Interview with Faith Anna.......

I saw this on another blog that I just recently started reading.....She gave this interview to her 2 beautiful daughters and thought it would be fun to see what Faithie would say. Here are her answers word for word:

What is your favorite color? Red

What is your favorite outfit? All of them

What do you like to do most of all? Magic tricks

What's your favorite food? Apples, bananas, and soup. 2 soups, Dora and tomato

What are you going to be when you grow up? A magician

What makes you giggle? You Mommy.

What makes you happy? Playing outside

What makes you mad? Scary Reed

What makes you sad? When Reed closed the door on my finger

Can you tell me something about China? When I was a baby, I want to go when I'm a big girl and you can come.

Anything else you want to say? No I think we're all done!

Thank you Faith, you did a great job!

SUMMER PLANS, SUMMER FIRSTS, AND SUMMER GOALS.....

Yesterday was our first official day the kids being off of school for the summer! Reed will still be on year round schedule so the summer will go fast for him. Poor kid, with Dean now going to a different school Reed will have to head back to school early watching his brother and sister still enjoying the summer. Stinks! We don't have too much planned for the summer which is actually kind of nice. Just plan to enjoy those simple and easy days that summer brings listening to alot of Kenny Chesney;). All 3 will be doing swim lessons for a good part of it. I am hoping Faith will get comfortable this year putting her face under water. She loves the water, just not putting her face in it. Dale and the boys are going for 1 week in July to Ocean City Maryland to spend a week out on his sister's boat. Reed will finally get to go fishing, something he has always wanted to do. Yeah for Reed! I know it will be a great experience for them. For the first time the boys are flying unaccompanied and Dale will meet up with them. Their quite the travelers so they'll do just fine. (It's Mom that will just be a nervous wreck!) In August we are hoping to take a drive up the Northern CA coast to see some of the giant trees and more of the beauty of CA.

My sister and her 14 year old (foster) daughter come tomorrow to spend a week with us. We're looking forward to their visit.

There are a few personal goals of mine that I am going to try and attempt this summer:(of course the key word is attempt!)

*put all my photos from the last 2 years in actual photo albums!

*sit and curl up to read and FINISH a good book.

*renew mine and the kids passports (they expired and I can not stand not having updated passports)

*get change of address cards mailed to everyone being that it has been 3 months since we moved. I can not stand doing this with the amount of times that we have moved! I'm sure everyone gets sick of changing our address as well!

* And my biggie is to finally get my training completed to start our dog Ruby in reading therapy. I have always had a strong interest in therapy and have always had a love for dogs. So when I found out about this program (http://www.pawsforhealing.org/) that does dog therapy I knew it would be perfect for Ruby and I. I took Ruby a few months ago and we completed the initial training in which she passed into the program. Then we had to decide what type of therapy we wanted to do. With Ruby's calm and gentle nature we thought the reading program would be perfect for her. It is held at the library and children that have a tough time with reading come and read to the dogs. With the dogs they are more confident and seem to open up more. I went through the reading therapy training now I just need to find the time to take Ruby up to the library to do some observing before getting her started. You'd think this would be easy, but with the kids and their schedules I just have not been able to find the time to do it. So this summer I am determined to get this completed so Ruby and I can finally get started!

Early Morning Painting........

Faith woke up this morning and decided the first thing she wanted to do was paint. When she is painting it is one of the few times she can be very serious..........

Reed Celebrating his 10th Birthday!

The guys doing an action pose with their pool sticks at the pizza place......

On Friday Reed had a few of his buddies over and we went to see Surf's Up then out to eat pizza before coming back to the house to hang out. They played baseball in the culdesac (if you want to call it that, to me it just looked like a bunch of silly boys running around trying to see who could make the most disgusting noise:) and played video games until I sent them home around 9:30. They did great and I was thankful Reed only wanted to invite a few friends over this year! This was his first year not having at least 10 kids over and not having a backyard swim party at home. Wow! Going to the movies and having his party at the pizza place was a breeze!!

Dean's Graduation Day.......

Faith giving her big brother hugs after his graduation ceremony..... We are so proud of you Dean!

"Now how can I get a hold of that microphone?"

I love being on stage!

CONGRATULATIONS DEAN.....OUR GRADE SCHOOL GRADUATE AND STRAIGHT A STUDENT!!!

Here are a couple pictures of Dean from Kindergarden...it seems like just yesterday I was sending him off and now he has graduated from grade school.......... Dean won a 1st place award in Kindergarden for his drawing on what Martin Luther King Day meant to him......

Today was Deans grade school graduation and we are SOOOO PROUD of him!!!! Yep, he received straights A's and I have to brag just a little!:) He is such a wonderful boy who is the kindest and most unselfish person I know. We wish all the best for him on this next chapter of his life and are so proud of the young man he is becoming.

I will post pictures of Dean's graduation another time as I have to get ready for Reed's 10th birthday party. He is having it a week early with his friends as his Aunt will be here visiting on his real birthday. He invited a few close friends over and we are going to see the movie Surf's Up and then out to pizza. A fun way to celebrate Reed's birthday, Dean's graduation, and summer break!!!!! Yeah!!! Faith has unbelievably fallen asleep for her nap so I can actually get ready!

***Faith's MRI Update***

Faith had her follow up this morning to go over the results from her MRI and it is great news!! There are no signs at all of any concerns going on. Not only that her spine and hips look straight! The Dr. will check her again in 6 months, but he sees no concerns at all! This is a huge relief! Whew! She's ready to take on the world!!

Faith and her shoe bargain!

The other day we had another 100 degree day, so to stay cool Faith and I took our daily (eeeemmmm) I mean weekly, walk around Target. We can never leave that store without finding something we just have to have! On this day I told Faith she could pick out 1 pair of new shoes. Well, she found 3 she just had to have. All 3 were around $25 (boots were on clearance) so I think she did pretty good. She's a bargain hunter!:) Faith's shoes she just had to have..hello kitty's, pink and gray tennies, and her pink cowboy boots!

checking out her new boots!

I lo00000ve my boots!

Hmmmm...these boots are a little uncomfortable.....

these shoes are much better!

Happy Father's Day!!!!!

Happy Father's Day Dale!!
We love you!!!

"Any man can be a father, it takes a special one to be a Daddy!!!"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DALE!!!!!

Dale right after making the climb up Diamond Head on our trip to Hawaii in April.......pretty great for "an old guy!" ;)

Today is Dale's Birthday and boy does he get the bum deal! Falls on the same week-end as Father's Day and right in between Faith and Reed's birthday's!! I know, stinks right! We love him though and that's all that matters! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!

Faith's 4 Year Old (Polka Dot) Birthday Party!

Here is a little slide show I put together of Faith's Birthday Party with all her friends. She had a great day and she must have changed 20 times back from her swimsuit to her polka dot dress! She had 15 friends and there were only a few bumps and bruises so I would say the party was a success! :)They all had a wonderful time! Her teacher Miss Tami came too which was the hi-light of the party! Miss Tami is like having a super hero at your party! We gave Faith her big present after the party (her big girl bike!) and she insisted it was from Miss Tami. We know where we rank:o!! Hope you enjoy!

100 degrees!!!!!!!!!

Well it is official, summer is here!!! We reached 100 degrees yesterday and the boys are not even out of school yet! (one more week to go!) It is HOT HOT HOT!!! When I picked the boys up from school yesterday they were sweaty and smelly! We sure are missing our old house right now with that swimming pool! Oh well, we have to make do so we filled up the blow-up pool to stay cool and even Ruby had to get in..............I attached a video clip below of Faith laughing at Reed making his (well, lets just say disgusting boy noises:). Her laugh is so contagious it makes everyone laugh. She just gets a kick out of her brothers!
Trying to stay cool.................................

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Field Trip and End of the Year Program!!!

Reed and his 4th grade reading group. They placed first in the reading contest at school.
Faith in her new dress for her school ceremony.

Faith with Miss Tami and her class friends.

Yesterday was a busy day for us! As the school year comes to an end it is always the busiest time of the year (with the exception of Christmas). Reed had his 4th grade field trip and I was able to volunteer and tag along. So with five 4th grade classes (a total of 32 students in each class...you do the counting!) we went to Sacramento where we raced through the Capitol. We were on such a tight schedule we had maybe a total of 30 minutes to see it. We were able to see the Governors office, (never did run into Arnold) but did see a picture of him and Maria on the wall! Then it was off to the museum before heading to the IMAX theater where we watched a movie on California and we ate our lunches in the movie. Pretty cool! It was a good day and I think Reed enjoyed his Mom being there even though he had to act cool as if it didn't matter.

In the evening we went to Faith's school for her end of the year ceremony. The end of the year is always emotional at this age as the teacher's get so attached to the children and vice versa. Faith's teacher this year has been such a blessing and she is just one of a kind! Her enthusiam with the children is unbelievable and everything about her comes straight from the heart. She gave each child a beautiful memory book of photos and events from the year and made a dvd of photos for all the families as well. It was a great evening watching the children sing and saying farewell to a wonderful year. And Faith looked just precious in her new dress!

Saturday at Six Flags Amusement Park.......

Faith having a great time on the rides......

Dean and Reed all smiles:)

Daddy and Faith in the butterfly sanctuary

Reed in the very back seat by himself!!

Faith meeting Batman and Robin

On Saturday we spent the day at Six Flags Amusement Park, after 2 years of the boys asking us, "when are we going to go?!" It is only a 30 minute (at the most) ride from our house. For some reason I have been avoiding it like the plague. Now I grew up on amusement parks. In fact it was our one vacation we took every year through out my entire childhood. Each summer we would load up the car and take the 5 hour drive or so to spend a week riding every ride unimaginably. We loved it and I have wonderful memories of our times there. I always feel right at home at amusement parks for this reason. So why I have been avoiding them with my own children....I'm not sure. Don't get me wrong......they have been to Disney Parks. In fact they have been to Disneyworld, Disney Paris, and Disneyland. To me Disney is not just an amusement park though, it's, well it's Disney! It's the whole Disney experience.
With living over in Europe my kids have experienced vacations I would have never dreamed of going on a kid. I love that they have had the opportunity to experience real life adventures that are so meaningful. So when we came back to America 2 years ago and moved to California where an amusement park was less than 30 minutes away I always found something better for us to do......Yosemite National Park, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Monterey......too many more meaningful things to see.
Well, on Saturday we FINALLY said OK, let's go! The kids were very excited as we woke up that morning and got ready to leave to spend the day at Six Flags! On first arriving I admit the scrooge in me started in right away......."I can't believe what you have to pay to get in here", "Look at how crowded it is" (I can't stand crowds), $8.00 for a piece of pizza! blah, blah, blah! Well, that didn't last too long as I watched the kids having such a great time running from ride to ride with big grins on their faces. Reed loooved anything that would turn upside down and go super fast! Pretty soon he had me running to get in line with him to ride all those rides (I still got it!) Dale does not handle rides too well (he says anything that makes his stomach come up his throat he will not go on) Dean is taking after him, although there were many rides he enjoyed and he was great with Faith taking her on rides she could go on. Faith is fearless when it comes to the rides. She laughs and grins from ear to ear. By the end of the day we were all hot, tired, and saying what a great time we had! So our day ended with me running over to buy season passes! (I figure if we went one more time this year it was worth to buy them) Maybe it won't be so bad for the kids to experience what I did as a kid after all:)
Oh! Right before we were leaving I played one of their games where you pay the person to guess either your weight or age. If they guess wrong you win a prize. Well I had the person guess my age(no way would I do weight) Secretly I was wishing they would guess I was 10 years younger! ha! but just hoping they wouldn't guess me older than I am. Well, they thought this 40 year old was 34! Pretty good, huh? Maybe that's why I was in such a good mood to go buy those season passes!;)

Thought I Would Share This Video of Faith at One Year old!!! She is Just Growing Up so Fast!

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Back Tracking to Our April Hawaii Trip!!

Just wanted to share some of the MANY photos of our Hawaii trip. Sorry there are so many and this is only half of what I took. We had such a fabulous trip and I just fell in love with Hawaii. The boys couldn't get enough of the water and had their first experience swimming with a dolphin! Faith became quite the little hula dancer and entertained people often putting on a show.:) We stayed right on Wakiki Beach at the Hale Koa which was awesome. Took a drive to the North Shore where we had the BEST shaved ice and experienced watching sea turtles on the beach. Dean and Reed even swam with them. We spent a day at Huanama Bay where Dale took the boys snorkeling. This was absolutely beautiful. Had the honor of visiting Pearl Harbor which was a very touching experience and could not have imagined going to Hawaii and not seeing it. Went to the Marine World where Dean, Reed and their cousin Ashley swam with a dolphin and had a great experince. Dale and I climbed Diamond Head! Whew! So glad I did this and so glad the kiddos decided they would rather hang out with Grandma at the hotel:) I could not have imagined carrying Faith up the climb! It was such a great feeling making it to the top and we even experienced a marriage proposal at the top. Very sweet. (And she said "yes" by the way) We enjoyed walking Wakiki Beach and walking over to the Hilton Hotel to see the penguins. Went to a Luau and Magic Show at our hotel which I think was the only time we actually put clothes on other than our beach clothes so it was fun dressing up for that. We also were able to do some catching up with some old Navy friends that are stationed there (lucky them!) which was really great and had not near enough time with them. I think our favorite thing was just relaxing on the beach and taking in the beauty of Hawaii. We can not wait to go back again! Aloha!!

In Memory of Sunny.....

Every morning I check in on Deans hamster Sunny. Today I found her in the cage just lying still and knew she was dead.( Poor little poop) She was almost 2 years old and showed no signs of illness so I'm guessing her little heart just stopped. She had been slowing down the past few months so I kind of knew this would be happening and have been fore warning Dean that she was getting old for a hamster. I'm still not looking forward to telling him after school.....never easy. I wrapped her in a little box and we will bury her in the backyard. She was a sweet, gentle hamster and a little life and we will miss her!

Faith is 4 Years Old!!!!!

We had a low-key birthday for Faith yesterday as today we will have her big party with all of her friends! We went out to eat (Applebees-her pick!) and then came home and had cupcakes. She opened small gifts from her BoBo's (Dean and Reed) It was a nice quiet special day with just us. Faith picked out her birthday dress this year (with polka dots of course!) and insisted on wearing it to dinner. She looked too cute and too grown-up! These are a few photos I took of her on her big 4 year old day.........