Life

Do you have times that you wish you could appreciate your life more? That you could marvel at all the little things in your day to day happenings? That you could enjoy the work you have to do to keep your family going? Then do you think about praying to ask for help for more gratitude and appreciation in all the little miracles that you call life? But then do you stop and think about what the Lord could do to make you appreciate life more? That He could choose a life altering act that would CHANGE how you take time to look and to be grateful? I do. I then decide not to pray for gratitude and appreciation. I don't want sickness, death, unemployment, etc. How can I appreciate life more without all the hard trials? Is it even possible? I would like to know the secret.

Breathe

In 9 short days my oldest will be 12. It makes me literally struggle for breath when I think about it. My eyes well up too.

12

It is all happening too fast.

I am growing up right there with him and have so much growing left to do. He will probably get there before I do.

Goodbye School Year 2008-2009

School's Out, school's out! I am so glad the school year is over! Phew! So many projects and activities at the end of the year wore me out! Having 3 kids in Elementary School is crazy. The break isn't long enough. Kennedi and Carter will be back to school in 2 weeks for their new year.

First Day of School- July 2008

Last Day of School- June 22, 2009

The kids grew up a lot this year! Wow!

Carter- Beginning of 2nd grade

End of 2nd Grade
Carter had a good 2nd grad year with his teacher Mrs. Huston. He became a champ at getting right down to homework after school and taking charge. I am afraid that he got a little more busy at school this year though. :) He continued playing Flag Football and started Basketball this year.

Favorite Subject- Math
Best Friend- Dylan
Funnest thing you did or learned this year- Living Biographies (He studied and dressed up as Benjamin Franklin)
What you want to be when you grow up- Policeman
Favorite Food- Pizza
Favorite School Lunch- Pizza

Kennedi- Beginning of 3rd Grade

End of 3rd Grade

Kennedi grew up a lot this year with Miss Charlton. She got way more picky about her clothing (man we are in trouble when she is a teenager). She is still doing awesome in piano and now knows cursive. Great year!

Favorite Subject- Writing
Best Friend- Jayne
Funnest thing you did or learned this year- Multiplication Sundaes
What you want to be when you grow up- Newborn baby nurse
Favorite Food- Oriental Chicken
Favorite School Lunch- Orange Chicken

Brayden- Beginning of 6th Grade

End of 6th Grade

Wow, wow and wow. I can't believe this was his last year in Elementary School. Where did the time go? Mrs. McCullar was his favorite teacher ever and she was great to expect lots and make him grow. He finally figured out that his long hair wasn't the best look for him. :) It took a long time to figure that one out. He started tennis and loves it. He has grown up so much and I haven't grown up enough to have him start Middle School.

Favorite Subject- Math (He will be starting 2 grade levels ahead in Middle School)
Best Friend- Corey & Nick
Funnest thing you did or learned this year- Camp Cheley
What you want to be when you grow up- Pilot or professional sports player
Favorite Food- Crispy Chicken
Favorite School Lunch- Chicken filet sandwich

Here's hoping for another great school year!

Being a Mom

Being a Mom on Mother's Day means you still get to clean up spilled milk. You still have to get ready for church. You still have to give Sharing Time at church. You still have to think about all the little things. But it also means you still get to feel your heart grow a little bit bigger. And you get to take a nap and not feel guilty. And you get to receive handmade bits of love. And you get to eat brownies. And you get to have french toast and sausage for breakfast. And you get to hear your child pray that they can make it a nice Mother's Day for you. Not too shabby.

You get to think about the wonderful Mom that you have. Oh how I love my Mom. Today I told the Primary kids that I want to be like my Mom when I grow up. And I do wish I was like her. I love that she loves me too. :)

You also get to think of your other Mom. And wish you were like her too. I am grateful to her for raising her son that would be my husband. And grateful that she loves me like her own.
Happy Mother's Day!

The Days of April

Dude! Where did April go? Here are some of the things that made April fly by.

We watched Conference in the comfort of our own home!
The kids watched all the sessions! How sweet.

We planted a garden.

We fed the missionaries and they fed us spiritually.

We met the Helm's and had a fabulous dinner!
(I wish we would have gotten a picture of the whole family!_

The kids played outside.

I went to Women's Conference for the first time.
I loved it.

Took the kids swimming. Nice goggles!

Went to the "dollar" movies.

Kennedi finished gymnastics...for now.

The fam went to Ellie's preschool art show.
It was fabulous!

Took ALL 4 kids to the dentist. No cavities! Yeehaw!

It snowed, and snowed and snowed more. But luckily
it melted just as fast!

Played and painted at Little Monkey Bizness.

Grandma came to visit!

Played with grandma and the cousins.

Dressed up for Easter.

The Hales came and we played and had fun.

Bonded with cousins at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.


Goodbye April, nice knowing you!

Fools

We like April Fool's Day. This morning a few little tricks were conceived. Kennedi decided to wrap her hand to look like she had hurt it. She was excited to trick the kids at school. She said everybody fell for it. :) Ellie got little stickers on her ears to look like her ears were pierced.


Brayden came up with the grand idea of recording his piano practicing with his MP3 player and played it back on some speakers. I was upstairs and really did think it was him practicing. :)

We got home after school and I was complaining that it felt cold in the house. Later I went to turn the temperature up and noticed someone had lowered the heat! Brayden!!! He thinks he is so funny.

Then Mother Nature decided to fool us and start hailing, thundering and snowing. Ummm, no, I don't think so!

My favorite part of April Fool's Day is our family dinner. It is a tradition that was started when I was a kid.(Thanks Mom!) Every year everyone in the family gets to pick one thing for dinner. They secretly tell me what their choice is and I do the rest. The kids absolutely love it and it is fun to see what kind of meal we come up with. To make it more exciting, we eat with weird utensils. We eat off cutting boards, lids, or pans. We drink out of jars, measuring cups, etc. We eat with spatulas, ice cream scoopers, tongs and whatever else we can find. Then to top it off we wear funny hats.

This years menu was:
Taft- Chicken and pineapple skewers (too bad we couldn't grill the chicken on the BBQ grill!)
Me- Deviled eggs
Brayden- Chocolate cake
Kennedi- Peach Cobbler
Carter- Bagel Bites
Ellie- veggies and cherry limeade (okay, so I picked for her because she just couldn't wrap her brain around the idea and I thought we needed something healthy on the side)

Happy April Fool's Day!

Apples & Oranges

Will there be a time in my life that I will stop comparing myself to others? I know in my head that it isn't fair for me to compare myself to the best in everyone else. I tend to only see the really wonderful perfect parts of others around me and then wish I was that best part of every single woman I meet. I am tired of this and don't know how to stop. I am hoping I outgrow it because I am worn out wanting to be something I know isn't even possible. My life is good and I am extremely blessed, I hope to start focusing more on this...

H is for Hair

WooHoo! I got a brand new son! It is like a little surprise every time I look at him. It is about time!

BEFORE




AFTER!



Brayden's long hair had grown on me some, but I have been waiting a long time for him to get it cut. I love it. I should have sent the camera with Taft to show how much hair was on the floor. TONS! Ahhhh, it looks so nice! Yippee!

A Little Bit Sweeter

Here are a few little things lately that make my life a little bit sweeter.

Celebrating my loving husbands Birthday

My 3 1/2 year old still napping :)

Beautiful, wonderful, fabulous early spring weather, ahhhhh.

Fresh fruit, yum!

A Big comfy bed. (And a nightstand with lots of books)

Tulips peeking out of the ground.

And many more....

Falling Behind

I have fallen behind so far on my blog that I don't even want to update. Pathetic. Why is it so hard to start something again after a long break? Do you try to catch up, or do you just start fresh again? I have a hard time not catching up, but then it seems so daunting I usually just give up. That is why my personal journal hasn't been written in for years. Hopefully I can just start fresh again. We shall see...

It Could Have Been Worse & other tidbits

See that pile of 127 wet towels in front of my dishwasher? (Okay I am exaggerating) That is what happens when water starts pouring out of your dishwasher and you can't get it to stop pouring out. Actually I was very lucky. I was standing at my laptop in my kitchen when I heard water and it didn't sound normal. I look over and to my surprise water is coming out of the dishwasher. That is when I started yelling, "Run, run, hurry, hurry, get some towels, run, ahhhhh!" Luckily Brayden and Kennedi were close and responded to my pleas. Crazy. Even though I was there to wipe up the water as it was running everywhere, I wasn't as fast as I could have been so some of the water leaked into the basement, but lucky for us our basement isn't finished! :) I really had the kids running all over the place to find any spare towel, it really is kind of funny now. It would have been so much worse if I hadn't been standing there! I feel like it was a blessing from above that I caught it. So I am now becoming a professional hand dish washer. Luckily I have had practice when I would visit my grandma's house and she didn't have a dishwasher (or a disposal, uggg! I would choose a disposal over a dishwasher if you wanted to know) and growing up we had to hand wash all the pots and pans that couldn't go in the dishwasher. So now we shall see if we can get it all figured out. To repair or not repair, that is the question.

On to other things.

I was happy to find my oldest reading scriptures in bed when I went to wake up the kids in the morning.

*When I went to go swimming yesterday my friend was there too. I was putting on my goggles and she asked if I had been lifting weights. She thought my biceps looked cut. Well I liked that! Even though I haven't lifted weights in a long time, I will take the compliment. *I just have to write this stuff down so I can remember the good things about life too. :) (If anybody is reading, you can ignore that last little part)

Okay, so I am training for a triathlon. That is why I am swimming. I don't really know how to swim but I am learning and I might even learn to like it. It wears me out like crazy. I can't get enough air in, so I am hoping that will change. This is really pushing me out of my comfort zone. I need to push myself and get over the feelings of not even trying because I might not be the best. I don't want my kids to be like that, so I better be a better example.

And that is that.

KenKen hit the big 9er.

Our princess had her birthday. Every year we get to celebrate double on New Year's Eve. Our sweetie was born at around 9:45pm, December 31, 1999. The last of the century. It was cool. :)


Taft picked out some jewelry for Kennedi and as you can see she loved it!


Kennedi picked our traditional fondue for dinner. And I might say that I loved, loved, loved the cheese fondue this year. Ooooh yummy, cheese on french bread.

We also had our traditional other family over, Todd, Kat and the 3 lovely little girlies. We have had much fun over this Holiday break with them.

Since we were also having chocolate fondue, Kennedi just picked out one slice of cake at the store so we could have something to put candles in!

Kennedi's birthday will never happen when school is in, so we waited until today when she went back to school to have our lunch date. Her choice was Panda Express. I like it too. I love my Kennedi and she is a sweetheart. I hope she stays that way. She wants to do what is right. I hope that stays that way too. She has a little bit of sass in her. I hope it doesn't grow. :) I really do love this girl of mine.



The 3 girls. Kennedi is a WONDERFUL big sister to Ellie. I hope they stay close forever. I know I love my sisters!

Happy Birthday!