Our Fellow Friends!

This week we had to say goodbye "for now" to one of our favorite families. We have loved getting to know the Waters family and are so sad that they are now onto their next adventure. Cavin loved his best buddy Tyler, Channing loved Tyson and had a small "crush" on the little cutie and everyone loved Emma (Channing prayed for her almost every night...I think she was convinced she was her little sister!). I loved talking to Candice and Channing finally warmed up to Kenny....which was a task in itself. What can I say we just loved their family! Here are some of the adventures of our last week with them.

We went to the splash pad and enjoyed the beginning of summer....they got out of Houston before it becomes unbearable!

We went bowling and that was an adventure in itself!

I went to the bathroom with Channing and Candice said while I was gone Cavin was trying out his "break dancing" moves....wow!

After a little going away party which we threw, we got the privilege of having them spend their last night/day with us and Kenny entertained the boys on the trampoline and played Legos!

Here are our cute kiddos.....Cavin, Tyson, Tyler, Channing, Ella, and Emma

I can't even tell you how sad I was to see them go....regardless if I never "show" emotion or cry... I was super sad. Candice has become one of my best friends and I will miss talking to her everyday and having the kids play together. She is a very talented, compassionate, kind person who I learned so much from and I wish their family the very best in Oregon! Until we meet again!

Gymnastics!!

Ella has been asking me to put her in gymnastics for a while and apparently the season of the Olympics it's really hard to get your child in because every little girl wants to be a gymnast! Finally after being on a waiting list for 5 months we got her and her friend a slot at Rowland Ballard Gymnastics in January. She was in love! She couldn't wait for Mondays to come so she could go to gymnastics. She would tell me every week how much she loved everything, but the bars :) I concur!

 Here is an action shot :)

 Here is her award ceremony where each child got an achievement award for the year!

 Go Ella!

Here is her Coach Ashley. She definitely improved and we are glad she was happy about her accomplishments.

Taylor Swift!!

I think Taylor Swift has enough hype about her, maybe I shouldn't have titled an entire post after her! Regardless, last week Ragnar's boss asked him if he wanted two tickets to the Taylor Swift Red concert and of course he said yes! Ella loves Taylor Swift....and Ragnar secretly (or not so secretly now) likes her too. So, he took her on a daddy/daughter date to the concert!

 Here they are before the show!

They got to sit in a suite and it even had candy so she brought home cotton candy, popcorn, and a candy box! She was in heaven!

 Ragnar said she stared pretty much the whole time (much like her mother I am afraid)

She LOVED it and came running in the house at 11:00 p.m. and told me all about it. I am so glad she had a great time!

Frog and Toad!

Ella was in her first play on April 23, 2013. Each year the first grade puts on a play and it is called "Frog and Toad". Her class did the song "Cookies". It was a very interesting performance...and I am not sure how I feel about the music director. After several years of putting the play on, he should have been able to work out the kinks by now....oh well, they sure were cute!

(Ella is on the front row, four people over)

Soccer Time!

Cavin participated in his first soccer season this Spring and he LOVED every second of it. He has been bred soccer as his father is European and much to his father's delight, so far he loves it just as much! He played with the Texas Heatwave organization and played on the Red Dragons. He was red and his favorite number 8! He progressively got better and better each game and he couldn't wait til his practice and game every week. The night before each game I would go into his bedroom and his chair next to his bed would look like this....

He always folded his clothes and would have them on when he came down for breakfast that morning.

Here was his team. He is the cute one in the middle of the back row ;) 
He would always run as fast as he could and since he is so heavy he seemed to forget to stop and/or would trip and when he would go down, the whole group would go down...haha....we will work on that one, I think he may think it's a full body contact sport!

Here he is when he got his trophy at the end of the year party. We are so glad that he had a great first experience. Thank you to Tory Western and Paul Smith who were his coaches!

Ella turned SEVEN!

Our little girl is not so little anymore. Ella turned 7 on May 5, 2013. She is such a fun girl and we love having her. For her birthday we mostly celebrated all weekend because her actual birthday is on Sunday and we usually don't to a lot of things outside of church on Sunday. So as in my previous post, we pierced our ears and got ice-cream and then went on a church group activity at the Houston L.D.S. temple. Then on her birthday we went to church and had her grandparents and Aunt Natalie over for dinner and to celebrate! At her request we had baked potatoes which she LOVES and a cookie cake!

 Ears pierced! Check!

 Here she is at the temple....only one more year til she can get baptized!

 Her silly brother and sister always want to join in the fun!

 Her mini cookie cake...we had another as well ;)

 She got LOTS of earrings and other fun doll stuff and beads!

Happy Birthday Ella. We love your desire to be a good example to your brother and sister and to everyone. We love that you love to read and try your hardest at school. We are so proud that you have always gotten a positive check at school, everyday. We love that you love to dance and do gymnastics. Even though you are INCREDIBLY slow doing most things and love to take your own sweet time, we love you and are so glad you are in our family!

The Start of Something New....

So many of you who know me know that I am not particularly what they call a "girly girl". Having said that, growing up I always played sports and never really was that interested in having earrings or getting my ears pierced because I never had a chance where I could really keep them in for 6 weeks without having to tape them. So, with that, I never really even thought about having my ears pierced....until I had a little girl. Ella has been begging me for the better part of four years to get her ears pierced. My birthday is about 6 weeks before hers and it was the big 30 and seriously I simply hate being 30! It just feels weird and I just feel so old and plain, so after a few months of consideration I finally decided I would let Ella pierce her ears for her birthday and since it was a big one for me I thought it would be special if we did it together. So for her birthday (actually May 4th, the day before, because her birthday was on a Sunday) we got our ears pierced!
Here we are before........

 Waiting in the chair....she was excited and wanted to go first! She was super brave! I was more nervous than her!

 Here she is after! She did awesome and was SOOOOO excited!

 We did it! We are whole new girlies and it didn't hurt one bit!

 It is a fun mother/daughter memory I hope we never forget!