Popsicle Kids

Today after their afternoon swim in the pool I let the kids have popsicles. They were soooo CUTE! Jack has finally learned to smile for the camera so that made it even more fun. I just had to share these with you all. Don't you want to eat him up??
My sweet girl
Ok, one more...check out his feet!

This boy has crossed his feet since he was a new born. Still does it every time he sits down.

Birthday Girls

My Mom, sister and I all have birthdays in July. So since my sister was in town, we decided to celebrate. We went and had pedicures and manicures and then to dinner. We brought my best friend Nicole along too. We've been friends since the 6th grade (actually, we were in the same 1st grade class together) and she's practically family.

Here is my Mom getting her manicure All our pretty toes.
Nicole and Leah...dinner at BJ's
My Momand myself.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRLS!!!

Auntie Leah and Lexi's Little Visit.

This past week my sister Leah and my niece Lexi came into town for a visit for a WHOLE week. Jack and I picked them up at the airport and as soon as Jack and Lexi saw each other they ran and gave each other the biggest hug I have ever seen. Wouldn't you know, I left my camera in the car!!! UGH!

Right after we picked them up at the airport we headed straight for IN-N-OUT. It's tradition. As soon as we opened the van door we discovered that the two of them had traded pacifiers! Little stinkers. Lexi was in LOVE with Jack's juice.
Lexi, Jack and Leah pose before lunch.
My smiley little niecy-poo.
This picture sums Caroline up I think.

Can you say, "Almost 5"?
The girls on the swing
Playing in the sprinkler.
The girls in their matching dresses that I made.
I found Jack and Lexi trying to drive away in my van!
Lexi has the wheel, Jack has the keys = TROUBLE!!

Music lessons from Uncle Curtis.

(this has got to be one of my most recent favorite pictures)

We miss you guys already!

Tomorrow we find out if Lexi is going to have a baby brother or sister...I think it's a sister.

Grass Valley Street Fair

Every Thursday night during the summer there is a super fun street fair in Grass Valley. This past Thursday Leah and I took the kids.

Here is Caroline getting her face painted. She wanted her face painted the same as the sweet girl who was painting hers.
This was Lexi's typical look that evening.
They also had a really fun slide and I was so shocked when Caroline told me she could down all by herself!

Happy 4th of July!

It has been extremely smokey here in Nevada County because of all the fires. But miraculously it cleared up enough for us to really enjoy the 4th of July. One of the many, many great things about living in Nevada City is being so close to Broad Street. This year we were able to walk to town to watch the parade. It was so much fun! The kids loved it. Jack especially loved the trucks. This is a little goofy looking, but I really love the Statue of Liberty. So there she was in all her glory riding down Broad on the back of truck!

Rick, Caroline, Jack and Gil (trying to stay in the shade) watching the parade
A great shot of the pink hair.
My very patriotic son waving his little flag.
We even saw our pal Harry riding on the volunteer Sheriff's float!
After the parade and nap time we headed to our friend's the Hadley's. The live on a hill just above Lake Wildwood and had a great view of the fireworks from their house. The kids had a blast in their poolTeri, who is amazing in many ways, made red and blue star shaped ice cubes to put in our seltzer water. Yummmmm.Green and purple fireworks reminded us of New Orleans. They were beautiful.

PINK HAIR!!???!!!

As many of you know, Rick and I work with students. Our student ministry is full of very "colorful" kids. We have every color hair you can imagine. Well, as a result, Caroline has been BEGGING us for pink hair. So, after discussing it and buy the official Punky Color hair dye, we made a visit to our friend Wendy. She is the official hair specialist for the youth group.

Wait a minute! Am I sure???
Washing out the dye
Tada! Pink!
I wasn't too sure at first, but it has really grown on me. I love it!
Caroline and Wendy
This is one of my new favorites of my sweet pink-headed daughter.Thank you Wendy! YOU ROCK!!!

Swim Lessons '08

Here we go again! This year Caroline is still a Sea Turtle. It appears that after a month of swim lessons last summer we have not advanced at all. Oh well! She really loves her swim lessons. And I can tell that she is getting more brave with every lesson. Rick and I are so proud of her! Here is her teacher trying to convince her to get in the water.
Finally with some smooth talking she went for a swim with the noodles.

We ran into our friend Angelena too! She is a Sea Turtle too, just in a different class!

Lunch With Upendra!

This past Saturday we had lunch with our dear friend Upendra. Upendra has been in the states for about 7 months now working as a computer engineer. He is originally from Nepal and made us a traditional curry meal. It was sooooo good! Even Jack loved it!

Upendra & Jack

I love the contrast of their skin and hair color! They are completely opposite!

This is beef & mushroom curry. It was sooooo good!
Upendra recently bought a new juicer and was anxious to try it out on us. So along with amazing food we had fresh carrot/apple/celery juice.

Mmmmm, mmmmm good!
Jack loved the juice too! I think I have found a new way to get my meat-and-potato's boy to have veggies! JUICE THEM!
Thanks Upendra for an awesome meal! We'll miss you while you are in Nepal. Come back safe!

VBS! Outrigger Island

We just finished up VBS at our church and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! It was Outrigger Island where we learn to live God's un-shakable truth! Here's me and the kiddos all ready to go! Caroline went straight to the white board in her class room!
This was Jack's first year participating VBS and he had a great time.
Mark Hadley and I shared a time slot for music and story time with the preschoolers. We had an actual turtle in our classroom to help tell the story. We named her "Crush" just for the week. The kids loved the turtle and Mark quickly became known as "The Turtle Whisperer".
I just loved these little guys!