Summer Mazzi

I love this picture of Mazzi -

Popsicle stained chin

bathing suit showing off her adorable belly

hair array

owies on the knees

and cute little impish grin.

Rapunzel's Influence

The movie "Tangled" has influenced Tera deeply. She constantly talks about how she wants her hair to be as long as Rapunzel's and also reminds me often that she wants Rapunzel hair for her birthday. (She saw a Rapunzel wig at her friends house) So when we went to the dollar store and they had these silly wigs Tera got really excited. It has been a great investment thus far. She wanted to wear it to church today, but I had to draw the line.

Mazzi likes copying everything Tera does, so she also thinks the blue wig is awesome.

I love to see the temple

We went and walked around the temple grounds with some of our close friends a few weeks ago. It is amazing to me the peace you can feel and the perspective you can gain just from being in close proximity to the temple. I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and in my children s lives. Grateful to know that because of your Savior our family can be together forever.

* Thanks to Niki and Melissa for taking pictures :)

Rattlesnake walk

On Sunday afternoon the Ashley and I took the kids out to Santa Roseau plateau to take a nice little Sunday walk. When we got to a dead tree my kids went off to climb on it. Right when I put Mazzi down I heard the chilling sound of a Rattle snake rattle. Ashley and I both looked nervously at each other wondering if it was indeed a rattlesnake that we heard. Then a second later we heard several more rattles. We g0t the kids back on the trail quickly and decided to be brave and finish up the walk.

Along the walk we hear several more rattles, one was so close that I got goosebumps. I do not like snakes! Especially poisonous ones. We made our way back to the car quickly after that, keeping the kids within arms length for the rest of the walk.

California Adventure

Ashley and I spent an afternoon at California Adventure. We had fun going on the "big kid" rides. My favorites are California Screaming and Tower of Terror. So fun! So glad Ashley was able to come visit!

My friend Britney #2

One of my very best friends since middle school, Ashley, came to Southern California to play with me! I was so excited! I decided I should probably introduce her to my friend- Britney Spears... so I did. Unfortunately it was a little hard to introduce them because we were as far away s you can possibly be seat wise. Next time we decided we will just go ahead and pay the thousands of dollars for the good tickets.

Anyways, my friend Britney looks amazing and seems like she is happier than she was last time we got together (Circus tour). She's so stinkin cute!

Her opener was Ncki Minaj and I completely despised the music she preformed. I have never heard the B word that many times in my life. I just don't like her in general. It was pure torture to sit through. She's vulgar, crude, nasty looking and her voice sounds like shes just pinching her nose and singing/talking/rapping (I still don't know what she does) But seemed like other people really liked her. I am a little disappointed in my friend for choosing her as her opening act. I wish it would have been Enrique like it was rumored... he's super cute.

Once Britney got on the stage it was great. I loved all her new songs and she was very entertaining. One of the best parts was that in this concert she called people up from the audience to dance with her... and even did a special little dance for one lucky guy. After the concert when we were going out the stairs everyone was dancing Til the World Ends in the stairwell. It was that exhilarating to be around Britney.

Here's Ashely and I. We were indefinably wearing the most clothes there... and probably the shortest heels. I could not believe what some people were wearing and what they could walk in. Impressive. Also, I have never been around that many gay people, or do they prefer homosexuals? hmmmm.... but I didn't realize what a gay fan base Britney had.

All in all, it was a super fun night. I am sure we will try to be at the next Britney tour (so long as Niki Minaj isn't opening) with even closer seats

Indoor Rock Climbing...

Lately I've had a strong desire to go indoor rock climbing. I am afraid of heights so don't dare do the actual thing. We got a group together and after a tasty dinner at PF Changs we went for it. It was so much fun and such a great work out! I know we weren't climbing terribly high but it was still nice and challenging and got my adrenaline pumping. We had a great time and I am sure we will do it again.

LA Day trip

We had a nice day in LA with our good friends the Hackers. We ate some pretty yummy burgers, some really yummy cupcakes, watched Craig Ferguson Live, then went to the LA temple grounds to detox our spirits after Craig Ferguson, and then ate some Mexican food. We basically ate a lot. We love hanging out with the Hackers- they're so "Real."

I needed a picture here because this is what my dream backyard would look like- these are my two very favorite plants- the jacaranda tree and the bougainvilleas. And this is my favorite guy. :) Heavenly...

Kindergarten Graduate!

For Tera's Kindergarten graduation they did a very cute end of the year performance to celebrate. They sang many songs. Tera knows every patriotic song there is and belts them out when we are in the car (this drives Ashton crazy and he tries to drowned her out by blaring the radio) She can sing The Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, Yankee Doodle, This Land is My Land and You're a grand Ol' Flag. Her Teacher, Mrs. Kaas is very into music and makes up motions to go with each song. To America the Beautiful she does some sign language. Tera practices the motions and has them down perfectly. She will say things like "when Mrs Kass signs beautiful she spreads her fingers and looks up into the sky. I like how she does that. I am goign to do that. And then she continues to practice, adding her new dramatic "beautiful" sign. She cracks me up. She is such a sweet girl who loves to learn and make others happy. We are blessed to have her in our home.

School's out Sleepover!

To celebrate the end of the school year Tera had some friends over to stay the night. They had fun doing "girly things." They painted their nails, dressed up fancy and danced around. Happy summer!

My personal petting zoo...

My kids are super creative and thoughtful. For my birthday they spent hours in the backyard putting together a petting zoo for me. When I came out I discovered all these wonderful "creatures" for me to pet.

They had each insect separated. I had my choice of petting: slugs, snails, pincher-bugs or rolly pollies. Ashton could tell I was a tiny bit disturbed at the thought of petting them so he quickly informed me that I didn't have to pet them, I could just look at them. Which I did :) And it really did make my day that they worked so hard to put this zoo together for me!

28 years old...

I had a great day celebrating my 28th b.day. We spent the day doing some of my very favorite things-

Eating at cafe rio, hanging out at the beach, enjoying some yummy frozen yogart, and shopping at Ikea.

It was a wonderful day spent with wonderful people.

Green Belt

Ashton passed his testing for Tae Kwon do to move up to the green belt. To advance to the next belt they have to preform a series of moves (called form) and then break a board with their specified kick for that belt. Ashton is very good at his kicks. His Instructor is always complimenting how good and powerful his kicks are, but he has trouble memorizing the form. This particular form was 18 steps long and he was really struggling memorizing them. After practicing several times he finally got it down.

When he arrived at the studio to test everyone was going over their individual forms. The Master was calling out the numbers and the students were doing their moves. Since Ashton was the only student testing for a green belt there he got confused when everyone else was doing something different. He ran off the floor crying. He thought that he was failing the actual test, even though they were only practicing.

It was the one of the saddest things I have witnessed as a mom. I know that might sound silly, because it seems like something so little. But, as a mom I want to protect my kid from any type of hard-ache or dissapointment, but I can't, nor should I. I know success in life does not come without any hard ache or setback. So, we had a talk with him about how we knew he could do it and how he had practiced and was ready for this. It took him a few minutes to calm down and be reassured that he was in fact ready to test.

When it was his turn he executed each step in his form perfectly and broke the board with his spinning back side kick. I was so proud! I felt like I was going to have a panic attack sitting there waiting for him to test knowing he was so nervous. And now here he is- our cute little Green Belt. I think Tae Kwon Do is perfect for Ashton.

Poor cat...

Our cat puts up with a lot....

so when the kids come crying to me that Yoda scratched them, the cat doesn't get in trouble... I figure they pretty much had it coming.

Little Monkeys

Mazzi loves McKinley. Every time we drive by McKinley neighborhood she yells "Kinleys house!" and each time she sees her she runs to hug her. I loved these pictures of them being little monkeys eating bananas.