Summer Update #1

Ok, so I have been a REALLY bad blogger lately. I am so sorry, but there has hardly been any time. Summer can be so busy for my family, like I am sure it can be for yours as well. I love summer time and all that it brings, but it can be quite full of activities. I don’t really want to leave much out because it was all wonderful, so I am going to have several summer updates to get us up to date in our blog world.

Where I left off…June 9th was Caleb’s 7th birthday. I can’t believe that he is getting so big. I remember like it was yesterday when he turned 2. We celebrated by eating at Mexican food at one of our favorite restaurants and opening presents. He loved having the wait staff sing and make it known to the restaurant that it was his birthday.

Here he is wearing his new batman mask that he loves.

Special batman and princess picture.

The first two weeks of summer were filled with swimming lessons for both Caleb and Ashlyn. Caleb has always loved swimming lessons and we were hoping that Ashlyn would love them too. She had never swam before the first day of lessons. We were crossing our fingers that she would love it and wouldn’t be afraid of large bodies of water…and we were in luck because she did great. She now can even get in and float on her belly and even swim 6 or 7 feet. Caleb also did an amazing job at swim lessons.

Because we work with teens at our church, our summer can be filled with youth activities leaving no time for our family, so we try really hard between camps and mission trips to have time enjoying our summer as a family. We are blessed to get to go as a family to all of the youth functions. One of the fun family things we did in between youth activities was spend an afternoon, with my brother Cash, at a ski ranch. The kids and I enjoyed playing on the swim beach, while Cash and Monty wake boarded. It was really fun.

Monty showing us how it's done.

Cash and Monty waiting in line.

Even Mik enjoyed the trip to the ski ranch. She is one spoiled rotten dog.
More to come later…

Party Time!

This past Saturday we celebrated Caleb's 7th birthday and Ashlyn's 4th birthday. We were "blessed" with having our kids birthdays a week and a half a part. (There are definate pros and cons for having thier birthdays so close together. I honestly wish they were a little further apart, but we take what we get.) This year we decided to enjoy just one big party for the both of them and then little family festivities on the actual birthday.

We had such a great party. We had over 30 kiddos there, plus their parents, and our extended families (we are so glad that we live close enough to our families so that we can enjoy special days like this together). Wow...we were excited to have the party, but even more excited to have it over. I am so glad that birthday parties only come once a year. For our party, we invited some of our church friends to the church playground to play with us in the water. We had a blowup pool, slip and slide (made out of a old giant billboard sign), water sprinklers, two water t-ball sets, and tons of water balloons (thanks to Nana and Potts for fulfilling Caleb's special request). All of the kids had a great time playing in the water.

Here a few pics from our special day.

Happy Birthday Ashlyn!

I really wanted to get this out a little earlier, but life just happens so fast. Our little girl is growing up so quickly. Last Wednesday she celebrated her 4th birthday! It was so exciting! It is honestly truly amazing how she has changed in the last eight months. She is such a different little girl.

She had never really celebrated her birthday until now, and boy did we celebrate big. We enjoyed her actual birthday by doing some of our normal routine, taking and picking up Caleb from school, hanging out around the house, going to speech, and going to church. She got to pick what we ate that night and she chose pancakes (I think that is what she chose because it has the word cake in it, and she is very fond of that word.) She thought it was great because we had M&Ms and chocolate chips in the pancakes; we even put candles in the pancakes. She really enjoyed the food, opening presents and everything that associated with her birthday.

She was so embarssed when we sang Happy Birthday to her.

This past Saturday, we had a joint birthday party with Caleb (his birthday is this coming Monday) at the church with all of our friends and family. We will have a special post on that coming soon.

She loves her new USA shirt.