Stair Surfing

Last Thursday we made our weekly trip to the outdoor concert downtown (this time the water fountain was on= happy kids). I got the kids ready and then spent some time making lunches and gathering towels before we left. While waiting for me Lia and Jax decided it would be fun to slide down the stairs on Lia's kick board. I just made me laugh, they got going pretty fast by the time they reached the bottom! Good times! :)

Fountain Fun

Once the kids got done surfing the stairs we did actually make it to the
concert. Here are some pics from the concert/playing in the water
experience! :)

Monkeyin' Around

I took the kids to Monkey Joe's (just one of those places with all sorts of inflatable toys for those of you who aren't familiar) last week- here are a few pictures from our outing. To sum up our trip, here is what I have to say - I thought Lia was going to be our most adventurous child.....and then we had Maggie. Lia and Jax had a great time of course but Maggie was insane. She was all over everything, sliding and playing and acting like she was every bit as big as those older ones. She had a complete meltdown when I wouldn't let her go on the biggest slide in the place. What in the world? Didn't she just turn one?

May I just take this opportunity to say that Maggie really does look nice most days when we leave the house - but fifteen minutes later she looks like this! Kind of crazy hair, drool down the front of the outfit, red slushie on her chin - what do you do? (spellcheck is telling me that slushie with and "ie" is not a word, well in my world it is - so whatever)Me and the Mags - Perhaps I should quit with the self portrait, but otherwise you would never know I was there, Hmmm..
Jax Man

Jax on the big slide (yes this is the one Maggie was dying to try out!?) . It is noteworthy that Jaxon gave it shot because he is not usually one for anything having to do with heights. Way to brave it Jax! He was, of course, a big fan once he tried it.

What would I do without my Lia?- she is always Maggie's biggest helper! Thank you Lia for being such a great sister! Love you!
Maggie in all her craziness!

Lia still asks for a pony every other day - for now this is the best we can do.

I Wear My Sunglasses at Night...

The other night after helping Jax brush his teeth I went into his room to tuck him in and found him laying in bed wearing his sunglasses. When I asked him "Why the Shades?" he responded with "Mom when you're cool you wear sunglasses all the time." We had just finished watching SpyKids which was probably where this grand idea of his stemmed from. I just thought the pictures I took turned out cute, so I'm sharing.
If any of you are looking to be a bit more cool - Jaxon's advice is sunglasses - at all times!:)

the 4th

I am just now getting around to posting our Fourth of July pictures (only ten days late - nice). Tyler's parents were in town and we so enjoyed spending our holiday with them. We went to Rvierside park and enjoyed all the traditional festivities , then we did our own fireworks at home in the evening!

Here's Ty looking lighting fireworks in the front yard - I'm not exactly sure why he looks confused?! Silly Boy!
Grandpa Jim and Maggie watching Lia ride the horse. Maggie really wanted to hop on with her!

Playing with Grandma and Grandpa in the fountain!

Splashing Maggie!

Check out the parade wave! So sweet.

Ty and Jax on the train! Is it me or does my hubby look just a bit big for this particular ride? :)

Bouncing Lia

Look at Mags face when she saw the dog! Oh the excitement!

Lia, so proud of the bunny holding!

Webfooters water show. This was so fun to watch. I can't even handle that people can really do this! We had great seats on the bank of the river and the kids feet got splashed a few times when the boat came by.

Enjoying a cool treat :)

Swimming Kiddos

tOOthLeSs

Lia would like to announce that she has lost a tooth! And, for any doubters out there, the tooth fairy does indeed exist (and pays a bit better than he used to it would seem). She keeps flashing her toothless grin at the camera - and then checking to see if I got a picture of the hole! :)
So here's that silly smile!

Bless Your Heart

My Grandma Grace passed away last week at the age of ninety one. I was able to make a quick trip home to Utah to attend her funeral services over the weekend (thanks again dad for flying me home). I will always be grateful that I got to be there to pay tribute to this sweet woman. I wanted to quickly share just a few thoughts about who she was and how she affected my life.

This is probably my favorite picture ever of Grandma. It's a classic if you ask me, the hat the hair, everything - I absolutely love it.
Here's grandma and my cute dad.

Grandma Grace and Grandpa DeOnge's family (check out Steve and Lynn behind my Grandpa :) aren't they so cute!)

This would be the grandma I remember. Warm smile, perfectly curled white hair - how could you not love her?
I loved staying at my grandma's house when I was young, especially if my parents were on a date and I got to stay overnight. The evening would most likely include watching Lawrence Welk on PBS and eating ice cream (she often had peppermint - with the little hunks of candy cane - it loved that). Grandma would talk at length about each member of the Lawrence Welk cast and whether or not they were one of her favorites. I loved sleeping at Grandma's because she always had silky pillow cases and I thought her blankets always smelled heavenly. Grandma was also a great cook - my personal favorites being her pot roast and cheesy cauliflower. I have never seen anyone make pot roast fall apart like that - my dad has come close a few times, but he will still have to keep practicing!
One of my favorite things about grandma was that no matter what you told her, you could most likely count on her responding with a "Oh, bless your heart". I'm so grateful that my heart was blessed many times by Grandma Grace, she was such a blessing to each one of us.

I love you Grandma - bless YOUR heart