Ava Elizabeth and Brendan James Living Life To It's Fullest

Watching a Train and Grandma and Grandpa H's House!

2012-01-06T06:15:00.000-08:00

Supercalifrajalisticexpealidocious (Spelling?):)

2011-04-04T07:10:00.000-07:00

I took this short clip of Georgia and Josie singing in the show last night. I was lucky enough to catch their solos. They all did great! I wish I had recorded Jenny singing her solo! Terrific job!

CHRISTMAS

2010-11-27T07:53:00.001-08:00

HIPHOP

2010-11-27T07:43:00.000-08:00

2010-11-26T17:34:00.001-08:00

http://aka.zero.jibjab.com/assets/production/14/23/47/77/0093n4.jpg

Christmas Disco

2010-11-26T17:33:00.001-08:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Ava's Gymnastics

2010-06-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

Ava's dance shoe was this weekend. This year she took gymnastics and she loved it!

2010-06-06T06:48:00.000-07:00

These are pictures taken after the show, Ava is in the outfit she wore for the father-daughter dance. They danced to thriller. She is proudly holding her trophy! Now she has two trophies for her trophy shelf!! I am very proud of her. She just loves gymnastics and she practiced hard all year. She is one of the few in her class that mastered the one handed cartwheel! She was so determined.

2010-06-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

Here is Ava on the way to her show. Brendan had to have his picture taken as well. Ava was a little nervous all day about being on stage in front of all of those people, but she is all smiles here!

Baby Birds

2010-06-06T06:39:00.000-07:00

A robin made a nest very low in one of our trees. I think she just did it so that the kids would have a good view, and we did (as well as all of the neighbor kids)! But it is amazing how fast thwy grow, because a week after taking this picture they had left the nest. The mother is still hanging around with one baby in our yard though. The baby can fly, but we saw the mother feed her a worm yesterday!!

Puppy

2010-04-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

This is our puppy Samantha. She is whining because she hears Sara our older lab barking by the door to come outside. She loves to play with Sara. Unfortunately we just found out Brendan is allergic to dogs (and a lot of foods)so we are going to have to find her a new home:(

Lighthouse

2010-04-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

I have lived here for years, but have never seen the lighthouse lit up at night. It's blurry, but still beautiful!

Spring Concert "Blue Skies"

2010-04-19T15:42:00.000-07:00

Easter!!

2010-04-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

2010-04-19T15:26:00.000-07:00

2010-04-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

A visit with Grandma and Grandpa's!!

2010-03-06T06:04:00.000-08:00

Over winter break, we took a ride down to have lunch with Grandma and Grandpa H. at their house. It was a nice visit, but I wish it could have been longer.It was fun looking at all of those old pictures and the lunch was delicious.
The kids were able to see a train go by on the way home. Brendan was in awe! I video taped it and now he can watch it at home which he asks to do once in awhile.
On the drive hope we saw a bald eagle! It flew right in front of our car and landed in a tree on the side of the road. We backed up and pulled over, but I think we scared it because he flew away before I could get my camera. I have never seen a bald eagle in the wild. It is a beautiful sighgt to see them fly.

Ava's Class of Penguins

2010-03-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445170383696367170" />

Ava's class learned all about penguins. Here are some pictures of her class teaching the other grades about what they learned.

News

2010-02-07T10:06:00.000-08:00

I haven't been blogging lately so I thought that I would update everybody with our news. Brendan is doing great. I can't believe how he is growing up so fast. His vocabulary has increased so much in the past few months. I can have real conversations with him now which makes it so much easier for me and probably a lot less frustrating for him. One thing I like about this, is that now he can tell me if anything is bothering him. A couple of days ago he told me very clearly that his tummy hurt. Before he probably would have just whined and I wouldn't know if something was bothering him or if he was just being grumpy. So I love that he can communicate better now.
Ava is doing great in school. She is starting to be a typical kid now and love snow days and she can't WAIT until summer vacation! I was joking with her last week because I remember when she was two she longed to go to school. She wanted to go to preschool. When she was three I signed her up for preschool which was more like playtime for two days a week for two hours. She loved that and did the same when she was four, but when she was four, all I ever heard was that she couldn't wait to go to kindergarten. She wanted so bad to go to "real school!" Last year she went to kindergarten and loved it, but towards the end of the year, she really wanted first grade, because it was when the "grades" really started. (in her words) First grade was for big kids. Now she is in first grade and although she likes it, it is a lot of work and I don't hear any more about wanting to go to school! haha. She was sick a few weeks ago with a mild stomach ache, so I kept her out of school just in case and she spent the day with Jenny and the girls learning about penguins and Antartica. She had so much fun and the next day she did tell me her stomach ached again. I think she was hoping to to Jenny's again, but I sent her to school and she was fine!!Thank you Jenny and the girls for sharing your day with her. She learned so much and still talks about what she learned at your house.
Ava is also enrolled in acrobatics. She goes every tuesday night.She is learning to do cartwheels and forward rolls. She loves this and always demonstrates at home. Her cartwheels are coming along great!!
Paul is doing good and keeping busy. Hopefully now that football is coming to an end, he will slow down at work and his hours will come down. I started a part time job tutoring high school kids at a local high school. I love it and I love the hours.I also love how I am getting a review of everything I learned in highschool that you tend to forget over the years. Every night I go over what I am going to do with the kids the next day and now I can name every bone in the human body, I know the parts of a pig, I remember how to find the diagonals in a square
(thanks Matt D.), I can tell you all about Alexander the Great and Greek history, and I am reading classic literature again!haha. This is all stuff I didn't remember before I started the job! I feel like I am getting my highschool education all over again! Now I am confident that maybe I will be be able to help Ava with her homework in highschool!!) I work four mornings a week. Paul is home Tues and Wed. So he and Brendan spend the morning together. They both enjoy this and now almost every morning Brendan wakes up looking for Paul. He gets disappointed sometimes when I tell him he's at work. They really love there guy time together!! The other two mornings he spends at my neighbor's who is a child care provider. Brendan has known her since he was born and loves her and the babies she watches, so he is happy there as well! Well I feel like I just wrote a book, but that is all of our news! I hope everybody else is doing well too!! Happy Superbowl!!

Ava's Classroom Pajama Day Brunch!!

2010-02-07T09:58:00.000-08:00

Sci-Tech

2010-02-07T09:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we took a quick afternoon trip to the sci tech center. Brenan loved the dinosaur display!!

2010-02-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

Digging for fossils and dinosaur bones!

2010-02-07T09:49:00.000-08:00

2010-02-07T09:47:00.000-08:00

It makes me feel old when I see the telephones that I used to use on display as though they are Antiques!! Ava couldn't believe how large cell phones used to be either!

2010-02-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

Magnet Fun!

Winter zoo

2010-02-07T09:42:00.000-08:00

A couple of weekends ago we had very nice weather so we took a trip to the zoo! Thanks mom, for the coupon book!!

2010-02-07T09:41:00.000-08:00

The wolves were eying the kids like they were lunch!!

Just some fun photos

2010-02-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

Who wouldn't want that cute face?

Sleepover

2010-01-10T19:58:00.000-08:00

Ava hosted a sleepover with a friend recently. As you can see, some of the activities included playing cheerleader and coloring and doing crafts. It was a fun girls night! We can't wait to have one with Georgia and Josie someday!!

Christmas Morn

2010-01-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

These aren't the best photos but we didn't get many of Christmas morning. We had a great Christmas and we hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas too.

2009-12-17T10:45:00.000-08:00

Ava's Christmas Concert

2009-12-17T10:05:00.000-08:00

Ton's of Pictures of Ava at school

2009-11-19T06:58:00.000-08:00

The class went apple picking for a field trip and the class at the fire department for Fire Prevention Day!

2009-11-19T06:56:00.001-08:00

The class has been working on acting out The Grouchy Ladybug. Look at those grouchy faces!

2009-11-19T06:53:00.001-08:00

Ava won an award for citizenship last month and this picture is of her poses with the other winners in her class.

2009-11-19T06:50:00.000-08:00

Ava at School

2009-11-19T06:22:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures from the Thanksgiving feast yesterday. I stopped in for awile to see all of the Native Americans and Pilgrims eating together as friends. This year Ava was a pilgrim. Last year she was a Native American. I got all of these pictures off her classroom webpage. You can get there by going to the district homepage, clicking oh her elementary school and then clicking on the link to her class. (Miss Bates 1st grade) She keeps it up to date with great pictures and news from the class.

2009-11-19T06:16:00.000-08:00

The elementary school had a Thanksgiving feast yesterday and these photos show the students preparing for it. Ava is helping her class make homemade pumpkin bread and she helps to make the big invitation for the feast.

2009-11-19T06:08:00.000-08:00

These are some pictures that I took right off of Ava's classroom website. Here teacher puts up pictures of what the class has been doing. We had a family project to make a gourd into a living thing that Ava is thankful for. Ava decided to make a flower. Ava's gourd was bumpy so we covered the whole gourd with pine cone pieces and left some of the bumps exposed and made them into catterpillars, bees, ladybugs and a butterfly. You can't really see that in the picture, but it turned out really cute!

Trick or Treat

2009-11-01T10:44:00.000-08:00

Halloween Night

2009-11-01T10:28:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos from last night. Ava looked very scary. And her teeth were a bit to large for her mouth I think! Brendan looks pouty at first because he took a late nap. I had to wake him up and put his costume on while he was still half asleep. Ava was in a hurry to get going so these photos of him were taken about five minutes after he woke up. Poor little elephant! He cheered up as soon as he realized how easy it was to get candy by knocking on peoples doors and holding a bag up.

More Pics!

2009-10-31T08:01:00.000-07:00

Ava went with a friend to a halloween party at Behlings and she wore her last years witch costume instead of this years vampire costume, so that she wouldn't get it dirty. She is such a cute witch don't you think? Nothing scary about her. There is also a photo of her in her vampire costume at the halloween dance at school yesterday!

Halloween Parade

2009-10-31T07:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Ava's Halloween parade and dance at school. Can you believe Ava makes such a scary vampire. Look at that blood! She posed with her vampire friend and it looks like they both just had a snack. Brendan was an elephant and a very cute one at that!

Autumn Evening Walk

2009-10-31T07:35:00.000-07:00

After checking out our witch in the dark, we all went for a nice fall walk.

Spooky Witch

2009-10-31T07:22:00.000-07:00

We made this spooky witch last weekend. (also off the family fun website) Isn't she scary?!!

Halloween Preparation!!

2009-10-22T06:44:00.000-07:00

We made the House o Lantern window decorations. They didn't turn out as nice as Jenny's. We have to many street lights. Also check out our early trick or treater. We made this little guy with an idea off the family fun website. He is so cute. he fell over a few times though and probaly gave some passer bys a double take. he looked like a stiff little boy with a sheet on hos head laying on our front porch!!)
We celebrated Brendan's 2nd Birthday on Saturday. You probaly already saw all of the photos on Jenny's blog. We had a great day I somehoe forgot my camera. Jenny Thank you for taking all of the pictures and thank you for coming. Brendan had a great time!!

Scenes from R?ssell's Birthday

2009-10-21T15:03:00.000-07:00

I'm kind o late putting these up, but here are some photos from Russell's birthday!

2009-10-21T14:51:00.000-07:00

Old MacDonald's Farm Videos

2009-10-11T11:45:00.000-07:00

We went to Old McDonald's Farm a couple of weeks ago and I took a lot of video because I wanted to make Brendan a video to watch of our trip. It was so long so I had to break it into two videos. It may become boring because it is so long and I thought of making a shorter version for the blog but since Brendan loves to watch it, I wanted to post the full version for Elsie. Enjoy, dont be afraid to hit the fastforward button!!

2009-10-11T11:43:00.001-07:00

Farm

2009-09-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

Ava's news for Dad and Glenda

2009-09-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

"I like it really much" I guess Ava was a little nervous during the video and forgot her grammar! haha

More Pictures

2009-09-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of Ava in her newly done house/closet with pink and white polka dots. Brendan checks out a book on her shelf and plays with the turtles in the pond. On Saturday Ava got her ears pierced!She has been wanting to do it for awhile and finally worked up the courage. Not a tear was shed and for about an hour after she had it done I kept looking back at her as we were walking the mall an she had a huge ear to ear grin.

1st Grade

2009-09-13T19:28:00.000-07:00

Ava is off to first grade! She has had a very good first week. She's happy to go in the morning and comes home happy every afternoon. We took some pictures in her bedroom. I thought they would look cute up there.

2009-09-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

Hope you had a great Birthday Dad! The kids are in the process of making a video message for you!! Stay Tuned!

Playing on the rope swing

2009-09-05T06:34:00.000-07:00

More pictures from camping

2009-09-02T07:25:00.000-07:00

Here are the kids swimming in Lake Serene at the campground. We saw lots of deer in the village. Everywhere we looked there was a deer. Paul even noticed some nice bucks. This Mama and baby visited right at our cabin. They liked the kids poptart crumbs. Oh and I'm sure you'll notice the nice skull tattoo on Ava's forehead. She put it there at a friends house the day we left. ( we left in the evening) Those rub on tattoos can be hard to wash off!

Camping in Old Forge!

2009-09-02T07:19:00.000-07:00

Last week we spent a couple of nights in Old Forge and we went to Enchanted Forest Water Safari for a day. We had a great day although it was a very short trip. We had to work around Paul's busy work schedule. We rented a cabin at the Old Forge Camping Resort. They were very nice although a little close together for what we like, but it would be a perfect spot for mulitple families to rent a group of cabins together for a group rate. Maybe some summer we could orchestrate that. We also took a drive down Hollywood Hills road for old times sake and its still there! Even the Grem's rock by the road.

2009-09-02T07:13:00.000-07:00

We all had a blast on the water rides. I didn't get many pictures of these because I didn't want to get my camera wet, but we all had a great time. I could have spent the entire day going down all of the fast slides with Ava, but we had Brendan and his need for naps getting in our way! We did go on most of them though!! Ava has no fear when it comes to water slides!

2009-09-02T06:57:00.000-07:00

Here are the kids enjoying some rides. Ava even faced her fear and went on the sky ride. It ended up being more scary for me because I knew how long that ride had been there and it looked pretty rusty. I did get enough courage to move enough to grab my camera and take this shot of her though.

2009-09-02T06:49:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the barnyard. Brendan loved this section. I love the goat trying to help himself to the food machines. If only he could get someone to give him a quarter!

2009-09-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

Here they are at the gingerbread house. I just love the photo of Brendan after he just liked that giant M&M.Gross!!Oh and it looks like the witch got Hansel and Gretel in the oven!

2009-09-01T17:03:00.000-07:00

The traditional photo on the enchanted forest dog is always necessary. And there is Brendan flashing his smile in Cnderella's pumpkin carriage. There is also a photo of Brendan on the Enchanted Forest train. This was a highlight for him!

Trying to Catch Up

2009-08-31T13:13:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get caught up on posting pictures. These are from Ava's birthday get together with family. Jessie, Matt and family and Jenny and Brad and family came over for a picnic, puppet show and animal exhibits. Jenny and Brad and the girls also stayed for some swimming. It was a very HOT day. Ava had a great birthay with a family celebration and a celebration with friends.

2009-08-31T12:34:00.000-07:00

2009-08-31T11:57:00.000-07:00

Tennis Camp

2009-08-22T20:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some photo's from Ava'a weeklong tennis camp. It was from M-F from 9-11:30. I though she might have been sick of tennis by the end of the week, but no, she loved it! Thanks Jenny for letting us borrow the rackets!

Trucks!

2009-08-21T08:35:00.000-07:00

Brendan (and Paul) had quite a show when the village repaved the road in front of our house!! I don't know who was more excited, Brendan or Paul?

Zoo Trip

2009-08-21T07:51:00.000-07:00

Our neighbor who lives across the street has a childcare center in her home. All of the kids including Ava have been raising money all summer to take a field trip. They finally had enough money from collecting cans and picking up cans that careless people leave at the beach, to go to the zoo. Brendan and I went along for the fun. It was a very hot day so after the zoo we had a picnic and and then the kids utilized the park pool. Now the kids are raising money to take a trip to the movies!

Summer Concert

2009-08-20T18:30:00.000-07:00

Here are more photos of Monk Rowe. You can see he and Mom reconnecting after all of those years. He remembered, Mom and Pam from the jazz band and he also played at Bob and Debs wedding. I really enjoyed his music from the roots of rock and roll band. Very entertaining!!

Happy 6th Birthday Ava!!

2009-08-16T20:30:00.000-07:00

I hope all of your birthday wishes come true!!!

One of Ava's First Independent Bike Rides

2009-08-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

Ava Dancing at a Monk Rowe Concert

2009-08-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

I guess Ava and Brendan couldn't help bu dance to this song. Monk Rowe from Rome/Utica area came here for a Concert on the Green last Saturday. Mom and Rick also came to watch. Mom did talk to him and he remembered her and Pam who played in his Jazz band when they were teens. He also played at Bob & Deb's wedding. I really enjoyed listening to him and his others in this Roots of Rock and Roll band. Very entertaining. I do have more photos of this that I would like to post later. I have to get them off my camera.

Curious George at Our Library

2009-08-13T18:34:00.000-07:00

Brendan and Ava are both big fans of Curious George, so when we heard he was going to be at the library, we made sure to get there to see him. Brendan was in awe!!

Beach Day

2009-08-13T18:20:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a beach day. As soon as Ava and her friend Lauren got though with vaction Bible school, we and Lauren's little sister and Mom and of course Brendan spent the afternoon at Cedar Point. It felt good relaxing in the sun while the kids played in the water. Brendan loved playing in the sand, and the kids also enjoyed a ice cream cone as you can see Brendan devouring his in the picture.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

2009-08-04T17:27:00.000-07:00

I know....this is late!

Rick's Birthday

2009-08-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Grandma's for Rick's birthday. We had a surprise visit from Uncle Bob and Deb which was very nice! Katie and Amanda are so beautiful and growing up so fast. I didn't have a lot of time to visit because Paul worked late yesterday so I was chasing Brendan around. That boy has a lot of enery and keeps me busy. haha. Later we got out the karaoke machine and the girls sang for us. I wish i could have stayed to hear Jenny and Rick sing but Brendan was exhausted. he was litterally asleep as soon as we left the driveway!! Grandpa Hesler we hope you had a happy
81st yesterday! Ava recorded you a birthday message last night but when I watched it today I realized that it stopped recording in the middle of it, so we will have to record it again and put it up later!

Grandma and Rick's House

2009-08-03T10:53:00.000-07:00

Swimming Time

2009-08-03T10:48:00.000-07:00

When we got home from the concert, I rinsed the chocolate icecream off the kids with the hose and they cooled off in the pool!! Ava sure gets a lot of use out of this pool.

Music

2009-08-03T10:39:00.000-07:00

After we ate and fished we went to watch a concert on the green. Ava and Brendan danced a little bit. We got icecream cones at the stand and listened to the music. Next weekend a jazz musician that Mom used to play in a group with when she was a teenager is going to play here for the antique auto show, named Monk Rowe. It will be interesting to hear him play. Ava will also be able to compete in the annual hula hoop and bubble gum blowing contest. She has been practicing her bubble blowing and hopes that she has it down by Saturday!! She has finally learned to ride her bike without training wheels! This is a goal she has been working towards for years and she is sooo proud of herself. She has tying shoes down, she can whistle now and if she can only learn to blow a bubble she will have all of her five year old goals completed! Oh the simpleness of being a kid!

A Little Critter

2009-08-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

While Ava and Russell were fishing this little critter ran out from one of the docks over to Ava and Russell (a couple feet away) looked at them for a minute and then continued and ran under another dock. We were not really sure what it was. Russell called it a weasel, Mom thought it might be a muskrat or a mink. Rick though it looked like a ferrett and my guess was a river otter. After doing research, I think it was a mink. Any body else know? Grandpa, Joanne? You two seem to know your wildlife!!)

Picnic

2009-08-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Mom, Rick and Russell came over. We got dinner from our church chicken BBQ and we had a picnic by the water. Russell and Ava got some fishing in on this beautiful day. Ava kept catching one little fish after another!!

Little Artist!

2009-08-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

Bible School

2009-08-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

We have decided to participate in the Holy Heroes Summer Faith Bible school program, but we are doing the days when we have time. I like the flexability. So far we have completed the first two days. Here is Ava making the key cookies. The stained glass cookies didn't turn out for us, because I didn't follow directions. I used store bought dough which was to soft and instead of crushing the candy we used whole lifesavers. This is a photo of them in the oven. I couldn't figure out why the candies weren't melting until I realized that when I turned the timer on, I must have turned the oven off. Well they ended up tasting good and I told Ava that we would try again with the dough recipe thay call for, but we love the program and Ava is learning a lot.

Getaway

2009-07-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we we're invited to a friends camp on Beaver Lake in the Adirondacks. A group of friends went for the weekend. We spent the night on Saturday and the kids had a ball!!! They were in and out of the water all day. They went on a boat ride and Ava also got to go on a muddy four wheeler ride. It was very relaxing and peacefull, even though we came home exhausted. I don't know how that happens! haha

2009-07-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

Boat Ride

2009-07-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

The kids enjoyed some boat rides on the lake. Brendan wasn't to sure about it at first!!

Summer in Full Swing!!

2009-07-20T19:44:00.000-07:00

Boy summer has been so busy that I have gotten behind on here. I had a lot of catching up to do. Ava completed two weeks of swimming lessons and now she is swimming in the deep end. She learned to swim underwater and to float on her back and her belly. We are still waiting for tennis, teeball and soccer, arts and crafts and vacation bible school to start. I guess August will be busy. I though all of these activities would be spread out throughout the summer when I signed her up for them (they are all free) but I guess the instructors procrastinated and they will be in august. We have been relaxing and enjoying summer this month though. Brendan just loves the adventures of playing in the sandbox and slides, visiting the beach, swimming and getting wet outside. Ava has been trying to capture a firefly with no luck yet. She is so close to riding her bike without training wheels. She had also been busy making fairy houses in the yard. I will have to get some pictures of them. Check out the book FAIRYHOUSES by Tracy Kane. That was Ava's inspiration. I remember making lepracaun houses at camp. I remember how excited we would get when we would check on them in the morning and see tiny footprints in the sand. (thanks to Uncle Steven)! I was thinking about sprinkling some glitter around her fairy houses one of these nights! We took a trip to the Aqua zoo and then we stopped at a nearby arcade to play some games. Brendan's favorite attraction was the coin operated carousel. Look at that smile!!Hope you are all having a great summer!!

2009-07-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

Brendan was in his glory looking at all of the fish. He recognized this orange clown fish from the book Finding Nemo that we read a lot. He kept asking where Nemo's Daddy was. The kids got to pinky touch a starfish and other underwater creatures.

Fireworks in a bowl and homemade icecream

2009-07-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

We finally experienced making our own icecream by shaking a bag of milk, sugar and vanilla around a bigger ziplock bag of ice. The kids enjoyed shaking the bag but they really enjoyed eating it. It was well worth the work! We also made fireworks in a bowl with milk, dishsoap and foodcoloing. Brendan wanted to add the foodcolring too and you can see it all over his hands. Ahhhhhh!

White Mud

2009-07-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

A couple of day ago we made "white mud". We found the instructions on the family fun website. It is a mixture of shredded toilet paper, shaven ivory soap and water and it is a lot of fun to play with and a lot less messy than the regular mud although it is still a bit messy!

Car Parade

2009-07-20T18:57:00.000-07:00

On Sunday there was an antique car and tractor Parade. Brendan loved this. It began with all of the tractors followed by a long parade of classic cars and trucks.

Parade

2009-07-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed this years French Festival although it was a bit rainy. We started the day by getting a breakfast of french pastries sold in street carts. We watched the parade and then had a BBQ with family and watched the fireworks. This is a short video of tidbits from the parade.

Fireworks

2009-07-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

Here we are enjoying the fireworks. I love the cropped photo of Matt and baby Sam! Beautiful!

Playing in the yard

2009-07-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

Here is Brendan playing outside with a storm headed our way. We have had a lot of those this summer!

2009-07-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Matt! We hope you have a great dinner and a great day!!!!!!!!!

2009-07-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Jenny! We hope you are having a great day!
Can't wait to see you for your Birthday/Anniversary fireworks!

Ava's Kindergarten Graduation

2009-06-24T06:21:00.000-07:00

I made this video for Ava. I'll have to give it to her when she graduates high school! It's kind of corny, but it sure will be neat to look back on it in the years to come.

Jenny and Jessie and kids, thank you for coming over Monday. Ava was thrilled. We'll have to get together for a day at the beach soon!

Fishing

2009-06-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

Today Grandma (Mom) called and said that she was taking Georgia and Josie fishing for awhile, so we decided to stop over and say hello. It was a beautiful day and the kids caught many small fish while we were there and probaly many more after we left! Georgia did very well as you can see. By the time Josie was brave enough to fish the batteries died in my camera so I didn't get a shot of her first catch. I think that she was afraid that she was going to catch a huge fish that would pull her in. Ava even got chance to catch a couple of fish and she was thrilled. Russell was a pro with the worms and taking the fish off the hooks! He is growing up so fast!

2009-06-14T15:20:00.000-07:00