Dancing!

I love to dance! For my birthday Stephen found out about a dance we could go to and arranged for babysitting.  On Friday we went to Modesto to a dance put on by the Modesto Ballroom Dance Club.  They have a dance once a month.  They taught foxtrot lessons for the first hour, then played different types of dance music (foxtrot, cha cha, waltz, swing, tango, etc.) for the rest of the evening.  The theme was "A Gatsby Affair," and people dressed in costume.  We dressed up, and had a great time.  We enjoyed learning foxtrot together, and doing the little we know of some of the other dances.  We hope to do it again.

Easter

We had a nice Easter.  We went down to Mom and Dad Fremming's house for a wonderful dinner with them and the Hansons.  For Easter I made Eleanor a dress.  It turned out to be harder than the "Fast and Easy" said on the package, but I was glad with how it came out.  It's the first dress I've sewn for her.  Mom Fremming helped me a lot.  It's nice to have someone helping that knows what they're doing.  (I just made the pink dress, not the sweater, that would be super fancy if I had though.) Eleanor got bubbles and chocolate from her grandparents, and she love love loves both.  Here's some pictures of Eleanor playing with her cousins, and making a "cheese" face. 

Before and After

We've now been in our house for 3 years, and have made a lot of changes to it. We had no idea what we were doing when we bought this house, but have learned a lot, and are happy with what we've done with it. Last year I posted some before and after pictures, but we've planted more trees, our plants have grown, we added rocks to our flower beds, and Stephen painted our door. So here's some fun before and after pictures of the outside of our house. (We've done a lot inside too, but the outside changes look the coolest.)

5 Year Anniversary!

April 29th Stephen and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary! Time has gone by fast, and so much has happened. I'm grateful for Stephen and for our marriage. To celebrate we went over to the bay and stayed at this beautiful historic hotel in Berkeley. It's called the Berkeley City Club and was designed by the same architect that designed Hearst Castle down south. This place was called the little castle. It was beautiful. We had a fun experience walking around Berkeley on a Friday night, there is a very big variety of people there. We ate at this really cool restaurant, then Eleanor got to go in a swimming pool for the first time. She seemed to like it well enough. The pool at the hotel was all mosaic, and very beautiful, I did laps in it the next morning. The next day we met Mom and Dad Cromar in Union City, and we all got to use our Christmas gift from two Christmas's ago. We did indoor sky diving in the big wind tunnel. It was fun to get to fly. We loved it!

Easter

We had a nice Easter weekend. Ryan, Jessica, Emily and Samuel came up that Saturday, and we had a lunch, and went to the park. It's so fun to live close enough that we get to see them, and that our kids get to see each other. (Eleanor's just going to love getting to be near her Merced cousins) Easter Sunday we went to Stephen's parents house, and had a nice dinner and evening. Eleanor got a cute basket from Mom Fremming with a chick stuffed animal. Eleanor loves chewing on the chick! My sister Jenny made Eleanor her Easter dress. She looked so very cute! We're grateful for this time of year, to see blossoms and new growth, and to celebrate the Savior's resurrection.

Spring Pictures!

We had a coupon from when we had our pictures taken in December, so we got some more family pictures done, and got some pictures of Eleanor. Eleanor did such a great job! Usually when we bring out our camera she just stares at it and won't smile, but when we went to take pictures at JCPenneys, the photographer would say "peek-a-boo," and she would smile and he would take the picture. We were so glad to get so many pictures of her smiling, we just love her smile!

Tutu and Dog Hair

For Emily's birthday I decided I wanted to make her a tutu for dress up. Emily is great at, and enjoys imaginary play a lot, so I thought this would be a fun gift. I've never made a tutu before, so I got online and watched a couple of videos on youtube, went to Walmart and picked out some tulle and ribbon, and made a tutu and some hair flower clips. I loved how it turned out, and Emily seemed to like it too.

Other news in our house...Molly got a hair cut. Actually a lot of hair cut, the groomer said that the hair they cut off Molly was equal to all the hair they cut off all the other dogs that day combined, and they were busy. Molly had a double coat of long hair, and spent most all of her days laying around the house panting. So we had her shaved, and she looks like a new dog. She plays a lot more now, and isn't panting like she used to. Hopefully she'll be more comfortable this summer compared to previous summers. Here are her before and after pictures.