June

My brother just adores Riley and is quite good at spoiling her...they are season pass holders to Knott's Berry farm and invited (and paid) for her to come with them again...whatever riley wants, riley gets.  so flaming softball face paint it is!

While she was at Knotts for the day the kids and i hung around corona until she got back!  It was fun having nothing to do but be with my kids.  I couldn't go to my moms because max had recently had the stomach flu so we ran an errand, took our time eating lunch at chic fil-a and then headed to an impromptu day at the splash pad and park!

Braden's last day of Transitional Kindergarten! Mrs. Portugues and Mrs. Smith were fantastic teachers and braden learned tons! on the last day they did a performance of patriotic songs among other kiddy ones.  I didnt' get a picture with riley and her two teachers but i can't say enough about how PERFECT they were for Riley this year! she learned so much, had FUN and loved those teachers (mrs. griffin and mrs.young)

i finally did it.  I ran my first 1/2 marathon!!!! it was such a great experience and can't wait to do another.

  i started training a little early, in january, for a june race, because i felt i could use a few more short runs in the beginning of the my training.  i was able to train the entire time with katie and thats what made this possible and fun!  we talked through every run and listened to music together.  i didnt have any huge goals for this race. i wanted to run slightly faster then what i run while training and i wanted to "feel good" throughout and not feel like i had to stop at all.  

   I did just that.  the first 8 miles FLEW by, the next five seemed longer but they weren't any harder really.  i ran 30seconds a mile faster then my normal times.  everything was great!  I ran the first 8 miles with katie and becca then katie and i fnished the race toghether-she crossed the finish line right in front of me!

i was so happy josh brought the kids, they yelled for me as i came upon the finish line!

I was super happy with my times (the first mile was because i started the timer on my app before the the gun shot off, it was tricky to put in my running pack so i started it a bit early while we were still standing around!)

the tamerbine man pictured above was awesome! just some random guy that ran with a huge speaker and danced and sang and tambourined his way through 13.1 miles. we ran the first three with him and he made the energy of all around his swell! we lost him until about mile 11 or 12 and sang with him for awhile before passing him up.  There were so many people on the side of the road shouting encouraging things and holding hand made signs, some even passing out water bottles! it was really fun to run in such a good community.



Riley taking a bite of an apple of our tree!

We decided to read Harry Potter together this summer!

Had a fun day at Grancy and Papa's house playing with cousin and cooking up smores


Aunt Tami gives the best haircuts!

We eat breakfast and lunch practically every day at the community center near our home.  kids 18yrs and under get food for free!

We went to "mormon night" and watched the 66ers play.  Max was TERRIFIED of the mascot and talked about him for days following this picture.

Squishy family picture-just missing reese, we left her home with a sitter

We ran the San G hospital run again and had a blast.  we won lots of new beach toys and an icecream maker! I have such a good group of friends!

We played in our blow up pool lots this month! The snorkel was a big hit!


Both boys got hurt on the trampoline somehow and they were feeling quite bad for themselves...the mean mom that i am thought it was pretty funny!

Ticked another thing off our summer to do list and made friendship bread!

Our first july flower bloomed!

Max has taken a huge interest in bugs and animals this summer.  this is his first time holding a bird.  Reese liked it although she doesn't look like it in the picture! the bird jumped from her hand to back and it took her by surprise.

Reese LOVES swimming.  that is an understatement.  There arent enough words to say how much of a fish she is.  She likes to swim on her, sans floaties, no one holding her and doesn't mind going under water.  she could push off the steps glide under water and hope to be caught by someone for hours! she even tries to jump off the steps away from you , she thinks its funny!   We are trying to get her to like floaties so we can have a little break but we love that she likes to swim underwater!

We went to oma's this day just for fun and the kids swam from 10am-5pm!

She almost fell asleep!

We celebrated Fathers day with my dad the day before and had a good time swimming and bbq'ing.  Uncle matt and grandpa jeff threw the kids around a lot and they loved it of course.





Had a nice visit with great grandma Ruth


She can walk in these high heels rather well already!

Max's 3.5 Birthday hopefully holds some good memories for him because it was NOT enjoyable for me!
our house had been plauged with a bad stomach flu that week.  It took riley down for just one day, reese just for a couple hours and I had the stomach flu for about 5 days at this point and the day of the party was my first feel good day.  well it did me in and it was hard to get every thing done! To top it off a lot of family said they weren't coming anymore because they didnt want the chance of catching the flu.  I understood but being as this was just a family party there weren't that many people invited and it took a big chunk of the guests away.  i was heart broken but went on with it. i wanted the party at home, josh wanted it at the park so to the park we went. we got there and the entire gazebo, only place with shade was taken by another party, not only was it another party but a cool party with better decorations and huge bounce house.  I held my tears back.  that was like a punch in the gut.  We had a good turn out and max seemed to have fun which is all that matters.
We have been saving this santa pinata since the day he was born and finally got to use it!

I wanted and planned on ordering a cake to make things easier for myself since i had been so sick.  the day of the party josh says "why aren't you making one? we always make one" so i made one, last minute and it turned out okay but not "good" it.  Now i was embarrassed by the cake, the lack of shade and no bounce house.
  to top it off as soon as max blew out the candles he said he was gonna throw up! so he went to the tree and layed down.  He never got one single bite of his cake!

He opened presents but wasn't feeling well at all.  we packed up, got home and he feel asleep on the couch before he ran to the bathroom to throw up.

Luckily his Opa isn't afraid of even the nastiest flu bugs and he got some good bday love.

That night was Rileys first ever piano recital. She did WONDERFULLY! It was so fun to watch her play.

Her cousin Romi came and her best friend Ava.

She got a beautiful certificate


The next day was sunday and i kept max quarantined in our room all day, everyone but josh and braden had caught this awful flu and i was putting my foot down! i brought all his new gifts up to look at again and he requested this picture!


we passed the day away with movies and a bubble bath and a long walk outside.

cute kids!


This girl can cry!

We finally made it to the beach once everyone was healthy again! we took grancy along and had a great time!





This was probably Reese's favorite thing this trip being buried over and over by grancy

Best Friends!


Shelley, katie and I

tried to get a group shot of all the kids there, i believe there was 19 kids total between 5 families!



Max passed out soon after being strapped in!




group shot. Chantel and family, me and family, shelley and family, katie and family and audrey and family

Helping papa work

Max's new helmet from grandpa jeff and grandma judi

a few key points from this month:

-Max and Braden love bugs-finding, holding, looking at, caging.. max more so, he isn't' afraid to hold any of them! Braden is more stand off'ish but interested.  

-Reese is talking a lot, a lot of babble but she really is telling us lots of stuff! Saying a lot more words, able to parrot a lot etc. "i want juice" " i want beep" (chip) "dont like"
she says "ya" now and it sooo cute, maybe just sooo cute because of how often she says "no!"

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