Picnic at Mickie Grove

My mom decided to celebrate a bunch of family birthdays over at Mickie Grove in Lodi. It was great because my brother John and sisters Deana and Leah were all there. That's 4 out of 5 siblings and their families that were able to get together. We celebrated Dan, Erin, and Brian's birthday's on the Root side. A lot of Dan's family were able to make it.

My family got there early and went to see the zoo. Then we played on one of the many play grounds while everyone started arriving. Then we enjoyed some BBQ and cake while visiting with the families. Karl and I left first since we had a date in the bay area later that evening. It was so much fun to see the girls playing with all their cousins.

It is pretty special to get so many of them all together like that. Kylie was being crazy and would run off every chance she got. Karl and I were exhausted from chasing her and hauling her around. We had so much fun though and want to go back to see the other parts of the park that we missed.

Emily, Spencer, and Denise

Kylie of course!

Jenna

Gabe and Natalie

Erika and Lexi

Deana - Thomas in the back

Wish we had taken more photos but we had fogotten our camera! Thankfully Karl had his phone...

Kylie getting bigger

In case you were wondering how Kylie was getting along, I thought I'd give you a little update.

She is just amazing. Everyone loves her to pieces. She is just so entertaining!

She wakes up with Karl a little before 7am everyday. She likes to watch Sponge Bob or Dora while she has a cup of water or juice and a banana to wake up. I crawl out of bed awhile later and we have our cheerios together. She like Honey Nut Cheerios the best and can feed them to herself. She ditched her highchair a few months ago when she learned how to take off the seat belt and kept trying to climb down.

By 8am or so she wants to go outside. She likes to open the door by herself and says hi and bye at least 10 times before she runs and plays with her toys. She loves to go and say hello to the neighbors dogs and then play in the dirt with her shovel and pail. She really likes it when I chase her out of the house because she is dirty.

She loves to go in the shower with me and stand under the water. She loves to place the soap bottles in certain places and play with the bubbles. Every time we get her out of the bath she HAS to run naked through the house and waits for someone to chase her. When we scope her up in her towel she says "Got you!" Melts us every time...

Then she is ready for snack. She loves yogurt and has to have Natalie's kind before her own. I let her have as much as she wants since she STILL won't drink milk. Then she takes her crackers or pretzels and checks out what everyone else is doing. Mainly to go and see Karl in his office and see if she can get on his lap or into his electronics. Kylie and Natalie play very well together. They like to chase each other around the house and play with the pretend food and dishes.

Kylie is very picky when it comes to food. She doesn't like to eat any solid vegetables, breads, or pasta. Though she will eat bread if it has been toasted. She still will eat baby vegetables and loves baby meat. So gross! Of course she will eat almost any solid fruit but we continue to work on getting her to eat more solid foods with us.

She usually takes a nap right after lunch and will sleep for 2 to 3 hours. She has a favorite blanket and stuffed animal that she likes to have in bed with her. She likes it when we sing "Twinkle Little Star", "The Isty Bisty Spider", and "Hush Little Baby".

When she wakes up, she is usually pretty cranky. I let her have another cup of juice and another snack as soon as possible. Then she is ready to play again. She absolutely loves to climb on things. In the living room she likes to climb up on the couch and then on the half wall and tries to walk on it! She likes to carry her babies around but can't resist a puppy or kitty cat. She talks all the time and can say most words we ask her too and puts multiple words together. She still does a lot of baby babble when she is looking outside and telling us about her toys.

While I make dinner, she gets time to wrestle and play with Dad. On the days I go to school, Stephen watches her and they have a blast together. She definitely has a sweet tooth so we have to hide goodies from her or she will scream her head off. As sweet and cute as she is, when she wants something, she wants it now!

She is so smart and agile, we are amazed at the possibilities for her future. She really completes our family.

Her first ride on a scooter

Did I mention she likes to dress herself?

Her first very own ice cream from Baskin Robbins!

Her first bandade - stuck her fingers in the oven grill.

Her first professional first cut - no tears but VERY serious.

She watched Natalie go first then she said she wanted one too.

She has no fear of animals and loves dogs.

Dad loves to peek on her while she is sleeping...

This was her first time hanging on the bars, she wouldn't stop!

This likes to play at the indoor play ground at the mall.

Mommy sending Daddy a photo of baby while he was out of town.

Kylie looking cool during chruch. She loves her sunglasses!

Bringing out the pool for the first time this summer.

Getting dressed is always fun.

She is showing Mom her tongue upon request.

She even likes to dress herself in Nat's clothes!

And to put Natalie's shoes on.

Big Basin Hike

A couple months ago Danicia, my best friend, approached me with the idea of hiking Half Dome at Yosemite. The idea was to get a group of women together and start getting into shape by doing a workout video program called P90X and then at the end of the 90 day program, do the hike together. It hasn't gone quite as we had planned so instead of killing ourselves at Yosemite, we decided to do a moderate hike at Big Basin. We took our husbands and invited my brother and his family.

It was so much fun! I really enjoyed hiking in the redwoods under the canopy of the trees. It was pretty cold though. My fingers were ice cubes! We still want to hike Half Dome but I'm looking forward to going back to the redwoods and Danicia really wants to hike all the way down to the beach and stay over night. Hopefully we can do it all!

Pixiewoods

We decided we wanted to go on a nice family outing. We had heard that there was a Pixiewoods in Stockton that was a lot of fun for the little ones. When we left home we had no idea that it was Free Admission Day at Pixiewoods. Not exactly what we had planned for! It was completely packed with all kinds of people. There were tons of booths with activities and food. We had fun anyways but hope to go back when the masses are at home.

Summer Time in Tracy

We have been really looking forward to this summer. Both Stephen and Natalie got out of school with great grades and hopes of seeing lots of friends and enjoying the sun. I have been especially excited that I start school again and that John and Paige are going to be just an hour away at my mom's! We have a few family and friend get-togethers planned too that Karl is looking forward to.

Paige and I have tried to get together at least once a week since they moved out here while John is doing his internship. Kylie really likes playing with her cousins. Here are some photos of one time when Paige and John's family came over.

John and Natalie checking out Karl's new iPad.

First time we met Spencer! He is such a little man.

Kylie showing Thomas her toys and Thomas showing Kylie how to play with them!

Karl and Kylie wrestling.

Relay For Life

This last weekend was the Relay For Life event in Manteca. Danicia pulled me in on her committee to organize the food requirements at the snack bar. This didn't just include snacks. It was lunch, dinner, a midnight meal, and breakfast too.

Danicia definitely worked her butt off trying for the last two months to raise money, get donations, and purchase the necessary goods for the event. (She likes to work under the gun.) The entire last week was crazy.

Saturday morning I got there and helped her set up the outside and inside of the snack bar. Which thankfully turned out to be a fairly big kitchen for a high school snack bar. Let me just say that it was nuts. We weren't going to open the snack bar until 11am but people were hungry by 10am! Rushing to get everything organized and cooking while realizing all the things we didn't have was crazy.

Of course, on top of all of that rush was that fact that Danicia was pretty much running her mom's team's booth. That required everyone in the group to rotate at the snack bar: serving, cleaning, and prepping - and at the booth selling goodies and walking around the track for 24 hours.

Once lunch was over, we could all breathe for a bit and really got into the swing of things. It was prefect weather that day and we were all glad to be there helping out. It was a pretty good turn out and people were having lots of fun.

Then we got things rolling for dinner and realized the OTHER things that we didn't have. I have to admit that I love the rush of having to get things organized and paced just so to serve customers. I really thrive on the adrenaline and don't let it stress me out. So I was completely in my element.

I was so happy that my family stopped by for a few hours to hang out and say hi! Leah was there and helped out with the team too. Kylie really liked walking around the track and seeing all the attractions and people. Natalie was very content to sit at the booth with Leah and help make bracelets to sell. Stephen got put "in jail" and had to use Kylie to get people to donate money to pay his bail. Everyone had a great time.

Things calmed down after 8pm and there was a wonderful ceremony put on for the crowd to celebrate the lives of loved ones lost and the years saved by those who have survived. Lucky us got to serve free birthday cake to everyone after. Nice thing about working the food was that we got first dibs on the good stuff!

Later that night, we were all toast. The adrenaline of the whole day and really caught up with us, that and all the sun! Everyone was so grateful when Danicia's brother's friends came to cover the late shift. Once we got all the pizza there for the midnight meal, we bounced and went home for a few hours of sleep.

Bright and early, we were back for more. Danicia's mother in-law cooked over 500 eggs for breakfast and showed up with them hot and ready to go. We made pancakes and served other yummy breakfast food. The breakfast was free so everyone there came. It was amazing to see all those people so tired, lined up to get food. They were so grateful!

It is really amazing what people can do when they come together for such a life changing cause. Karl and I were so happy to have the opportunity to help and support the event. We are already looking forward to next year and have tons of ideas of what we would like to do.

Karl with his hair spray painted.

Natalie with her spray painted hair.

Stephen using Kylie to "get out of jail".

Night display in the bleachers - Karl liked it a lot!

One of the two cakes for the birthday celebration that night.