July Bright

Here we are at our community annual chili cook-off festival.  This marked a year since our move to Ocean Beach, as this was the first community event the first or second weekend we arrived in San Diego.   

The girls had fun hula hooping at the festival!

While Kierce had fun at her friend's birthday party, we were off buying her first ever brand new bike.  When we got back to her friend's house, the new bike was on the rack on the back of the van.  We all decided we would wait to see how long it took for her to realize...and ha ha she cracked us up.  After walking right past it, and getting in the van, we kept trying to get her to look out the back window.  We pretty much had to tell her!  I will be uploading that video to YouTube as well!  We all love our Kierce.  

Gorgeous Rowan

Family beach time

Flexible Kierce

Oh how I love these precious ones.

Settling in for a movie on the Padres field...

Handsome Merrick

Bo and Paulette pictured above are like family.  They invited us to a special viewing for season ticket holders only to watch Field of Dreams, one of Ryan's most favorite movies!  As you can see in the photos above, we had a great time!

During Aunt Jean's yearly visit, the girls just LOVE swimming in the ocean with her.  She calls herself a water baby, and that she is.  She just can't get enough, and we love that about her!

Brooke and Eva enjoying the slide :-)

And a very silly group picture I am glad to share!  Well Aunt Jean, only a few more months now until your next visit!

June Fun

Hello family and friends!  I am back, with punch!  I am playing catch up and having fun looking through old pictures!  I have missed writing about our family, just as much as you have missed reading.  Here's to loving, living and learning every single gorgeous day God has allowed, whether it brings sunshine or rain.  I will start with a couple pictures from our move to the new apartment.  

The far right corner conveniently became a third bedroom.  The area is pictured a little closer in the photo below.  Merrick gave the space a whirl first, but it works much better for Rowan.  All of the kids recently got loft beds, and desks for under their bed.  The kids are loving the extra personal space this provides.  

Kierce in her all handmade, completely recycled super hero costume at her school's Comic-Con.  Her comic character she created was Tee Tree :-)

With her front cover of her comic.  Her principal gave her special recognition in front of the entire audience for actually using trash to make her costume.  They were supposed to be costumes made of mostly recycled material, and most costumes weren't.  We had fun making it, and she had fun parading around in her costume!

Merrick with his friend Christopher after his graduation from preschool!  They had a gorgeous ceremony, like NO other preschool graduation I have ever attended before, and a gorgeous bay park location!

Below are photos of the girls last day of school.

They were lucky enough to end their school year with field day!

:-)

Kierce's teacher gave all of the students each a hat with their names on them.  The kids had fun signing each others hats!  The girls both had white pillow cases and had their friends trace their hands and sign it to keep a memory of this school year.  I can't believe Rowan has now moved on to 5th grade and Kierce is now in 3rd grade, but was hand selected to be in a 4th grade class.  After a little transition period, the girls are loving school.

Rowan had a graduation ceremony, as she moved into middle school this year.  I will be uploading a ton of videos to YouTube if you are interested in watching her graduation and watching Tee Tree in action :-)

Our very own exchange student, actually brother, Esteban visited the states and we were lucky enough to share a meal together.  Dana and him had enjoyed a Van Halen concert the night before, and he was off back to Spain after a hug and a kiss!  We can't wait to see him again :-)

Here we are enjoying some family time at Seaworld!  The kids are starting to get brave, see that ride behind us???

Some rare time out with friends from Merrick's preschool.  

Some beach time!

The kids and I had a blast one day during the summer, riding our bikes on the boardwalk at Pacific Beach!  They had just received these cool shirts from Aunt Dawnie and Uncle Kenny!

May Synopsis

Ryan's 34th Birthday

...yes the cookie monster himself got a cookie monster cookie cake.  The kids had fun helping me figure out how to make a natural blue food coloring using red cabbage to make a hairy cookie monster!

A Day at the Beach

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Our dear family friends, Paulette and Bo, were so kind to share a season ticket holder perk with us to celebrate Ryan's birthday - spending time on the field before the game!

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Rowan giving he Dad a questioning look before her second hip hop dance performance.  My boss at the time allowed me to leave work (last minute, so it was fun to surprise Rowan) to watch her performance.  Since it was open house as well I sprinted through the girls rooms to check out some of their work displayed.  Dad took a more leisurely stroll and captured the photos below :-) 

I had created a little surprise for the girls and their men to come home to since I couldn't be there after the show.  The cake celebrated Rowan's performance that night and Kierce's theater performance the next morning, of which you'll see photos below.  I will be uploading even more videos on our YouTube page in the coming days, of which you'll see Rowan's dance performances and Kierce's as well!  Rowan's first perfomance is already posted.

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I love this picture of him...

As if we didn't have enough going on in this little family of ours, we decided we would move for the second time this year!  We were able to plan the move on Ryan's long Memorial Day weekend, so this time I got a lot of help unpacking boxes and getting settled in.  ...not exactly how he desired to spend his three day weekend, but we are all much more comfortable in this new and thrifty apartment.

Rowan, Merrick and Ryan all participated in Merrick's school field trip to Legoland.  Kierce and I loved hearing all of the cool stories about the trip.  Kierce had a field trip to the zoo that particular day, and I had to work earlier rather than later, so we stayed back and the three of them had a blast!

This field trip also included a visit to Sea Life, an aquarium that is linked with Legoland.  These guys are very silly people, and I am very glad to say they are each an important piece of our family.