Happy 10th Anniversary, Jason!

Ten years ago today I married my best friend.



And 10 years later....we're still having fun! :)


I love you Jason!

Karla meets Kiera for the first time!

LOVE at first sight! Karla knew just what to do...give kisses!

Me, my sis, and our girls! Notice how Karla is holding "baby Kiera's" arm.

Karla was SO excited to be allowed to hold her baby cousin. Her face just lit up!


She didn't hold Kiera too long...she said she was heavy. All almost 10 lbs of her! :)

Summer Days

Random things we've been doing:

This week we've stayed inside a lot because of how hot it is.

Since Jason had Monday off we took Karla to see Toy Story 3. It was her first time to go to the movie theater. She sat still the entire time and seemed to enjoy the movie. She LOVED the popcorn! As soon as the movie was over she jumped out of her chair and said "Lets go home now." She had seen the movie and was ready to go. She didn't want Jason and I watching the credits roll at the end. It was fun to watch her watching the movie. :)

We went to the local pool about 2 weeks ago....the first hot day we had since all the kids were out of school. I wasn't thinking when I picked that day to go! It was REALLY crowded. The following week I took Karla to the indoor YMCA pool (where we haven't been in a while but used to go to regularly) and she said she liked it better. I think because she had lots of room to float around without having to worry about getting splashed by bigger kids constantly.

Karla has started her dance class and is really enjoying it. It is fun to watch her with all the other little girls.

She has announced several times in the past month or so that when she goes to school she is going to play the violin. I am not sure why she wants to do this but she seems confident. :) It'll be interesting to see if she is still interested when she gets older.

The other night when I was giving Karla a hug good night she put her hands on my face and very seriously said "you are the dream come true in my life." It was SO sweet! Not sure where she got that...

Karla helped Daddy spread mulch outside. She really enjoyed the job! It was super cute to watch too!


The cutest thing of all was wanting to put mulch around her little tree in the backyard!



We went to Chuck E Cheese for the first time with my friend Rachel and her son Aidan. Both the kids had fun. Karla was looking forward to seeing Chuck E sing and dance on stage (I had told her about this). He was standing on stage (the mechanical one that sings/dances periodically) but hadn't moved for the first hour or so we had been there. I finally went and asked someone who worked there and they said he wasn't working! Karla was disappointed by that and continues to talk about how he wasn't working....but thankfully a "different" Chuck E Cheese walked around and posed for pictures.


We went to our city's Community Day today. Karla got to ride some rides, go in a bouncy house, and get her face painted. Then tonight we went out after dark and caught fireflies. That is the first time we've done that with Karla!



I have a few drafts of blog posts started...hope to finish them and post them eventually.

I have a question for other parents out there. What do you keep? When your child outgrows clothes and toys....what do you do with them? When trying to enter our guest room recently - yea, I could hardly get in - I realized I am keeping everything! The other day I did create a box of trash and one for Goodwill. Still lots of stuff to store....with not a lot of extra storage space around here.

Happy 4th of July!

We made a cake!

And watched fireworks! Karla was more "afraid" of the noise the fireworks made this year than last year. At first I thought I may end up having to take her to the car during the fireworks but she got used to it and took turns sitting in everybody's lap. She'd sit in a lap for a minute, then move on to the next waiting lap. Whoever was holding her had to keep their hands over her ears. She wanted to sit in Tio Ryan's lap first...this was right as they were starting...ears weren't covered yet. :)

This is how it had to be done:

Bats

Karla's favorite "animal" has been a bat for quite some time now. She also likes tarantulas, scorpions and snakes. She has spent a lot of time at the reptile house at the zoo. I don't know why these are her favorite animals because they certainly aren't mine! Then this summer we've had a bat in our deck umbrella! She's named him "Flower." And no, I will not be opening that umbrella anytime soon! That is Jason's job now. She and Jason go out and look for him while I watch from inside the house!

One day Karla talked me into coming out to see Flower. This is Karla telling me to come out on the deck. She had her arm around me, her hand on my face, and was saying "It is okay, Mommy. Don't be scared. Look, he's nice." This is me pretending to be brave.

Of course when it decided to fly away it flew right at me and I couldn't be "brave" anymore. I literally hit the deck....and may have yelled. :)

Karla and Jason thought it was great! I'm staying inside from now on...

Dance

Karla has started a dance class. She's had two lessons so far. It is an hour long and she does tap, ballet, and then tumbling. She LOVES it. She frequently asks in the morning if it is "dance day."

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to Jason, Karla's AWESOME Daddy! Happy Father's Day to my Dad, my Dad-in-law, both of my grandpas and all dads out there!

Karla ended the day by pretending to be Daddy. She told us she was Daddy with dancing shoes on. Here "he" is pointing his toes.


Then she was pretending to be a nun singing "How do you solve a problem like Maria?"