A T. Rex Named SUE

She is the largest, most complete and best preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil yet discovered. She is named for the lady who found her. Her real bones are displayed at the Field Museum in Chicago. They made a cast of her bones and the cast travels throughout the country. She is beautiful and we were soooo happy to see her when she visited Anchorage a few years ago. She just happened to be at The St. Louis Science Center during our brief visit to the city to see my Grandma. We had to take Jillian to see Sue! Jillian is going through a crazy-about-dinosaurs faze. :)

Here we are in front of Sue. This is the only picture where Jillian does NOT have her hand in her mouth.

Jillian is digging for fossils.

How does a T. Rex see? Did you know that a T Rex can only see forward and the green dinosaur to the side is outside of its vision range?

Pretending to be a Paleontologist.

Grandma and Jillian coloring.

Grandma and Papa Doug in front of Sue. She is massive! The Science Center had a wonderful exhibit for Sue that was VERY kid friendly. I am so glad we went!

Going Bonkers!

Quincy has this fun indoor jungle maze thing that is awesome for the kids. We met my friend Tara and her daughter there to play one afternoon. It took Jillian a minute to feel comfortable there - but before too long she was running and climbing and having a ton of fun.

Here is an aerial view of the entire place. Looks like fun, right? When we arrived we were the only ones there. After lunch the place really filled up.

All the girls riding cars! Ava and Jillian are riding the black and white Jeep. Gracyn and Kayla are riding Dale Jr's red Corvette.

My friend Tara and her daughter Kayla - aren't they so cute? Tara and I have been friends since kindergarten! Every time we go back to the mainland, we try to get together and see each other. Later in our trip, they met us in St. Louis for a day at the zoo - those pictures to come.

Good-Bye Natalie, We Love You!

Allison and Katie are kissing Natalie good-bye.

We love our sailor!

Left to Right: Mom, Natalie, Katie, me (I'm the cutest, right? Ha Ha), and Allison. We may look like we get along beautifully - but no one can argue like us girls - mom included. As soon as we took Natalie off base, Natalie said that all she wanted for the weekend was for everyone to get along and not fight. Well, it's just not possible. Twenty-four hours later and each one of us had gotten into a tiff with every single one of us. No one was excluded from crankiness and hurt feelings. Sorry Natalie! We are all in the same place at the same time for like 3 days once every 2 years. We get so excited for these visits and we probably have expectations that are too high. We argue quickly and we make up and forgive just as quickly too.

Cute Cousins

If you ever happen to be in the Chicago area, Gurney Mills (an outlet mall), will not disappoint. We had so much fun playing there, we had to go back for a second day of fun! Katie and I took Ava and Jillian to the reptile house and it was soooo cool! The girls loved holding the albino python.

Kiss me!

Strike a pose! Notice how Jillian is watching Ava and attempting to do whatever she is doing!

Auntie Katie gave Jillian her first hair cut ever! It was super cute! Jillian is 4 and I have never had her hair cut. It was so great that she got her first haircut from her Auntie. :)

Fun In Chicago

Aunt Allie and her boyfriend Kevin. How cute are they?

Grandma Susy (My Mom) and Papa Doug

My man, looking so HOT! :)
Jeremy and Jill checking out the moving snake outside Rainbow Cafe. What a fun restaurant!

Silly Sisters

Right to Left: Papa (My Dad), Grandma Leslie, Leslie's daughter Gracyn and Jillian. Jillian LOVES Gracyn and barely left her side! :)


Auntie Allie, Jeremy and Auntie Sarah getting ready to eat lunch.

First Things First...

Basic Training hair cuts are the absolute worst! So, the first order of business was for Katie to fix Natalie's hair.

Mom made Grandma's famous cinnamon rolls and brought them along on the trip. YUM! :)

My Sister is a Sailor!

Jeremy, Jillian and I are traveling on the mainland visiting family we rarely get to see. Last week we had the opportunity to see my youngest sister graduate from Navy boot camp. The graduation ceremony was VERY cool! When her division marched by us, we could see Natalie in the outer column and we screamed our heads off!!!!! She never heard us though...maybe because everyone was screaming at the same time! :) Here is Natalie hugging Mom.

Natalie and Dad. We are so proud of her and very excited for the experiences she will have in the Navy! :)

Graduation / Promotion Ceremony

Last Friday was the last day of school at the preschool. They had a Graduation ceremony for the kindergartners going on to first grade and a promotion ceremony for the children moving up to a bigger class. Jillian has been "promoted" to Room 1 next year. :)


This is Jillian's class singing "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands". Miss Karen, her teacher, is out front directing the hand movements.

All three rooms went on stage at the end to sing a special song for the teachers. It was so cute. Many parents remembered to bring a graduation lei for their child - in Hawaii, they make them out of flowers, toys, candy - sooooo cute! We felt like such loser parents because we didn't even think about getting a little lei for Jill. One thing we know for sure, we will so do better next year! And I vow to warn all the new moms I meet next year, don't forget a lei for your child!

Sitting Pretty

Sometimes Jillian likes to sit quietly and read books. Not as often as I would like, but still - sometimes. Jeremy was fortunate enough to capture one of these moments on camera. All I can think when I look at this picture is how sweet, sweet, sweet she looks.

Auntie Elsie

Auntie Elsie is the school Nurse / Secretary at Jillian's preschool. She is the best and Jillian just loves her. Jillian can't leave school without finding Auntie Elsie to give her a hug. Sometimes it surprises me how much Jillian loves her because she is also strict and no-nonsense. This may be hard to believe, but there have been a few times when Jillian has been sent to the office for not listening to her teachers and Auntie Elsie talks to her about appropriate classroom behavior. I guess it goes to show how much children crave boundaries. She is also very loving and kind to the children. Auntie Elsie will be retiring after the summer session this year and we will miss her very much!

Gotta Love Costco!

We found this fun inflatable pool from Costco...and Jillian loves it! :) We set it up on the day of the BBQ and Jillian played in it for HOURS! From noon until she went to bed that night. We were poor parents on this day because Jeremy and I both forgot the sunscreen. Our baby had her first sunburn by the end of the night. Thankfully, the day was mostly overcast so it was not as bad as it could have been.

Family Fun Day at CCF

We've found a Church family we really like. Cornerstone Christian Fellowship is super close to where we live - less than a 10 minute drive away. This is a huge thing for us, without even knowing it our family has adapted to Hawaiian Time. Which means we are late to everything and always rushing out the door to get there. Or maybe that is just how life is with a young child? Anyway, we really love the Pastor and his wife at this church. And I love how social they are! A few weeks after Easter (see how behind I am?) they hosted a family fun day at the church. They set up 3 bounce houses and one huge inflatable adult sized water slide. They BBQ'd hamburgers and hot dogs and it was a potluck lunch with popcorn and shaved ice. So fun! On this day, Jillian finally started appreciating bounce houses! We put her in one of these things at every fair we go to and she always just sits there looking terrified. Not any more! She made the rounds several times. We had to hold her down when it was time to eat - she didn't want to stop the fun!

Here is Jillian picking out a balloon and deciding what animal she wanted to request the clown to make. I think she picked a dog.

Yum! Shaved Ice! :)

Jeremy and Jillian getting ready to go down the bounce house slide. Jillian wouldn't go down alone.

It looked like so much fun, I wanted to go down too! And this is the only picture of me that day where I am NOT eating something, I ate sooooo much this day!

One Little Monkey

Last time I washed sheets, Jillian got creative as soon as I left the room. When I returned, this is what I found. She made a "safe landing" out of the comforter and pillows. We had to get a few pictures.

Oh my heavens, she cracks me up! She was so excited to show us her new trick when I returned.

Sweet Jilly-Bean

Pre-Piano at Junior Music Academy

On Wednesday morning Jillian attends music class with Miss Mary at Junior Music Academy. She starts out the class with singing and dancing. The children get to play with several different instruments for the first half of the lesson. Then Miss Mary moves on to the keyboard and teaches the children how to play a very simple song.

Then we pick a keyboard and each child has their own to play. Jillian is placing pictures of 2 black crows above each group of 2 black keys and pictures of 3 black bears above each group of 3 black keys.

After they play the song they learned a few times, they get to free play on the keyboard. Jillian loves this part of class because the pianos play fun melodies and beats and sounds with just the touch of a button. We really enjoy music class and we get to go with the neighbor boy is almost exactly the same age as Jillian.

What is wrong with this picture?

Jillian does not like to fall asleep in her bed. If she is very, very tired she might actually fall asleep in bed. On a normal night though, she falls asleep somewhere else and I will transfer her there later on. On this night, she had fallen asleep outside her doorway surrounded by fun toys. In one hand she is holding a baby doll and in the other she has a crayon. The funny thing is that there is nothing nearby that would have required the use of a crayon. Hmmmmm.....

Our Little Girl is a Kona Aerials Gymnast

Jillian has graduated to Kindergym, the bigger kid gymnastics class. She is working on her stretches in this photo. Isn't she just the cutest thing? And tiny too, right? She is four years old, weighs less than 30 lbs and most 3T clothes are still too big.

In this picture she is working on her jumps on the tumble track. There is no parent participation in this class. In fact, the parents are no longer allowed on the floor and if a child walks off the floor to see a parent they are usually done with class. There were a few days, that Jillian would come see me to fix her hair. When she tumbles her ponytail falls out. We started braiding her ponytail and that fixed that! :)

Coach Sierra is helping Jill with a bridge. We LOVE Coach Sierra - she is Jill's favorite. And she is also the toughest. I am so glad we first attended Tumble Bears - this class introduced gymnastics to the little ones and taught basic skills, with help from the parents. In the little class, the coaches let Jillian do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. It was a really laid back class focused on fun as the top priority. In the bigger class, there can be up to 14 kids per 2 coaches and no other adults. So, the coaches have to be strict to maintain safety. I am thankful that Jillian had the time in Tumble Bears to bond with Coach Sierra before moving on to Kindergym, where Sierra is an awesome, very tough teacher. One class Jillian had to have a time-out and skip her turn in the rotation on bar work because every time Sierra turned her back, Jillian ran away to be ornery.

Sierra is helping Jillian with a back bend pike over. Very Fun.

Coach Nanette - this is her gym- is helping Jillian with a forward roll on the beam. We love her too - she is also great and also strict. I think this is what Jillian needs. Out of all the adults in her life; between her school teacher, music teacher and gymnastics coaches, she responds the best to her tough gymnastics coaches.

A few weeks ago, Jillian was in a mood when I took her to music class. She did not want to listen to Miss Mary. Miss Mary asked very sweetly throughout the class for Jillian to do / not to do certain things and Jillian was like whatever! When Jillian is in a mood at gymnastics she is still expected to listen and do what she is told - anything else is simply not tolerated.