At Our Cousin's house!

It has been a while since the kids and I have been to stay at Aunt Shanna and Uncle James’s house, or Aunt Shanni and Uncle Jamezer as I call them. From the time we pulled into the driveway until the time we left the kids played and played and played. When we got there at 10:00 at night the kids jumped out hugged everyone and headed into the backyard to jump on the trampoline with their cousins. The next morning my girls discovered “The Walnut Tree”! The place where they would spend the majority of their time while at their cousin’s house.

They were so excited that they could climb and play in a tree that was right in front the house. Shanna lives at the end of a long court where kids run up and down all day long. My kids have freedom at their cousin’s house that they don’t have at home. First thing in the morning when some of the kids headed outside to the front yard my kids looked at me like… “We can go play in the front yard???” Colby of course went out straight away. He hasn’t caught on to the fact that there are rules at our house. He still just does what he wants to do. About 30 min later there was a knock on the screen. It was Shanna’s neighbor bringing Colby back. He was all wet. I guess the city comes around once a year to open the fire hydrants to clean them out, and this happened to be that morning. Anyway with all the water puddles in the street, Shanna’s neighbor thought it would be fun for the kids go puddle jumping. So she took the boys that were out front and went splashing down the street. Colby was as happy as could be. The neighbor was at least kind enough to take off his socks and shoes so he didn’t soak them. Colby went barefoot for the rest of the day, which if you know him that is so opposite his norm. (He usually won’t even go to bed without his shoes on!) From about sunup to sundown the kids played in the yard and most of the time the girls were in the walnut tree. Colby just enjoyed the freedom of being able to roam wherever he wanted, in the house, out of the house, backyard, front yard, through the garage, etc. He was everywhere!

One of Colby’s favorite toys was this little lawn mower that was literally falling apart. The wheel kept falling off, but he would just stop try to put it back on and keep going. Sometimes the other kids would help him, but he always just kept on going. This also happened to be one of Alex’s favorite toys, which lead to some interesting lessons in sharing, like me finally just taking it away from Colby because it was Alex’s turn. Anyway over all it was a great visit, just definitely not long enough, which it never is! The kids had a blast roaming, climbing and jumping all day long.

I had a fun and productive visit, especially since Shanna called one of her friends over to help me figure out how to make a tie that I was attempting for Colby and Daxton to wear to Jayleen’s wedding. And just in case you were wondering… it turned out great! Thanks again Shanna and Rachel! It was great spending time with Shan as it always is. I do wish we lived closer or at least got to see them more than once a year. We always have a great time together and it seems we are always accomplishing some kind of project, sometimes hers and sometimes mine. It’s a great balance of fun and productivity! (ha/ha) Thanks again to Shanni and Jamezer for putting us up, and showing us such a great time. Hope to see you in Cali soon so we can return the favor!

Cambrie gets her ears pierced!

In our family lots of things happen when you turn 8. One of the privileges/ responsibilities you get is being able to get your ears pierced. Cambrie had almost forgotten about it, but about 3 weeks after her birthday she came to me saying, "Mom, I'm 8 right? So that means I can get my ears pierced right?" "Sure" I responded. Then needless to say she asked everyday after that. It took about a week for us to actually coordinate the trip without having to take everyone else with us. (mainly Colby) But better late than never right?! So off Cambrie and I went to Claire’s in the mall. She was so excited. She hopped up in the chair and was ready to go. There were two girls there to do the piercing so they could do both ears at the same time. They did it pretty quick too. One ear went in smooth, but on the other ear the earring back got stuck in the gun and they had to wiggle it out and put it on by hand. It looked like it may have hurt, but Cambrie was tuff. She barely even flinched. After they were done we stepped back to take a look and realized the earring that went in smoothly, also happened to go in crooked. The girl who pierced that particular ear tried briefly to convince me that it was just Cambrie’s ear. The other worker then backed me up by saying “No you just needed to hold the gun straight”. Unfortunately we had to go home and take the earring out so the ear could close back up so they could redo it. We went back a couple of days later and they redid the piercing correctly. Again Cambrie was a trooper. Not a flinch! Finally she has her ears pierced! Congrats Cam!

Easter Morning

This year the Easter bunny and I hooked up on the kids Easter baskets. I thought it would be fun to personalize their buckets and obviously the Easter bunny filled them perfectly with flip flops, swim suits, socks, chalk, candies and more. The kids had a great time pulling out all their goodies. Colby obviously had a perfectly personalized basic with Hot Wheels and a shake and go “The King” from the “Cars” movie. I think they were very blessed this Easter.

Ward Easter Picnic and Hunt

For a spring ward activity we decided to have a little Easter egg hunt at Silva Park in Crossroads. It was an absolutely gorgeous day! Families gathered with sack lunches, and we had a wonderful Easter message given by Alex Garcia-Young. Then we let the kids hunt for Easter eggs around the park. It was simple and wonderful. It was a great ward/family activity.

It was also a special day because it was our kids chance to say goodbye to Arielle Adams, our favorite babysitter ever!!! We have known Arielle since she was 9 years old, and she has been babysitting our kids since she was 12. She is so wonderful with them, and they really love her. She always had a way of creating a fun and magical world with them when she babysat. She has always been kind and thoughtful and we will miss her dearly as she heads off to college. Overall it made for a beautiful and fun day!

Hollywood Celebrity Movie Night

This year for her birthday party Cambrie wanted to have a movie night. So to spruce it up a little we made it a Hollywood Celebrity Movie Night. We found a fun Hollywood banner and rolled out the red carpet for all her friends. They then played a game where they had a gold star stuck on their back with an actor or actresses name on it. Then they had to ask yes or no questions to each other to try and figure out who they were. They really had fun with it. They had names like, Hannah Montana, Selena Gomez, Raven Symone, Miley Cirus, Zack and Cody Martin, etc. Obviously it was mostly Disney people since that’s all they really watch. Also they made their own Hollywood stars with their handprint and signature, and then after cake and presents, they watched their movie “Another Cinderella Story”. I have never seen kids down popcorn so fast! They were like popcorn vultures! It was a little crazy, but Cambrie had a great time, and that’s what really matters! Happy Birthday Cambrie!

Cambrie’s Birthday Baptism

Unbelievable!! Today Cambrie turned 8 years old and was baptized on her birthday! What a special day! I can hardly believe that she is 8 already. It seems like it all went by so fast. I think one of the neatest parts of today was seeing how ready Cambrie was to be baptized. I have been so impressed with her level of understanding about the gospel and our Heavenly Father’s plan for us. I think she truly understood the commitment she was making when entering into her baptismal covenants. Pretty impressive for an 8 year old. She was so excited to get the Holy Ghost too. What an amazing little girl!

She was baptized with Brenden Hetzler, a boy in our ward whose birthday is only 7 days before Cambrie’s. It was crazy how many people were there to show there love and support! She even had two of her friends Jasmine and Brianna, from school (who aren’t LDS) show up to support her! It was standing room only! We were also blessed to have Nana and Papa there. Grandma Marilyn and Grandpa Mac even drove out all the way from Utah to be there for Cambrie. We are blessed to have lots of wonderful family and friends. We are especially lucky to have Cambrie as part of our family! We are learning things from her all the time. She is a sweet special little spirit. Congratulations on a beautiful baptism. We love you Cambrie!

Cambrie's Baptism Invite

Subway Days

Who doesn’t love Subway right?!? One day after going to the gym, I really wanted a subway sandwich. So to justify my craving and in the name of healthy living I thought it might be a good idea to walk to Subway. Then I could justify loading my sandwich with all the things I like! I talked to my friends Karen and Kara about walking to subway together, because they go to the gym with me too – (Plus it was closer to walk to subway from their houses anyway)! They were game… literally! Karen made the fun suggestion to walk to get the sandwiches and then walk back to her house to play games. More specifically to play “Ticket to Ride”. What can we say… the game is addicting! It must be because we keep playing even though we know Karen always wins! (ha/ha) All it took was once and we were hooked! Each week our group seemed to get larger and larger. Now it is commonly known that Wednesday’s are subway game days. We make sure we schedule shopping, doctors appointments and other “non-essential” activities around our Wednesday afternoons! Priorities right?!?

Mimi's Birthday!

I'm beginning to think that I love other people's birthday's almost as much as my own. Today was Mimi McCain's birthday and for her birthday she wanted to do a girls night of dinner and a movie. I wondered if she understood that was a present for us all! Thanks Mimi! Anyway we went to dinner at the "Sushi Garden". For those who know me this is the last place you would think me to eat, but they had some great non-fishy food as well. I decided that tempura vegetables are my absolute favorite! I tried a California roll, which I was told had no fish in it. It was the worst tasting thing I have ever tasted!! After Kara and Sabrina tried it they agreed that it was pretty bad, and then everyone at the table collectively decided I needed to try one of their rolls, so I would know that not all rolls taste that bad. Only one major problem... they all had fish in them. They insisted that the one I tried tasted more like nasty fish than any of the rolls they ordered. So here I am __ years old and still succumbing to peer pressure. (J/K) - I was a little curious, but not enough to actually eat one. After a few moments, ok maybe minutes, I decided to try it. There was one called a Tiger roll that had a sweet and sour taste with a kick. I scrapped off the orange fish eggs as best I could... I still have my limits, and carefully dipped the tiger roll into the sauce and placed the whole bite in my mouth at once. According to other's accounts of the situation my face made a pretty intense grimace, which sent Mimi in search of her camera, which made me chew even faster, but in the end it was not so bad. I DID IT. I AT A TIGER ROLL FROM A SUSHI BAR!! " I must yell it from the top of someplace very high" (name that movie)-- Anyway all in all it was a fun dinner!

Then to top it off we all went and met up with more friends at the movies to see " Confessions of a Shopaholic". It was a really cute movie. A little predictable but cute and it actually had a great moral to the story! I love a good girls night out! Thanks again Mimi for sharing your special day with all of us!! I hope you had a great birthday!

100th Day of School

Everything is an event when your in kindergarten! Today was the big 100th day of school. I went to help out in Hailey's class for the big event, and I am glad I got to go and see the kids be so excited and have so much fun. Every center revolved around the number 100. We made necklaces, hats, glasses, and groupings. We stamped, ran, jumped, skipped, hopped, colored and counted everything to 100. Miss Ellerson had everything set up for a full 100th day of fun! Hailey just adores her!! Then of course the kids got to meet Zero the Hero- who shares with the kids how important zeros can be. After all "without the zero 100 would just be 1." They all took an oath to be zero hero's as well and learned the special zero salute. It was a fun day for Hailey and I am glad I was able to be there to be a part of it!

YES, THIS IS MY BOY!

A picture is worth a thousand words right?!? I think this picture says it all. My precious little boy in blue wearing my high heels. What can you do. He loves shoes. We were at the Pace's house on a sunday evening and I had taken my shoes off by the door. Not too much later I heard a clomp clomp coming through the kitchen. I was pretty sure it was Colby, but of all the things I thought to be making the clomping sound, it definately wasn't my shoes.

Didn't Want You To Be Too Comfortable

So one evening after dinner Brian was laying on the couch relaxing and having the girls rub his feet. (He's training them!) I decided I wanted a piece of the action so I went over and laid on Brian and put my feet up to get in on the deal. Colby immediately decided he wanted in on it as well, not really knowing the purpose, and not caring either way. So he insistantly climbed up and twisted his way into position. Then he kicked back and relaxed. I couldn't quite say the same for me and even less so for Brian. That's our Colby making himself comfortable. Please don't worry about the rest of us. ha/ha