Train party!

Guess what Aubrey Rose is excited about???

We had a train party out at Blake's grandparents house. Little background...many, many years ago Grandpa thought it would be fun to start an amusement park. He bought a few things for the park. The amusement park did not pan out, but he did end up using the train and carousel at his own house. It has been such a blessing for so many children and adults over the years!
Every now and then, we have train parties at Grandpa's house. The parties are donated from the Smittcamp Family for a specific charity and then a family bids on them at a live auction. This party was for an adorable 7 year old girl. She was not the only girl blessed that day. Aubrey Rose got to enjoy the afternoon as well!
Daddy runs the carousel rides. Uncle Bradley is the train conductor. Here is a picture of the train.
Aubrey Rose got to ride on the train with daddy.
Mimi is such a GREAT party planner, but no matter what she is doing she is ALWAYS available to love on her favorite grandbaby.
Auntie Blair takes advantage of any moment she can get too!
Aubrey Rose even got to ride with the conductor Uncle Brad!

Even Grandpa got to come out to see some of the fun! Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for blessing all of us so much!

Luke and Becca got engaged!!

Luke (my cousin) and Becca got engaged last night!!! What a fun, eventful, full, exciting day yesterday was. It was such a blast to be a part of an engagement. It has been so long for us! I got teary eyed a couple of times throughout the day because it brought back so many wonderful memories of our own engagement. It all came back so quickly. That blissful feeling of “FINNNN-A-LLY” (or at least that was my feeling after dating Blake for 6 years)! The phone calls with shrieking, freaking out calls, “I AM ENGAGED!!!!!” Those tearful hugs with your best friends and family. I love engagements and I LOOOOVE reminiscing of those fun butterflies of pure excitement Blake and I felt on our own special day. Ahhh, so fun!
Anyway, back to Luke and Becca. Luke asked Becca out for a date last night to celebrate her first day teaching (which started today). Short version…they went to a nice dinner, celebrated at the park watching the sunset and then ended up at my brother’s house. They walked in the backyard at Jesse and Allie’s to this, their proposal site…



By the way, does this look like a guy put this all together so far? Yeah didn’t think so. Luke was so sweet to include us in on their special day. He had the ideas of how the day was going to run, we had the ideas of what we needed for the proposal site. Chelsey, Allie, Luke, myself and two babies packed up in the car for the whole day of shopping and running errands to make this all come together. (I think Luke learned a lot in a day and he definitely experienced a bunch of new “girlie” stores.)

So sweet...I love this picture of these two lovebirds. This is just minutes after she said YES!

"I AM ENGAGED!!!!"

After the proposal we had a bunch of friends and family over to Blake and my house for an after party! This was so much fun. So much excitement. I think Becca had to tell the story like a hundred times for each new person that came. (Aubrey Rose only woke up 3 times to the shrieking, freaking out excitement when someone new arrived.) It was all such a blast. And then the conversations with the girlfriends…wedding talk, time frame, when did you know, the dissection of the ring, who do you think will be next, I totally think so-and-so, then so-and-so, then…adorable. It brought me back soooo fast.

Becca's family
Luke's family
Sweet friendships
These girls were so sweet to Becca. So many questions and already helping planning the wedding. So sweet!
So the wedding planning in ON! The latest thought is Thanksgiving! YES that is 3 months away! Totally manageable, right?

Favorite things...

Aubrey Rose continues to show her little personality. Lately, she has found two of her favorite things to play with. Purses and babies. So far, purses are number one in her book, but babies kind of go hand and hand. I laugh the hardest when she puts it all together as if she is her own mommy. She has her purse on her shoulder, baby in her other hand and she yells "BUH-BYE!"

The other part of this story that makes me laugh is remembering stories my parents have told me of when I was little. My parents had to discipline very differently for my sister, brother and I. For me...all they had to do was take my purse away. They would place it on top of the fridge just high enough for me to still see it all day, to remind me that I can't have it, can't reach it and to be a good girl in order to get it back. Hmmm...I wonder if I am looking into my future.

Megan's baby shower

Together we make a GREAT team, especially at party planning! From left is Katie, Jo-Linda, Megan, myself, Tamara and Katie. Congratulations Josh and Megan!!

This was all of us in 2006. Jo-Linda began the baby trend for us with a bang...TWINS! Since Lennox and Titus, we have added six more between us girls. Baby Alfaro will make seven and then we continue with Baby DeManby. That is all we know of for now. God only knows from here!
We had the shower at Blake and my house. It was so fun to see how it all turned out. I loved having the tables in our sunroom. Thanks girls for helping set up and tear down everything!!
Jo-Linda did a WONDERFUL job putting the centerpieces together! We collected glass jars we had between us and created this fun display. It turned out so cute!

Megan with her moms...Josh's mom on the left and Megan's mom on the right Below are just some of the ladies that made the shower such a fun time together.
Congratulations Megan! We can't wait to meet Baby Boy Alfaro!!

Family wedding

My dad comes from a family of 6 kids and my mom came from a family of 7 kids...so needless to say, we have a BIG family!! So I have 13 aunts/uncles, each married, almost all of them with 3 or 4 kids. The cousins are now beginning to have families of their own. I absolutely LOVE having such a big family! Family gatherings are some of my sweetest memories. There is a bond with family like no other. Although we have a big family, we continue to get bigger! A couple of weekends ago, my uncle got married to Janice. Janice has the sweetest personality, so friendly and kind. She has such a tender heart for people. Congratulations Mac and Janice!!!

This was before the ceremony...from the left, my cousin Luke, his girlfriend Becca, my cousin Chelsey, Uncle Mac and my cousin Jeremy
My cousin, Chelsey and I have formed such a special bond. We have always been cousins, but our bond and friendship gained roots so deep after her mom passed away, from cancer, almost two years ago. Blake and my old house was about 1 minute away from Chelsey's college and she had a 2 hour lunch break in between classes, so every Tuesday and Thursday Chelsey would come hang out at our house. I praise the Lord for giving us those lunches to help us find a friendship that was so close to home. A friendship we each are so thankful for today. She brings tears to my eyes just thinking about how proud I am of her and how thankful I am for her and her friendship in my life. I love you girlie!
Here is a picture of my dad's side of the family. Three of the kids from my dad's family moved to Fresno YEARS ago from CANADA!! Yeah Canada! Yes, almost all of us are Canadians! We are missing a few of the Fresno crew, but here is a pretty good group shot of the Penner clan and how we continue to grow.

Our cousin table at the reception

I can't get enough of this girl!

Yummy peaches!

When we bought our house a few months ago, I thought it was quite ironic that our new house had 3 peach trees. Being peach farmers and moving away from our beautiful peach orchards, I loved knowing we would still have peaches in our backyard. (We chose not to read into the fact that 2 out of the 3 trees had already died before we bought the house.) :) That one tree, though, bears yummy, yummy peaches. The other day Aubrey Rose was helping me water the dry spots in the lawn. So I picked a peach for her. I asked her "What is this?" to which she responded with "pch." I was soooooo proud. After a BIG hug and lots of clapping and excitment she sat with her peach and continued to water the dry spots, oh and herself. :)

She ended up finishing a whole peach herself!! Thankfully, she is a HUGE fan of peaches!

Happy Birthday Oma!

Today is my mom's birthday! We were able to join her for breakfast. Her and her girls. It was so fun. Aubrey Rose was dressed in her birthday attire. A couple of people thought it was Aubrey Rose's birthday.

Aubrey Rose with the birthday girl Oma

My sister, Aubrey Rose, myself and my mom

A couple of nights ago, we celebrated her and her birthday in a fun way. My sister, my brother, our spouses, along with Mom and Dad, got together to celebrate "Mom style." We thought she would enjoy watching old home videos from when we grew up. She LOVED it! We ordered dinner in, ate on the couch and watched home videos. It was perfect! We would laugh and then Aubrey Rose would laugh and we would all laugh again. Happy Birthday Mom!! Dinner is served....it was pretty fun. It was a wonderful evening celebrating such a special lady. Happy Birthday Oma!

LOVE this little girl!

Blake and I took some fun pictures the other day and I had to share. We just can't get enough of Aubrey Rose. I wish you could enjoy our days with us because we laugh a lot! This was before church this past Sunday.

We ran into Oma and Opa (my parents) at church! It is such an amazing blessing that all of our immediate family (both Blake's side and mine) go to the same church. We are quite aware of how rare that is. It is such a blessing to not only LOVE our church, but to also be able to see family there just helps us count our blessings even more.

We also got to see Auntie Christy!

After church we went lunch and then ran an errand. Below is a picture of us in the store. This picture makes me smile just thinking of how much fun the three of us had. Blake and I were patiently waiting for the answer to our question...the employee had to do some research to see if they had the item in stock...and Aubrey Rose was getting ansy. I started to distract her by pushing the cart back and forth in the aisle. And then I would run to her and she would giggle, giggle, giggle. It was that adorable gut giggle that just warms my heart to no end. Then, Blake came into the picture and we would push her back and forth...she just laughed and laughed each time. Then, she started raising her arms as though she was on a roller coaster or something. It was hilarious! Here are daddy and I making sweet memories with our little sunshine!