This summer so far...

This summer has been a fun one so far! In June we went to Seattle, WA to see two of Derek's cousins graduate High School. Derek's mom, grandma, grandpa and two cousins also went so we planned a few fun things to do with them throughout the trip!

At a rest stop along the way we got out to stretch our legs. The kids actually did really well being in the car soo long.

We stayed the night in Oregon on the way up and Cindy had planned a fun trip to a wildlife safari. It was like a drive through zoo where most of the animals could just walk right up to your car. The kids loved it! I thought it was pretty cool too.

We did the safari on father's day. The kids are so lucky to have a great daddy.

Soo funny :)

Trying to be like sister...

There was a petting zoo there and both of our kids were too scared to feed the animals. They're both afraid to get to close.

Auda's graduation was at a stadium. I couldn't believe how many people were there.

Shelby's graduation was in a gym and there were tons of people there as well.

We took a ferry ride out to Fort Gamble and had lunch and went through some shops and museums. It was a fun relaxing day and it was beautiful

Coming back on the ferry we went right into downtown and the city is so amazing. I loved the tall building and structures. Crazy how this made Sacramento look like the outskirts ha.

We went to the space needle! It was a fun experience and the view was crazy!

Grammy and the grand kids :)

 My favorite picture from our trip. We took a walk along the water and ate at this fish and chips place that was soo good.

Peyton and Derek's aunt Mieko. She was so excited to ride this.

The kids winning tickets at the arcade... They had so much fun on this vacation. I hope they remember some of it when they're older, but I guess that's why we have pictures to remind them right?

For the 4th of July we went to my aunt and uncle's house and had a BBQ. The kids were excited about swimming and fireworks. This is Jax with his first sparkler of the day :)

He couldn't wait for another one.

We were glad to have daddy with us this holiday. I think he was pretty happy too that he didn't have to work.

Love him...

Peyton kept introducing Avery as "my best friend Avery". It was cute. Every family event these two are at they are always together. It's still crazy to me that Avery was the little flower girl at our wedding and now we have a daughter that is older than she was then. Time goes soo fast!

I think this is the first year that both of our kids enjoyed the fireworks. Jax did fall asleep towards the end, but they sat through all of it and loved it! I feel like my kids are at a point where they are way more independent than before and now we have to start over with another one... yikes! That's my biggest concern is that I'm used to the kids occupying themselves so I'm going to have a hard time adjusting to another newborn. I know I will, but I also know it won't be a walk in the park. It will definitely be worth it though :)

Speaking of... we had our five month appointment on July 6th. Going into the ultrasound I had mixed emotions. To be honest I was 99% sure we were going to have another boy and I didn't even want the ultrasound because I wanted a girl so bad that I didn't want to know it was a boy. I know that sounds awful. I would have been happy with a boy, but Derek and I are talking about this being our last baby and I really wanted a girl, mostly for Peyton. If you follow my blog you know how much I love my sisters and that they are my best friends so of course I would want Peyton to have a sister. I know she has girl cousins that she will be close to, but it's not the same. Every girl should have a sister. During the ultrasound I was feeling guilty because I knew when she said it was a boy I would have that tiny bit of sadness, even with all the happiness of having a healthy baby and another son like my handsome little man Jax. I know this makes me sound really picky and ungrateful. That's why I felt guilty, but I am also pretty sure that anyone who has had their heart set on one or the other and doesn't get it has this feeling. To be fair when I found out Peyton was a girl I felt a little sad because I wanted a boy first. The ultrasound tech has done all of my ultrasounds so she remembered we had a girl and a boy. She asked me how old Peyton was now and then asked if she had a preference. I told her Peyton has been saying for so long that she wanted our baby to be a girl. The ultrasound tech then told me that Peyton would be happy to know that she's getting a sister! I was so shocked! Tears just started flowing out. It was such a happy moment. I felt so lucky and blessed. My sister who is going to have her baby right before ours is also having a girl! I do feel a little bad for Jax because out of all the grand babies he will be the only boy. In fact that was everyone's reaction when we made our phone calls and announced that we were having another daughter. The first thing everyone said was, "poor Jax" lol. I'm getting really excited and feeling her move more and more everyday. Can't wait to meet her!

The other day we took the kids to the spray park by our house because it was so hot out. We packed a picnic and had some fun. They love it there!

Our garden is getting out of control! I've been putting squash in everything I cook. I was worried that we would kill our garden when I should have been worrying about what we were going to do with all the vegetables that come from it! We're definitely learning from our first time around what we're going to plant next year and how many!

A lot of catching up!

I feel like things have been so crazy lately. I'm loving how fast time is flying by making my pregnancy seem like it's going fast as well! Yay for starting the second trimester! I don't even really know where to begin on this post I have so much to catch up on so I'll just start from the most recent. 

 My cousin Holly had her baby shower so the kids and I went to that. It was fun to visit with family and friends that we haven't seen in a while.

Kinsley, Jax and my cousin Kylee

Jax being a cheeseball trying to drink bottled water, but getting it all over his shirt.

It was nice that they had it outside because it turned out to be a beautiful day. Can you find Jax with Grandma?

I have the best husband :) For my Mother's Day gift he built me two garden boxes. I love how handy he is.

The kids helped plant... kinda. To be honest they were more about playing in the pile of extra dirt off to the side. I'm excited for them to see the growing process though. They even have little watering cans to help water the garden. It's cute!

Derek ended up doing most of the work, with my help of course. This is my first garden so I'm actually nervous that we will over water, under water or end up killing everything we've planted somehow. I'll have to post later on how everything went.

You know how I always say that I love family? Well this is just one example of how wonderful my family is and how awesome it is to be a part of it. My grandma's computer was on it's last leg so she wasn't able to get online and keep up with the family via the internet. We decided to start a collection of funds from any of the family that wanted to pitch in to buy grandma a laptop. She was so shocked to see all of us come piling into her home on Mother's Day. She had no idea what was going on.

In a little over a month we ended up raising enough to give her a really nice laptop and a check from the leftover donations to cover her internet bill for over a year. Everyone wanted to pitch in! It's awesome how much love my family has for this one woman and fun that we were able to all come together and do something great for her. 

Derek and our niece Lauren watching Grandma unwrap her gift.

Grandma and just a few of her great grandchildren. There are many missing.

My parents took the kids overnight the Friday before. On Saturday they took them to the Oroville parade and then out fishing. It was Jax's first fishing adventure. I hear they both had a lot of fun. My dad even taught Peyton how to cast her line out all by herself. I don't know who had more fun... my kids, or my parents??? They had many stories to tell when they brought them home Saturday night.

We took the kids to the zoo! The flamingos were their favorite. Especailly when they would start fighting with their necks and stretching out their wings. The kids thought that was hilarious!

We had a lot of fun that day.

They learned a lot too. There was this monkey that kept swinging back and forth across his cage everytime we would yell, "monkey!" It was almost like he was putting on a show for the kids. I wish I would've gotten a picture of him.

You would not believe how many people have asked me lately if they are twins. Really? Can't you tell Peyton is older? I mean there's almost a two year difference between them. I guess it's because when they're side by side in a stroller or a cart they almost look the same size. You can't really tell that Peyton is a lot taller when they're sitting and the fact that Jax is a tank probably adds to the confusion. I don't think there is really any guessing to what our baby is going to look like. Boy or girl it will probably look just like these two. :)