Happy Fourth and Happy Birthday!

I love, love, love the fourth of July, absolutely my favorite holiday. I love it even more because it is my husband's birthday tommorow. We crashed his lunch hour yesterday and celebrated with the other dr's and their office staff. Above is Dr. Beddoe and Dr. Castillo. He works with these two fabulous men!

These are the gifts he received from his MA Vanessa, and the office staff.

The kids and I celebrating with the Dr., ie. my main man!

When my two oldest boys walked in the room they immediately silly stringed their Dad, it was awesome!

The beautiful cake we brought in for the party, so yummy!

Happy Birthday Jay Dee, WE LOVE YOU!

Monday at the Zoo!

And, YES I did take the above photo at the zoo today!

I am thankful for:

1. Good times today with the kids and friends, the Fresno Chaffee Zoo and 'In and Out', can't get better than that!

2. My testimony of the gospel.

3. Awesome family and awesome friends!

4. My health and strength

5. My minivan!

I'm entering a giveaway

So, I'm entering a really cool giveaway at this site

www.bluelilly.squarespace.com

She's an amazing photographer with lots of talent, I have met her and she is a delight!

Please, Wendy pick me for your giveaway!

Summertime Memories

Yesterday I had so much fun sitting outside in our backyard, enjoying the nice cool weather, and I sat and watched these three little monkeys play. Our Aaron is on the right and his two friends, Sam and Isaac were over for the day. I marveled at their innocent play, their sweet spirits and just how much they love to PLAY and have fun. So I sat and watched and my mind took me back to when I was little, I asked myself questions, "What did I do in the summertime"?, "What were some of my favorite childhood memories?".

So here it goes, some of my favorite childhood summer memories.

Playing with my sisters in the unfinished basement.

Riding our bikes

Trying to sell painted rocks to our neighbors.

Trying to sell radishes from our garden to our neighbors.

Working in the garden

Bottling cheeries with the family

I have a very strong vivid memory of having an all night Monopoly gamathon with my oldest sister, Laresa.

Family camp at Nephi KOA

As I got older, my summers were filled with girls camp, youth conference, EFY, working at The Cottage, and then working at Pineae Greenhouses.

What were your favorite childhood summer memories?

May you all have a wonderful summer filled with cherished memories and eat lots of peanut butter with apples! YUM!

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL!

I am thankful for:

1. A loving and supportive husband

2. Four wonderful, beautiful kids.

3. Peace and love

4. Eating S'mores with my family last night! So yummy!

Science Showdown '09

SCIENCE SHOWDOWN '09!
As a family last night we went to the Middle School and supported Jacob at the seventh grade science showdown. It was a lot of fun! There are two seventh grade science teachers, Scholz and Vaughan, Jacob is on the red Vaughan team. Many of Jacob's friends were on the blue team, Scholz team and Mr. Scholz just happens to be his Young Men's President from church. So Jacob was ready! And ready he was! He has been studying for a month or so. So, they have two teams made up of seventh grade science students, who go head-to-head for the science showdown, Scholz has the winning record at 3-0, and unfortunately he won last night, so his record is now 4-0. It was a fun night! It was exciting to see all the seventh graders get dressed up, painted faces, signs, yelling and screaming for their team. I was so proud of Jacob he was on the vertebrate team, he was the only one on his team that got all the questions right, he rocked!!

Here are the two teachers conversing after the showdown.

This is Jacob's tshirt he made for the showdown.

This is Jacob and his science teacher, Mrs. Vaughan, she has been a very positive influence for Jacob.

Here we are decked out in our red to support Jacob, and the red Vaughan team!

May 19th, 2009

Well, it is May 19th and I have been trying really hard to remember why this date is so important to me. And it finally hit me why this date is engrained in my memory. It's not our anniversary or anyone's birthday, (not anyone close to us anyway). On May 19th, 1995 is the day I graduated from George Mason University with a bachelor's degree in nursing. On May 19th, 1996 is the day my husband graduated from George Washington University medical school. I loved those years, my mind floats back to those student years, I loved them, I yearn for them, I miss them. I miss the East Coast. I loved living in Virginia, I loved the history of Virginia. The state slogan/motto of Virginia is "Virginia is for Lovers". I loved that it was just 'me and him' (my husband and I) we had so much fun, saw and traveled to so many different places, toured every Civil War balltle sight we could, (my husband is a big history buff). Our oldest son was conceived in Virginia, later born in Altoona, PA. So, I think that it was kind of ironic that our youngest son, Aaron graduated from his first year of preschool today. And what a delight it was! They sang songs and we watched a special DVD of their preschool pictures, it was very cute. So here are a few pictures from preschool today.

Aaron is the last one on the right, with the truck on his shirt.

I thought these girls looked so cute standing in the front row with their adorable dresses on.

Aaron on his last day of his first year of preschool. My mind today has gone from May 19th, 1995 to May 19th 2009. WOW, a lot can happen in 14 years!