All Ready for Church

Nothing special about this post. Just some cute pictures of the kids all ready for church. This happened to be Cameron's first week wearing a tie. He felt so cool next to his Daddy and Chad and was so cute walking into church with them. Love my boys (and girl)!

Happy Birthday Oma!

My mom turned 60 this year and decided to do something crazy......like go skydiving!!! Now this may not be crazy to some people, but if you know me, then you know that I think she is crazy. Unfortunately now she has lit a spark for skydiving in some other people in our family, one of which I am married to, and I am not very happy about it! Anyway....it was a great day celebrating with her. All of our family was there, as well as her best friend Theresa. Here are some pictures documenting her trip. She LOVED every minute of it and can't wait to save up enough money to do it again. We were very proud! The kids loved to watch their Oma come down out of the sky in a parachute!

Cameron and the Dentist

This summer was Cameron's first official trip to the dentist. He has come with me since he was tiny, and watched Kylie and Chad too. He even sat on my lap while they kind of cleaned his teeth one other time - but this time was for real! He was all happy sitting in the waiting room and watching his big brother and sister. But when it was time for his turn, he freaked out. Check out the picture above....too funny (man I look tired!) He cried for about 5 minutes while we tried to talk him into it, and bribed him with the treasure chest. Eventually he calmed down on my lap.....and then it was smooth sailing from there. He felt like such a big boy and now says he can't wait to go again! He is such a fun boy to have around. I love his little personality and he makes everyone smile!

KDA Scholarship Auditions

At the end of every summer, Kylie has to "audition" at her dance studio. I have probably posted about this in year's past. In order to be involved in Kane Dance Academy's Scholarship program you have to try out every year. They really want to create good life experiences for the girls, and get them ready for real life "auditions." She has to put together a resume, with parental help of course, and get her dance bag ready, and learn all kinds of dance terminology. If she is successful (and usually everyone is), she can participate in the scholarship program and take as many classes that she would like throughout the year, and we pay only one fee. Saves us lots of money, and she becomes a very well-rounded dancer. She did a great job and earned the Gumby Flexible award. She was very proud!

All set and ready to go.....

At the Scholarship "you made it" party.....

Kylie and Miss Kristy, the studio owner

Puzzle Museum

David and I were out together somewhere and the kids stayed at our house with Grandma. This is what we found when we came home:

A puzzle museum.....at least that's what they called it. I love it when my

kids work together and are creative! Too cute!

Potty Training Time

About a week after we got home from our trip, it was time to begin potty training with Cameron. He was almost exactly 2 1/2 and was going to start preschool in the fall a couple of days a week. I knew he was ready and the thought of having NO kids in diapers was very exciting. Chad was so easy to potty train, and so I just hoped that Cameron would be too. Here's what we did on day one:

Watched the Potty Time video with Elmo
(you can see in his face that he was thinking "yeah, right!")

Bought new Thomas the Train underwear......very exciting!

Read LOTS of stories about big boys going on the potty.

Started a sticker chart with, you guessed it, Thomas the train stickers.

He started to get excited about half-way through the day. Kylie and Chad were a HUGE help. We all screamed and did the potty dance whenever he went in the potty.

Overall, the day was very tiring. We had two accidents all together on day one. Day two, he woke up and was a new boy. We are so lucky to have had two little boys that were EASY to potty train. No more accidents after day three, wearing underwear out and about. After a week of being dry overnight, we decided to take the pull-ups off and wear underwear when sleeping too. Since then we have never had an accident. Potty training IS the worst part of parenting, even when it is easy. So glad it is over.....no more buying diapers!!! Woo-hoo!

Summer Road Trip

We took an awesome road trip this summer! We had a fabulous time and enjoyed every minute of being away from home and responsibility!

Last summer, when we went to Monterey for our 10th anniversary, we loved where we stayed so much that we vowed to bring the kids back...and so we did...and we brought Oma with us, too. On our way up to Monterey, we decided to make a quick stop in San Luis Obispo. We had a quick afternoon and evening there and then were off to Cayucos the next morning for a fun Fourth of July in a quaint, Central California coastal town. They had an all-American home town parade and sand castle contest...and while it was very crowded, it was really fun!

We continued on our way to Monterey via the Pacific Coast Highway, which is one of the most beautiful, but extremely windy roads. It was absolutely beautiful! We landed in Monterey and enjoyed the next few days exploring the area with the kids. The best part was that our hotel was, literally, on the beach! We spent a majority of our time there or at the pool relaxing. While it wasn't terribly warm (it never is that far north!), we had a fantastic time.

After Monterey, it was time for Oma to go home. We dropped her off at the airport in San Jose and spent an evening with our good friends, Luke and Julie Selway and their kids. They were great hosts...can't beat an evening of barbecue, long time friends, happy, playing kids and a huge pool! Once we were done, we were off to San Francisco...we thought it would be fun to show the kids this amazing city! We had a great time exploring San Francisco, but have NEVER been so cold in our entire lives. To be honest, we cut our visit short because we were SO incredibly cold, but we did have fun looking at the sites, especially from the car! Someone famous (I don't know who!) once said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco!" Let me tell ya', that is NO JOKE! Our next stop was Yosemite National Park...with a quick stop at the Oakland temple.

Yosemite is MOST definitely one of the MOST beautiful places in the world! David's cousins, Jan and Walt, were married there 25 years ago, so we went as a family, and met up with even more family, to celebrate their anniversary with a big family party. We spent four nights "camping" at Curry Village and loved the beauty of the park. Lauriann and the kids were scared of the bears...and the park rangers even woke us up because they thought our car had been broken into by a bear! Luckily, it hadn't!

After Yosemite, we went straight home, and while we were tired from a long drive home, our entire trip was absolutely AMAZING! Can't wait to do it again...