Miss Auburn!

As you might know, Lucy has been participating in the Miss Auburn Little Sisters program.  Basically they assign each contestant in the Miss Auburn pageant 2 little sisters that are elementary school age.  The girls get to do fun things with their contestants and get a glimpse at what it might be like to be in the Miss Auburn Pageant. (Just fyi Auburn has the highest scholarship amount of any other local pageant level in America, this year they gave away over $50,000 in scholarships to the contestants.)  It has been really fun for Lucy. 

Friday night the "Littles" (little sisters) got to perform a dance routine and then sit back and watch the contestants perform the Talent part of the competition.

This is for my dad, he always used to take close ups of our eyes.  As a parent, I can understand why, I love my kids' eyes and Lucy's definitely have that sparkle.

I think I am in big trouble in a few years!

On stage doing her dance

Saturday night the Littles got to perform the dance again.  Then they also got to walk on stage and be introduced with their contestants for the Evening Wear competition.  Lucy was so excited to get all fancied up.

I asked my friend Joanna if she would do Lucy's hair and make up.  Joanna LOVES all things girly so she was all over it.

I think she likes the finished look.

Dressed for the dance number again.

You Go Girl!

"ok, have you taken enough pictures yet?  I wanna get on stage!"

Just a little excited!

On stage with Melissa, Lucy's contestant, and Brianna, Melissa's other little sister.

Awww!

Melissa didn't win but she was a fun big Sister for Lucy.  Poor Lucy is cursed with the Wells' crying gene (basically we cry over everything and then it shows for hours afterwards)  She was sad that Melissa didn't win.

This is Lucy with the current Miss Washington.  I guess she was the 3rd runner up in the Miss America pageant in January.  That's pretty good for Washington!  

Overall, it was a ton of fun and I know Lucy wants to do it do it again.

January, I'm almost caught up!

I just wanted to share a few pictures from January to finish getting me caught up and then hopefully, I will be able to post things as they happen, or at least do monthly updates.

we had 1 or 2 nice days in January so the kids went out and rode their bikes, I just had to get a picture of Brooklyn with her helmet on backwards, I'm sure it will still protect her head, right?

Too Cute!

Brooklyn also started a Gymnastics class and LOVES it! She hasn't had any issues getting a long with the teacher which I was extremely worried about.

Lucy participated in a play at her school.  It was "The Frog Prince"  She played a spider in the Swamp.  It was a very fun play and the kids learned the whole thing in one week of after school rehearsals.  It was a long week but fun for the kids and parents!

The only spider I will ever love!

August-part 2

In case you haven't figured it out, I enjoy photography.  As I started looking through my pictures I realized I had taken 750 pictures in the month of August.  Some of them were just pictures of what we were doing but a large part of them were pictures that I had taken for other people.  A friend of mine asked me to take some senior pictures of her daughter which some of you might have seen on Just Showing Off the blog I share with my family to show off our craftiness.  I did a practice shoot with Lucy before and I love some of the shots I got of her.  Another friend asked me to take pictures of her adorable little girl.  Then, I also took some pictures of Nicholas for school.  It was a lot of fun.  Because I enjoy it so much I started a new Photo Blog NJ Photography (there is a button on the side, the photo blog is a work in progress so I will try to let you know as I add more more pictures).  Some people have asked me why I don't charge, it's because right now I like just doing it as a hobby, maybe someday I will make that move but for now I'm happy to get all the practice I can.

Here is some of my work from August.  

August-part 1

August started out with another trip to Moses Lake, the kids love that place.  Brooklyn asks me at least once a week when we can go to Moses Lake.  I try to tell her in the summer but then she just asks when will it be summer.  It is a never ending conversation that we have had several times.  

Lucy just chillin' on the boat.  (not our boat, our friends' boat)

Billy wake boarding.

That is our friend Skyler in the background. (yes, he landed it)

The kids took turns getting thrown off the boat.

Lucy, by far, flew the highest and farthest.  (Probably has something to do with the fact that she weighs nothing.)

I promised you a video of Noah wake boarding way back in July, well here it is.

We also spent a few day over in Bremerton and took a drive up to Fort Warden.  The kids had a great time on the beach with their cousins.

They had a great time building this sand castle.

The Jessee's and Richmond's 

We also went and explored the battle stations at Fort Warden, it was pretty cool but very creepy! 

Also in August, our friends, the Ketner's invited us to go spend a weekend in La Conner.  Their family owns a cabin right on the water.  It was soooo fun.   We love just hanging out with them and it helps that our kids are really good friend too.

This is Noah and Jaden, they are the best of best friends, seriously these two could and should be brothers, well actually they like each other a lot more than brothers usually do.  Anyways, they met in preschool about the same time Jaden's mom, Jenny, and I met at the gym.  Soon we couldn't go a day without one of them asking for a play date with the other and thus, the friendship was born.

Look at these 2 ready to take on the world!

Let me backtrack a little further, One day Jenny and I were on the treadmills at the gym and she mentioned that they were thinking about booking a trip to Disneyland, I stopped, looked at her and told her that just that weekend we had booked a trip to disneyland.  It turns out we were going at the same time.  We of course didn't tell our kids so imagine Noah's surprise when we walk into Disneyland and there is his best friend Jaden.  It was priceless.  

Back to the present, this is Lucy and Jessica, they met and became friends on the Disneyland trip.  They have become very close friends since, so now we usually swap Jessica or Jaden for Lucy or Noah so everyone is happy.

We had a camp fire right on the beach and roasted marshmallows

Even Mercedes got to come, she enjoyed wandering the beach and getting dirty.

Lucy and Jessica had a lot of fun on the kayaks.

We always like a good card game.

And we caught a ton of crab.  YUMMY!

Uh oh, I think I might be jealous!