S is for Swimming

A few weeks ago Chloe and Preslie got a package in the mail from their Aunt Amy. It was a pool!!! I don't know who was more excited, me or them. It has been HOT here and I was just about to buy one when she said she was sending us one and we have loved it SO much. Want me to prove it?? 

These pictures were all taken during the same swimming adventure because our live-in photographer (Cody, not Chloe) has been very, VERY busy lately. But I promise we go swimming ALL the time.

This is Chloe's favorite "water" game. She plays it mostly in the bath tub, but obviously in the pool works, too. It's called, "Preslie let's put our bum-bums together!" Guess what the objective is...

Splashing is the best!

I love this picture! She is looking at me because I kept telling her not to drink the water, but she obviously wasn't listening. Such a sneaky girl!

Here comes the real fun!

Preslie doesn't LOVE the pool as much as Chloe, but she could spend forever playing this game - Holding hands, walking around me, up the step and jumping off. It's the best

The octopus was intertained the entire time. So much so his eyes were popping out of his head. 

We love our pool! Thanks, Aunt Amy! You're the best!

Spoons, Forks and Knives...or just Forks

I have a relationship with my friend, Sarah, that is unlike any other relationship I've ever had. She and I were inseparable in high school. We were best friends through and through, and when I lived in Illinois last year when Cody was away for work, we picked up right where we left off. 

In high school Sarah and I would go to St. Louis all the time, stay up until 4 am quoting lame movies like Bring it On (that we would watch every day while in St. Louis), laugh for hours about basically nothing, play Girl Talk in the middle of our Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Extravaganzas, buy DQ cakes and eat half of it, as well as a whole pizza from Monicals, and "assorted silverware*" our friend's lawn. 

Like I said, we have a relationship unlike any other, and I think it's because no one else is as awesome as we are. :)

While watching "New Moon," (the second of the twilight movies), I realized Sarah and I were not done with our adventures. Just because we live over 1,500 miles away from each other, that doesn't snuff out the chance of another amazing adventure. Oh no. 

We're going to Forks. 

Forks, Washington. Where Twilight takes place. We need Forks, just as much as Forks needs us. (For like a week...not for forever)

So to tell Sarah of my brilliant plan, and because it was her birthday, I made her this shirt.

I can't wait till our next adventure!

*Assorted Silverwaring someone's lawn is what we called it when we didn't just fork Jacob Rainey's lawn, but in fact, buy two 500 piece sets of assorted silverware from Sam's Club and stick it all in his lawn. Spoons, forks, knives and all.

Finding Christ in the Crayons

Chloe loves to color, but lately when she asks for crayons she's more interested in ripping the paper off of them than actually coloring anything. I let her because as long as she throws away the paper it doesn't bother me to have naked crayons. Today she ripped it all up, and then just left her paper there. I asked her to pick it up and she didn't. We needed to go to the store, so I told her I was setting the timer and she needed to have all the paper picked up before it went off, or she couldn't go to the store (which is a lie because I had to go, and if I had to go, she had to go...but she believed me. I know, I need to not tell them things that aren't true. That's not the point of this story. And I usually don't do that.). 

I gave her 3 minutes and told her she made the mess so she needed to pick it up by herself and I wasn't going to help her. She quickly began picking up the paper and getting big handfuls and throwing them away. She was happy to pick it up when it was more made into a game than just me nagging her to clean. Seconds before the timer went off she looked at me with her big, blue eyes and said, "I'm done!" I went over to check it out, and realized there were still pieces on the floor. But instead of getting upset or telling her she didn't do it right, I told her she did a good job and I'd help her with the rest. 

When I was cleaning it up I thought that's kind of what the Savior does for us. It's up to us to do our part and do our best before the timer goes off. But sometimes there are small pieces we just can't pick up by ourseves. We need His help. And instead of saying, "You aren't good enough; you didn't do well enough, you can't come," He just says, "Come, and let me help you."

image found here

I am far from having only a few pieces left to pick up in my life. I need a lot of work still, and I'm glad that not only does the Savior help us in the end, but He helps us all along the way when we come to Him. 

I'm so thankful for my girls and the everyday experiences we share that help me remember the Savior, bring His spirit in our home, and make me so grateful to be their mom. 

Strawberries

I love, love, love Farmer's Markets. I loved them more when I didn't have a giant "I don't believe in turning" stroller to push around, but I still love them. I've gone to a ton...but never bought anything. I have dreams about carrying a big tote bag full of sunflowers and fresh fruit and veggies spilling out the top, but I never took the plunge and actually got anything. 

Until a few weeks ago. The girls and I went to the Irvine Farmer's Market. It was fantastic, except for the stroller that hates me. And apparently a lot of other people and stands that it crashed into. 

This time we left with our bellies full from free samples (I always feel bad taking a free sample and not buying anything...but I'm obviously getting over it.), and a full box of strawberries. 

I bought them for my Bachelorette party, but that was 2 days away and I was worried they wouldn't last that long, so when we got home (and in the parking lot of the Farmer's Market) I let the girls have some. (Sorry for the no-shirt pictures. I didn't want strawberry juice all over their clothes)

Really, I just let them eat as many as they wanted. They loved it! 

Silly Preslie Potato...I mean Preslie Pie

Preslie loves Mr. Potato Head. Well, she loves his glasses. Anytime Chloe gets him out to play, Preslie takes off with his yellow glasses and they always end up on her face. One morning I calling for her and realized she was outside, in her pajamas and Mr. Potato Head glasses. 

Yeah I dont' know what's on her shirt....I'm guessing her breakfast.

OC Fair

The Orange County Fair is going on right now! The first day it was open we were looking at the OC Fair website and it said that day, from 12-1 pm you could get in for free with free parking! We were so excited and were super excited to go.

Growing up in Nowhere, Illinois, I know nothing about traffic.

Now I do.

Apparently all of Orange County also saw the website and was trying to get free admission and parking. At 12:55 I told Cody, "I wish they had just had free admission from 12-2 so we could still get in for free!"

At 1:55 when we had gone about 100 yards, I realized that wouldn't really matter.....

ALL of the parking lots were full (which they didn't tell us...They kept saying -Parking, this way!! - but the illusive empty parking lot was never found.) and when we realized we could park in a "nearby" neighborhood and walk there, beating down crowds with our giant double stroller that doesn't believe in turning, we decided to call it a day.

Oh yeah, this was also on our 5 year anniversary, so it was supposed to be awesome. (We went to Laguna Beach instead, and then went to Olive Garden for dinner...which Cody didn't really eat and then we went home and he threw up a lot. I promise our anniversary was cool -just not really how we all envisioned)
Anyway. We DID end up going to the fair, just not on opening day. We had a great time, and so did the girls!

Preslie absolutely loved the goats. We spent more time looking at them than any other animal. We had to keep telling her to be really careful because they bite! Luckily no one was injured.

Preslie is "baa-ing" like a goat and Chloe is neighing like a horse. I think she forgot what animal we were looking at :)

Crazy insane llama

We tried to get Chloe to do this with Preslie, but she didn't want to. So here I'm holding Preslie up and being a bull at the same time, which is why my head is crooked.

Eating funnel cake! Yum!! (Sorry those are sideways)

Cody found this after I bought my funnel cake, but he was nice enough to share!!! Two flat waffle cone, dipped in chocolate with twist ice cream sandwiched in between! YUM!

We had a great time!

"California......Here we Coooooooooome"

I know we already lived in California, so we're not really coming here....but my parents were. So it fits. 

In early June my parents flew out to Orange County to start going through my dad's dad's (my grandpa) old house. My dad was actually raised in this house and my grandparents lived in it until 2008 when my grandpa passed away and my grandma went to live in a nursing home.

*FYI-Cody was working in San Diego and was transferred to the "Bakersfield Area." Meaning, live where you want, but mostly you'll be working around Bakersfield so you probably want to live around there. We went to Santa Clarita in May (I think) and loved it, but didn't want to still live in an apartment. So we decided instead to live in my grandparents house because no one was living in it, and it was a lot larger than an apartment! It is farther out of the way for him to work, which means he doesn't get to be with us very often, but we get a bigger place and are saving some money to someday own our own home.*

Because the house had been vacant for so long (2 1/2 years), it needed some work. Ok, quite a bit of work. I'm still trying to convince all the bugs that we are, in fact, living here and are not leaving, so they need to get out of my house! We worked pretty much everyday for 9ish hours. Cleaning, de-junkifying, and getting the house ready to live in. We didn't actually take pictures of the house while we were working on it, but we did take pictures of the (short amount of) times we were able to get away. We said that we'd take a day off for going to the beach and maybe Disneyland, but there just wasn't any time. Fixing up a house in one week is a big job!!!

Chloe loved seeing the Bubba Gump Shrimp, but wouldn't take her eyes off him to take a picture. I don't think she trusted him! She only turned away when her Beema came over to help her out.

Chloe's first piece of gum that she didn't swallow! She finally figured it out and has LOVED gum ever since. She asks for it all the time!

She loves Mickey Mouse!

And Princesses...

Surprise, surprise :)

Yes, I'm in my pajamas. Also, yes, I'm holding a monkey's bum open. I was just a little shocked that that is where the zipper was. ...I don't really know why, I just was. 

Chloe's frothy milk mustache! 

She also loved hanging out with Papa

(I just realized all of these pictures are of Chloe and not Preslie. She was there, too. She was just sleeping pretty much everytime we went to do something, so my dad would stay in the hotel with her)

These are all taken by Chloe:

 Not taken by Chloe:

I thought she'd hate this frog hat, but she loved it!

Even though it was a LOT of work, we had fun! Not wishing to do it all again...but maybe just all the fun parts :)