San Clemente

I know this post is also really old but I wanted to add some pictures of our fun summer "camping" trip to San Clemente. This year there was a huge group of church friends that were all camping the same week as us so it was super fun to hang out with everyone and chat at the beach or around a camp fire.
My kids had an awesome time this year. I was still a little nervous how Jack would sleep (he was sleeping REALLY bad at the time) so we decided to do the drive there and back everyday and sleep at home. It actually worked out really good and the kids got good night sleeps. Next year, for sure, we'll do the whole camping experience and sleep there all week.
We did a lot of beach time, playing around camp (volleyball, games, football, lots of crafts), some fishing, and s'mores every night (yum yum). It was great to have my parents and my sister, Bryan, and all the cousins there together. We did a lot of camping growing up so this reminds me of when I was young and all of the fun memories I have. And I love making more with my kids!

Bryan and Blake dug a super deep hole, straight down and we set Jack in it. It was way over his head and kind of freaky.

Jacks 2 favorite pass times when we were camping... picking pine cones and drinking old water out of a squirt gun (or sharing his old water with Lauren).


Craft time! Michael's had all their little crafts for like .50cents so I stocked up on them and the kids had a blast doing projects, playdoh, crafts, making bracelets, etc...


The kids would ride in the back of my dads car with no seat belts on to the beach everyday.....they thought that was pretty cool.

Have I told you all lately what wonderful grandparents my parents are. My mom and dad are SO hands on with my kids and I love it so much. It's so rare to have people that want to sit down and play, talk , interact with your kids. I'm very blessed and my kids are too.


This picture might possibly be my favorite picture from the whole trip. I laugh out loud every time I look at it. My mom found this really long piece of seaweed and they decided to play jump rope with it. This is my sister jumping pretty high, trying to hold her dress down, with her ponytail flying around everywhere. The other picture I have, her dress is flying way up, so she probably would rather me not put that one in. The things we do to entertain ourselves.

Gotta love him!

Yes, we let our kids rock climb right by the railroad tracks!

The craziest thing about the whole trip was Jack falling asleep on the beach and sleeping for like 2 hours everyday we were there. I couldn't get him to sleep at home for nothin. But throw him on the beach and he just conked out. It was great! Lauren and Jack always slept so cozy together.

Our paci-head kids climbing in the trees around camp.

I couldn't keep this kid clean

Jack roasting marshmallow's for the first time. He was really good at it and loved the fire. I couldn't get Emily 10 feet from it. But that is OK by me since she has a tendency to hurt herself on EVERYTHING.
The girl in the picture was Judith (which the kids called Judas). She was a sweet girl we met and she spent hours at our campsite playing, doing crafts, and roasting marshmallow's.



I just really wanted to fit this trip in because we had such a great time. Now I'm going to skip a bunch of fun things we did this summer because my sister is bored of hearing about old news. The next post will be current, I promise!

OC Fair

Here are a few pictures from the OC Fair. Despite the fact that it cost an arm and a leg, the kids had an excellent time. Jack is SO obsessed with farm animals so he thought that the whole petting zoo, animal farm thing was just great. He wanted to touch every animal that he saw. Emily loved the huge ferris wheel. She loved being way up high. She had a great time on all the rides and playing games to win stuffed animals. Great time but it definetly hit the wallet pretty hard.

Circus Fun

There is no way that I'm going to be able to go back and blog about all the fun stuff we did this summer, so I'll just highlight some of the favorites.
We got to go to the circus again this year and stay in the suite. It is such a great show, I just wish my kids appreciated it as much as I do. It took Emily about 3/4's of the show to get used to the loud noise and everything that's going on. She spent most of the time in a corner or under a table. When she finally mustered up the courage to actually watch it, she really enjoyed it. Jack would watch the show for a while and then play inside the suite for a while. Super fun!





I love this picture. Blake is such a good older cousin. Jack adores him and thinks that he is the coolest. As soon as Blake realized that I was taking a picture, he let go of Jacks hand immediately :-).

Grandma and Emi

The elephants are always impressive

Birthday parties for the kids

Oh my goodness, am I behind. I will try my hardest to play catch up over the next few days but I make no promises.
I guess I'll go all the way back to the kids birthday parties.
This year in an effort to save a little bit of money, we decided to do one big birthday party for the kids. We mostly had family and close friends, so it didn't get too out of control. We had a bouncer, played some games, did some water balloons, lunch, cake and presents. It turned out to be a beautiful day and everyone seemed to have a great time.
I can't believe my little girl is 4 and my little guy is 2. I am so proud of the kids that they are turning out to be. They have truly completed my heart and made me a better person. They are both so different and are turning in to such good little friends. They are starting to play more and more together every day. I hope that I can show them everyday how much they've blessed my life and how important they are to me.

Maggie got Emily a Best Friends Forever necklace. They're both wearing them in this picture. They're so sweet.

All the kids loved the water balloons. They only took Matt and I 2 hours to fill up, no seriously.

Playing one of the games

Some of the girls in the bouncer

Cakes, cookies and cupcakes

Yum, yum

Jack and Cousin Lauren loved getting wet in these buckets. We couldn't keep them out of the water.

Presents


Jack on his actual birthday. We had Papa and Grandma Doerr over for dinner and sundae's.

Jacks new big boy bike.


Emily's birthday party at preschool



Some kids in Emilys class

Hello again everybody. We've had a really busy sumer filled with lots events and activities. I'm WAY behind on my posts and will try to catch up one of these days. I think that I deserve a little break due to the fact that I have a child who has been sleeping really terrible the last month. Don't ask me why but he has decided to be worlds worst sleep (maybe even worse than Emily was, maybe). I've had no energy lately and I'm so tired ALL the time. I know that this too shall pass but it's been rough.

Anyways, let's go back to the 4th of July. We had a fun filled weekend with family and friends. Lots and lots and lots of HOT DOGS! It was so funny because every BBQ we went to had almost the exact same food. Hot dogs, hambergers, chips, watermelon, baked beans, etc....
We started off on Friday the 3rd by taking the family to Yorba Regional park. The kids had a great time playing at all 4 playgrounds and feeding the ducks.





That evening we went over to some good friends of ours, the Ventura, for a BBQ. They had a bunch of friends and neighbors over and it was sure a great time. The kids had the best time playing together, they had a pinata, lots of yummy food and desserts, poppers, etc.
I love this train. The kids could play on it all day long.

Jack was never without a candy or cookie in his hand


The pinata


On the 4th, we started off the morning with a pool party at Matts parents house. It was a gorgeous day and the pool felt so good. Merlyn and Shirley were also down from Clovis and Tim and Heidi and all the kids came too. Both of my kids love the water and Emily loves playing with Ashlyn.






That afternoon we went over to my grandparents house for another BBQ and water games and homemade ice cream. After all that good stuff we went outside and did fireworks. All of the kids love doing that stuff, except Emily. She doesn't like fire or loud noises so the whole thing scared her. But I will say by the end of the night, she made her way to the back of my dads car to watch from inside. That is a very big step for her from last year. I'm really not sure who likes fireworks more the kids or Bryan and Matt.