Capri turns 4

Capri choose chicken legs, sweet potatoes, green beans, and monkey bread for her 4th birthday! It has been such joy to teach her preschool this year! I have a passion for teaching preschool! I got to use all the projects and curriculum I made when I was teaching on my kid! It was a really cool experience. For her pre-kinder year she will attend the preschool where I worked. I have requested my favorite teachers! Prayerfully she gets one of them! I think her sass has calmed down a bit. She has a compassion about her I yearn for! She is always the one to remind me of the rules and be sure everybody is following them. She loves to be dressed up and go play in the mud with Jeremy, the perfect combination, if you ask me!

Capri's 4 acts of kindness:

1. Make Jeremy's bed for him one morning.

2. Make a bag of diapers and wipes to put at a public restroom changing table.

3. give a gift to someone who has helped us. She choose the receptionist at the Time Share. 

4. Make cookies for Daddy's station.

Jeremy turns 6

Jeremy choose Ribs, macaroni and cheese and broccoli to celebrate his 6th birthday!
In all my years dreaming of being a mommy... it was always to 5 and under! I feel like infants through kindergarten is my niche... We are stepping into uncharted territory! I am ready to take the bull by he horns (the literacy of that phrase scares me a little) and help my little boy grow into a man after God's heart! His Daddy is a great example of a family man. Jeremy is always by his side, morning the law, fixing the chicken coop, cooking, playing sports, etc. His memory amazes us. He memorized over 30 Bible verses for Awana this year.
Bobby was working on his actual birthday, so we went to the station to have Chick-Fil-A... Bobby bought silly string, invited his partner's kids and ambushed Jeremy! It was epic! They also got donuts for dessert!

Left: Silly string Ambush
Middle Top: WE walked to the store, they all got to pick one thing to buy... carrot, apple, and pear!
Middle Bottom: Daddy had donuts and candles!
Right Top: Capri wrote a chalk board note
Right Bottom: Friends celebrating at the station

Jeremy's 6 Acts of Kindness:

1. Take coffee and donuts to Grandpa's work site.




2. Make paper airplanes for Dillon and Drew

3. A surprise he wouldn't tell me about..... It was a paper that said "I <3 <3 <3 <3 Mom" 4 hearts for love!! SO sweet!

4. Give oranges to the neighbors. Didn't get a photo :(

5. Send dessert to a family at a restaurant. Red Robbin

6. Make lemonade and banana bread for our next door neighbor, Marlene.

Heidi-Rae turns 2

We had a little family dinner at the house to celebrate! I didn't get any photos from the dinner! GAH!!
But here are some cute ones from the friend Bday party at Romp-O-Rama!

This little girl gives us a run for our money. She is witty, sassy, and knows how to play her audience. She can emotionally read people, it's pretty impressive. Because of that, she is quite concerned if she thinks you are hurt, mad,  sad, angry, etc. She picks up on it and asks how she can help.  We are quite impressed by her vocabulary and understanding of situations. She is a Mama's girl all around, it makes my heart sing! Next year, we will start acts of kindness on her birthday!

Mary Poppins

The kids LOVE Mary Poppins! A local dinner theatre was showing it. Papa took Bobby, Jackie and I to see it. It was superb! One of the best plays we have seen. We had to take the kids the next week. They were captivated!

 

The "Meet and Greet" after the show was really fun.

Capri was asking Mary how she could fly and have magic...
Mary responded with, "I only have the power that God gives me.
You have it, too, you just have to ask Him."
*swoon*

Our Sweet Heidi-Rae

Look into those sweet eyes! The make this Mama heart just melt! 

Last year was a crazy hard year, health wise, for Heidi-Rae . . . and parents. It started with being admitted to the PICU with pneumonia. Her blood test 2 days after she was released showed highly elevated white blood count of 1.1 Million, normal is 200k. This is assumed if you have an infection. However, she was getting better from the infection and the blood count was much higher then even a normal infection, normal infection would have been 500k. From there we had to have monthly, sometimes every 2 week, blood tests. It's so difficult to hold a one year old down while she is getting a blood draw. There was one test that took an hour and the blood clotted so we had to redraw it 2 days later! It was heartbreaking. About 1/2 way into the year, Heidi's hematologist died of a heart attack. So, so sad!
We asked to be referred to a hematologist at Loma Linda. With a lot of prayer we went in and came out with answered prayers!!! The blood tests were down significantly (although, still high) and the doctor said we could stop the blood tests and check back in with her in a year!! We were incredibly thankful! I realize there are parents that have much, much worse health conditions the are dealing with and I don't want to seem like I am down playing them. I am just thankful to be in the clear. All Glory be unto God for hearing our prayers!

This is after one of the hour long draws...
She deserved the whole basket of lollipops!

Birthday Party for ALL

We did it again! WE had  combined birthday! I know I say this every year.... But  love it! With all of our birthdays within 15 weeks of each other, it would be incredibly stressful to throw 3 separate birthday and the occasional parent birthday celebration! The kids love it, friends and family appreciate it. 

This year, we invited the kids' close friends and cousins to Romp-O-Roma. Believe me when I tell you this place is so FUN!!!! They are an indoor playground with 3 stories, trampolines, pretend city, and a ball room with shooters!! The pictures show how much fun the kids had! 

The Fab 4

Pretend City & Dance Class

Totally parent involvement

CAKE time!
I made little cake balls with edible gold glitter!

The children LOVED Them!!

We will still celebrate each kid on their birthday and have grandparents over. Jeremy and Capri will being doing their Random Acts Of Kindness! Heidi will start hers next year. Stay tuned! 

Halloween 2015

Flower Girls Dresses

The girls from our wedding wore these dresses. . .

8 years later. . . 

MY girls can wear them!! 

SO much joy seeing them wear these dresses! 

Mommy Bonding

All Mommies want something they can bond with their kids over. . . .

Mine??? Artichokes!

It's probably necessary to mention, Bobby hates artichokes! We try to only eat them when he is working!

Pirate Day

Did you know September 19 is National "talk Like a Pirate Day"??

If you dress like a pirate, Krispie Kreme will give you a dozen FREE donuts!

Between the 2 of our families, we received 6 dozen, FREE!!!
Naturally, we let the kids have one and had 3 dozen left!
So, we took them to the fire station!
Daddy had been working for 3 days, we needed some Daddy time!

Princess Day

Look at this Beauty! 

I've realized since Heidi-Rae was born, I haven't spent much one on one time with Capri. Bobby really wanted to send us on a Princess Day to Disneyland. I was hesitant because of the price! A friend came across discount tickets and that was all we needed! We booked her an appointment to get her hair done at the Bippity Boppity Boutique and were all set! I didn't tell her where we were going, just that we would be gone all day and it was just she and I!

There are SO many pictures but I just couldn't narrow it down! She was incredibly surprised when we arrived. We got there a little early, so we went to get a treat at Starbucks. While talking over breakfast, Capri was worried Jeremy would feel bad that he couldn't be there. She called him to say Hi and wanted to get him al little gift! What a sweetie! I asked what she wanted to do all day. Her response was, "Go on the carousel and meet the Fairy Godmother."

On the drive
When she figured out where we were going
On the tram

Getting Hair Done

Make up and Nails

She loves to be the center of attention! 

Before and after!
The after is so cute and the day was fun
But I prefer the before on an every day basis! 

Next, We headed to see the Princesses. . . .

Belle asked her favorite book. . . . 

Cinderella gave her dancing lessons. . . . 

Snow White taught her a song....

Aurora taught her to talk with the animals.
She love Sleeping Beauty's hair.

It was time for some rides! 

The carousel brought SO much excitement!

Toon Town

We waited in SUCH a long line to meet Mickey!
And play peek-a-boo.

She loved Minnie's house! 

We got lunch and since we had been up since 5:30am, I had Capri lay down to take a nap. I got her all settled in the stroller, then I saw The Fairy Godmother!!! I had to let her get up! 

That smile says it all!

She settled into a 2 hour slumber!
I got some snacks, found a shady spot and read a book!
We snuggled for quite while when she woke up! 

The rest of the day we played, laughed, joked.   IT. WAS. SO. MUCH. FUN

She just HAD to take a picture on the fire truck for Daddy!

Take off to 5, 3, 1.....

We love combined birthday parties! And by "We," I mean Bobby and I. A few people have told us "The kids will hate them in the future." But, in the spirit of teaching our children to serve others, I think it's perfectly fine to celebrate their birthdays together, especially because their birthdays are all with in 6 weeks of each other. That's enough to make a Mama go crazy planning 3 separate parties! On the day of their actual birthday, we let them choose dinner and have a dessert of some sort to celebrate them individually.
This year was "Planes: Fire and Rescue" theme.  I wanted to do "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." But the kids begged me to do Planes. How could I say No???

My dad's wife, Kylie, and I attempted to back cakes.... it definitely ended in a Pinterest fail!

Kylie had made this type of cake before so we didn't have a plan B. It was the day before the party and i was a little stressed by the evening! Kylie called a friend that's a baker and had a cake made... She also made a dairy free version for Capri... AND decorated them! I was SO thankful!

The runway down our hallway

Opening gifts after a nice nap!