How I love the summer...

The summer is just one more reason I love being a teacher. It allows me the opportunity to be a stay at home mom for a short time and to reconnect with my friends. Here are a few photos and notes about what we are up to!

Ava has learned to roll over!!! She always looks a bit surprised when she does it!!!

Malia is finally on board with potty training!!! She loves getting up and picking out her panties...of course she loves the orange ones. She told me "mommy, take a picture of me in my panties!! :-) It is such a journey and she is doing pretty dang good when we are home...anywhere else....well we are still working on it.

What a great big sister! She loves holding Ava and kisses her all the time. We are blessed with two special and beautiful girls!

SURPRISE! We drove over to Yakima for Emma's birthday party. She turned two. Her mother is Brenda, one of my dearest friends from college...did I mention she had to live with me? :-) I love her so much and don't see her enough. God BLESS my mom...she braved the drive with me.

Jazz and Dre...HOORAY!

We are SO excited to have my godkids visiting from Maui. I miss them more than I could ever put into words. Jasmyne is a huge help and always willing to do whatever I ask. She is turning into such an amazing young woman. Andre is fascinated with Malia and Ava. He was so excited to meet Ava for the first time! What a huge help Jazz is!

I took them to Pump It Up for a surprise. Andre' and Malia loved it...so did I. Did I mention what a huge help Jazz is? I didn't have to get in a bouncy once:-)

These are some tall slides...the kids loved them!!!

Grandmas 86th Birthday!

My Grandma Cook gives me hope. She is 86 and loves life. She lives each day to the fullest and has a great sense of humor. I also love the fact that she smokes and drinks. That might sound crazy but to know her is to love her. She is the foundation of our family and its unique closeness. Every Sunday growing up, we went to grandmas. The result is an unusual closeness amongst my extended family. I feel truly blessed.

The brothers...my Dad, Uncle Jon, Uncle Rich and Jeff Smith. He is like the fourth brother :-)

Grandma holding court...she was in heaven with everyone fussin on her.
Do we know how to party or what???Dad, Chad, and I with Granny!
Grandma Shell, Ava, and I!LOVE this guy. This is my cousin, Kris. I hadn't seen him in forever and I was so glad to see him!
Grandma blowing out her candles...with smoke in hand. Gotta love her!!

The Qualls family:-)

Mel sent the girls these adorable matching outfits!!

Happy Fourth and 3 months Old!!!

Can I say that life is good? Of course there is the stress of Ava not taking a bottle...what can I say? She is a momma's girl! Malia is taking her first adventures into potty training and I think that she will be good to go by the end of summer. I am truly of the mindset that she will do it when she is ready. Ava is such a blessing. Besides the bottle thing, she is the best baby. She is SO alert and a great sleeper. I am enjoying being off and spending lots of quality time with my family. Malia's getting her feet wet. She eventually went swimming but it took her longer to warm up this year.

Ava's first time swimming. She liked it as long as she wasn't in the sun...that's my girl!

Happy fourth! I wonder if I will ever wear makeup again:-)

Grandma Shell and Malia doing the sparklers.

Malia and Chiapa taking a snooze. Malia considers Chiapa "her" dog.

Getting ready for her picture!

3 months old!!!

Oh....so cute.

TOTAL momma's girl.