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 :)

Our flowers...

We finally got around to doing some yard work. Brian got our front "yard" (it's not big) mowed and then one morning, I started weeding the flower bed. It had some tulips and a daffodil blooming when we moved it, then there were a few iris. There have been lupin blooming for the past few weeks. I'd bought some petunias on clearance at the store, and wanted to get them planted before the blankety-blank dogs from around the corner got to them...or the raccoon. The kids all wanted to pick out some flowers too, so we walked across the street to the store and Joshua picked out some marigolds - yellow ones, surprise. Nathaniel whatever he could find that was orange (violas...there were some yellow ones too) and Grace, of course, went with purple (more violas, with some white ones). We all worked hard that morning and were so happy with the end results.

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.

Padre Joshua

 Memorial Day afternoon, while I was looking at some patterns I'd pinned on Pinterest for skirts for Grace, I happened to mention to Joshua that I'd found a Jedi Robe pattern on there. I showed it to him and he said, "That would be really good for Wednesday." I asked him what it would be good for on Wednesday, because as far as I knew there were no battles with the Empire and the Dark Side or the Sith or the Clones or whoever scheduled for that day. Then he reminded me that they were doing their California Mission reports that day and they were supposed to dress up, if possible, like a padre  or a Native if they more closely identified (?) with the Indians (I mean, Native Americans). Well, I'm glad he told me this on Monday afternoon instead of Wednesday morning.  We had to go by my parents anyway that afternoon to pick up something or drop off something - I can't remember now. I mentioned to my mom that we were going to go to our storage unit so I could see if I had enough brown felt to make this robe thing. She just happened to have a big beautiful piece of brown fabric that my grandmother had given her. It was perfect. The pattern was simple and I had it finished by the time he got home from school on Tuesday pretty much. I washed it that night. That's when we discovered my mistake. I always wash my fabric before doing any sewing project. But I was in such a hurry to get this made, that I skipped that step. And after washing it, we found that it was a wool blend...and it shrunk. It still fit, but instead of hitting the ground practically (as a true Jedi or padre) robe should, it was just above his ankles. Oh well, not time to worry because he had to go to school. He was about the best dressed padre there. His teacher told him how lucky he was to have a mom that could do something like that for him at such a short notice. I'm grateful that I've got the basic sewing skills to do something like this...or to do what I did last night...rehem and take in Brian's new scrubs that were too long, too "bell bottomey", and too big and too wide. I narrowed the legs, rehemed them. Took up the shoulders and took in the sides of the shirt. Looked pretty good when he headed to class today. Next sewing project...pink dress with white polka dots for Grace...just have to decide what pattern I want to use :)

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.

Joshua's Guitar

Joshua took guitar in afterschool program last year and enjoyed it. He took it again this year and really enjoyed it and has been wanting a guitar ever since last year. So we made him a deal - if he earned half the money, we would pay the other half. So he has been doing chores and saving money for several monhts. Then, with birthday money from grandparents and great grandma, he had enough. So we went up to Oregon over the weekend and got it.  Yesterday Brian tuned it and Joshua played. He's just very basic yet, but it's more than I can do! He's looking forward to practicing over the summer so that he can play real songs soon!

Grace had to get in the fun too...she's sitting in Daddy's lap looking at the guitar book we got Joshua.

Okay...where did the last few months go?

We've had  a lot happening since I last posted...Nathaniel got his tonsils out, Brian got into the RN program, we moved, tball and little league started up, Joshua turned 10...yes, that's right, we moved. We found a trailer (small, but three bedroom and 2 bathrooms) that we could afford to rent right next door to the elementary school (and across the street from the grocery store, which is across another street from the library...and the post office is less than a block away...we're centrally located!) and have been living here just over a month. We're unpacked and mostly settled, but have to reorganize our storage unit since not everything will fit. I've had to relearn how to cook on a gas stove (only other time I did it was on my mission in Spain 15+ (gulp) years ago).  So eventually I'll get pictures up and posted of our so exciting life, but for now here are just a few pictures of the kids that I took in the spring for my parents to take down to my grandparents in Arizona.