It's official....We have a TWEEN!

This past weekend, Keiley officially became a middle schooler (YIKES right)
Think back people, I know it was a loooonnnggg time ago for most of us, but middle school...yuck!
I pray Keiley enjoys it ALOT more than I did!

We decided (okay, I caved) to getting her a cell phone for this big event. Much to my dismay, my husband thought that our little girl was responsible enough for one.
She is a good girl, so we thought we would reward her.

I snuck it in her purse and asked my inlaws to call her while we were at dinner to surprise her and boy was she surprised!
The picture doesn't do it justice, as my hand was shaking with excitement that the surprise was really going to be just that, but she acutally screamed with delight.

And here she is, her first phone call from her Grammy in Montana.

In the celebration, we were joined by some of our friends, whom we have started a little tradition with of going to dinner when a milestone is reached.

Here is the whole bunch of them:
Drake, Luke, Rebekah, Ella and behind them: Logan, Keiley, and Anna.

"Girl Just Wanna Have Fun!"

As most of you know, Keiley is in dance a couple times a week. Well, with that comes a yearly dance revue. Of that, there is also pictures for that dance revue, a photo shoot of sorts. By that I mean, multiple wardrobe changes, different hairstyles per wardrobe change and makeup....yes makeup!

Keiley dances with a fews of her little besties so we the moms get together and form the assembly line of hair, makeup and costume altering duties.

This is how HOURS of our past Saturday was spent. What we wouldn't do for our little princesses right???


Here is Rebekah with her mom (and my friend Renee) applying makeup for the first set of pics. The "hip hop" dance pictures.


I was in charge of hair for the day, and for this particular dance picture, the hairstyle was funky. The instruction was "to have fun with it"....so I did!

The girls are checkin themselves out to give me approval or a redo look.

Thankfully, I got the approval ;)

The next photo op was that of the girls jazz routine. Special assignments: makeup touch up and the hair differed for the girls because this little princess Ella is in a different jazz class than Keiley and Rebekah.

Here she is with her mom (and my friend Leigh) touching up.

And our girls almost completed! A little more lipstick and again...I got the approval on the hair! YAY!

Oh how beautiful they are....

Finally, the last photo was the tap picture. Assignments: MORE makeup, costume change and another different hair style.

They had to have a "high pony tail curled"....my the details huh?

Drum roll please.......

The final and finished princesses!

Rebekah, Keiley, Ella, and Anna.

Can you even stand it!!!

Just wait my friends out there that just now have your little baby darlings, this happens sooooo fast!

Drake and Dad weekend!

They can't wait to go back!!!
Drake and Rick are part of this sort of "dudes and dads" group that get together once a month for some, yes, you guessed it "dude and dad" adventure.
This particular month they got to go to Catalina and it was the first time for both of them and boy did they have fun!
For those of you who know Drake real well, know he is not super adventurous, but these camp outs definitely bring him out of his comfort zone. He is loving the outdoors!

Here he is getting ready for his first kayak ride...(as I said, he is becoming more adventurous)


As part of their kayak adventure, he captured this picture of a sea lion on the shore.

Drake in mid concentration preparing for the competition of "bongo ball". Their team placed third out of ten teams. (at least they placed right...)

Finally, the village where they stayed.

The turquoise structures were their cabins/tents. They slept 6 boys. (wow, can you imaging the smell of that after a long outdoorsey day...eeeewwww)

Family Day

Memorial Day gives us an extra day of relaxation, so for that, we took a family trip south to the beach. As you all know Carlsbad is basically where it ALL began with the start of the Kordick family, so we like to visit some of the old stomping grounds as much as possible. Considering I don't get very many days off, I like to take advantage of the day when I do get it off.
Heading to the beach is perfect!!!!



The kids have their favorite ice cream shop in Carlsbad too, so it is a must to stop every time.
What better way to enjoy it than with a walk on the beach.....

These pictures are my attempt at some candid shots. I admit, I'm not very good...
I do however, have hopes of getting better :)

Ricks favorite thing to do is take pictures of himself. I just happened to sneak in on this one!

And....yes, the family feet pic. As I said, I hope to get better at photography. Where is Butch Owens when you need him....?

My Favorite Day!

I love Mothers Day for many reasons. I love to spend the day doing exactly what it is I want to do with my family. Every year for the past few years, we invite whoever wants to join us and we go for a picnic at one of the local wineries. May not sound super kid friendly, but it really is. We just relax and visit with each other. The kids take nature walks around the vineyards and take pictures of all sorts of things (of which I will not post because most of them consist of only parts of animal faces and not the whole animal....). Another reason I love Mothers Day is the little gifts my children make for me. They make me cry every year. They truly are the only gifts I look forward to getting. This year Drake made a book about me starring me (so cute) and Keiley made me a homemade ceramic coffee cup with some homemade stationary cards (so adorable and creative!)


Most of all on Mothers Day, I just love huggin on my little treasures. The day is a reminder of all the joy they bring me each and every day.

How can you not LOVE these kids???

We had some friends join us for the picnic and here are the kids on one of the carriages the winery has to offer as photo op.

And then Drake decided he was going to act as our carriage guide and "pretend" to take my friend Leigh and I for a ride. Crazy Kid!!!

THANK YOU KEILEY AND DRAKE FOR MAKING ME THE HAPPIEST, MOST PROUD MOM THERE IS!!! I LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH.

Spring Break 2009!!!

So I know this post took a heck of a long time! We were having some technical difficulties with our computer and it not wanting to post some fabulous video of the kids playing their music. I had to have my fabulous and ever so computer savvy friend Erin come to my rescue, however the task was much more difficult than we had anticipated. I kept holding out hope that one day the computer was magically going to accept my videos which is why this post is about a month old now.....
Anyhow, one day I will get all the videos on this post and it will be like movie night for you followers because there will be so many. Stay tuned........


Our Spring Break started off with some fabulous weather so for that we had some good ole timin summer pool splashin fun!!!!

The good ole town of Murrieta has a once a year "block party" and carnival if you will. Yes, it is pretty cheesy, but it was somethin for the kids to do and what the heck, we have great city spirit!

I did have to take the kids to work with me a few times over spring break. They had mixed feelings about it. Keiley actually liked it after I trained her on the register and Drake....well, he never really liked it. They both however helped and made some tips out of the deal.

Drake is helping with prep, opening a can of olives (and yes, it is quite a struggle for a little guy, the can opener is quite a beast).

And Keiley making a pizza and working her cute self at the register. I am very blessed to have such helpful children and hopefully out of this lesson, I am teaching good work ethic. It is SO hard to find these days.

.....And the payoff at the end of the day...Thrifty ice cream from across the street.

Of course a BIG part of Spring Break is Easter.

We are lucky enough to have fabulous friends (that we call family) in Canyon Lake so we spent what was a very beautiful day relaxing and spending time with family.

Rick and the kids being goofy.

One day I took the kids to Painted Earth to paint some ceramics and here they are diligently working on their art. Drake was painting a dog and Keiley working on a plate.

The finished product before cooking them.

A friend of mine had some puppy pugs so my kids were dying to check them out.

I will admit, they are super cute and cuddley, but as they grow up....blah!

Haircuts was also a priority this Spring Break. And yes, they both go to a salon, at this age, mom does not do hair cuts anymore. They both care way too much about what they look like. And frankly, Ashley (the hairdresser does a way better job than me)

"Looks like they just stepped out of a salon"

I know, I know it's been a while.......

So my attempt at a regularly updated blog has, well, I'm not going to say failed, but I will admit I am not the best at it.
That is also why none of you see me on facebook, so stop asking. I have a hard enough time posting my kids which really are more interesting than me. So, I will continue to try and get better at it and in the mean time, I hope you do continue to regularly check this blog because who knows....I could surprise you!



Last week Drake was awarded with student of the month and can you believe it, I had my camera! Shocking I know.
And double shocking was that he actually wanted to pose for this picture next to the coyote painting. After all, he is technically a "Cole Canyon Coyote". Hopefully his school spirit will continue :)

We had pizza night with our friends Tiff, Eric and their older son Marshall and of course the babies, but this time it was time for me to get some Marshall pix. Easier said than done. He is the cutest 6 year old ever, but did not want to show me his face for the camera so I settled on a "cool dude" photo as he called it.

We have recently been blessed with quite a few of our friends having little babies. And since we will not be having any more little babies ourselves, we love to go visit, hug, and schmoo all over their little ones.

Keiley and I were lucky enough to be asked to watch 2 little bundles (yes twins!) not too long ago and boy was it fun.( I can say that because I'm the Auntie, I'm sure their mom wouldn't say it is so fun :] ).

Our friends Tiffany and Eric get double the pleasure so they could share every once and a while

right?

Meet the newest of their clan: CASH AND CLAIRE KNUDSEN

Keiley decided to take feeding duty with Claire first.

So Cute!

And here she is with Cash. She has let her hair down for this one, he's a bit easier.

She did all the feeding and I got all the diaper changes. Sounds fair huh?

We had an excuse to go to Carlsbad because our friend Jett turned 2 and had a smashing party down south, so we decided to make a day of it with some friends and visit some of our old stomping grounds.

I LOVE CARLSBAD ;)

Here is our friend Kelsey with Keiley and Drake deciding to go further in the water or not. It was freezing though!

(Not sure who the surfer dude is in the back)

.....And of course the family photo courtesy of Nicole McCoy who thankfully always has her camera.

Here is the coolest 2 year old ever: JETT BUNCH! (who by the way LOVES Keiley)

Along with our other newest baby friends, we had more babies to enjoy lately. My fabulous friend Erin (and her fab husband of course) welcomed their second addition to their family recently and we went for a visit..

Meet Lovely Lila. Drake loves her already and he truly is a natural. He would've been a great big brother I know....

Kei with Lovely Lila...

Our CRAZY son trying on his new aviator shades...randomly after the shower when there is no sun in sight????

Keiley had colonial day at school...and yes, they have to dress the part!