Loose Hips

My baby sure can shake what his mama gave him. He loves listening to tunes on the ipod. This video is funny until his big brother tries to help him put the bud back in his ear. Just stop watching as soon as it falls out!!

Wild, Sassy, Funny Five Year Old

These are back from Aubrey's birthday (June 13th). We took her by herself for an afternoon. She chose to have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. She loves the thai lettuce wraps-me too. She was so excited for this day and was in her spazzy mode. She was bouncing around, trying to be funny and kept asking when they were going to sing to her with the ice cream in a wine glass. It was fun for us too. Just having one child is so crazy different. We actually have time to let them finish telling a story.

Is this the freakiest long little girl tongue that you've ever seen? She's very proud of it. Next time you see her, ask if she can touch her nose with it!
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Next we headed to Build-a-Bear Workshop. If you've ever been there, they do this whole "cutesy" thing with the kids when they stuff the bear. They have the kid hold a heart and tell them to kiss it, rub it on their nose, do a little dance, spin around etc. Kinda cute for a little one that isn't way too self conscious for her years. Everything the girl told her to do Aubrey would look all embarrassed and say "um, no. I don't want to". The chick was confused, most little girls must eat this up.
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Then you get to give your bear a bath. It's actually an air bath. Being the little OCD germophobe that she is, this may have been Aubrey's favorite part. She really got into it and could have gone on for another 20 minutes if we let her.

The finished product. She dressed her in a very fancy pink ballet outfit. Sparkles Rose Mitchell, welcome to our family.

Poor little spazz. She burned out. All that bouncing and talking and bear-cleaning and sugar eating and lotion sniffing (bath and body works stop). We all three had so much fun. Until next year, my wild little girl. :)

Summerness

A few pictures from our super busy, super fun summer. So far.... We stayed a few days out near The Marsh family + Nathan and Steph. Nathan got us a room through his work so it really felt vacationish. It was very nice.

We spent a day at the beach.

You can't visit the beach without turning someone into a sand mermaid. Seaweed nipples are mandatory.

Trev was in the water most of the day. He loves it. He'd probably be a surfer if we lived close enough.

They are all so quiet and busy at the beach. I love it. I just wish there was grass to sit on instead of sand. The stuff drives me crazy.

In our room.

Aubrey and Isaac's favorite thing to do together....dress up in princess costumes and watch Barbie movies. FANTASTIC

We went camping at Lake Piru at the end of June with John and Emily. John rented a pontoon boat. It was really fun. The kids fished and took turns driving, then we all jumped off and went swimming. It was definitely a highlight of the trip.

Captain Aubrey. She was a nervous driver.

All packed in. We have almost too much stuff to fit in our van when we camp. It was a long drive and the boys had sleeping bags and pillows all over them. Toward the end of the drive Clayton started freaking out and trying to get everything away from him and wanted us to pull over. It was really funny....I know how he feels. I get claustrophobic sometimes too. We were just down the street from the campground though, so he didn't suffer too long! Ha Ha

Isaac and Bella relaxing in the jacuzzi. She likes it and starts falling asleep!
So this is some of what we've been up to lately. So much more to come!

More Ballet

Aubrey and her teacher Miss Rebekah

Aubrey's Ballet Recital

Not the greatest video. She is the fifth one from the right side. Pretty much in the middle. It was such a good experience for her. She wasn't nervous or scared at all. I sure would have been. She just basked in all of the attention and can't wait until her next show. She was a little disappointed that we didn't get her a bouquet of roses like all of the grown-up ballerinas had. Whoops. Nanny wanted to get her some and I said it was unnecessary. We were all very proud of her and glad she loves it so much.

My Big 10 Year Old

Wow. Just 3 years until the teens. Can't believe he's ten. He had quite an exciting birthday. He got a Nintendo DS, finally! We told him back in December that if he saved $50 by May, Nanny & Gramps + us would pay the rest for him to get one. Well I think we all heard about how much he had saved thus far everyday since then. It was a good lesson in hard work and money saving. So the day finally came and Nanny showed up bright and early, and off they went to have breakfast and Ds shopping. He was sooo excited.

On Saturday family came and we BBQed and hung out. The boys slept outside in our tent and all played DS until they couldn't see straight. Uncle John and Auntie Em got him a basketball hoop and a ball (now he's complete), Uncle Nathan and Auntie Steph gave him Laker's sweatshirt and shirt, Mitchell grandparents gave him a Lakers wallet with bucks for another game, Cole and Ethan gave him 2 DS games. He was totally in his element. All he asks for in life are: food, family+friends, Lakers/basketball, video games (pretty much). He's very loved:)

Mamma's Night out

These pictures were from Mother's Day. Cindy(Jeff's mom), My mom, my sis and I went to Victoria Garden's and had a night out. We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (oh yum) and shopped a little bit, then we went to a comedy show at the little theater there. It was so funny. I don't usually like stand-up comedy, but this was great. It was 3 women that are in different stages of motherhood. All three of them cracked us up. Then we finished the wild night at Starbucks. It was really a good time.

Long Beach Aquarium

We went to the aquarium back in April. It was the first time we'd taken the kids and all four of them loved it. Jeff and I did too. Jeff did not love petting the stingrays, and neither did Clayton. They were both kinda creeped out, but after about 10 minutes of all of us petting them they both barely touched them.

The lorakeets ,or whatever you call them, were a highlight. They were landing all over everyone. Isaac was trying to catch them, even after one bit his finger pretty hard. I was crackin up.

I have a lot a bad dreams about these guys.....

I love this picture!!! The sea lions were another favorite of ours. It was a very fun day.

Breakfast in Bed

So on Mother's Day and Father's Day it's our little thing to let the honoree sleep in and the other person, along with the kids, make breakfast in bed for them. We try to make things that we've never made before to keep it exciting. So this Mother's Day I was relaxing in bed, reading a book and smelling something good cooking. I noticed that a few of the kids kept coughing. Then I heard Jeff coughing too. It started sounding like a choking type cough, so I peeked out to see what was up. Jeff told me that something he was "sauteing" was making them cough. Hmmmm. Jalapenos probably. So when they all proudly came into my room with my beautiful breakfast I was ready to eat. There was a nice display of fruit, an omelet and a cup of tea. I took one bite of my omelet and almost instantly I had heart burn and my throat, mouth & gums were burning. I can handle a good amount of heat, I put hot sauce and red chili flakes on everything, but my sweet, adventurous husband used a habenero chili. One of those little orange ones with a warning sign near them. STINKIN HOT!! I couldn't eat it. So sadly, I had to return it and wait for another one (not sad really, I got a lot of reading in) It was funny and I'll always remember it. Jeffrey may do a little research on his chilies next time. :)

Little Mommy

There are so many times when Aubrey mothers Isaac. She'll pick out his clothes, brush his teeth and hair, put on his shoes, feed him a snack and on and on. She sometimes puts him to sleep at off times when I wouldn't even think he was tired. On this day she put him in the rocking chair and started singing. She kept it up for probably 15 minutes and out he went. It's so nice for me to have a little nanny around :)

Get me out of the House!!!

It was one of those days when we both knew that we all needed to be out of the house...all day long. So we went to a preserve in Morongo Valley to hike. The kids and I had gone a few weeks back with our homeschool group and had a nice time so we decided to show the Dad. It proved to be just what we all needed. He looks so soft and gentle in this picture. Pictures lie!

A lot of the trails were wooden paths that go over a marsh. It's supposedly one of the biggest places for bird watching. Different species come from all over. We didn't see anything amazing though.

Our Big Girl

Aubrey has been hitting some milestones lately and it's freaking me out. She's growing up way too fast. This last couple of weeks she started riding her bike without training wheels and can tie her shoes. We are all so proud of her:) Please ignore all the junk in our backyard-it's been windy and we haven't done any yard work in months!!

Dudes in the Desert

A few weeks ago Scott, Jeff, Trevor, Clayton and Wyatt along with a group of guys from Scott's work went on a 4x4/camping/rock hunting trip. They drove on the Bradshaw Trail which has some history, but I couldn't give a very accurate lesson. I guess I should google it. Any how, it was a very long drive, around 70 miles on a dirt road. The boys were able to take turns riding on the back of Grandpa's dirt bike and steering the truck with Jeff. That helped the 7 hours pass! They had soooo much stuff they brought and only stayed one night. The end destination was a campground out in the middle of no where. They say it was really beautiful.

Along the way were a bunch of old missiles. Very exciting for a caravan of testosterone.

Clayton and Gramps

This was an old railroad used for mining. Notice how far off the ground it is and how if I was there the picture 5 spots down would not have happened.

The Three Amigos in all their glory!!!

The next day they went to a place in Blythe to hunt for geods(sp?) Scott's become quite an expert in rock and gem finding.

This is the picture that would've never been had I come along. This track is so high up. Glad they all survived. I guess it's good to have the balance of moms over protection, and dads letting boys be boys.

You can take Wyatt 70 miles into nowhere and he'll still find a way to do something crazy. He's a funny one. How many people do you think he scared? They all had a blast and came home exhausted and filthy :)