Our 4th of July...

Our 4th of July was nothing big...just some low key family time and a great BBQ. We had a laid back morning and took our time getting ready...although Juliana wanted an American Flag so bad that all we heard the whole morning were her requests for one. So, off we went in quest of an American Flag for her. It took us a few stores to find one (I guess that is why you shouldn't wait until the day of to get things like that). I really wish that we would have gotten a picture of her with it, because it was a bigger flag than we had expected to get her but she was thrilled with it. Mike took her to that park for a while to play and she had a lot of fun.

Juliana playing on the slides!!!! She was having a lot of fun.

Later that night we drove back to San Rafael with Karley and Kendra and her family. We parked in our church parking lot and waited for the Marin County Fair fireworks to start and watched them from the parking lot. We really had a pretty good day.
Mike and Juliana waiting for the fireworks to start. I love Juliana snuggles...she is so sweet.
A family picture in the dark...not our best picture...but not our worst either.
Mike and Juliana watching the fireworks.

Our week!!!

Well, we have had a good week. My favorite part is Juliana's new hair cut!!!! I just love it. And she seems to really like it too. In fact she wants to show it off to everyone. This morning she asked me if she could go to Daddy's work and show the "ladies" her new hair. It is a lot of fun and no work at all for me. So, what more could I ask for.
I am just amazed at how old she looks in this picture. Wow, she really is growing up.
This is the view from the back, she has a little part of her hair that flips up and it looks oh so cute.

Doesn't she look happy...I think it is because I was letting her wast time instead of getting ready for bed. LOL.
Is is pre-hair cut...she went over to her friends house last Friday for a little "swimming". It looks like they are having a tea party in the pool.
She really had a good time despite the cool temp of the pool.
This is Juliana's plant that she planted at school last Friday. She is very proud of it. It is wheat...well wheat grass I guess. It was so easy and she is just so proud that it makes me want to do more stuff like this with her. She beams each time she sees it and every morning she asks me if she can see it.
It really is getting tall. I don't know what I am going to do with it soon. Any suggestions???

We hope that all of you had a great week too.

A few nights out!!!!

Well, I have been very lucky this past week because I have been able to get out (kid free-pure enjoyment...no school or anything) 3 times in one week. Last Wednesday, we had a girls night out at the Cerrito theater for there 2 for 1 night at the moves. My cousins (Kendra, Karley, Kalyn and Karley's friend Celia) and I went to see Baby Mama. It was a lot of fun. Kalyn smuggled in Taco truck and it was so good. Kalyn smuggled out after the movie faster than we could snap a picture. I really don't have many more of these girls nights out left before I move so I am really hoping to cram a few more in before we move.

After the movie we went and picked up Karley's daughter Alayna who had been babysitting over at Kendra's house and we headed for some wonderful desert at Naia's. I was my first time at this gelato shop. Wow was it great!!!!! It was so much fun!!!! I really enjoyed myself. And we got some great pic's in.
They had the most amazing flavors...tons of them and you could taste test as many as you wanted before you ordered.

More flavors...all of them looked good except that banana...I think that looked really bad. Yuck!!!!
Doesn't that look really good!!!
Alayna and Kendra enjoying themselves.
Karley and I...this really isn't a good picture of me at all. LOL

Then on Saturday, Alayna watched Juliana for us and Mike and I got to go on a date...it had been a long time since we had gone out on a real date. We went to pick up my Wedding ring that was being fixed and we did a little shopping and then we watched the new Indiana Jones movie. It was a lot of fun. I was so glad to get a little time out with just Mike and I.

And to top it off, last night Mike sent me off on my own to get out of the house for a bit and I went to see Maid of Honor. I enjoy going to movies by myself because it gives me a chance to just be by myself. I never get time with just me. So it was a wonderfully relaxing night for me.

Anyway, I have felt so blessed the last week to get a lot of time to rest and relax. It has been great and very needed.

Thanks Mike for being so supportive.

Photography....

So, I have always wanted to be able to take beautiful pictures. But, for some reason they just never have turned out that great. Well, I have become determined to learn the art of photography. So, until I am able to take a class in it you will all have to bare with me as I work on it. My sister Jenny sent me her old camera and I have notice that it has made a big difference. I have now told Mike that when I graduate from college (notice I said when, not if...now that is a big step) with my bachelors degree that I want a really nice camera. So, until then I am going to work with what I have. The other thing that I am working with is my Mother's Day gift which is Photoshop Elements that I have wanted for years. I am very excited to figure this program out. It is so much fun. And now with my classes over for the next 2 weeks I am going to try and learn as much as I can. Anyway, here are some of my recent pictures of "Nature" that I have taken on Juliana and my outings...one is even from today!!!!!
These flowers I found at the San Francisco zoo on Juliana's birthday!!! I thought they were one of the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen. I need to find out what they are. They look so delicate and almost tissue paper like.

This is the friendliest duck I have ever met. He wanted is picture taken. I am not kidding when I say that either. He would swim up to us and stop and look at the camera until I would snap a picture of him then he would swim into another pose and stop again and pose. it was really funny. We didn't even have food to feed him.
Here he is again working the camera!!!
Juliana helped me take this one!!! She loved these flowers and would pick them and stuff them into her pockets. I tried to get a picture of her pockets full of them but they didn't turn out.
These leaves were perfect. Juliana wanted to pick them (she has a weird obsession with leaves, rocks and sticks). I told her that we don't pick leaves off of trees we can only pick up the leaves that have already fallen to the ground but she wasn't satisfied. So I had to promise her that I would take a few pictures of them. That made her happy...and when I pulled them up on the computer I thought is was a very lovely picture.
And last but not least, I saw this beautiful rose on the way to the park today. It was so pretty and just at it's peak in my book and I just had to photograph it.

Anyway, sorry that you have too look at all of these boring pictures but I needed to post about something. LOL.

I really will come back for a real post about what is going on later today or tomorrow!!!!

New FHE Lessons!!!!

I just wanted to let any one who reads my blog...(I really don't think more than 2 or 3 people do) that there are a few new lessons on my FHE blog. The one that was posted last by Bobbie is really cute!!!!

My FHE Blog...

I don't know how many of you know that I started blogging last year with an FHE blog. I was pretty good about it for a few months but, I started feeling like no one ever looked at it or even used the site really and so I fizzled out on it. It just didn't seem worth all of the effort. Well, in February I watched the Worldwide Leadership Training broadcast. They really put a strong push for FHE along with other things. But it really got that feeling going again in me that I needed to be working on Family Home Evening. I need to have those formal lessons and really would like to be doing with my website. Now, I really don't want anyone to feel like they have to do this, but I wanted to put it out there for anyone who would. Yesterday I got a comment on my blog from a really sweet lady asking me if I could up date my FHE blog. I sent her a message back telling her that I was going into the many reasons why I wasn't doing it right now (I am going into finals week and then I will have a 2 week break and then start taking my last 2 classes to get my associates degree, in the mean time going on a 2 week vacation and then coming home to finish up school and having 6 weeks to pack up so we can move to graduate school.) I am feeling like I have a full plate but, I really feel like our family needs to be doing better with Family Home Evening. I have been thinking for a long time that I wanted to find people who would like to do this FHE blog together with me. So, I asked the girl who commented about it if she would like to post a few FHE's and now I am going to put it out there for all of you. It you or anyone you know would be interested in being a contributor on my FHE blog I would love to talk about it with you/them. I was hoping that I could find between 3-7 women besides myself and that would make it so that we would only have to come up with a FHE lesson at the most once a month and maybe only once every two months. It would also give us more traffic over there and we could compile a list of Lessons that people would like to see. Now, keep in mind that the goal of my site was to give parents with small children (0-5) FHE ideas because I was having a hard time finding good ideas for kids this young. Anyway, let me know what you think.

Introducing Caroline Jane ....

On May 2, 2008 @5:30 PM my sister Gayle brought a beautiful little girl into the world. She is cute as can be and I can't wait to meet her in June at our family reunion. I just wanted to post a few pictures of this beautiful little girl and tell Gayle, Mark, Grace, Mary, Max and Caroline that I am so happy for them and that I love them very much. This beautiful little girl is so lucky to have 2 older sisters and 1 older brother that will be looking out for her and loving her everyday. Gayle, Mark and Baby Caroline....how cute are they!!!!
I really don't think that she could get any cuter!!!!!