its all about the accessory.......

lately, cardin will not leave the house without her accessory of choice......this pink barbie beanie! i know it is the middle of june and a beanie is for the winter.....little miss does not discriminate between seasons!

(disclaimer: our children do have beds! this pic was taken while we were getting ready for our moving sale! promise!)

just for amy........

tonight we celebrated one of our dear friends, amy gerber, who is moving from puyallup to Virginia in july! the dinner was planned and organized by vivian kerr! we all met at olive garden for a yummy meal!

(below L-R: kristin dyer, brenna yetter, mary mortenson, char gray, kelley connor, elizabeth, vivian kerr, jenn evans, nicole gibeault, julie johansson, robyn lowry)(below L-R: me, tasha allen, amy gerber, april madsen, crystal ward, preston, christie macdonald, corine roberts, jodi elwell, amy grendell, jonae black)

i couldn't resist getting a picture with tash and amy before the night was over! i wasn't able to get one with them at my birthday party (they were the masterminds behind it all)! i love them both!

amy and i became instant friends the minute we moved to puyallup! she is an amazing lady! we did a co-op together every Saturday with other families so couples could have date nights. amy was (one of) my lifesaver when i went on bedrest with the twins.....she came and picked gracie and jackson up and brought them home from school everyday for as long as we have been here! that is HUGE! our kids have been in the same class at church and at school for the same amount of time! i am so thankful for her and grateful for the opportunity we have had to spend this time together in puyallup! thank goodness for forever friends!

(on a side note, as we were leaving the restaurant one of the servers asked us how we all knew each other.....i said that we were all sisters! they looked at me funny and then jodi said we are all sister wives! we got a good laugh out of that!)

a trip to the turners.....

today we decided that we were going to skip school (yes, i know there are only 4 more days left)and head to jerry and tinas house for the final time in washington! we got kind of a late start but were really excited to go and visit with them for the day!
(joseph driving with sunflower seeds in his cheek!)

when we got there, they showed us all of their renovations to their house and we visited over lunch. jerry asked if we wanted to go out on their new boat....so we headed to moses lake! the kids loved the boat!

and the unlimited grape soda that was on it!

tina and i bypassed the boat and went straight to the park with olivia, clint, cardin and max!

after the boat ride, the rest of the kids joined us! the kids love each other so much! i am so grateful that our families are close and that the kids have grown up together!
after playing all day, we went back to their house for dinner and then headed home! the kids fell asleep the minute we left jerrys drive way!

it was a great day!

last trip to seattle.......

with 17 days left of our time here in washington, we are really beginning to feel "nostalgic" about leaving this state! we woke up sunday morning and decided we were going to take our last tour of the city and the only way to do that is to take via the Puget sound on a ferry! what a beautiful day for a ferry ride! the kids were so excited and cardin and max are at a age where they can really enjoy the ride!

after the ferry ride we went up to the queen ann district and found a park that joseph had heard about....the view was breathtaking! take a peek!

the kids loved running around and exploring this quaint little park!

it was a great day!

(on a side note, in our car at any given time somebody is yelling to turn the music up so they can sing at the only volume we know .......LOUD! this was the sight in the back of the car on our way home from seattle!)

last day of preschool 2011.......

so hard to believe that today was "our" last day of preschool at the best preschool ever, our world to discover!! i have done really well keeping my emotions in check, but i do have to admit that today was a difficult day! we have been with mrs spencer (aka margaret) with jackson for 1 year, ela for 2 years, and olivia for 1 year.....3 years total. i had plans to have olivia back another year and then had cardin and maxwell on the waiting list for their 2 years beginning in fall 2012.

olivia was in the am class (3&4 year olds) so she was the first to say her goodbyes!


look at how much she has changed from the beginning of preschool in september 2010 (top pic) til now (bottom pic)!



olivia learned so much this year! we have talked about her going to mrs spencers preschool ever since she understood what preschool was. she potty trained at 2 1/2 yrs old so she could start preschool! she loved playing with all of her new friends, calling them by name daily whether it was a school day or not! she loved singing, and dancing, and writing her name. she loved doing art projects, snack time, looking forward to learning about her body, harvest time, pilgrims and Indians, sea creatures, etc! one thing that i have notices about olivia at home is that she has found her "voice"! she is not afraid to speak up and tell us all what she thinks especially if something is wrong or there is something she does not agree with!

ela was the last one to say goodbye! she was in the pm class (4&5 year olds)! look how much she has changed from the beginning of the year (top) til the end of the year (bottom)!

as is tradition, ela was given her preschool graduation certificate! mrs spencer called her name and ela went up in front of her friends. mrs spencer then said that ela was the only child who sang her letters and threw her hands out to the side with every letter. she also said that she cant wait to see what ela does in her life......cant wait to see what she creates or invents in her lifetime. if you know ela, you know exactly what margaret means!

ela has grown so much this year in preschool! she has learned to be more patient with others around her and has learned to listen to instructions and to follow the rules! ela is very much like a sponge and soaks up every word, every piece of information that she can! she loves numbers, letters, art, telling stories! she has treasured the past 2 years with her preschool friends and with mrs spencer!

after the certificates were given out, tasha allen (bens mom) presented mrs spencer with the classroom gift of a photo book of the school year with thoughts from the kids and a gift certificate to her favorite nursery! everything she said to mrs spencer about how much she has loved our kids and how patient she is and a treasure she has been to all of the families was perfect and spoken from the heart!

a group hug from the class was the final straw for me! tears!! oh how the kids (and their parents) love this lady!!

little do we know how much others around us can affect us in such small but yet life altering ways! when we moved to puyallup, i never would have imagined that we would have been lucky enough to end up with mrs spencer! from the very beginning, it was meant to be! thank goodness margaret has family in utah.......

we love you mrs spencer!