Jace's Pre School graduation

Jace has finished his first year of pre school! He made lots of friends and is just sure that the minute he turns 5 in Oct. he'll join them in kindergarten. I've tried several times to explain that he has to wait until the following year and that they'll always be a year ahead of him but, after a few times...... Here he is waiting for the program to start, he's sitting next to his friend Noah. They sang several songs that they've learned throughout the year and unlike at the Christmas program, he sang! It was a cute program and Mrs. Natalie had previously asked each of the kids questions about themselves. Jace said that he wanted to be a pilot when he grows up and that his favorite color is blue, yellow, green, and orange! She also had them share something they've learned through the year and she said that something they say at the end of every class is, "Adios Amigos." Jace came to the microphone to tell us that this meant, 'goodbye my friends.'

Here he is being presented with his pre school diploma..........

He took some flowers to give to Mrs. Natalie after the program to thank her for being such a great teacher! Here they are together. We are happy that Jace will be in her pre school class again next year!

Jace has come along way this past year. He started out being a shy little stinker that wouldn't talk to other adults or sing in the Christmas program, to a handsome little guy that talked into the microphone during the program (okay, he's still shy around other adults)! He has learned to write his name and he will always point out on a bag, bottle or anything that has the recycle symbol on it, that it says to recycle! He's learned to count t0 20 in Spanish, by 10's to 100 and can't count by 1's to 56 without messing up! He's well on his way to being ready for kindergarten ~ too bad he's not going with all his friends. shhhh, but don't tell him that!

Egg drop project

Emily's final project before moving on to Jr. High was to create a holder for a raw egg that when dropped, the egg wouldn't crack! I had seen these huge marshmallows in wal-mart and when she was talking about what she wanted to do, I ran to get some! She took a shoe box and lined the inside with these giant marshmallows. In between the marshmallows, she put a large plastic Easter egg, which would hold the raw egg. She lined the inside of the Easter egg with little marshmallows.

and just added marshmallows all over.

She took more of the ginormous marshmallows and attached them to the outside of the box, for cushion on impact. Here she is with her creation, which she named Meggie!

I went to the school to see if her egg survived or not. Here is the guy dropping 'Meggie' from his bucket lift/boom truck. Look closely and you'll see Meggie, just below his hand after letting go.

The moment of impact, all the marshmallows came flying off....... It really hit hard!

Here she is ready to open the box to see if Meggie kept the egg intact.

The moment of truth............ Sadly, her egg didn't make it!

This was a fun little project, even if her egg didn't survive! It was fun to go see all the other creations her fellow classmates came up with. I really thought she had a great idea, what's softer than marshmallows? I think Meggie was so heavy that when it hit, it hit hard and even the marshmallows couldn't soften the blow! People in the audience watching even cringed when it hit, myself included! She did receive the award for most creative 'holder' for the egg and was given a LARGE candy bar!! Nice job, Emily, at least we had a fun time with this one!!

Caught in between 10 and 20

Makenna celebrated her 15th birthday the day after our anniversary and I must say, 15 years ago she was the best anniversary gift EVER! I forgot to take my camera to dinner but she wanted to go to Johnny Carinos, the Italian nachos are her favorite! When we got home, she opened presents and we had cake! Here she is with some of her gifts, she already had a few we brought home from New York. Unwrapping.......

We found this matted print in New York and I found a frame for it. Any of you that know Kenna, knows that she LOVES shoes and the higher the heel, the better!

After opening presents, the little kids all wanted their picture taken with her sitting on her lap. It was amusing when Chris decided he did too!

Makenna doesn't really like cake but loves cookies and cream ice cream. I found the cookies and creamery cold stone ice cream cake! It was delicious!

Blowing out the candles....

It is such a delight to have Kenna in our family. She is a great big sister and she's so much fun! When she gets on a cleaning roll, there is no stopping her (those are my favorite days)! Happy birthday Kenna! We love you!

19 years!

19 years ago, I married the most amazing man ever! I challenge any girl to find a man that's even half the person he is! I am truly blessed to be able to share this life and eternity with him! This is what we looked like 19 years ago.......

How we have changed.............
In keeping with the past few years tradition, here are 19 reasons why I love this man!

1. Lindsay
2. Makenna
3. Emily
4. Alison
5. Baylie
6. Jace
7. He always puts mine and the kids' needs above his own
8. He makes me laugh
9. He loves and serves the Lord
10. He's an amazing dad (and the favorite parent of all 6 kids)
11. Works hard to provide for us
12. He sets a good example of how to live
13. He helps the kids with their math (because they know I can't)
14. He gets breakfast ready every morning, even if it's just cold cereal or toast
15. He waits up for the kids to come home at night (I usually fall asleep)
16. He unloads the dishwasher every morning, so it's ready to be reloaded through the day
17. He is unselfish
18. He treats me like a princess
19. He helps with all the household chores without complaining!

It has been a wonderful 19 years, and I am grateful everyday for Chris (some days I might not act like it). I'm thankful for the man that he is and for the quiet example he sets for me. I am blessed to have found a man that treats me with kindness, respect and one that puts up with me! I can't imagine what my life would be without him in it!

New York City

For our anniversary, we took a trip to New York City. Neither of us had been there before so it was a fun experience. I can't say it was a vacation, as everything and everyone in NYC is moving full speed ahead all day long and well into the night! Horns are constantly honking, thousands of people moving at a quick pace and it was just amazing to see how different our lives are from theirs. We left on Wednesday May 11th and returned on Sunday the 15th. We definitely couldn't possibly see all the NYC has to offer in a few short days but we did our best to see what we could! I took 249 pictures total so to condense to just a few for this post was hard! These photos are in no particular order - I did think this first picture was an appropriate choice to start with...... We got around Manhattan mostly using the hop on hop off double decker tour bus. It would stop randomly and you could either stay on or get off and explore then wait for another bus to come along.

There was an M&M's world store just one block from our hotel, of course we had to go in and get some! So many colors to choose from!

One of the things we planned before leaving was seeing the musical 'Wicked.' It was more than worth the $$ we spent on tickets and I would have been happy to see it again, on this same trip! I've been searching online to see where else it's playing, somewhere closer so I can go again and take the girls! That's how much I LOVED it! We also saw, "Phantom of the Opera" and "RAIN, a tribute to the Beatles." Both were fantastic!

Sitting in the Gershwin Theatre with my playbill

We went to the 'top of the Rock' observation deck~ man, what a view! Here is Central Park with the city surrounding.....

The Empire State building

Central Park, again

We took the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty...... She's much smaller than I thought she would be.

This is what will be the new 'Freedom Tower' at ground zero!

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge

Here is one of the ponds in Central Park, it's the same pond where part of the 'stuart little' movie was filmed.

We took a pedicab ride through Central Park (poor guy that had to pull us around all afternoon)

Standing in front of the 'mall' in Central Park

The "friends" fountain. This is where the beginning of the show 'friends' was taped.

other fun things we saw...... the late night theatre

American Stock Exchange..........

Radio City Music Hall, where the rockettes perform

St. Pauls Cathedral - the largest Catholic Church in the world

We went into FAO Schwarz where I got to play on the piano from the movie "big"

The 'flat iron building' - it's located at the start of the financial district.

Broadway...

The Hershey's store in Times Square

In the middle of Times Square........ I love this guy!

We had such an amazing trip, I can't wait to go back! NYC has so much to do and see, I think it would take quite a few trips to see it all. We did shop along Canal street and scored some cute purses for the girls and the food is excellent! It was a great way to spend our 19th anniversary! This was, believe it or not, the first trip we have ever taken together that was just us. We've gone plenty of places but we've always gone with people, it was nice to have Chris all to myself for a few days! I wonder what our 20 year anniversary will bring???

Commencement 2011

Last night was the commencement dance for the high school. Lindsay was asked by a young man named, Alfredo, who is a foreign exchange student from Mexico. We took her up to her friend Avery's house to wait for their dates to pick them up and take a few pictures. This is probably my favorite picture of Lindsay of all the commencement pictures I took!

Here she is just after arriving at Avery's house. Besties ~

A shot outside...... still waiting for their dates.

We thought we were going to get their just a few minutes before the boys came, but we ended up waiting about 30 minutes so we took a ton of pictures of the girls together.

Waiting some more........

Lindsay and her parents. I have to point out that the ONLY reason Lindsay is taller than me in this photo is because she is wearing heals and I was barefoot!

The girls went upstairs to wait for their dates, here they are coming down the stairs once the boys got there.

Lindsay pinning the boutonniere on Alfredo

Sliding her corsage on her wrist.

The two girls, showing off their corsages. Notice the pearls in with Lindsay's roses and the jewels in Averys. They were gorgeous!!

A group shot that none of them was ready for.

A few more before they go

a close up

On their way out the door

And, they're off!

These dances are always so fun for me! I love picking out her dresses, helping her get ready to go and of course, I LOVE taking pictures. She always tells me I take way too many but I want to make sure I've got plenty for her to look back on and remember details! She looked gorgeous and I'm thankful she puts up with me making such a big deal out of things!