Last Day of School!

The younger boys both had great teachers this year. In fact, I'm a little sad to leave them. Both of them have done great this year. 

Cade survived his first year of middle school and didn't get stuffed in his locker by a bully one time!:) He pretty much kept his same group of friends from elementary school which was great since I really like all of them. He quickly progressed from Nervous Nellie to opening his locker "with one hand without even thinking about it" (direct quote:) ) He received an award for Mathematics, A-B honor roll (ONE stinking B and it was a 90!!!), and a citizenship award. I would say that's a great end to his first year in middle school! 

Now, let's do some summer relaxing!!

Shadow

This picture is an accurate representation of Elaina and her baseball love. She is constantly the first person to ask to practice and even when brothers are practicing she is right behind them listening to every word Bobby says and she copy cats. I hope this passion leads to some scholarship or something!:)

She's always wearing her game face! 

A Day in Hollywood

While in Laguna we had the opportunity to take a quick day trip to Hollywood. We unfortunately had to take a guided tour and I'm never too excited about something so structured. We got to see a few things but then ran out of time before we could really do a lot of just walking and looking. 

It was interesting to see all the stars handprints and such. 

 I took my turn on the stairs in the Kodak theater where many a famous person has walked. It was also neat to see all the movies posted that had won Academy Awards in all the year's past. 

 The walk of fame was interesting too. I found a few stars I liked:

One thing about Hollywood is that you see a lot of people dressed up like famous people but they're really not famous. I came out of the Kodak and this Walking Dead wannabe scared the living daylights out of me! And because I was an easy target he followed me around for several minutes. Creepy. And gross. 

Been there done that in Hollywood. I'm not saying I'd never go back but I think I'd rather go to Beverly Hills or something where you might actually catch a glimpse of a real star. Hollywood was so overrun with tourists, if you were actually famous you'd never set foot there on a regular day! I'm glad we were able to experience it though! 

Laguna Beach

Bobby and I had the chance to go to Laguna Beach to spend a little time away. Work reward trips are always the best! 

Our room was oceanside with a little fire pit on the porch. We sat outside many a night fireside eating ice cream from a little place in the hotel we came across listening to the ocean. Relaxation at it's best! 

We also spent a lot of time at the beach watching the surfers. They would be out in the water from sun up to sun down.

The views here never, ever got old! 

We took a late afternoon walk and noticed our shadows in the sand....what a perfect opportunity to do heart hands:) 

Sunsets are beautiful pretty much anywhere but in Laguna I was thoroughly impressed by God's handiwork. They were breathtaking each and every night! 

Downtime is always a nice thing when you are raising a family with four rowdy kids. We appreciated the time away but we're always ready to get back to our crew!

Mother's Day

There is no greater blessing to me than these four. Happiest Mother's Day to me:)

And a Canine Makes Seven

Bobby went to get his bi-yearly dental cleaning and the next thing I know we're talking about getting a puppy. What just happened?? Our hygienist, Erica, come to find out, is a regular breeder of registered Labs and she just happened to have a litter of puppies. Bobby and I both have a soft spot for labs so we got suckered in:) The kids and I went out to her house to pick the one we wanted when they were about 5 weeks old. Good gracious that was tough. They were all so cute! We ended up picking this gal because she crawled up in Cade's lap and fell asleep. 

About three weeks later we were able to pick her up. She came home to much fanfare. Can you say "overstimulated"???

We all agreed on the name Annie. 

She really is just as cute as can be. Right now she's pretty good and doesn't do much whining. 

 And she's pretty good at napping when the kids are swimming:)

The next time Bobby and I have 18 minutes of free time in a weekend and we decide to do something crazy, tell us to get a fish. There's no potty training involved with that! 

Some Four Year Old Pics

I took a few pictures of Elaina before her birthday party. Here are a few of my favorites: