shark beach day!!

We had fun at the beach. Nice and relaxing! Abigail has a huge bathing suit line and Emma is getting really tan. Little California girls! There was a news crew there....I wondered why. I guess a boater saw a shark right between the piers of Avila and Port San Luis. Hmmm.....right where we were! Well, the girls weren't really in the water much- good thing! I didn't know about it until I got home and looked it up!

And in other news, we are getting an Old Navy! Well, officially it is in San Luis. But close enough! It is supposed to open mid-summer! Exciting!!

random is a great word

I was just cleaning up the kitchen and wondering if, because I finally put the blender away, that means Todd will want to start making smoothies for breakfast again. It always seems to work that way! Oh well, if so, no biggie. :)

We got our first netflix movies yesterday! So exciting. And sorry, I forgot to give anyone referral credit. Oops! So later tonight, I am so excited to watch our first movie! I just finished reading Elisabeth Elliot's Through the Gates of Splendor. So, we're going to watch the documentary "Beyond the Gates of Splendor". And next, The End of the Spear! So exciting. I am on a missionary story kick. It is amazing to read about people who give up all to make known the Name of Christ!

And on a lighter note, tomorrow is a beach day. Avila, here we come. It should be fun...

And next week: I have another ultrasound! So we'll get to see the baby again and make sure she is, in fact, a girl. Speaking of which, names are eluding us! Number 4!! Note to self (and everyone else take note) don't use all names you like on middle names!!!

That's all for now. love.

on 5 years

I have been planning on writing a thoughtful blog since June 5, which was our 5 year anniversary as Californians. I know the exact date because I remember waking up in the hotel, turning on the TV, and watching all the news coverage about the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart. June 5, 2002. But all thoughtfulness has escaped me. So, instead I will just post these few little sentences as a small reflection on 5 years.

the lemon tree, an update

Remember my old post My Lemon Tree? Well, I thought you might like to see what it looks like now. Amazing. We even had to prune off a couple of fairly large "branches" a couple of weeks ago. Imagine that! That tree was so dead 2 months ago that I was considering digging it out, and now it is so full of life and growth that we already had to cut some growth off so that the higher branches could get stronger. I love it.

oh, yesterday

And Happy Father's Day! Todd started the morning out surfing with Erik, Eva and I met them at the beach. It is always an amazing way to start the day, an early morning at the beach! Followed by burritos at Taco's, fresh strawberries from the good stand off 13th, and an afternoon in their lovely garden...and ending the day with an official date night! It was a fabulous Father's Day altogether on our end. Todd even liked the book I got him. Well, it is by John Piper, so how could he not? (right baby?)

the new adventures of old Ruff-Ruff

Here's sweety pie Ab sleeping with old Ruff-Ruff. I love that she loves this raggedy old dog! It merits a quote from my all-time favorite children's book, The Velveteen Rabbit:

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a
long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or
have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you
are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you
get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all,
because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't
understand."

Ah, the joys of childhood. Speaking of the real-ness of toys, I have to tell you this funny story. The girls were eating their Happy Meals the other day, when Todd walked in on them whispering very excitedly. Apparently, they thought their toys were alive!! They said "The hands were low before, but now they are high, so that means they moved when we weren't watching! They are really alive!" Pretty silly.

it must run in the family

Bella came running in the house Saturday with one of Todd's golf clubs from the garage. He'd been watching some golf, which gave Isabella the grand idea that they should play some. She wanted to go to the park and golf like the guys on TV, but the backyard had to due. Here's dad teaching her the way to hold the club (even though she thinks it works better another way!!)

you can't tell me this isn't cute

A cell phone pic from the drive in the other night. Emma and Elliot in the backseat. Should we encourage this? It is all innocent at this point. Erik.

but I thought....

Well, we thought the last day of school was supposed to be Friday....but.....eh, why not take a day off to hit the beach?? Some of our friends are already out....and what's the use of homeschooling, anyways- if we can't be flexible. I'm sure we learned SOMETHING!

So. It was a gorgeous Central Coast day, perfect for the beach. To Avila we went. Played on the beach, played in the water, got really sandy. And then we decided to go berry picking at the local farm. Raspberries and Olallieberries. They smell delicious in the berry-peach cobbler that just popped out of the oven.

Todd is off at youth group helping out tonight....I am babysitting Elliot....but all the kids are sleeping. Yay! So it is an early night for me to relax and relax, and to check out this new website a friend recommended. goodnight!

ALmost summer.

Last week of school! Last week of school! Yay!! We are so looking forward to being free from our computer and doing whatever we want to all day long! Friday is our official last day, even thought I already got Bella's report card a couple of weeks ago....hmmmm.

So, camping was amazing. It was relaxing and surprising. We had a total of 9 kids and it was ACTUALLY relaxing. They had such a great time. The only thing that was a little weird was the local wildlife. And by wildlife, I mean the squirrels and birds. One day we saw a squirrel chewing a hole in a neighbor's tent. First, I tried throwing some little sticks at him. But he and his gang brother buddy just turned and starred at me. I was afraid! Then, Todd tried sling-shotting a rock at it. He just ran- literally about 1 foot away, then walked right back to his tent chewing. They were scary and sort of gross. At the camp fire we told a progressive story about the rabid squirrels and Isabella had a bad dream about crazy squirrels that night. It was actually pretty funny....not the bad dream, but the whole squirrel issue. The last morning I saw the gang squirrel eating a dead mouse. And when Todd was doing the breakfast dishes, he threw the eggs into the bushes where the birds promptly swooped down to eat them up. There is definitely something wrong!!!!

The kids found a "hideout" in the trees where they spent almost the whole time. It was completely enclosed, almost like a cave of trees branches. There were no grown ups allowed.

Here is is:

tigerlily's first appearance

Here is a make-shift video from the ultrasound video. You can see Emma and Ab's reflections on the TV! (Bella was busy taking a bath with her goggles and nose plug....don't ask) If you can't tell, even though it is SO obvious, :) this is her face, then it switches to a side by side of the 2D and 3D image, then to a large 3D of her profile on the right. The next link is just the continuation, and at the end, on the 2D image you can see her little eye moving around if you look closely. Just click on the links....(for some reason I couldn't embed the images....uh.)

Ultrasound part one

Ultrasound part two

Kinder Grad!

Go Isabella! She got her Kindergarten diploma Friday! It was a fancy ceremony, as you can see. She hopped out of the swimming hole, put on a towel, and got her prize. It was pretty cute, cap, life jacket and all.

We went to a place in San Miguel with a bunch of Central Coast CAVA kids. It was a fun end of the year party. This is Isabella's "teacher", Mrs. Voelker, giving her the certificate. The year is practically over! I can't believe it!