Photo shoot

The kids and I did a spontaneous photo shoot in the back yard this week to try to get some good pictures of the kids to go in Justin's office. The one below was the best of all 4 of them. Dylan wasn't liking being held and squished!

While we were at it I tried to get some good ones of the kids by themselves. Dylan was very distracted on day one and wouldn't look at me and smile. He was too busy looking at the trees, birds and everything else above him.

Here are a few I snagged of him that afternoon on his tummy

And here are finally a couple of good ones on day two

Here are some of Brandon's pictures

Doing a cartwheel off of the retaining wall

Lindsey likes to smile and pose for pictures

Katelyn does not. She made these faces all by herself without any encouragement.

(below is a face that we see quite frequently when she's explaining things)

(do you think she takes after her mother?)

And finally, a normal smile!

Mission accomplished!

New Kitchen Table

We ordered a new table for the kitchen in May. It finally made it on the boat from China and we got it in the house a couple of weeks ago. We love it!

Finally a good looking table that is durable and practical for kids. No more wood that can be dented and scratched.

Mothers of the world rejoice!

Swimming Lesson Wrap-up

I am so happy with the amount of progress the kids made with swimming and becoming more comfortable in the water this summer. They had a great time doing it too.

The kids got to go off of the big diving board on the last day. They're so brave - especially Lindsey. She has been so afraid to jump off by herself, but on the last day she did it!

Katelyn had some help the 1st time off

2nd time - jumping all by herself

The kids got to do lessons with the Ortegas this last session, which was fun for everyone.

And here are some fun pictures of Dylan with his sisters. Someone always wants to be holding him!

Beautiful Things

For Family Home Evening a few weeks ago we talked about the beautiful world that Heavenly Father has created for us. Then we took a walk around the neighborhood to look for beautiful things and take pictures of them. Since we did this last year and had so much fun, we decided to do it again. Here are some of my favorites:

The flowers by our front door

Blue skies

A neighbor's house

And lots of neat plants and weeds

The sprinkler is definitely beautiful on hot summer days

These daisies are weeds but they're sure beautiful!

We're sure lucky to live in such a beautiful place!