Mom's Birthday

Yesterday (the 19th) was my mom's birthday.  Tonight we were all (except Terry, he was stuck at work) able to go to Chili's  for dinner.  That's what my mom wanted for her birthday was for everyone to go to dinner.  The girls and I made cupcakes and cake pops.  John, the girls and I got her and Terry tickets to see the Blue Man Group at the Gallo Center in November.  So they will have to wait awhile to enjoy their gift.  Hopefully the wait will be worth it.

Dylan, Ashlee, Hailee, Mikayla & Landon

The Chili's employees were singing happy birthday, but my stinkin camera froze so I got a side profile pic instead!

Mom, Ashlee, Hailee, Mikayla, Dylan & Landon

 Silly Pictures :

Hailee, Dylan, Adam & Landon

Swim Team Award's Ceremony

It's official.  Swim team for the 2011 season is officially over.  The last 4 months have been hectic and busy. Sad to even think this, but school starts in 3 weeks for us. Summer has flown by. But as of today, we are officially done with swimming for this year.  Yesterday was the last swim meet of the year and today was the awards ceremony.  Both girls did well and have made great improvements. When they started swim team last year they didn't know how to swim, now they both know how to swim and are able to compete.  They have done a great job.  Here are some pictures from the team party and awards ceremony.

Ashlee peeking over the edge of the pool.

Mikayla hasn't been feeling well the last couple of days so she sat in a chair and watched.

Ashlee diving for loose change.

Mikayla wishing she could swim.

Mikayla with her trophy

The 7-8 girls on the swim team.  Some where missing.  Not everyone could make it.



9-10 girls on the swim team.  Ashlee is the 5th one in from the right.




Ashlee with the 9-10 girls



Ashlee with her trophy. 

First Place/Championship Swim Meet

Today wrapped up the end of swim season for this year.  Four months of swimming came to an end today.  Today was the championship swim meet in Oakdale.  Mikayla was supposed to swim the breaststroke for the very first time on a relay team and as an individual event, she was excited and ready to go.  The coach was excited and thought she would do very well, BUT unfortunately she got sick.  Friday night she got a high fever, sore throat, and headache.  By Saturday morning her fever was higher, she had a stomach ache, and  was vomiting as well.  John stayed home with her.  While Ashlee, Hailee, Dylan, Landon and I went to the swim meet (I watched my brothers kids for him because he had to work). 

The day went very well.  The weather was perfect.  Not too hot, not too cold.  The kids were all well behaved and everyone had a good time.  Ashlee swam the best she has ever swam in the two years she has done swimming.  Ashlee got her very first, first place today.  Ashlee got first place in her heat for swimming the 50 yard backstroke,  2nd place in her heat for 50yard freestyle, and 3rd place in her heat for 100yd freestyle.  Ashlee did very well.  Too bad, John and Mikayla were not able to be there to witness it.  As soon as Ashlee got out of the pool she called John with the great news. 

While Ashlee was swimming Hailee, Dylan and Landon would go to the end of her lane and cheer her on.  The kids made cute little signs that said "Go Ashlee. Ceres Dolphins".  Landon was holding the sign up at the end of her lane when she won.  He was her good luck charm.  After that, Landon brought his sign to every race that Ashlee and her friends swam in and held it up for them.  Landon said: "they win with my sign." 

The picture below is of Ashlee and Landon after she won first place.  The orange bracelet is something they give you as soon as you win first place.  You wear it on your ankle or wrist and that let's other people know that you were a first place winner.  Ribbons, trophies and medals come following the meet.

Landon with his sign and Ashlee with her first place bracelet.



Mikayla's team picture for the year.




Alyssa and Ashlee

Mikayla and Allison

Ashlee in the black swim suit getting ready to compete

Mikayla she likes swimming, but she doesn't like competing in the meets.  GO FIGURE!



Fun Works

Mikayla's orthodontist rented out Fun Works for all his patients and their families for the evening.  Each patient was allowed to bring their immediate family and one friend.  There was unlimited fun for everyone.  They were allowed to do everything that Fun Works had.  They only thing they had to pay for was tokens for games giving tickets.  All the video games were set to "free mode" for the night.  They also had hotdogs, snowcones, ice cream and raffled off prizes every 30minutes.  We were so close to winning a touch screen camera.  The winning ticket was in our ticket number sequence but for some reason it was torn off and we had one odd ball ticket out of sequence.  Darn it!  The girls had fun.  The place was packed.  The turn out was huge.  Here are some pictures from the evening.  Unfortunately, John had a DVM in town from Indiana so he wasn't able to come with us.

Getting ready to ride the go-carts

Ashlee had to ride alone.  Mikayla wasn't tall enough so I had to ride with her.

Hotdogs and punch for dinner

Ashlee and Mikayla getting ready to ride the SOAKING bumper boats.

Ashlee and Mikayla are in the middle boat, trying to soak the boys in the other boat.

Did I say the boats where SOAKING? They were SOAKED  but they had to go back 1 more time.  Good thing I had a change of clothes and towels in the car!

Indoor bumper cars.  Ashlee's car would not go.  They stopped the whole ride to see why her car wouldn't go.  I think it was just the driver!

The girls had fun.  And best of all it was FREE (somewhat) we do pay a nice chunk of change to the orthodontist every month!  From the sound of things, we probably will get to experience this event many more times in the coming years (as long as the orthodontist continues to do this).  Mikayla has lot's of dental work to be done.  But I must say, her teeth already look a lot better.  The top teeth are almost straight.

Fair Cakes

It's that time of year again.  Fair time.  This year the Stanislaus County Fair will be celbrating it's 100th year.  Today was the day Ashlee, Mikayla, Hailee, Dylan and Landon had to decorate their cakes, cookies and cupcakes for the fair.  Tomorrow morning they go to the fair to be judged and they will remain on display at the fair for the next 10 days for all the fair goers to see.

The decorating (and eating too)!

Ashlee wondering what to do next.

Ashlee's flip-flop cake. She may have got too carried away with the sprinkles.

Hailee's Peace sign cookie

Mikayla's "Summertime" cake.

Ashlee had the camera so I thought she got pictures of everyones cakes, but when I started to upload pictures I realized she didn't.  Landon did a valentines day cupcake and Dylan did an ornament cake.  Hopefully I can get som pictures of them at the fair.

Grandpa Billy's 70th Birthday/Family Reunion

Grandpa Billy (my mom's step-dad), the only grandpa we have ever known, turned 70 on Friday, July 8th. Today we had a birthday party for him.  It was also the first time in probably at least 9 years, that almost all the cousins and their kids were together for the first time (all but two cousins were able to make it).  It was good to see everyone, their spouses and their children.  Strange and sad thing is, most of us live at least 1 to 4 hours apart and it has taken us 9 years to all meet up again.  I guess we all get so caught up in our crazy, busy, lives that we forget to take and make the time for family.  I love the saying "In family life love is spelled T-I-M-E."  Maybe it's about time, that we all start taking the time to be with our families a little more.  Family time is important time. 

We weren't able to find a company that would deliver a waterslide to Moccassin for a reasonable price, so we had slip-n-slides instead.  The slip-n-slides didn't make it through the day though.  The waterslide would've kept the kiddo's entertained more. 

Uncle Danny and Uncle Ronny holding their granddaughters.  They were both bull riders.  My mom had to have a picture of these "tough" cowboys holding their little granddaughters.

Snapshot of some of the family and some of Grandpa's friends.

 The cousins on the slip-n-slide

  Lee decided to put Landon in the tree.  Then every kid wanted to be put in the tree.

Everything turned out nice.  Grandpa seemed to enjoy it.