Our Painted House

More big changes have been happening at our house! Over the past week, we have had the outside of the house painted. After a week our house went from

White and black to.....

Green!

Mama's Shoes

Ian decided it would be fun to try on one of my shoes yesterday. Emma decided to join in the fun.


Uh Oh we've been caught!

Mommy aren't we cute in your shoes?

Ian checks out Emma's shoes

Strawberries!

Early in the spring, Dan and Emma planted some strawberry plants in pots in the back yard. Although the crop has not been all that great, they did get to harvest a strawberry this week!

The crop!

Emma shows off the strawberry before she and daddy share it!

First Day of Pre-K

Another school year has started, and Emma was very excited for her first day of Pre-K. Emma will be going to school three days a week this year! We love her school and pray she has another fun, happy year!

Breakfast before we go

Ian is excited, too! Today was just a get to know you day, so Ian got to stay for school, too.

First day of school picture (with a monkey)

Happy girl!

Craft time!

Ian played with blocks

Playing outside

The fun airplane teeter-totter

Ian's first Haircut

Ian has taken another step into boyhood with another first. Daddy took Ian this morning to our favorite kids cut place to have his first haircut. Although we knew Ian needed a haircut with his shag over the ears and comb-over in front, we were amazed at how much hair came off and how much he looks like a little boy now!

Ian's before shot, playing in the car seat!

Wait! This is not just a fun toy???? Daddy, you tricked me!

Ian all done, but still a little upset with the situation

A lollipop (his first!) Make everything better, though!

Santa Cruz

For Dan's work picnic this year, we headed over the Mountain to Santa Cruz for a fun day of food, ocean, and rides at the boardwalk.

Emma checks out the Pacific

The water was a little chilly!

Having some ice cream

Skee Ball!

The Merry-go-round! See that happy boy?

So Happy!....Until the ride actually started, then not so fun!

Emma enjoyed a lot of the boardwalk rides....




While Ian...

Enjoyed pushing his stroller around.
Thank You Google for a fun day!

Mommy gets a vacation

After we returned from Minnesota, Daddy gave Mommy a big treat! Some much needed time off to go to the MOPS (mother's of preschoolers) Convention in Orlando Florida.
I got to hang out with these fun girls...

Hear some awesome teaching and amazing praise and worship

(Mandisa from American Idol)
and just have some great time relaxing on my own!
From the pictures I found on the camera, it looks like while I was away, Dan and the kids

Ate

Pizza
and...


Played with a ladder???
Dan's unconventional way of entertaining our kids!

Off to Minnesota we go

At the end of July we logged more airline miles for a trip to Minnesota for my cousin's wedding and a visit with Emma and Ian's Uncle Scott and Aunt Tricia.
We had a great time visiting with family.

Scott and Tricia have a great backyard for playing tag in....Ian was it!

Ian likes flying high

Tricia studies salamanders and introduced Emma to one of her little friends, Ruby

She liked it!
My parents also flew in for my cousin's wedding...These pictures are all from their camera

The bride and groom

My Aunt, Uncle, and cousins

Ian's favorite part of the meal....Cake!

We tried for a family picture....Needless to say, our kids were DONE!
We had a lot of fun seeing family and visiting during this short, quick trip.

New York Trip-the lost footage

It is always fun to download pictures from a camera and find some lost "treasures". During our trip to New York in July, we headed up to Toronto, Canada for a few days of fun. Little did we know that our trip coincided with the traveling Queen of England, a major power outage, and over 10,000 Shriners holding their national convention.... We did attempt to have some fun through this.

Ian walking around the airport in San Jose...He was just practicing his skills at this point

He was fascinated with this musical ball invention

The hotel we stayed at in Toronto had sleep number beds

Ian had fun choosing Daddy's number

Grandma and Grandpa came with us....Emma loves for others to read to her at bedtime
On Tuesday, we decided to take a ride on this...

This is the Hippo tour. We have done several duck tours in other cites and it has always been a fun way to see the city.

Emma was excited....until we found out it was the day of the Shriner's big parade and several main streets were closed

We had to take an alternate route

Along with the rest of the city

Needless to say, the 90 minute tour ended up taking 2 and a half hours! The smiles you see in this picture are because we are done!
We did not get to see Toronto at it's best, and might need to go back at some point to see what fun it has to offer!