Happy Birthday Carli

Carli turned 7 this year.... and here is a little peek into her Birthday week!

We had a Birthday dinner at Nammy's house.  Carli picked tacos.  My kids love Nammy's tacos she makes them with BBQ sauce and it is so good.  Carli wanted to decorate her own cake and as you can see she is very creative.

She had to protect her candles from Bryce... he always wants to blow out the candles.

Then we had a swim party for Carli and her friends.

And we went out to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Anderson.  They brought her flan for desert and she was not too pleased so Grandpa took her out to the fun zone and let her pick out a sweet treat.  Then she got to spend the rest of the week at the beach house in Newport... and when we got home we had a special FHE,  The birthday FHE is a time for each family member to hold the birthday candle and say one thing they love about the birthday girl (or boy).  Yep, I think she had a great time celebrating her birthday.  And next year she is 8 and will be baptized... I cannot believe she is growing up so fast.

Finding Balance

One thing that I have found really helps keep me balanced is making sure I get a little....

ME TIME

FAMILY TIME

and COUPLE TIME

We visited the dolphins and tigers in Vegas when we were having some couple time.  I look forward to getting away with Matt.  It  is best when we can find a weekend to get away but even just making sure we get a date night at least once a week is so important.  There is nothing better for a family than a Mom and Dad who have set aside time to nurish their own relationship.  This summer Matt and I were able to get away once a month for a mini vacation and it has been so wonderful.  I am so thankful to my Mom who is willing to watch the kids for us so we can have some time together.

June

A few more photos from June...

There was a lot of June Gloom but it didn't keep us from the beach... we headed down to Surfridder every Wednesday to meet up with friends from the ward.  Although, the only other family that braved the beach during June was the Martinez Family.  But we got lucky and actually had some really beautiful days down there.

We took a trip to the tortilla factory and the kids learned how to make their own tortillas.

We meet up with friends at the pool... here are all the boys Jeremiah's age hanging out poolside.  They are such a fun group.

Our garden started to bloom during June and we had a pretty good little harvest of beans and carrots!

Sharing the day

I was so excited to post the 4th photos that I got ahead of myself... so here are some of the June photos I forgot to post.

Every few years my birthday lands on Father's Day and I have to share my birthday.  I am a firm believer in celebrating birthday week... one day is just not enough.  So, we did a lot of celebrating and sharing in the celebrations.

One night Matt brought these cupcakes home for me.  I HEART cupcakes... I am not sure why but I think a cupcake is so much better than cake.


We had a family party to celebrate my Birthday, my Dad's Birthday and Father's day!!!

Bella and Avery made art for me on my patio

I love this shoot of Bella

And a pretty cute one of Avery too

Here is my nephew Ty jumping on the tramp... check out that hair!

cute cousins

Ty loved climbing the slope... without shoes too

Courtney hanging by the pool

the whole family had fun splashing around in the pool... and Matt enjoyed tossing the kids around

Mom and Dad (Anderson) sent me some pretty sunflowers 

So here I am on the 33rd Birthday with all my kids

I spent a day a Glen Ivy with my Mom and girlfriends (it has become a tradition) and when I got home form my most relaxing day my family surprised me with dinner and my favorite treat.... is anything better than chocolate and strawberries!?

Overall is was a pretty fun week... and we celebrated Matt too with breakfast in bed, a cajun cook book and a cajun dinner made by me ;)

Into the night

I had to add these last couple photos from the Fourth of July.  We had stayed on the beach all day and watched the sunset so we could see the fireworks over the San Clemente pier.

Fourth of July 2011 Anderson Style

We took a 4 day camping trip to the beach with the kids for the 4th of July.  It is the longest we have camped with the kids and I was a little worried but it all turned out great!  We had so much fun with our friends (the Laurtzin Family) and family (my Mom and Stan).

There was a lot of of stuffing our faces!

Each night we roasted marshmallows and one night we made woofems.

We took a hike in the morning before heading to the beach.

The campground had pretty hiking trails.

The kids had fun exploring and even found a snake egg.

Then we would head down to play in the water.

the boys had fun skipping stones

Brayden and Jeremiah have been buddies for a long time.  And even though they didn't see a lot of each other this year they had no problem picking up where they left off.

Carli looked for rocks, shells and sand crabs

Bryce is a little sand crab

Jeremiah perfecting the art of stone skipping

We tried to talk Jeremiah into surfing... not happening

Whitney and Carli have been friends from the diaper days and these girls know how to make each other giggle

On the Fourth we had to leave camp early to stake out a spot on the beach

This was the surfing the kids did

Hailey and Bryce were so cute.  She had him wrapped around her finger... she kept telling him to go get her buckets of water.  Which he would do with huge buckets he could barley carry and he would proudly set the large bucket of water in front of her and then she would proceed to dump it on herself and ask him to do it again... this went on for some time.  It was really funny to watch.

Carli went out in the big waves to boogie board and even though she was a little nervous she did great!

Tehn it was Bryce's turn on the board.   He fell off the first wave and got right out... but I took him out later that day and he rode a lot of waves in and stayed on the board.

Jeremiah found the true love of boogie boarding this time!!!!  I am so happy he is starting to enjoy the beach as much as I do.

Matt and I both got a chance to take the surfboard out... he didn't quite get up but almost:)  And of course no one got photos of me....

There was a lot of snacking on the beach

Carli is teaching the art of sand crab hunting to Hailey and Bryce

I saw this tower the 1st day we went down to the beach and I just knew I had to get 4th of July photos on it... of course on the 4th we were far away form it so the kids and Anne Marie and I took a walk down the beach....

It was a beautiful day full of family fun!