More Craft Time!

I am really loving this time with my neighbors and the time my kids get to be messy and have fun with friends! THANKS neighbors for making this possible and letting us participate even though I have to skip out to pick up Lyss. Angie - my kids keep bringing me bugs!! Guess your project got them searching! Met, Jess and Tay ran around with their whirly gigs all evening while we were shopping for the block party! They love them! You made their day!

More Crafts!

So we've done two more weeks! I am loving this craft day! Truly thanks neighbors for doing it and letting me participate even though I have to leave for a few minutes every week to pick up Lyss from swim. Angie, my girls keep bringing me bugs!! : ) Not sure about that, but they are happy! Met, Jess and Tay ran around today with their whirly gig things! They love them!

Alyssa's Baptism

Friends and family are invited to join us at Alyssa's baptism on July 5th! She is very excited to become an official member of our Church. Email or call me for the details. We'd love to have you there! We will also be having a short reception with light refreshments immemdiately after the baptism. Feel free to stop by our house for a quick visit, some refreshments and to share your love with her! It would mean a lot to her!

Still more to come!

The last week has been very busy - birthday parties for both Taylor and Alyssa, a family trip to Chuck E Cheese's, family present opening, dinner at Grandma & Grandpa Hendersons, a campout and hike for me, a Ladies Night Out pampering night, another craft time for the kids ... so keep watching for more. If you haven't read for a day or two - make sure to check the history because some recent ones have already been bumped off the screen - thanks to all my pictures! Hope you all enjoy! I'll post more this weekend!

What a great place to live!

Ok, so I just have to brag about this absolutely majestic, beautiful place we live. We are so blessed by the amazing scenery. When I stop and really look around, I am just in awe. From just a block or so away, I have a great view of mountains on the east, some smaller mountains and hills on the north and west two other sides and a big lake on the south side. I don't appreciate it as much as I should, but Steve has really been pointing it out lately - the great views. Its made me realize how lucky we are.

Then, this past weekend, I went on a camping overnighter with some of the girls in our church youth group. We went on a hike that was almost 5 miles long. Typically, this time of year, things aren't so green here as the summer heat dries us out. We are usually pretty brown. But this year we had an unusually wet, cold spring so the creeks are still running strong with the run-off from the snow and thus everything is still pretty green. The hike was perfect, amazing wild flowers and views that just made me want to stop and enjoy the scenery! The weather was warm but we were in and out of the trees in the shade so it was just perfect. I wanted to share with you some of the pictures I took. I'm no expert behind the lens, but I try. Hope you can imagine how great it actually was. Truly postcard perfect!

L.N.O.

Ladies Night Out ... I blogged about it on our LNO site, so I won't repeat here. But wanted to mention it in case you wanted to read it and hadn't!

Present Time!!

Wow - our girls are blessed (ok, so maybe somewhat spoiled too!)

On the 18th, the girls got to open presents from their Aunt Nyla. Thanks Nyla! As soon as we are done with the book we are reading, we will be reading some Magical Fairy Books! And Alyssa was sleeping with her baby giraffe tonight! Taylor drives her Barbies everywhere in her new car! I heard her early the next morning racing it around the house! It was the first things he went for!

Then on the 19th in the morning, Karianna, our babysitter/office assistant/nanny and the only reason I'm sane, dropped by to give them gifts. She had the week off because her brother came home from a mission and she also had Girls' Camp - thus the tie-dyed shirt! Thanks Karianna! The horses gallop often around here now! Hmmmmm... did the choice of animal have anything to do with a boy who recently took you horseback riding?

After Chuck E Cheese's, Steve and I gave the girls their presents from us. Taylor is LOVING her new Barbie "Castle". Its as big as she and Jess are! They spend a lot of time playing with it. And all the girls are enjoying the fish in Alyssa's new Aquarium. We only have 3 right now, (one died the first night) but we'll add more in a few more days. Its fun to watch them all watch the fish and check on them to make sure they are all still ok. They did ok when the first one died, so hopefully, we won't have drama over the fish!

Our vist to Chuck E's!

Ok, so Chuck E Cheese's isn't my favorite place on earth, but the girls LOVE the place! The girls have been asking to go there for their birthdays for about 3 months! Alyssa has had it set in stone for weeks that we were going on the 19th - right in between their birthdays to celebrate for both! So, off we went! We blew through 100 tokens in record time - the girls dropped all 100 in the machines (Steve did maybe 2 or 3 and I did 1) and they did it in less than an hour and 15 minutes from the time we arrived and that included breaks for eating! They managed to earn exactly 300 tickets which bought them each some tatoos for earrings and a piece of candy. But hey, they had fun! Here's some pictures!

Princess Party!

Taylor is now 5 years old! On her birthday she informed me she is 5 now, not 4 anymore. And she never says 4 if you ask her, there's no forgetting for her! She is proud to be 5. It doesn't seem like that long ago when she was just 2 and struggling so much with her speech. She's come a long way - let me tell you!! She can really chatter with the best of them now! : )

For Taylor's birthday we had twelve 4 and 5 year old little girls here. They came from church, neighbors, her preschool class and a friend of the family. We set up our neighborhood bounce house slide and they had a blast. They also made princess hats and of course had cake and ice cream (only ice cream for Taylor though!). She loved it. It was a great time for her to have her friends all here. She got lots of great presents including several Barbie's and Polly Pockets which she is LOVING along with all her gifts. Here are a few pictures to enjoy!

Taylor with our friend Ella (in the crowns they made).

It got me (the water gun on the bounce house). Wow - that's cold!!

Notice that there is NO trash on the floor. It is all in the bag. This is not AFTER opening presents, this is DURING present opening. She insisted on every piece of paper going straight in the trash bag which grandma was holding. This is her new scooter which she is LOVING.

Craft time

Some ladies in my neighborhood decided to organize a craft group (thanks Dani). Every Monday morning we get together at a different house (8 families) with all the kids - and this picture is missing a family and a couple of the little ones - to do a craft planned by the hosting mom. Today was our first meeting! We made some little dream catchers by wrapping yarn around popsicle sticks and then also some kids made a birdseed pinecone. Thanks Lisa for having us at your yard. The kids were so excited about it the rest of the day. Taylor asked if we get to do it again. I explained to her that next time we'll do it at someone else's house. She thought that was pretty cool.

"She's my friend"

So sweet this morning ... Taylor and I were discussing a friend she wanted to invite to her party. I told her yes, that friend was invited so we'd see her on Thursday. She then said, "Can Jess come too?" I was a bit confused so I said, "your sister, Jessica?" She said "YES!" After I said explained that yes, sisters come to our parties, she said "Good. I like my sister Jess. She's fun. She's my friend." It was really sweet. They really do play quite well together. I'm really glad they have each other. I wish Alyssa mixed better with them. Sometimes she does GREAT with them, other times ... NOT so much. Its definitely a case of either their best friend or worst enemy and nothing in between.

This picture of them at their gymnastics performance at the end of May. This was the very end after they had done all their performance and their teacher gave each of them a special medal. They both love their "shnastics" as they call it.

Happy Father's Day!

I just want to brag on what an awesome guy my girls have for a dad. Steve, I truly love you for all you do and for who you are! I love your discipline, your integrity and your amazing work ethic. I love our date nights together and am so grateful that you truly consider spending time with me more important than anything else. I love how happy your plane and playing music (guitar, drums, bass ... radio) makes you. I love that you like to ride scooters and bikes with your girls. I love that you are so spontaneous and that you love to have fun! And I love that you are so good to me! I love that we go on our date nights and do fun things and eat yummy food and that you don't mind doing some shopping with me - yes ladies, he went to TaiPan with me on our date night! He has also been known to take me clothes shopping, to pick up hair products, or any other miriad of errands during our date nights. He does all that without complaining. He'd prefer we don't do errands because he wants it to be about us not about daily tasks, but he tolerates me when I have to get things done.

I am so excited to go to Italy with him in 23 days! Now that it is getting so close I am really getting excited. I keep thinking about what an AMAZING time we had in Barcelona and how much fun we had together and how much it brought us together. I'm sure it will be just as amazing in Italy! Overall, thank you Steve for being an amazing dad, husband and best friend!

And to my dad, THANK YOU for being the man you are that has taught me so much and helped and supported me. And thank you for being such a great grandpa. The girls love you so much! Hope you enjoy the ice cream maker! We love you!

Jessica LOVES our new table!

This weekend we bought a new little end table for the living room. Alyssa is getting an aquarium for her birthday but I want it in the living room so we can all enjoy it (the little girls don't get to go in Alyssa's room very often) and so I can keep an eye on it. The table is for that but Alyssa doesn't know that yet! :) Anyway, we brought it in and a little while Jess comes into the living room. In her most excited, sweet little voice she says, "ohhhh ... that table is the most awesome and pretty." It was adorable that she'd get so excited over a black end table. She often compliments new things. Its fun.

I'll post a picture of the little table with the fish tank after we get it all set up. Remember, Alyssa doesn't know about it yet, so SHHHHHH...

Upcoming Birthdays!

Taylor and Alyssa both have birthdays coming up in the next 10 days. I'm in the midst of planning a princess party for 5 year olds and a High School Musical party for 8 year olds. Both of them have quite a LONG list of friends they want to invite so we'll see how we manage to trim it down. I somehow don't desire to have 18 8 year olds (yes, that is how many are on Alyssa's list) or 15 5 year olds (yes, that's Tay's list - every girl from preschool excpet one plus all the ones in the neighborhood who are close to her age and a few from outside the neighborhood too - she tried to include everyone she had heard Alyssa invite that she knew too, but I drew the line on that one!).

When I asked Alyssa what she wanted, she of course, said WebKinz. She also asked for a baby stuffed animal giraffe (her giraffe is getting old and needs to have babies she says - the zoo giraffe had a baby this year and we saw it a few weeks ago!), her own email address, a fish or dog, heelys (shoes with wheels in the heel), two weekends without pulling weeds, no chores for a week, late-overs with friends and a lot of different books among many other items that were definitely out of the price range of most (including mom and dad) like a trip to Hawaii and her own digital camera. She has a whole list going on at all times of things she wants. She's like me ... dreams big and keeps tally on all the dreams and always can think of more. I remember being challenged to dream big once - to write a list of 100 things I wanted or things I wanted to do and I didn't have that hard of a time! I'm happy with what I have, but to me to not dream of more is to stop living!

Taylor on the other hand, is much easier going, more like her dad. For Steve, he's content to take it as it comes and would have a hard time writing 10 things he wants. Taylor's right there with him. When asked what she wanted she said an ice cream cone with green ice cream (mint chocolate chip - that part is definitely my daughter - that's my favorite too) and a popsicle! That was it. When I asked what else and really tried to get more from her, she said ice cream in a bowl. : ) Easy to please! I think for her birthday party we are going to skip the cake (since she won't eat it anyway) and have ice cream cones with green ice cream for everyone. I'll fill them the night before and freeze them in cupcake pans (a tip I read somewhere - maybe Family Fun magazine). I'll put a candle in the top of hers and we'll sing and call it good for her. We're still trying to figure out what else to get her. I think we're going to do a dollhouse - she LOVES to play with Barbies and Little People. She creates whole towns for them using the headboard from Jessica's bed, pillows, blankets, drawers, and other toys. I remember when I was about 7, my friend Alisa and I used to create entire cities from my mom's afghans, couch cushions, boxes and anything else we could find. Guess she got a little bit of me after all! The obsessive tendencies are all Steve though ... definitely not me! : )

Signing out for the night! Hope all is well for those of you reading this! If you haven't left a comment, please do - even if it is just to say hi!

Today was Alyssa's first meet. It was actually a practice meet for all the swimmers that are new this year. She is LOVING swim and I am so proud of her. This is her and Caitlyn (a neighbor who is also on the team) waiting in the bullpen to swim their first stroke (freestyle). They got to swim next to each other on every stroke.

Alyssa swam freestyle and placed 6th out of 7 in her heat of 7 and 8 year old girls (she started off the wall very slow so I think if we can get her working on that she will do much better). She swam backstroke (which is her favorite) and tied for 3rd with Caitlyn (also 7 in her heat). The one I was happiest about was her breaststroke. She actually didn't make the team on her first tryout because she was doing the feet wrong on this stroke. After about 20 min in the pool with a friend of ours, she remembered the correct way and was doing much better and made the team without a problem. Today, she did them GREAT . She didn't get disqualified for flipper feet or for doing her arms too big. She finished 5 out of 7 but touched the wall with onehand instead of two - getting disqualified. Overall, we are very excited for her and pleased!

On a side note, Alyssa LOVE Webkinz! She has been saving for quite awhile and then she got her cookie money! She's also been doing a lot of work for me (she puts stamps on my postcards for my biz) and actually earned enough to buy two more small ones (a hippo and a white cat). She's so excited about them! She really wants a real pet for her birthday, but not sure that is going to happen.

Cookies & Lemonade 4 Sale

My girls (especially Alyssa) LOVE to sell things. So, a couple of weeks ago we asked Grandma if we could sell cookies, lemonade and otter pops in front of her house (she lives on a fairly busy neighborhood road - at a four way stop so they get a lot of traffic). We made my mom's famous Monster Cookies (M&Ms, choc chips, PB and oatmeal) on Monday and had a sale on Tuesday! The girls earned over $26 in about two hours. They had lots of fun. They posed for lots of pictures - including a picture with grandma under the umbrella (it sprinkled a little bit).








Alyssa spent her share of the money on a new WebKinz - an elephant she named Princess Spray to go with her lion who is Prince Fuzz. She loves those silly little animals - probably because she loves playing on the computer!

Taylor and Jess weren't quite as into the sale as Alyssa but did enjoy posing for pictures.

After the sale, I gave the girls each their share of the money. Jessica was so excited about her $4. When I gave it to her she let out a big gasp and then said, "its money for the ice cream man?" She loves the ice cream truck that comes by once in awhile! So easy to please!

Taylor is right on pace with Jess. When asked
what she wants for her upcoming birthday, she said "A popscicle, an ice cream cone, green ice cream in a bowl..." Can you tell what my kids LOVE?

You have to notice the "LOVED" blanket that Taylor has. She loves that thing and won't sleep with ANYTHING else touching her! Grandma Henderson made it for her when she was born. For the longest time it was the only thing allowed to be on her, now she will allow other things on top of her blanket - to cover up the holes in her blanket. : ) You also have to know that Taylor, in her obsessive little way, saves the pieces of her blanket that she rips off. She calls them her blanket pieces and puts them in a little purse in her room!

Steve takes to the sky!

Steve picked up a new hobby this year, one he's wanted to do for a long time - remote control airplanes (he doesn't do the model airplanes though - these are sold ready to fly). We gave him his plane and controller for Christmas. He has really taken to it so I thought I'd add a picture of him. This was taken out front of our house a few weeks ago on a Sunday evening. Notice the plane is just off the ground - it was coming in for a landing so I was proud of catching this picture even if the plane is a little fuzzy. (the girl on her bike is a friend in the neighborhood - Bailey, not one of mine.)

Its a great outlet for Steve so I'm glad he's gotten into it. There are now at least 9 in our neighborhood who fly planes - big boys and their toys! They often go flying at a junior high school about 10 minutes from us but once they get comfortable enough with them, they sometimes just fly from the streets in front of the house. Steve has gotten really great with his. He spent a lot of time practicing nothing but landing and taking off and it has paid off well for him. He's trashed one plane but some of our neighbors have gone through 3 or 4 in the same amount of time! He can do crazy stunts and stuff with it. The current motor he has in it can go about 90-100 miles an hour if it is full throttle, although most of the neighbors only go about 60-70 (a police officer actually clocked it for them). Its really fun to watch. The girls love to go to the school with him and watch him fly. I usually take advantage of some quiet time! But we all enjoy relaxing out front when he is flying. The girls play with their friends and I just relax or visit with other wives that are watching their husbands fly. It makes Steve happy so its fun for me!

Bragging about some family!

For those of you who aren't family, you may not know that I'm from a LARGE family on my dad's side. I have 8 living aunts and uncles (plus their spouses), 39 cousins (I believe), about 90 in my daughter's generation and 15 or so in the next generation. My cousins range in age from mid-20s to grandparents of kids that are in their teens. Anyway, I have to brag about my cousin Ruth's son. They live in northern California and Gabe is currently in Orlando in College. He has just recently tried out with the Orioles and has talked to 3 or 4 other teams! Here's a link to a newspaper article that talks about him. He was selected to the All-Conference First team in the Sunshine State Conference. We're all cheering him on!

http://www.lynn.edu/index.php?src=news&refno=6111&category=Athletics%20Top%20Stories