California Vacation

The whole family at the happiest place on earth - DISNEYLAND!!

What a fun vacation we all had. I can't believe it has already been 3 weeks since we flew out to California. I am not sure what has happened to the month of May. So, three weeks ago we flew out to CA and spent the weekend at Disneyland! It was a fun weekend seeing family and enjoying Disneyland. There are so many pictures and so many memories that wont fit in this blog. So here are some favorites.

Davey and Aunt Danielle going on Thunder Mountain.

Kiddos just before "World of Color" night show started. The ears light up.

 Davey was tall enough to go on most of the rides and his favorite was Splash Mountain. My cousin and their boys came out for one of the days at Disneyland as well. Davey had a blast hanging out and enjoying the park with them while Dave and I went and saw princesses with the girls.

Cassia meeting Sleeping Beauty.

Meeting Cinderella. Davey was very shy and didn't want to get too close to Cinderella.

 Cassia enjoyed seeing all the princesses. She got lots of signatures in her memory book and went to storytime with Belle. During story time Cassia and Abigail were asked to dance during the story. Her favorite ride was Mickey's Fun Wheel in California Adventure. It is giant Ferris Wheel that each car also moves on a wheel as the big wheel is moving (sorry it is hard to explain).

Sweet Abby wasn't too happy about something, but I can't remember what it was now. Just think she looks so cute in her mouse ears.

Meeting Tinkerbell!

 My sweet Abigail is pretty straight faced most of the time and doesn't always show lots of excitement, but she sure had the biggest smile after seeing Tinkerbell. She told me "Tinkerbell colored my book". I asked if she liked seeing Tinkerbell. She said yes, but was disappointed that she didn't fly.

Grandma and Papa with all the grand kids.

Adorable Chubby Boaz

Can't help, but smile at Boaz in his ears!

 That Monday Dave had to fly home and I drove up to Santa Barbara with Boaz to visit Aunt Danielle, Uncle Steve and Cousin Elliott. It was a lot of fun having Boaz and Elliott together. Elliott is 6 weeks older than Boaz. They had a bath together where Boaz kept kicking Elliott. Then on the floor later Elliott couldn't help but give Boaz kisses. The next day we traveled down to San Diego with Aunt Janine to visit with her and Great Gram. Boaz got to enjoy being an only child and get lots of attention.

Boaz and Cousin Elliott playing together.

With Great Gram in beautiful San Diego.

Boaz and Aunt Janine out at lunch.

 The other kiddos spent the week with Grandma and Papa in Monterrey. They have been sharing with me stories of all the fun they had, from building Splash Mountain in the sand at the beach to going on a treasure hunt at their hotel. From there the kiddos then got to stay at Nana and Grandpa's for a week. By this time I was really missing my kiddos and enjoyed doing facetime with them and seeing pictures that family had posted on facebook. My favorite was seeing Abigail and cousin Westin (he's 2 months younger than Abby) playing together. They look so similar and I can just picture them playing together like twins.

Papa giving Boaz a blessing at his baby dedication.

 Last Saturday, my parents flew back home with the kiddos and it was so exciting to hug them and kiss them all. All 3 of them were full of excitement and stories to tell me. Then Sunday we had Boaz dedicated at church. It was such a special time with our church family and with my Dad giving Boaz a beautiful blessing. Just before the dedication we had all the kids in the church service with us during worship. There was a moment where Dave was next to me holding Boaz, I was holding Cassia, Abigail was hugging one leg and Davey was leaning on my side. I felt so amazingly blessed to have a wonderful husband and 4 precious children all close and singing together. The best Mothers Day gift ever!

Wheeling and Dance Class

Sorry I don't have much time to write, but I wanted to share some photos from the last few weeks. They aren't in any specific order since I don't have time to go through them. Right now I am frantically packing for our trip to Disneyland!! We leave tomorrow so when I get back I will be sure to update with fun pictures.

Abigail helping me clean the floors. Her favorite thing right now is to use the spray bottle and clean any and everything.

Abigail loves showing off her muscles and I love her face when she does. This picture doesn't do it justice. You will have to see it in person. It will instantly make you laugh.

Handsome Boaz on the way to church.

Boaz loved gnawing on a carrot at dinner the other night.

He also loves sucking on his big toe.

Cassia just started dance at YMCA. This is her doing a curtsy.

Cassia's first day at dance. 

Cassia's dance teacher is my close friend. While we were watching she invited Davey and Abigail to join in the fun.

Last weekend we went 4wheeling. Here is Dave and Cassia in our friend's dune buggy.

Cassia driving the Jimmy. She was concentrating so hard, but I really don't think she could see  the road over the  steering wheel.

Dave wheeling the Jimmy up a waterfall.

Davey riding in the dune buggy.

Boaz and I about to go wheeling. 

Boaz helping Daddy get the Jimmy ready for wheeling.

When Cassia was riding in the dune buggy with Dave we were driving up a creek. The creek ended up getting pretty deep and they were under water. Cassia's hands are showing you how high the water went. She has a mud line, but you can't really see it in the pic. She was so proud going through it and later told me she held her breath just like Daddy said to. I don't think she realized she needed to hold her breath in case the water went above her head.

Family Fun Days

Family picture on the way to the farm.

At the park after our bike ride. Boaz is already bugging sister, pulling her hair.

 On Palm Sunday we enjoyed a family bike ride. We weren't sure how Cassia was going to do on her new bike from her birthday, so we decided to do short ride over to our neighborhood park. I rode my bike just behind Davey and Dave rode just behind Cassia with Boaz and Abigail in the trailer. I was so impressed with Davey and how good he is on the bike now. I got quite a workout just trying to keep up with him. Cassia did great too and I am so proud of her determination. With training wheels her bike can be a little tippy and when she pedals she leans to the left. Well, when she goes around a turn too sharp or too fast she does a superman over the handle bars. She did this not once, but 3 times. Each time she cried a little, but was always ready to get back on and ride some more without having to talk her into it. Boaz and Abby enjoyed the ride in the trailer. However, Bo is still a little small for the straps and only enjoyed it when he was moving.

Big Kiddos on their Bikes!

Little kiddos in the trailer.

Poor Boaz isn't so sure about it all. The towel was around  his head keeping the straps and his head in place, but he had too much fun chewing on the towel that it came out.

Sweet Abby!

 We had a 3 day weekend over Easter filled with good family time. On Friday we went strawberry picking at a nearby farm. We didn't even make it all the way down one isle of strawberries and had to call it quits as we were getting more strawberries than we needed. Davey was determined to find the biggest brightest red strawberries, and Abigail was picking any and every strawberry squishing them in the process. After picking there was a bounce pad for the kids to jump on. Davey and Cassia had a blast, but poor Abby couldn't get on top of the pad because she kept getting bounced off.

Picking Strawberries!!

Each showing their favorite strawberry.

Who knew jumping could be so much fun.

 On Saturday our church put on an Easter Egg hunt at a local school. There were bounce houses, tattoos, snow cones, and an egg hunt. Lots of fun and lots of sugar for all the kids. Later that day I made strawberry pie with the strawberries we picked and we got to enjoy it that night.

Abigail always seizes the opportunity to dog pile!

More fun jumping!

 On Easter Sunday we went to the park to launch rockets, thanks Nana! All the kids had a blast. It was the perfect toy that all the kids could do, even Dave. The squeals from Abigail were just precious. We finished the day off with going out to dinner. 

Getting ready to launch the rockets.

Blast Off!

Sweet smiling Boaz.

His new favorite spot to sit and watch everyone.

Birthdays!

Breakfast time!
All the kids like to sit on the counter while I make breakfast,  or anytime I am cooking. It is fun, but Davey sure is getting heavy to lift up there.

So much has happened in the last few weeks since I wrote last. Be warned, this is a long post.
  We have enjoyed 3 different birthday celebrations. We finally made it to the zoo to celebrate Abigail's birthday. She had a blast seeing all the different animals and loved playing on the playground in the zoo.

Peeking out of the Tepee exhibit by the 

Buffaloes

Those are rhinos behind us. Just reminded me of Aunt Danielle, Little Rhino.

My 3 monkeys sitting on a monkey.

Sorry the pic is blurry. Abigail love these squares. They are chimes that ring when you jump on them. We had lots of tears when we had to move on.

Next up was Cassia's birthday, which ended up being celebrated over a few days. We made a princess cake to share with our home Bible study group on Wednesday.

Our princess cake we named Princess Cassia

Then on Thursday, her actual birthday, we had breakfast with Daddy and went out to Chick-Fil-A for dinner and dessert. Unfortunately, we weren't able to open presents since our power went out and oddly she said she wanted to wait until the next day for presents because she was tired and it was past her bedtime. Not sure where that came from, but I am all for encouraging bedtime! The next evening she enjoyed opening her presents and playing with them. Abigail is still struggling with thinking every present is for her and had a few quarrels over opening the gifts. Saturday, Cassia and I went out to breakfast just the two of us and bought a dress for her to wear to tea that afternoon. We drove out to a quaint little town about 30 min north and had lunch at a tea house. We all dressed up and the girls put on every piece of play jewelry they could. Davey was all excited to get hot chocolate and before we could stop him he had a mouthfull of burning hot Cocoa, but all was made better with a cup full of marshmallows.

Princess Cassia at the tea house

Princess Abigail with the menu

The family out for tea

With birthdays come Dr.s appointments, all with good reports. Abigail, for the first time ever is on the growth chart!! She is in the 10th percentile for weight, at 23 pounds. Cassia weighed in at 30lbs in the 20th percentile. Boaz also had his 4 month appointment weighing in at 14lbs 12oz in the 50th percentile. However, he is in the 90th percentile for his head size, which I am sure is a direct correlation to how smart he is.

Not sure if Boaz is teething, but he really enjoys playing with his tongue.

The big news for Davey is that we registered him for Kindergarten! Luckily a friend of mine told me about Kindergarten registration about a week before it happened since I wasn't expecting it until closer to summer. I dropped the girls and Boaz off at the YMCA so Davey and I could go just the two of us. We got him signed up and then they gave us a tour of the school. Davey was so excited to see the school and we even saw two friends from church there as well. Needless to say Davey can't wait for the school year to start, but my stomach is still in knots just thinking about Davey being away from me for the full school day. It is a big change that I don't think I can fully prepare my heart for, but is exciting to start this next stage in Davey's life.

Davey climbed the tree all by himself. He is getting so big and loves to climb everything.

This past weekend we celebrated Dave's 30th birthday by going camping and 4 wheeling. It was beautiful weather and a great time 4wheeling. Unfortunately the Jimmy broke on the 1st ride, but we still enjoyed wheeling in a friend's Wagoneer that Dave and him just spend countless hours lifting. All worth it for the day of wheeling fun. We are looking forward to getting the Jimmy running again soon so we can go on another camping trip before the weather gets too hot.

Wheeling puts Boaz right to sleep.

Our little troublemaker has a little mischievous glean in her eye.

My Favorite picture ever of Dave and Boaz!

 Just today Boaz is finally starting to roll over. A couple of weeks ago he actually rolled over from his back to his tummy. He ended up getting his pacifier smashed into his eye at the end of the roll. It was very traumatic for him and he hasn't been able to roll over since. This week he has been really trying, but not able to get over his shoulder. Today during tummy time he just flopped right over from his tummy to his back. He has now done it a few times all from his tummy to his back.

Getting ready...

Almost there...

Rolled Over, YEAH!!