22JUN10

Like I said before I signed Alexis up for a dance camp. She's been asking to do dance and I told her after soccer we would do dance. They only had 1 week dance camps for the summer and will start up regular dance after the summer is over. Alexis is already asking to do that so I guess dance it is! :)

The camp was an hour and 15 minutes each day. They were told to wear dancing clothes or their favorite dress up. Well to LExi wearing her "ballerina" clothes IS her favorite dress up! I also found some little ballet slippers at Target and she was thrilled! Each day the alternated between dancing and doing a little craft (making a crown, a little doll, etc.) She was in Heaven! The last day they did a little recital for the parents just to see what they were learning. Alexis was excited to show us first and second position and do all the cute dances they learned. I love that she is such a girly girl but can still hang with the boys (since ALL my friends here seem to have boys! :) )

I wish I had a video to show but our video camera only does d.v.d.'s and the only time I tried to get video on my phone Ryan decided to pee all over Travis and her chair! :) I may have to break down and buy a digital video camera...

Watiting to start.
Showing us her moves.

Future cheerleader?? :)

Dancing the night away.

Getting her certificate and goody bag (filled with ring pops, candy necklaces, wands, and more for our little princess.)

She was very proud.

With her teachers.

And our ham Ryan waiting for it to begin. What a sweet goofball!

21JUN10

I really wanted to make sure we had alot going on this summer so we didn't get bored (or sad that we weren't getting to go visit AZ...) I signed both girls up for the first session of swim lessons. It was everyday for 2 weeks. Lexi was in the pre-school class and Ryan and I did the mommy and me class. It was a busy 2 weeks since Lexi's class was at 8 and Ry's wasn't till 10 plus I accidently signed Lex up for a dance camp the second week of swim (thought it was the week AFTER swim) so we had quite a crazy week but both girls really enjoyed it! I was very happy with both girls improvements. I am going to have Alexis do another session later in the summer but I think one session is enough for Ry's age. Here are some pics from the last day.

Ryan and mommy.

Blowing bubbles. She did really well with this. She would jump up pretty quickly but at least she tried!

Ry with her teacher.

I loved when she would go on her back. She would do what she was supposed to which was kick and lay her head back but usually she was saying all done the whole time! :)

This was HUGE for Alexis. At first, she wouldn't put her head in the water without plugging her nose! :)

CUTE!

Another milestone. Look how relaxed she is on her back! *Side note* Her teachers name was Nick. Adorable 18 year old Nick. Well Nick had 4 girls and one boy in his class. These girls LOVED Nick! It was always Hi Nick Bye Nick. The other mom's and I decided Nick was there boy band and they were all in LOVE! They actually had 2 teachers the whole time but Nick was the one they performed for!! HAHA! It starts SO young.

Look at her!! So exciting! Can't wait for the next session.

20JUN10

I want to say Happy Father's Day to the dad's in my life. Starting with my daddy. I was definitely NOT the easiest child in the world and my dad and I butted heads a LOT. I know everything he did was because he loved me and I am grateful that he was such a great dad. He taught me a lot. I'm not going to list them all b/c the list would go on and on (he probably wouldn't mind that but... :) ) However, I believe the number one thing my dad taught me was good old fashioned hard work. My dad was always the first one up and usually the last one to sleep. He was always willing to help whenever he was asked (I am glad that he seems to finally have learned to say no every once in a while now though b/c it may have been the death of him!) I remember stopping MANY times to help a stranger that seemed to be having car problems on the side of the road. I remember complaining b/c EVERY OTHER teen got to sleep in on Saturday's but we were up pulling weeds or mowing the lawn before it got too hot outside. I am so grateful for all the things my dad taught me but especially for teaching me that hard work IS important!

I also want to tell Dave Happy Father's Day. I am so grateful for a father-in-law that taught his son to be a great dad and a loving husband (trust me Dave he IS loving in his own way! :) ) I know Dave also taught Travis to be a hard worker and that's why I am able to stay home with the kids which I am so thankful for. Most people are truly shocked when I tell them what GREAT in-laws I have and they really are fantastic!

Of course, I have to say Happy Father's Day to my babies daddy. He is such a fun, loving dad. Those girls have him wrapped around their little finger but honestly, he has them wrapped around his as well. Whenever he gets home it's a mad dash to who can get to daddy first. He has a special whistle and he can do it from all the way across the pool and they know right where to find him. There is definitely a special bond between a daughter and her daddy.

Happy Father's Day to all the great father's out there. I am so blessed to have so many in my lives. An honorable mention goes out to George, Orson, Josh, Rhett, Nate, (Holtgrewe although one day to my brother Nate as well!) and Bryatt. I love you all as well and know you are all great dads!!!

16JUN10

Travis has been on leave the last couple weeks and since we were just planning on hanging around here he decided he needed to have a project to keep him busy. He finally got a few of the tools off of his wish list (there are still quite a few on there!) Since we've been spending as much time as we can at the beach he decided to make us these beach chairs. Aren't they great!!?? So cute! They are made out of cedar and they fold in half so they are super light and easy to carry! What a crafty husband I have!! He is already starting on his new project which are adirondack chairs for our front porch. The bonus is our house and garage smell SOOO good from the cedar!

11JUN10

We loved having Mary here. In between all the excitement we decided to spend one of the days just relaxing at home. Of course, with my girls "relaxing" isn't actually what it used to be! :) We did have fun hanging out, playing outside, and making cookies! THANKS FOR COMING NANA MARY PLEASE COME AGAIN SOON!!!! :)

Yummy cookie dough!

Ryan's favorite.

Lexi's favorite.

Pushing the kids on the swing. (Yes all those that know me I, Monica McBride, now wear capris. It's just too dang hot to wear jeansall the time. Honestly, I'm not sure why I haven't worn them before...)

Blowing bubbles.

Just loved this picture. Glad Mary always had her camera on me b/c lately I have been a picture SLACKER!

And since Mary took this picture I realized I've never posted pics of our house... Guess I need to get some of the inside but here is the outside for now. Isn't it cute?? Military housing no less. We really love it!

08JUN10

When we went to Callaway Gardens a couple weeks ago I KNEW we were going to spend a lot of there over the summer. They do military "discounts" and by discount they mean FREE entry! We were excited to spend the day at the beach. Mary and I loaded the girls in the car and headed to pick up Nic and Dak again! :) The only bad thing was Ryan was NOT feeling well. Runny nose, cough, and she had a hard time keeping her eyes open b/c they were heavy and watery. She was a trooper though and we all had a great day. And yes NO pics of Mary again... I didn't even have my camera this time.

All ready to go.
This butterfly LOVED us.

In the water.

Dak had all the fun stuff! Lucky for us he doesn't mind sharing.

She seriously did NOT feel good. She was sitting on my lap andwould open her mouth when she wanted more food. Note the Sonic cups. Mary tried to order a medium and I giggled and told her that wasn't allowed in my car! :)

Sweet girl.

Funniest pic EVER!

Mary told Ryan to give her a silly face and this is what she did. She now does it on cue.

Asleep in 2 minutes flat once we got in the car. FUN DAY!!

07JUN10

I'm going out of order but it was all one weekend so I figured it was okay! :) Mary came to visit!! I was so happy having her here. I love visitors and Mary is one of my favorite people so it was extra fabulous! Yesterday was her last day here and we decided to check out the Wild Animal Safari about 40 minutes from our house. I had heard a lot of great things about it so we picked up my friend Nic and her son Dak and headed out.

If ANYONE comes to visit us I can almost guarantee we will be taking you here. Adult, kid, teen, I don't care this place was FANTASTIC. You rent a mini-van (or you can take your own car if you don't mind it getting trampled by animals!) for 11 dollars, get some food for the animals and off you go. It's only about a mile long but with all the animals it takes about an hour to go through. SO FUN!! The animals come RIGHT up to the car. Seriously they were slobbering all over Travis and Nic, who were in the front and don't have the bars on the windows like in the back. Zebras, emus, buffalos, deer, pigs, so cool! Believe it or not I WAY narrowed these pictures down. There were a ton of cool stuff. ALL different animals sticking their heads in the van.

Ryan driving our dope van. Note the light switch which turned on the wipers.

Lexi and Dak.

These are out of order... This was in the zoo part. Ry and Trav.

The kids with the goat.

I just love how she runs.

The kids in the van. They were all painted zebra stripes. I'm thinking about painting my van now. HAHA!

Monkeying around... :) Okay LAME!

4 days and this is the ONLY pic wiht Mary in it. In my defense I usually didn't have my camera. Most of these were off of Mary's camera.

Ryan usually stayed close by me and just chucked her food out the window while giggling. It made her a little nervous but she LOVED it!

This was the van behind us but this is exactly what it was like. Hello people that is a GIRAFFE! We were feeding giraffe's!!

I loved this face from Nic! She was braver than me. I did not want to sit in the front.

Ryan giggling

Lexi was also braver than me. IT was so fun! Have I said that enough yet?