strawberry pie

The grocery store had strawberries on sale for really cheap. I bought a lot and made my mom's recipe for strawberry pie. She has been making this for as long as I can remember and always reminds me of summer.

1 cup mashed strawberries

1 cup strawberries cut in half

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tbs. lemon juice

1 cup water

4 tbs. cornstarch

1 baked 9 in. pie crust

Combine mashed strawberries, sugar, lemon juice, water, and cornstarch. Cook over medium heat until thick, cool and pour into crust that has been filled with the cut strawberries. refrigerate until set.

painted toenails

Today Ava got into my nail polish and actually opened it! Luckily she was wearing an old shirt because the nail polish was everywhere. After all that effort I just had to paint her toenails!

playing outside

Aiden dressed himself today and put on a long sleeved shirt in the middle of summer. Luckily for him it wasn't too hot because it had just rained and was still cloudy.

plumeria

I have had this plumeria plant for about 2 years and it has finally bloomed, yeah!

fun weekend

what a mess! birthday cupcakes Ava found her cousin"s flower hat tired Ava resting on Grammy's shoulder

delicous kabobs

sweet cousin Avery

sweet cousin Kyla

Aiden enjoying his party

We spent this past weekend with my family. It was fun to get away for a couple of days and finally spent some time with them. On Saturday my sister Lauren and her husband hosted a birthday party for Aiden. Mom brought the food and made delicious grilled steak. shrimp, and chicken kabobs. She also made cupcakes which all the kids loved and smeared all over themselves. On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day. We had a yummy brunch with homemade cinnamon rolls. At church my brother Jeremy, who just got home from his mission gave a very good talk. After church every one came over for dinner and once again mom made delicious food! After dinner Jeremy gave a wonderful fireside. He made a DVD with all the pictures he took of his mission, set to music. He is a very good photographer, and each picture looked like a post card, at the end of the presentation everyone wanted to take a trip to Alaska, it was that beautiful! It was a great weekend and ended to quickly!

birthday boy

Today Aiden turned 4 years old, I can't believe it! It seems like just the other day he was born. Of all my kids births his was the craziest. I just barely made it to the hospital in time and wasn't able to get an epidural. He was also my biggest baby at over 9 lbs, ouch! He is a very sweet little boy who is full of energy, very curious, and often mischievous. We are glad he is a part of our family! To celebrate we went to Chuck E. Cheese, to eat pizza and play games. Then, we went back to Nana and Grand Dad's house to open presents and eat cake and ice cream. His grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were very generous and gave him lots of nice presents.

silly girl

I tried to put Ava's shoes on her. Her shoes that she normally wears outside are a little worn out and dirty looking. She looked at her shoes and said, "no, yucky!" She refused to let me put them on her and only wanted to wear her church shoes. She is only 19 months old and already concerned about what she wears, goodness! Something else that was cute happened today, she was walking around the house carrying her 2 baby dolls, when she tripped and fell. She then said, "oh, babies!" She was worried that they had gotten hurt. She has started calling one Ethan, after her cousin baby Ethan.

too hot!

Today I took Ava outside to play, unfortunately we only lasted a couple of minutes because it was so hot!

movie day

On Saturday we took the boys to see Kung Fu Panda. They loved it and they got a free poster from the theater. I thought it was entertaining, even for adults and the animation was great! A couple of days ago I was putting Ava down for a nap and I heard Dario and Aiden yelling, "Mama, Mama!" I though someone had gotten hurt, but it turns out they saw a commercial on TV advertising Kung Fu Panda happy meals at McDonalds and wanted to get one right that second.

birthday countdown

Aiden's birthday countdown has begun, he is very excited about his birthday! His birthday this year is on Friday the 13th, of all days. Aiden's plans include going to Chuck E Cheese, eating cake and ice cream, and opening lots of presents!

ABC's

Dario starts kindergarten this fall. We have been practicing letters for awhile and he has finally learned them all! He is getting more excited to start school. For awhile he was scared because for some reason he thought he would have to walk to school alone and he would get lost. Today he excitedly told me when he starts school he gets to make art projects.

cookies

Today Aiden helped me make chocolate chip cookies. He loves to help me when I make any thing sweet. His favorite part is cracking the egg and of course licking the bowl.