mama with a camera

valentine cuties

family day out

for the first time in a long time, Johnny took a Sunday off of work. We went to Bass Pro Shops (his choice of course!), but the girls love going there too becasue there acturally a lot to see and do...

then we had a yummy lunch at the cheesecake factory. note: we are big fans of the big bang theory, and so it cracked us up when we found items on the menu that characters on the show had ordered. I had totally figured that all of the stuff was made up, but it was so funny to find that they tied in real menu items in to the show. i really wanted johnny to ask if penny was working that day ;)

 

anna loved the HUGE "mini" corn dogs that she ordered off of the kids menu. she was bummed she could only finish one. no kidding though, these things were almost as big as a normal sized corn dog

taken with johnny's iphone 5 on the panorama setting...makes my camera phone photos look like crap! lol!

the windsock...

I love seeing the things she makes at school. this windsock is now proudly hung from her bedroom ceiling :)

sweet faces...

all jammied up and ready for bed...love these two :)

a christmas present for mama

johnny really spoiled me this year...this was my christmas present!

her name is scout :) we picked her up on christmas eve. she was just about 6 weeks old when we got her. i love our dog roary, but labs will always hold a special place in my heart, as have had three since johnny and i have been together. now we are dealing with accidents in the house and chewed up toys, but we also have one really cute cuddly puppy...so all that other stuff is pretty forgivable :)

yay for winter break!

I was so happy to have my girl home for winter break (by the end I was definitely ready for her to go back...I think boredom really set in ;)), Rylee was really excited to have her home too. I think she gets really lonely without her here. Even if they dont play together every minute that anna is home, I think she just likes having her here.

I took this picture on the first day of break, I took them to Stonefire for a little mini celebration :)

lights

a few weeks before Christmas, we were invited to see the lights in a neighborhood that some kids in anna's class live in. we go, as a family, to see these lights every year. it's a tradition for us. we always go in the car though. this year was cool and special because we were invited by anna's school friends. the kids ran and chased. the parents talked and reminded the kids to stay away from the streets. it was neat being able to walk and make our own pace rather than being hurried along by the pace of the cars in front of us. i loved seeing anna with her friends, and i loved getting out in the cold air with johnny and some new friends :)

 

someone went and turned six!

birthday party, celebration at school, and of course the official pictures taken by mama...it was an awesome birthday for Anna :)

getting her hand painted for her birthday kid plate :)

and the official pictures of my six year old girl :)

12 favorite moments of 2012

January

Rylee turns 2 1/2

February

our first camping trip in our new motorhome, and Anna gets to ride her dirt bike

March

Our last trip with our sweet Jake...although sad that he isnt here anymore, Im glad to have this picture

had to include this one too :)

April

sisters loving each other :)

May

mama got a new camera!

and Anna lost her first tooth!

June

Anna graduated from preschool!

and we went to Ventura for Fathers Day

and we went to Sacramento for Cousin Cole's wedding to Holland...we met up with some more cousins there...

July-

after the wedding we went to Lake Tahoe where we met up with our friends the Spainhower's. It was so awesome of them to meet us there. While we were there we celebrated Johnny's birthday and spent quite a bit of time at the lake

and Rylee turned THREE!

August

Anna started kindergarten!

September

We got a new car. I also noticed in going through my pictures that I took very few pictures this month. Must have been a big adjustment to the new school schedule ;)

October

The Spainhowers came to visit as we said goodbye to their nephew Nico who was going in to the military...

Rylee started gymnastics just like her big sister...

and of course there was Halloween...

November

Anna participated in her first Santa Clarita Marathon Final Mile challenge and was very excited to not finish last :)

December:

we celebrated Anna's SIXTH birthday!

and we celebrated Christmas...mama got an awesome present!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

santa clarita marathon-final mile challenge

Each year, several local schools are invited to run the final mile of the Santa Clarita Marathon. This was Anna's first year to participate. In the weeks leading up to the run she had to log the first 25 miles of the marathon with one mile runs. While she quite possibly didnt log all 25 miles, she did get a lot of practice :)

The students from her school all met to stretch and get ready to run. Here is Anna with Mrs Follstad...a wonderful teacher. We are so lucky to have her! She let Anna stay with her to run and told us she would hold her hand the whole time. We had thought that Johnny was going to be able to run with Anna, but at the last minute one of the parent volunteers told him that parents werent allowed to come along. We did see that some parents stayed with their kids so that was a bummer, but Anna was perfectly happy to stay with Mrs Follstad.

Anna was proud to finish in the middle and not at the end. She was really concerned about being last...

She got a medal for finishing. She was really proud!