Gardening

Yesterday the kids and I planted our tomatoes and a couple of yellow bell pepper plants. Avery and Justin worked hard to loosen the dirt up to get it prepared and I gave Devin his own little area so he wouldn't feel left out and wouldn't get his little fingers in the way. They had a great time for a bit and then Avery and Devin got tired and decided to go bike while Justin and I finished up. Justin was a huge help! What a difference a year makes. He did a great job and worked very hard and even enjoyed it. Mental note to self...more gardening for Justin! I know they are planted too close together, but it's what I did last year and we had a great crop. I hope it works again this year!

Disneyland

We had our official first full day at Disneyland on Monday. We got there at about 11:00 only to get stuck in a HUGE line just to get into the parking structure. We really thought we were in for it because of that. The trams were super crowded, the security line just to get into the center of Disneyland and CA Adventure was huge and people were everyone. We were gearing up for a rough day. But we were pleasantly surprised when we entered CA Adventure and saw the line to Soaring Over CA wasn't too long. Kirk took Justin and Avery on that while Devin and I went to enjoy the waterfalls. Devin's favorite things in the world are electric sliding doors and water fountains/waterfalls. I think he would have been happy just going from waterfall to waterfall all day (comes in handy when waiting for the others to go on rides). While waiting for them, I decided we had time to go see Playhouse Disney Live on Stage. Guess not. Kirk called the moment we sat down and the show was starting. Their line was only 20 minutes! Our show was super cute and Devin really enjoyed it. We then headed over to Disneyland where we found the lines weren't nearly as bad as we thought either. The Autopia cars was only about 25 minutes. Devin hated that ride, by the way. I was surprised. We ended up being able to go on about 9 or so rides (even Thunder Mountain 2x, which is Avery's and Justin's new favorite,...thanks Ally for the great hint!) and left about 7:20. I'm looking forward to going again next week and meeting up with my good friends!

Blue and Gold

Last Thursday evening Justin's Cub Scout pack had their Blue and Gold. I wasn't able to attend it because Avery had a fever, but he and Kirk went and from what I hear he had a great time. Each dad and their son were supposed to make a cake together, so Kirk and Justin decided to make a basketball cake.It turned out great! They had fun decorating it and coming up with which number to put on there. During the evening Justin was presented with his Wolf badge.Good job, Justin! I wish I could have been there to see it all. Next year, okay? Love you, honey!

Disneyland - here we come!

We did it. We finally got our family annual passes to the "Happiest Place on Earth" last night. We had planned to go for the entire day on Wednesday, but Avery woke up with a fever of 103.0 at 4 am, so that didn't happen. She's had high fevers off and on ever since. Her normal routine when it comes to that is 4 days. She had no other symptoms and felt 100% when she had motrin in her. Being that they were so disappointed that we couldn't go when we had planned and being the mother of the year that I am (who takes their child to Disneyland with a masked fever?!), we said we'd go Friday night and buy our passes, watch Fantasmic, fireworks and go on Small World and head home. That we did. We drugged up Avery, went to Justin's swimming lessons, picked up McDonald's and ate in the car. We thought there wouldn't be any lines to buy our passes since it was 7:00 at night. Wrong. I couldn't believe it. So, we at least have that out of the way for the future. We only watched Fantasmic (forgot how scary that thing is for little kids), walked through the maze of people while the fireworks were happening over to Small World and went on the newly opened ride. There was no line what-so-ever since the fireworks had just finished when we walked up. Devin loved it! By the time we got off the ride the line was really long. We caught it at exactly the right time. We only stayed about 2 1/2 or 3 hours, but it was a nice preview of fun times to come. It's a very nice feeling knowing we can go back and don't have to make sure we hit every single thing we want to. If everyone is well, we plan on going for the day on Monday. Here's to MANY more Disneyland blog entries!

New family pictures

A friend of ours from church, Ally Randle, started a photography business last year and we had pictures taken at that time. She's great! The thing is I've lost some weight and just couldn't get myself to put up those older family photos, so last week we did another photo shoot and she did such a great job (again)! Here are a few of what she took...

Our day...

This morning I had to drop Justin off at school about 15 minutes early. He's on the student counsel and today was his day to advertise yearbooks for sale before school started. He made his sign last week and has been really looking forward to this morning. It's a big responsibility, you know. It was too early to drop Avery too, so we dropped Justin and then went to pick up our carpool and then went back to drop them. When driving in the circle I saw our Justin displaying his sign proudly with a friend. Nice advertising, Justin!

Then just a little bit ago I couldn't resist taking these pictures of Devin. Kirk was out cleaning the cars and detailing the wheels, so Devin came in to get the squirt bottle and Kirk had given him a rag and he decided he needed to detail his car wheels too. Too cute! Gosh, it wasn't that long ago that we were waiting for this type of behavior from him. I know it seems small or insignificant, but it took him awhile to get here and we appreciate things so much more with him, I think, than we did our others. Probably because there has always been such a big question mark with him. Your car looks great, Devin!

Go Angels!

Avery had her first game on Saturday morning. She did great! We had a lot of fun rooting for our favorite Angel. Devin loved playing on the bleachers. :-) We're looking forward to family time every Saturday morning cheering for Avery and supporting her in her new fun activity.

Here she is getting ready in center field (above).

Here comes a ball! Hurry and throw it to first! Her first time up at bat. She hit it and ran. Go Avery!Arriving at second base. Check out the first baseman playing in the dirt. Such a riot!

B.U.G. Award

Justin received an award today. They call it a B.U.G. award, which stands for Bringing Up a Grade during one trimester. He went from being a 4 (like a B used to be) to being a 5 (like an A) in writing. I have to brag for just a minute (this is my journal, after all, right?) and say that he now has 5's in all subjects, but one and that one is a 4. Justin, we're so proud of the smart boy you are. Great work, honey! (the picture at the top is of Justin with his teacher, Mrs. Kohrmann)

Okay, this bottom picture has nothing to do with this post, but I just wanted to add it. This is our cat, Jagger. And this is how he keeps me company many mornings while I do my make-up. I just think it's so cute!

Fun hike

Seems like I've done a lot of entry's about Avery lately. Guess she's been busy.

Every Wednesday a few of us mom's take turns with hosting play dates for our kindergartners. They are all in the same primary class and kindergarten class. A few weeks ago Dallin's mom, Missi, took the kids on a fun hike up in the hills not far from here. Missi, I stole these off your blog. Thanks! :-) Avery had a great time and talked a lot about it and is excited to go back. The fun little group consists of Ella, Jake and Dallin (plus Dallin's little sister, Claire, came along for the fun adventure). Missi, thanks for taking them. She really did have a blast!

Baseball picture day

On Saturday Little League held their opening day carnival/picture day. Kirk had to work, so the kids and I headed over to have a little fun. Above you can see Avery (the only girl on her team) in the front row second to the right. After pictures we headed over to the jumpy houses. They had four, but the slide was definitely the favorite. Avery and Devin couldn't go down enough. I was surprised that Devin loved it so much. It was very steep and he caught air every time!
Let the season begin!

Avery's 6 year pictures

I finally took Avery to have her 6 year picture taken at Sears last night. I am very happy with the results! For each birthday I take them by themselves and after they take their picture we go down to Mrs. Field's and they get to pick out a cookie. Then we go back up and look through the photos and pick out which ones we want. It's always nice to spend alone time with each child. I enjoy these times so much and we had a very nice evening. I need to do a date night with each of them more often. The pictures may be a little fuzzy because I copied them off Sears website and the resolution is very low.

First lost tooth

Avery is excited to announce the loss of her first tooth. It's been ready to go for a while now and she says that while lining up this morning at school to go in to the classroom she wiggled it and it came right out. She couldn't have done that only 5 minutes before? Ha. So, after a trip to the nurses office she had a nice little treasure chest for her tooth to rest until she got home. She is very excited to receive a visit from the tooth fairy tonight!