Happy Anniversary!

13 wonderful years!

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life.

On Saturday afternoon we decided to take the kids to go see "Shrek". Afterwards we took them home, then headed out for a dinner for two and a quick stop for ice cream. Just having him home on a Saturday and able to spend quality family time together was the best gift I could have asked for!

Boy, is he a boy!

Jack almost always has a stick in his hand. I don't know where he gets them, but I do know that he truly believes they are his swords...there to protect him and help him fight off monsters and all those crazy dinosaurs!

We loved that he fell asleep like this...

The condition of his feet say a lot about the day he had...

He is ALL BOY!

Reminder...

I found this on Rian's bed this morning...

The girl never stops making me laugh! Because this is the last week of school, each day has a different themed party (which makes me wonder why we even have a last week of school!). Today is "Game Day". Apparently Rian was worried about forgetting her game and obviously has no trust in me to help her remember. Just to be sure she wouldn't forget, she wrote herself this cute little note. She is too much like me in soooo many ways!

Student of the Month (Again!)

Without fail, Dakota is chosen as the Student of the Month in either August or September each year, and this year was no different. But this year, she received this honor twice. Her teacher, Mrs. Marquez turned the responsibility of choosing the final Student of the Month over to the children in her class. Each child voted for one boy and one girl to represent their class, and her peers chose her. We all know what a special and tender-hearted girl she is, I think it is so wonderful for her to be recognized for that by the children in her class.

I was able to go to school and have breakfast with her.

Receiving her award.

I really cannot believe that in a few short months, I will have a 5th grader! I love being Dakota's mother, my only issue with her is that she is growing up WAY TOO FAST!

My Favorite Day

Dave had plans to make me breakfast on Mothers Day but the kids beat him to it. Instead of sleeping in, I was woken up at 7:30 by 3 beautiful, excited faces staring at me from about 6 inches away. They asked me to come downstairs for a special surprise. I asked them if I could have it brought to me in bed, but we soon found out why that was completely impossible. Dave tried to get me out of it, but after going downstairs he yelled up to me "You're gonna want to come down here." What I found was truly sweet and amazing!

French Toast, Eggs, Waffles & Mini Pancakes (the frozen kind), Strawberries and OJ. Wow! No wonder it couldn't be breakfast in bed. They each then gave me their sweet little homemade gifts (even a drawing from Lucy!). After I force fed myself, I went back upstairs to bed for a couple more hours.

I was woken up around noon with a brand new, super sweet phone from Dave. Now I can keep up with the cyberworld from places other than my bedroom!

After lunch, I was able to Skype with the woman who made me the mom that I am. I love you, mom!

Then we loaded up and headed over to the VA hospital to hang out with Dave's grandma and the Cameron family. It was a beautiful day, and in an effort to keep Jack from disturbing every resident in the hospital, we went outside and visited for a while.

Rian, Dakota, Elizabeth and Diego with grandma Mary and great-grandma Meyer.

*Jack was NOT interested in being a part of this pic!

The kids LOVE to push great-grandma in her wheelchair.

Cute & Creative Kids

It was a windy Sunday and the kids decided they wanted to fly kites. Since we don't have any kites, they got creative and made their own, using plastic bags and sports ribbon.

I really thought that by now, the Webkinz craze would be long gone, but I was dead wrong! Rian now has 25 and Dakota has 24! They don't spend nearly as much time playing with them on the computer as they do with the actual toys, but every once in a while they like to check up on their cyber-babies! Jack thinks the stuffed animals in his room are Webkinz...we all just go along with it.

Dave doesn't have a lot of free time in his busy schedule, but when he does have a few minutes to spend with the kids, he pulls out the Guitar Hero. Jack's the first one to run to the room when he hears it, yelling "I wanna play Rock On too daddy!"

Dakota's favorite breakfast on Saturday mornings is French Toast. Many Saturdays, she's up long before I am, so she was determined to learn how to make it herself. She has gotten quite good at it! Last week I came downstairs around 9am and found this...


Notice the plates set out for Dave and I as well. Dakota is a great helper, without her I couldn't catch those few extra Z's on the weekends.