Father's Day

It's been a tough year for the Rogers' family as we haven't seen much of Dustin.  This may not seem like a big deal, but when your Dad is as fabulous as ours, you want to see him as much as possible.

We ended up playing the day extremely low key due to just general family stress.  Dustin had meetings all day after church and didn't get home until late in the afternoon and had to be back out on a flight to California for work.  I was leaving for Girl's Camp and getting everything put together last minute for that.  Plus Dustin's parents had flown out unexpectedly and we wanted to enjoy the little bit of time we had with them.

I'm so grateful for a wonderful husband and father.  He works so hard and it stretched so thin, but he is so kind and loving.  We are ALL excited for some vacation time and no work for Daddy!

Sweet sweet Sadies

When we were deciding on names for Nate, I loved the name Sadie for a girl.  Dustin told me it was a Grandma name and we would never use it.  Then we moved to our street and there was the most adorable little girl named Sadie.  And then another one moved in.  When we found out #3 was a girl, I was so excited because Dustin finally agreed that we know the cutest Sadies in the world.

Our little Sadie came into the world with blond hair just like the other Sadies we knew and while one has moved away, we are so grateful to still have one other Sadie on the street.  I love that when they're both over I can ask my Sadie to do something and the other Sadie does it for me.

 

They usually end up changing clothes and 9 times out of 10, they change into these black leotards and put on a dance party for me.

They think it's pretty special having a friend with your same name (at least right now when they're 5 and 6).

Our little monster is 3!

Can you believe my baby is 3??  I love those big brown eyes and his adorable little voice (when he's not screaming).  I'm pretty sure Luke is as infatuated with me as I am with him and that's what makes me want to smooch his cheeks all day long.

 

For Luke's birthday we threw a joint party with Luke's best friend. . .ASA!!

Luke and Asa were born only 4 days apart and destined to be best friends.  Luke may actually love Asa more than me.  One day at lunch we had a family debate on whether Luke liked Asa or dinosaurs more.  He loves him *that* much.

I had such a fun time planning the party with Tia.  We. . .

• Rented a water slide

there was also a swimming pool full of monster goo

• Set up a photo booth

 

Props by my amazingly talented sister Kathleen Skinner

• Ate some hamburgers and hot dogs 

• Decorated monster cupcakes (key lime frosting on graham cracker cupcakes -- Tia is an overachiever)

 

 Ellie made George Washington

  

Luke made his a triceratops

• Opened presents  

  

surprisingly Luke got a LOT of dinosaur related items 

• Played with presents

• Blew out the candles

Leftover chocolate cake and lemon cupcakes from the night before

 

• Cracked open the pinata

 

• And sent everyone home 

• But not without party favors!! 

These only took an entire afternoon to put together.

Luke at THREE!!!

Favorite Color: Blue

Favorite Number: 3

Favorite Drink: Apple Juice

Favorite Food: Watermelon, Mac & Cheese, Chips

Favorite Game: Candyland

Favorite Animal: Dinosaur

Favorite TV Show: Dinosaur Train

I feel sad when: someone tells me NO

I feel mad when: I have to go to Church

I like it when my friends: are Asa

I like it when I: get to read my Dinosaur Field Guide

I wish I could: have a real dinosaur

Who is your best friend? Asa

What is your favorite activity? Reading my Dinosaur Field Guide

What three things are you are good at? Zerberts, dinosaur names, not eating

We're so glad you're in our family!!

Our Summer Thus Far

The first day of summer vacation at our house always starts out with such high expectations.  This year we:

• did chores
• studied in our workbooks
• read books
• practiced piano
• organized the pantry
• washed/folded/put away loads and loads of laundry

In fact my kids were so ambitious I had to yell at Sadie to STOP doing her summer workbook or else we wouldn't have anything else for her to do during the summer.

You're probably not surprised by this.  I am a relatively orderly and scheduled person.  I thrive on routine.  But for some reason, when that 7 weeks of summer rolls around, I just don't care.

Turns out I should have let Sadie finish that workbook in one day because that's the last time we've used it.  Somehow we've been caught up in a whirlwind of swimming, play dates, games and movies.

(I was just looking at the pictures on this post and I noticed Luke's plate is entirely chips!)

This morning, the 8th day of vacation, a little nagging voice in my head started reminding me about the workbooks.  And the math facts.  And the reading.  And laundry.  Oh, that dang laundry still piles up despite me encouraging my children to live entirely in their swimsuits of pajamas all summer long.

I resolved to restart the program today.  And go to Costco.  And the library.  And Target.

8:30 am the phone rang and my friend Kristin asked me if we wanted to go to the Designer Boulevard sale.  And with that, my plan went out the window.

We ended up shopping. Nate went out to lunch/shopping/swimming at a friend's house (his mom is way more fun than I ever am).  We picked up not enough pizza (4 whole pizzas and they were still starving and some didn't even eat!! Our kids are pigs.) and went swimming with a bunch of friends.

At one point in time there were actually no children in the pool, but we couldn't drag ourselves away from it because everyone was off playing so nicely.

We stole one of Ellie's friends for a sleep over.  Picked up Nate.  Came home around 4 and not even five minutes later, there was a knock on the door from Brody wondering if Nate could come over and play.

Five minutes later, Sadie Tyler ended up over here.  We played games, we ate cookies. . . I did manage to fold some laundry!  Around 6 pm I thought I'd better make some dinner and with that our day was gone.

How do the summer days slip away so fast??  I should probably feel guilty, but I don't even feel like we wasted the day.  I think that's exactly how summer should go.

The Most Wonderful Day of the Year

The most wonderful day of the year is the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!  2012 was a great school year for Nate and Ellie, but I am so glad it's over. No homework.  No early mornings.  We got big plans this summer: lots of sleeping, lots of swimming, lots of games, lots of movies, and lots of cleaning (that might not happen, but it's in *my* plans).

Luckily for me, both of my kids' teachers wanted to do their own thing with the kids, so I got off easy.  All I had to do was thrown Ellie's class lunch.  I ordered pizzas and picked up a some Capri Suns, plates, napkins and cup cakes. And with that, we closed the book on 4th and 1st grade. Both kids had great report cards and we're really happy with their teachers for next year.

My neighbor Jill and I set up a giant slip n slide down at our park and invited some friends over.  We hooked up 4 hoses to the faucet at my house to get water down there, but it was totally worth it.  The kids had such a great time in the water and eating popsicles, while we sat in the shade for 3 hours just chatting.

You can't even tell there were almost 30 kids there.  And in case you were wondering, the 2nd most wonderful day of the year: The first day of school.

Califonia Sun

For Mother's Day Dustin decided to send me on a trip to California.  He called up my friend Kristin's husband, who then called Molly's husband, who in turn called Maren's husband, and before we knew it we had a lovely foursome.  Except it was suppose to be a surprise so none of us talked about it to each other, only to find out that none of our husbands can keep a secret for long.

It had been in the 100's here in the valley, so we were excited for some cooler weather.  Only our husband sent us over Memorial Day weekend, which happened to bring a 20 degree drop in temperature.  Great if you were staying in Arizona, not so fun if you were hoping to hit the beach.  I texted Dustin, "Less time at the beach, means more time to shop."  He then told me it is never too cold for the hot tub.

We started out adventure with the brilliant idea to take a picture everywhere we went. It lasted a day and a half. ..so as this blog progresses, you will see less and less.  The first thing we did was go to the bathroom.  Seriously.  It's a trip of 4 girls.  We spent a lot of time peeing.  No picture of that, but I did think it would be funny to go in the exit and surprise Maren, and in my haste ran into someone actually exiting the bathroom.

Actually, the first thing we did was irritate everyone on the plane around us.  The take off had really bad turbulence and Molly might have been freaked out a little which might have left all of us in hysterics (what kind of friends think being scared is funny??).  And we had a stack of People magazines that we couldn't stop discussing.  And that's the last details I can give you on any of our discussions and inside jokes because what happens in California, stays in California.

So once we landed, peed, got our rental car, we headed for Javier's.  It's a rather swanky Mexican restaurant where Molly ate a toothpick.  There were actually 4 of them hidden inside her chimichanga.  But never fear, we got free dessert out of the whole thing. 

Next we hit up a home decor warehouse that Molly's friend loves.  We are not allowed to divulge the name, but it was HUGE. For example, there were 3 entire Costco rows of just ribbon.  And an aisle of creepy elves.

  There was also a lot of really cute, well priced stuff too.  It was the most confusing selection of prices and items.  Like these beautiful headbands right by the checkout.

Once we freaked out because we had already bought enough stuff to fill an entire suitcase, we went to unpack at the hotel.  They might have written 1724 on the cards and we might have spent 5 minutes trying to break into someone else's villa until we called and they told us that we were in 1721.  I really hope the people in 1724 were not home.  In the middle of unpacking, I discovered that I had brought two left running shoes.  This prompted another shopping trip!!

We headed over to Fashion Island and ate at True Food Kitchen.  I have been dying to eat there since they opened one in Scottsdale, but hey, why not travel all the way to California for it.  It was actually really good and I'd eat there again. 

Then Maren used her Nike hook up to treat us all to new Nikes.

Finally we hit the grocery store, rented a movie, went back to the hotel, made pizookies, and snuggled on the pull out couch while we watched 30 minutes of We Bought a Zoo before I fell asleep.

Saturday I woke up long before everyone else, strapped on my new running shoes and ran up the California hills.  It was brutal.  I did the first 4 miles straight uphill, though, so the last 4 were gorgeous.  We all showered and headed to Laguna for brunch at Las Brisas with my really good friend, Michelle, and Molly's friend Kristen.

Then we stopped taking pictures.  We went to Tai Pan Trading and then South Coast Plaza for lots more shopping, dinner and a movie.  We still managed to finish of the last of the cookie dough and ice cream with another round of pizookies when we got home.

Sunday we went to Church at the Stake Center across from the Newport Temple.  We also took the ferry out to Balboa, put our feet in the sane (because I touched that water and it was freezing), and then back to the resort for some relaxing by the hot tub.

We realized we still had to finish We Bought a Zoo, so we decided to change into our PJs and get take out.  Somehow in our driving around using our cell phones, we happened upon Pasta Pomodoro, which is one of Molly's favorites.  It is, however, sit down.  Oh the horror as we walked through the restaurant (at least mine were yoga pants) with Kristin in her silky hot pink leopard print pajama pants.  Our waitress was really cute about it though, "Oh!  It's a slumber party!"  And then she shoved in the back corner.  Thank you waitress.  But seriously, the bread there and the pesto dipping sauce were so delicious.

And then we woke up and went home.