Road Trip to LA!!

In January one of the besties, Jes, packed up her life in LA and moved to Nashville to follow her dreams. I don't even want to talk about the fact that she is gone, I am still trying to convince myself that she will be home any day now, like when she went to Australia. So, when she booked a flight home to California to visit in June, Kendra and I booked a road trip to LA to see her! It was a really great weekend filled with bowling, swim day, relaxing and a lot of I5 and I had a blast!! I love my friends and am so thankful for another set of great memories with them!

Our trip started with an early stop at McDonald's!

Everyone got some lunch!

How cute is she? She is getting so big!

Our first day there we all went to Jes' Mom and Dad's house to swim and just hang out together with the kids! It was a really fun day and the first time we had all been together since last Aug so it was long overdue!

We stayed at Kendra's Mom and Dad's house while we were in LA and Peyton had a blast of course!

YaYa painted Peyton's toes in an effort to hold her still so Kendra could do her hair! She loved it!

On our last night in town we left the kids at home and had a girls night out! Bowling and besties!

It was so good to have Jes home in California!!

We hit the road Saturday night back to Santa Cruz so we could be at church Sunday morning!

Peyton loved the game room at one of the rest stops!

By the grapevine the kids were ready for bed and Kendra and I got some coffee and headed home. It was a really good ride home, kids sleeping behind us, Casting Crowns on the radio and lots of random conversations with one of my favorite people!

On Sunday I we went to church and then to the CLC BBQ where we hung out with friends, ate and played some softball. Amber hung out with her friends too! So cute!

It was such a great weekend and I can't wait to do it again in a couple weeks!!

Lock of Love

For almost 3 years I have been growing out my hair to donate it to Locks of Love . They are a wonderful organization that takes donated hair and makes wigs for sick children who have lost their hair from some type of a disease and cannot afford to buy a wig. A few years ago my Dad donated 21 inches to them and I was inspired to do it also. It has been a very long road as I needed a full 10 inches to donate my hair and it was only at about my chin when I decided to grow it out. When I decided to grow it out I told Kendra and Jes not to let me cut my hair, no matter what I said and they held me to it! If they had not held me to it I would have cut my hair last summer and about a dozen times after that. It was fitting that when the time came to actually cut my hair Kendra not only came with me but took pictures for the blog! Here they are! I am happily enjoying my short hair now, especially on days like today when it is 108 degrees in this valley!

Before!

This moment was a little scary!

Some kid gets a wig! That made it all worth it!

Now onto some cute hair!

The end result!

I'm Back!

I know it has been forever since I have posted a blog, but my life has just been too busy! Anytime I think about what to do with a precious free moment I have I seem to find other things on the priority list to do that keep me from blogging. However, no with summer school almost over, and not actual classes to go to I seem to have a lot more time on my hands and I am going to use it to catch up on just a few of the things that happened in my blogging absence. So, ignore the timeline! :)

A Trip to YaYa's

Kendra and the girls came to YaYa's house to swim and have some girl time! It was a very fun few days. There was swimming, basketball in the pool, long talks with the birds, boat rides, YaYa fell in the pool trying to get a ball for Peyton, we played with my old Barbies, had poolside tea parties and lunches, Peyton found and lost a ladybug and played with some of my Dad's musical instruments, we colored, and when the kids went to bed, Kendra and I worked on scrapbooks and just and a blast!!

Santa Cruz Moments

Here are some pictures from a recent trip to Santa Cruz to see the Kertson's. I have noticed lately that I come home with a ton of pictures of the girls and none of Kendra and I...times they change! :)

Someone let a frog in the house! (She makes the noise and everything!)

On the way to church!

YaYa got to pick out Peyton's clothes and hair style. These are her very first little pigtail braids!

Such a flirt! She gets that from her Mom!

So darn cute!!

My name used to be YaYa...we are thinking of changing it to Mrs. Pots!

Tea party with Bubba!

Dress up!

Kendra took this because she was freaking out about how much Amber looks like me!
She could totally pass for my kid!

Getting comfy while she watches Mickey!

Praise Him! When Peyton was this age we used to crack up over her "sleep praise" hands and now Amber does them too! It is even cuter since Amber's middle name means praise!

At the giant artichoke showing off her new apron the my Mom made for her!

Another Target moment! I am thinking of starting a whole set of posts just about Peyton in Target because I always get the best pictures of here while we are there!