Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Kindergarten, Already??!!!???

I can't believe it's time to think about Kindergarten already. I came into work late this morning after registering Big Boy for starting school in fall! Yes, he goes to a speech preschool, but it's only one day a week and he's been in daycare/preschool off and on since he was 6 weeks. And yes, I work full-time and am not with him all day long, but really, Kindergarten!??!! When did my Big Boy get so BIG! Before you know it, he'll be in college, getting married and making me a grandma (hopefully in that order!).

I totally get what people say about how fast time flies and how there's something special about your firstborn.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Monsters Vs Big Boy & Boopy

Last weekend we enjoyed a wonderful visit with Grandma & Grandpa Vaughn. They came down Friday night to be able to watch the kiddos at gymnastics Saturday morning. After gymnastics, we ventured to the movies and lunch. And from my title you can guess that we went and saw Monsters VS Aliens. Turned out to be a cuter movie than I expected. Of course the kids enjoyed it and now want to collect all the lovely McDonald Happy Meal toys that go along with the movie! After the movie we stopped by the sporting store and picked up small hand weights for the kids. They had been complaining that they couldn't exercise with Papa without weights when he uses his. I slacked off and totally neglected my camera, but Grandma Vaughn did snap this cute picture of Boopy with her camera phone.

After Grandma & Grandpa Vaughn left we took it easy the rest of the weekend. Spent family time watching "Bolt". As for Sunday, I ended up doing an impromptu photo shoot for a friend (which will show up on my photo blog in the next week or so) and then Papa Vaughn and I went out on a lovely date night. We had a great time at the "Rock and Worship Roadshow". It was definitely a concert worth attending again next year if they make it back to Fresno.

She's such a HAM

What can I say, Boopy loves the camera. Big Boy obliges me on occasion but Boopy, she hams it up frequently. A couple of weeks ago they tagged along for a photo shoot with some good friends of ours. Boopy decided to ham it up and I couldn't resist her cute little face. I stumbled back upon this pic while working on the picture set, which I'm still not quite done with. I'm not sure which photo effect is my favorite, so here's all three for you to see.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Friday Fun!

Fridays are always wonderful. The evenings are usually more relaxed, knowing that we don't have the early hustle and bustle Saturday morning like the rest of the week. This particular Friday Papa Vaughn took advantage of our unplanned evening to start out with the new exercise workout video he got. The kids were too cute and had to participate too. Papa had picked them up their own "yoga" mats at Circuit City on clearance so they could be just like him.

Once the kids had enough of exercising they disappeared in Boopy's room. Can you find them?

Peek-a-Boo!

Once I found them they took to other activities. Big Boy brought his truck and crane into Boopy's room to play and Boopy decided she wanted to do her homework. For some crazy reason she calls cutting up little pieces of paper, her homework and takes it quite serious.

Deep in concentration

Just some cute fun faces.

That is until I got "ROARED" at!


All boy - he LOVES trucks and construction vehicles.

Then the neighbor boys were outside playing and enticed the kiddos to come out and join them. We finished the beautiful spring night with a family walk (with the neighbor kids joining us) and some jumping on the trampoline. A wonderful night.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

What We've Been Up To Lately

So what have we been up to the past month....plenty, as usual!!! I've started getting busier with photo shoots now that spring is here. They are mostly for friends, but hey that's a great way to keep me in practice and spread the word, right? So aside from my constant editing of pictures, the kids and I made the trek to Vegas a week and a half ago to finally see Guya and D's new house. We enjoyed the spring weather and spent most of Saturday at the Springs Preserve which was kind of like a desert zoo/museum on the nature of the Vegas area. We had most of the park to ourselves and the kids enjoyed all the hands on activities. After Vegas we rushed home to host dinner with some friends at our house. Turned out to be a bit crazy with the 7 hour drive home, but our dinner company was delightful and it finished of a fun lovely weekend.

We're also enjoying having Papa Vaughn home every night. March 8th marked the last night for the Fresno Circuit City to be open. While the extra income was helpful, the time off is very nice for Papa and having family time. I'm just so thankful that Circuit City wasn't Papa Vaughn's full-time job as it was for quite a few people that worked there. Unfortunately they are not alone and we know too many people that are being affected by lay-offs. Anyway, I'm just so thankful.

The kids are still busy with weekly gymnastics. Big Boy was actually brave this past Saturday and decided to follow his sister and fly like Peter Pan over the trampoline. The two classes were merged for part of the morning due to small class sizes. Boopy started off the flying with no fear and giant smiles. I think her bravery helped encourage Big Boy when it was his turn. I'm so proud of them and I love watching how much they love gymnastics. One of these days I'll bring my camera back with me and get so more fun pictures. On a side note with the gym, we found out that parents get to use the treadmills, weights and a few other pieces of equipment for free while their kids are in class, so Papa Vaughn and I are on a mission to get ourselves in shape!

It seemed like the past couple years, our weekends in summer time were always filled, lately I'm finding that our weekends are filling faster. The next few months are already booking up with fun things to do. We'll be heading to Disneyland at the end of April (a wonderful military deal we just can't pass up!), Papa & I are looking forward to a fun concert at the end of March, I've got more photo shoots lined up, somewhere in there we'll celebrate Easter and an event at the local museum. Plus we have a couple of friends birthday parties for the kids to attend and then before you know it, it will be Boopy's birthday in May! Phew - kinda makes me tired already just thinking about it all!

And because I have a hard time doing a post without pictures - here are the latest from our recent Vegas trip.

The Vegas strip from the Springs Preserve. It was kind of weird realizing this park is in the middle of freeways and housing and only minutes from the Strip!

I love this group picture! Being bears in one of the cave areas at the entrance.

The had really cool water displays.

The kids got to dig in dirt and ride a stationary train.

Rather interesting idea - they had a ton of various types of video games all of which had to do with nature and recycling, water waste, and various "going" green ideas.

More displays and an outdoor city scene where kids could build the walls and design the buildings. Lots of fun!

Desert animal displays were full of creepy crawly creatures. Love Boopy's expression as she points out the tarantula - especially since being that close didn't seem to bother her much.

Cute pic of Boopy and Guya

Big Boy LOVES to run!

Just sweet faces I couldn't resist.

The park had a great play area for kids complete with a sand box, train, giant butterfly display and giant fake snake to climb. It wasn't easy getting the kids to leave!

Believe it or not they even had a garden area with flowers - yes the desert can be beautiful!


Later at Guya and D's house, Guya set up a special dessert project for the kiddos. They made "sushi" Twinkies and chocolate dipped fruit. Big Boy helped for a very short time then decided he'd rather chase the dogs, so Boopy took over. She of course had to sample while she worked!


My cutie pies being sweet siblings!

I actually managed to get myself in a photo and it's one I like (thanks Guya)!

Friday, March 6, 2009

A bit behind - WA Trip Part 3

So I'm a bit behind these days with no real excuse than regular life has been keeping us busy. Kids are still in gymnastics on Saturday mornings and LOVING it. Boopy even got to fly like Tinkerbell above the trampoline. She had a blast. Big Boy on the other hand, thought it was more fun to watch. Otherwise, photo sessions (go see baby Max and I'll have 3 new sessions to post in the next week or so), cleaning house and chasing after the kiddos are taking up my time lately. I did, however, finally load up another set of pictures from Washington for you to enjoy! These are from the small park by Grandma & Grandpa Prohaska's house. We hung out there after the baptism.




While walking to the park with the train tracks, Boopy was concerned that Grandma's nose was cold and insisted she keep it warm! Too cute!



Monday of the trip we drove into Tacoma and spent the afternoon at the Children's Musuem. Small but all hands on displays. The kids loved it!









Have a great weekend everyone! We off for another fast trip to Vegas!