{{{{--Beautiful ballerina--}}}}

Someone in the great big marketing world has found their niche when it comes to little girls....put them in a cute lil' costume, have them dance around a stage semi-in sync and the parents will just throw money, all for 3 precious minutes on the big stage with bright lights =) I'll admit, I had no idea what I was signing up for back in August. Never being a part of dance before, I had no idea what recitals entailed! Ella loved every minute of it. She especially loved the instructions she received before the dance rehearsal.
"Miss Lynn says you HAVE to put makeup on me! Real makeup."

Ella's class performed a ballet to the song "Up Up and Away (in my beautiful balloon)". click here to listen
Ella was the oldest girl in her class, there was 1 other 4 year old and the rest are 3 years old. She is almost a full head taller than the rest of the girls =)

Our class was very fortunate to have a professional photographer mama in our class. She very graciously offered to take individual and group pictures of our girlies before the big show. Thanks Randi!

Ava, Joren, Ella J, Clara, Holly, Mia, Ella K

Ava, Joren, Ella J, Clara, Holly, Mia, Ella K

Back: Ella J, Clara, Mia, Ella K
Front: Joren, Ava, Holly

Joren, Clara, Ava, Ella J, Mia, Holly, Ella K

The pictures from the actual recital are a little dark, but you can get the general cuteness factor out of them!

The balloon tied in the bun made this lil' ballerina over-the-top  ADORABLE!!!

Would you like to fly in my beautiful balloon?!

If you hold my hand we'll sail away across the sky...

Or we can fly!!!

After such a darling performance, we made sure to have flowers ready to give our ballerina. She, on the other hand, had no idea about the flowers or that people even got flowers after the recital. On our way out to the rest of the family, she asked why the other girls all had flowers. I explained that their families just brought the flowers for them. After she got her flowers, she said "I can't believe my family brought me flowers!!"

All in all it was a great night. Ella did a great job performing, she had a huge crowd of family come watch her and in her own words "I just can't stop smiling!"

Hope this makes you all smile too =]

Off to the zoo

This post has been hiding out of my computer for over a month now =) I wanted to keep the pictures a surprise for my dad for Father's day, but now alas I can share with the world!

Last month, my sisters Penny and Shannon came to Portland for a trip to the zoo. 3 adults, 5 kids and a crowded zoo made for an eventful afternoon =) We all had a blast and it was so fun to see how the kids all clung together and got some good cousin time.

Zoey, Ella, Aubrey and Porter (Wyatt had just slipped on the wet wood)

Zoey, Ella, Wyatt, Porter and Aubrey on a dinosaur.

Ella, Zoey, Aubrey, Porter and Wyatt--who is as big as a bear?

Wyatt, Porter, Zoey, Ella and Aubrey as we left the zoo.

Me, Aubrey, Ella, Zoey, Penny, Wyatt, Shannon and Porter
Great picture man who happened to be standing right next to us =)

Porter, Wyatt and Shannon

Zoey and Ella love each other very much!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day!

Is it summer today?

Our daily debating start with getting dressed. Both girls got a dresser full of cute sundresses in preparation for summer. Well....apparently we were a bit premature in these purchases! This late into spring, we should be wearing our dresses at least most days (even if the mornings require a light jacket). No such luck!!

On those rare days when we have had a break in the clouds, we have made sure to take full advantage of those moments!

*Due to my lack of frequent blogging, I will now jump straight to the pictures of all our fun!*

Aubrey LOVES to go up-up-up!

I'm convinced that she is part monkey!

This is an example of the day mom dressed everyone a little too optimistic! 

Aubrey walked around surprisingly well in my high heels!

Ella loves that crazy mutt more than he can stand it!!

We're at the beach!!

Beautiful Ella in front of a beautiful blue sky.
(What you can't see are the dark, low clouds over my shoulder!)

Sand angel time! And after playing in the surf, this was loads of fun to clean up...

2 very happy sisters to be at the beach =]

Its become our yearly tradition, names in the sand.

We had been at the beach all of about 5 nanoseconds before these three were wet up to their knees!!

We had one day warm enough to break out the swimsuits and sprinkler!!!
(But because of planting new grass, the girls had to make due with running through the sprinkler on the easement)

Planting our own "square-foot garden." Ella was a great helper!

Its been a short trip through a warm weather memories. We are praying that this weather breaks soon. We still have 2 weeks before our 1st summer trip!!

Aubrey, our BIG GIRL now!!!!

Aubrey, since the day we were waiting for her to be born, has always done things on her own timetable. No amount of persuading/convincing/bribing will do the trick, unless she says "I do it my own self" then odds are she won't do it! This last month has brought us to many big ticket milestones in her little life.

She is now completely potty trained. Aubrey thought that the week before Neal and I left for Cancun was the prime time to really get gung-hoe about this process. Occasionally we have an accident, but all in all we are very proud of her and she is proud of herself. She will tell us "Yay, I pottied in big potty like you(me)/Ella/Amah/(insert whoever she has seen that day.)" On those occasions when she doesn't make it to the potty, we try to be firm with her but also understanding that she is trying to avoid accidents. Her latest phrase makes it hard to laugh when she has an accident just because she is so darn cute; she will say "I SOO SORRRY mommy for potty on you floor." ---Forgiven!

Last week she also decided that she is now done with the crib. We had offered in the past weeks/months to let her sleep in the twin bed in her room, but she wanted nothing to do with it. "I sleep in my crib." No debating, that is that. Then for nap she suddenly wanted to sleep in the twin bed and hasn't been back in her crib since then. We haven't had nearly the battle with her that we did with Ella; no need for locks on the inside of the door, or spankings for continuously getting out of bed. On Saturday night, she did test the limits just a little bit after bedtime. She was all tucked in, I closed the door and barely get into our room when I heard her open her door. "I gotta tell you sumthin. I gotta tell you sumthin." I lead her back to bed, get her tucked in again and she tells me the all-important news "Nemo touched the boat." My night is now complete, I can go to sleep now that Aubrey has filled me in on this news (despite the fact that I too, have watched this movie 10 times in the last week along with her!). She tries this game one more time that night, but other than that...she is all moved into her big girl bed.

Definitely bitter-sweet to have her 'all grown up' but we know that now the real fun is just beginning =)

An escape to sunnier days.....

Neal and I took our first kid-free vacation to Cancun last week!!! Neal's parents had given us use of their timeshare for a Christmas gift along with childcare if we wanted. The girls had a blast with Amah and G-Daddy for 9 days and 9 nights; when we called, Ella promptly told us "I love you, but I don't miss you!" Cancun was wonderful....low of 73, high of 87-93, swim-up bar, beach-front bar, beautiful scenery, and great company!!! Now I hate to be that person who loads up the blog with vacation pictures, but these are too gorgeous to keep to ourselves =)

Last stroll on the beach outside out villa. 

Beautiful island of Isla Mujeres

Cenote (freshwater sink hole) that was 150ft deep. And we had it all to ourselves =)

Caribbean sunrise over the ocean.

Chichen Itza, Mayan ruins.

Ziplining through the trees!

1st day in paradise

Palapas in front of our hotel

Ziplining was a blast

North shore of Isla Mujeres

Church, circa 1500, Valladolid Mexico

Snorkeling along 2nd largest coral reef

Rob, Gina, myself & Neal
@ our favorite poolside spot from 5-7PM daily =)
Basillio would make sure our drinks always stayed full!

Neal repelling

South shore, Isla Mujeres

Tulum, Mayan ruins

Tulum, Mayan ruins

We had an absolute wonderful time! I could get used to vacations like this =)
Too bad we have only been back less than a week and our golden color is already leaving us....

..::Spurts of spring::..

I know the feeling is mutual...where is our spring??? We get these teaser days of just hints of sunshine followed by what seems to be weeks of rain. Back in April, Neal bought us some passes to the Tulip festival in Woodburn only to get rained out the entire time the passes were valid! Fortunately we were able to find a sunny day only days before the festival closed. Here are some pictures of our fun---

Train ride around tulips, tire swing, duck races and lots of family time!

Aubrey is such a monkey, even at the top of the slide!

Stopping to smell the tulips

Strolling through the tulips

Those are some big shoes...

My tulip family =)

Loving the HUGE slide!

Aubrey could slide all day!

--->>>> Here's to seeing more days with blue skies =)