Gearin' Up to go Swimmin'...

Just a cute picture of Jayda & Jodee sporting their new goggles, courtesy of, The Dollar Tree:) (The girls love swimming, and think it's so cool to swim around in their goggles & life jackets:)

Discovery Park continued... Water Time...

Jodee & Jayda got swimsuits from the Yard Sales, but Rhenley was perfectly fine getting wet in her clothes, she got soaked:)
--Aaaaaah! The water is cold!:)


--Jodee didn't like being surprised by the water that squirted out the rocks, the water was pretty cold too:)




My nephew Bronsen was hysterical, the water would go away for a minute, Bronsen would run out with the other kids, a few seconds later, the water shoots out of the ground and Bronsen comes running back out... He fell a few times, but it was so funny to watch him... we laughed and laughed:)

Rhenley was laying out in the sun, Bronsen noticed Rhen laying out and went and sat on her:)

Thanks Jake & Kyra for having us over for a few days, we had A LOT OF FUN!

Discovery Park...

After The Yard Sale Madness, we had to reward the kids for being so good:) There is a fun new Discovery Park/Water Park in Spokane pretty close to my sister's house. We got Little Ceasar's Pizza for lunch and headed to the park.

(Over size chair with Grandma & The kiddos, super cute:)
--Jodee & Jayda playing in the pumpkin... (they were hoping it would turn into a horse drawn carriage)
--Jayda, kissing the Frog:)

They had these really neat metal flowers that the girls just loved:)



"Take the time to stop and smell the flowers"





The park isn't that big, but there were so many fun things for the kids to look at and play with. I didn't get pictures of the big musical pipes or drums... plus they had a fun dirt part of the park (the kids didn't get to play here because they were already wet when we noticed the dirt area, and I wasn't going to clean mud out of their ears:)

-- Rhenley loved this little trampoline, and the rock slide...



The girls thought it was pretty neat to be able to climb inside these large eggs... I think Rhenley was being a little dinosaur:)



After exploring the park, and playing on the toys for a little bit, the girls wanted to get wet... (There was a small part of the park that had water that would randomly shoot out of the ground and out of these pillar rocks.) To be continued...

YARD SALES Galore...

A few weekends ago my sister Kyra called at 5pm on Friday, and said we needed to come to Spokane. (So my mom, the girls and I left at 6pm on Friday evening, to go Yard Saling Saturday morning:) We love to Yard Sale, and hadn't been to very many this season:) Liberty Lake had over 136 Yard Sales, we couldn't pass up the experience... it was definitely an "experience":)

*7:30 Saturday morning we loaded up the kids, wagons, strollers, snacks, and water, for a day of bargains and treasure hunting.


We parked the cars and walked around the housing development, we walked probably 5 miles, it was a lot of fun, very tiring, but fun! All in all, the kids were really good. They started whining on the way back to the cars, but I couldn't blame them, it had been a long day:) (We Yard Saled from about 8am-12pm)

(I wish I would have taken more pictures of the Yard Sale Madness, but I was a little preoccupied:)


I found clothes for the girls, swimsuits for Jodee & Jayda, several new toys (that I couldn't pass up:), Chapter books for Rhen, "Rocky Balboa" (for Luke), I spent just $25.00 (I was pretty proud of myself:)


Jayda & Jodee sporting their new suits... super cute (well worth the $1.00 I spent on them:)


Our favorite toy find of the day... Little people camping set, $1.00.

We had such a fun time going to so many Yard Sales... We're already planning for next year...
We decided, next year... No Kids!:)

Jodee's June Interview...

(1) What's your favorite Bird?
Answer: Little bird
(2) Name something that starts with "J"?
Answer: Jodee
(3) What school do you go to?
Answer: I don't go to school, I'm not big enough
(4) What do you do in the Summertime?
Answer: play
(5) Name something that has seeds?
Answer: oranges
(6) What's your favorite Sport?
Answer: Running with my tennis shoes
(7) What's your favorite movie?
Answer: Hoodwinked
(8) What's your favorite thing to do with your sisters?
Answer: play outside
(9) What do you drink in Summer?
Answer: water
(10) Do you have Sunglasses? What Color?
Answer: Yes, pink

Rhenley's June Interview...

(1) What's your favorite Bird?
Answer: Golden Eagle
(2) Name something that starts with "J"?
Answer: Jelly
(3) What's your favorite subject in school?
Answer: P.E.
(4) What do you do in the Summertime?
Answer: Go swimming
(5) Name Something that has seeds?
Answer: Cherry
(6) What's your favorite Sport?
Answer: Golf
(7) What's your favorite movie?
Answer: "The Legend of the Seeker"
(8) How much money is in your wallet?
Answer: $5.00
(9) What do you drink in Summer?
Answer: water
(10) Do you have Sunglasses? What Color?
Answer: Yes, white with flowers on it

Jayda's June Interview...

(1) What's your favorite Bird?
Answer: Red bird
(2) Name something that starts with "J"?
Answer: Jayda
(3) What school will you be going to or go to?
Answer: A Purple School
(4) What do you do in the Summertime?
Answer: Play outside
(5) Name Something that has seeds?
Answer: Cherries
(6) What's your favorite movie?
Answer: Barbie's, Princess & The Pauper
(7) What's your favorite book?
Answer: Dora books
(8) What do you like to do with your sisters?
Answer: Play house outside with them
(9) What do you drink in Summer?
Answer: Milk
(10) Do you have Sunglasses? What Color?
Answer:YES! Pink & Purple

Family Pictures... Finally:)

(I started this post last month, Tara came mid May to visit her sister who was having a baby... anyway, the post never got finished and isn't in the right order, but oh well, I had to show off Tara's amazing photography skills:)

We haven't had a "professional" family picture taken in almost 2 years. So, while my cousin Tara was here visiting from South Carolina, I asked her to take some pictures of us:) (She just started her own little photography business in SC, and is doing such a great job) The girls were so easy to photograph, Tara was so good with them, they loved posing and getting their pictures taken. Tara seriously took sooooo many Wonderful pictures, but here are a few of my favorites:) (Ok, just 8 of my favorites:)










Tara, THANK YOU so much for the pictures, they really turned out amazing, I can't wait to get the cd so I can print them all off and put them up in my home, We Love You!:)

An Artist & A Writer...

Our little Rhenley is almost done with Kindergarten. She has loved everything about school... I'm so glad she had such an awesome teacher, Rhenley learned so much, and truly was like a little sponge, just soaking it all up, every day something new to learn. Her favorite day of the week was Thursday- P.E., her favorite subject was Writing/Reading. She is definitely her father's daughter, she is really good at reading, writing, and math, just like her daddy:) (Her love of drawing and athletics is from me:)
Rhenley has really loved writing, drawing, and learning to read. She writes and publishes her books during writing time in class. (This is her favorite time) She is so good at writing, has caught on to reading very quickly, and loves to make illustrations for her books as well. (I'll take pictures of one of her books and post later:) She has just discovered Shel Silverstein's poems, her favorite book right now is "Where the Sidewalk Ends", she is doing so well with reading, I'm so proud:)

I really just wanted to brag a little, and post two super cute things Rhenley drew/wrote during church this last Sunday:) (Brought tears to my eyes:)
--If you can't read the top of the picture, it says "Rhenley Ciar Stevens people in my family are Mom Shanell Dad Lucas My sisters Jodee Jayda and Me Rhenley"... how cute is that, we're going to church... she even drew Lucas' tie:) (What you can't see is the smiley face in the circle of the steeple:)

--This little note Rhen gave to me during sacrament meeting, "I love my mom and dad they are awesome I love them soo much, I love them" (I love how little kids write:)

Memorial Day

We spent Memorial Day at Levy Landing (a really great park about 30mins from here). Lucas' family (minus Kory & Abby and their kiddos... they were sick:( all went to the park for a bbq picnic, and a little boating. The weather was okay, it had it's moments of sunshine, clouds, rain, and wind... it really couldn't make up it's mind... we enjoyed ourselves despite the strange weather:)

The park had some really nice sand (which the girls loved playing in/digging in, getting in their hair), and in the sand were these large Lockness Monsters... the girls and their cousins had a blast. We were there a good majority of the day, nobody wanted to leave:)


Our brother-in-law Darren brought his parents and little sister too, and they brought the boat:) The girls loved riding on the boat, they thought it was the best thing since iCarly:)--Getting ready to leave... can't hardly wait...
-- (Rhenley told us the night before memorial day, that she could hardly sleep, she was too excited to ride in a boat:)

Dancing & Shrek

At the end of May Lucas went on a Father and Son's campout with his dad and brother, so I took the girls to visit my sister and her family. They live just 2 hours from here, so it was an easy drive, and the girls were super good:)

--Little Divas in training:)
We were able to attend my niece Kendall's final dance recital, she is such a good little dancer, the girls loved watching all the dancers, but were so thrilled to see Kendall dancing to Miley Cyrus' "Hoe-Down" (from the Hannah Montana movie).
--Kendall held her own, she knew the entire routine... the bigger girl next to her kept trying to steal the spotlight and bump Kendall out of the way, it was funny:)


My sister Leslie is the luckiest person alive, she is always winning giveaways and contests. So, Leslie, won a Shrek House Party. It was a McDonalds & Shrek party, the company sent her an arch card for all the food and our Shrek glasses. They also sent multiples of every Shrek toy/watch that McDonald's was putting in their Happy Meals. (We got one of every toy... the girls were super excited:)
We ate cheeseburgers, nuggets, Shrek heads (sour apple marshmallow type candies), veggies, and my mom/sister made their own version of the fruit parfait cup... super yummy:)



Thanks Les for the fun time, we loved coming to visit:) (Can't wait for your next House Party:)