Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit last weekend. Although their visit was way to short, I was able to take a few pictures. Here's Luke with his famous eyes-closed smile.
Grandpa and Breezy snuggle after playing our new HSM2 DVD game (thanks Polly!). Grandma and Grandpa did exceptionally well seeing how neither of them had ever seen the entire movie. They are good guessers!
Can you tell I have given up on trying to get Luke to keep his eyes open?

He LOVES grandma and insisted that she be his shadow and go wherever he wanted her to go while she was here. She's an amazing grandma - it's no wonder he adores her!

The Luke

This is Luke's signature dance move. He has been doing it since he started walking and anytime there is music playing (and sometimes when there's not), he'll bust out this move. It's kind of the Statue of Liberty/"Stop...in the Name of Love" while spinning.

Busted!

When all is quiet and Luke's nowhere in sight, that can only mean one thing. Someone left the bathroom door unlocked and the seat up.Luke think's he's pretty cute. But catching him smiling for a picture these days is hilarious. When he sees the camera, he closes his eyes (flash anticipation) and then gives a huge smile. I must have taken a dozen shots of him and could not get one with his eyes open. Busted again! Thankfully it's the pantry, not the toilet today. This guy can sniff out sugar even when it's hidden behind closed doors.

Wait, I want to pose for the picture...let me just close my eyes...

Luke, this bench is for toys, not boys! Nikki, recognize the toys under the bench? Looks like something had to get tossed out to make room for Luke!Busted again?? Looks like Luke's off the wagon (or is it on the wagon - I need to get my sayings straight). It's so bad he's digging through the trash to support his habit. Either that or he's taken on Great Grandma J's thriftiness. Hey, there was some still left in the bottom of the can. Despite all the trouble, Luke is a really good boy. He reads volumes everyday.
And even folds his arms to pray. Now if we could only figure out how to teach him to close his eyes during the prayer! We love love love you Luke!!!

Broken!

So, it turns out that little encounter Breanna had with the tree was more than just a bruiser. After the miracle "Slurpee" cure, Breanna watched a movie, relaxed on the couch and said her arm was sore. We gave sympathy, lots of love, then hauled her off to a BBQ at a friend's house. Breanna played dress-up, chased the boys around the backyard and was pretty much her usual self. She was favoring her sore arm though. Maybe a sprain, we thought. That night I decided to give her some Tylenol (how thoughtful of me!). I sent her to school the next day with a note for her teacher to excuse Bree from any strenuous activities. Her teacher e-mailed me later and told me Breanna didn't complain about her arm the whole day.

As Jer and I chatted during the day though, we decided we should probably take her in just to make sure. Ends up she broke the tip of her Ulna, on the inside of the wrist. Right arm, naturally. We couldn't get into the orthopedic surgeon until Wed morning, but thankfully he said the break wasn't on the growth plate and in 6 short weeks, she'll have her arm back, good as new. You should have seen the ear to ear grin on her face when they put the pink cast on. Better than Disneyland. I took this picture before sending her off to school and the cast is now practically purple with all the autographs she got on it.

Whatever you do, don't mess with Bree....she's one tough cookie!

Labor Day

Our very generous, fun friends let us tag along and ride quads with them this morning. We had a really great time. The kids were in heaven. It was beautiful weather and just a great day altogether!Luke and Jake with matching expressions! They must think alike. We tried to get Luke to smile, but he was too busy trying to figure out what was going on.

Dad and Jake get ready to take off. Cute Georgia and Breanna. Let's Go!!
Lukie was makin' the moves on Ava. Can't blame him, she's pretty cute! She was such a good baby, too! She just relaxed and enjoyed the hum of the bikes.
As much as Luke liked looking at Ava, that didn't last long. Even Ava can't compete with dirt. He was eating it by the handfuls and making some rather delicious mud pies. Breanna and I found the coolest hills. We are novice riders, so to us, it felt like we were on a roller coaster ride. When we got back from our ride, Sarah said she could see us going over the hills and we were so high it looked like we were above the trees. We got to watch Sarah and Georgia then Jake and Dad go and it did look really cool to see them up so high!
Here are Breanna, Jake and Luke after a great morning of riding! After we took this picture, Breanna went off for one last ride. She took a little detour though and ended up crashing into a tree. Jake came running, shouting, "Emergency!" Dad was already there helping Breanna and James helped get the quad away from the tree. Breanna was pretty shook up. I guess she was cruising along and looked back for just a second and the next thing she knew - "Hello Tree!" She has a few scratches and a very sore arm, but she is recovering nicely. Slurpees from Circle K do wonders for sore arms.

We had such a great time!! Thanks friends!!!

Diamondbacks

We went to the Diamondback game last night with our good friends from NY. Here we are after the game; Tyler, Luke, Angie, Dennis, Ryan, Taylor, Breanna, Jer, Camie and Jake. Chase Field is such a cool ball park. The dads took the kids over to the playground area and they got to hit some balls as well. They had a blast. This was our first time staying to watch the roof open up for fireworks. Very cool! It was a sad evening for us though as the Dodgers took a beating. Jer was especially bummed about that. But we were impressed that Luke lasted the whole night. That might have been due to the sugar high he must have been on after the licorice, tootsie pops and skittles. He was so sticky and so was I, but we were both happy! And of course he loved Angie and cried when she left. He's the funniest baby! We're so glad we got to see our friends and wish we could see them more often!

Dennis, Breanna, Angie, Luke, Jeromy, Tyler, Jake, and Taylor

First Day!

Today was the first day of school for my 2nd and 4th grader! Yikes!! Both were excited for school to start. They got up early and were ready waaay before it was time to go. Jake was a little bit nervous. He felt like throwing up all morning (cold sweats and all) and he didn't think he could make it, but he really wanted to go so he just made up his mind to do it. What a good kid! Here is Breanna with her new teacher, Ms. Hayes. (Meanwhile, Luke is in the background unshelving all of Ms. Hayes' books while his negligent mother tries to capture the moment of her Breezy becoming a 2nd grader.) Breanna has always been so easy going about starting new things. She loves adventure and loves to make new friends. Her outgoing personality made the first day of school a piece of cake! And she even got to sit by her buddy Nicholas (from her Kindergarten class)!

In fourth grade, it is deemed uncool to have your picture taken with your teacher on the first day of school. I thought Jake might die of embarrassment when I asked him if he would mind. I don't give up easily though, so I settled for snapping about a half dozen pictures of him in line with his buddies (none of which turned out...serves me right). After tolerating this for a bit, he kind of forced a smile and gave me this look that seemed to say, "Uh mom, the exit is that way..." I took the hint. I did ask for a hug, but as you can imagine, that didn't happen. Funny how when you're nine, hugs are only good when they buy you a few extra minutes before bedtime.

After school, they both reported that they love their teachers!! Hooray! Luke and I managed to have a pretty good day too! Although I must admit around 9:00 am I found myself wanting to get the kids ready for a day at the pool. So sad to realize those carefree days of summer are gone for now!

Later that day, Brittany, my good friend from NY came to visit us!! It was so fun to see her and catch up on old times. When her son was about 2, he locked himself inside my house while I was babysitting him. So when Brittany came to pick him up, she was surprised to find all of the kids and myself standing outside my front door (we had a glass storm door) looking in on her baby who was pounding on the glass, sobbing, wondering why no one would open the door for him. Our neighbor had to bring over his ladder and climb over our second story deck, to open the sliding glass door (thank heaven it wasn't locked) to rescue Aidan. Just one of the many fun memories for us to reminisce about. We used to have big time game nights in NY, so after dinner, we played Thurn and Taxis with Brittany. Although this was her first time playing, she annihilated both Jeromy and I! Just like old times!! We definitely miss Brittany and her family and the fun times we had in NY!

California Fun

These two pictures of Luke perfectly illustrate my love/hate relationship with camping. I HATE the dirt. And when we camp EVERYTHING is dirty!!! All that you have to do is make eye contact with the dirt and there is an invisible magnetic pull that binds every square inch of you to the dirt until you get home and shower. This absolutely drives me nuts. But look at what a little bit of dirt does to this little boy's face! A smile that only dirt can buy. I guess suffering with all the filth that camping brings is worth it after all!

In one of my many futile attempts to keep Luke clean, we got out this mini tent that Grandma D. had sent along. Luke LOVED it. But there was just one little glitch. He insisted that everyone had to be in the tent with him. So he grabbed Dad's hand and pulled him in first. Then he got out and went to find Grandma and he pulled her in. Here you can see he is trying to get out so that he could grab my hand and pull me in as well! It was so funny. So all 3 of us were on the ground trying to squeeze some part of our bodies in the tent. If one of us pulled out, he immediately went after us and brought us back in. Then he would just sit in the tent and smile with our 3 big heads poking in at him. He is so darn cute!!!

So it was off to the beach where Uncle Troy led off the sand burying festivities. Tyler was pleased as punch to be buried neck deep in the sand. He made it look so fun that Jake signed up to be next.

Nice work, Uncle Troy!

Bree's turn! Uhhh, could someone get the hair out of my eye? I have an itch!

Dad's turn! Just as we got Jer completely buried, Luke came over to help. He started dumping sand all over Jer's face. It was so funny. He just kept pouring it directly into Jer's eyes as if he knew it was just what Jer wanted.

Jer decided to see how Luke would like being up to his neck in sand. No surprise here! Aren't these two SO cute???Uncle Troy had this great idea to capture a seagull. So he dug a huge hole in the sand, and put a blanket over it. He put some food and trash on the blanket, then got under the blanket and waited for the seagulls. With some help from Aunt Tiffany, the seagulls were lured to the bait. And as soon as they stepped on the blanket, Uncle Troy grabbed them from underneath! He actually got a hold of one, but it got away! Jake tried to catch one in Troy's trap, but by then they were too smart!Time to hit the waves...let's boogie board! Actually Jake and Bree stayed pretty close to the shore, but Tyler who is 4 years old, was fearless. Grandpa and Mike took him out to the deep water and Tyler rode in wave after wave. He went under a few times and consistently just got right up with an enormous smile on his face. It was so awesome!!Here is Breanna with her ginormous Sand Crab. She and Jake spent a good amount of time finding these things. Definitely one of the highlights of Carp each year. They tried to get Luke interested in them, but I don't think Luke could really distinguish them from the sand. Probably next year!

Time for some adult games, so what to do with 3 babies who could inflict some serious injuries on themselves with any number of things at the campground? Easy! Put all 3 in a port-a-crib and play survival of the fittest. They actually did pretty good for a while. Jake convinced Makayla that she needed a hat and Kaylee chewed on some cards, but eventually all 3 were in tears. It was pretty funny to have them all crying together in the port-a-crib. So we went to plan B (hey, babies or not the games must go on!) We enlisted Jake's help who took the babies on stroller rides. He saved the game! Sadly for me, Tiffany won, but hey, I'm not competitive or anything, so I was really happy for her.
We had the coolest visitor in our campsite. This huge butterfly was with us almost the entire time we were there. It stayed in our little kitchen canopy. Jake of course could not resist the impulse to hold it. He was surprised at how easily the butterfly came to him. It even rested on Jake's head. Jake loves animals and creatures of any kind, so this was especially cool for him.

Well, after 2 days of roughing it, I was ready for civilization! We said good-bye to Carp and headed down to San Diego. We were so excited to see Erica and Jeff and their kids. They live in GA, so we rarely get to see them. We had fun playing games and just enjoyed catching up! Aren't Soren and Luke cute? We stayed at mom and dad's again but sadly they were in Idaho! Our timing was really off on this trip!

We spent Monday at SeaWorld with Nat and her kids. We had an awesome time and rode a ton of rides and saw some shows. As we were waiting in line for this ride, I looked ahead and noticed the woman right in front of us was wearing a spaghetti strap tank top and her entire bra (the wide part where it snaps together in the back) was completely hanging out of her shirt. So I discretely said to my nieces, "You better not ever let me catch you wearing that look!" They turned to see what I was talking about and just laughed. I guess Troy overheard because he stretched his arm out and pointed directly at the woman and said, "HER?" Apparently, Breanna was also listening because in her LOUDEST voice, she said, "Oh don't worry mom, that's not her underwear, it's just her swimsuit". The woman could not have been more that a foot away from Breanna, and we all almost died! But we were laughing so hard, it was all we could do to not pee our pants. That's my Bree...she calls it as she sees it!

Kyle, Troy and Jake. I can't believe Kyle is 16 and Troy will be a Freshman this year!!! They are such great kids and perfect examples to Jake. He loves hanging out with them!

Luke was reunited with his super cool cousin, Sawyer! These guys are going to be such good buddies!! What a great trip! There's really nothing better than being with family!!!

Breanna Turns 7!

On Friday, Breanna got together with some crazy friends for a party to celebrate turning 7 years old! Sydney, Madison, Caitlyn, Breanna, Cassandra and Sierra.
Here are the girls getting ready to dive into the cake!
Breanna loved dancing with Chuck E. and was so delighted to be in the spotlight.
And just as I'm beginning to accept the fact that my little girl is now 7, she starts talking about how next year she'll be 8 and will get to be baptized! In her mind, she can't grow up quick enough, but she already growing up way too quickly for me.

We love you Bree!!! Happy Birthday!!!