Summer, Summer, Summertime...Part 1

Part 1 of our summer:
I have posted a bunch of pictures from our summer, June-Aug (this is about all I can do these days!!). Elsie was promoted from preschool, we had a few trips to Fresno to visit family, a trip to Morro Bay with family, a trip to Hume Lake with friends, and some daily trips we took as a family. We had a fun and busy summer. It was nice to have Matt home more also. It is always hard to see the summer coming to a close. But, we are excited to have Elsie start Kindergarten next week, should be an exciting fall!!

Carson being Carson

There were many pictures taken of Carson sleeping in the most random positions...
she had the pillow and bear on top of her

Playing in the mud

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Toby wanted to get in on the action!

Picnic lunch

We told Elsie when she turned 5 she had to stop sucking her fingers, and if she did we would take her to get her nails done (every time we painted her nails we had to leave it off of her first two that she sucked!!). So, she did it, totally on her own, cold turkey! She got to choose her color and we added a flower to it

Toby sleeping on his stomach for the first time-8months

Little Giants fan!

Elsie's preschool promotion.
Elsie was in charge of leading "zoo-phonics"to the class. I'm not sure if I had mentioned this before, but Elsie was able to have a great preschool experience. She was in a "reverse-integration" preschool in which they streamlined typical functioning kids into a special needs classroom. This way the special needs kids would have leaders and student helpers in their classroom and build relationships with typical kids. And the typical students would learn about compassion and learn about all kinds of people. It was a great program, Elsie did great and loved it.

William joined her

Slippery fish, slippery fish, sliding through the water...

Tuna fish, tuna fish splashing in the water...

a class song

Elsie getting her award from her teacher, Mrs. Patty

Yeah Elsie!

Granny BooBoo came to watch! She took us to Elsie's favorite lunch spot...Subway!

Mrs. Patty and her support staff

Weeks of activities...

Elsie was able to take another dance class. This time she took it with her friend Kaylin! They had a great time together. They learned tap, ballet, and jazz. They are true ballerina princesses!

I'm not sure why Tobin is crying...maybe because he has a girls hat on!! Sorry Toby, this is only the start of what is to come from your sisters!

Carson got to take a gymnastics class. She has a lot of energy and is pretty fearless, so we thought this would be perfect for her. She actually did a great job doing the class. We are going to sign her up again this fall!

Daddy showing her how to do a pencil roll!

forward roll

spider walk

Toby is FINALLY rolling over! Although he doesn't like being on his tummy for long

The school counselors at Matt's school got a staff appreciation award from the alumni association at WHS

Toby taking his first bites! he hasn't slowed down since...

Elsie giving it a try

Carson REALLY likes to hold Toby...Toby, not so much!

Toby at 6 months

Spring Break 2009

We spent our Spring Break visiting family and friends in Fresno and San Fransisco. Before we left for our drive up north, we went to an event at church called, Family Jam, which was a big egg hunt for the community. The kids got to ride on the inflatable slide and hunt for eggs. We couldn't leave without grabbing Chick-Fil-A for lunch...yum!

























































When we got to Fresno, we went straight to Matt's grandma's house to meet up with the rest of the family. His grandparents were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.
Uncle Ron and Aunt Mar flew in for the occasion, which we hadn't seen in almost 4 years. It was fun to have the kiddos get to know them.



We ate at Tony Romas with the family and then the next day celebrated their anniversary with a family lunch at a nearby restaurant.

Grandpa was able to come to the celebration and we were all able to share stories and thank yous to the grandparents. We had such a great time with the family.

During the weekend, we stayed at the Panfilios house. We had such a great time together catching up and taking it easy. We ALWAYS love any time we get to spend with the Panfilios and especially Paigie! The girls love her and had so much fun playing together. Matt took Elsie and Carson for a walk to a nearby greenbelt. Elsie was very brave and climed on this tree by herself!! She was very proud.




































We met Papa and Todd at the train station to send them off back to SoCal and then we visited with Granny Annie and Papa Jack for the day. The kids loved having time to play with Robbie Dog, dig in the garden, and pick up rolly pollies!

It took Elsie a while to warm up to petting Robbie, but she did it!

Granny Annie loved spending time with the great grandkids!

Elsie and Carson were playing princess and "sleeping" on the floor...I don't think princesses pick their nose!















































































































We then made our way up to San Fransisco and stayed with Uncle Jack for a couple of days. We were also able to spend a lot of time with Uncle Mike and Kieth and see thier gallery. Since Jack had to work, we spent the day in the city visiting some fun sites. We drove down Lombard street and then made our way to Pier 39 where we found this Lefty store, which was pretty cool for
Elsie. We stopped by to see the sea lions. Elsie was not so cooperative about taking a picture with them, so this is as good as they get!





































The rest of our afternoon was spent at the Exploritarium near the entrance to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a HUGE science center. The girls LOVED it! If you are ever in the Bay area you have to go. It targets all ages of people. There are like 450 hands on exhibits that you can explore with in all areas of science. It was a great experience for the girls. We could've spent all day there.
We met up with the uncles for dinner and called it a night!






















I, Mishawn, have never been a huge fan of San Fransisco. We had to pay tribute to this Travelodge which greatly encouraged my lack of love for the Bay. After this weekends experience, I am coming around to liking it a bit more!!
We said our goodbyes and off we went back home.
















Easter! It wasn't what we expected nor wished for, but we survived it. We were supposed to have a house filled with family and friends and ended up with 2 sick kids (Tobin had a double ear infection and croup and Carson had a never ending runny nose) and my mom and step-dad, Ben (Matt's family was sick as well). We made the most of it though, with dying eggs Sunday morning and then going to church. We decided even though we had to take the kids with us in service, we couldn't miss Easter Sunday! Besides, I had gotten the kids really cute matching outfits, and the tags were already cut out!
When we got home, we went on an Easter egg hunt, watched the Masters, ate a yummy meal, and rested. All in all it was a fun day and the kids had a good time. Here's to many more holidays with sick kids!!

(Tobin had to sleep in his bouncy seat for 3 days because he couldn't breath and had a terrible cough. Poor little guy!)

Carson's Pony Party

We decided to have a pony party for Carson in honor of her new pony, Lucky! Matt's parents got Lucky for Carson this past Christmas. Now, you might think since we live in such a small space, Lucky might be a small stuffed pony. But, no, actually Lucky is a full fledged life sized pony that you can bounce and ride on! This pony ensures that we get a new house with extra space for Lucky to be ridden to its full potential!
Since Carson is a Valentine's baby, we decided to celebrate Valentine's Day with the girls in the morning and then focus on Carson for the rest of the day. We had her party at our friend's, the Sanborn's, house. They were gracious enough to open their house to us and let us fill it with a lot of kids! The celebration started with the kids making their own stick ponies. Then they could find hidden sheriffs badges in a bowl full of oats, make a foam frame with a horse scene on it, or make a ranch scene with stickers, and of course, ride Lucky!! Everyone got their own bandanna

when they came in so they could be real cowgirls and boys.









































Matt led a rousing game of "trainer says" (aka Simon Says), in which the kids went around in a circle either galloping, trotting, jumping, or walking with Matt taking the lead. The kids loved it. They loved it even more when Matt's horse head fell off his stick while galloping around the circle!

Then the kids played horse, horse, pony (aka duck, duck, goose). It was very fun to watch; once someone was tagged, ALL the kids got up and ran around the circle. When the game playing was done Carson enjoyed opening her gifts. When we told her who it was from, she went around to each person and thanked them for their gift and gave it back to them! She didn't quite understand that it was a present from them not to them!! After present time was cake time. As Carson went to blow out her candle, her friend, Caleb, blew it out just before her!! It was very funny. So we lit it again, sang the last part of the song, and she got blow out her candle!!
We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at home and resting and enjoying Elsie's friend, Kaylin, over for their first sleep over at our house.
The next day, we celebrated Carson's birthday with the family. We had a great day together with yummy enchiladas and more birthday cake and root beer floats! Here are some pictures as we enjoyed our weekend.

Attack of the geese

We went to La Mirada Reginal Park, AKA: The Duck Park, the other night to feed the ducks and play on the playground. The geese at this park are SO aggressive so we usually steer clear of them. While feeding the other ducks, the geese found us and decided they wanted some bread as well. They started coming faster and faster at us and, well, you'll see...my favorite thing about this that Elsie has unknowingly taken off and is running around behind me...check out her helmet!



In this video, Carson decides to get down and feed the ducks as well. Check out her reaction, or shall I say, non-reaction and listen to Elsie in the background trying to "save" her sister from the attack ducks (While still wearing her helmet!)!

Elsie's starts preschool

In January, Elsie was given the opportunity to start preschool. This preschool is a little different than the typical one. Our friends at church told us about this reverse integration preschool at the local elementary school. Instead of integrating kids with disabilities into a general education classroom, they take general ed kids and place them in a special education classroom. This way they can be roll models for the other students and learn about diversity and being sensitive to kids that look or act differently. We are so blessed to have Elsie in this program. It will be a great way to ease her into school for this fall.

One day she came home and I was asking about the kids in her class. I mentioned that I saw a girl with a pink helmet on and asked what her name was. She told me her name and then said, " I don't know why she is wearing a helmet and knee pads, she didn't have skates on or anything!"

On another note about Elsie; we went to a BBQ restaurant with some
friends a few weeks back. Elsie was using the handi-wipes to wash her hands. She looked at me and said, "Mom, are there anymore handicap wipes!" She is very PC!!

Marysville love

DISCLAIMER: I KNOW THIS IS REALLY LAME AND REALLY LATE, BUT I ACTUALLY HAD THIS DONE THE WEEK AFTER WE VISITED SEATTLE AND STRANGELY THE PICTURES TURNED INTO A "CODE". I WANTED TO COME BACK TO THEM AND FIX THEM, BUT TIME HAS GOTTEN AWAY, JUST CLICK ON THE PICTURE "CODE" AND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO VIEW THE PICTURES...SORRY!)

When we heard the Willsons were coming home to the states for 6 weeks we decided we had to come see them. There was no way they could be that close without paying them a visit. Especially after the extenuating circumstances they were coming under, we really wanted to support and encourage them. It was also a great excuse to see Ryan and Sarah Henderson, some of our closest friends. I have to say we were expecting a challenging flying experience with 3 kids in tow now, but it ended up being the BEST traveling experience EVER!!

When we got to the airport, there was NO ONE in line (on a Friday at 4:30!)! The lady who checked us in was so nice. She even helped us carry our baggage to the TSA scanning line. As we headed up to security, we were going to drink our Capri Suns because they were more than 3.4 oz, and the security lady told us that we could bring in juice because of the baby! Even though it was for the girls! They also opened up a line for us at security and helped us load our stuff on the scanning machine.
It didn't end there...our gate was the first one out of the security area so we didn't have to walk far at all. As we got on the plane, in our 3 seats, the stewardests came to greet us very friendly, almost too friendly, and asked how they could help us. As Matt sat down he was sweating profusly after carrying everything, they offered him a drink of water...before we even took off! We then noticed that the plane was empty, so we asked them if we should move to the back. They took Carson and Tobin for us and we all made our way to the back of the plane, 6 seats...yes! The flight was cake! Elsie and Carson did great and Tobin just slept and ate! We were sooo greatful! The rest of the trip was awesome. We had a wonderful time resting, fellowshiping, and laughing. We spent the whole weekend with the Willsons and Hendersons. The kids played great, slept great, and traveled great. On Monday, we had to stop over to SPU and show off Tobin and the girls to the admissions office. We ate Zeek's pizza and then showed the kids the Space Needle and the Seattle Center. Boy do we miss Seattle, we sure do love it.

We got Lunchables for a special treat...don't think we will be getting those again!
Along with a little Dora to keep them occupied.

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Ahhh, the Willsons

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Hanging out with the Wii, Sarah was the kid whisperer...they all gravetated to her and she was very gracious to accept it!

The girls absolutely adored each other, we never saw Elsie or Kara once the whole weekend. They played the entire time without ANY problems.

Pizza time

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Elsie and Kara fell asleep in the same bed one night so we adults could hang out and play some games. Elsie was up for having Kara in bed with her but a little leary about being in a dark room!

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Tobin turned 12 weeks ove the weekend. He is such a doll and a happy baby. We kept joking about what a chill baby he is. Sarah told us we couldn't show new moms this baby becasue it wasn't reality! He would make a little noise and we would say it was his "fussy time"!

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The girls LOVE thier brother...this is why I do not trust Carson!

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Braelyn came to visit us

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Carson had to hold Toby, look at his hat!

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Performing a song for us. The kids also taught Elsie some songs in Chichewa

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When we were about to leave I came to get Elsie ready to go and she burried her face into my stomach crying and saying that she wanted to see them again. She realized that she would not see them agian for a long time and was VERY sad about that thought. She has such a sensitive spirit and as you can see Elsie had a hard time trying to smile for the picture. We ended up saying our goodbye the next moring so Elsie could rest easy that night. We are really going to miss the Willsons.

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Our visit to SPU...good ole Jim Kim

Ahhh SPU

The fountain at the Seattle Center

Eating ice cream at the Seattle Center

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Space Needle

Unitl next time Seattle!