Chloe's a TEENAGER!!!!

Our happy little Chloe is 13! That makes 3 teenagers in our home now. How will we survive?!!

 She helped me make her cake. It's a purple purse! It looked so real that some of the girls tried to open it before they realised it was a cake! She designed it, mixed the fondant colors, helped carve the cake, frost, and made all the accessories (that mimick real items of hers) out of fondant and assisted in the tricky assembly. I love having such talented children!

 She had a funky fashion party where the girls did some mixed up make-overs. First we played some great party games like the switching chairs game. It got crazy!

 One of the prizes was for the tallest and widest hairdo's.

This is Kamryn and ?

Ellie and Penelope

 Silly girls! Maddy (in the pink) won for tallest hair!

 This is only half of the 16 girls that came!!!

Fake blow-out-the-candles picture. I was video taping the real thing.

 Chloe using her fondant phone and lip gloss.

 On her birthday morning she was reluctant to get her picture taken. Yep, she's a teenager alright!

 I was allowed to take pictures of her presents though.

What a darling brown-eyed beauty!

We love you Chloe and are so happy you a part of our family!!

We love you birthday girl! You make us soooo happy!!!!

Rustin Turns 15!!!!

Happy Birthday to Rustin! He turned 15 on Sept. 5th and had an awesome swim party on the 11th.

I made a lemon flavored camouflage cake for him!

Zack, Sam, Trenton and Kira chillin'.
The kids swam then played some good old fashioned party games like; pin the tail on the donkey, a pinata, and lots of new games like Ninja and of course, X-box!!

 Trenton's got it.

 Brady too.

 Rustin is an awesome part of our family!

 We love you buddy!!

Happy Birthday!

Has a cuter boy ever existed? I think NOT.

No way!!!

Laguna Beach Vacation

We rented a house in Laguna beach just a few yards from the ocean. This seal rock is one of the cool aspects of this amazing place where we spent a lovely week.

These first 8 shots are from a view point above our neighborhood.

Our house is just to the right of the palm fronts. It is white with a pinkish stripe across it. We stayed in the basement and enjoyed a colorful landlord named Earl.

Crescent Bay is the name of the actual beach we played in that week. The water was freezing for California and the waves were unusually high but the sand was soft and fine.

My birthday boy on his birthday. He was reflecting on what it means to be...

older.

Chloe had so much fun taking pictures this week and loved the combination of AZ and CA depicted in this scene. Beautiful!

Stubborn kids won't turn around for a picture!!

I tried!

At least Russ loves me.

Checking out the beach

Checking out the town. Being thoughtful.

Died laughing when we saw this sign about our favorite loud laughing and silly landlord, Earl!

We went to Knott's Berry Farm on Thurs. and had a blast! This ride takes you from 0 to 82 miles an hour in just 2 seconds and then shoots you straight up in the air a few hundred feet!!

All wet after the log ride. 

If you are wondering where Rustin is, he was back east for the National Boy Scout Jamboree for 3 weeks having the time of his life!

Playing in the cold waves

See how big this is, and it was dying down by this point.

Livvy lovin' it.

When these huge waves would crash it was LOUD and intimidating. If you got caught in it at the wrong time, it would smash you into the sand and then toss you all around for a while. Tess is trying to get out past them to where you can ride them up right before they break.

Like this. There she is! (left)

Tess and Chloe enjoying the surf.

I took the underwater camera out there with us. It was fun!

Underwater and still silly

Enjoying the powder soft sand with my girls.

Chloe and Liv dug 4 tunnels that joined in the middle. Russ and I could hold hands with both girls underground.

Shadows

A new game we invented. You had to keep your hands and feet on the ground and stay there no matter how cold or deep the waves got.

Thanks for a wonderful week Russ and my darling girls!