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Since Preston has a mid June birthday it often falls around Father's Day. This year his Birthday and Father's Day were back to back.  This was taken on Father's Day.  Preston really is a great Dad.

 Opening his Birthday and Father's Day presents. The kids hung the sign, can you tell?

 A Birthday hug :-) This picture I couldn't get Amanda to look at the camera.

 This one she is the only one that would look at the camera. Go figure.

 Preston's birthday fell on the same day as our Niece's birthday party so we had a little fun with it. Here he is pretending one of her presents was really his.

 Wearing her birthday crown with her loot of gifts. 

Random pictures of Amanda

So I am not the best at taking pictures of Amanda on her different month milestones.  I think about doing it but that is at far as I get.  I do however take random pictures of Amanda on various occasions so here they are. 

 Our future punk rocker.

 I try to close my pantry door or I will find Amanda looking for any scraps she can find on the floor.

 Amanda in a Big Bird outfit that my Mom got for me when I was pregnant with Nathan and didn't know the gender. All my girls have worn it and Big Bird is appropriate since that was one of my nicknames as a child giant.

 Amanda is often the photo subject if my kids get a hold of the camera.  The above picture and the next 4 are a result of such an occurence.

 In mid July Preston Amanda and I headed to Las Vegas for an ALOA tradeshow.  We were only there a couple days and spent a lot of time eating at hotel buffets. The only picture I have of the trip are of Amanda "eating" at the buffets.

 Amanda likes to "help" with the family chores.

Amanda in her cute 4th of July dress.

Summer Activities

Although we have a short summer break due to the modified year round schedule we still try to do fun things.  We have enjoyed free programs at the public libraries. The first 3 pictures are of a monarch butterfly show.

 We also went to a puppet show of the Tortoise and the Hare/ Bald eagle presentation. A couple that we did that I didn't have my camera for were, Diamondback organist and Baxter / and Lego club. 

The kids also worked hard to earn marbles by helping out with chores, doing some deep cleaning, being kind to each other etc.  At the end of a few weeks they had earned enough marbles to have a family fun day.  We went to see the movie Brave.

Then we went to skateland.  This is how Amanda usually spends her time at Skateland.

 Natalie prefers to sit at the arcades and "play"

 Nathan and Taylor like to skate.

Later Natalie decided to skate and Nathan was taking her around the rink.  It is a blurry picture but I love the moment it captured of Nathan checking on Natalie while she looks up to her big brother.

 

Ready for the cha cha slide.

Nana's Funeral Weekend

On April 30th our Dear Sweet Nana passed away.  She lived an amazing 96 years and will truly be missed.  My first encounter with Preston was at Nana's dinner table.  In the year that Preston and I dated Preston lived with Nana and we were over there with her a lot. She helped both of us make it through college spanish classes by helping us with our homework.  We loved to visit her and our kids loved her very much too and we be excited whenever we would mention we were going to visit Nana Great.  It is still hard 2 1/2 months later to really believe she has passed away.  When we told the kids the next morning that Nana Great had died they were quite sad. Taylor (who was named from Nana's maiden name) took it the hardest.  I overheard Nathan's attempt to help Taylor to feel better by saying "Just think of all the things she can do today in heaven that she couldn't do yesterday, like run and jump."  I am so grateful that we believe in life after death and we know that Nana is in a better place.  The kids wrote some tributes to Nana that I will post on here later. Red was Nana's favorite color so we all tried to wear some red for the funeral.

The kids also made little cards to put in Nana's casket.  Nathan's said "Nana you were always so loving to others and always caring. You were never cruel to anybody. You always brought your loving spirit wherever you went.

Taylor and Natalie drew pictures.

Here the kids are putting the cards in.

Each of the grandkids were given a red carnation to put on the top of the casket before burial.  Here are pictures of our kids placing there's.

Our family picture after.

That night one of Preston's Aunt and Uncles had a family get together at their house. Here are just 2 pictures of the kids playing that night.  There backyard is full of fun things.