Catching up

Okay, okay! I'm blogging!!  ;)  Here's a recap from the last 2 months, in no particular order because I don't have the time or energy to be chronologically correct and you hopefully don't mind.  ;)

 I met Shalom just a few hours after she was born and then spent 5 days with them Crum-sitting, cleaning, and letting Mandy and Seth take naps!  You can see more of Shalom over on their blog. 

 Ready to party! Headed off to a cousin's 6th birthday.

 We made fruit popsicles.

Kaylee loves to paint!

 She likes to mow the lawn so why not have a bubble making mower!

We planted a garden - corn, zucchini, cucumbers, strawberries, carrots, lettuce, and sunflowers.  The last 3 didn't make it thanks to our pet squirrel who ate all the tasty sprouts.  I eventually netted off the rest of the garden and it is growing nicely!

She also loves to water the flowers.  This is her wildflower garden in it's early stages.

And then some of the blooms.

 4th of July, hanging out with Mommy at home. 

Our friend Michelle came down from San Jose to babysit Kaylee for an entire day with the only instructions that John and I were not allowed to talk about Kaylee more than 50% of the time, and we couldn't come back home for any long period of time.  It was a fun date day!!

Sierra Brewery for lunch - I had Pomegranate Ale, it was delicious!

Dai Bai Dang for dinner!

Yogurtland for dessert! Then we saw Avengers in 3D on the iMax screen!  

 Incase you didn't know, we love Yogurtland! 

We've swam a few times so far this summer. 

 

Aunt Mandy, Uncle Seth & Shalom sent Kaylee a new pool for her birthday!  It has a sprinkler built in and Kaylee loves it!

John is having fun with his 1969 VW Bug.  

He joined the Deutschlanders VW club in Fresno.  We went to the Madera Drive-in theaters last week in a caravan of VWs.  We saw Brave and had a great time!  John's Bug is the black one, 5 from either side in this picture.

This last week we went to Cambria with my Aunt and Uncle.   

 And we've had playdates with cousins. 

I think that catches you up.  It's been in the high 90's to 110 degrees for the last 2 months so we stay inside mostly. I'll blog about Kaylee's birthday party next, I promise it won't take 2 more months.  :)

Tree Planting

Yesterday we went up to my Uncle Laure' and Aunt Jenifer's property near Kings Canyon National Park.  The goal was to plant little Christmas trees and have a lot of family fun...both goals were achieved and here's the proof!

 Hollowed out logs make good forts!

Look Out Point - 

  This is where I viewed from

 This is where the guys viewed from

Planting Christmas Trees!  In a few years we get to go back up and harvest them for Christmas! I think the plan is to go back up every year and add more so that they continue to grow and can be harvested for years to come.  

 Putting the sawdust around the trees for insulation.

 Kaylee loves Kylie and Kylie was the perfect babysitter even though she was sound asleep!

 John, hard at work

 Some of the gang

The highlight of the trip was when cousin Philip took the little girls on tractor rides.  Kaylee was in Heaven.  She loves tractors, and Philip too!

 Driving home

Less than 5 minutes into the ride home....

It seems that most everyone these days has an iPhone or smart phone of some sort and, in turn, has bought into the "instagram" world.  We do not have smart phones, infact ours are pretty dumb.  Not to mention that I love an actual camera, oh what I would give for a DSLR (a camera with interchangeable lenses)!  But woe is me.  What drives me nuts in the Instagram world is the amount of photos I see with the 70's filter over them.  People! There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of people working diligently over the last 40 years (well, really since 1840) to make cameras BETTER!  Why are we tossing their hard work to the wind and making our 2012 pictures look like they came from 1970?!  And don't tell me it's because they're vintage...I refuse to call the 70's vintage yet.  Anyways, that's my little soap box on my blog that no one really reads anyway.  Here are a few pictures from Johns iPod.  But John does enjoy the filters, borders and effects so I'll post a couple of those too...just not the 70's filter. blech!

 Easter Sunday at church

 A day at the park with Daddy

 Monkey see, Monkey Do?

Family lunch at Sonic, we all eat in the front seat and Kaylee thinks she's such a big girl.

Happy Easter!

Yesterday we dyed Easter eggs using Kool-aid!  It worked really well and smelled so much yummier than vinegar.  Our store only had a few colors but for our first attempt, I was impressed.  Kaylee was too!  She ooo'd and aaa'd the whole time.  

THEN I brought out the stickers and life got SO much better. Kaylee thinks everything is better with stickers.

We started our Easter day at church as a family and with Doug, Annalaura and girls, but then parted ways as John had to work unfortunately.  Kaylee and I spent Easter with my Aunt Jenifer, Uncle Laure, and cousins Phillip, Kelly, Brian, Heidi, Jason, and baby Drake!

This was Kaylee's first Easter egg hunt ever!  And in true 2.5 year old fashion, she was more entertained by throwing hard boiled eggs on the ground and hearing them crack than she was in the actual hunt.  So we had to keep prompting her to "find" the next egg.  She also doesn't like eggs so I'm sure she was confused as to why we thought she'd be excited to find eggs!

I made this dress for Mandy's baby shower but Kaylee was sick that day so she didn't get to wear it.  It worked perfectly for today instead.  She had a t-shirt under it for church but this afternoon it was in the low 80's which called for a sundress.

We hope you had a wonderful Easter too!  We are indescribably grateful that God sacrificed His only Son to save us from our sins and Easter is the pinnacle to our faith, knowing that Christ has Risen!