Sweet Brothers

I'm excited for the years to come when these two will play together. I got a little sneak peak of that today. So sweet! 

I'm sure their sister's are happy too. Especially since Brandon is always, and I quote, "messing things up". 

Malibu Beach Day

There are a lot of things I do with my kids and a lot of places I'm willing to take them. The beach....has not ever been one of them. I think I've gone just a handful of times since having kids and definitely never with all four kids without Paul. But when my friend, Camille, emailed me yesterday and said they were going, I couldn't pass it up. She has four kids herself as does my other friend Genine, who also came with us and who goes all the time. So I thought since I didn't have any other plans, I might as well give it a try. 

Well, I am very happy to say that it was quite the success. I let go of trying to keep everyone half way clean, and just let them enjoy themselves. They got nasty sticky dirty, but had a blast and I dare say I might even go again. Not every week, but at least once more before the summer is over. The hardest part was definitely getting everyTHING and everyone back to the car (this would be a time where I wish my boys were older than my girls for "muscle help"), but all things considering, it went pretty well. 

I couldn't be luckier with this little guy lately. He was so happy to just sit and play in the sand under the umbrella. He got a bit fussy for a little while, but after a short stint in the sun and wading in the water, he was good to go back to his spot under the shade. And he was nice enough to wait to have his dirty diaper until we left so I could change him in the car and not in the sand. Thanks my little man. 

When did Brandon start looking so old? I'm not quite sure. But he is definitely a cutie and had a blast getting dirty and even venturing into the water some. 

 This girl has come quite the distance since her baby days when I would take her to the beach, just her and me, and she would cry and scream if even one grain of sand touched her. She loves the beach now and was so good to keep her hat on so her poor little head and face were protected from the sun. She's so fair, I always worry about her getting too burnt.

Now Leah has always loved the beach. Loves the sand, loves the water, soaks it all in and can stay forever! 

Carrie and Annie (sisters). Carrie is pregnant with her 3rd baby. Due beginning of December. She has two girls, so hears hoping for a little boy for her.

Allegra (Carrie's little girl) and Sariah (Genine's little girl) and Isabella (Genine's other little girl) and Holland (Camille's little girl) in the background. Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of all the older kids but in total there were 16 kids and 5 adults. Quite a group.

Genine and Camille

Thanks for the fun days girls. And thanks for the push to get me there. I'm glad I went.

4th of July Celebration

This year we headed out to the same park we went to last year. It definitely gets packed, but it's pretty low key and relaxing. We have a nice little spot we've found. We just set up our blankets and chairs, let the kids run around and play and enjoy hanging out and chatting.

I was worried about how Carter would do, but he did great. He hung out by me on the blanket and crawled around. He LOVED the fireworks and then drifted off to sleep on the walk back to the car. The rest of the kids had a blast too! I'm sure we'll be heading back there again next year.

See those cute little teeth up top. Yeah, he has EIGHT of them. Crazy huh!

The Three Musketeers. 

Tina and her cute little Emberlynn. Just 7 weeks old and out enjoying the evening. 

Michalle and Allie and baby brother soon to be making his debut.

Oh look at that tired little face. He was exhausted, but still totally into watching the fireworks. 

Brandon LOVED the fireworks too. He was our running commentary with all his oohs and ahhs!

Thanks everyone who came out. We had fun celebrating with you!

First time swimming

This was actually from a few weeks ago, but I had to document the first time Carter went to the pool. I was a little nervous for him because for some reason our pool isn't heated right now. They usually start heating it on Memorial Day. But thankfully it wasn't too chilly as the sun has already warmed it up quite a bit.

The initial shock into the water wasn't that exciting for Carter, but once he got comfy in his little floaty, he really started enjoying it. He loves to splash in the water and twirl around. It's quite nice for me to have him like the water. I can float around him and play with the girls and he just stays content. He'll last for about an hour to an hour and a half, which is perfect timing because much longer than that and my girls start to get burnt (even with sunscreen on).

Notice Brandon is not in any of the pictures. Yeah, that's because he STILL doesn't like the pool. He prefers to spend his time on the sidelines with his super soakers. He'll occasionally get his feet wet and will sometimes sit in the hot pool for a bit, but other than that, he won't get in. 

It looks like I'm getting after Brandon in this picture. Probably telling him to stop running or something like that. Ha...pretty funny! I spend a lot of time doing that. Silly boy.

Another day, another outing

After going to the Demo Class for Ladybug Music this morning (which was totally fun. Thanks Beth), I decided to take the kids over to Travel Town. It was only a few minutes away and the kids had a blast. There aren't too many trains you can actually get on anymore, but they still think it's pretty cool. We walked around, rode on the kiddie train, played in the exhibit hall and then ended up at McDonald's for lunch.

 Sweet, Sassy, and Fierce

aka: Ashlyn, Leah and Brandon

The kids were having fun jumping off this bench over and over and OVER again. I tried to get a picture, but the delay on the camera on my phone was just too slow.

Another "Encino Girls" B-day Celebration

This is my friend Emily. She's cool! Like way cooler than me (which I guess isn't that hard to do but still). She always picks the funnest places to go for her Birthday celebration. Last night we went down to Hollywood to eat at the famous "Umami Burger". It was voted the best burger place in the country. Or something crazy like that. It was good. REALLY good! I got a truffle burger. I wasn't even sure what it was going to taste like. And I'm not sure what other sauce was on it besides the truffle cheese, but it was GOOD!

Then we headed over to the Arclight Dome to see "Super 8". It's like a cross between Goonies, Stand by Me, and ET (gone crazy). It was intense. But REALLY fun! We all loved it. 

But I had to go home and ask Paul why it was named "Super 8" since there weren't 8 kids in it. I guess it was referencing the kind of movies they made back in the day (like the 1970's days). I should have known that. Oh well!

Me and cute Beth, who is pregnant with her third baby. A little boy. I'm always so glad to get to go out with these girls because it doesn't happen very often. Thank goodness for Birthdays. We missed Brooke (who is home with her adorable newborn), and Jackie (who went to the wrong theater), and of course Renee (who moved to UT). You were with us in spirit girls!

There is not a single healthy thing on that table huh?! Not even lettuce or tomatoes on our burgers. Pretty bad huh! But we didn't care.

The LA Zoo

Was HOT today. But the kids still had fun "monkeying" around. I think they were more active than any of the animals were. See for yourself.

In other news, the girls are doing FANTASTIC at swim lessons. And I am enjoying the 8:10 am session because that means DADDY can take them and I can stay home with the boys. Yahoo! Not that I don't love watching them. But being at the Aquatic Center with two little boys who get easily bored, doesn't leave much time for watching my girls swim anyway. Mostly I just chase Brandon. So I am VERY grateful Paul is taking them this summer. 

Ashlyn is there in the middle of the pool with her instructor. She swam out there all by her self, treaded water for 30 seconds and then swam all the way back. When asked how she felt about doing it, she said, "I thought I was going to drown". 

Leah, is moving on up these days. To the deep pool that is. Up until now she has been at the waterslide pool. Today she moved over to the Dive pool. When asked how she likes being at the deep pool, she says, "I like it a lot!" 

We are so proud!

Brandon...well, we registered him, but if you keep up with my FB page, you know he growled at his teacher and threw toys in the pool the first day. Then the next day he refused to even get in the car to go. We decided to cut our losses, get what money back that we could and try again next summer. He just isn't ready to tackle that one yet. He's never been a big fan of the pool. Best not to push him just yet.


This last picture is of the kids right before leaving from my canning day with Kristina.
I just thought they looked cute sitting in the leaves.