Birthday Brooke

Brookie is 3!

We covered all the basics for her... Cupcakes!

...Presies!!!

...Lots of Love!!!

Soccer Scrimmage

Emma had her first soccer scrimmage yesterday! It's pretty cute watching a bunch of 5 year old girls chase the ball. Half of them aren't quite sure of the logistics yet, or the positions (including Emma), but its still great fun!

Her team is called the Funky Monkeys!

Go Emma!

I got skills

I got skills to save on bills! Yep, that's right-- I cut Alan's hair!

I'm pretty proud of myself! I watched my friend Jenny do it once and then I read the directions and had Alan walk me through it and it didn't turn out too bad!

Bea is Back!

16 years ago our family had an exchange student from Spain come and live with us. Her name is Beatriz-- Bea for short. She became part of our family and we ALL LOVE her. We lost contact with her over the last few years but she found Carli on MySpace and told us she was coming to California with her husband!

His name is Francisco Jose, but it's Kiko for short.

We went out to lunch with them and walked around down-town Petaluma. She loved seeing McDonalds, Payless, and Lyons again.

She was stoked to take a tour of Casa Grande High School where she had her Junior year. Here she is in front of Ms. Gardener's drama class.

She told my dad over and over how grateful she is that he was like a dad to her because when you're 17 you think you know things, but you don't. He was like a protective papa bear for her.


Bea is now 33 and she's a Podiatrist. Her husband is also 33 and he works in biological research.

We love you Bea! Come back soon!

Kindergarten

Today was a bitter sweet day. My Emma started Kindergarten.



The girls decided they needed to do makeovers before we left for school. Emma had green eye shadow and Brooke had purple.


We've heard from several moms in the ward and other people (including the mail man!) that Emma's teacher Mrs. Young is an angel put on the earth to be a Kindergarten teacher. Not to mention her recent "Teacher of the Year" award. So when I dropped Emma off I felt confident she was in good hands. (But I still wanted to cry.) She went around saying, "My name's Emma! Are you a visitor or are you new?" (Like they do in primary at Church). And she wanted to teach the other kids to do hop-skotch before school started.

My baby is growing up. I'm so proud and can't wait to watch her grow!

Ok, here's my nephew Tyler who's a red head, or kind of more strawberry-blond but you get me. Don't you think he could grow up to look like this guy?

This is HGTV's Lynn Kegan. He's a carpenter on Designed to Sell. And he's pretty darn good lookin'. You don't see many red headed males, not mention good lookin ones. Go Tyler!

Symbolic

The girls were running around playing with their magnifying glass and one of them accidentally dropped it on this picture and it fell just like this. Symbolic, don't you think?

Fairytale Town

We took the kids to Fairytale Town in Sacramento last Saturday. Brooke LOVED pretending to be Cinderella.

Alan was such a cute daddy-- he went on all the slides and different things with Brooke when she was too nervous to go by herself.

It was a million degrees outside but we will had a blast!

Gone Fishin'

Grandpa Jeff took Tyler, Emma and Brooke fishing at Hagemann Ranch Trout Farm in Bodega, CA a few weeks ago.


Brooke gave it a try but lost interest when she didn't catch one right away.

Tyler caught 4 fish, like a pro. And Emma caught two or three.

Thanks Grandpa Jeff! We love you!

Why oh Why?

Why must you be discontinued Trader Joe's Granny Smith Apple Slices? You are my favorite snack of all time. Why, I ask you! Why?