Zoe's Dance Recital

AWWW!!! She is getting WAY to big for my comfort zone! Here is Zoe's 2nd dance recital! Less nerves than last year so it went lots better! Brinly, (pictured above) and her did such a GREAT job! They did a Lollipop dance, a sleeping baby dance, a sailor dance and a "silly"dance! It was so cute! Miss Amy ALWAYS does such a good job, way above and beyond what anyone else should have to!!! WE love her!!! Who would have thought that I would have a dancer!!! It figures...it must be karma. (p.s. she is still playing soccer in the fall too though!!!) :)

Last Minute Trip Home!!!!

Ok...so work was REALLY slow and we decided on a crazy whim that we needed a break...Zach especially from studying for the MCAT....to try and drive the 16 hours home. Zach and the kids stayed for a little over a week while I flew back on Sunday for work the next week. We had so much fun and I was SOOOOOO happy to see my sisters! Nachelle was crazy busy with the outage, but i got to see her a little and my beautiful pregnant sister Celeste...ahhh i'm so jealous of how cute she is. Anyways, above are mainly pics of the kids and all the many animals and activities that they did. Unfortuantely I think we have country kids, who LOVE to play outside, and get dirty. Maybe one day we'll be done with Vegas and have our own big green backyard!!!! P.S. My favorite pic is of the one where Brielle feeds Max her cereal and when Zoe and Brielle are feeding Sis. Gayda's Llamas. Such fun!!!

Mama's Big Helper

Ok, so this video isn'tp qe2 terribly exciting, it just makes me feel OLD! Zoe is getting so big...she will be in school next year..many of her friends start this fall. And I know it's a simple thing but she can make her own food....I thought I would forever be making snacks and lunches etc. But in this video she is actually making oatmeal for Brielle. I was busy switching the laundry and Brielle took an instant oatmeal packet to Zoe...and Zach caught most of it on this video.

Balboa Beach California!

After finals...we decided after living here almost 3 years it was time that we finally went to California. I have never been there and we wanted to do something fun with the girls. Tami was there visiting and helping so it worked out PERFECT! We did it in one day...which we learned we won't do again...it's too much. Nevertheless it was lots of fun! We all got very red...even though it almost rained, but we jumped in the waves and built many sandcastles. Zoe LOVES to build sandcastles and look for seashells on the beach. We actually found quite a few still whole, which we promptly glued to a picture frame and put in Zoe's room. Brielle's favorite things to do were to chase the birds, eat the sand and quickly run away from Mom towards the water and scare her to death. Zach's favorite thing to do was look up what med schools are near the beach and see which ones he could get into. :)

Fun times at Christmas!!! Home, Sweet Home!

Here are just a few random pictures that capture what we did as we were home for a couple weeks at Christmas! Zach and I fondly refer to it as Never Never Land, because we got to play like kids! Grandparents and Aunties were only to happy to watch/listen for the kids at night, so Zach and I got to PLAY! We played a TON of Air Soft Guns...and I should've posted the bruise I got on my face from my husband shooting me at point blank range!!! And the boys had only too much fun showing off their booties while getting down on Twister. Later we went target shooting as well...I'm not as good a shot as I thought. My husband on the other hand is AMAZING! Grandpa Tom also took Zoe and Brielle to the Wildlife Refuge down the street and Zoe STILL talks about this almost every week!!! And I mean EVERY week!!! She is dying to go back to that place! All in all it was a needed break to recharge our batteries! Oh, yea and p.s. The girl in the funny glasses with me is my brand new sister in law Morgan...and I LOVE her! She is great. Don't we look sexy in our air soft glasses????

Ripley Family Update!

Ahem!...well as you can tell it has been MONTHS since i did a post...so I thought I would catch everyone up to date on the Ripley Family life...hold on to your breath...it's SOOOO exciting!!! ( ok, maybe not that exciting.) Well after a fabulous Christmas break, which I am gonna post pics of, we came back with and extra person, Nasty! She lived with us and helped with the kids while I found a job and started working full time. Which is a blessing and an unfortunate necessity. We really needed for me to find a job after being laid of last year, and it has been hard to find, but we finally did and hooray, bills are being paid! Zach has been CRAZY busy with school and getting ready to apply to med schools. Between taking 4 upper division classes, studying for the MCAT test (which he takes June 18th), shadowing physicians, and volunteering at the hospital once a week...he pretty much has his plate full. If all goes well we should be accepted to a med school around Christmas! Zoe played soccer for the first time this year and liked it for the most part, she continues dance and has a recital on June 23. Brielle is growing in leaps and bounds and I can't believe my BABY is almost 2!!! She ALWAYS wants to be doing whatever Zoe is doing, and bless Zoe's heart she has the patience of Job. Brielles favorite things to do are make messes and play ring around the rosy...with anybody she can rope into playing with her! Keep checking the blog...it won't be another 7 months before my next post...I swear!!!

Zoe's 1st Soccer Season!!!

Hooray!!! Zoe is old enough to play soccer! (Mom, is/was VERY excited) She had her first game in March and just finished her final game for the spring last week. Her team name was the Butterly Princesses, and they didn't do to bad. They won some and lost some...Zoe was the youngest on her team and didn't do to shabby! She says she wants to play some more next season so we'll see how it goes! I think she was most excited for the trophy and medal she got at the end of the year.