Austin's Preschool Graduation

My little boy is growing up way to fast!! He graduated from preschool this week and will be going to kindergarten in the fall. It seems like it was only yesterday that I couldn't leave the house for 6 months because he would never stop crying as a baby. Now he is the most easy-going kid around. He has changed a lot in the last year and has learned a lot! He is so excited to start kindergarten.
Here is Austin with his buddy Rylan. They have been in preschool together for 2 years and will be going to kindergarten together in the fall.
Austin and his teacher Ms. Brenda. She is a great teacher and lucky for us lives just down the street.
Natalie, Austin, Mom and Makenna after graduation. Natalie missed a couple hours of school to come see Austin graduate. Danny wasn't able to come because it was early in the day so Natalie videotaped it for him. Danny told Austin to sing really loud so he could hear him on the tape and boy did he listen!! He was singing/yelling some of the songs super loud. It was funny!

Gram and Pop were able to come too, which made Austin (and Makenna) really happy!

Congrats Austin!! We are proud of you!!

Happy Birthday Natalie!!

YIKES!! We've reached double digits. Natalie turned 10 on April 13th. We had a family party for her at Canyon View Park. It was really fun and the weather was nice. This year she decided she wanted us to give her money and let her pick out her own stuff. It was a lot of fun taking her shopping and out to dinner. My Mom came with us too. My Mom and Dad also gave her some money so she was able to get lots of new summer clothes and other cool stuff!! Of course anything I thought was cute was out of the question. I tried to keep my "Mom style" out of it and keep my mouth shut and just let her get whatever she wanted. Danny was worried about us because we were gone for over 4 hours. If he had ever shopped with Natalie he would know that is was actually super speedy and probably a new world record!! She has a hard time making decisions when it is her own money she is spending. She was a good shopper and even had some money left over!Family Party at the Park--we got pics of everyone with Natalie.

Mom, Natalie & Dad
Gram, Natalie, Pop
Natalie, Ian, Sawyer, Emily & Brock

Dustin, Natalie, Ashley, Hayden & Kaylie

Birthday treats....Yum!

Austin and Makenna helping Natalie open presents.

Happy Birthday Natalie...We love you and are so glad you are in our family!! You are a fun & happy girl. You are creative, funny and smart. We are proud of you!

Easter at our house...

City Easter Egg Hunt
Coloring easter eggs

The E.B. came to see us!!

We had a great Easter...don't think the E.B. expected snow though.

He brought us squirt guns, frisbees, footballs, 3-D chalk,

bubbles, sand toys, rakes, shovels, and lots of other fun OUTSIDE stuff!! Oh well...that night as we put Austin to bed he said his favorite part was "hanging out with everyone like Dad, Mom, and my big sister and baby sister." AHHHH!!! That makes it all worth it!!

Disneyland Vacation!!

We arrived in California on Sunday. That night we went to Los Alamitos to watch the horse races. It is only about 20 minutes from Disneyland. Danny has two cousins that train horses there so he was excited to see them. He also saw a few jockeys he used to ride with and hasn't seen in a few years that are riding there now. The kids had a lot of fun running around and eating race track nachos and pretzels...something Natalie has missed since Danny quit riding. :) Danny and Austin also went out to the track early Tuesday morning to watch horses gallop, Austin loved that!

We spent 4 days in Disneyland & California Adventure. The weather was perfect around 65 degrees and a little cloudy but no rain. The crowds weren't bad at all. We went right through most lines. We waited about 20 minutes for the new Toy Story ride, but that was the longest so we couldn't complain. Makenna was pretty good overall, with only a few breakdowns! We discovered she would fall asleep in Pirates of the Caribbean, so when it was nap time that's where we'd head. We had lots of fun!!

Meeting Mickey Mouse. We took tons of pictures, but here are some of our favorites.

Monsters Inc.
Toon Town

A Bug's Land

Ariel's Carousel

Hollywood Tower of Terror (Natalie's favorite)

Flying Dumbo

Austin was excited to see Mater and Lightning. He has been really into the "Cars" movie lately. He loved seeing them drive in the parade.

Makenna loved all the characters, but Winnie the Pooh was her favorite. She really liked the Winnie the Pooh ride and the Small World ride. Austin HATED Small World and would plug his ears through the whole thing.

Meeting Eeyore...Natalies favorite.

After 5 days of short naps Makenna was a bit cranky. Danny took her back to the hotel Thursday afternoon so she could have a good long nap. I was happy to have a few hours to explore with Natalie and Austin

We went back to some of their favorite rides, and even met Goofy!

It was such a great trip! I was so sad to leave and even got a little teary eyed as we left Disneyland the last night (could have something to do with a lack of sleep and vacation stress, but I love Disneyland!!) Danny was looking at me like I was crazy and so was Natalie. It is nice to be home though, and we came home to a crazy, awesome surprise which I will post about as soon as I can.

Photos by Natalie....

Natalie spent Sunday afternoon taking pictures of anyone who would let her in her "kiddie kandids" studio complete with backdrop and props. The backdrop was a quilt she had just finished binding (with a little help from Gram). She also tied the quilt (with a little help from Gram and Mom). It turned out cute!
Willing victim #1.....Austin

Even more willing victim #2.....Makenna

We're ready for summer...can you tell!!!

Fun at Jumpin Jacks!

Trying to beat the winter boredom blues we headed over to Jumpin Jacks to try and burn off some energy!
Makenna hated the slides and screamed if we tried getting her near them. Oh well, she had lots of fun running around with another little girl about her age. It was cute...I wanted to take a picture but didn't want the other mom to think I was a crazy stalker or something.
I think Austin had the most fun and didn't want to leave!

Natalie had fun too until she "popped her leg".

After that she was pretty much done :)

Austin was so happy that his cousin/buddy Brock could come with us. They ran from slide to slide for over two hours pretending to be lions and were pretty worn out!

Overall a very fun day and a great way to get out of the house and get a little exercise! I for one am ready for Spring!!