Baby Beck will be here soon!

Saturday we had a baby shower for Tamra and baby boy ?Beck

We can't wait to meet him. We had such a fun time with family and friends.
Tamra looks beautiful and is definitely glowing. So glad we could share this time with her.

Aaron was here too. They guys were able to go golfing that day.

Here's Tam playing our A to Z shower game.

The girls were so cute playing too! Dakota and Paityn helped serve dessert.

Girl cousins on mom's side. What is this boy going to think of all of these girls?

Halloween Festivities

Pumpkin Carving...the girls love to do this with their daddy!

Dakota got to dress up for tap class (Alice in Wonderland)

"Rodeo Cowgirl" Dakota. Her Preschool class had a Halloween Party! And Indian Sawyer in the background.

The "Sandlot" Halloween Party/Carnival...thanks to "Vava's" beautiful property. We all went as characters from "Alice in Wonderland". Ramon- the "Madhatter", Me- "Queen of Hearts", Dakota- "Alice", Sawyer- the "Cheshire Cat"

It was such a fun time for everyone. There were several booths for the kids to play games and get candy, a pig roast, a costume and baking contest, a live band, movie showings of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and Monsters vs. Aliens!

Fall Updates!

The house is moving along. This was taken about 2 weeks ago. Since, they've put the garage doors on, the doors in the house, front door, etc. They're now working on the driveway and walk way cement and starting to paint the inside. They should be putting our cabinets in next week.

More pics to come!

Here are the girls at the Pumpkin Patch. We met Dakota and Paityn's Preschool class there. We got to go on a hayride, go through a corn maze, listen to the pumpkin story and finally pick out our own pumpkins.

4 cute little mice!

Here's Dakota and Paityn at their tap, ballet, gymnastics class. They love it and sure are good at it! All that dance works up an appetite. Here the girls are at Papa and Nanny's making a pizza.

We hope all is well with you! We're looking forward to the nearing Holidays!
Have a FUN and safe Halloween!!!

Recovering Quickly

Just wanted to tell all of you thank you for praying for Dakota and her surgery. She is doing awesome! The whole time leading up to it she kept saying, "when is it, I want to get this over with". Well the day came yesterday and she was cracking us up the whole time in the waiting room in her "scrubs" acting like a little old man! Anyways, she went back to the O.R. with a smile on her face looking forward to the cotton candy air she got to breath in through the mask. They repaired her right inguinal hernia orthoscopically. She has a small incision below her belly button. It was only a 20 minute procedure but we didn't see her for about an hour and a half. They give her time to wake up, etc. Now that we've been home almost 24 hours it's been a challenge for her to relax and rest. She had a couple visitors and wanted to play. Luckily she slept all night and hasn't really had any pain. She'll return to school Monday and will still have to take it easy. So again, thank you for all your thoughts and prayers!

Bend a what???

Maybe it's my lack of patience or creativity, I don't know. But I can't seem to figure these darn BENDAROOS out! If you've seen the commercial and have a child 10 or so and younger then you know what they are. Dakota requested these fun little wax strips for her birthday. So my sisters got them for her. She got the Flowers and Butterflies and the Animal Bendaroos. They come with an instruction sheet of the different creatures, etc. you can make with step by step instructions. These are for age 3+ mind you. After trying on her own for awhile, "D" asked for my help. Note: no pic. of my "pinky the pig" creation. I couldn't even show you how my pig turned out. When I got about one third of the way through it was falling apart. I know we tell our kids, "practice makes perfect"...ummm sorry not with these things. Even a twenty-something, mother of 2 can't make a step by step pig! So I suggest getting rid of the inventors ideas before your child has you trying to do them and let them make up their own creation!

Letting kids be kids!

So as you can see in the picture above, Dakota is a lover of all creatures. There's rollie pollie's(which the girls play with daily and are no longer allowed in my car) and praying mantis' on our porch. After school today we noticed there were 2 praying mantis' on our chairs. Dakota's immediate question..."Oooh, can I touch it?" My response, "Ewww, no!" This coming after me telling her they're good bugs and they get rid of the bad bugs. My reaction changed her mind and she settled for a picture with Mr. Mantis!
This morning before school Dakota put on her gingham dress w/ matching headband. It was time to go and she needed to get her shoes on. She asked what shoes should she wear. I responded with, "either your gold or pink sandals...either one would match and look cute." Then out she walked in her shin-high brown boots...not very matchy matchy but I let her wear them.

So like my title says, let kids be kids. I'm trying to relinquish control of the things that don't really matter! I want to watch my kids enjoy life and God's creations and make some of their own decisions.

Labor Day, Birthday and Move-in Day

It's been a month since I had a post up, so let me fill you in on what's been going on!

It's official, we sold our house Sept. 4th. We moved out and moved into our rental. Luckily the transition has been an easy one on both the girls and us. We settled in and went on a mini vacation.

For Labor Day we drove up to Dinky Creek and spent the weekend camping with family and friends. Unfortuantely I didn't get many pics...I forgot to charge the batteries in my camera. But we had a blast. The kids played all over the campsites making "houses", fishing with daddy, exploring the river and of course making s'mores. Dakota is definitely our little explorer. She loves to search for and pick up bugs. She's quite the climber too. She made her way up, down and through rocks down on the river. Sawyer sure keeps up with her big sister doing everything with her. Above Dakota and Sawyer Saturday morning up about 6:30am. Luckily our friends' kids were up too!

Dakota is now 5 years old! I can't believe it!!! Daddy came home with a bouquet of flowers for the birthday girl. We went to Lemoore and celebrated D's birthday where she got a cute new pair of "cowgirl" boots from Grandma and Grandpa.

Dakota had her 5th birthday party with her friends. There was a big waterslide and they made ice-cream sundays. It was so much fun to watch.

And finally, we went out to the house Monday to go over all the electrical. They started laying the roof today. We should see some big progress within the next couple weeks. We've been told our move-in date should be sometime in December before Christmas. We're so excited and can't wait to be in!