Clay's birthday pictures

I worked on getting Clay's 2 year picture. I have put in a couple of my attempts along with my chosen picture. I didn't know if I had a keeper until I looked at them on the computer. He is wearing the Thomas the Train shirt that has the train sound button.

Jenelle posed nicely for me--even if Clay wouldn't sit still for a picture.

Clay, Sidonie and Jenelle on the park bench

This is Clayton having fun with the train track. He kept on the engineer hat for awhile. (I tried to trim the end, but couldn't for some reason, so please ignore it).

Clay's birthday party

We had a nice time celebrating Clay's birthday on Saturday night--a day early. Both sets of grandparents were here along with Cindy Flann and Ray and Sue with their daughters. Jenelle was very glad to have some new friends! We had barbecued chicken and hotdogs, a noodle salad, fruit salad, Jello jigglers, chips, veggies and dip.

Here are our fancy decorations.:) Mike hung and wrote on the balloons.

Leneo (pronounced with a "d" sound at the beginning) (4) , Maleteka (7) and Jenelle

Cindy, Sue, Ray and Mom H.

Mom and Dad R

Dad H

Clayton's birthday dessert. He's not so fond of cake, so I took the opportunity to make cookie cups with ice cream in the center. Not so easy to balance a candle on, but it stayed for the picture. Since I couldn't write on a cake for him, I made a collage of pictures to celebrate his years.

He got this book from the Christensens. From Grandma H and Papong, he got a Thomas and Friends track with a three part train--connects magnetically. Mike set it up for Clay on Saturday after bedtime. Clay found it on Sunday morning. He and Jenelle have been having lots of fun with it.

Clay got lots of Thomas the Train clothes from Papa, Grandma Cheryl and Auntie M--including pajamas, swim trunks, and a shirt that makes train sounds when you push the button. Jenelle got a gift from them, too.

From "Grandma" Cindy, Clay received some nice cards and some money, too. Mike picked out this Tonka dump truck, a helicopter, a boat and 3 Hot Wheels monster trucks for Clay. He loves pushing things around.

Clay loves the spray bottle. Watch out if you're too close.

Here is Clay opening his gift from the Loves. As you can see, Clay had plenty of help opening his gifts.

Obviously Clayton is very blessed and loved!

Our Trip to San Diego

We found an item we wanted on Craigslist, so we went to San Diego on Wednesday night--leaving about 6:15. We had to wait a little before meeting our person, so we went to the Golden Spoon for yogurt. Funny that Mike hadn't even seen it, but I saw it right away.:)

Anyway, here they are enjoying the yogurt--peanut butter with a candy topping. Mmm.

Here the kids were playing with the line makers at Customer Service. Who needs toys when there are these things to go under and around?

We had fun watching the kids play. We planned to just enjoy the whole experience.

I gave in and let the kids get some Disney stickers. It's fun to splurge sometimes.

It was a successful trip. We got home about 10:45PM. Clay and I slept, but Jenelle didn't sleep at all! Ugh. Oh well, I think we've made up that sleep. Thank You, God for a safe trip--a little mini family vacation.

Wicker Rocking Chair

Our neighbor, Mike, gave Jenelle this little wicker rocking chair for her dolls or her dogs. Look who fits in it! They look like giants in the "Littles' " house.

I just realized...

...that Jenelle doesn't call them "Mr. Potato Heads". (We have 3). She calls them "smashed potato heads". :)

Red Robin

After the piano recital on Saturday, my parents took us to Red Robin in Redlands. It was a nice time for all of us and we took some cute pictures.

Yes, that is a salad I ordered.:)

My Piano Recital

I had my annual piano recital this past Saturday at the Oak Valley Piano store in Yucaipa. (All I have to pay for is rental of the chairs we use--good deal). I had 10 students to participate. Here is me (I'm in the back row wearing a white shirt) with all the students who played. I got a little nervous, but not like when I had to play in my recitals growing up or my juries in college. We had refreshments at the end--brought by my students' families. The music part took 20-25 minutes and then we got to visit and munch for awhile. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience and I was proud of my students. My parents took care of Jenelle and Clayton during the recital. Thank you, Mom and Dad.

Here is the sign that welcomed us to the recital.

Fun with Pool Water

This was Clay (my one year old for one more week) this morning. It looks like he finally likes to get into the pool. What you can't see in this picture is all the smashed soda cans he put in the pool, too. I'm glad they didn't cut him or the pool with the sharp edges!

Jenelle and Clayton like to put water in this dish and try to get Wally to drink from it. Wally has his own water dish, but it's more fun for the kids to see him drink out of this.

This picture cracks me up. Too bad we don't have any sippy cups for Clay and that he has to get his water by lapping it up! I'm laughing as I look at this picture.

Fun Spinning in the Computer Chair

They had fun with our computer chair. It's fun to watch them having fun.

Two of Jenelle's Bible verses

Jenelle is pretty amazing with her Bible verses. These two are 1 Samuel 15:22 and Galatians 3:24. You might need to look them up to understand them. We just put up 2 new ones yesterday, but so far she has stickers for 17 verses! I am trying to review them, but need to get on a regular schedule for that. It's good to have lots of Scripture reminders. I sure need them!

Wally and Winnie the Pooh

I thought this was cute of Wally, just watching me at the computer. He's such a good dog.

The kids and I are wearing Winnie the Pooh clothes today. I love this one of the kids and the next one has all three of us, but Clay was sad by my third self-timer picture.

Clayton doing his puzzle

Clayton has a transportation puzzle that makes the appropriate sound with each piece. It's fun. He loves helicopters, trains, and all kinds of transportation vehicles.

A Visit to the Nordquist's

After Jenelle, Clay and I went to Walmart, we stopped over at the Nordquist's to hang out together. We start a lot of conversations and finish some of them. It's nice to be together--even if things aren't always peaceful or seldom are.:)

Jenelle and Allison in a calm moment

Jenelle, Clay and Anderson NOT fighting over puzzle pieces, but sharing. It was so fun to see them share.

Happy Miranda with her mommy.

Thanks for having us over to your house. We had fun visiting you.

Fun with Baby Daniel

We got to have baby Daniel (he'll be one next month) to our house on Wednesday. It was fun to see him interact with Jenelle and Clayton. Of course, my kids looked like giants in comparison. Daniel got right into the pool.

Clay and Daniel played nicely together--although Clay got to see what it's like to share and didn't always enjoy it.

Daniel is a happy little guy.

Thanks for coming over to see us, Daniel.

Father's Day with Mike's parents

On Sunday afternoon, after naps, we went over to Mike's parents. We went swimming for a little while (see Jessica's blog for pictures). Jenelle got to experience that floaties can hold her up and Clayton realized that life can be somewhat okay in the water. It was funny though because when I asked if he was having fun, he said, "No." He did stop crying and even smiled a bit.

Mike's mom made a delicious dinner--beef and chicken shishkabobs and some veggie ones too. Of course, I just sampled the meat ones.:) I did try a pearlized onion that were with the asparagus (at Jessica's encouragement). Mom also made a fruit salad and spinach salad. We were celebrating her birthday and Father's Day at the same time. Sad that she had to make her own meal, but it was delicious.

After eating, Mike had us all go out to his pickup to see these concrete rock formations. A couple of weeks ago, when Mike and I went by the 2 houses he lived in, in Redlands, we saw that one of them was for sale, so we got out for Mike to show me what he could and what he remembered from when he was 5-10 years old (about 30-35 years ago). The backyard had none of the greenery that his dad had worked so hard on, but Mike noticed about 4 of these formations laying around. His dad had used the rocks from the yard and made a concrete formation to make these. In all he probably made 30-40 of them. He then used them propped up as the rose garden border. Mike went back on Sunday (after receiving permission from the realtor) with his brother, Matt, to get as many as they could find--which was about 10. He cleaned them up as a surprise for his mom and dad. They enjoyed seeing them again. It's neat to have a part of childhood back around.:)

Remembering

Father's Day with my parents

My parents came over on Saturday night to celebrate Father's Day with us. We barbecued chicken (Mike feels like he can now confidently grill on his new BBQ--it was delicious!), had a noodle salad, cranberry jello salad (which my mom and dad brought) and some homemade chocolate ice cream (which they brought also). I made some of Mike's favorite cookies--Sand Cookies. Yummy meal and it was fun to hang out with them at our house.

I took this picture of me, my dad and my mom--at least it was centered.:)