Elisa's 6-year portraits

 Oh, boy.  Here's one of those rare photo sessions where almost every one of the pictures turn out print-worthy!  It also helps to have a beautiful little model! She was such a good girl. I love and hate these types of awesome sessions at the same time--it makes it so hard for me to choose! Luckily, they offer collages, so that is what I got! Plus a couple other prints.
 I stupidly left the dress I intended her to wear at home.  Ugh! But the photographer said I could borrow one from the racks! Haha, that is what I did! We hid the tags. Seriously, sometimes I'm such a dummy.  Also this is why I love getting portraits taken at JCPenney, because I tend to to stupid things like forgetting her dress, and they have clothes I can borrow (or buy, like when I bought Gabe's suit for our Christmas portraits last year), unlike most portrait studios. Here are the pictures, I'll try to refrain from commenting on every photo because they are all so CUTE!  

 Oh, I love her beautiful, delicate profile!!

 My fav, hanging on our wall.  I think possibly my favorite of her, like, ever!

 I love this one too.  I tried to paint it, but I can't paint. 

Oh, I just love them all.  But especially her.  I love Elisa. We love Elisa.  I can't believe she's already 6! She's growing up so perfect!

Fun with Grandparents!

I think this was Memorial day weekend, back in May.  My memory is a little fuzzy one the "why", but Grandma and Grandpa came down for a visit for a day or two and then we drove up to their house for a day or two.  We also got to visit my dad in Cedar City on a Sunday.  The kids sure had fun! Elisa loves her Grandpa Rick so much that she is literally attached to him 95% of the time.  She would probably attach herself to me (more than she already does) but I don't let her, haha!

I really don't remember much of what we did (it was probably mostly hanging around the house) but here are a few pictures:

A short stop to Dollar Tree to shower Elisa in gifts.

Eating at Logan's Roadhouse.  Yum!

Well, I do remember that we met up with Brenda at her ex-daughter in law's house (that happened to be right across the street from where we used to live in Peoria).  She randomly and unexpectedly hopped into our car and we were on our way to Ikea, so we took her with, haha! It was family day at Ikea, which meant that we all got to eat for FREE! Yay! I love family days at Ikea! We bought Gabe a new dresser there.  It was actually Ian who needed a new dresser, but we figured that Gabe's dresser was too small for him anyway, so we picked out a nice, big dresser.  Which means that now we need to get Gabe a new bed because his new dresser is black and his bed is brown and they don't match well at all! I can't wait till the next Ikea family day.   

Yum! 

Elisa and her favorite person

After Ikea we dropped the dresser (still packaged and not put together) off at our house, dropped Brenda off, and headed to St. George to hang out at Grandma and Grandpa's house! Elisa rode in Grandma and Grandpa's car, so it was a nice, quiet drive for us! 

Ian at the McDonald's we stopped at on our way up to Utah.

Some pictures from when we were at my Dad's house Sunday:

A huge hole my dad dug in his backyard.  For what? Your guess is as good as mine.  Okay, it was something about water storage...errr...like a swimming hole? So not a good idea to have this in one's backyard, me thinks.

Pretty Elisa in her pretty new dress, and a matching dolly!

Serving up Elisa some blue jello!

Gabe and Daddy playing a game back at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Three cuties on a bed! And one asleep! 

Trampoline time

Swim time! Its always swim time when we're at Grandma and Grandpas' in the summer! Seriously, Elisa is obsessed with swimming!

After a long drive home, we stopped in Peoria for some pizza at Barro's.  Yum!

We had a fun little trip! It is so nice to live in Phoenix now so we can make visits like this!

May Randomness

 Awww, look what I found in my bed! A sleeping Gabe! From Gabe: i cant remember if i was faking or not
From Mommy: He was not faking!

*********************************************************************************

 Elisa at her 6-year checkup with the pediatrician.  She is growing up so nice! A little skinny, but nice!

*********************************************************************************
One of the weekends in May we went camping:

All tired and stinky from camping.  I got Erik a new tent for his birthday and this was the first time we got to use it.  We enjoyed s'mores, the fire, and fun under the stars! We did not enjoy huge jumbo-sized ants, the fact we weren't dressed warm enough, and the rain waking us up in the middle of the night because we left the cover off the tent.  I was actually sleeping soundly when I woke up with a start from water dropping on me.  I could not for the life of me get myself to fall asleep again after that.  And Ian was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt for bed and it got down to 50 degrees or so.  He was a little icecube when I put in next to me in bed in the middle of the night!

We saw a dude get in a bicycle accident.  Well, Erik did anyway.  It happened right in front of us but I was asleep.  I woke up when Erik gasped, just in time to see this bicyclist rolling head over heels (literally) across the street right in front of our car. Erik saw the whole accident (I guess a car pulled out in front of him too far, and he tried to avoid a head-on collision with the car so instead he swerved and lost his balance and tumbled across the street instead).  The dude was fine, probably fractured something but it could have been much worse.  Especially if we didn't stop the car, haha! Erik got to be an official witness.  

Poor guy.  Kind of embarrassing, but he got lots of care.

*********************************************************************************

Awww, a cute boo-boo-butt on Gabe's bed!

*********************************************************************************

Me and my adorable grumpus-wumpus Ian

*********************************************************************************

 I got a custom order from my Etsy shop (which is now closed). I opened my shop for again after a long time, and got two orders within a couple days of each other, and this was one of them.  A Pinkalicious dress.  So cute!!
 
*********************************************************************************

My pretty princess

*********************************************************************************

My cutie in her new ensemble! I love this vest on her!

*********************************************************************************

We had a photography learning session one night for our Young Women's activity.  I got a couple of goof shots and this was one of them! I forgot everything I've learned since then.  I've accepted the fact I will never be a good photographer.

*********************************************************************************

I took Gabe to DI and let him pick out something for himself.  He found a Mario figurine.  You can see how happy he was to get it.  He even paid for it out of his own pocket!

*********************************************************************************

When we lived in Peoria 5 years ago, the only Cafe Rio was in Mesa, a whole hour away.  Now that we've moved back, they're popping up all over the place! We have one right around the corner from us.  I got a hold of some VIP passes to free meals at the grand opening for a Cafe Rio in Peoria, not far from where we lived years ago. I don't know what took them so long to finally bring more Cafe Rio's to the Phoenix area! We have Cafe Rio at least once a month here. YUM!

*********************************************************************************

Two cuties in the pool! Not much else to say!

 I bought Ian a little water table from Toys R Us.  He really likes it!

*********************************************************************************

 I took these cuties to Johnny Rockets after getting Elisa's portraits taken.  I like going there because the kids eat free and its literally only a couple dollars more than McDonald's for a SIT DOWN restaurant, shakes and tip included! And much better food!

*********************************************************************************

Elisa, all tired out from her first sleepover! I was sent pictures and I stupidly didn't save them so they are gone now, but she had a great time with her friend, Baylee, who lives just around the corner.  She obviously didn't get much sleep because she crashed on the couch when she got home.

*********************************************************************************

Elisa and her new swimsuit and mermaid tail! She loves the mermaid tail!

Our Sweet, Smart Ian

Here are some cute videos of Ian from the month of May.  He is so SO smart! He obsesses over his letters and numbers all day and knows them backwards and forwards!

So smart!

My favorite video of Ian ever! 

We love this goofball boy!

The Last Day of School

 I cannot believe the school year is over already! Where did the time go?? Well, I guess that is what this blog is for--to answer that question!  The kids had a great school year and learned so much! They also grew a lot! Their last day was a big, fun party!  Gabe had a pizza party with games and Elisa had a carnival party.

The kids on their first day of 2nd grade and Kindergarten, and the kids on their last day! See how they've grown!

Elisa and her friend, Savannah, at their kindergarten carnival

Gabe in his classroom.

Eating pizza with a grumpy look on his face

Ian enjoying a popsicle

Gabe and his second grade class

 v41

Gabe and his teacher, Ms. Albanesious.  She won't be coming back to teach, unfortunately.

Ian's heaven: big number blocks!

Gabe playing his Star Wars Loopin' Chewie game with some classmates

Elisa with her friend, Ginger.  Ginger is also in her Sunday School class and lives in our neighborhood! 

I think the kids had a great school year.  They've learned and grown so much.  They both really liked their teachers and so did I.  I'm happy to say that they've made lots of friends, especially Elisa!  I cannot believe how quickly the school year went by! Ahhh these kids are growing up way too fast! I love them so much!