{FamiLy PiCtuRe oVerLoaD}

While we were in Utah, we were able to get our pictures taken by a girl named Mallory that has taken our pics a bunch of times now! I am obsessed with getting our pictures taken professionally, but I especially love it when we can have a different look or a change of scenery! So going to Utah was a perfect time to get new family pics!! These are some of my favorites that Mallory edited and she also gave us all the negatives, so I still have almost 1,100 pictures that she took of us to go through to see if I have any more favorites!! This is a lot of pictures, but I couldn't just pick 1 or 2 to love!! Thanks so much Mallory! I love them all!! :)

Zoe was in such a cute mood and was being a total ham for Mallory!! She got some really cute pictures of her! These are some of my favorites......

This is so cute...and such a sassy Zoe Grace look.....



She looks like a doll in this picture.....





Another one of my very very favorites!! I love her sweet, innocent face and this background is my favorite!



And here are some of just Ayden!! Not as many of him cuz let's face it....he is a boy and boys just aren't that excited about getting their pics taken! At least in our family!! Jeremiah is never too excited about getting family pictures taken!!

I can't get over how BIG he looks to me in this first picture......





There are also some really cute ones of Ayden and Zoe interacting together!!







I know you can't even see their faces in this picture, but it is one of my favorites!!! If you look at their shadow on the door, you can see that they are holding hands in this picture!! Ahhh....melts my heart!! :)





Here are some family pics of all 4 of us.....



















Daddy and his boy.....



Mommy and her girl.....

I LOVE family pictures......even though I know Jeremiah thinks I am a little OCD about getting our pics done all the time, but I know in 30 years when we are grandparents and our kids have kids, these pictures will be priceless!!

{FiRsT dAy oF sOcCer}

Soccer has officially started, so fall MUST be right around the corner! I hope so because I can't handle this 100 degree weather much longer! I am so ready for fall! And that is what I love about California.....as soon as you get sick of one of the weather, it is time for a new season!!

This year is Ayden's first year playing AYSO soccer! I am so excited!! This is his first "official" sport that is not just through the city rec programs! We have soccer every Saturday morning now and he has a little practice the first 30 minutes and then a game after!

I think he will like it, but last Saturday was so hot and Ayden complained the whole time that he was hot, and tired, and thirsty......wah, wah, wah!! :)



Zoe loves going to all of Ayden's sporting events.....at soccer she had a blast playing with all the little babies that she could find!







I wish I could say this is Ayden's serious "killer" game-face, but I think it's more of a "I'm so hot and annoyed right now.....get me a drink Mom!!"



Snack time made for a happy boy......finally a drink!!





Soccer at this age is quite funny. The kids are like a swarm of bees and follow the ball around as a group!



And sometimes they get a little distracted and find something better to do while on the field.....like compare uniforms!!



Ayden is on the same team as his buddy, Tyler!



After soccer, we went down to my parents at the beach to escape the heat! My dad was out of town, so we hung out with my mom all day! We went for a bike ride along the boardwalk and our first stop (and one of my all time FAVORITE things to do when we go to Grammy's house) was Ruby's Diner for the best shakes EVER!!









Isn't my mom the cutest 60 year old lady you've ever seen on a beach cruiser!!?!? :)







Ayden did so good riding his bike on the crazy, crowded boardwalk! There were only a few times he stopped dead in his tracks and almost caused a crash for the people riding behind us!!





Such a beautiful beach day.....it doesn't get much better than this!!



Zoe had a nice relaxing day.....just cruising on the back of my bike in her seat! She crashed right before we had dinner!!



We rode our bikes and played at the beach all day....then rode our bikes to a tasty Italian restaurant before getting back to Grammy's and ending the night with this view.....





I love Saturdays like this!!

{oUr wEeK....nOt sO mUcH oUr RoUtiNe}

Not much going on around here lately.....we have been trying to get back into a routine after vacation. The kids sleeping schedule is all out of whack.....yes, in fact Zoe DID wake up at 5:50 am this morning! I'm also trying to get the kids back into the routine of not having an activity planned or someone to play with every second of every hour in the day like they did on vacation! With that said, here is what has been going on with us.....

Wednesday was garbage day....garbage day is always an exciting day around here!



Here is Zoe saying her prayers before bedtime! In actuality, when I checked in on the kids last night before I went to bed, this is how I found her! She was standing up on the side of her bed with her head on the bed.....poor girl! I guess she needs a queen size bed like big brother....the twin just isn't big enough for her growing body! :)



We discovered for the first time in St. George a couple weeks ago that Ayden is swimming now!!! It was like one day he couldn't and the next he could!!! I couldn't believe it! He is doing so GREAT!! And all of that after a summer with NO OFFICIAL SWIMMING LESSONS!!!! Now I am really convinced that Jeremiah is the best swimming couch around!! :) Here is a video of him swimming across the shorter length of the pool all by himself! And later on that day, he swam the long distance from one end to the other!! So exciting!! :) I'm not sure if this video is gonna work or not....it looks kinda small!! :(



We had a pool play date with friends. And even though Ayden is all of a sudden swimming, I learned that a rock wall pool is not a good place for a kid that just learned how to swim! Poor guy is so used to swimming to the edge of the pool and grabbing onto the side.....there was nothing to grab on to here!! I did have to jump in once with my clothes on to save him and my friend Carrie also had to dive in to save him for a 2nd time! Thanks Carrie! :)



We have had problems with Ayden getting out of bed at night. I read somewhere about a tip to keep kids in bed! So every night we give Ayden 5 nickels to put in his jar....and every time he comes out of his bed after our bedtime routine, we take a nickel away! We only started out on Sunday night and it has worked pretty good so far! He has been waiting every day to have enough nickels saved up to go to the dollar store! Today was the day.....we went to the dollar store!



The dollar store and me are not the greatest of friends and so I don't sound like a bratty snob, I will keep my comments to myself about my feelings of the dollar store! But we went and I let him search the store for "whatever he wanted"! He was so excited!! He ended up with a trumpet (of all things) and of course Zoe had to get something....her gem was a collection of rings!





I will admit that as soon as we left the store, I washed the kids down with hand sanitizer! I found out tonight that Ayden wasn't too impressed with the dollar store either! He told Jeremiah that next time he gets enough nickels, he just wants to go to Target to buy something!! Me too buddy!! :)

It has been smoking hot the last couple days. We can't really complain though because we have had a relatively "less than scorching" summer! We have hardly had to run our air at all, but it has gone over 100 degrees here the past 2 days! Today we went to cool off at the splash park by our house. Ayden runs right in with no fear.....all was fine until he was running, slipped and hit his head really hard on the cement! He didn't want to play much after that! Zoe took a while to warm up to the water and then loved it!









I love her buns....I can't get over how cute they look in a bathing suit!! :)





Wow, I guess our week of "unwinding, relaxing and getting back into a routine" was really a week of busy days! We are looking foward to this weekend when Ayden will be playing in his first AYSO soccer game on Saturday!