Arizona

In May, my cousin got married in Arizona and my parents and some other family members were coming. So we decided to go see them! Emmy and Zach had a ball dancing on the dance floor and eating ice cream cones.

We also got to watch the Derby with Anne, eat some great Mexican food, go swimming with Auntie Melissa who happened to be there for the weekend too, and visit the Mesa temple grounds.

They were exhausted by the time we drove home. Zach luckily fell asleep most of the drive home, but Emmy cried most of the way.

It was fun to see our family! We miss being in the loop, so it was nice to be able to see them.

Mother's Day tea party

Emmy's class put on the most adorable Mother's Day tea party at school.We dressed up in our "Sunday best" and they put on a darling program and then we had tea/juice and cookies.

Emmy was so excited about it that she was up at 5:30 a.m. getting herself fancy for the party.

They also made us some cute stuff like a vase of flowers made of handprints and they wrote a paper about why they loved their moms. Her teacher laminated both projects.

They had a cute photo backdrop.

Her teacher is the best!

It seriously was the cutest.

May

We had a fun May! Of course we went to Disneyland a couple of times. Zach was cracking me up all day one of the times we went. Here he was saying, "Look Mom, I have a rope on my head!" He can be a funny kid sometimes.

A gorgeous sunset on our way back to the car.

We have a "no food on the carpet" rule. Sometimes the kids want to eat a snack while they watch something. So this is their solution....scoot their chairs right up next to the carpet. Ha!

Emmy's class had some duck eggs in an incubator for about 3 weeks in their classroom. Emmy got to watch 3 of the ducks hatch. They kept the baby ducks in their classroom for a week after they hatched. Emmy loved it!

They got to hold them and play with them every day. So cute!

They were playing some game and called the rug in the front entry way "Zachary Island" Ha!

We pool sat for the neighbors again. The pool was a bit cold, but that didn't stop these fish.

One of the days we were over swimming, these stunt planes were practicing for an air show. It was awesome! We watch all their tricks right from the pool. We had a great view!

May=blueberry picking!

Of course they picked like $12 worth of blueberries and proceeded to eat them in 1 day. These kids love their berries!

Emmy's writing is so cute. Here she is talking about wanting to be a doctor when she grows up because they get to stay up all night and earn lots of money.

Zach finished his first year of speech preschool. His teachers, Miss Sue and Miss Rachel were awesome! He has progressed so much in his speech. A year ago when we first moved here, he could barely say anything. Now he's talking up a storm. It has been really good for him. He's going to go to a different class next year, but we'll miss his awesome teachers!

Emmy's class put on an adorable Memorial Day program. They wore red, white and blue and sang patriotic songs. They have seriously done so many cute things this year.

Sunday adventures in LA

Since we don't get to go to our parents' or grandma's house on Sunday afternoon/evenings anymore or have any family to get together with on Sundays, we sometimes get bored and lonely. I am trying to get over this and improve our Sundays. So a couple weeks ago I suggested we drive to the LA temple grounds and visitors center.

It was beautiful! The grounds were amazing and the kids loved it. The temple is huge! I want to go inside sometime while we are here.

Emmy LOVED all the flowers and tried to smell them all.

Zach of course tried to open all the doors.

Emmy thought rolling down the hill was great.

Zach also loved jumping off all the benches.

Seriously it was gorgeous and we had a great time. It was worth the 3 hours we spent in the car driving there and back.

Love my little family!

Randomness from April (and part of March)

We have been doing so much yard/house work it's ridiculous!If I would have known how much stuff needed to be fixed on this house and yard, I would have bought a different house. Seriously, we spend so much time and money on trying to fix things up and it's so discouraging because it still doesn't look nice. It's like that Money Pit movie.

But anyway, one day Matt came in holding this power tool triumphantly in the air saying, "Holy cow! I love this saw!" I laughed so hard, it was funny!

Emmy completed the spring reading program at the library and earned herself 3 In-N-Out certificates. She is turning into such a good little reader. And she'll do anything for a prize. She is currently on reading level 9. I don't really know what that means except that she's supposed to be at level 5 when she's done with kindergarten, so she's ahead of where she needs to be to pass kindergarten. Phew! :)

I though I was hilarious by having this written on Matt's birthday Costco cake. He is obsessed with Costco cake and so I surprised him with one. We have half of it in the freezer. Ha!

The kids were more excited about his cake than he was.

I help in Emmy's class once a month. Here they are making tulip crowns for their spring party. I have really loved Emmy's school and her teacher.

The palm trees at In-N-Out kill me.

We may or may not have gone to In-N-Out to drown our sorrows because we were sad about not being able to be with family for our General Conference traditions.

I forgot it was spring picture day and sent Emmy to school in a stained Tshirt and messy bun pigtails. She is still adorable.

The Redlands Classic bike race was fun to watch. Some of the racers even came to Emmy's school to talk to them.

Zach loves to take pictures with my phone.

Emmy says every day how she doesn't want to go to school. She's fine once she gets there, but she flops around every morning saying she's not going.

Emmy was trying to teach Zach how to play Go Fish. In a blanket fort. Haha!