Summertime in May.

Last weekend, we had record breaking temperatures here in Washington. I think it got up to 90 degrees or something like that. It has been a weird year, snow in March and April and then summer weather in May...Crazy! Anyway, my kids of course were dying to play in the pool and on the water slide so of course, we let them have at it. Kendall loved going down this little slide into the pool.

Here are Dilan and his two friends, Preston and Hayden, playing on the water slide.

Before everything got set up, Hayden brought over his cops and robber gear. In this picture, I think Dilan was playing robber.

Here are Atwood and Hayden getting ready to capture that thief.

I don't know about you, but I have never seen such a cute cop sporting handcuffs in a swimsuit.

After we deflated the slide, Kendall had a blast in the water. By the end of play time, her diaper had to weigh as much as she does!

I had to post this picture just because I love being out in our backyard in the summer and what is better in summer than bubbles. I am sure that there will be many more fun, sunny summer days.

Mario Kart...

The Saturday after my surgery, I slept in until probably 8:00 or so, but then laid in bed for a bit after that. I finally came downstairs at 8:30 and Aaron was just finishing up with the kitchen. Pancakes had been made for the kids and all food was cleaned up (except for my plate of pancakes), dishes were done, the downstairs had been vacuumed, and laundry folded. Then Aaron proceeded to clean the outsides of the windows downstairs (thanks to the treats some birds left behind). By about 9:30, he had all of his "work" completed and he had moved one of the office chairs out to the middle of the family room. Not long after that, our next door neighbor Hayden came to play and the four boys sat and played Mario Kart for quite some time. You would have thought it was a Nascar race the way we were all cheering. I know video games are not the best, but we have had so much quality family time with Mario Kart.

Snack time!

I had sinus surgery on May 5th so Aaron was in charge for a few days. While I was probably taking a nap upstairs, Aaron introduced Kendall to a new treat...Ding Dongs for her morning snack! There is something about a Ding Dong that just tastes so good.

Atwood got in on the Ding Dong morning snack too!

Megan's friends

I was in Megan's classroom for Mother's Day tea and Megan and her best friends in class wanted a picture taken. Aren't they so cute? Four of the five girls live in our neighborhood. There are constant play dates happening around here. Actually the girls plan the play dates on the way home and then inform us moms about their plans when they get off the bus. I am just so glad there are lots of good girls around for Megan to play with.

As a side note, Megan's shirt was just bunched up and her pants slipping down. She has the cutest little figure, but no hips to keep those pants from sliding down and her body is so dang long that we can rarely find shirts that are long enough in length, but not too big! She is definitely long and lean.

Tired Kendall

I forgot to post this at the end of all of Atwood's birthday stuff. At the end of the night after all of the cousins left, I was looking for Kendall to get her in PJ's for bed. This is where I found her...in the corner by the piano, sucking on those two fingers with her blanket. Evidentally she was wore out from all of the fun playing with cousins. I still think it is so adorable that she sucks on those fingers. She is still young and can get away with it. Not sure how cute it will be when she is starting Kindergarten if she is still sucking on them!

10 years later...

Ok, so this post is a few weeks overdue, but I had to share it.

Aaron and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary in February. He, being the big stud he is, planned a little trip for us. He called my work and scheduled me the week off and then called my parents (still on their mission at the time) and arranged with them to stay with the kids for our little vacation. His original destination idea did not work out, so we decided to go to Mexico instead. Neither of us had ever been there and I am so glad we went. We had a great time.

This is the inside of the resort we stayed at. We decided to stay and at all-inclusive place and that was definitely the way to go. We would eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but we would also stop in for an afternoon ice cream cone or some fruit here and there. A couple of nights we would eat dinner around 6 and then go back for a second light dinner at 10. We also had room service included so we would order that too...not because we were hungry, just because we could! Of course we did eat the food which would explain the extra pounds we came back with.

The peacocks would just walk around the resort. Their coloring was so beautiful.

The four pictures below were all taken from our balcony. It was absolutely beautiful. Whenever people would talk about the ocean in Mexico being such a pretty color blue and so clear, I really didn't believe them totally until I saw it for myself. It is amazing. The water is gorgeous and so warm. The weather was perfect while we were there.

We had a blast together. It was so fun, but just a bit too short.

In the morning when we would walk to breakfast, we would see all the peacocks up on the roofs of the buildings. It was the strangest thing. They made these ridiculous noises to communicate with each other, not sure if it was some sort of mating call or what, but they were very loud.

We spent a day at a place called Xel-Ha. There was a ton to do there, lots of snorkeling, swimming through caves, floating down a river (not much current, but it was still relaxing), lots of YUMMY food (and of course ate way too much), we even went on a little bike ride.

While at Xel-Ha, we did an underwate Sea Trek. We put on those white helmets seen in the picture (I felt like a smurf). Anyway, there is a yellow tube that connects into the helmet which provides constant air flow to you. It was really cool, we got to walk along the ocean floor with the fish and got to touch and feel lots of sting rays. The current was actually pretty strong so we had a little rail type thing to hold onto. I was nervous at first, but so glad I did this.

Thanks Aaron for a very fun vacation and 10 great years. Can't wait for the many more to come!

The three little girls...

It has been a while since my sisters and I have take pictures of all three little girls.

Brooklyn (my younger sister's daughter) is in blue in the front. She is the oldest of the three. Then our daughter Kendall (wearing the light pink shirt sitting down) is next in line 6 weeks after Brooklyn. Last, but definitely not least is Lexi (my older sister Boni's daughter). She is in darker pink in the back standing up. She is 6 weeks after Kendall.

To get all three of the girls looking and smiling at the same time obviously did not work out so well.

Here is Brooklyn and her cheesy little smile. She is definitely the "mother" of the three!

Atwood's Family Party

For Atwood's birthday party, he really wanted all of his cousins to celebrate with him wearing pajamas. The great thing about living so close to family is that most of his cousins were able to come.

We had asked Atwood what kind of cake he would like and he said a skateboard cake. So Aaron went to Costco and dropped off the cake order. Then while the kids and I were driving home from the gym, Atwood said that he really didn't like cake. He said he wanted good ol' fashion brownies. So that is what he got. Cousin Brynn did such a fine job arranging the green candles for us!

Here he is anxiously waiting for those yummy brownies!

He got lots of really fun presents! (Aunt Robyn had just gotten back from a trip to Disneyland so Atwood got his first ever Mickey Mouse ears).
Overall, it was a great birthday and he has already started planning his party for next year.

Atwood and his buddy...

The day of Atwood's birthday was a little crazy after school. We had ballet pictures for Megan and Madison, but afterwards we went and got some birthday dinner. Atwood of course wanted McDonalds so we picked up some extra for Madison and Jake to stay and have dinner too. Here are Atwood and Jake enjoying some french fries!

Happy Birthday Atwood!

Atwood's 4th birthday was May 1st. We opened presents the night before (Dad had to work on the 1st) and Atwood was very excited.

Atwood is totally into Star Wars. It is so fun to listen to my kids play Star Wars together...Megan is always the girls of course. Atwood loves these little Galactic Hero dudes and will play for hours with them.

Mario Kart!!! This game is really fun. The next night (while Aaron was working), I put the kids to bed and played a little Mario Kart myself.

Welcome to the world Luke...

Our next door neighbors, Josh and Becky Morgan, (Madison's parents) welcomed a new little boy to their house. His name is Lucas Anthony, but we call him Luke. He is so adorable.

This top picture is for my sister Robyn. Becky brought Luke over during Atwood's birthday party so my sisters could see him. Robyn loved how cute he was holding his blanket. It is nice to have them live so close so that if I ever need that brand new baby fix, I can get it real quick.

Kendall really likes him. She doesn't so much want to hold him a bunch, but when he is around, she is definitely checking him out.

Megan and friends

It is not uncommon on ANY given day that Megan will be found with her friends wanting to dress up.

Here is (left to right): Sadie, Tori, Megan, and Natalie. All of these girls live in our neighborhood, are all in Kindergarten, and so they get lots of bus riding and playing time at school. They like to plan little get togethers on the bus ride home so last Friday, Megan invited them all over for lunch and playing. They walked in the door, dropped bags, and went upstairs to get into Megan's clothes. Here they all are as the "Fashion Beach Girls".

Megan and Madison are adorable here wearing Megan's coordinating dresses and matching headbands. These girls are such great friends and we are lucky to have
Madison's family living right next door.

Ballet recital time again!

Megan loves this time of year when she gets her ballet recital outfit and gets to get all dressed up with make-up and everything for pictures.

And of course Kendall wanted to get in on the picture too. In case you are wondering about the weird chicken hair thing going on...she had a cute little bow in earlier in the day, but it must have gotten pulled out at naptime.

Not feeling good? Just stay in PJ's all day...

It seems like we had quite of few of these "not feeling so hot days".

We weren't terribly sick, but just under the weather this past winter.

Poor Kendall had her fair share of teeth that popped through

so I am sure that was most of her problem.

More easter pics...

I forgot to post these other three pictures of the kids Easter morning.

Megan and Kendall of course looking very pretty. Megan loves to match her sister and it doesn't always happen often with their size difference, but we got lucky for Easter.

Here are Dilan (tan pants) and Atwood (green pants). They are all boy and are not so much into dressing up for pictures, but are still so cute.

Oh, wait Atwood says they are not cute, they are cool.

Megan LOVES getting all dressed up.

It is not unlike her to change outfits at least five times each day.