California fun...

The girls and I just got back from a quick busy weekend in California. We flew in to surprise my best friend Sara for her son's 5th birthday party. She was so shocked! I was so glad to help as the party had a ton of people! The theme was Indiana Jones and her husband (who works in production) had so many replications, it was great. We started the weekend off at Nana and Granda's. Haileys goal was to see the snake eat. Now given that he is huge, old and eat rabbits we opted out of her seeing that. I keep thinking that she would be scared even though when we asked her what would happen she said the snake would eat the rabbit and the rabbit would dieded (don't even think that's a word). Oh that girl is going to be brave. We keep thinking that when Hailey goes to kindergarten next year that she will have to walk Lauren to 3rd grade first :)

Here are Hailey and Anthony




Here is Lauren and Anthony in front of the Indiana Jones backdrop.

All three of them after the party and exhausted....but happy

We ended the trip with visiting Grandma and Grandpa. The girls love to squash grandpa. They went swimming and made a special trip to Toys R Us to find the same small puppy that grandpa bought Lauren for her first christmas. Can you believe they still have it!!

Exciting news!!

Okay for me at least. WE GOT NEW CARPET! I know it may not seem exciting but I couldn't stand to even sit on our carpet anymore. I think when it hits the 17 year mark it starts to disintegrate. The guy laying the carpet told me the padding was starting to separate, gross!!

I can't believe how excited I am, especially because it's a good excuse to move all the furniture around. I also very last minute decided to paint Lauren's bedroom so I could spill on the carpet and not worry about it :)

I will have to post some pictures soon!

Hailey's 1st day of preschool

Hailey has been in preschool for two weeks now and is soooooo happy to be back. She loves her teacher Ms. Becky but still doesn't understand why she can't go to kindergarten yet. She doesn't really care that she is only 4 she wants to go to Edu-Prize like her sister :) Right now she is one of the only girls on the days she goes, so we are crossing our fingers that some girls join her.

I really didn't think that she had grown that much but looking at last years picture versus this year it looks like she grew alot.

Check out the pose in the last picture, this is her pose that she does now for every picture I take, oh where are we headed with this!

New venture...

Well, I decided to take an adult tap class. Now I couldn't do it alone so I had to rope my friend Jilene in with me. Hopefully she won't kill me later :) I really truly thought it wouldn't be that hard due to doing ballet for so long but no it's so HARD and my ankles hurt today :(

Hmm, maybe sometime we will have pictures to post :) but no recital for us! Lauren and Hailey both start back at dance this week as well so pictures of them to follow.

My other venture is starting these darn Stephanie Meyer Twlight series books. Darn my friends for even introducing me to them. I can't stop reading and I am only on the first book! I find myself reading as I brush my teeth and change my clothes. My real talent though is reading while I fold laundry.

Bridges camp

I am so excited about another new venture we are starting. I met a lady a few months ago that teaches classes to girls about self esteem, postive self image, friendships, leadership and truthfulness. I was so impressed and excited until I found out that the camps were only for girls in junior high and up. I started to question why when I felt strongly that the need was for younger girls. So... fast forward a few months and we have the first series of classes for girls in 2nd and 3rd grade. We are doing a 3 week class, 2 1/2 hours each time with 8 girls. Today was the first lesson and I am SO excited. The lady that teaches these classes is so great with the girls and they responded so well. I can't wait to see what happens with this program. I know the next level is taking it to the Girl Scout Council and I look forward to what these girls will do.

It is amazing to me what the girls are taking about at such a young age and as most programs for older girls are set up there goal is to undo what has been done. The goal of this program is prevention at an early age.

A different Approach....

So after sitting here amoungst 8 giggling girls, 4 tagalong siblings and 8 moms/dads I realized that I am looking at things all wrong. I always wonder what am I thinking for always saying yes to everything or always starting new projects while everything else is still going and then I realized what I really need to be thinking is how thankful I should be. So my list today is what I am thankful for:

I am thankful

*that I have so many friends that it is hard to keep track of them all
*that my daughters have so many adults around them that truly care about them
*for all the people around me that put up with all my ideas and craziness in our schedule
*for the fact that I always have someone willing to listen
*for my friends that support me in the way I raise my kids and that they are part of our family's life
*for my friends that listen when I want to complain
*for everyone that understands that patience isn't one of my strong points :)
*for a husband that rarely gets frustrated with all my new ventures that I take on
*that I am able to be in my daughters life's so heavily
*that I am able to be a Girl Scout Leader, Room Mom, Van driver, etc.
*that I have the energy to always take on one more project
*that I never have the courage to say no because I love being involved
*that one day I get to be a prom chaperone :), Shawn will really love that!

Fun with Nana and Granda

What a fun week it was with nana and Granda and now we have to say good-bye. Which of course is the hardest part for everyone. We started the week off with a hosing off :) Hailey got Lauren a little wet so I decided to just soak the girls which turned into an hour of soaking them with the hose. It's more fun than you think!!

We took a trip over to the Bass Pro shop which is a really neat place. It is HUGE and there is so much to look at, and I don't even like hunting and fishing. We took Hailey when Lauren was in school because Lauren would have been so bored :) We got to see an aquarium, do some shooting practice, lay in a tent, putt some golf balls, sit on some boats and eat FUDGE. I swear they have every flavor you could ever think of.

Today was off to the new Phoenix Children's Musuem. It isn't quite finished yet, the girls had fun but we will have to wait to go back after it's finished.

We ended the day at a girl scout swim party with slides, diving boards, a limbo game and a hula contest. Who can pass up all that with a bunch of Girl Scout friends.

Now Nana and Granda are off for their week long bike trip in New Mexico. Can't wait to see them soon!