Audrey's Band Awards Night

This is Audrey's second year playing the flute in band and she picked up another trophy for her bookshelf. We are so proud of her!

Tucson Friends!

The Youngs (three of them were on the infamous canoe adventure with Matt and Taylor...) spent a week in Orlando recently and were kind enough to spend a day with us.

Taylor was so excited to hang out with one of his best buddies, Nathan!

...and here we are. Yep, I've hacked my hair off.

So fun to have houseguests. Who's next???

Two New Developments

Meili has been basically potty trained for a few weeks now, but was still wearing a pull up at nap and bedtime. After a succession of dry naps and nights, we have happily retired the diapers and pull ups! While I'm a little sad that our last baby is no longer a baby, I can't tell you how happy I was to hand over the last of them to our neighbor! The other development is sleeping in her 'big girl bed!' Meili has had both a crib and a twin bed in her room since we moved, but I wasn't in a hurry for her to use it. In fact, the idea of climbing out has never crossed her mind. However, the other day she asked to sleep in it and has been ever since. So far, no tumbling out!

Goodbye, Tigers!

Xander may have an older brother who is an Eagle and another that is a Webelo but he can proudly say that he is the only Bouton boy to ever be a Tiger Cub Scout! Tonight was our last pack meeting of the year and Xander crossed over to Wolf. I got to be an assistant den leader. We both had a great time!

Referral Day 2011!

Two years ago today we looked at this cute little face for the first time. We thought she was pretty special then, but we had no idea...:)

Referral Day 2010

Referral Day 2011

What a difference...

a couple of years makes!

Another Photo Shoot...

I just love this silly girl...and love that my camera now has a shutter speed that will allow me to capture some of her many faces. Meili is still pretty shy outside of our home and has only let her hair down with a select few individuals outside of our immediate family so I'm glad that I can now get some photo proof that the little ham that we know and love does indeed exist!

Pool Time

I think our pool temp is only up to 72 degrees but it doesn't stop these two crazy kids. Hard to believe that Meili cried in terror for the first three days whenever she would see this inflatable alligator. She's slow to warm up...but she does warm up!

Bowling with the Tiger Cubs

Audrey's Spring Band Concert

I never get a good enough seat in the audience to get a good enough picture of Audrey at one of these things so I got there early and just walked up to her to get my shot. She thought she could just hide but she must have forgot who she was dealing with...

I appreciate the hands down but this in definitely not going to cut it...

That's better...but you made me wait for it so I'm going to hang around and make sure that I've thoroughly embarrassed you in front of your friends...:)

THERE we go!

Gotta love raising teenagers!

Typical Rainy Day with Mom...

Making brownies in our pjs...

Good enough for Steven Tyler-

and our Mei Mei. We were at the hair salon this morning and Audrey was getting her Featherlocks put in. (I already had mine.) Meili-who doesn't make a peep usually when we are in public says, 'I want a feather too!' so darn it, she got one. I wish I had a better picture of it than this one, but she ripped it out not too long after she woke up from this nap...:(

My Girls!

Braces!

Our Hero

This past weekend, my husband dove into a tank of sharks and saved TWO people from drowning. Seriously, I couldn't make this up if I tried... We went to a water park as a family and some of us were about to enter the Shark Reef when Matt noticed one of the park patrons struggling in the water. A small female lifeguard went to help and the drowning person decided that the best way to get rescued was to pull her under with him. Matt saw the whole thing, dove in and rescued both of them. Can't believe that guy! It occurred to us later how dangerous it could have been for him too but we are proud of him!
Matt is pretty humble about the whole thing but he did give Xander the Heimlich maneuver the next day to prove that his lifesaving skills weren't a fluke. There are no photos of the event since we didn't take our camera to the water park but our good friends made this Mr. Incredible award for him when they heard about his adventure. So funny!