And finally...this was a day that took me by surprise

On Tuesday, July 15, 2oo8...my little girl smiled like this!


Considering that tooth came in at 4 months...I'd say it had a good life.

Grace's First Dodger Game

On July 12th Grace got the privilidge to see her crazy mom at a Dodger game. While it was all about her getting exposed to the joys of Dodger dogs and stadium junk food (she had a raging stomach ache before the end of the first inning.) I did get to teach her some great traditions. I taught her how to yell at an ump and how to do the wave. She also enjoyed the beach ball tradition and was devastated to see the ushers pop them when they were caught.



We went to the game with her very best friend Keaton. They have "known" each other since Grace was 3 weeks old and Keaton was 6 weeks old.



We thought we would be smart and leave after the 7th inning stretch (aka...Take Me Out To the Ballgame). BUT...as we started driving on the 110 we noticed a funny sound. Turns out we had a flat tire...in Downtown L.A. at 10:00pm on a Saturday night. And this my friends is where having a degree in Urban Ministry comes in handy because I know downtown L.A. like the back of my hand. The safest place to park on a Saturday night is in front of the World Famous Original Pantry. Once we got home the girls changed into their evening gear and took a photo.

4th of July

While the plan was for Uncle Sam to be in the picture...he kind of got mushed. We spent the 4th in Coronado and it was the first year either one of them saw fireworks. Grace is NOT a night owl so we had to bribe her to take a nap. Emma on the other hand can party with the best of them.

Final thoughts on fireworks:

Emma: Ohhhhhhhhh....that was a nice one.
Grace: Why are they so loud? (covering her ears the entire time)

Catching up...Emma has a crush!!

I know it is early but it is true. Emma TOTALLY has a crush on her swim teacher, Scott. And I think it is mutual. How sweet is it to see a high school boy turn to mush when an almost 3 yr. old with long blond hair flirts with him? She does that "look down, then up and says, "Hi Scott." And even on her grumpy days all I have to say is, "Do you wanna go see Scott?" and she screams, "Sissy, hurry up. I gotta go see Scott!" Let's just say she is motivated to learn to swim.

Playing Catch Up...Grace's Birthday

Soooooooo....the Tim Russert thing kind of threw me. I know...everyone can comment on what a freak I am. The sad thing is that it has been over a month and the topic came up at dinner last Thursday and I broke into an ugly cry at Outback. The mourning is far from over...but I digress.

On June 19th my sweet "big" girl turned 5!! Here are some pictures from her party and of her riding her brand new scooter at 6:15am.

She loves being 5. In our house 5 means you can have gum and that was huge. So huge in fact that the neighbor brought over a Chinese food box filled with every variety of gum you can imagine.