vacation bible school

They're very ticklish...

Sunday morning fun...

They seem so grown up...

today we met some friends out at a kids "museum" called Kidzone (kinda like a learning center). they had a miniature little stater bros. grocery store where the kids could pretend like they were shopping and cashiering, a real police car, ambulance, police motorcycle, a climbing wall, a office setting, a pretend school room, a t.v. studio (with a real camera and t.v.), a doctors office, a bank...etc. you get the point...a whole bunch of fun stuff for kids and the kids loved it!
one funny thing that happened today that i tried SOOOO hard not to laugh at was when kaia was in the make believe police department (with a fake jail in it) and kaia was holding the jail door closed so that the 2 boys quite a bit older that were in it couldn't get out. one was crying and the other one was not happy either. sorry, i know it was not very nice of her & i did tell her to let them out and that you don't trap someone in places like that, but it was just the look on kaia's face. she had NO idea that boys are "supposed to be stronger" and that they were probably 2 and 3 years older than her. at least i kept a straight face & did the good-motherly thing to do! :)
here are kaia and her little "boyfriend", gavin...
they're good climbers!
leia LOVED this part of the place...she loves pushing things
a hard days work...
kaia in the police car...

Happy Birthday Mikey!

my little brother (that lives in texas) turns 25 today, sorry we weren't at your surprise party...i heard you really tricked him, elaine. good job! :)

free hour of fun!

today the library had a juggler & i thought, "this sounds kinda cheesy, but i'll take the girls anyways"...so, off we went & there were SOOO many kids there and they had a lot of fun. even leia was watching for a while!






i love free stuff to do!!!

our little artist

swimmin' like a pro!

today was kaia's last day of swimming lessons & we're so proud of her...a few weeks ago, she didn't even want to put her face in the water and now she's swimming ALL by herself and jumping off of 4 foot walls, see...

kaia and gavin, they are so cute!
good job, baby.

thank you Jesus, again

well, i haven't blogged in a while...we've been pretty stressed out waiting to hear derek's PET scan results (he had another routine PET scan last friday) & we found out yesterday that the scan was clean. to say that we feel relieved is an understatement. thank you Jesus for keeping him healthy and answering our prayers.

it's been a very GIRLY week!

Between kaia's dance recital last weekend and her "dance with your favorite princess" dance camp she had this week...it's been very girly around here. kaia does have her girly side, but she also has a very athletic side too. except for swimming lessons, every day this week has been very pink!
here's kaia and her friend Chelsi...they're a lot alike...



here a typical "kaia pic"...even during princess dance camp, when you gotta "pick it", you gotta pick it.
p.s.~ last night kaia was talking about the princesses that she's been dancing with this week, and when "ariel" came up, she says, "i asked ariel where her goggles were". (sidenote: kaia's been wearing goggles for swimming lessons so she doesn't keep wiping the water out of her eyes) and i asked her, "what did she say?". kaia answers, "she said that she didn't need goggles cuz she's a little mermaid".
that was a good one! :)

Kaia's First Recital

Kaia did so good. She's the second one from the left.

What a day!

today we got up at 5:00 in the morning to go to the swap meet (the whole swap meet thing is a long story)...anyways, we were there from 6:00-2:00 in 100 degree weather with derek's parents (and, yes the girls came too). i was gonna say it was humid too, but i'm from texas and that was nothin'. but, ok...it was a little humid for cali. it was very hot and a lot of work, but kinda a fun experience. from there, we went through a drive-thru to grab a quick lunch and came straight home to get ready for kaia's first dance recital...so, a shower, a not very cooperative bun in kaia's hair, tights, a leotard with a big tu-tu and a tiara later...we're out the door to go pick up papa and nema to head for UCR. we get there and derek, leia and papa-nema get in the long line to be seated and me and kaia head backstage (all the kids in the show had to be backstage the entire time...even the 2 1/2 and 3 year olds). so backstage we went. did i forget to mention that i wore heels? yea, not the day i should have worn them, because between sitting with kaia and the other little girls backstage and walking back out to my seat when they were performing, i walked a pretty long distance 4 times, not to mention that leia didn't want to sit still at all, so we were trying to keep her quiet the whole 3 hours, YES 3 HOURS! well, the recital was great, the girls did a wonderful job and none of them got stage fright, it was very cute. oh yea, and kaia got her first trophee. i wish i had taken a picture of our sleeping arrangements last night though, cuz when we got home we were all SO wiped out that kaia fell asleep in the car and we just put her on the couch, which she ended up sleeping on the floor next to the couch all night. me and leia fell asleep on the other couch with leia still in her dress ALL NIGHT. the only one who made it to the bed was derek. it was one of those things where you're thinking, "did i just let me kid sleep on the floor all night...is that abuse?!" it was actually pretty funny. at least we're all rested now!

Tap tap tap...

kaia has her first dance recital on saturday and today was her dress rehearsal...there's no telling what's gonna happen at the "real thing", but today the girls did great!





they look so dainty and delicate here...it's not always that way in dance class :)

a baby pushing a baby

i thought this was so funny...they're almost the same size, but you can just tell that leia thinks she's her mama as she pushes the doll around the house...she just turns the corners and happily strolls her (actually, kaia's) dolly. she looked so pleased with herself!