Gwen

These two were born 5 1/2 years ago. They were 7 days apart and Gwen is still here with us while Drew's time was short but is waiting for us on the other side. Well Gwen is now in Kindergarten and is doing so well. I was talking to my sister yesterday and she was telling me about Gwen's parent teacher conference. One thing really stuck out to me. Last year Gwen had a friend Andrew who was Autistic and she was very protective of him. She helped him and didn't let anyone make fun of him and helped him with whatever he needed. So this year she has another little boy in her class with special needs. She is the same way. She makes sure no one makes fun of him and takes care of him. If he needs his shoes tied she ties then, helps him with his snack. Her teacher is so proud of her because so many are mean or tattle on him and don't help him. They just don't understand. I think Gwen has some help from her little cousin on the other side. With Drew we didn't know if he was or wasn't going to have any lasting effects from being born at 23 weeks he didn't have a brain bleed but there was still a chance he could have had special needs. I know that Gwen would have taken care of Drew just like she does her little friends at school What a special little girl she is. I am so proud of her to have those qualities at such a young age. She truly is special and I truly love her.

Look What I Found

Matty comes up running to me this moring telling me to look what he painted. I said what and he proceeded to show me Abby's face and legs and his face and legs. Then he tells me that he wanted me to take a picture of what a good job he did. It was so hard not to laugh. Who would of known that blue highlighter was so hard to get off skin. There is still some on them still! Hopely when they take a bath it will all come off. So here is some pictures of Matt's Art Work

Matty's art work on his face. He was so proud. He was told if he did art work on anything other than paper next time he would be in trouble and that our body's are not for coloring on.

Abby's face. The blue ink was actually darker than this picture shows. The flash on the camera lighten it some.

Matty's legs all decorated.

Matty and Abby's legs. Matty made Abby sit down so I could take a picture of their legs.

Another picture of Abby's face painted.

Movie Day

Edwards has free movies on Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout the summer. I have been meaning to take the kids all summer but something was going on or we forgot. So today they were showing Veggie Tales A Pirate Movie. Matty loves Pirates so I knew I needed to make sure that I made it to this one. So we invited Matty's friend Mateo along and went. They had so much fun. Abby on the other had was tired towards the end and started getting a little scared to the loud sounds and dark and so I ended up standing for part of the movie at the bottom of the rows. Over all it was fun and the kids had fun. Matty standing watching the previews. It was nice that they were able to move around a little more than normal because the whole place was packed with kids doing the same thing.

Abby dancing to the song at the beginning of the movie.

Matty eating his snacks before the movie started and watching previews.

Abby wanted a drink and wanted to drink out of my cup but wouldn't take her eyes off the screen.

Matty and Mateo waiting for the movie to start. Matty was so excited. He got a poster and card game because he wore his pirate shirt to the movie.

We Love Ice Cream Sandwiches

Last week while I was at the store Matty tells me that it is so hot and he needs some ice cream. So I looked at the ice cream sandwiches and they were on sale and so I thought I would get them. Matty is my little sweet tooth. He loves anything sweet especially chocolate. Abby likes ice cream but she has never had an ice cream sandwich. Let me say I think we found her new love.

Abby enjoying her ice cream sandwich!

As you can tell that she likes it.....it's all over. I think the messer they are the more they like it. She was even licking her fingers when her sandwich was all gone.

After she licked her fingers the funniest thing.......she started licking the plate clean. We just couldn't stop laughing and she kept licking that plate clean to make sure she didn't leave anything behind.

Matty enjoying his last bite of his ice cream sandwich. To me it looks like he has his hand on a bottle of coke at the same time. What a silly little boy.

Smiling when he was done and wanting more like a true sweet tooth.

Noah's Ark

Melissa Brower set up a reservation to go to the Noah's Ark exhbit at the Skirball and we were lucky enough to go. Last year I was there for a class that I took and thought that when the kids were older it would be fun bring Matty and Abby. A cool thing we learned about this Noah's Ark exhbit was that everything was made with things that we use everyday. For example the had a bear made with an old bathtub. It was really cool. The kids had a blast and we will be going back in the near future.

Abby and Matty cleaning up the fake poop yes poop. The ark had animals and they felt it was important to have this here. When we told Matty what it was he thought it was funny. Abby just liked sweeping. If only she would love it when it is her chore to do when she gets older.

This is a wooden ark for the kids to play with. It the same as a doll house but and ark instead with animals instead of dolls. Matty loved it and played for a long time here. Abby liked to climb on it.

This was a turtle that Matty really liked it was really life like.

Abby sitting on the Walrus chairs.

The beginining of the ark. Abbby was ready to move on but Matty was not.

Audrey and Matty pulling the string to open a door and letting light in the room.

Abby found the room in the ark that had all the stuffed animals and was pulling them out and bringing them to so me.

Matty loved this. You put the animals on the belt and turned the wheel to have the animals 2 x 2 go on the ark. He was alot of work but he loved it.

The beginining of the Ark.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving was a wonderful day of spending time with family and friends. Sorry forgot to take pictures on the day of Thanksgiving (to busy cooking). The next day we went to the Fresno Temple with my parents and Jared to do some work for my Dad's side of the family and then we headed back out to my parents for some fun!!!Here I am trying to get a picture of all the cousins for my Mom. She using thier pictures as her Christmas card. They all were to busy to sit still. It took kus forever to get this one with Uncle Bryon in the picture. We eventually just took of piicture of the different sets of kids. If you notice we were missing Gwen in this one.

Grandpa and Abby hanging out will everyone was outside playin!

Posing for the camera in her super cute jacket that Uncle Mel gave Abby. The hood has little ears and is super cute.

A huge leaf fight started after I thought it would be cool to pile the leaves up and have Matty jump in them. Little did I know that this huge leaf fight would start.

Uncle Jared was climbing in the trees so Matty wanted to do the same. So Jared is helping Matty get up into the tree.

Uncle Jared in one of Grandma's trees. When we were younger he would have been in so much trouble.

Andy brought some rockets to set off. Here are all the boys waiting patiently for the rockets to be set up and waiting for blast off!

Here the boys thought it would be fun to bury Brianne in the leaves. Heaven knows what they would do if they had sand!

The Rockets are ready to be launched!

But not before a few more leaves being thrown in the air!

Disneyland Please!!!!!

Matty has been asking for a couple of weeks to go to Disneyland and with the fires Long Beach had alot of smoke and the air quality was not good so we thought lets try Disneyland. And to our surprise it was a little cloudy but the wind was blowning and kept the smoke smell away. Matty and Abby of course had a great time. And so did Andy and I. It was fun to see the thrill in their eyes.

By the end of the day the wind was dying down and the smoke was coming in so it was time to leave the happiest place on earth.

Matty getting ready for his 1st roller coaster ride. He called the roller coaster in Toon Town a train. He was excited but got a little scared during the ride.

Waiting for the roller coaster.

Matty and Mommy in Line!

Matty loves the Tea Cups and so he took his Daddy on this ride.