Brett's Graduation

I am so behind on here so I will slowly try to catch up. :) Last weekend I flew home to see my youngest brother graduate from high school. It was such an awesome trip. I had a great time with my family and Ben was so great to hang out with the kids while I was gone. I have awesome friends who helped out, too, and I couldn't have worked it out without them. Thank you!!!

Me and Mom before the graduation

Here is Brett with his diploma.
Charisse (my sister) and nephew, Harper, at the graduation partyThayne (brother), Brett, and Dad at the party.Saturday we had a graduation picnic for Brett and our cousin, Seth. Here are the graduates!

We also celebrated my Grandma's 90th birthday! Wow!!! Here she is with all the grandkids who were there that day.

The view from the park. It was really stunning!

Here is a view from the hill just above the park looking down on it and past to the beautiful mountains. It was just so gorgeous.Just before I had to leave we stopped by to see this precious little baby! He is my cousin's newest addition to their family and he was just 2 weeks old. So sweet and cuddly! I just love newborns.It was a really wonderful weekend. We shopped, ate yummy food, and just hung out together. I did miss my hubby and kids, but I have to admit that a part of me enjoyed eating when the food was ready adn hot, got up when I wanted, got ready as my pace, sat through sacrament meeting and heard every word (mom and dad spoke so it was a great day to be there!), and didn't have to worry about anyone else for a few days. Of course, I worried about everyone being ok at home, but you know what I mean. ;)

I got back and went right back into the whirlwind that is my life. I will update more on that in the next post! ...another field trip, kindergarten memory books, a birthday party, feeding missionaries, last days of school, church calling, award ceremonies, preparing for our summer trip...

Pebbles

Today was the dinosaur parade for the kindergartners. They had so much fun dressing up and parading around the school. They looked so cute. Here is my little Pebbles:

Mother's Day

What a lovely day it was yesterday. The weather was perfect, the husband was perfect, and the kids ...well, you know kids. :) LOL! They were actually very sweet and wonderful. I even sat through the entire sacrament meeting without having to go out! It was pretty nice. Then I got to sit through Sunday School and most of Relief Society as well. WOW!



Ben got up and made a yummy breakfast for us before church. He gave me a great under-the-counter CD/radio for the kitchen and I am loving it! Instead of the TV blasting I have had the music blasting and it has been a nice change. The kids are liking it, too. The card he chose was so sweet and beautiful. he's very good at choosing cards that say things that really get to me. And, of course, there was the bag of chocolates and the red and white roses. He did a great job this year. He even made dinner--all by himself! Thank you, hon, for all your hard work! I love you!

The kids gave me the sweetest gifts and they are truly treasures! Brandon made me 2 Hershey kiss roses and a beautiful card at scouts last week. I loved them! Kate drew me 2 wonderful pictures and so did Megan. Carli gave me lots of hugs and snuggle time. :) What sweet kids I have.

Here's the little poem that is on Megan's gift she made at school (pic above):

I'm your little flower, Mom

Please help me grow and bloom:

Take the weeds, but leave the roots

And give me lots of room.

Mom, you are my gardener,

My sunshine and my rain.

Too much will make me wither

With enough, I'll bloom again.

I am your little flower, Mom.

I'm different from the rest.

Don't pick me, Mom, just help me grow

To be my very best.

I felt very loved yesterday and I spent the day thinking of how much I love the mothers in my life. My mom is definitely the best I could have gotten. I love her so much and learned from her example. I still do. She is always there for me and is so supportive and helpful. My mother-in-law, Sandy, is the best mil I could ask for. She is really awesome. She, just like my mom, is always there to be supportive and loving. I still have 2 grandmothers living as well and they are 2 more amazing women who I look up to and admire. All of my "mothers" are such treasures in my life. I'm so grateful as well to all the awesome friends I have who teach me constantly how to be a better person. :)

Saturday Fun!

We had a whirlwind of a day Saturday. It was very busy, but very fun! We started the morning with Brandon's and Kate's first piano recital. They were so nervous--it was cute. They both did awesome, though! We were so happy for them. They marched right up there, performed their pieces and were so great. Then we rushed home, changed into our swim suits and headed to Ben's company picnic up at the lake. There was good food, a swimming pool, the lake, paddle boats, games, face painting, you name it! The kids' favorite part was the free ice cream bars. They each had at least 2.

Ben took all 4 kids out on the paddle boat. They loved it. I stayed behind to take pictures, of course. :)Brandon loved watching the balloon maker who was there. He got a person (the one ond the left) and an alien.Kate had her face painted like a puppy. As excietd as she and Megan were about getting their faces painted (not to mention waiting in 95 degree weather for 1/2 hour just to get it done) the paint was promptly washed off as soon as we got home.Megan was a cute little kitty. Hers was pretty itchy so she got napkins and wiped it all off within about 15 minutes. Oh well! At least I got the pictures. :)

That evening the kids had a babysitter and we sent to a bbq at a friend's home. There was awesome food, good friends, even karaoke! It was really a blast and after a crazy day it was fun to relax and enjoy the evening.

First Day of Summer Fun!

After piano lessons yesterday afternoon we spent a couple hours at our neighborhood pool. We had a blast! All the kids swam and had fun and hardly complained that they wre hungry. They always want to eat snacks when I bring them to the pool instead of swimming so I told them yesterday that there would be no food at the pool. It was totally great! They played the entire time and when it was time to go home for dinner they still were going strong, but the lure of pizza is too strong for my kids...LOL! Here are some pics from the evening.

Carli kept grabbing our fingers and walking us through the little pool. She would walk us up the step and out and then right back in and across and back again. It was too cute. She had so much fun!

Here's Brandon trying to paddle around with the squirter stick. Doesn't work very well without a paddle. ;)

Little toes all wrinkled! Too cute!

Wrapped up and ready to go.

Recipe Blog

I've had lots of requests for my recipes and I've finally started a recipe blog so I can share them all! I'm excited about it so please let me know what you think and if there's something I have made that you would like the recipe for so I can add it.

http://havetoeat.blogspot.com

Playing

It's so nice to see my kids just playing and enjoying themselves than plunked in front of the tv or computer. Today when we had a little rain storm move through the girls all wanted to get their swimming suits on and run around in the rain. However, by the time they changed and got back downstairs the rain was gone. Carli didn't mind, though. She was having fun running around on the grass and watching airplanes fly over.

Silly faces!

Playing with color and lighting on the pictures.