Boats and Birthdays

Haha - you may have noticed that I have finally changed by blog background... I'm not sure I'm crazy about it, but I didn't have to make it and it was free and I was too lazy to spend any more time on something this un-important! LOL I did however thing it needed a re-vamp after spending a year and a half with winter back grounds.... :)This week (as implied by the title of the post) was highlighted by a trip on the boat with Grandpa and Anna's birthday and all it's celebration. We enjoyed a beautiful morning on a quiet, empty lake. The grown-up's wakeboarded and the kids swam and played. Aaron discovered the joys of jumping off the back of the boat to daddy - however he was unable to convince his sisters of it being fun or even safe. So he happily monopolized his daddy's attention (and mommy and grandpa with cameras for as long as he could while they watched and thought about it. I'm not sure if it's the reckless little boy in him or the trusting little boy in him that allowed him to do this when his sisters would not - but it was still cute and fun to watch. :)




The end of this week was consumed with Anna's birthday and getting ready for it. On Saturday Eileen and Grandma and I went out to shop for Anna's birthday. Eileen had soo much fun choosing her gift for Anna - she picked out two books that she knew Anna would love and bought and paid for them with her own spending money. It is so sweet to watch her wanting to make her sister happy!
This evening, my parents came over along with some of Anna's friends and their parents for some hot dogs and hamburgers. They were eaten on some home-made buns from my amazing friend Lori - accompanied by some scrumptious corn bread mady by my amazing friend Natalie and followed by this absolutely FABULOUS cake made by my talented friend Megan! Anna just adored her princess castle cake and we all had a great time playing and chatting and celebrating a sweet little girl!

Heehee- the cake in all it's glory
and Anna waiting to be able to blow out the candles! (or maybe mostly waiting to eat the cake....)
My little girl has grown so much in the past year - it is so fun to watch her learn from her big sister and make her decisions on what she likes and dislikes and changing. She is so matter of fact in her 4 year old way! I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us!

What we've been up to...

The last two weeks have kept us busy - Summer is officially in full swing here with temps already in the 100's. Dan has been out of school for 2 weeks now - but last week he coached the wrestling camp - so he wasn't home much more than usual. on Thursday of that week Evie and I packed up and headed out to San Diego area with my choir Evening Song. We stayed with a lovely family up in Fallbrook and enjoyed cooler weather and scenery that included lemon and orange trees just laden with fruit! Our concerts went well - Evie traveled amazingly well and all in all I enjoyed our little trip. Evie enjoyed having me all to her self and the others enjoyed Dan's full attention. Eileen told him that she likes Daddy better than Mommy because Daddy takes her more places (they had gone to the Library and the Zoo - for the record - that isn't more places or different places that we go anyway) :) Evie and I flew home to a joyous reunion with our amazing Daddy and Siblings. Then Thursday we all headed down to the lake for a morning on the boat with Grandpa. The kids loved playing in the water and watching daddy wakeboard - Eileen was practically jumping up and down with excitement and yelling things like "Oooh COOL" while she watched Dan!

For Father's Day - I tried to spoil the AMAZING father of my children just a bit by making him a special breakfast. He ate and promptly left for church meetings... :) Then my parents came up for dinner and we enjoyed an evening together. We also enjoyed getting talk to my Grandpa and Dan's dad on the phone for a bit. I am soo blessed to have such amazing examples of what a real man should be like - kind, loving, strong, playful, intelligent, and faithful. Love Ya Guys!

Nap Time

Anna and Aaron can NOT nap together - if I try to lay them down for naps in the same room - neither one will sleep. I can't put Aaron down to sleep in the baby's room any more since he can climb out of the crib and invariably gets into mischief once he is out. So Aaron goes to sleep in the kids room and Anna gets to 'stay up' As a result Anna is VERY cranky most of the time and eventually passes out in some random spot (like the couch, the chair, the floor, the time out spot...) around 4pm. She then sleeps until we are forced to wake her up for dinner. But really - she just looks sooo sweet lying there asleep - all curled up like that - she looks so innocent - at least until you try and wake her up - then you get the "GRUMPY FACE" So for now we suffer through it and hope that she will adjust.... Ooohh - and I was unable to get pics of Evelyn's teeth - she is a champion squirmer and pictures proved impossible - however we did notice earlier today that she is very close to popping another tooth through on the top.... no wonder she's been cranky!!! LOL - hopefully she'll feel better now! :P
I've also decided to start teaching Eileen to play the piano - my ears are starting to hurt from her usual pounding on the piano and I'm hoping that if I can teach her - then I will at least get to hear songs. :) So we went to a local music store and found some beginner primers and next week - I hope to start teaching her the basics. :)

TEETH - FINALLY!!

That's right - my little Evie finally got her first teeth - two of them at once!! LOL - when Dan gets home maybe I'll be able to get pictures :)