Summer's coming!

Ashlyn absolutely loves learning! She loves school, reading, writing, drawing, etc. She wrote this book on a Saturday morning. It was about the four different seasons and what happens during each of them. 

Texas Ants! We've had several run-ins with fire ants since moving here. They get this huge ant pile and then I spray, then they pop up in a new spot a few days later.

Here I am pointing to the previous pile. A couple days after spraying, they moved to where my shadow is pointing, a few feet to the left. I bought some new stuff and spreaded it over the lawn yesterday so we'll see if that works better. 

The girls love riding bikes around the back patio while we are all out as a family. 

Ashlyn loves this little "secret spot" in the back yard. 

Swimming in our new suits from Grandma Martinson!

Brinley turned 4! She was so excited and said about 100 prayers before her birthday, thanking Heavenly Father that it could be her birthday. 

Brinley had a mermaid themed birthday. She got several mermaid birthday presents. We went swimming twice, and watched Little Mermaid 2.

This was her mermaid doll that swims in the water!

There is a Mexican restaurant with separate little doors for kids. Brinley chose to go here for her birthday. 

New bedsheets from Grandma Martinson!

We went to eat lunch with Ashlyn at her school on Friday this week. The girls were so excited to see each other.

During a few of my lunch breaks, I've been taking Brinley over to the church parking lot to practice riding her bike. It has been a very discouraging project to her. I think she imagined she would pick it up very quickly. And me being the stubborn dad I am, refused to use training wheels. They are just a deterrent in learning to ride a bike. She has done great though!

Although my practice has a great location, there are many people that have no idea there is a dental practice there. I decided to spend some money on a highly visible sign that will get some attention.

It's only been a few days but it's been fun to mess around creating different ads. The screen doesn't show up very well in this video but it'll give you an idea.

Gotta love watching these girls interact.

The curls! Jenny and I joke about straightening her hair to see what she'd look like. The girls got curls.

The pool is still one of our favorite family activities. 

I've been looking at pool toys for a while. I've seen one similair to this at the pool store but it was $60. Jenny and I found this one at Sam's club for $25 on our date night this week and decided to buy it. The girls had a ball on it. And just so you know, this is correctly termed a pegacorn (mix between unicorn and pegasus). 

Brinley could spend all day in the pool. Yesterday I thought I'd let her stay out as long as she wanted and see how long she could go. The chlorine in her eyes is what did her in I think. (Thanks Grandma Martinson for the rings!)

When Grandma Martinson was here, she did all the girls hair just about every day. It gave Jenny motivation to spend more time doing the girls' hair each day. 

Jenny and I watched a documentary on Netflix called, "The Minimalists".

These are a couple guys that were super involved in working up the corporate ladder and then woke up and decided to simplify their lives and allow themselves to live a more free lifestyle and work less. There are a lot of different points to it but a big theme in it is to be happy with less stuff in your life. Think about the things you own and if they truly bring value to your life or not. There was a great quote by Jimmy Carter in it. I was very touched by it, and impressed that a president would say something like this, especially when the economy is dependent on people spending money.

Anyway, so one of the challenges I took on was to simplify my closet. If you're interested you can watch the before and after videos below.

Hope everyone is doing well. Love yall!