California Part 1- Fresno (Ella Swims)

We are on vacation in California with my extended family.  The first portion of our trip is in Fresno at my aunt and uncle's house.

Saturday: Long day of travel, but at least it all went smoothly.  We flew into Sacramento, rented a car, and drove to Fresno, stopping for In N Out burgers on our way. These sweet girls got a nice little nap in my lap on the plane.

Sunday: After worshipping as a family at home, we spent some time in the swimming pool today.  Emma went down the slide a couple of times and jumped off the diving board with some coaxing, but was mostly content to play in the shallow end.  Ella loved the slide and jumping from the diving board with her floaties on.  She also figured out how to swim without a floatation device today!  She wears her goggles, holds her nose (this makes her hiney float), puts her face in the water, and kicks.  She can go as far as she can hold her breath but needs something/ someone to hold onto when her breath runs out.  It was very fun to watch her swimming with just the back of her head and her hiney above the water!

Monday: Today we did some shopping.  We went to a boot store in search of some boots for Bryan.  He found a pair of caiman (alligator) boots he really liked and that fit him well.  We have been looking at home, but not having any luck finding what he wanted in his size.  So glad we had success today.  While he was looking at boots, the girls had fun trying on some very sparkly boots and playing with the stick horses.  After the boot store, we went to the mall where my cousin Carlie works as a security guard.  She looks very official in her uniform.  This mall had some little ride on cars/ motorcycle.  Ella and Emma had as much fun pretending on the still ones as they did riding the ones we put quarters in.  We ate more In N Out burgers for lunch after seeing Larry and Cherie's new construction project house.  More swimming and naps were also on schedule today, along with more visiting and time with family.

Donuts!!

We love having birthday money to spend!  Today, we decided we wanted donuts for breakfast.

Mamaw

Bryan's Mamaw passed away on Thursday, June 19, 2014.  She had been sick and in the hospital for a few weeks but was improving, so we were a bit surprised when we received the call.

Mamaw was a kind, spunky, ornery, classy Christian lady who will be greatly missed.

The family asked us to sing a song for her funeral.  We chose to sing "This World Is Not My Home."  This has been one of our girls' favorite songs for a long time, so they already knew the first verse and only had to learn the last verse.  This video is from one of the times we were practicing.

The funeral this morning was a very nice celebration of her life.  We were honored to be able to sing for her.

A Few Recent Crochet Projects

I have been busy crocheting this month as well.  Here are a few of my recent projects:

A Hippo Lovey for Baby Keeley, daughter of some of our friends at church:

After seeing the hippo, our girls really wanted one.  But, I knew such a small toy would be played with for way less time than it would take me to make two of them.  So, I considered making them something bigger.  At first they wanted cats, but free, crochet, cute cat patterns proved a little hard to find.  Then I found this teddy bear pattern.  The girls and I loved it, but I still wasn't sure I wanted to spend that much time and effort on a new toy for them right now.  Then they came to me with a deal, "Mommy, if we buy the yarn, will you make us those teddy bears?"  How do I say no to that?  I don't.  Instead, we grabbed their birthday money and headed to Hobby Lobby to pick out the yarn.  The picture on the pattern showed the bear made out of pastel yarn, but Ella couldn't find a pastel purple that she really liked.  However, they had both admired the bright yarns while looking for the pastels.  When I explained, I could make it out of any color they wanted, they quickly went back to the bright colors.  They were very proud of themselves at checkout to be paying for the supplies to make the bears.  I spent every spare moment crocheting and managed to finish them in 9 days.  

Ella:

Emma:

Over the past few months I have also been working on a surprise for my brother and his wife for their first anniversary.  After their wedding, we had as many people as were willing to write a special note to the couple on the special shirts we all wore for the wedding and give them to me.  I took all those shirts and crocheted them together into a blanket.  The blanket is two-sided with t-shirts on both sides.  Here are the results:

June Stylin'

Birthday Dresses:

Gymnastics clothes, complete with tutu or robe.  Take your pick:

New dresses the girls bought with their own money:

Dorothy and Toto:

New Swimsuits:

We also decided to bunk the girls beds this month.  (For some reason, I don't have a picture of it though.)  It is taking them a little bit to get used to not being able to see each other very easily.  They have each drawn a picture of each other to hang on the wall by their beds, so they can "see" each other at night.  So very sweet!

Playdate at the Splash Pad

This morning we met several friends from church at a neighborhood splash pad.  Good times!

Ella:

Emma:

Vacation Bible School

We have attended VBS at my parent's church this week.  The theme is God's Dynasty, based on the TV show Duck Dynasty.  Our girls had a great time putting on the camo face paint and playing on the slide the last day, but more importantly they love learning about God, reading their Bibles, singing and praying.

As we were walking out to the car after the first evening, I received the best compliment.  One of the ladies who was teaching the class our girls were in caught me to say how cute and well behaved they were.  Then she paid them the ultimate compliment, "And they really know their Bible!"  Made me proud.

Ella:

Emma:

Each night the kids worked on learning a new version of "The Lord's Army" song.  While they sang many versions I had never heard of, the one they really worked on the most was "The Lord's Army: Duck Dynasty Style."  On the last night they recorded all the kids singing it on the stage to send to the TV show.