Lets look back a couple of months...

June:

Like I mentioned in a previous blog, we had an eventful June. In the first weekend we had our 2nd annual Coaches Retreat at Bass Lake for all the athletic coaches at Fresno Christian Schools. It was a great gathering for all our families and a time to get to know eachother better. There was swimming, boating, and lots of eating (thanks to Dorina Gilmore's culinary expertise!).

The following day we headed up to the mountains with Ericlee and Dorina Gilmore and thier daughter Meilani. It was my 33rd bday, so at the campfire that night we sang and I received a smores birthday 'cake'. What a treat! They also treated me with a mountain massage at the resort. That was really nice. We went on some beautiful hikes and Dorina cooked some hearty meals for us all. We had a perfect site right by the river. It was beautiful! The only bummer of the whole weekend was that Tessa ran a 103.5 degree temp on Saturday night and was totally lethargic and lifeless for the entire weekend. By Sunday, Kamryn can contracted it and so it goes. All in all, our 2nd Annual Mono Hotsprings trip was quite memorable.

There were really too many good pics to show here. I had a hard time choosing which ones would capture our experience.

The day we got home from Mono, I ran to the store for a pregnancy test and soon shared the results with our gang. Yes, it was positive, we are growing to 4 little Schultz's. All the girls were very excited as were Chris and I. This was no accident. We have always talked about wanting 4 or 5 kids. But now I think I know 4 is my max! :) Thank you Lord!

The rest of June was a bunch of basketball for Chris...and morning after morning of early workouts.

July:

...Started off with a "bang!" We celebrated 4th of July with our good friends the Slaydens. They invited a bunch of people over to thier home and we swam, ate and enjoyed some FREE fireworks. They were a little loud for the little ones, but they enjoyed them all the same.

The next day, Chris and Dave took all 5 kids up to Fresno Dome for a hike. Amazing enough, Tessa hiked the whole 2 miles on her own! She's amazing! The guys were great taking the kids, which allowed me to spend the day cleaning and preparing for an evening of fun. For the past 2 years the Pauls ladies (my mom, 2 sisters and my sis in-law) get together for an evening of sharing and celebrating our birthdays. The past 2 times have been progressive dinners around town. This year we decided to pick a course out of a hat and prepare that. We decorated our backyard with tiki lamps and twinkle lights and my brother even came to serve adn check on us. It was a magical evening. Chris set up an outdoor movie screen and we ended the evening with a viewing of Dirty Dancing. Can't get better than that! It was great!!

The girls also went to sports camp this year for 2 weeks in a row. The first week was a Sports Skills camp, and in the 2nd week, Kamryn did tennis, and Addi repeated the Sports Skills. They really loved being busy those weeks (as did I!).

Chris also continued with his workout program with P90X. Several times the girls joined in with him. Kamryn has even completed the first half of a leg workout, and if any of you know anything about Tony Horton's workouts, this is HARD! We've got a very strong girl on our hands :) These are pictures of Tessa doing yoga with Chris...she participated all on her own...exemplifying a healthy lifestyle is starting to rub off on the girls.

Major Updating!

OK, Family and Friends! It has been way too long since I've updated my blog...lots has happened in the months of June and July. I'll post pictures in a later blog about our camping trip with the Gilmores to Mono Hot Springs and celebrating my 33rd birthday. Also in June we found out wonderful news: we are going to be parents AGAIN!! Baby #4 is due Feb. 8, 2009! Yes, we are crazy and terribly excited about expanding our family!
Our summer has been going pretty well. The girls are swimming almost everyday, thanks to many friends with pools. We call it "pool-hopping." All 3 girls are little sunned beauties with really dark tans.
Chris is working really hard...on his diet and excercise. I'm so proud of him! He is on a 90-day plan and tomorrow is day 60!! He's lost 10 lbs and 2 pant sizes and he's down to a Medium shirt! We went to Kohls the other day just to try on clothes to see what size he was and we were astonished at his progress!! He has made a total 180 with his diet...no ice cream (dessert), coffee or fast food or soda for 60 days! He's made a total transformation! Way to go Chris! The girls are totally supportive of him too...some days Kamryn will do his leg workout with him...and I've done it, it is a tough workout! She's a strong girl!
Our days have been filled with library visits, pool fun with friends, free movies on Wednesdays and lazy days at home. Can't believe we are half way through our summer. I'll post more pictures in the following days.

Happy Birthday Pey-Pey!

We got to celebrate Pey-Pey's 5the bday at the Children's Museum of the Sierra's. The girls tried all kinds of neat things...and occupations :)

I got to hold Pey-Pey's new little brother, Preston McGowan!

Tessa's Big Girl Bed

Tessa has been really needing to get out of her pack n' play and into a big girl bed. So now that school is out, we decided to take the plunge. We put up her bed and tried to see how she did. Well, for the past 5 nights, she hasn't left her bed. Honestly, I think she's to scared to leave it. She has done great! She'll call from her bed, "Mommy...gotta go potty!" So far so good!

Graduation night

This year marked the end of an erra for Fresno Christian Schools. My father-in-law, Gary Schultz, stepped down as the Principal after 29 years of dedicated service. Though it was a night in celebration for the graduates of 2008, time was also taken out to honor Gary for his hard work and impact on the lives of students for almost 3 decades. To his surprise, after each of the 2008 grads had received thier awards and diplomas, a parade of graduates (1 representative from each graduating class for the last 29 years that Gary had been the principal) came across the stage and hugged Papa. Now, for those of you who do not know the things of Fresno Christian Schools, my father-in-law is affectionately called Papa by students and parents alike. It is tradition that after each student receives their diploma and they make their way back to their seat, they hug Papa. For some (who spent many hours in his office) this is a very special time for them to thank Papa and for Papa in turn to congratulate them personally for their accomplishement. So, back to the 29 grads...each one walked across stage and hugged Papa, and it was so special and endearing! Chris was the representative for the class of 1991 and I snapped a picture of him just as they hugged. It was a very emotional moment and a memorable one for our family! Congrats Papa, We love you!

Moving on Up!

Kamryn has now completed her 1st grade of school! I can't believe I've got a 2nd grader :) Here are a couple of pictures of her receiving various awards for spelling dictation, writing and reading aswell as a fitness award. She really excelled this year in story writing...hmmm..do I have an author on my hands? Each year the teachers give the kids a certificate for their character award; Kamryn's was 'attentiveness'. Congratulations Kamryn!

Daddy Date

For this next date with Daddy, Kamryn was the lucky recipient. Chris is wanting to do more golfing this summer, so he took Kamryn to the driving range...but before that, they stopped by the store and got Kamryn her own set of "kid" clubs. So she got to drive some balls too. Chris said she didn't do badly; she seems to have a natural knack for swinging (she picked up batting and tennis really easily). Over the next couple of days she would go get her clubs and pronounce that she had to "go out and practice." So these pictures are of her "practicing" and then helping Tessa to learn how as well. Leadership 101.

End of the Year

Kamryn's 1st grade class had an end of the year pool party. All the girls were excited to get back into the pool! Here is Kamryn with her 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Zaremba! She LOVED Mrs. Z!

Indoor Camping

This summer we are wanting to go camping again. The thing is last summer we rented a "rustic cabin" up at Mono Hot Springs. This year we want to tent. The girls have never been in a tent before, so to let them try it out, we (my sis Kim and I) put up one of Kim's tents in our living room. Talk about an adventure! The kids were stoked!
Kim went over the rules (no leaning on the tent, no in and out, no sand, etc. ). Well this took place when we had that little heat wave in the second week of May. Once they all got in the tent, it was so hot and sticky that we had a fan blowing on them and opened up all the screens. We let them watch a little video before bed and then Kamryn read a bible story. Ty and Tessa ended up back in their own beds, but the other girls stayed in the tent all night. In the end, they decided the liked the cabin better...we'll see!

Dessert Nite

I have been reading a book by Linda J. Eyre, "A Joyful Mother of Children: The Magic and Mayhem of Motherhood." I have gotten so much from this mother of 9!! I decided to put into practice one of the ideas she had about being flexible and spontaneous. In our family we have 2 nights that we call 'Dessert Nite', Tuesdays and Saturdays (to cut down on all the "can I have dessert?"..or "what's for dessert?" whailing"). I got all the kids into their pjs, Kim's kids included (my mom watches them on Tuesday nights) and we piled into the van. I told them we were running an errand and they were all clueless until we pulled into McDonalds and then we heard all the shreeks and screams!!! "Ice Cream ONLY!" I said.
It was quite a sight with all of them at the table licking thier cones,slippers and all. Unfortunately I forgot my camera...so that moment will be captured in my memory for now. The kids thought it was the absolute best! Way to go Mom! I can still have fun!

Family Nite Out

Since our anniversary trip, Chris and I decided to begin living a more active lifestyle. So we decided to start having a weekly family night of activity. This week we went to the Fresno Christian tennis court and played for about an hour. Kamryn really took to tennis. She could swing and hit the ball over the net on the first try. She loved it and was very patient. Soon, Chris took over with her running drills and doing suicides. I went with Addi and after trying a few different techniques, she began hitting the ball well too. Tessa was our little ball catcher, and patiently walked around the court picking up balls. She was great!
As we were leaving, the girls were both asking when we could come back and hit some more balls. Hmmm...I think we are on to something!

Then after our tennis workout, Daddy took Tessa and got her aquainted with the weight room. Daddy doesn't fool around. He's starting them early!

Then Chris took the two girls to a Fresno State softball game...the had a great time on thier date with Daddy. Way to go Daddy!