Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

June 13th was Lauren's ballet recital. I wasn't allowed to record at the actual performance, but I was able to get most of the dress rehearsal. It was so cute. If it gets a little wobbly, I had a video camera in one hand and the regular camera in the other. She is the little blond one :).

Lauren loses first top tooth!

Last week we were in CA for my Nana's funeral. She was 86 years old, but really healthy, so it was a surprise just because she wasn't sick. She lived in Cambria, CA by herself in a 3 story house and drove her little sports car around town. Anyways, everything was just beautiful at the funeral and I know it was just how she would have wanted it. I am so glad to know that she is in her true home- heaven -now. I look forward to the day I will see her again.

The morning that we were leaving we were at breakfast and I had left Greg and his mom with the kids while I went back to the hotel room to grab something. When I came back-Lauren had pulled her tooth out! This is the first time we actually get to see a hole in her mouth, because the adult bottom teeth had already come in before the baby ones fell out. It is funny, because her top teeth have actually spread out a lot I guess to make room for the big teeth. It looks like she lost the 2 side ones as well, because there is so much space. Now that she has the 1 tooth in the front it actually looks like it is in the middle and she has this big snaggle tooth. We laugh about it. It isn't quite ready to come out, but I think in the next week it will be out.

Locks of Love!!!

I have so much to catch up on with pics, but I am going to start with our most recent event. Yesterday Lauren cut 10 inches off her hair to donate to locks of love. It is an organization that donates wigs to children that have lost their hair for different reasons. She has been growing it for a few years now, but we just decided about 9 months ago to donate it. I actually cut my hair with her for moral support-I thought she might be shocked, because she has always had long hair...but she did great!! She had a smile on her face the whole time. I think she just looks adorable! The lady that does my hair-Miss. Debbie :) did a wonderful job-Lauren just loved her and everything about the whole experience!

The kids have green thumbs!

The last two years I tried to grow zucchini on the East side of our house and nothing would grow. This year we decided to try the West side and so far so good! We planted zucchini, sunflowers and tomato plants. As you can see, it is a very small little garden, but I didn't want to make it too big in case nothing grew again. The kids have had a great time taking care of it and are thrilled that they get to pick and eat the zucchini now. I made a stuffed zucchini last week and it was really good! One of the pics is of our dinner that night.

Here Birdy Birdy!

Last week I had the kids make bird feeders out of pinecones. They each had a pinecone, they rubbed peanut butter all over it and then rolled it in bird seed. We took some string and tied at knot around each one. Finally, we hung them from the trees. We have had a ton of birds eating them and the kids have just loved watching them out the window. The best part was letting them clean the table afterwards with shaving cream! They were a mess, but it was so much fun!

Our sweet little Brennan is 3!

I am up late doing this, but our day is going to be busy tomorrow, so I wanted to get this done for his birthday.. FRIDAY June 6th!!! I have been going through all of his baby pictures and it brings back such precious memories. Sometimes it seems like years ago, but other times it seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital having him. Brennan was a special surprise from God and we are so thankful that the Lord brought him in our life. I found out I was pregnant 2 weeks after we separated from active duty Air Force...and we found out that NO-short term insurance doesn't cover maternity care. We were a little stressed, but the Lord always opened another door and we were able to get coverage. One of the most special parts about being pregnant with Brennan was that my sister was pregnant at the same time due about 6 weeks before me. It was such a special time together. Our babies were born just 4 weeks apart, because she was 1 week late and I was 10 days early.

I was so nervous that I was going to deliver Brennan in the car, because Joshua came so fast...so my doctor said that if I really started to feel anything..don't wait. Well-they actually were scheduling me to be induced, because of Greg's schedule and we wanted to make sure he was there and that I didn't have the baby in a car somewhere! Of course as most people here know that the hospital usually calls to tell you that don't have room for you the day you are supposed to be induced. God had other plans and they had to make room, because I went into labor that night anyway! We were out for pizza and I started having some pretty hard contractions about 20 minutes apart. I told Greg that we needed to go at least to get checked. He did not think it was the real deal...but I wasn't going to wait. We went to the hospital and they checked me. I was at a 3...walked for 45 minutes...got check again...was a 5, but they still didn't have any room for me upstairs. We waited for 5 hours in triage. When I got upstairs to a room finally I was about a 7-8 and they gave me an epidural. I think it was about 30 minutes later and I was ready to push. I asked the doctor if he could wait though, because my family had literally just left to go downstairs to the cafeteria (mom, dad, mother in law). I asked my sister to find them and the doctor was getting pretty impatient, but I didn't want them to miss it (they were going to be behind a screen in the room :)), because this was probably going to be it. So they all hurried back upstairs. I started pushing and on the first push his head was almost out. I pushed 4 times and he was here in 4 minutes! Sweet little Brennan...a TON of crazy blond hair and a scruched up little face. His hair isn't quite so wild now, but he still scruches his face...frequently right now :).

We love you little Brennan and are so blessed to be your parents!

OH-in one of the pics you can see that Greg is holding Brennan when he is a couple days old, there are boxes in the background...we got they keys to our new house the day after he was born. It was a crazy time.