Primary Program

Sunday was our primary program. As always it was fantastic. The kids were ecstatic to have Grammy and Nana come and watch them. Eberly talked about how she can show love to her family by helping her brother and sisters when they get hurt. Katie talked about how she feels when she gets promptings from The Holy Ghost. Sara talked about how happy we were in Heaven but Heavenly Father wanted more for us.. and Jimmy.. Good old Jimmy. He was asked to respond to the question "What makes your family happy"? The other kids said things like "my family is happy when.. we pray together, when we go to church, when we have family home evening.." Not Jimmy. "My family is happy when we go out to dinner." What more can I say?

Hidden blessing of the day 9-4-09

So as you may have read in my previous blog.. I am trying to find and write down a blessing in my life every day.. But I am making it a "non-obvious" blessing. One that might take a little thinking to figure out....So here is my hidden blessing of the day....

Mike is REALLY sick..fever, sore throat, cough.. (hopefully not the piggy flu :).....
Anyways.... he came home from work early last. Hard to imagine where I can find a blessing in this right...We all know that when men are sick it is just like having another child. Well my hidden blessing is that I don't have to sleep alone tonight! :) Mike works grave yards and since he will be calling in sick tonight I won't be lonely....

Finding the good in small things

I was laying in bed last night thinking... Why do I do that? Why do I always think when I REALLY need to be sleeping? anyways.... I am trying to be a more positive thinker these days. Facebook has been a real eye opener for me. You get a sense of everyones' good days and bad. It has made me realized that EVERYONE struggles in one way or the other.
Well I have decided that it is time to find the blessings in the small things in life. I am not talking about the obvious ones; (friends, family... etc) I am talking about the little things. So I am going to write about one blessing every day. I think it is going to be a great way to keep up my positive thinking... Here is an example of one of thought about last night...
Last week we took the kids swimming. There is one blessing right there.. Yes it has been 100 degrees for the last week. BUT if it wasn't hot we couldn't have enjoyed an afternoon at the pool :)
Anyways.. back to my thought....Mike and I were lying on the lounge chairs when all of a sudden we heard this LOUD thunk! No.. it wasn't an earthquake.. No it wasn't a boulder falling down a hill... It was my poor Eberly falling "up" the rock stairs up to the slide. When I realized that the "thunk" I heard was Eberly hitting the rock I was pretty panicked. She hit her chin and her shin very hard on the stairs. I know I know.. where is the blessing in this right? Here is where I feel blessed... she hit HARD!.... Did she need stitches? NOPE! Did she lose any teeth or crack any? NO! Did she have any brain damage? NO! Did she have a good size bruise and gash on her leg and chin? YES! But compared to what could have happened... I will take it! This is my finding the good in small things :)

Happy Birthday my Sweet Sara

My little Sara turned 7 on Friday... They are all growing up so fast. We are so blessed to have Sara in our home. She brings so much joy to our house. She is quite the sassy little thing.. but she wouldn't be Sara if she wasn't. She has the hardest time deciding what to do for her birthday. Zoo? Beach? Movies? Seaport Village? She finally decided around 2 in the afternoon to go down to Seaport Village. We did a little shopping...looked at all the huge boats in the bay....rode on the carousel.. It was a fantastic day. We then gave her the option of where she wanted to go for dinner. Chinese? Nope. Subway (one of her faves) Nope? This went on for a while! She just couldn't decide. She finally decided on Red Robin. Not cause the food was good. Nope. Cause she remebered that they sing to you on your birthday. She kept looking behind her the whole time to see if they were coming!
Happy Birthday to my sweet Sara. WE LOVE YOU!

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Swimming with Cousins

It was so much fun having Juli, Reed and family down for Cassia's wedding. The kids had so much fun together... Eberly and Ben connected immediately. They were almost inseparable. Eberly has already written him a letter. She misses him tremendously. Here are some pics from our swim together.. We had a great time.. Love you guys!

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Long Time No Blog

I know... I know.. I have been awful.. I have been neglecting my blog for facebook! I am going to try and catch up in the next week.. Now I have to try and remember all that has happened since May! Wish me luck...

Happy Birthday Katie!!!!

My Katie- Kat turned 8 today! I can't believe how fast they are all growing up. Eberly woke her up this morning before 6:00 am so she could open her presents. I don't think so.... I sent them back to bed! I made her a picture video with pictures from when she was a baby until now. She sat on the couch this morning and watched it. It was so cute! She was grinning from ear to ear the whole time. I am going to do this for all the kids this year for their birthday. They just love it. I have attached it here. YES.... It is a long one again.. I just can't help myself :)
I am so lucky to have Katie in my life. She is such a sweet and loving little girl. Yes.. she has her diva moments... but she wouldn't be Katie without them. She has had to miss running practice for the last two weeks cause she has had a horrible cough. Her coach emailed me yesterday telling me how much they miss her smile!
Happy Birthday Katie! We love you so much!

***Remember*** June 6th @ 5pm she will be getting baptized.

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My little runner

Anyone that had been following me on facebook knows that my Katie has become quite the little runner. At school they have a running club. Everyday they she does running club she comes home with a 9 or 10 stamped on her hand indicating she ran that many laps. Her teacher is amazed by her. "You realize she is running with the fast boys right?" I have been trying for a long time to get her to play soccer. But those that know my little bear know that she is intimidated quite easily. She is not a fan of head on competition like that. Long story short.. I had been talking to a friend about trying to find some sort of running club.... I should have spoke up a lot sooner. He immediately gave me information for a FABULOUS running club. She is now a member of the SoCal Roadrunners. She started practice about a month ago.

am so thrilled with this group. ALL the coaches are extremely supportive. They adore her. They love the fact that she is always smiling. She runs/practices with a group of kids ranging in the age group of 7-17. What a great group of kids. She came in late in the season and they all cheer her on and have helped her to learn the ropes.

She has now competed in 2 track meets. She is definitely distance runner. She is not a fan of the sprints. But she has had to compete in only sprints. They have not had the distance races in her age group.

I am just so proud of Katie. Last week was her first track meet. She got quite nervous before her race. There were a couple of tears. I was so impressed with the little girls she was racing with. They were from a different running group, but when they saw she was upset they hugged her and played with her to get her mind of her nerves. It was adorable. Katie did much better nerve wise today...but those same girls came and hugged her when they saw her.

She ran the 100m and the 200m last Saturday and today she ran in the 100m, 200m and the 400m. She shaved 2 seconds off her 200m.

Go Katie!

Spring Break Week

It has been quite a busy week. We had a great time together as a family. Here is a video with some pictures from this past week. It includes strawberry picking, Wild Animal Park, Dyeing Easter eggs, Easter at Grammy and Papa's and Easter at Nana's house. It is kind of long.. But hope you enjoy it anyways!

Happy Easter!

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Cousin Sleepover

Mike called me on his way home from work yesterday and said he was going to bring Annali and Johnnette over for a sleep overas a surprise for the kids. (Sheli and the kids were spending the night at Mom and Dad's) I knew the kids were going to be SO EXCITED! I told them that daddy was bringing them home a treat. We spent the next 30 minutes playing 20 questions?
-Can we eat it? No.. I don't think they would appreciate that
-Can we play with it? Yes
-Is it a mammal? Yes
-Do we get to keep it? Until tomorrow
-Is it an animal? I'm sure at times
-Does it eat carrots? I think so
-Is it a parrot? chinchilla? ferret? dog? kittens?
They stood at the window and waited for their surprise. It was worth the wait. They were so excited to have their cousins over. Poor Johnnette and Anna haven't had a moments peace.