Picnic at the Park, May 8th

It was a beautiful Saturday and we had no plans, chores were done and we had nothing to do, so we decided to pack a lunch and go on a picnic.

We packed our picnic basket full of water, sandwiches, fruit, carrots, and chips and headed to the park.

We ate on our picnic blanket





Played with the 3 cute dogs

Went down the slide



made new friends, jumped off walls and had a fun time being together!

Question of the day, every day...

How do you wake this?




Because of the crazy situation with Trena's school and them not having room for her at her assigned school I have to take her to and from everyday. First off I have to wake her 4 out of 5 mornings to take her to school and then I have to wake her from her nap everyday to pick her up. If I put her down at 12 (and she is not quite ready so its a fight) we are sometimes ok, but she takes between a 2 to 3 hour nap everyday and usually doesn't fall asleep until at least 12:30. So it breaks my heart to go into her room and listen to her snoring and then have to wake her up.

Don't you love the two binkies

Pictures taken 5/7/2010

Then and now

What a difference 9 1/2 months makes, this is Ava last July

And here she is on May 4th, its hard to tell but she is wearing the same outfit, she hasn't grown much but she sure looks older.

Disneyland with the North Family May 1st

Brent's brother and his wife went to San Diego for a CME and Grandma, Grandpa and Great Grandma went to Phoenix to watch their kids. When the conference was over the grandparents met up with Gary and Jody in San Diego and then came on to LA. We then headed down the hill and we all met up Friday night and stayed in a hotel and then went to Disneyland the next morning.

We rode lots of rides, got many character autographs, went to the petting zoo, saw the parade, fireworks, Talk with Crush, the bugs life show, The Tiki room and Captain EO. We had a lot of fun being with the family, we were just sad we didn't have more time with the family or at Disneyland. That night when we left Disneyland we said our goodbyes and we headed home, the rest of the family stayed the night and then Gary and Jody headed back to Phoenix the next day and the Grandparents came to our house.

Everyone minus Gary who's taking the picture



Our beauties

Eyore as if he needs an introduction and our cute nephew Caleb

T. I. double G, er

Pooh


Katrena has no fear of rides, but for some reason she really dislikes the Indian Jones ride and would only go on it if she could sit by aunt Jody and hold her hand.


Petting zoo


Love this photo


Always love the Bugs Life glasses


Had to take this one for all the grandkids, perfect.


Ava with Great Grandma while mom and dad went on Tower or Terror


All the grandkids that were there: Cameron, Allie, Katrena, Ava and Caleb. We were missing Brendan, Shayla and Kyndra


Ava's favorite TV show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and she loves "Mouse" as she calls both Mickey and Minnie. She even says Mishka Mooshka to make the clubhouse appear. We don't really have her watch TV, and she never just sits and watches an episode of anything, but I will usually have this on while she's eating breakfast. She now asks for this show throughout the day and will sit through an entire episode. Needless to say she was quite thrilled when we saw Mickey and Minnie at the end of the day. However she did not want them to touch her, she was a little uncertain about them getting too close to her no matter how much she likes them.


Love how she's keeping an eye on Mickey

All in all it was a fabulous "Happy Day" and we were beat when we fell into bed at 2 am! We are really getting to old for these late nights.

Eighty Degree Days

So the end of April and first of May have left us with some nice 80 degree days, which has led to a daily after school sugar free popcicle and some fun sister time of running through the sprinkler. Ava likes to watch her sister get wet from the safety of the porch, she loves the tub, but is not so sure about the sprinklers. But Katrena always makes sure that Ava gets at least a little bit wet.

Mommy Daughter Night

On April 23rd Brent went to a concert in LA, Its one of his favorite metal bands from Finland. He had wanted me to go as well, but with the concert being an hour and a half a way each direction we knew we'd have to have a sitter until at least 2 in the morning. So Brent went alone and the girls and I played. We went to Baskin Robbins for yummy ice cream and then came home and watched the movie Bandslam, (it was more for me and Trena than Ava obviously).

We had a great time just us girls and we are already looking forward to Daddy's next concert in June!

This cone was about as big as her!

Reading Award

On April 16th Ava and I were able to go to Katrena's school where she received the Reading Award. Five awards are given out per class they are scholar award, citizenship award, teachers choice, schools choice and the reading award. This is given to the person with the highest percentage of testing and most books read. This awesome little reader had moved up 3 levels in one month and was kicking butt on all of her tests, she totally earned this award.

When Katrena's name was called and Ava saw her walk to the front of the room Ava took off running full speed ahead for her sister and when I stopped her she burst into tears. It was the sweetest thing. All the time during the day she asks me where her sister is and I say school and she says "oh" and then "Daddy?" and I say "work" and she says "oh". She is so cute and sweet and loves her sister so much.

But this is Trena's post. I am truly proud of my little reader, I love to read and can only hope to instill this same love in my daughters and so far so good. Trena was not a big fan of reading only a year ago. It took her finding books she really enjoyed, first Junie B. Jones, Bailey School Kids, Ramona books, Fudge books. She is so funny whenever we go anywhere she has to take a book with her in the car.




By the way it was crazy hat day

First Signs of Spring 4/20/10

Spring is really popping up here at our house. We have flowering trees & bushes, plants and about 10 rose bushes. Here are some of the first signs of spring at our house. Now all of the rose bushes are in full bloom, its a beautiful sight.

Flowering tree outside of Ava's window



First rose

Pretties

We have yellow, red, pink, another shade of pink and sterling rose bushes. The coolest part about the sterling rose bushes (not pictured) is that it was the rose that was used on mine and Brents wedding cake, we also had scattered sterling rose petals, and my bouquet and Katrena's mini bouquet was mostly sterling roses.

Saturday April 10th

Saturday was a busy day. We had our first Primary activity since I was put in the presidency in March. We did a belated Easter activity. We played games, made bunny Easter baskets and decorated sugar cookies, and then we had an Easter egg hunt. The plus to doing this after Easter, we got the candy, the eggs and little prizes on clearance.

Here are the kids that came with their Easter baskets.



All of the Primary kids including Nursery were invited, but because it was supposed to be outside of the church, and I was in charge, and I didn't want to make Katrena watch her the whole time I made Ava stay home with Dad. She didn't mind because she didn't know what she was missing out on, but I did and sure missed her. And to top it off it was so windy (its always windy here) that we ended up doing everything but the hunt inside so she could have come.

We brought Ava home some of the candy and some bracelets as well as some unfrosted sugar cookies.

Here is Ava decorating her sugar cookies, with a little help from Dad.

After sugar cookies and a nap, it was time to plant our garden. We planted lots of yummy vegetables and some strawberries. We can't wait to see how our first attempt at a garden turns out. While we planted, Ava ate dirt. And while most kids would spit out the dirt, Ava went back for more and more, so I finally took her in and put her in the bath. (She also LOVES to chew ice, we are beginning to wonder if she is iron deficient.)

And we planted some pretty pansies in our flower bed in front. It brightens the place up and Ava and Katrena love to help water the garden and flowers.