tragedy strikes

Bella lost her giraffe (her pink lovey) on the way home from vacation. She went into the gas station with Randy to buy herself some gum and I think she was just so excited carrying her purse and buying the gum with her own money she set it down and forgot about it. It has been with us for four and a half years and it is so very helpful! We bought two when she was born for this very reason and switched them out occasionally. One day as a two year old she cut the tags- her favorite thing about the thing! I panicked and instead of letting her handle the natural consequences, I switched them out. She was smarter than I thought she was though because she knew the tags were back and once when I was washing that one I slipped her the one with cut tags and she immediately wanted the "other raffy! other raffy" to which I responded, "What are you talking about? There is only one raffy." Yeah right. I dug myself into a hole and learned my lesson. I ditched the one with no tags and she has held onto the other one for two more years until just this past Saturday. I think I was more heartbroken than she was. She has done fine going to bed every night (3 nights so far) until tonight. She left her replacement animal, a lamb, at her friend's today and cried herself to sleep. If only we still had the darn giraffe. I saw one on ebay for $25 (we only paid $10 originally) but in the picture it looked like that tag had been cut! That is the whole reason we need one so I guess we are out of luck. I did learn, however, during my online search for another one that they were recalled a while ago!! Crazy. We tried calling the gas station but haven't had any luck yet. Maybe it was just his time...

VBS!!

The girls got their first experience in VBS this summer. I always loved going as a I grew up and I was so blessed to be able to volunteer and have them both go with me. My good friend Sarah played a big part in making the week happened and had asked me if I was interested... um, yes! The girls and I all enjoyed ourselves. I was a little torn as I had to leave sweet baby Cohen (a friend's baby we keep part time) with Randy but they did great and Ava stayed with them half of the time.

Anyway, these pictures are of the finale. Bella was mostly focused on playing with Ava who kept running to the middle to try and steal the show.

Puppies and Bikes

Every kids dream! Well, we actually just "puppysat" our friends 5 week old puppy but the girls loved every minute of it. Bella was great with him and was a big help. Ava is generally afraid of dogs, well any animal, but she tolerated him and even got a little close to him by the end of the week.

Also that week we got Ava's little bike out. It was Bella's when she was younger. Ava sits on it like she is so proud but actually has no idea what to do. She is always bringing us her helmet now to try to sneak in a bike ride here and there.

July 4th Celebrations

It has been a while but we have been crazy busy... all of that to come soon. First, for the fourth of July we had a very small neighborhood parade. The girls had fun and that night we headed to our friends to watch fireworks. Unfortunately, they were rained out but we still had lots of fun with sparklers and food!

Big Girl Gets Bunk Beds

We got, with a lot of help from family members, bunk beds for Bella for her birthday. We went and picked them up today and are so excited to get this set up one day soon!

Conference Tourny

Last year I took the girls to see Randy at work at the conference tournament for his golf team. Ava was just a baby still riding in her carrier. This year she was older and not so still! We let the girls practice putting and then took them on a ride in the golf cart around the course to see some of his players.



Oh yes, and then we had to get on the bus! One of Bella's favorite things. (Its the little things in life you know)

This past weekend

We had so much fun being outdoors this past weekend. It was a little cooler than normal but it was nice when sitting in the sun! Which is what we did...

Randy had friends in town and they were doing their annual golf thing so my sister and I got together and took the kids to the Whitewater Center where they were having the Tuck Fest. There was live music and food and a great little place for the kids to climb.

The next day after church we went back! This time we met up with our/Randy's friends. We took a long walk around the water and then gave the girls lunch on a blanket. Later that day they had a duck race which was so cool. They dumped thousands of rubber ducks in the river.