Claire is a Star Student

Claire received the award for the Student of the Month in her Classroom today.  They do a character counts program and they have six character traits that the kids can earn awards for.   Claire received the second award for the year for the Character trait of Respect!  We are so proud of her.  Here is a picture of her with her teacher Mrs. Peters, and Spot the school mascot!

Claire's Last Soccer Game-and Party!

Claire had a great soccer season on the Red Cherries!  We loved our team and our great coach's, Coach Parrish and Colin!

Maddie's 4th Birthday!

Our little Madeleine turned 4 today!  She had such a great day.  She got to take cupcakes to her preschool, and to her class at church.  Then she had a "doggie" birthday party.  What a special day for a special girl. 

Nathan's Birthday

My friend Kim made the most amazing cake for Nathan's Birthday and I had to post pics of it!

Disneyland with Cousins

We spent a wonderful week in Newport with our cousins Tristan and Hayden and Grandma and Grandpa!  We went to Disneyland for two days, we played at the pool, and we went shopping-oops, that was more for mommy :)

Hanging with Cousins at the in our apartment for the week

Lucy in white pants on the floor at Disneyland, not the smartest choice!

Lucy loved Hayden's Buzz Cup


Mommy and Daddy on the Jungle Book

Happy Maddie

Happy Lucy!

The girls love to get their faces painted

This is why Disneyland is fun for Lucy there is a lot to climb and hang on 

Apple Hill!

This week the girls have fall break from school, but Nathan NEVER gets a fall break from work, so I decided to take the girls up the Sacramento area to visit their Nannie, and Papa, and Aunt Hillary and cousins (Nathan's parents and sister).  We had such a nice trip.  It was a five hour car ride but the girls did great!  No complaining, except for the last hour on the way home for Lucy. While we were there we went to this great place in Placerville called Apple Hill.  It is 10 scenic miles of Apple farms that you can visit, go apple picking, pumpkin picking and get fun crafts and eat delicious food, including the best fresh apple donuts!  This should be an annual fall trip, but I just don't know if I can plan a drive like that again right now...check back with me in a year.

Leaving Nannie's to go to Apple Hill!

Singing songs in the backseat!

Look at these trees, they are laden with Apples

Our little witch

Emma and Claire

Rebecca and Maddie

What are these girls up to?

Maddie picking pumpkins

Lucy

Lucy loved posing in front of the little cow!

Maddie on the tire swing-that was a thrill~!

I love this picture and had to use it twice!

Future veterinarian

Maddie and Finny

Aunt Hillary and Mommy agreed Lucy was in need a little trim.  She is my first straight haired baby and I never had to worry about bangs in the eyes till now.  She sure needed a trim since she will not keep clips in her hair. 




Getting cleaned up after a fun day!  Taking a bath at Nannies is always more fun!

We're back!

Where have we been you might ask?  Well you know we have been around, but blogging has taken a back seat lately...But we have been having some fun times lately I felt the need to blog again.  I also felt it was time to update our look!

Our Fun-Filled Family Day in SB

I know that Labor Day is meant to be a day off of Laboring, and that after looking at the pictures of our family in being "touristy" in Santa Barbara it looks like a lot of Labor.  But honestly it was one of the most relaxing enjoyable days we have had as a family in a long time.  No phone calls, no interruptions (although we did run into a few of Nathan's work acquaintances, and the Voges)it was just nice to be together, and enjoy our day at our own pace (especially with daddy!)

We started the Day at the Zoo!

The Girls loved sliding down the astroturf hill!

Going Up!

Coming Down!  And she did that about 50 times!

Then we went to Chase Palm Park and rode on the Carousel  I love this picture, because I think it shows such a resemblance between these two.

I lived in Santa Barbara for two years and I never rode on one of these, but they are FUN!

We even went to the pier to have dinner, and wrangled three hungry tired kids

As if that wasn't enough...the kids still had energy in them to play at the park (well the ice-cream could have had something to do with their energy...)

I love this picture so much because I think it shows both of their characters so well-Maddie goes head first into everything, and isn't afraid to try anything, and Claire is slow to warm and observes first, and still feels more comfortable on the outside.  


It is impossible to get them all looking good at the same time, if you look really close Claire has cheese coming out of her mouth, lovely.

Lucy is alway pushing her sisters out of the way


Nathan and his perfect candids, I love this shot!

Mama's 5K

Today I ran in a 5k through Disneyland and California Adventure.  I had a great time and came in with the first wave of runners which was my goal...I will now train for the 1/2 marathon next year which is really what all of the buzz is about at Disneyland this weekend, but the 5k was a good starting point.  The other good thing is that the kids would like to go out next year for the kids races, so it is a fun annual family event.  

We also spent Friday night at Disneyland, but sadly no photos this time!

Nathan and the girls were a little late to meet me at the finish line (guess he underestimated my speed :)  So this picture is of me running to meet them.

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School Girls!

So the girls are just loving school!  Maddie started her new preschool on Monday and today when she got in the car she said, "Mommy, I know what today is...it's August!"  And I said, "Oh, is it Tuesday?"  And she said, "Oh, yes...that's it Tuesday!"  How fun, she is learning!  I love it!

Claire keeps asking me when she gets to go on the bus, and is practically begging me to let her ride the bus to school now.  I just am not ready for that step yet, maybe next year, but I doubt it!  It is the highlight of my day taking them and picking them up!  I can't wait to work in their classrooms :)

Little school girls

Unstoppable!

Lucy wants to be a big girl like her sisters and go to school too!

Two More Great Pics from our Camping Trip

So my friend Daleen sent me these two pics from our camping trip and I had to add them to our blog!  

The first shows our family on a canoe!  Yes, we took all the kids out on a canoe ride in Morro Bay.  The girls loved it, the seals were so close we could touch them. Lucy was not too pleased about being in the canoe, so we had to cut our trip a bit short.

Here Maddie is holding the Hoskin's dog Maggie.  Maddie loves dogs, and given the opportunity would spend ALL of her time with dogs.  In fact I took Maddie to a birthday party once where she passed on cake, and ice cream just to spend more time with a dog!  Uh oh, Nathan is in trouble, cuz he would really rather not have a pet, but look at how cute she is with the dog!

First Day of Kindergarten (Sniff Sniff)

Mommy and Claire at the Orientation the night before!

Claire always makes lovely cards for her teachers, she made this one to give to Mrs. Peters on her first day

Our little Kindergardener 

Sisters are so proud of her too!

Handing Mrs.  Peters her card and getting in line!

One last wave good-bye

So how was it?

Who's That Girl?

Oh I recognize her now!  It's Maddie with straight hair!

Camping in Morro Bay!

This past weekend we went camping with a bunch of friends in Morro Bay!  What a great place to camp, I highly recommend it.  There are all kinds of cool things to do during the day, we went hiking, shopping, kayaking, beaching, and explored the local area which included Cambria and San Luis Obispo.  As far as camping is concerned we learned a lot about what to do next time, and what not to do next time...we'll get it down soon!  What a fun trip!

Maddie and her plant that she found

Mommy and her girls at Morro Rock

Lucy stole this nectarine from Kelly Bowen, she was screaming until Kelly gave it to her, guess she was hungry.

Maryn, Claire, Aliza, and Hannah at Moonstone Beach

Our group of Day trippers to Moonstone Beach

Sweet Lucy safe on top of the rock in Mommy's arms

Maddie and the strange seaweed

Claire and Miss Jamie (old pre-school teacher) playing patty cake

Mommy playing a fun game called Spandex, I kept falling!

The girls playing with the sand which was more like a fine gravel

Claire finding seashells

Pictures at the Beach

Today we went to the beach to take pictures with our photographer.  Of course Nathan can't go anywhere with his kids and not bring his own camera along so here are some of our shots, I will post a link to Mitzi's pics. soon as I have them.

Lucy loves the Beach!

So do the girls!

Lucy has NO FEAR of the water!  Here we aren't looking for one second and she is IN!

Mommy to the rescue, that is NOT a happy baby!

Mommy-Daughter Date

Claire absolutely loves High School Musical!  She loves them as much as she used to love the Princesses...(my baby is growing up!)

Anyway, I bought her and I some tickets to a High School Drama Camp performance at CSUN. It was such a fun night out for her and I, we got dinner and watched the show together.  I loved it and so did she!

Getting ready to leave Daddy's work, Daddy was making a comment about her shirt, and she had a self-conscious moment

Waiting for the show to begin!

Troy and Gabriella!  The love song scene!

The cast doing their last song

Circus and Pioneer Day

Today was a big day for us!  First we went to the Circus!  Then we went to a great lunch at a restaurant in Downtown called "Rodeo" then we went to Pioneer Day BBQ at Hart Park.  

What a fun time we had!

Our Group of friends that went to the Circus 

Gotta love the ladies riding the Elephants!

We all loved the Tigers

What a fun time at the circus!

Claire and Daddy doing a three legged race at Pioneer Day

Lucy racing along with them

Lucy loves watermelon, who doesn't!

The girls playing pass the Hula Hoop

Maddie is getting good at Hula hooping

The Beach House!

The Fusano's invited us to spend four days with them at their beach house with two other families, the Reese's and the Nelson's.  We had a blast!  We went to the beach three days in a row, and played hard all day!  The house was in the Oxnard Harbor and there were boats there for us to use so we took boat rides. There were tons of kids, tons of food, and tons of fun in the sun!  We were all tired when we got home, but it was worth it.  Thanks Fusano's we had a blast!

Nathan Surfing! (well riding the waves on a surf board)

Clarissa showed some skills on a surf board too!

Liz surfing too!

By far the best surfer in the bunch John!

Rashelle was having fun on the boogie!

Lucy loved the boat

Our trusted Captain!

Lucy taking a rest from all the beach play

Gianna and Brandon Michael are buds!

Sweet little Gianna

Watch out boys!  Here comes Angelina!

Bo Derek in 10?

Amanda just chillin'

Sweet little Victoria!

I love these pictures of Liz and Clarissa- Simple classic beauties

Maddie getting some much needed R & R

Scott and Izek!

Thanks Fusano's we had some great summer fun!