I'm DONE people!

After a long morning at church showing off her newly acquired walking skills to everyone, with much enthusiasm I might add, Ava was DONE by the time we arrived home and attempted lunch!

She was so cute walking around church in her new denim skirt! I, like most people don't bring a camera to church, so I have no proof of just how cute she was. You'll just have to take my word for it! ( I'll post a picture of her in it soon) My dad, Aka Grandpa Tom, said she looked like she was wearing a lamp shade for a skirt! As soon as he said that, a memory came flooding back of a pink plastic and lace ripple lamp shade my grandmother had in her bedroom when I was little, and I hadn't thought of that in years. Thinking of that made me remember her room exactly the way she had it, and the countless sleepovers we had at her house. I love that we live close to much of our family, and that my grandmother is still kickin' at 90, and enjoying my kids! I also love when random memories are triggered, and the unexpected smile they can bring to your soul!(Not the direction I saw this post going, but it's my blog so I'll do what I want!)

I love this picture of Ava mooching bites off of Grandma pink's plate on Easter!

Dance Recital

The Saturday of Mother's Day weekend, Callie was in her first ever dance recital! She has been so excited for this day, but I was a little nervous. At 4 years old, it's a little bit of a gamble if they will actually go on stage or not. At the dress rehearsal the day before, she did awesome! I told her to make her moves really big, so that the people in the audience could she her dance really well. So sure enough, she got on stage and was the most obnoxiously animated dancer of the whole preschool class! Thankfully at the recital, she toned it down a few notches, and was just adorable:) This has been such a fun little activity for her, and she can hardly wait until next year!

This was her right before we sent her back stage in her "Baby take a Bow" costume.

I think she was just as excited to wear a little bit of makeup, as she was to dance!

This was right after the finale when we picked her up off the stage. A bit of a super excited smile on her face I'd say!

Way to go twinkle toes!!!

Love you to pieces!

Yesterday, was a very fun day with the girls, even in spite of Ava being a severe crab! (one short nap will do that to a girl:) It was a glorious day out, and we had spent about 45 min on the tramp with a beach ball just laughing and playing together. I said to Callie, "I just love you girls to pieces!", to which she said, "You like us broken?"!

It's a good thing that kids are so dang cute, and say the funniest things, because there are a lot of days I scratch my head and wonder, what have I gotten myself into?!

Out with the old!

Last week, we FINALLY got a new trampoline!!! Our old tramp came with the house when we moved in almost 4 years ago, and it was most likely 3-4 years old then! Approximately 8 years of faithful service, and our trusty tramp was well past it's prime! In fact, it was all the way in the public eye sore, white trash, total embarrassment category! The net was barely hanging on, in fact, it was so low that Callie would sit on it and swing like she was in a hammock! About 6 weeks ago the surface of the tramp started to rip where the springs attached, and we knew that the death of our trusty tramp was fast approaching! We started shopping around, and finally found the one that came very highly recommended by our Bishops kids, on sale for $100.00 off! The kids were beyond thrilled, and could hardly wait for Friday to come for the big set up!


They were so excited to tare down the old tramp, that I didn't get a good final picture of our tramp in full ghetto mode! The neighborhood kids all helped with the deconstruction, I think they were just as excited as our kids!



Chuck and I worked our tushes off trying to put this thing together! Whoever wrote the instructions most likely never finished grade school! After several failed attempts, we finally managed to get it together! The funny part is, that the next day when I went to put the net up, I realized we put some of it together backwards! No harm, we can just drill some new screw holes for the net poles!


We are all so happy to have this new fun toy, that provides countless hours of laughter and exercise, and makes for some pretty exhausted kids at the end of the day! (That's my favorite part!)

Our little Dancer

Callie started to take dance this year from the same teacher I took from as a child. She has really enjoyed herself, and had loads of fun! She is beyond excited for the recital next weekend! I pray she will actually go on stage, and not be one of "the criers" her teachers has warned us about. A few weekends ago, she had her class pictures taken, and looked adorable! I took a few pictures of her when we got home, and you can see how pretty our little dancer is!



On a side note, her costume is such a bright pink, that if you look at it for too long, and then look away, your vision is all kinds of messed up! You won't be able to miss those preschoolers when they take the stage, that's for sure!!

A Family that plays together.....

Stays together! We went to the park last week as a family just because it was a beautiful night, and we have had an incredibly looooong winter. I brought my camera, as I often do, and we had so much fun taking pictures of the boys jumping off the swings! Here are the best shots from our evening at the park!

The girls were just loving the park as well, and were very entertained by the extreme jumping thanks to the brothers! I love our simple family walks, and trips to the park, they don't cost a dime, and it's just plain fun to be together!

A LITTLE FRIDAY FUN

Chuck has been working a ton of hours lately (or always), and we haven't had a lot of fun family time together, so the Friday of spring break he took the afternoon off, and we played! The kids voted to go to Chuckie Cheeses (Where a kid can be a kid!), and we had a great time. I was so relieved when we arrived that it wasn't all that crowded. There is nothing closer to hell on earth then Chuckie Cheese at maximum capacity!

It was hard to get a good picture of the boys while they were there, because they were so busy running from one game to the next. They only came over to me when they wanted more tokens, or money for the pop I promised they could have! Typical!

Callie and Ava were so cute and fun that day! Callie was showing Ava the Chuckie Cheese ropes, and I was very surprised at how much Ava was enjoying her self. I hate to admit that I don't take as much time during the day to play with my kids as I should, so I very much enjoyed my self too! (The free refills of Diet Coke didn't hurt either:)

And last but not least, there is my husband, who seems to turn into a kid again when we walk in the doors! The best was when he took Callie to "play", and brought her into the giant jungle jeep game where they shoot enormous tarantulas! She had nightmares for 2 nights that her bed was full of ter-lanch-a las (that's how she says it)! Next time she is going to hang with Ava and me on the kiddy side! Apparently shooting at things is a stress reliever for guys! Who knew?

All in all, it was a very fun and relaxing way to spend the afternoon together as a family!