Miss Grace

Grace decided to unpack all the cat food out of the box...then she proceeded to stack them in large towers - each flavor in its own stack.
As she finishes she informs me, "Mama...I missing a cat food." I told her that we'd opened it to feed Shadow.  That answer did not make her happy. She told me that she neeeeeeeded it to finish her bulding.
She didn't get it...it was in the 'frig and would have made the house smell fishy :)

Sunday Grace discovered jewelry. I can't remember how it began, but I'd had my jewelry box down and she asked me something and the next thing I know, we're searching through my jewelry box for something special for her. I told her I've been saving all my little girl jewelry for years in hopes I'd have a girl some day.
The first thing she saw that she "neeeeeeeded" was a Blueberry Muffin (as in Strawberry Shortcake's best friend...the original early 80s version...I remember getting it when I was in third grade (1981) and I believe I'm wearing it in my school picture that year)
Then she told me she "neeeeeeded" a necklace...and I found a Tinkerbell necklace that my mom gave to me when I was a little girl (but older than grace) that was hers...and it's on a long chain so we could just slip it over Grace's head...she was ecstatic.
Her next request surprised me, because I didn't know she knew what they were but she "neeeeeded" a bracelet...and I found one that is a blue heart with a rose in the center (there is a necklace somewhere in that box...this was more jewelry that my mom had give me that had been hers first...I'm just continuing the passing down tradition).  Then she "neeeeeeeded" one for her other wrist. So I found a gold teddy bear charm type bracelet.
Life was wonderful. She hurried off to show Daddy and her boys.
They were properly impressed with her finery and riches.
Then I found a gold (of course none of this is real gold) teddy bear ring that I gave her...she hadn't realized it, but she "neeeeeeded" it to complete her ensemble.
She was quite happy to pose for me and show off all her "pretties"...yep, she'll be 3 in 8 days...she's growing up fast.

Nathaniel's Kindergarten Graduation

Our kindergarten graduate...when I heard they were going to do graduation from kindergarten, I was really curious. I'd been surprised last year when they had a graduation from preschool, so I guess I should have expected one from kinder.
They had a very cute little ceremony - at the beginning of the school year each child had been asked to bring in a binder. All year long they'd put special pieces of art work in these binders. And they'd made scrapbook pages with pictures from different events (one of these days I need to scan some of those pictures for my own scrapbooking!). The kids had not seen the final binders, so they were dying to get their binders and see what all was in them.
The teacher said a little something about each of the kids as she called them up to get their diploma and binder.
Nathaniel was the 2nd or 3rd kid called up, which was nice, because by the time kid #24 or whatever was called up, Grace was beyond sitting still so I could really pay attention. I videoed Nathaniel's presentation with the camera,but for some reason I can't get it to upload to the blog.
Nathaniel enjoyed kindergarten, but he was so ready for summer vacation!!

With Mrs. Veryla (the class aide...she was the class aide to the other 6th grade class way back in the good ol' days when I was in 6th grade!)

With his teacher, Mrs. Lang...one of the first few days of school, Nathaniel asked me if Mrs. Lang had been my teacher (valid question since his classroom was the same one I'd had for kindergarten)...I told him no, in fact, she hadn't even been born when I started kindergarten...

Fourth of July

While my favorite July holiday is actually July 6th, we did have a fun July 4th. Brian set up the slip n' slide in the front yard and the kids had fun. Grace took a little while to warm up to the whole getting in the water thing, but she (with some help from mommy) finally got in and had fun with the boys. I finally figured out how to keep ponytails in her hair - I put three in and by the time she took 2 out, she'd kind of forgotten about the 3rd one :) We'd also (courtesy of pinterest for the idea, though I added our own creativity to them) made soem 4th of July decorations the day before. In the afternoon, we went to my parents for BBQ and cake (early birthday) and homemade chocolate chip ice cream (that Brian made). In the evening we went out to a friend's from church where the kids played with more friends from church (trampoline, marshmallow guns, basketball...) until it got dark and then we watched the teenage boys do a firework show and got home sometime before 11. Below are the pictures of the decorations, the water fun and a little prank.

SPLASH!

Posing for Daddy to take a picture.

smiling at grandma & grandpa when they walked over from the store

The triple pony tail...quite patriotic :)

Our festive holiday decorations (I painted the wooden flag several years ago when we lived in Winters)

Brian & Joshua like to have fun with water...and dumping it on each other when they're not expecting it (like a glass of cold water dumped into the shower)

I'm so glad that the camera cooperated and took this picture at just the perfect moment :)

The Portland Temple

I love the zoom on my camera...joshua was disappointed that his didn't zoom quite as much

She was so excited to finally see a temple...this was her first time to visit one.

She informed me that she was "right 'hind Jesus" and she was very excited.
He did say, "Come, follow me" and that's our goal.

I love this one because she sat right at His feet...I need to hang this one in her room.

He took pictures of everything!

Reflecting...

Wanting to be by Jesus too

On our way home from Washington last weekend, we stopped at the Portland Temple. We were excited to see that they now have a visitor's center...brand new, just opened in February & will be dedicated this summer, I think they said. We took some pictures and stretched our legs. Then we fixed PB&J sandwiches in the parking lot (I know we did that at the Provo Temple in2009 when we did our flying trip to Utah...can't remember if we did that when we stopped at the Portland Temple on our way to Washington in 2009 though, maybe we should start a tradition), changed out of sunday clothes and continued on our way south.

Our baseball players...

I have taken pictures at the boys' games...but I haven't gotten around to posting any. And the season is over (yay!!!). Nathaniel enjoyed, for the most part, his first year of t-ball. I enjoyed the fact that it was very low-key and the kids had a lot of fun. He wasn't excited about having to wear a purple t-shirt, hat and socks, however.

This was Joshua's 3rd year in Little League and his second year as an Angel. He was a totally different player than last year and got at least one hit every game. At the beginning of May he even made the tie-breaking run and got cheered by his team and lifted up and just about mauled and he loved every second of it. His coach told him today, when he dropped off his pictures and a medal, that he had the most hits for the last three games and that he was the most improved player on the team. He has made the most growth of any of them. He also made the only run of their final game on Saturday. He truly has become a baseball player this year and it was a pleasure to watch.