Ari's First Dance Recital

I can't get the slideshow to post to the blog in the right order. If you want to see it in order, please visit... http://s608.photobucket.com/albums/tt166/daltongang0129/dance%20recital%202009/?albumview=slideshow/dance%20recital%202009/?albumview=slideshow

True Friendship

I had a great example today of a true friend. She brings me blueberries from the Farmers Market and when she drops them off she offers to take my kids so I can get the house cleaned for guests or to stay and help me clean. This dear friend of mine stayed and helped me get the house cleaned! She fed my kids while I cleaned bathrooms. I am amazed by her friendship and am thankful that God answered my long time prayer for a best friend! The crazy thing is that I haven't known Beth for even a year yet. It seems like we have known each other since childhood!

Crab Princess Bathing Suit

I bought this bathing suit on clearance at Old Navy for $3 when Arianna was around 9 months old. I think it is a size 6-9 Months.    She has worn it every year since.  We have definitely gotten our money’s worth out of this bathing suit! 

We called her the Crab Princess when she was a baby because she always cried (colicky).  I wanted to share pics from each year but I can’t get my external hard drive to work and it has all of my old pics on it. 

 

Above is Arianna at age 3 and below is Arianna at age 5

Sneak Preview

Arianna has her first dance recital this Sunday.  We had Dress Rehearsal last night.  She was so cute!  Since we are not aloud to video or take pictures at the actual recital, I wanted to share some of the pics from the dress rehearsal.  They are not great because I couldn’t use flash when they were on stage but you get the idea:)  Dance, Dance, Dance…I don’t know how pageant moms do it.    

Above is in her tap dance…”Hey Good Lookin’”

 

These are the other dancers in the number

Above is from her ballet which is “It’s Not Easy Being Green”

This is my favorite…the Daddy Daughter Dance.  They are dancing to mousercise.  It is so cute!

Fun at the Pool

 

Ryan loves his shooting thing that we got from the dollar store.  He picked one up for his best friend Aaron too!  They had a blast shooting each other with them at the pool.  I am so proud how generous Ryan is becoming.  It was just Christmas time when he cried over handing the picked out gift to the angel tree and now he freely gives things including his favorite things to others. 

Arianna is becoming quite the fish.  She can jump off the side of the deep end and swim back to the side. 

Ryan can swim underwater for a bit.  He loves to sit on the bottom.

 

Arianna and her best friend Alana. 

Ryan thought it was so funny to shoot Ms. Beth.

Best Friends!

Best Buddies!

All Made Up

Ari had dance pictures yesterday.  The studio requires that they wear make up…I thought Ari had tons on and they said she needs more for onstage.  Wow, how much more make up can she wear?? 

Our encounter with a SNAKE!!!

Yesterday when we got home, the dogs were barking.  I knew as soon as I heard that bark that they had something cornered.  It was a snake!  They had that snake so mad!  I got the dogs inside and the snake proceeded to climb the small tree next to the deck.  I tried to knock it out of the tree to get it out of the yard but it kept trying to strike at the broom.  I ran in to get the camera to take a picture and when I came back out, the snake was headed out of the fence.  I once thought I would kill any snake but this is the second nonpoisonous snake that I have let live.  I just couldn’t kill the snake…

 

Happy Birthday My Love

Today was Chris’ birthday!  Ryan says that Daddy turned 20 today!  The kids picked out presents for Chris. 

Arianna picked out a dachshund in ballet clothes “because she and Daddy do ballet together”. 

 

Ryan picked out an “apple snake” because “he liked it”.  You would have to know Ryan to understand his obsession with snakes!

We had a surprise party after church for Chris.  The kids and I gave Chris a geocache for him to hide.  We have been wanting to hide one for a while now…what better time than today!   

We found two caches before hiding ours.  Some of our friends came along to learn more about geocaching. 

Arianna is great at finding caches (aka treasures)

Arianna and Camilla dig through the second cache. 

Here is where Chris hid our family’s first hide.

Camilla and Arianna sharing their treasures.

Cracking a Smile

Ryan was "helping" Daddy clean out the shed yesterday when a ladder accidentally fell on him. Arianna and I were out scrapbooking together. Chris calls to tell me that Ryan has a busted lip. Today Ryan was lying on the couch I turned back to look at him. I noticed that he had 2 cracked teeth. We didn't see it yesterday due to the fat lip. I guess we head to the dentist tomorrow for them to check his teeth. Chris feels terrible. It isn't his fault just an adventurous active 3 year old that loves to take risks. All I can say is that Ryan's guardian angel has to work extra hard to protect him. Perhaps Ryan has several guardian angels. So often, I am grateful that Ryan is kept safe despite his seemingly best efforts. I pray for extra protection for this active little boy! He has the best smile of anyone I know...hopefully he will continue to have a nice smile in the years to come. Now he has a scar on his upper lip (from an earlier injury) and two chipped teeth. Boys will certainly keep you praying!

Under Contract

Guess What??? Are sweet first home is under contract...it is bitter sweet! So many cherished memories under that roof! Newly married, birth of 4 puppies, birth of 2 children, just to name a few.

Please pray that things will go smoothly, we hope to close at the end of June.

Chasing Fireflies

Last night, I  greatly enjoyed watching my children delight in catching fireflies.  They chased them all over the yard to try to catch them.  Arianna got her bug container and eventually caught four lightening bugs. 

 

Arianna was excited she caught a frog. 

Ryan posing with the frog. 

Only a Dad thinks of these things.  He suggests putting the frog in with the lightening bugs.  They then proceeded to observe the frog and the lightening bugs.  I think the frog was too scared to eat.   I will have to say that I was interested in the frogs reaction to being in a container with bugs. 

Who needs toys?

Chris received a box from his Mom for his birthday.  One would have thought that it was the kids’ birthday.  They initially handed the presents to Chris to open.  The kids looked so eager to open them that Chris asked if they wanted to help.  Not sure if he realized the extent of their “helping”.  It began with them just helping him with the one in his hands…then it quickly progressed to them pulling them out of the box and then proceeding to tear into those presents saying “let’s see what Daddy got for his birthday”.   After they were done with the presents, they played with the box of packing popcorn.  They pretended it was snow.  Let’s just say at the end of this fun, there was not a single piece of popcorn left in the box.  What a mess!  The kids had a blast though.  After all of the fun, they learned the important life skill of cleaning up after yourself:)

(Yes Ryan is pretending to be a dog and picking the popcorn up with his mouth…we had to keep reminding him to not put these into his mouth).