June

Another great and busy month! The summer is going by way too fast... :)


So my Dad has written an awesome novel about being a teacher, which I want to help spread the word on because I would definitely recommend it to anyone to read! It's really good! He has it on Smashwords.com where you can buy it for $3 and then either just read it on your computer or download it to whatever device you have for reading books! I wanted to post the link here for anyone who is interested, and if you do end up reading it and liking it, feel free to share it on Facebook or wherever if you want (to help him get the word out!) :) They have ways of sharing the link on the Smashwords site... Anyway! Just wanted to start with that little shout-out for my Dad! :) He's been working on this book for years, and I'm so excited it's all ready for everyone to read now! Here's the link:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/71396



Now pictures from June... This is one of my favorites of our four cuties from the month.



Brielle and Samuel did swimming lessons and little league all month - which definitely kept us running here and there all month, but they have a blast with those extra things, and it's always fun to go and watch them! Colette and Timothy had tons of fun in the baby pool and watching the baseball games all month as well! :)

Also, Colette did one of those little week-long dance camps (to let her be involved in something as well this summer), and oh my goodness, does that girl love to get dressed up and pretty in a leotard and do dances!! She was just made for that kind of stuff! She had an absolute blast that week! :)

The kids and I were able to go to Mesa for a weekend for Athena's Baby Shower in June as well! Oh it is so fun to get to see her pregnant right now!! :) She is so cute! The baby shower went well and it was lots of fun to help her set up all of her new cute baby stuff... She is due July 27, so we are all waiting to see what happens now - could be any day! SO excited for her and Brennon!! :)

We've also had a lot of fun this summer doing the free lunches from the school every day! It was fun that they offerred it at the park this year as well - the kids liked going right over there after swimming lessons every time... My mom came with us a lot, which was tons of fun, and this happened to be a day we got to eat with Sara and her kids, which was so fun to get to see and visit with them while they were here these past months! We're sad they're gone now, but so excited for them and their new job!! :)

The kids have been making lots of fun memories with their Grandma & Grandpa! They've gotten to ride on my Dad's golf cart at the Junior High a few times when we've gone over for lunch at the school! They love that! And we all went to Cluff Pond for our first time one Saturday in June as well. They've been getting to do all kinds of fun things with their awesome Grandma & Grandpa this summer!

Brielle got this Summer Fun Activity Book, and has been choosing activities out of it every so often, which she has also been loving. We took a few pictures of some of the fun things she's been working on...

One of these guys' favorite things is to get stickers in the mail from their Aunt Heidi!! She has done that here and there just for fun for years, and it's always such a fun surprise for them! They love to sit down and go through all the stickers and choose which ones they want and trade with eachother, etc! Thank you, Heidi!! :)

And last of all, our crazy dog, Ari! Phew, this girl is hyper!! Every time we open the blinds on our windows in the morning, she makes us laugh because of some crazy stunt she is doing out there in the yard! She absolutely LOVES to climb on top of and into things... Is that normal for a dog? I have no idea... But the chairs we have out on the porch, especially, she is constantly just sitting up on them as though she thinks she's a person, and she'll always be staring through the windows at us up on top of them... She's such a goof! Anyway, these are all some random pictures that I have snapped of her climbing on things... The kids just laugh and laugh at her.... (Those aren't our jet skis, by the way - they belong to the people we are renting from)... :) But she actually figured out a way to jump up on them somehow! We were quite impressed... :)

May

Well, since I have fallen behind, this post is just going to have to be a bunch of pictures for the month of May with a few quick headings! :)



Our little cuties!



Brielle in the children's play at EAC ("The Adventures of Mr. Toad") - she LOVED it!

The ending of the girls' gymnastics classes - medals from their show class!

I couldn't resist this picture - with Jared on the night shift, some bad habits have been formed around here with these kids at night, thinking there is plenty of room in bed with Mom now!! This is pretty typical of what I wake up to lately - or should I say escape from finally in the mornings - what sleep is there to wake up from?? :) I know, not very good about the disciplining thing, but when you're that tired, how can you even think straight to tell them "no" anymore! :)

The end of first grade for Brielle!! Where in the world did the year go... She sure loved her teacher, Mrs. Peterson, this year - lots of fun memories!

Timothy's first haircut!! Finally, right! That has been long overdue... I was finally convinced to cut off those beautiful little curls of his - but now that they're gone and he has transformed into such a handsome little boy, I just love it! He's all grown up, and looks exactly like his older brother these days!

Before...

And after...

Handsome boys after their haircuts!

Timothy has a new thing for walking around in Colette's dress-up heels these days - all I can say is I guess it's a good thing we cut off those curls! :)

At the end of May, we were able to do a Mesa visit, and had a great time with all our family there! The kids have a blast with all their fun little cousins!!

And that's about it for May - or as much time as I have to write about it for now! Life is great! :)

April

What a busy and full month of more wonderful things as always! We got our first family dog!! We surprised the kids for Easter this year with their own little puppy, and there is no describing the excitement around here! :) They are just loving this new member of our family. She is a Husky/Australian Shepherd mix, and she most definitely just pretties up our backyard every time we look out the window now! :) She's such a cutie! And so far seems like a really good little dog! We named her Arianna, but we all call her Ari for short - (we kept her name in line with the girls' French names)... :) Anyway, that has definitely been an exciting event for our family this month!!



We had a fun little Easter as always! Of course Ari was the main event of that weekend, but the kids definitely enjoyed painting eggs and having egg hunts and getting their Easter treats on Easter morning. (They were very excited that Ari got some treats of her own in a basket we set out for her as well!) :) Here's some pictures from Easter weekend - painting eggs & then Easter morning...





And then just a few other fun pictures from the month. Brielle and Colette had their big gymnastics show at the beginning of the month. They were so excited about that - especially Colette, who loves to get all dressed up and "pretty"! The show was at EAC's big auditorium - making it very fun and exciting for them to be apart of! There is also a picture of one of Timothy's favorite past-times these days - and of course my most dreaded - he just loves to take apart my kitchen cupboards and pretend like he is cooking with me... Guess he's just in that stage right now... And the boys at the end - I never realized that it would be Samuel that would love a family dog the most, but he is just head over heels in love with that dog!! She is how he has spent the majority of his days since we got her, and we just think it is so cute getting to see a boy and his dog outside our window all the time! :) Timothy too - he has now started saying "Awie" (for Ari) whenever he wants to go outside. They all just love her! Cute kids.Me and my girls! - How I love them! :)

And then one other thing that I just have to mention from the month of April - we found out that Jared got into EAC's Nursing Program!! Yay!! We are so excited and relieved!! He has been working so very hard and deserves it so much! We are SO proud of him!!! :)