A total of 4 kids for the weekend... Were we crazy????

We had a great time this weekend, but it was exhausting (Probably more so for Justin who took care of the kids most of the time).  We had committed to taking our nephew Lucus (13) and nieces Alyssa (9) and Teagan (3) for the entire weekend prior to me having surgery last weekend.  But we decided to go ahead.

The kids were dropped off early on Friday morning and Justin took them up to VBS at our church where he had been volunteering all week.  They had a great time until during the party afterwards, he couldn't find Paige in the sea of red shirts and it freaked him out a bit so he rounded up the kids and headed home.  They played in the pool and when it cooled down a bit he took them to the park.  I got a recipe for liquid sidewalk chalk from pinterest which they had fun with too:

On Saturday morning, they played close to home until after lunchtime.  At that time, my sister Mikaila picked all of them up and she helped Justin take the kids to the fair for a few hours.  They had a great time.  But it was hot and expensive so they only lasted a few hours.

This morning, Justin loaded all the kids into the truck again and took them to church.  We then went to my parents house (Not sure they knew what they were getting into!) and celebrated Father's Day since I was in the hospital last week.    Overall it was a lot of fun, but exhausting- even for me.  The kids were sad when they had to leave, but I don't blame them- Uncle Justin is a lot of fun!

More Homemade Gifts

A good friend of mine (One of Many) is having a baby.  Her baby shower was a couple of weeks ago.  I have been striving to make more gifts myself.  Before Christmas, I spent $20 and bought the worlds smallest sewing machine (Seriously- It is operating off of batteries because I lost the wall adapter).  I decided to try to make some burp clothes, which is my favorite baby shower gift- but this time I wanted to do it by myself.  My mom is amazing and I am so blessed that she has helped me make so many gifts, but it is also hard to find time with her and she often does a lot of the project (And is much better at it too) so I feel bad. 

I have to say, I tried a new design because I bought a different kind of cloth diaper, but I made it work and I was really happy with the outcome.  They were nowhere near perfect, but they were made with love by me and you can tell. 

Another Surgery for Nicole =(

I have had my share of health issues and have slowly tried to resolve them to the best of my ability.  I have had severe heartburn for months with no cause.  But the last week or so, my stomach had not felt good either.  Then on Friday night/Sat morning, I woke up and my stomach just hurt.  After taking some Pepto Bismol things weren't getting better and I just couldn't get comfortable.  I didn't want to wake up Paige, so I woke up Justin and told him I was going to drive myself to the hospital, but of course he doesn't remember me doing that.  I also moved his cell next to him.

I was given some things to make me comfortable and then around 7am the did an ultrasound and discovered a gall stone was obstructing a duct and causing problems.  They needed to remove it.  Within about an hour I was admitted and then I woke up and was done with my surgery.

I am recovering, but the process is somewhat slow.  Off work for 3 weeks, but not the most ideal time (Our fiscal year end is at the end of July and it is my busiest time).  I am trying to make the best of the situation.  

The good news is that I am feeling the love.  Lots of flowers and cards.  And my church has organized some meals which is so helpful!

OUr little dancer

This is her slow, medium, fast dance for Memorial day....

Paige can ride a Bike.

I am not sure how I forgot to mention this?  About a week after she fell on her scooter and we thought she broke her arm, but did not- She was at the park.  A little boy literally said "Here let me show you how to ride my bike" and taught her a matter of minutes.  This is the little girl who wouldn't ride her bike with training wheels.  Amazing what they will do when another kid shows them.  So after a few days of practice we brought the bike to my Mom & Dad's while my Aunt & Uncle were visiting to show them.  My parents live at the end of a cul-de-sac on a hill so it was funny and scary at the same time!  I love how she screams when she comes down the hill every time!

Of course the next logical step in Justins head..... Get her a dirt bike?  Oh my!

Last Day of TK

Our baby is growing up.  Last Friday was her last day of Transitional Kindergarten.  She is going to be a real Kindergartner now!  Can you believe it?  Poor baby got really sick on Tuesday night (All night long) and had to miss her end of the year party and the TK Olympics.  She also missed Thursday, which turns out was her last day at her Day Care/Preschool (We thought it was Friday, but due to a miscommunication, I found out the hard way they were closed for a teacher work day).  She was able to go to the last day of TK though and say good-bye to her friends and teachers.  And due to the above referenced miscommunication, I dropped her off on her last day (And took her for a special doughnut breakfast).

The cup Song

We had such a unique experience at Kayla's choir concert last week.  The power went out in the middle of one of the choirs performance.  I have to give the Treble Choir credit for continuing on with the singing (And dancing) in the dark without the background music.  We all had to leave the theater so they had some of the  solo's and groups perform in the outside courtyard area.  This is Mikaila's group.  Aren't the adorable?

1st Hot Day of Summer & Jamesons 1st B-day

We had our first over 100 degree day so we blew up the pool and had some fun.  And we went to a park the next day (Which was significantly cooler) for our neighbors sons' 1st b-day party.

Camping at Lake Del Valle

Justin's brother Dan, his wife Michelle and my nephew and nieces (Lucus, Alyssa, Teagan & Rylee) came up our way to go camping at Lake Del Valle in Livermore (About 30 minutes from our house to this lake).  We had never been so Justin & Paige joined them.  If you know me, you know camping is not really my thing, but since it was so close I got to visit for a few hours and then go back to the clean and relatively bug free house.   I took some pictures while I was there.  My youngest niece Rylee was covered in dirt & eating it too but was just cute as a bug!