Hi everyone!!!

Well May, June and July have been quite a busy months. Amanda came home from college for a couple of weeks in May then headed back to NH for a month. She hadn't been back there in a year. She and Ashley will be back here in Cali from June 22nd until August 22nd (our 10 year anniversary!) Ashley will actually be headed to Embry-Riddle in Prescott, AZ on August 1st. She's not going back to UMASS Boston. She will be studying Global Security and Intelligence. With 6 of us now I'm going to need to rent a minivan, yes, a minivan. Listen, this is the only time you'll see me driving one, when I "rent" it. With all her belongings and the 6 of us we need it. Ashley's already on the roster for soccer, has her number and everything. We're hoping she has a game or 2 out this way since they travel that far and we get to see her play.

Update on the house. We found a beautiful piece of land in Westridge Estates here in Valencia that already has house plans approved, that we decided to build on. There are pictures of the lot and the view above, which is overlooking a golf course (of course we don't golf) That means it will take 9-12 months so we're on the look out for a rental again for another year. We decided not to live in Camarillo since it's almost an hour away. We moved out here to be near family & we felt why come 3000 miles and then move an hour away, kinda silly. We have so many wonderful friends here that we've made, our great church and the schools too. We've quickly outgrown this 2BR apartment. With Ashley & Amanda being here for the summer we need the space for sure! Can't wait for Ashley to meet Blake in a couple weeks. He'll be just over 3 months old, hard to believe it's gone by so fast. Alexia's last day of school is today, June 5th. She's having a friend over for lunch by the pool and then a pool party.

Summer plans:

We're looking forward to seeing my brother and his family who are coming out on July 11th. Planning to his the Disney scene and maybe Universal. There's so many things to see & do out here, it's fantastic. Other than that, we plan on settling in to our new rental and getting busy with the house decisions that still need to be made on building.

Alexia is taking a break from her art lessons and going to a volleyball camp the second week of July and taking modeling classes throughout the summer. She seems to enjoy performing and has the personality for it, that's for sure. She's also taken on a great sense of humor, her & Erick really get laughing together, it's so cute.

Blake is about 13.5lbs now (at 2 months old) and getting to be so much fun. He smiles all the time and tries so hard to talk, it's cute to hear his little coos and sounds. I swear it almost sounds like he's giggling a bit. Oh & he found his thumb. He never took a pacifier but he's starting to soothe himself by sucking his thumb. It's cute now but it won't be in years to come I know.

It's now July 14th. Blake is now 4 months today. All the things I wrote about earlier have already happened. My brother & his family were here and it was fantastic to see my nieces, Brooke & Skye and my nephew Kyle...what a mini-Mark he is. Of course I always love spending time with ark & Gina, they are so much fun. We just laugh & laugh. We went to Universal one day & enjoyed a mexican feast at home, prepared by dad & Diann, including Margaritas made with only the best Tequila, Patrone! Boy were those smooth:) We did a family photo with a professional photographer while my brother was here, they came out awesome. This time we were in white shirts & denim (or dunagrees as my dad would say).

We are still in the process of finding a rental or possibly purchasing a home since the price for rent is so high, it almost makes sense to buy something in this market & resell it when we move into our dream home or rent it out. Prices of homes are about 40% less than they were a couple of years ago!! WOW!!!!

Amanda bought a 4-runner that she's shipping to Hawaii in a couple of weeks....Did I tell you she got married? Yes, you read that right, she married her Marine boyfriend, Gabe. She will be living on base now instead of a dorm. Her husband (yes that still sounds weird to me) is from Oregon so Amanda is headed there for a week to see her mother-in-law & sisters-in-law. She's already met them in Hawaii back in March. Ashley has been training for soccer season since she'll be starting August 3rd. Alexia is enjoying summer with her sisters & little brother. Erick is busy working on his business and some other projects as well. I'm just enjoying all the kids & searching for a home and checking out some jobs at a Salon or Day Spa to enjoy part-time while Alexia is in school.

Hope you enjoyed all the pictures above. Hope to hear from you all soon.

Enjoy your summer!
Lynn

Here is a street view of the piece of property we're looking to build on. It's a beautfil upscale neighborhood.
Here is part of the view from the backyard, overlooking a nice golf course, even though we don't golf!
Another view of the property. It's going to be an awesome house:)
We went to an area called The GRive. It's kinda like a cobblestone street area that has plenty of stores, restaurants and an open Farmer's Market. Alexia wanted to take the trolley from one end of the area to the other.
Alexia made a build a bear with her birthday gift certificate and dressed him in Marine uniform just like her brother-in-law, Gabe. How sweet!
Amanda bought Blake a Univ. of Hawaii outfit for Christmas and he looks so cool in it.
Alexia won the spelling bee in her class which gave her the opportunity to represent her class in front of the whole school. She did fantastic but was a little nervous. It was great to watch her.
Alexia's certificate of achievement for participating in the Spelling Bee.

All in green.
Yes, he has found his thumb, he doesn't suck it all the time but I'm shocked. He's the only one who ever did this.
Alexia has started making homemade crepes. She is amazing, made them for me for Mother's Day and now she's treating our friend Deb to them. Deb & I had the same due date. Her daughter, Maeve, is 5 days younger than Blake and about half his size.
See what I mean, there's Blake with Maeva.
Erick had a weekend convention at the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown L.A. back in June and Alexia, Blake & I joined him. We visited their library, isn't it amazing?
Here I had just given Blake a bath in our hotel room at the Bonaventure, layed him down to fix his bottle & he fell asleep on the comforter sucking his thumb. Yes, they were very comfy beds. Even Blake thought so.
Alexia and I enjoying dinner in the rotating restaurant at the top of the Bonaventure. We enjoyed some fun drinks, shrimp cocktail and dinner. Blake was sleeping peacefully in his carseta in between us.
Erick and Alexia volunteered for a fundraiser auction for the Boys & Girls Club. It was an amazing evening outside with several auctions going on. I believe they raised almost $400,000 that night. They auction off trips, jewelry, spa services, food services, restaurant gift certificates etc. It was a fulfilling time for all of us. Everyone there was dressed in black/white attire. It was very tasteful.
How sweet.
Father's Day and the Cheesecake Factory in Marina Del Rey. What a great day it was.
Look at the big boy here, 3 months old.
Alexia at Volleyball camp.
Here she is giving it her all.
All the grandkids, minus Blake eating lunch at Diann's July 11th, the day my brother flew in from Virginia.
Here are ALL the grandkidds, dad's and Diann's. Amanda holding Blake, Ashley holding Madalynn (only 2 weeks old), Skye, Brooke, Kyle, Alexia, Lauren, Emma and big brother Hunter.
Universal with the family.
We got a little wet playing in the soaking area of waterguns and fountains. What a blast!
How adorable.
Alexia's Birthday Party at our movie theater here at the apartment complex. Kids had a great time.
What beautiful kids they are.
Blake's 2 month checkup and shots. He'll be going on Thursday for his 4 month checkup and shots....yuck.
Alexia got an Ipod for her birthday, she was so psyched. She's been wanting one for ages and we got one in her favorite color, green.

April Fools

Santa Monica last weekend, May 2nd.  There is a really cool area of ropes, balance beams and rings where people entertain you.  It's amazing to watch people do these amazing feats on there. Alexia loves the rope to climb, she can sometimes make it up about 1/3 of the way but it's tough.  Here she did pretty good today as a watchful dad stands nearby just in case she needs help.

Just adorable, say no more:)

Here we are at Ventura Beach one day having delicious fish n' chips on the boardwalk.  It was abeautiful day and we ventured out with Blake to smell some wonderful ocean air.  Nice face Lexi!

Proud sister holding her little bro..

My friend Maria, from NH, and her family came to Newport Beach for a Paul Mitchell Conference and we were fortunate enough to spend an afternoon with them all.  It was so nice to see them.  It was hard saying goodbye.

Here is Maria and Calvin's son Antonio holding Blake....he just LOVES babies.  Look how proud he is hold ing him.  Antonio even picked out a very special rattle for Blake and he really, really enjoys it.  Thanks Antonio you sweetie pie.

Lexi and Antonio hanging at the pool, aren't they cool?

Lunch at Red Robin with Maria and Milan, Lexi and Antonio.  Aren't these kids just beautiful?  So cute.  Milan is 3 and Antonio is 5 1/2.

Here's Lexi at an Earth Day celebration in Pasadena.  This SMART car is so small Alexia actually looks the right size in it.  It's s scary that she could actually just about touch the pedals.  

Alexia practicing her art....guess what she's drawing?  Yes, her favorite animal, the horse!

The Easter Bunny doesn't look so happy here.  Erick made this ears out of construction paper, it was so funny, too bad Blake didn't think so.


Just after bath time

Alexia's school put on a musical from the Lion King, here they are singing a song Akuna Matada...ok, maybe I didn't spell it right.  There she is in the back row, center.

Easter Egg hunt here at our apartments.  They hid over 500 eggs for the kids.  Too bad Alexia couldn't eat most of the candy that was inside them, Erick and I are enjoying it though:)  She is realizing how many treats she can't have anymore because of her braces.  She only has 4 months to go!!!

Here is my friend Deb.  You've seen her before on my Blog.  She & I had the same due date.  I had Blake March 14th & she had Maeva on March 19th.  She only weighed 5.3 and Blake was 7.11.  Even though they are only a few days apart, Blake seems weeks older.  She & I usually try to go for morning walks.  It's nice to have someone experiencing the same things to relate to.  

A relaxing evening with the Arndts

What a proud daddy with is little boy!

Big sis with her little brother.  WOW look at those eyes Alexia!!!

March Madness (2)

Erick came to the hospital all day everyday and just enjoyed holding his little boy while I could catch a few zzz's.

A cuddling moment at home.

Looks like Blake wants nothing to do with waving.

Diann, Lexi and Papa.  It's so nice being our here with family so they can enjoy Alexia and Blake growing up.  Look at Alexia's smile, she's alwasy beaming like that, can you tell she's a very happy big sister?

So precious, this picture of Diann holding Blake as he's gazing back into her eyes.

The anticipation was killing her, but she was a good sport.  Only 5 1/2 months to go honey.

Here she is, getting her braces on.

Look at Erick getting all fancy with the black/white photography.  I don't look as tired, I like it:)

Blake's first mail from my brother Mark's family in Virginia...it's bigger than he is.  Thank you Uncle Mark, Aunt Gina, cousins Skye, Brooke & Kyle!!

There they are with their matching T-shirts "Big Sister and Little Brother".