Connell Family Updates: Spring and Summer Update

Hi friends and family!

It's been awhile (again).

Let's catch up!

We've been busy!

During Spring Break we went to Atascadero to visit my sweet Grandma Cov.

We had a relaxing trip up and down the beautiful California coast.

Here we stopped on the side of the road and climbed down the "cliff" to the sandy beach below.

A couple came jogging along with their dog and offered to take a picture for us.

I'm so glad they did. :)

Then I took this one.

We had a great little visit with Grandma Cov.

Emily's KCC class led chapel one Monday morning.

Em and Noah started helping out more around the house which I greatly appreciate (even when I have to re-do what they did).

They are such sweet kids and I am blessed to be their mom.

Sometimes Noah seems so big, but then other times, like in this picture I'm reminded that he's still so small.

Noah has started to really enjoy playing and splashing around during bath time. He didn't mind it before, but now he runs to the bath every night and never wants to get out. :)

Peek-a-boo!

Snack break in the shade during an afternoon spent swimming in the back yard.

(FYI: It was snowing on this day back in Orange City & Iowa City.)

Our California kids in their Iowa Hawkeye pajamas

FaceTime on the iPad with family--they love being read to (that's a picture of a book that they're listening to).

Pinterest projects on my Wednesdays off

My beautiful little girl.

Happy Mother's Day to me! <3 p="">

Spending afternoons at our local beach, Seal Beach

We found out that Noah only likes super expensive pasta....

Seriously... he won't eat it at home, or if we get it out at a place that doesn't specialize in pasta (ex: he wouldn't touch the stuff at Red Robin) but the $20 plate of pasta at Roman Cucina that we brought home as takeout? He ate it ALL and asked for more!!! I don't know if I'm going to be able to afford to feed him much longer... ;)

Peter spoils me with gorgeous flowers. The photos don't do them justice--they were stunning. (Thanks babe. You're my favorite.)

Em had a class field trip to the Santa Ana Zoo. :) She had a great time with her friends.

My dear friend Jamie had her sweet baby girl, Harmony Ann!

May 22nd we bought our first house!!

Woo-hoo, we're homeowners!

(No small feat in SoCal! ...or anywhere for that matter!)

Funny story though... somewhere down the line, someone accidentally added a zero to the sale price so we started receiving paperwork saying congratulations of your #.# million dollar home! It was a bit of a scare at first when we wondered if we were going to get billed for hundreds of thousands in property taxes, but apparently it's only listed that way in the public records. (The title, deed, loan, etc. are all correct.) In any case, we keep getting personalized mailings from companies trying to sell us $40,000 curtains, gold toilets and the like.... okay, maybe not gold toilets, but you get the idea. Zillow shows that our house increased 799% overnight. Ha. If anyone believes that, I'll make you a great deal and sell you this home for ONLY 3 million! ;) But in case you were wondering, no, we did not win the lottery and no, we did not pay several millions of dollars for our home. :) That would just be the (funny and semi-permanent) typo.

Hanging out at home after school

(Eating their snack on the couch--whoops! Don't tell Dad!) ;)

Happy. Thankful.

Emma and all but one of the girls in her class.

I did a "Day in the Life" photo shoot this day and captured some fun, everyday photos of our family.

Most days Emily rides the school bus from the elementary campus to the middle school campus where I teach in the afternoons.

It was hot so we "needed" slurpees.

Love these sweeties so much!

This was the afternoon that my parents were due to arrive in Long Beach.

No joke, the kids waited like this for 10+ minutes, faces pressed against the windows.

After that, Emily stayed there for another 10 minutes until I got her Grandpa on the phone who told her she should go play because they were still at the airport waiting for their rental car. :) She reluctantly agreed and then when they were close we went outside to wait on the front porch.

Grandpa & Grandma were here!

This was Sunday morning, after church.

After church, the girls went shopping and we had a fun girly afternoon together.

Grandma bought a new "Dolly & Me" outfit for Emily and her American Girl doll to wear to her friends "Dolly & Me" tea party next week.

After shopping we went and had mani-pedis too!

[s.p.o.i.l.e.d! ...in the best way]

Outtakes from a mini Father's Day photo shoot I did with the kids.

(when they grow up they want to be just like daddy)

The same week my parents left, Peter's parents came!

Steve generously painted all of our trim while he was here and our house looks SO much better!

Thank you!!!

Tuesday night Peter and I had a mini getaway to a fabulous hotel in Newport Beach.

It was super relaxing.

Wednesday we came back, had the electrical updated in our house, and then I had 8th grade graduation. These are some of my wonderful colleagues.

Thursday was Emily's last day of KCC! (And my last day of work for the school year!)

Next up: Kindergarten!!

Emily & Noah spent Thursday afternoon and Friday morning with Grandpa & Grandma Patches while Peter was at work and I worked to get checked out of both campuses.

Friday afternoon we celebrated the first day of summer by going to Disneyland!!

We watched Peter's last flag retreat set and then saw Mickey & Minnie come out together so we ran to get pictures and autographs.

The kids were darling in their new red and white Mickey & Minnie shirts from Gpa & Gma!

Then Peter was done with work so we spent the evening together at the parks.

Cars Land is always a hit,

and World of Color didn't disappoint!

Decorating the front steps for Father's day. :)

Call me crazy, but I cut up my Pottery Barn curtains and added a panel to make them machine washable. I was super nervous, but now I love the result!

Peter taught Emily to ride her bike without training wheels!!

She did awesome!

She was riding like a pro in only 5 minutes!

Two thumbs up!

Watching sister sleep...

A pizza picnic at the beach

Playtime at the beach

Beach baby

She loves the ocean... always has.

Watching the waves with her daddy...

chasing the waves to and fro...

toes in the ocean

toes in the sand

Em practicing to be a surfer girl

California girl

Sunset at Seal Beach

"Mommy, be careful where you step because Noah and me, we're following in your footsteps." -Em

(Yes, darling... you are absolutely right... more than you know.)

We hosted a dinner for everyone in our new church service at our house and it was great!

The new Sunday night service is starting soon and we're excited!

www.erc.la

Monday night we started garage demo, and Tuesday morning we finished demo and did the first window! (Thank you Michael & Eric for all your help!!)

We also had our trees trimmed.

(Little did I know then that I should be saying good bye to our bottle brush tree!)

Here you can see Peter has all the ceiling tiles removed and most of the extra cross beams (there are just a few left here on the right side of the photo.)