Our 4th of July Fun

Our 4th of July was lots of fun. We had a great BBQ at my parent's (tradition). The kids had fun playing together, and the adult kids had fun as well. Deb brought really yummy festive cupcakes, my Grandma brought her delicious chocolate cake, and I made 2 apple pies. We definitely had our fill of awesome desserts. Not to mention all the other yummy food we had. :)

My parents had fun with the grandchildren, pictured are only 6 of their 9 grandchildren (we really missed the oldest grandchild Devun who wasn't able to be with us)! This pic was taken while some of the grown-ups were playing football or volleyball.

My sweet little girl had so much fun playing in the muddy garden. I had to take a pic so that I wasn't yelling at her for getting so dirty in her new white skirt. I guess I have only myself to blame for buying her white!!

We ended the night with a pretty good firework show, with a little bit of rain!! On the drive home we enjoyed even more fireworks!

St. George

Dave and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary in June by taking a 9 day trip to St. George! It was fabulous. We went to the gym together, which we are never able to do at home. We lounged and watched movies, and basically did whatever we wanted to do without kids!!

We even took a couple days and drove to LA for a Dodgers game. The game was at noon so basically we roasted for 4 hours, but it was a lot of fun. And we totally lucked out by going on throwback day. The concessions were all half price, they wore old school jerseys, and they were even calling themselves the Brooklyn Dodgers for the day!!! :)

We had excellent seats! We were front row on the 3rd base side! That is Matt Kemp signing autographs!

We forgot to take more pics so you get stuck looking at this awful phone camera pic! We are just hanging out on the nice comfy couch!!

All in all we had such a great vacation! We will definitely be doing this every year!

Big Happenings

Vika had her 3 year well check! She absolutely loves going to the dr, and she was by far the happiest person in the whole place! She had the nurses and the dr cracking up. The dr even said he would hang out with her all day long if he could!! :)

She is still really tiny. 25 lbs 5%, 33.5 in 1%, BMI 54%. At least she is healthy, and potty trained, and also very happy!

Its time of year! Conner will be graduating from his last year of preschool. I am kind of sad to see my boy grow up so fast, but it will be fun to see how he does in kindergarten next year!

If you would like to come see him graduate just let me know and I will give you the address! :) BTW this pic was taken at school for his graduation invitation. It says "School is cool, and so am I!"

Vika is 3

Happy Birthday Vika!!! My little girl is not so little anymore. She is already 3. I can't believe she is that old, mostly because she is so tiny. I am so glad she is in our family, I honestly couldn't imagine not having her in my life.

I love that she dresses herself, and loves to pick out her own clothes (even when she doesn't match). I love how independent she is becoming. She has to brush her teeth every morning by herself, and then at night after I do it.

I love that she reads books to herself. She has gotten really good at memorizing her books and then reading them to herself at night before she falls asleep. Its really cute to hear her over the baby monitor reading all her books! I have even found her snuggled up to her books in her bed, instead of her mounds of stuffed animals!! Funny girl.

I love her fiery personality, and that you never know what is going to come out of her mouth. She has the biggest vocabulary, and since she was a baby has been copying everyone. I love her temper and that she can get so mad at something so fast and then quickly forget about it. She can get an attitude with people, usually me, and I still find it hilarious. She is way too much like her mom, and sometimes I wonder if thats really a bad thing.

Her most recent accomplishment is being potty trained! She passed with flying colors! She only had 2 accidents in 3 days and loves to sit on her princess potty because it plays music when she goes in it!!! I am so proud of how fast she picked up on it, and that I am no longer dealing with diapers all day long!

I love this little girl to death and wouldn't trade her for anything. Some of her favorite things include, but aren't limited to:

*Hello kitty everything

*Princesses-right now its Rapunzel (Mapunzel), and Cinderella

*Coloring especially with markers

*Looking pretty

*Fruit snacks

*Chocolate

*Grandma

*Playing with her brother

*Going to lunch with Mommy

*Getting a treat for going potty

*Girls Scout Cookies-Tagalongs, Thin Mints and Dosi Dos

*Getting her nails painted

*Books

*Wearing her princess cape and calling herself BatGirl

*Watching movies

*Playing with her cousins

*Going to nursery-so that she can sing the songs

*Bagels with strawberry cream cheese (because its pink)

*The color pink-she thinks that anything that is pink is hers

There are tons more things I could name here, but I will spare you hours of reading.

A Man's Best Friend

Conner likes dogs. Let me rephrase that, Conner REALLY likes dogs. If it were up to him we would own a dog. Thankfully for Dave and I he is not in charge of those kinds of decisions.

Conner likes to hang out with Deb's little dog Kaya. He really wanted his picture taken right here, and yes he posed himself like that!!! :)

Picnic Day

My kids love it when I let them have a picnic in the living room. This is usually something I do when its rainy, and dreary outside so that we can all get in a better mood.

Pineapple Bread

My awesome calendar this year has a new recipe every month. The recipe for April sparked my attention enough to try. This pineapple bread was so yummy I am going to have to make lots and lots.

Pineapple Bread

Ingredients:

Cooking Spray

2 Eggs

1/2 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3/4 C Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

3 T Orange Juice

1 1/2 C Pineapple Chunks, drained

2 1/2 C Flour

3 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Sea Salt

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 C Walnuts, chopped

Directions:

1. Spray Bread Pan

2. Beat eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla, and orange juice together. Stir in pineapple chunks.

3. In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

4. Add dry ingredients to pineapple mixture.

5. Fold in walnuts.

6. Pour into sprayed pan.

7. Bake at 350 degrees F. Check at 50 minutes. Test to see if toothpick comes out clean. If not, check every 5 minutes until done. Cool in loaf pan for 15 minutes and then move to cooling rack.

8. Store in refrigerator.

We all love this bread, my kids are big fans! :) I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!