mama with a camera

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!

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 :)

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

what i've learned...or face painting at home...

my mom bought the girls a face painting kit. seemed fun. actually, they LOVED it.

here's what Ive learned though from our home face painting adventure:

1) I am not at all a face painting artist. Please dont even consider hiring me for your kids' birthday parties ;) After I stopped worrying about the mess the glitter was creating, the fact that some of the glitter got in Rylee's eye, and the fact that Anna was unhappy with the colors I used to paint her butterfly (she wanted purple and pink...there was no purple and pink in the kit), I realized that no matter how bad of a face paint artist I am, my girls were excited to have mama painting their faces.

2) The second thing Ive learned (and I think Ive known this for a long time)...no matter how much I want them to, my girls almost never smile at the same time when I am taking a picture of them together ;)

our trip...part 2 (lake tahoe)

the day after the wedding, we headed towards lake tahoe to meet our best friends julie and anthony. they drove down from washington with their kids connor, charlotte and claire to meet us. we are so thankful to have friends like them. how often would someone drive 11 hours to meet up for just a couple of days? what's even more amazing is that this all was put together just a week before we left to go on the trip. lake tahoe is special to us because it is where johnny and i were married almost 12 years ago. we went back for our 5th anniversary but it was fun to be back there this time with our girls in tow.

we had an amazing trip, made even more amazing by the fact that we got to spend time with our wonderful friends :)

claire and rylee seeing each other for the first time...

anna and charlotte on the beach of lake tahoe (at zephyr cove)

best little buddies :)

beautiful charlotte

connor

rylee burying herself in the sand :)

the beautiful lake at sunset...

a little blurry but i love it

cute little buns on the beach :)

my beautiful girls...

it just makes me overwhelmingly happy when it's obvious how much they love each other :)

a lovely day at the beach

we enjoyed a wonderful day at the beach with our friends michelle and brooke. the girls played so well together, and as much as they tried the seagulls didnt manage to steal anything from us ;) its great to have friends who make spending a day together fun and stress free :)

some pictures in this post, like the one above, were taken by michelle...

thanks michelle for the wonderful day and for sharing the pictures!!

fathers day 2012

I surprised Johnny with a Fathers Day trip to the beach...well, actually I tried to surprise him but ended up giving it away the day before. at least I didnt tell him what hotel we were staying at ;)

it was an awesome trip. we went swimming, ate at one of our favorite restaurants and played at the beach. I think the best part was that we all relaxed and just spent time together.