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.

7 years of marriage!

Today is Aaron and my 7 year anniversary of marriage. So far so good...no itch:-) I feel so blessed to have such an amazing husband and father to my children. I can't believe how blessed we are to have the life that we do. Thank you to our family and friends that support our marriage!

Our family!

Malia is such a great big sis. She is helping me give Ava a bath and loves giving her kisses! We are so lucky!

Lake Chelan!

We had a wonderful family vacation in Chelan. Each year we do not exchange "gifts" at Christmas with my dad and his wife...instead we create a memory in Chelan. This year we did a great job of that. :-) We are really lucky that we don't have to worry about our other kids (the dogs) while we are gone because the grandmas took turns watching them:-).

Here we are at our stop in Eburg. We realize that it is a little out of the way but it is such a powerful piece of our family. My father was the first in our whole family (extended as well) to go to college and he attended Central. My brother went there and met his wife there. I went and met Aaron there...so it is wonderful to go back. We do laugh at the fact that it looks nothing like when we went there!

Here are the cousins...Malia adores them...Ava will once she is a bit older. There is about 2-3 years between each one.

This picture has Kenzie on the dock and Chad on the big trampoline. It is awesome because we could watch them right from our deck!


Chad and Dad loved the hot tub...well everyone did to be honest.
Poor Ava looks so pitiful in the bjorn...I swear she likes it!

The whole family! We were so lucky because Sage, her mom, Jack, and Ruby came for a visit one day! I think Malia is in love with Jack...they played the whole time. Sage was nice enough to take this family photo with everyone in it!

The girls taking a break from playing...it was a busy 5 days!

Dad and I at the winery...that was an adventure I will never forget. We all decided to walk...up a highway...to get to the winery...in the heat...did I mention I will never forget it?

2 months old

Adorable Ava!

I say it all the time...I cannot believe how quickly the girls are growing. Ava is two months old and life is moving right along. I almost hesitate to put in writing what a great sleeper Ava is... I don't want to jinx it. Let's just say she sleeps better than Malia does. :-) There are still sleepless nights but it is not ANYTHING like with Malia. Ava is gaining weight like you wouldn't believe. She has her next dr. appt. on Monday and I am curious to see how much weight she has gained...she loves to eat. She is a very happy baby and Malia adores her. We feel so very lucky. I am back to work next Friday for a few days...I am feeling a bit anxious but I know she is in great hands with Daddy and Grammy. Take care!!How lucky are we???? She is so wonderful!