Duke

What a blessing we were able to sell all the puppies. We have one puppy left, not including our dog, that will be picked up this weekend PRAISE THE LORD! Our new bundle of joy's name is Duke. We now have more dogs than kids. Oh well, it was hard to say "No" to a cute face (not his Brian's).

Although Duke does have a really sweet little face.

Pictures courtesy of my wonderful sister Sandy...Wow, doesn't she do an amazing job! She has gotten so talented!

"My World", by Kiley Stanton

Since Mommy and Auntie Sandy take so many pictures of everything, Kiley has decided to try some of her own photography. I think some of them are pretty good and some of them there is no way I will post. Most of the other pictures she took were just feet pictures so they are not that bad. I think I will put the ones I like the best. It is kind of interesting to see the world from a 3 foot tall little girl.


Here are her works of art:

I took this one...she was just to cute!

Lets play in the water!

Here comes the pictures:

Lea hates the water!!! I mean hates!!! She kept crying every time I would put her feet in. The picture looks so sad. Kiley and Haylie had no problems once they saw the water they were off but not Lea, she was attached to my leg. It took me an hour to get Lea used to the water and then she started to have fun. She finally let go of me leg and actually began to walk around. As soon as she let go of my leg I imediately got the camera and started taking as many pictures as possible. She looks so cute when she is happy.

Haylie and Kiley had such a good time. Haylie's face was so red even with sunscreen. The girls played non stop. By the time we got in the car I think both girls were ready to pass out. I tried getting a picture of the two of them and it was so difficult. So, here is the best one I got. They still look like they are having a good time.

This was at the end of our 2 and 1/2 hour day in the sun. They were both dry, changed and ready for a nap. You can see in thier eyes how totally tired they are. What precious punkins and best of friends (fighting friends that is).

Happy Mother's Day!

So, I am a little late on this post! OH WELL!!!!

Another shocker is I might not put any pictures with this post! But don't worry there will be lots more posts to come with tons of pictures.

So here is my story of the day:

The morning of Mother's day Brian talked to Kiley about what Mother's day meant, then he went and got some breakfast. Kiley and I sat on the couch, snuggled and talked a little bit more about mother's day and what we were going to do that day. After we finished talking she quietly got off the couch went into her room and much to my surprise brought me the book "Are you my Mother?" by P.D. Eastman. All I could do was look at her in absolute amazement. I know she had to actually search for that book and that it was not in plain site. I was so blown away by how thoughtful she was in that moment. That was by far the highlight of my Mother's day. I know to others it might sound like a very simple gesture and not very important. But, my daughter is only two and it was amazing to see the how much thought she put into getting that particular book and how she was relating the day and the word mother to her life-level.

For me I am used to seeing children learn something new. I taught in a classroom with children that never got much attention or were not very loved. So, when they had someone sit next to them and explain things in a loving manor, I was fortunate enough to usually witness the child learn something new.

This was different (obviously) to me. Not only because it was my daughter but because I did not prompt her in any way. Like I said before I was amazed. At that moment (believe it or not) I felt so blessed to be a mom. I am so excited God has given me this job. I get to be there for the simple yet amazing moments like this one. Through all the frustration, screams (mine not the kids), pee, poop, spit up and tears (again mine), at the end of all of that I have the moments where I see God growing and working in my children's life.

So HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the mom's and may God show you a glipse of himself through your children.

Ok, I was just kidding I could not resist:

The girls made Mother's day cards for everyone. They had so much fun!!!

Race for the Cure

Saturday morning was the big day for Brian's mom. It is a special day for her to join in with 25,000 others who survived or are in support of a cure for Breast Cancer. There are a alot of people who have either lost their or those who are still fighting against breast cancer. This is a day for our family to give all honor and Praise to God for carrying Sue through her fight with Breast Cancer. I am so blessed to have her in my life and I know for a fact that God is not done using her to bless others. She is an amazing woman!


This is us before the race...Just remember when looking at this picture that we had to check in for the race by 7:30 am. That is a little early for me, considering the girls and I only slept about 4 hours the night before.
This is the crew during the walk.
This is the end we made it! This is Brian's brother Mike and the proud survivor with her cute medal she got at the end of the race.

It is always a joy to share in this experience with Sue because we know that it really hits home.

PRAISE BE TO GOD...ALL GLORY AND HONOR AND POWER!

Working in the Yard

Since this is Roxy's last litter of puppies Brian has finally convinced me...we are going to keep one. There was only one Chocolate male in this litter so that is the one we are going to keep. Brian has named him Duke (don't worry there will be pictures of him on a future post). Brian and I talked and the only way we were going to keep him is if the backyard was cleaned up and a new dog run was built. Well, Brian called in some reinforcements. Here are a pictures from throughout the day.

Workin Hard...or...

Hardly workin....
Kiley kept trying to spray Uncle Mikey with the hose but was she did not know was that he was controlling how much water came out. So, every time she turned around to spray him he would turn it off. She was so confused. Uncle Mikey came over and he brought water balloons. Kiley was beside her self, she was throwing them at everybody.


Since it was such a hot day the girls decided to take a little swim in their new little pool. Kiley was having a great time, she loves the water. Lea does not really like how cold the water is so she only stays in long enough for a picture.

Our long lost friends.

When Kiley was six months old I was watching a little girl named Ruby. Her mom and dad and I worked together at the bank (bank of America). They moved to about an hour away and we have not see them for a while. The day we went to the caverns we stopped by for a visit. It was like time had never passed. We had such a good time hanging out with them. We are hoping to see them again soon.

The girls had so much fun jumping off the couch onto the pillows. Gotta love the action shots.

Kiley missed her friend Ruby. They had fun playing together.

Kiley was giving Ruby the baby doll to help her feel better. What a nice friend.

The wonderful world of Caves!

Brian had the week off this week, so we wanted to get in some fun quality time. The girls were so excited to have their daddy home for the whole week. We all had such a good time. One of the fun things we did this week was go to Black Chasm and California Caverns. Kiley was amazed at some of the things we saw. Here are my favorite pictures from our trip.

Kiley climed these stairs all by herself. I was so proud of her, in fact her famous words were "Kiley do it all by herself".

Our Anniversary Getaway!

Sunday May 4th was our anninversary and even though we did not get to do much on the actual day of our anniversary, it still turned out to be a fun day. We went to Abby's birthday party, put the kids to bed early and watched a movie (a chick flick of course). A couple days later Brian planned a nice relaxing day and night at an AMAZING hotel here in Sac. It is fairly new and was wonderful. We got couple massages, had dinner at Scott's Seafood and had two flat screen TV's in our room. This is a picture from our bed to the right. Brian is such a good sport to pose in the picture for me.

This is a picture if you are looking on the other side of the bed. It had an electric fireplace and another room.

I had such a great time hanging out with my husband. We both felt single again (no kids single). It was nice to have a night to ourselves and to be able to actually sleep in. The time was nice while it lasted, but on the way to pick up our rugrats we were laughing and talking about them. We could not stop wondering what time they woke up, what were some of the funny things they might have done the night before and if Lea woke up at 3 am? It just goes to show you that it is nice to have a break, but you will always miss the ones you are trying to get the break from.

Abby's Birthday Party

We went to Kiley's best bud Abby's Birthday party last weekend. Kiley was talking about it the entire week before it started and for another week after.

It was such a beautiful day...there was a bounce house,

bubbles


and Kiley's favorite, cake.

Kiley was having so much fun at the playground; as you can see she was being so silly, she had dirt all over her face and had sticky bubble hands, but she did not care.


Lea also had a fun time at the party. She got to see her little boyfriend, his name is Jack. When Jack was leaving he tried to give Lea a kiss goodbye and she was not really interested or not paying attention...


And then all the sudden I think she realized what Jack was doing...




Of course Lea also had fun eating cake...


We all had such a fun time hanging out with our friends,




we even met people that got married the same day and year as we did.

Kiley played so hard and had so much fun. On the way home she passed out before we even got out of the parking lot.


Lea on the other hand, good ole Lea, cried the entire way home.

All in all we had a very fun day!