Instalife---July edition

Sunshine, fountains, fresh coconut milk= perfect Saturday at the farmers market!!!

Ainsley is my constant reminder from God to sit down, read a book, enjoy the snuggles and let the chores wait for another day. If at any point I forget this, she chases me around the house with her book, constantly beating me in the leg with up while repeating "up, peeezzz. PEEEZZZ. P.E.E.E.Z.Z.Z!"

Nothing says summer like corn on the cob <3 br="">

This blue-eyed baby was found eating sand during the 4th of July BBQ at Uncle Ryan and Auntie Allie's.

Natalie, Aubrey and Ella watching fireworks in the neighborhood at 10PM. I could not believe they were still going strong after a parade, BBQ, fireworks with cousins and then 45 minutes of fireworks with the neighbors.

1st s'more of the season! This is what camping is all about =) Ainsley liked sucking on the raw marshmellows!

{{{Beach baby}}}

Beautiful day at Pacific City. The wind kept us from staying longer but we had fun while we were there.

Tonight Ainsley got her 1st s'more! She finally understands why her sisters go so crazy over these.

Ella was my super-special-camp-nurse-helper tonight. She zipped the ziplock bags then organized and reorganized all the medicines to get the kids ready for church camp. A frosty in a waffle cone seemed like a much deserved reward!

Somehow July and all the fun we've had are gone before I could blink. I finally sat down to download pictures from the camera and 556 pictures later I'm done!! Whoaza!! I'll be back to fill in all the other moments...it just might take me a little while....

Instalife -- June edition

The girls loved spending some time with Grandma Bernice while we were in Riddle.

Summertime officially begins with the first Hood strawberries. Ainsley timidly tasted her first berry then dug into them by the fist-full!

One downside to our tree swing has been that it doesn't swing evenly. Insert broom- voila, swings straight and only looks slightly redneck/backwoods ;-)

These 2 can bicker back and forth with the best of them but then secondly later make my heart skip a beat when I see this!

Ainsley would like to thank the kind neighbor who was watering their lawn at 4PM. She  thoroughly loved playing in the water!

Indian Hills end-of-the-year carnival. Ainsley was mesmerized by the petting zoo area. Cousin Logan won a pinwheel and gave it to Aubrey....made her day!!

Our pantry has had no attention since we moved in. There wasn't a ton of order/rhyme nor reason to it. Insert Pinterest-- use laminate floor press and stick tiles over the wire shelves thus making it easier to stack items. During morning nap, I got the idea to tackle the pantry completely unprepared. I was amazed at how much "stuff" we had in that pantry....it just kept coming and I started running out of counter space then floor space and we have A LOT of counter space! Ut oh, I realized I had failed get my handy floor tiles and the nice shelving unit you see on the back of the door. So off to Home Depot quickly to get supplies before it was time to pick up Ella from school! Then my next dilemma...how in the world am I going to make lunch with no floor or counter room? Microwavable lunch it is!! The end result is so clean and organized. I never knew a pantry could give me so much pleasure ;-)

An apple a day keeps the baby cute!! While trying to put the pantry back together, Ainsley kept helping herself to apples...a bite out of this one, back into the box, bite out of that one. She doesn't have enough teeth to manage the skin which was frustrating to her. So I peeled the skin off, she climbed onto a chair and juiced the heck out of that apple and I was able to get things put away.

This is what childhood is all about. Ella and her friend/neighbor Natalie walking to school hand in hand for the last day of kindergarten. Moments like this were exactly what I had hoped for when we were looking for our home.

Yum....strawberry freezer jam, check.

Happy Fathers Day Daddy! (I realized in searching for this picture that we don't have any pictures of Daddy with all 3 of the girls...definitely something we need to fix)

Ella and Aubrey helping Daddy open his Father's Day gift!

Happy Father's day to my dad!! We love you <3 br="">

I mentioned in the last post how much Ainsley L.O.V.E.S. books and being read to. That is very sweet and I love reading to her, except when I'm trying to cook dinner or any of the other chores that can't be put off indefinitely. Aubrey really stepped in as a big helper one evening- she read to Ainsley and pushed her around in the "rocket." Mommy is so thankful for your help Aubrey!

Poor Grandpa!! We flew him and grandma out from Idaho to visit us. First their flight was delayed hours and ultimately cancelled--they arrived in Portland 5 hours later than expected. They come over to our house the next day and Grandpa ends up falling off our deck!!! He ended up getting the 1st stitches in his 86 years of life...9 in his head and 3 in his hand! Thankfully the excitement simmered down for the rest of their trip and their return flight was only delayed 1.5 hours =( So glad he was able to laugh about all the hiccups!

Stayed tuned for the July edition!

Summertime visits

We were able to start our summer vacation with lots of visits from our family. Our days were definitely busy but we enjoyed the visits.

Aubrey, Andrea and Courtney playing games <3>

Kolby pointing out that Ainsley is doing something naughty.

But then Kolby put himself in timeout. We have no idea why, but he went to the wall, stood there and just screamed! Ainsley wasn't too sure what to think about this situation.

Auntie Penny and Zoey then came to visit for 2 days.We went to Out of this World pizza for dinner and playing on Monday then on Tuesday we headed to the Childrens Museum.

Ainsley, Ella, Zoey and Aubrey after our afternoon at the Children's Museum

Dinosaurs were the special exhibit!

The girls were able to paint their own faces before putting on a show of their own.

Grandma and Grandpa Kerner from Idaho rounded out our visiting family for that week. (Yes, all of these visits took place in the course of 1 week! Phew, it was busy but we enjoyed getting to see our family we don't see often enough.)

Everyone's eyes may not be on the camera but at least they are all smiling!

Grandma Kerner jumped right in on the fun. She played Elefun with Aubrey, climbed into the play tent with Ainsley and read books with all the girls.

Ainsley really is perfecting the cuteness!

G-daddy and Ainsley reading her favorite book, Dr. Seuss' A,B,C. Ainsley L.O.V.E.S. reading books these days! Its actually very hard to get much of anything else done while she is awake because she is constantly bringing you a book and saying "Up...peeezzz"

Grandpa stole as much snuggle time as he could with each of the girls. He would read to Ainsley then Aubrey and Ella would read to him =)

All smiles!

We enjoyed seeing each and every one of you. Come back again and visit anytime!!

Happy Fathers Day!!

Yep, its a few weeks late... that seems to be the way things get done around here lately!

Thanks to Pinterest we found a cute way to say how much we love you Neal! These little girls think their daddy is the best daddy in the whole world. And I think you do a wonderful job too =) You live in a world of pink and princesses and love every minute of all this girlyness.

For the second year, I printed off these little questionnaires and had each of the girls answer the questions and I put exactly what they said.

Ella's answers are in purple, Aubrey's answers are in fushia
My daddy's name is:Neal, Neal
He is 34, 30 years old
7, "this" tall and weighs 80, 14 pounds
His favorite food is chocolate chip pancakes, blueberry pancakes
My daddy is really good at swimming, loving me and once upon a times for me
My favorite thing(s) to do with my dad is snuggle, go to swimming lessons with him
I am just like my dad because I have blue eyes, am his daughter
What I love most about my daddy is he is my daddy, when we makes breakfast for me
It makes my Dad happy when I listen, listen

We love you so much!!

"I have graduated"

Pomp is in the air. Anyone who asks Ella if school is out will get this response, "Yeah, I graduated on June 12th." People have been very kind and often ask if she is off to college next ;-) Ella's kindergarten class did a cute little end of the year ceremony where they sang some songs and got a little completion certificate.

1st and last day of kindergarten

Aubrey loves a good reason to strike a pose!

Ainsley enjoying a good bagel while strolling to school

"Our future is so bright we need sunglasses"

Ella's kindergarten class

Ella getting her completion certificate

Mrs. Reed and Ella

Quin, Ella and Natalie (neighbor and friend from school)

Ella and her best friend Zachary

Ella really continued her love for learning this year. At Costco just the other day she spotted a "get ready for 1st grade workbook" and thought she must get it. She stayed upstairs an hour after rest time was over working on her book! Her excitement led to a bit of frustration, she wanted to jump right into the middle of the book thus skipping those essential building block steps ;-)

Bring on summer vacation!!

Insta-life May

Ainsley thought she would give the ol' window one more try before giving into the idea that doors are the easier way!

Happy 1st Birthday Ainsley Rae!!

Girl Scout camp! Ella and Neal headed to camp while Aubrey and Ainsley got to hang out with Mommy.

During our special time, we went out to dinner at Chevy's. They give the kids a ball of tortilla dough to play with while dinner is coming. Aubrey found an interesting way to use her dough ;-)

Ainsley got a swing for the front yard and couldn't be happier!!

Thanks to these 3 beautiful girls I get to celebrate Mothers day!

Aubrey loved taking the the view from our beach house.

Burying half of Ella's body was the best way I could get her to sit still for a picture ;-) Just kidding!!

Shopping with little girls means lots of accessories....new sunglasses and headbands, check!

Vacation means hot-tubbing at 9AM!

Love how Instragram helps fill in the pieces in between all the big moments I capture with the regular camera.