn't too successful.

 Don't mess with a guy in the U.S. Air Force.

I think they had fun making up after their "fight".

Sophie drew Daddy's apartment building.  She even drew him on his floor at his desk.

 Too cool for school, Will!

We were also lucky enough to get to go to the Monterey Aquarium while we were there.  It was amazing.  These jelly fish were my favorite for sure.

Will found his favorite thing next, the sea turtles.  There were two enormous ones and he never let them out of his sight as they floated all over the giant ceiling-to-floor aquarium.

If he ever thought any of us had lost sight of it he'd point it out to us repeatedly.

Avery spent the same time in a little different way, doing her usual thing.  She hung upside down on this bar for forever, regardless of the fact that she was flashing all of us (fortunately we were the only ones up there).  Her and Sophie's favorite fish in the tank was this enormous and very strange looking one that looked like it was missing its tail fin, but it wasn't.  It had a huge eye that looked at us all each time it passed and the girls dubbed it the Weirdo Fish.

Will fell in love with his Uncle Scott who would wrestle with him and carry him on his shoulders.  He learned quickly how to say Scott's and Tesha's names.

There's my 3 little mollusks.

Or are they bat rays? 

 Back at home again Sophie had a performance at school, so here she's practicing her songs with her class and awesome teacher.

 They're supposed to be shocked at the part of the song where you hear "Missed me, missed me, now you've gotta kiss me."  She explained to me how that is teasing and we don't ever say anything like that to anyone, especially not at school.  If only that were the worst I've ever heard her say to me. (le sigh)

 Back at home the trampoline continues to be a big hit.  Will has gotten big enough that he can hold his own on the tramp even when his sisters are bouncing all around him.

 And they get bouncing and flipping pretty good.

 The girls have made up some pretty awesome names (with their daddy's help) for their different bounces, like the Corkscrew, Ladder of Doom, Elbow Slam, and Back Drop.

 I believe this one is the Flying Eagle.

They were jumping with the sprinkler on underneath the tramp for the first time.  This is one way we'll beat the heat this summer.

William definitely prefers this to wearing clothes.  He's such a happy, sweet kid and so much fun. 

 This kid can get jumping pretty good when he's all alone on the trampoline.





We're all big fans and it was the best purchase we could've made for our backyard.  Hooray for May!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Busy April--The Rest of the Month

The day after Easter we joined some friends from MBA days at their beach house in Ventura.  They've had two more kids since we lived around the corner from each other and all 4 of their kids are so cute!

Emily got some great shots of the kids throughout the day.  She has a thing for little boys with buckets.

This kid loved his bucket and shovel and the sand.  The water was a little too cold for him to get in but he didn't seem to mind.

The adorable Ruby had so much fun making faces at and getting reactions from Will.

Avery and Ruby both have naturally curly hair, but at the beach it was out of control curly, especially Ruby's.  Aren't they cute, though?

The water was really cold but that didn't stop Joseph from getting some boogie boarding in.  He had a blast and stayed out for much longer than I could've ever lasted!


The other guys went out a little later as well.  They were smart to wear wet suits, even if one wasn't necessarily worn properly. :)

Sophie thought this was a fantastic use for the boogie board.  Joseph pulled her all over the wet sand on it.

What a ride!

This day also marked one of our favorite holidays, a national waterfight day we honor every year.  Borrowed from Poland it's called Smingus Dingus, and we love getting each other wet to commemorate it.  What better place to do that than on the beach?

We never take pictures of just the two of us, so I'm so glad we actually remembered to once.

So at home at the beach.

Joseph and the girls built this sandcastle kingdom that looked like Rapunzel's kingdom.

Hooray for sandcastles

Still dragging that bucket.

Their beach house was literally right on the beach.  You'd walk out onto the balcony and immediately run into stairs taking you down to the sand.  It was awesome.

Thanks for a very fun day, Widdisons!  It was great seeing you again!

Our backyard is in full bloom right now and it's so awesome.  These roses I call Metzli's roses because my sweet little Young Woman Metzli gave them to me a year ago and I immediately planted them at our new home and they have bloomed so beautifully.

These were also a gift from my mom that she dug out of her garden because they weren't getting any sun.  We thought they were tulip bulbs we were give so we were surprised when irises began to bloom.  They were beautiful but didn't last long; I think they're having the opposite problem now and getting too much sun.

Just like his sisters, this boy is a true water baby.  He loves his baths, and I love snuggling him in his towel after.  My cute little monster.

Sophie loves dressing up her stuffed animals and mommying them.  What a tender heart she is.  Love this girl!

Here's a cake I made for a baby shower in April.  Fondant's fun to play with, that's for sure.

Oh, I love this little guy, too!

And I love this girl so much!  She makes me laugh every single day.  It's always something new, too, and she never means to be funny which is why it's so much funnier.  This day she decided to put cones on her feet and walk in them.

I couldn't believe she could actually manage it, but she walked all over the room in these.  Maybe we'll see her in pointe shoes someday!