Back to School Dance

Every year the kids have a Back to School dance at the church that even  the 12 year old get to go to!  We have some fun memories  from Austin's first dance last year.  He was nervous about asking a girl to dance and how to dance with a girl etc.  Jason and I showed him how, then I danced with him and then we had him practice with Jessica.  It was really cute!  We had lots of laughs and warm hearts as he would ask Jessica to dance at random times for the few days before the dance. 

With all the practice from Austin's first dance, Jessica felt like she was pretty ready, but came running in to the kitchen right before the dance and wanted to "brush up real quick" with Jason before she left.  I grabbed my phone and snapped a quick picture.  I couldn't help posting the sweet moment on Facebook.  There were lots of fun comments, but I loved Jason's.  He said, "She is growing up to e the most amazing young woman.  She is honest, smart, humble, beautiful and very funny.  If you don't know Jessica very well, you should spend more time with her and I'm positive that you will become a big fan."

It was so cute watching her and Austin jump out of the car and off to the dance together.  They were even more excited when I picked them up!  The volume kept getting louder and louder as they shared their excitement about who they danced with and what funny things happened.  It's times like those, that I wish I had video cameras planted around so I could always look back and relive these moments.

Babysitting the Boys

A few weeks ago, we got to watch Danale's kids for the weekend while she and Justin attended a wedding.  I loved having the boys around! They are so sweet and it was nice having a little extra bonding time.

I gained a new respect for people with twins!  Carter is three months older than Paige and Ashlyn is three months older than Colton.  In my book, that's close enough to count as twins!

Little Carter is a snuggler!   One of the things I love about babies is rocking them to sleep and having them snuggle up on your shoulder.  Unfortunately, Paige is just too active to want to snuggle and wants to be layed down by herself when she is tired and ready for bed.  Carter filled my cup!  :-)

Paige wasn't always excited about me holding another baby.  Luckily, Jessica is AMAZING with babies and always happy to help.   I have no idea what I would do without her.  She makes my life so much easier on a regular basis.  

Ashlyn and Colton were a crack up all weekend!  I would have loved to have been inside Colton's head just to hear what he thought about all the freedom he and Ashlyn found themselves with!  At one point, the babies were down for a nap and they were happily playing, so I jumped in the shower to get cleaned up for the day.

 I was feeling a little bit like super mom.  I thought I had it all under control!  Two babies down, everyone was fed, changed and clean (except me), house was sort of picked up and I had a huge smile on my face.  If I didn't have to do anything else, I would love to have babies all day long.   When they get older, its just a lot of driving them around and squeezing in parenting moments when you can.  Anyway, I got out of the shower, dressed and came down to check on the kids (hair still wet, etc).  I laughed out loud and followed the trail of Fruit By The Foot wrappers into the garage (our play room) to the two culprits. 

I had never worried about what Ashlyn was getting into in the cupboards because she would always have come to me and ask me to open it.  I could say no or maybe later or whatever so I didn't have a rule about not getting into the cupboards.  Ashlyn had just learned a few days before that she could open just about anything with a pair of scissors.  And they did!  There were no less than 15 Fruit By the Foot wrappers (I had just picked up a box a Costco) and three opened packages of Top Ramen.  They weren't interested in eating the Ramen, but it made a great crunching noise when the dinosaurs would stomp across it!

The smiles here say it all!

My monkeys jumping on the bed before bedtime.

Super fun, busy weekend, left me with a full heart.

Back to the Beach

 For Labor Day Weekend, we loaded up Miss B and headed back to the beach with three other families for more fun in the sun!

We spent our days Skim Boarding,

Boogie Boarding

Jason

Jessica

Playing Beach Volleyball

And just relaxing in the sand.

We enjoyed a bonfire on the beach one night

Had an adults night out to Phil's Fish Market

Took over a small Santa Cruz ward for church on Sunday.  (I'm sure we were a sight as we pilled out of Miss B!)

Enjoyed the tide pools

We danced, we laughed, we played and even managed to squeeze in a little down time at the house.

It was a perfect weekend!

First Day of School

How did they grow up so fast?! Jessica and Austin are in Junior High (7th and 8th grade) and Lauren is in 4th grade.Ashlyn was really disappointed she didn't start preschool until the next day.
Her playful sassy face when we drove back home.

She was so excited to go to preschool the next day and see her teacher and friends.