Grandma comes to town!

Our eventful July was topped of with a visit from Grandma M.  We loved having her in town.  Our favorite things to do with grandma include lunch dates, story time, and toenail painting parties.  Grandma and Emmy especially bonded during this trip.  When grandma was around, Emmy wanted no one else.  Even one month later, Emmy still asks for her.

Grandma gifted the girls matching dresses for their birthdays.  I love seeing them so thrilled to be "twinners".

In keeping with tradition, mom and I went out on a mother-daughter date to the Ramos House.  We finished off our meal with the most wonderful homemade peach ice cream.  Yum!

Our final day was enjoyable.  We walked along San Clemente pier and had lunch at the local seafood restaurant.  Grandma insisted on getting lemonades for all the kids.  They sure loved being pampered.

It's not often that you get two grandmas together.  Such lucky girls!

Elle Vie Dance Company

What a whirlwind life has been lately!  This past weekend I performed with Elle Vie Dance Company in a dance production titled "Carnival".  It featured dancing, juggling, magic, and acting.  I perfomed in 5 numbers, one of which was a tap duet choreographed and performed by my good friend Lacey and I.  My mom flew in from Kentucky to be at the performance and Katie surprisingly found herself in California this week, just in time to come!  It was so wonderful to have the support of family.  All of my dancing went to them!

Elle Vie Dance company.  The artistic director, Leah Vincent, is fourth from the left.  She is a member of the church and has begun this company for the sole love of dance.  I feel so lucky that I was able to be a member of her production.

Happy Birthday Joseph!

Joseph turned a whopping 36 this year!  The card reads, "Happy Birthday to my HANDsome husband".   It has outlines of all the kids hands.  Joseph is such a wonderful husband.  I feel so blessed to have this man in my life.  He is helpful, funny, wise, and truly my best friend. 

No birthday of Joseph's could be complete without carrot cake.  Yum!

Emmy turns two!!

Emmy Jean turned two on July 18.  I am still stunned that my baby is already pushing toddlerhood.  She talks and talks and sings and sings and dances like nobody's business.  The day of her birthday, we had a fluke rainstorm that lasted all day long.  It worked out however, because we set up the dance floor and had all the kids decorate black shirts with neon paint.  In the blacklight, the shirts looked amazing.  Emmy dance for about an hour until she finally crawled into my lap.  Her two most requested songs were the "Hokey Pokey" and "We are the Dinosaurs".  I love watching those little dancing legs.

We've been talking about her birthday for weeks, mostly because her birthday is the first of our month long birthday celebrations.  When it came to blowing out candles, she handled it like a pro, but then began to eat the candles.  oops!

Aunt Cami and 4 of her 5 kids were with us for the birthday dinner.  We love having cousins to celebrate with!

Cubscout Daycamp

It's been a crazy exhausiting week.  We've had early mornings with cubscout daycamp, swimming lessons, piano lessons, dance class, dance rehearsal, and a baby shower hosted at our house.  Needless to say, I am never going to intentionally plan a week like that again. As I was prepping for the baby shower Friday night, I slammed my finger in the door, and that was the icing on the cake: all the fatigue and frustration bubbled into tears!  Sweet Joseph sent me to bed and sparkled the house.  The next morning, he took the kids for an adventure and left me with a clean, quiet house.  I am so grateful for such a kind, understanding husband.   

So daycamp... was pretty good!  The weather was 75 the entire week and the 13 boys in our den did pretty well.  David was happy to hang out with me the entire time, so we had some god moments together.  My favorite part was the archery course.  The final day of camp, the adults were allowed to try out the range.  David was (of course) now a pro and gave me all his pointers.  It was pretty cute.

James and Ruth were never able to decide if they were having a good time at camp or not.  Every morning, they were dressed and ready to go without any prompting, so I'm thinking that despite all the moaning, they had a good time.

This was the best activity: water fight.  Foam balls and barricades... genius.

Happy Fourth of July

Fourth of July weekend was uneventful but enjoyable.  Joseph took a long weekend, so we had lots of together time.  The highlight, of course, is always visiting with grandma and grandpa Larsen.  As we were approaching their home, James spotted a sign in the clouds that read, "Happy 4th".  Couldn't get cooler than that!

Mission Viejo does not sell fireworks, neither does San Juan Capistrano, but Joseph did find fireworks on his way home from work in Costa Mesa.  After our BBQ, we lit sparklers, and a few fountains and spinning things in the backyard.  I loved this terrified look on both Emmy and Grandma's faces! 

We've been on a Harry Potter kick at our house, so the wands (sparklers) were a big hit with the boys.  James ran all over the yard, making designs and humming his own music.  It was cute.  I had originally nixed the idea of viewing big fireworks, but as we pulled into our home driveway at 8:30 pm, I had a spontaneous desire to go.  The boys and I made a quick dash to the city party, just in time for our 9:00 fireworks display!  Phew!  What a day.  I can't help but love the 4th.