Our Crazy Summer: June

It's been a crazy summer for the Jones family. We sold our first home. Luckily it went fast so we didn't have to keep our house "show ready" for too long. The 5 days was bad enough. To leave the house we had to get three kids and two dogs out the door and in the car. Then Kevin and I would run around spraying our creamy nutmeg air freshener, turn on the smooth jazz music, and make sure every toy, dish pillow, etc... was in its place.

June:
On Father's Day, Kevin got breakfast in bed. The kids were able to help me a lot more this year and Hannah was pretty excited and stayed busy making decorations for the tray. Kevin got bacon, eggs, chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream, and hot chocolate with whipped cream, cocoa powder, and mini chocolate chips. What a lucky Daddy!

Hannah's Zinnias are growing so big! She planted a seed her first year of preschool and we took the little flower to Grandma's house to plant. Here it is two years later. They are so big!!! I'm talking about the flowers AND Hannah.
Hannah had her end of the year performance, her Junior Kindergarten class danced to "Under the Sea." This is her friend Cole. We became good friends with his family. Everyday after school the kids would play and Tori (Cole's mom) and I would talk for an hour or so. It was so nice and carefree to not have to do anything after school It was a good way to wok on our tans too!She was so adorable, unfortunately, I didn't get very good pictures because I was so far away.
Hannah finished Junior Kindergarten and received some awards. We are so proud of her, she is such a good student and loves school!She got one for being Student of the Month, Outstanding Citizenship, and Excellence in Math and Reading.
Gavin finished his first year of pre-school.
He loved his teachers. He learned all his letters and the sounds. You can ask him, "what letter does night start with?" He says, "night, nah, nah, nah, nnnnoodle, N!!! It starts with N!" I loved bringing his hockey lunch bag to school and playing with all his friends.
This is Gavin and Cruz, they were friends at preschool. Cruz's brother went to Hannah's school, so the two boys got to play together while they waited for the bell to ring at the Elementary school.
We decided to give Emma away. Hannah had a hard time with it, but we told her Emma went to "Doggy Disneyland". Luckily, we had such a busy summer that it kind of distracted her. Here is our last picture of Emma.Beach
I wanted to start a family tradition of going to the beach the first day of summer vacation. I loaded up all my stuff
and took 3 kids to the beach by myself. It was actually awesome! Luke took a big nap under the umbrellaand I got to lay out and play with Hannah and Gavin in the sand. I met my friend Kazia (middle/high school friend) there. Our kids had a fun time together. Hannah and Bryton had fun playing in the sand
Gavin playing in the sand
Tahi and Luke had fun eating the sand
One of the best parts of a fun beach day... the quiet ride home.
Concert in the Park:
Our friends, the Williamsons, invited us to a Concert in the Park. They have 4 little girls who are obsessed with Luke.

Palm Springs:
We met Kevin's Aunt and cousins in Palm Springs. We had fun golfing, swimming, eating, and napping.Happy Birthday Kim!!

Busy Weekend

Hannah's preschool class participated in "Celebrate La Mirada" Day. Her class sang all the songs they have been learning. These are the Months of the Year, the color songs; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and Magic Words. Hannah was right in front of the microphone so I could make out her vibrato. She has such a sweet voice. She has always been a good little singer. Unfortunately, there were two disruptive boys who shouted most of the time. It was a cute little performance. She is getting so big!I decided to paint the house this weekend too. I dragged Kevin away from all the football games on the TV. I told him we would only work for an hour. It turned out to be more like 6. The kids were excited to help paint. For the most part, they were pretty helpful and productive. They got paint on the wall and Kevin went over it to even it all out.
Before...
Different Stages...
After...
Should I paint my door red or black? HELP! I can't decide.

First Day of School

Hannah and Gavin started pre-school this week. Hannah could hardly contain her excitement. We were counting down the days for two weeks. Finally, Monday, her first day of school arrived. That morning she couldn't eat her cereal, when I asked why she replied, "I'm too excited for school to eat!"
Gavin and I were going to take a mommy and me class because he barely misses the deadline to start pre-school. You have to turn 3 by the day the class starts. Yesterday we went to our class that my pregnant brain thought started at 11, but actually it started at 10. Luckily, I started talking to one of the girls at the front desk and asked about Gavin, she waived the age requirement and enrolled him for the Tuesday/Thursday class. I was so happy!
So, this morning Gavin woke up, I told him we had to get ready for school and he said, "I need to eat cereal." He was so excited. When we got out of the car he told me, "I won't be shy!"

It feels so good to drop my kids off at school. I love picking them up and hearing about the new things they learned and what their friends said. I can't believe Gavin is actually in school, he is such a big boy now.

Pre-Easter Fun

Hannah got to wear her Easter dress to school for her Easter Party. She was so "tsited" (excited).

(Hannah and her "boyfriend" Jake)

That day we decorated eggs and made sugar cookies. We never finished the cookies, but they had fun rolling the dough and cutting it with the cookie cutters.

I was a little stressed during the egg decorating. Two little kids with dye that can ruin anything does not sound like my idea of fun, but they did really well keeping everything clean.

Now what do I do with all those eggs? I figured since I got a dozed for .99 cents (Fresh n' Easy) I'm not going to stress too much about it.

Family Update Part I

I didn't quit! I've been busy. I do have a lot of updating to do.
Hannah had U.S.A. Day at preschool. It was so funny. Everyone wore red, white, and blue. They made streamers and other stuff and then had a parade. Who ever heard of U.S.A. Day? Hannah does know her pledge of allegiance, it's so cute when she says it. She follows up with her patriotic song. FYI: I had to fight off the parent paparazzi to get this picture... or was I just part of the parent paparazzi... whatever, I almost knocked over a lady... oops!

The other big event in our family... We got new Disneyland Passes! The kids were so excited to go back to Disneyland. Hannah was thrilled to get her own pass. Look how happy she is!!!

(notice her new booster seat? She feels so grown up to be out of a "baby" carseat)

We went to Disneyland with the Banks' and met up with Aaron and Rachel later. A 6:2 adult:child ratio is realllllly nice.
Gavin always has a great time with Aaron...
Gavin went on the Matterhorn!
The Matterhorn is one of Hannah's favorite rides. She feels so grown up.Coming up... Family Update Part II

Hannah is 4!

I'm a bit late with Hannah's birthday post. Many good excuses...
Hannah is at the age when you wake up on your birthday and it just feels magical. The feeling that goes away the older you get.
Hannah was a sweet baby, she always liked to sleep on my chest so she could hear my heart beat. We have always been buddies.
Hannah's birthday was last Friday. Although she insisted she was four since the day of her party. This past Monday was her school birthday party. I made the pinkest cupcakes ever! The kids loved the hot pink cupcakes.
Hannah and her "boyfriend" Jake.
Mrs. Lance is Hannah's preschool teacher. She is wonderful. Her class mates sang Happy Birthday to her and then dove into the cupcakes. Gavin had a great time in Hannah's class. After cupcakes he participated in practicing their holiday songs for their Christmas Program. He is so ready for preschool... I'm ready for him to go to preschool.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday. I plan ahead months in advance. Every year I go up to my mom's house to make Halloween costumes. This year, Hannah was Glinda the Good Witch and Gavin was a pirate.

The day started off with a Halloween costume parade at Hannah's preschool. The kids walked around showing off their costumes and the parents fought like the paparazzi trying to get priceless pics. Check out all the parents in the background... that is how it was like all around the fence.

The kids walked along the sidewalk next. I was running around like the paparazzi getting pictures of my girl.This is her class picture. Hannah's sleeves are as big, if not bigger, than her head!We had our ward Halloween party. I signed up to make a cake for the cake walk. I think I bit off more than I could chew. I was pretty stressed all day making these dang cupcakes. I did mini chocolate cupcakes with black frosting and rolled them in black sprinkles... Then I had large cupcakes with black frosting. I used a mini marshmallow for the head and drew in the skeleton's body. I was pretty happy how they turned out.Thanks to a lot of help from my friends we were able to complete all the plates of cupcakes.
Thank you Stacy and Leslie.Poor Gavin slept through the whole party... We kept checking on him, the light was on, everyone was walking in and out of the room and he was passed out.Hannah won the award for the prettiest girl costume. I was so happy. I think it was the crown that clenched her victory... It really completed the costume. Hannah was so happy to get the award for the prettiest girl... wouldn't you?Hannah and Kevin Trick or Treated together. I made Kevin a pirate costume to match Gavin's, but he decided last minute not to wear it.Hannah and I drove around to a couple of friend's houses to show off her costume then headed home. We had a great time Trick or Treating with just Mommy and Hannah.