Our New Toy

I got to ride it first!

Getting ready to ride with Daddy

Rachel was so excited!

The Belle of the Ball

Amber had a fun time getting all dressed up for Mormon Prom.  We discovered that this color of purple is definitely her color.  We ordered the dress on line, and it was a little tricky getting the right size.  The size that finally fit her was a 0-2.  Can't remember when, if ever, I was able to fit in a size 2 anything.

My First Post This Year!

I've been such a slacker, but I'm going to do better.  I figured I'd start off with a picture of my family.  I had to take advantage of everyone being in their church clothes when we were together at Christmas time.  It's so hard to get everyone to cooperate for a nice family photo.  Maybe I should have posted some of the goofy ones too so that you could all appreciate what I went through to get one good picture.  I get so much static when I try to get a decent picture of everyone.

Party Time!

 It started out with the girls getting together with their American Girl dolls.  One thing led to another and the next thing we knew we were have a party.

 Princess Lauren and Lady Emily

 Lady Rachel and Lady Charlotte.

 Lady Amber and Lady Ashley

 Menu:  pink lemonade, finger sandwiches, peaches, cookies, jolly ranchers and M&Ms

 Such an elegant afternoon with the ladies!

 The dogs have to eat too!

Lady Charlotte, Mrs. Nezbitz (my assistant photographer) and Coconut the dog

Hello Dolly!

 

Amber's had a fun summer preparing for the community theater's production of Hello Dolly.  She was in the ensemble.  We were all able to attend closing night.  She looked so cute in her costume.  It was a great show!

Grandma and my nephew Michael were also in town for the show.

Beach Day!

The first item of business when we hit the beach is sunscreen.

 Rachel's number one request when she came home from school was a trip to the beach.

 Three Cool Dudes!

This is my nephew Michael with Tyler and Ryan getting ready to go boogie boarding.

 Enjoying the sun with the cousins

 The weather was perfect!

 There's my man!

 Doesn't get much better than this!

 My thing at the beach is to sit under the umbrella, listen to the waves and feel my stress melt away.

 A trip to the beach would not be complete with out a sand castle.  This one was constructed by Sarah and our cousin.

One of Ryan's favorite things to do at the beach is skim boarding.  This is his first go at it since he had his knees repaired.

We stayed the entire day.  Uncle Bruce brought his BBQ and cooked hamburgers.  He also brought wood for the fire pit so that we could make smores.  We tried some different things on our smores.  Next time you're making smores try Rieces and Dark Special candy bar (my favorite).

Our Secret Garden

 Dan's really done an amazing job on the garden this year.  The corn looks great!

It's taken him a lot of work, but it looks really nice!

 He planted corn, tomatoes, beans, zucchini, chilies, peppers, cantaloupe, yellow squash and cucumbers.  Sheeba knows she better not dig in the garden or else.

Sometimes we wonder what to do with all the zucchini that we get.  This year I tried putting them on shish kabobs.  It was excellent!  Something else I always like to do is Chocolate Zucchini Cake.  There's no frosting on top.  Just brown sugar and a lot of chocolate chips.  It's sooooo good!