Take me out to the ballgame..

We took the family to the Tacoma Rainiers game last night, and brought along Uncle Devo. The weather was beautiful, clear and about 70 degrees. Tacoma lost, but it was fun anyway. Here are some pictures. :-)

Relay for Life and End of the School Year

This weekend was the Relay for Life. I, Cortney and Jordanna arrived at the Relay just after it began at 6pm on Friday. Our entire team did great, raising over $2000 and walking over 10 miles each one of us. Cortney walked 15 and Jordanna walked almost 20. I came in with 11, which was no small feat either. Jordanna slept for a couple hours early Sat. morning and I slept for about an hour that morning. Cortney didn't sleep until we got in the car and headed home Saturday night. I'm so proud of my girls for participating fully in the Relay this year. I didn't hear either of them complain at all and they gave it 110% for sure. It was amazing!
Unfortunatly, I am not sure what the heck I was doing (hmm, walking?) but I didn't take any pictures except for the luminaries.

Today was the last day of school. This morning I checked the mail for Saturday's mail. There were 3 letters in there from the Puyallup School District with our approvals for all 3 of the girls into Maplewood for next year!!!!!!!! I was so ecstatic! It is such a relief to know that they are in for next year. Especially because I didn't think we were going to hear until August.

The girls' report cards were WONDERFUL! All their grades were either the same or improved, and the comments from their teachers were great too. I'm just beaming with pride today!

And I picked up all the registration papers for Ashlyne for kindergarten today too. I will turn that in this week. :) I'm excited to be able to finally register her for Kindergarten- and so is she!

So that is our update! Have a great week!

It's almost summertime...

We survived another year of dance!! The recitals went great on Saturday! Ashlyne did great in both of hers and was so excited to get her first trophy, for 3 years of dancing!
Jordanna also received a trophy- for finishing her 8th year of dancing! I can't believe we've been doing this that long! Jordanna did a great job as well. I think we are all relieved to call it a year.

Cortney and Jordanna have just this week of school and then Monday is their last day. We are all looking forward to sleeping in and all the fun things summer has in store for us! So with that, here is my Summer Top Ten!

Top 10 Things I love about Summer:

1. Warm temperatures and SUNSHINE!!

2. Sleeping in

3. BBQ'ing and just hanging out with friends and family more

4. Margaritas on the porch

5. CAMPING!

6. Hydros in the Tri-Cities

7. swimming in the pool

8. daylight savings

9. 4th of July! - my birthday and fireworks

10. the smell of coconut tanning oil

11. Football Season is almost here!

Top 10 Least Favorite things about Summer:

1. sunburns

2. sand everywhere (trips to the beach/lake)

3. plethora of dirty wet towels

4. the never clean kitchen floor from kids running through there coming in and out of house

5. "I'm bored!!" cry of the kids home on summer break

6. packing and preparing for camping

7. unpacking and laundry from camping

8. mosquitos

9. watching forest fire after forest fire on the news

10. its not football season yet! :)

I'll have more pictures soon...

The new and improved Acura

Two weeks ago Craig spent most of the weekend painting to Acura. For our anniversary last month he got the windows tinted for his gift. The wheels and tires are fairly new as well, in the last 6 months. So here it is....

It feels great to have it done! We were both getting tired of driving it around with primer spots on it! :) It looks incredible!

Dress Rehearsals

This post is late, I know. (i'm falling behind already...yikes!) I started coming down with something Wednesday night last week and just haven't been up to doing much of anything. So without further delay, here are pictures from Thursday's dress rehearsal:

Here is Ashlyne doing "L-O-V-E" her ballet/jazz performance:

Here is Jordanna during her jazz performance, "We're dancing":

Jordanna and Ashlyne:

Ashlyne, Jordanna, and Laney dancing around: It was a long night, we had to be at the studio by 4:20 and didn't leave until 8:20. Whew! Now we get to do it all again this week for pictures, and I'm still not feeling well. Recital saturday!!

I meant to post these 2 pictures on the last post as well, but since I'm just learning this program, I was having technical difficulties... so this is part 2. :)

Ice Cream and Cheerleaders

Yesterday was the first day in over a week our temperatures were under 80 degrees and we even saw a smidge of rain! It was a nice change. Last Thursday while Jordanna and Ashlyne were at dance class, I treated Cortney and Laney to ice cream cones from McDonald's...

I'm not sure if she wore more than she ate or not, but she sure enjoyed it!

Last night was dress rehearsal for Ashlyne's cheer class. This is a hectic 2 wks leading up to the Recitals! On Thursday Jordanna and Ashlyne both have dress rehearsal (full costume and makeup, with multiple costumes for Jordanna). Then next week they have pictures on Monday and Thursday, which is full costume and makeup again. This culminates in recitals on the 16th- which will be a very busy day with Ashlyne having 2 dances in the morning recital and Jordanna having 3 dances in the afternoon recital. Here are a few pictures of Ashlyne from last night:

Who are you proud of?

When I drove the kids to school this morning (all 5 of them, we have our friends 3 kids for the weekend as well!), they were having this discussion on one of the morning radio programs. "Who are you proud of?" so I thought what a great idea to post today.

I am proud of my kids. Each one of them.

Laci, Misti and Jordan: I am so very proud of each of them for triumphing over adversity and against all that they had stacked against them. They have each grown to be an amazing adult- kind, giving, responsible. I am lucky to have them in my life.

Cortney: she has been through a lot as well, but she is growing into such a well-adjusted, kind, loving, and sweet young lady. I am so proud when other parents complement me on how thoughtful she is.

Jordanna: my creative spirit! She is tenacious, imaginitive, and so smart. I am so proud of the artist that she is becoming. The whole world is open to her and I am excited to see what she becomes.

Ashlyne: the princess! I am proud of what a good big sister she is to Laney. Also, she is so smart, creative and helpful. I am also proud of the fashion sense this girl has! She can dress and accesorize! :)

Laney: my daredevil, the fearless one! I am proud of you for figuring out how not to be overlooked in a large family! You are smart, strong, and beautiful. I know that you will give us plenty of moments to feel proud in the years to come.

I adore each of you and find something in each day that reminds me why I do this "job" I do. Seeing you each grow into your own person, an amazing person, is the reward.