Jared's First Game...

Jared at bat

Jared running to 1st

Jared getting ready to step on 1st

I thought watching little kids playing soccer was fun to watch but watching 4-6 year olds play baseball was just humorous! They were running to third instead of 1st, one kid chased after his own ball that he hit, and one kid caught the ball but then dropped it to beat the kid running to first in a foot race, one kid picked up second base, another ran around and around home plate while being chased by the catcher because he didn't want to be tagged out. I could go on and on...I think my cheeks hurt after Jared's first game from laughing so hard. They have now played 3 games...and the more they play the more they grasp the concept. So as the season goes on there is not as many bloopers.

Discovering New Talents!

Ellie has just discovered she loves to color. Which is great because she will sit down and be quiet and color her pretty pictures. But now her art work has gone beyond just paper. She will try to put her artistic touch on just about anything...the walls, clothes, furniture. Friday night I thought the kids had gone to bed peacefully. I checked on them before I went to bed but didn't notice the damage. I woke up Saturday morning to Jared screaming "Mom, mom Ellie colored all over her bed with a pen" then I heard Rachel, "Mom, Ellie colored on my sheets AND SHE COLORED ON ME!" Somehow she had gotten a hold of a pen and colored on everything including her sister. I was so upset that she had colored on the sheets but it was a little humorous that she didn't leave out Rachel. If anyone has any suggestions on how to get pen out of something PLEASE let me know.
I guess I need to invest in the color wonder markers.

Ask a lot of questions.

Today the kids found some seeds and wanted to plant them. I told them it was fine. Why I wan't more inquisitive, I don't know. Maybe questions like "where are you going to plant them? or What are you going to use to plant them?" About 15 minutes later I walk out into our backyard and find about six of our drinking cups full of dirt sporadically placed all over the yard. Needless to say I showed them a better place to plant them but I could have saved time and a lot of mess if I had taken the time to ask a few simple questions.

Jared's First Season of Baseball.

Jared started baseball this week. He has an excellent coach and seems to be having a lot of fun. He asks if he can go to practice everyday. Today in batting practice he nailed one of his coaches right in the gut. Thank goodness they had them using wiffle balls. The not so funny thing is a few posts before this one I told you how much I liked baseball, especially the SF Giants. Well, of course my son would end up on the Dodgers. They are pretty big rivals...it's so hard to see Jared in Dodger blue!In fact when the coach e-mailed me for the first time it said "Info for Dodgers Season" and I deleted it without even looking at it. I thought why the heck would I be getting e-mail about the Dodgers. Oops! It's a good thing he is so dang cute it helps to overlook. I hope I will not bore everyone with his little league posts as I'm sure I will post a few.

It's nice to getaway.

My parents have a timeshare at the beach and they so graciously let us use it for a couple days. It was wonderful. There was a time when we were sitting on the beach and I was reading my book (Breaking Dawn, which I had saved just to read while in Dana Point) The kids were playing in the water, Bill was playing with the kids, Ellie was laying next to me. There was no fighting, nobody saying I'm bored, everyone had a smile. I was overwhelmed with how perfect the day was, how wonderful my little family was, how thankful I was for all the amazing blessings in my life. Those moments are priceless.

All Smiles!

Our own little sea monster!

It's amazing how running from the waves can entertain you for hours!

Rachel was searching for pretty rocks, left by the waves. (Not many seashells at this beach)

Ellie meant serious business.

We turned her into a sea turtle but I didn't get a good picture.

Ellie has been wearing these sun glasses almost everyday since we went to the beach!

I put this picture on the blog to show you the girls hair. Sometimes you get bored doing the same thing over and over. I found this cute website, the link is on my blog, with lots of different ideas.

Who needs snow when we have sand. Rachel making a sand angel.

Peaches, Peaches & more Peaches!

A couple months ago my mother in law asked if I would like her to order some peaches for me. I thought it would be fun to can some peaches. When the huge box of peaches was dropped off at my house. The only thought that came to me was "What was I thinking?" I even e-mailed my aunt Sharon and asked for advice. I laughed at her response..."Peaches, that's a little ambitious for your first try." But she said I could do it. So...Monday I was determined to tackle the peaches. I think I was in the kitchen 5 or 6 hours. It took a long time and I got tired of slicing peaches, so I made some peach Jam to take care of the rest. I have to say I was pretty impressed with myself. Now we have peaches to last us for a while!

Girls are so much fun.

I found this great little craft project for my girls. I've made them little headbands with fabric flowers. I am also going to turn some into barrettes. These are so easy to make and so much fun. Now if I can't find something to match I can just make it! I made about 5 different ones in less than an hour.

Making life Simple.

My girls have so many barrettes, bows, and hair ties it became impossible to find what I needed. So I just took to long ribbons and hung them in my bathroom and put all of their hair accessories on it. It had made life a little less hectic. If you didn't want them out on display you could still use this idea and shove it a drawer and pull out the ribbon when you needed it.

Holding back the tears...

Jared has absolutely loved his first few days of kindergarten. He hates the fact that he has to wait to go until 11:15. The morning drags on for him. He even tries to set the timer on the microwave (usually for the 30 sec.s) when it beeps he informs me that it is time to go to school.
Today as I was taking him to school he informs me that he just wants to be dropped off. He wants to walk to his class on his own and he doesn't need me to come with him.
I didn't cry on the first day of kindergarten but that almost brought me to tears. I was happy that he felt confident and excited to go but 3 days into school and you don't NEED me?! I was crushed. So I let him walk to class as I watched from the sidelines. (sniffle...sniffle).

It's all in the name...

As most of you know we recently had our car stolen...so last night after almost seven weeks without a car we finally purchased a new car. We told the kids we were getting a new car. We told them we were getting a VW Jetta. Jared said (with much enthusiasm) "We are getting a Jedi!" He thought we were getting the coolest car ever. Poor kid, I guess it didn't matter what kind of car we got after that, it was nothing in comparison to a Jedi car!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Rachel started 2nd grade today. She came home all excited. She loves her teacher Ms. Wilkins and had a few kids from her class last year. She told me she thought second grade was going to hard but it was easy. (I'll keep you posted on how she feels about the rest of the year. hehe)

Jared started kindergarten. He has afternoon kindergarten so all morning he kept asking "Can I go now?" When it was finally time to go he waved goodbye and left with his class. I don't even think he looked back. When I picked him up he said it was AWESOME. I'm so happy that he started off on such a good note.

Jared took FOREVER picking out a backpack. He finally decided on a transformer one.

Knotts Berry Farm

We got to spend a day as the family at Knotts Berry Farm.

We watched the Wild West Stunt Show. Jared liked all the action.

These little cars had to be hand pumped...Ellie did it all by herself!

The Girls!

Rachel & Jared sitting in the front on the log ride. Ellie got to ride too. I wish we had a picture of her petrified face. When the ride was done she said, "It's not fun. I don't like it!"

Enjoying the Last few Days of Summer Break!

These are the kids having a picnic in the backyard. They always beg me to let them have a picnic but it only lasts for five minutes as they are always chased back in the house by bugs or the heat.

I've been tagged by Alycia!

The idea is as soon as you get the challenge to take pictures of these items immediatley. No cleaning up allowed. Thanks Alycia!



The Fridge

Favorite Room
(This is where we spend the most time...I hate the chandelier though)
What the kids are doing.

Favorite shoes. (Looks like I need a new pair!)

Self Portrait
(Hey...it's late! Cut me some slack.)

Dream Vacation
(I would love to travel to Italy, they have so much history there, the colloseum, Sistine chapel...)

My Closet
(Looks like I need to do some Spring cleaning...too bad we are at the end of summer. Guess we will have to wait until next year.)
Laundry Room
(I don't have a laundry room, this is my garage. But it is definitely on the wish list for when we get a house!)

The Toilet
(Thank goodness the last one who used it remembered to flush!)

Well, I hope you all enjoyed it. Now it is your turn.
The Five People I tag are
Jessica, Kyra, Britta, Jennifer, & Katie.
Can't wait to see the posts on your blogs.

On the lighter side of things...