6 month wrap up

Wow. The past six months have been amazingly fun! I've been way too busy playing to post anything until now... but here are some of my favorite pics and fun activities we've done from March through August!

Anamarie was baptized on March 12 with two of her friends from church, Ty and Bailey.


Her three BFFs from school came to support and watch. :)


Family trip to Palm Springs for spring break




crazy Hayden... no further explanation


day trip to Julian




beach trip-- down the cliffs at Del Mar 8th street


Alex at his end of the season Little League party


Yea! A new In-N-Out opened just down the street from us. Love it.


Carmen lookin cute


Posing at the Poway Train Park


Our ward YW took family pictures as their camp fundraiser this year. Here's ours:


Alex's kindergarten fieldtrip to Coronado


We took the train to Solana Beach with friends-- Chelsey captured this sweet pic of Carmen


We LOVED our little weekend trip to Puerto Nuevo! Can't wait to go back...










Anamarie's dance recital-- this was my favorite of her two costumes. I want to see if it comes in my size!



We were so lucky to be able to stay at the cabin in North Carolina for two whole weeks! We LOVED our time on the boat and hanging with family-- we came back completely waterlogged!




















While we were in North Carolina, our kitchen/family room projects were finished (well, mostly).





The big kids spent a week at Mission Bay at a water camp-- learning to paddle board, sail, kayak, go on a catamaran, and boogie board. They loved every minute!






We took Hayden and one of her friends, Carson, with us to Knotts Berry Farm. I'm SO glad that we have daredevil kids!! Dave and I took turns with Carmen and the other went on the fast, upside down rides with everyone else. Good times!




Carmen has gone through the most changes over the past few months-- stopping her naps, preferring to sleep on the floor than in a bed, falling asleep in the car or bike rides (!), and starting preschool last week. Since starting preschool, she has been overtired and very naughty (pouring fingernail polish on the carpet kind of naughty) but we're crossing our fingers that it's just a phase and things will be better this week!


What a big kid! First day of preschool:

Driving home from the first day of preschool...


Last but not least, I had a really fun work party yesterday where we went to a circus type place where we learned how to trapeze! It was REALLY scary, but a ton of fun! By the end of the party, we were swinging by our knees on the trapeze and letting go of the bar-- only to grab on and be swung by a trazpeze carnie guy. I have huge random bruises on the back of my knees today... and awesome pics to prove to my kids that their mom is cool. :)

Catching my breath

Last weekend my cute little niece got married to Cody, a super lucky guy. Sharee and Cody were such troopers even in the rain outside the temple-- look at the rest of us, freaking out that we were getting wet and they were all smiles. :) Congrats you two!





Our kids outside the temple waiting... just before the downpour.


The next day was my cute BIG nephew Nate's farewell. Here's a cute pic of him and Carmen a couple of weeks back while he was watching the kids (we were in Mammoth).

We are going to miss Nate terribly. Dave already misses his surfing buddy. :(

On Monday February 28, AnaBanana turned 8. I know this is a late post, and I should have dedicated a post just to her birthday and my favorite 8 year old, but I've been trying to keep up with our newest addition, Cocoa. Cocoa loves to run, poop, and eat carrots. But he's all Ana wanted for her birthday so... here he is!

February!

Thought we'd start the month off with some updated pictures-- the girls and Dave at their Father/Daughter dance. (Dave has some video that I'll add on as soon as I get his phone--our little dancing queen (Ana) was really getting into some songs, including some floor moves. I guess Dave had to tell her to stop. ;) )

Carmen loves cantaloupe. She calls it "my-yie-yope"


Never one to be left out of the spotlight, Alex needed his pic taken too!

Bieber Fever

Anamarie and her friends got the fever months ago. Hayden and her friends were in denial that they had the fever until tonight. Tracey (Maddie's mom) and I were reluctant, at best. It was actually a pretty good movie, though and, after watching it... you just might get the fever too. (Good thing I had enough caffeine before the movie started to combat all the screaming girls!)


The real scary part for me was driving all the girls home and having them all sing on the top of their lungs to Katy Perry on the radio. I just can't believe that my girls are that old... or me either! yikes.


The next morning, Justin Bieber delivered breakfast to our door... unfortunately his handwriting looked a bit suspicious to one of the girls, and the note was on the back side of a paper with her brother's Little League teammate names! Didn't matter, Anamarie hung the paper in her room, claiming it's JB's autograph.

Snow Days

Here are some updated photos of Dave and my trip to Mammoth this past week. Perfect conditions-- sunny, lots of snow, and no kids! :)

We've been lucky to be able to enjoy a few snow days so far this year, which is pretty strange considering the temperature in San Diego has been about 75 for the past couple of weeks! First, it snowed when we were in Atlanta for Christmas. The kids had a blast playing in the snow with Keia and Mike! (sorry, not pictured. Guess we were too cold inside to take pictures of that part/...)




Then this past weekend when we took the kids to Snow Summit for a couple of days. The kids did awesome in ski lessons. (although it killed us not to have them in snowboarding, we've seen this is the best way to get them loving the snow and feeling competent early on. We'll force Hayden to change to boarding next year) Carmen hung out with Dave and I in the village, and she loved the Alpine Slide as well.

Tooth Fairy strikes again!

The tooth fairy has been busy at our house-- she's been here the last two nights, as Alex lost one tooth a day! Here are two videos from his loss (tooth loss) last night. :)





I have to add this post to 1) remind myself why I'm not having more kids and 2) remember Carmen at this stage... this is what I go through on an everyday basis with Carmen-- she literally changes her clothes on the hour and will not let me change her clothes or diaper-- she does it all. She is the definition of independence and the strongest-willed two year old I've ever had. Needless to say, I've had to swallow my pride with her numerous times and just let her wear what she will in public, at risk she'll go naked or refuse to leave with me at all. (She really thinks she looks cute, and that she is stylin'.) Here is a picture of what she wore with me to the bank last week. I had to go in to the bank, and she marched in right behind me, holding her purse, and said to the teller, "I want sucker". And here she is, back at home, with that sucker in her mouth. AUGH!!

Alex is 6!

Our silly little boy turned 6 a couple of weeks ago. We had a party with a bunch of his friends from school at Pump it Up and he got more boy toys than any child needs... one downside of having a 6 year old? He's too smart now-- we can't re-gift any of those presents for Christmas! :(

Alex is constantly joking around, teasing his sisters, and is the comic relief in our family. He's really loving too-- always the first to jump into bed with me in the morning to snuggle or to notice if I got a haircut or new toenail polish. From what his teacher tells me, he is a total ladies man at school, and girls follow him around at recess. He loves it. :) My favorite story about Alex happened yesterday, when I was making my bed and found a GRASSHOPPER in it!!! I was hysterical (I had just gotten out of bed) and was screaming. Hayden, Anamarie, and Carmen were laughing at me and Dave was already at work. A couple of minutes later, Alex came in the room with his Nerf blaster gun and said, "Where's the grasshopper mom?" He is THE MAN in our house (when Dave's not here) and takes care of us all even when he is here. I LOVE YOU, ALEX!! Happy 6th Birthday!


I tiddy ahn my puhtin! ("I'm sitting on my pumpkin" in Carmen-ese)