Happy Mother's Day

For Mother's Day we went to my mom's. It was good to see her of course. We went and spent the night there on Saturday night. After putting the kids to bed we stayed up late and watched Arsenic and Old Lace. I love that play/movie. My parents took me to see it at Shakespearean festival when I was a Junior. Fond memories.

The next day we went to church and Tsadakah was so excited to have her grandma be her primary teacher for the day. Neither her nor Eliannah were afraid to go up and sing in a different ward. It was so fun. MiKaylah even went up there, hehehe. She wants to be like them in every way.

 For Mother's Day I got this framed Temple art. It is perfect! What a great gift. Mike sure knows how to choose them! :)

Here is a full view so you can get an idea of the size.

The food was wonderful and the company was too. My sister Leah came and my sister in law, Hayley too. It was wonderful to see them and talk to them so much!

My mom got me a book that I was SO excited about. It was written and illustrated by my young woman's leader. Its called, I Want To Be A Mommy, by Judy Cooley. It is seriously such a good book. She has 2 others that compliment it and I believe she will be doing one more to complete the "series." I have always and will always think of her as a mentor.

About my own mom...she is so giving and open. She wears her heart on her sleeve and is had dedicated her life to being a full-time, full-hearted mom. All my life I have wanted nothing more than to grow up and be a mother just like she was. Career never appealed to me.

My friend, Lori, gave some insight into Mothers Day which I really liked. She said that its not bout waiting around for your kids, husband, or others to celebrate you, its a day for you to celebrate the role in life which God has given us. I think of being a mother as a gift from our Heavenly Father. I love Him for what he has done for me, for trusting me with my children.

I want to be comfortable standing and singing praises for my motherhood. I want to celebrate those little moments with my kids and the fulfillment of joy that I get out of knowing them, seeing them, and supporting them. My happiest thought of all is of their laughter.

Happy Mother's Day

Field Trip

We wanted to do something to thank Randle and Joy Hinton for towing our car for us so we invited them over for a BBQ-FHE. It was really nice. They were good company. We played a get to know you game which the kids could join in on. Tsadakah was thrilled to have Corbin come to her house to play! We teach them in primary but it is so fun to see them get a chance to play together since church is always so structured.

One Tuesday I had a play-date with Jen Bullock. She had to come to me though because I had no car:(  She was fun to get to know. Her son is the same age as Eliannah and they played so well together after they stopped fighting over toys. lol She is spunky and fun which is why she gets along so well with boys. She loves to run and jump and be crazy. I call her my rough-n-tumble girl.

So my Kia is officially beyond our repair abilities. Mike did get it running again for 3 days, but then it stalled on him this time and he said that he doesn't think he will ever fully trust it and that I need a reliable car. We have looked into all our options and it seems that buying a new VAN is where we are headed. I did offer Mike the chance to buy the truck that he has been dreaming of, but he knows how be a true man and do what is best for his family.

Tsadakahs class was doing a field trip to the Zoo. I have a season pass and so It just made sense for me to volunteer to go. I had to get a sitter for my younger ones and a ride to and from the school so I was completely dependant on the kindness of others. I owe Tiffany and Arianne for their generousness. Going to the zoo and being with Tsadakah was so fun! I loved being able to giver her my all.                       

The Tiger was very fun this time. He kept pacing back and forth and I was able to get great shots of him. 

The teacher put 2 parents in charge of 4 kids for the day. It was not bad at all! Here is our lil group. Amber, Tsadakah, Alex, and Brandon.

 Brandon was extremely sweet and also hated to get his picture taken. hehehe

 The kids on the tigers roaring!

 More of the fabulous Tiger!

 My sweetheart! I just love her! She is litterally my angel-baby!

 Eating lunch!

 We met with the rest of the class for the bird show. It was the best that I have ever seen! And not having to chase little ones around made me enjoy it more too!I got fabulous pictures of the birds too.

 Elephant family. I rarely see them together so I wanted to have this picture. :)

 My girl and me at the bird show.

 White Owl

 Tsadakah's friend from class, Gacee, was chosen to feed the dove. It was funny because after eating from her hand it perched on her head.

 Awesome shot!

More of the Tiger.

It was a fun fun trip and I enjoyed getting to know the other moms as well as spending quality time with my big girl.

Goodbye April

With the closing of another month, the fourth to be exact, I wanted to share my crafties. It has been so fun making bows so much, but I am probably going to be taking a break. :) Now that the sun is going to be out and sunny I am going to be out too! So I will be putting all my stuff to sleep for a season or two. So enjoy these for all they're worth! ;)

Completed Masterpiece

 As many of you know, Mike has been working on a deck for our backyard. It is finished!!! I love it so much! It is so pretty. He did such a fabulous job on it! This man knows how to work. This whole masterpiece took him almost exactly 5 weeks. I don't know anyone else who could have done that while still working their 40 hrs. The neighbors behind us rave about it every time they are out and all my friends are saying how they want Mike to come build them one. ha aha.

 We plan on grilling all summer long.

I LOVE the railings and the solar lights on the posts!

So Monday, April 30th, I was planning a full day. After Mike left for work I was going to serve a perfect dinner, have just enough to clean up and then have my friend, Arianne, bring her daughter for me to teach her Yoga, then to follow it up with getting ready for a girls night card game. I was all on schedule for following out this perfect plan too...until I heard...drip, drip, drip. I looked over to see water dripping from a big water bubble in my kitchen cieling!! AHH! I am so shocked. I imeadiately accuse the kids of leaving the water on, but going upstair I discover that it was nothing that I could see. I called Mike and he told me to go ahead and pop it, letting all the water splash on the floor. I use a Sheet Rock saw to cut out a big section that is ruined. I can see where it is leaking from but there is no crack in the pipe. I see that there is no way I can teach Yoga or have a game night. But the blessing in the time of trial was people who care! Arianne came and got all my kids and took them to her house so that I could clean the mess. Then she called Melissa and her husband Jeff to come and see what they could do to help. They were great! Je put my mind at ease and reassured me that it was going to be a simple inexpensive fix.

So Tuesday morning Mike replaced the wax ring. That didn't fix it. Pulling the toilet back again he sees a crack that goes the whole distance of the tank. We see our problem. He goes back to HomeDepot, his second home, and buys a new toilet. :) Problem solved. Same day he also sheet rocks, mudds, and paints the whole. Amazing!

Wednesday, Tsadakah was invited to Daniella's bday. It was a Peacock theme and she was so excited. The night before she put out her clothes and counted down the minutes to the party! It was fun to enjoy her excitement.

Thursday night we went to pick out furniture for our patio! I love having a house that I want to put my heart into and make as nice as possible. LOVE my house, LOVE my deck and will LOVE my furniture too!

That night we went to a late movie and saw The Hunger Games. It was very enjoyable. Mike liked it a lot. Our babysitter was great. She had the girls in jammies. Yay!

So Friday I had rescheduled everything that I had canceled on monday. So I was taking Tsadakah to tumbling and my Kia stalls in the middle of an intersection! I tried to stay calm and did everything that I could but it wouldn't go! Finally a nice man stopped and pushed me to the curb. Then he offered to drive us home. As we were moving the car seats to his HUGE truck, he said, "I can see that you were going somewhere (Cause of her outfit) Take my truck and do what you need to." I told him I couldn't do that many times but he insisted. He handed over his keys without even asking my name. He told me which house was his and said to just return it when  I didn't need it anymore. WOW! What a blessing from God in this kind stranger!

Called a neighbor who had a truck and asked him to tow my car home. He did it in seriously 10 minutes. His wife picked up Tsadakah for me too. Awesome. Then Arianne followed me to drop off the truck and bring me home. I finished up the night by still teaching her daugter Yoga. :) nice lil stress reliever. Then Arianne and I hung out all night long. Super fun.

I cant believe our bad luck. How unfortunate it is that the day we finish that deck we have 2 problema in 1 week? Still, through it all I see blessings and love from all the people around me. I am so grateful for my blessings!

So, besides taking pictures and practicing ballet the week of April 22-28, I also painted our new sliding glass door frames, volunteered at Tsadakah's school, and enjoyed the warm air. Best of all was the end of the week, when Mike's sister, Debbie, again visited with her family. Friday night she came up just her. We loved having her all to ourselves!!! Tsadakah hung on her every word. We stayed up late talking and laughing and bonding. She is an amazing woman and great to talk to! The next morning we did her Insanity DVD for a work out. I really kept saying "that's insane!" Hun, go figure. We had such a good time and Mike made us breakfast with caramelized onions and spinach omelette's. For the rest of the day she was building the deck with Mike. He really liked having her help and she was excited to learn because she wants to do one for herself next summer. :) Just in time for lunch Cesar, Bobbie, Sarah, and Brooklynn showed up. We hung out and had a good time.

 MiKaylah

 Eliannah with her big ball from Grandma on her bday!

 MiKaylah and Eliannah

 Bobbie holding onto MiKaylah on the brand new railings Mike made! So, exciting! He made such a beautiful deck!

 Bobbie.

 Tsadakah, dancing to Pandora.

 Me, cooking din-din.

Bobbie is an amazing photographer. She has so much talent and she is only in High School. She takes great and interesting pictures every time she uses my camera. Brooklynn played with my girls for hours. It was so nice to have her entertain them! Shes a sweetie. Bobbie and Sarah looked through my dance pictures and I told them all my stories from dating, good and bad. They were super fun to talk to and they made me feel young again. hee hee.

For dinner we had lasagna and french bread and sat for long hours talking and playing games. Tsadakah loves to draw questions from a hat and we all answer them. After we finished with that we played the ten fingers game. There was pie for dessert and love in our heart.

I really hated to see them go. Oh and I showed them how to make bows and they loved it. They will definitely be doing them all summer!

My fantastic sister-in-law, Becky, loves Pinterest and showed me a photoshoot she had seen of a little cubby girl in just a ruffle-butt. It was so cute. She lent me this zebra pattern one and told me I had to get some pictures. So thanks to Becky I have these darling pictures of my baby.

 LOVE the single tear in her eye.

 Pointing to a kitty! She  loves all animals.

 Aww!

 Thoughtful

 Ehh?

 And...the sweet side.

Isn't she cute!

Mike and I really wanted to follow the prophets advice to not over schedule our kids. We decided that we would let them choose one activity at a time. I was planning to put them into dance this summer, but then they decided they wanted to do swim lessons instead. So I was disappointed. I LOVE ballet and I've always wanted my girls to be, so I have decided to home teach them. :) It was very fun! This was the kick off day! I was taking more pictures than teaching but we all had a good time. So far, in the 3 weeks we have done it, we have learned and practiced: the feet positions, arm positions, plies, and exploring the shapes we can make with our bodies. Tsadakah came up with some silly animal shapes, like a camel that spits! haha it was really funny and made me laugh so hard. I got a video of it I will have to share.

 Eliannah was more interested in jumping like a frog. No surprise there. But she learned more than she let on. She was showing my dad things that she had learned and I was happy to see all that she had remembered. :)