Merry Christmas!

What a wonderful Christmas! We had a great time Christmas Eve with my mom. My Aunt came from Hawaii. We had a wonderful night. Christmas was just as wonderful. Got to spend the afternoon with my wonderful in-laws! Dinner was FABULOUS!!!! I absolutely LOVE the holidays. I love spending time with all my loved ones! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family. I am also SO blessed to have married into a wonderful family. Love you all! Happy Holidays!

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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.

Crazy Hair Day

Today was crazy hair day at the kids' school. The kids love crazy hair day.... That is until they have to come home and take out all the rubber bands... OUCH!

Beach Weekend

Friday afternoon we started our annual weekend campout at South Carlsbad State beach. My good friend makes reservations every year for my birthday. We normally stay from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning. Every year this seems to fall on day lights savings. So Sunday morning we are always moaning and groaning cause we lose an hour and we are NEVER ready to go home. This year we decided to stay until Monday. It was a great decision. We had a fantastic weekend. I was definitely ready to go home on Monday though. I was ready to take a shower without having to have a pocket of tokens. I was ready to use my OWN bathroom. I was ready to find my clothes somewhere other than a suitcase. I was also ready to eat food without enjoying the crunch of sand. BUT so I don't sound like I am complaining...... I had a BLAST! It couldn't have gone better. The weather was slightly colder than the last few years, but we had NO rain and lots of sunshine. Eberly convinced me to go boogie boarding not only once, but twice. It was great once my body got numb :) The kids enjoyed playing in the little pools of water. Some of them were as warm as bath water. We also enjoyed exploring the little reef when the tide went down. We were able to find 4 little hermit type crabs. I love camping at the beach. There is nothing better than sitting around the camp fire enjoying smores and laughing with each other. We were fortunate to have our boys join us for a night. Some of Mike's co-workers also came out for an afternoon. Thanks honey for providing us with plenty of wood. He loaded a whole truck bed full of wood. I, of course, thought we had too much. Glad he didn't listen to me. We had just enough.
Here are some pics from the beach. Sorry it is kind of long, but I think if you click on the pic it will let you move through the pics faster. If you want to do the normal slide show you have to click on the first picture or it keeps on repeating the same pic. Not sure why it is doing this other than to frustrate me. Hope you enjoy. Thanks to ALL who made this the best birthday weekend ever!

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Future Entreprenuer

Sara lost her 2nd tooth on Saturday. She was so excited to get some money from the tooth fairy. The tooth fairy put a dollar under her pillow, but she couldn't find her tooth. The tooth fairy didn't want to wake her up, so she decided to leave it under Sara's pillow.
Sara woke up the next morning and I could hear her talking to Katie. "The tooth fairy gave me a dollar! But she didn't take me tooth! I am going to put my tooth under my pillow again tonight and get another dollar from the tooth fairy!!!"
I guess we know who will be making the big bucks in our family.

Do you like cats? This just might change your mind

I know that there are many of you out there that don't like cats. My kitty might just change your mind. We have a grey striped tabby named Sparky. He is about 3 years old. He is the sweetest thing ever. His favorite person in the whole house is Eberly. He adores her. He comes out whenever she comes home. He is almost always either in her lap or in her bed. He rubs and snuggles her. Here is the kicker....
Whenever the kids are sick... His "kitty intuition"kicks in. He will snuggle and sleep with whoever is ailing. It is the cutest thing. We don't know how he knows.. but he does. The kids love it! They say that Sparky is taking care of them. Jimmy is fighting a cold/fever right now. The last two nights as soon as I tucked Jimmy in for bed, Sparky curled up right next to him. There is something to be said for fuzz therapy (to quote Calvin and Hobbes) :)

Great way to spend a Tuesday!

The kids have the whole week off of school. We decided this morning that we were going to head up to the snow in Julian. It is actually a pretty short drive from where we live. On the way up we got kind of worried, because we didn't see any snow. It was getting colder and colder, but no white stuff. Then all of a sudden the rain turned into snow. We ended up at the same place we went a couple of years ago. Just some great hills on the side of the road. But, of course, we couldn't have a trip without some drama. Michael went to make a 3 point turn and "thunk" we got stuck in the snow. I will admit that it did not remotely look like the snow was deep where he was turning. So Mike and I got out of the car and started trying to dig it out. It was not working. LOVE law enforcment... A Border Patrol agent came by and within a couple of minutes a parks officer came by. They blocked the traffic and pulled us out. It made for another great memory.
It ended up being a FANTASTIC day! We layered the kids up quite well. The weather was wonderful! One minute it was sunny, but you could see the clouds coming and they were packed with snow. So the kids got to experience being in the snow while it was actually snowing. The kids had so much fun sledding down the hill..... We ALL had a lot of fun sledding down the hill. We ended the day with a trip to the Julian Pie Company! It was a great way to spend a Tuesday!

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Save the Date

I received a letter in the mail yesterday from our Primary Presidency. They have scheduled all the baptisms for the whole year of 2009. Katie will be getting baptized this year! She is so excited about it. The date they have selected for her baptism will be June 6, 2009! So please save the date. She would love to have all of you, that can, be there for her special day. Time and location will follow when it gets closer!

Please tell me you have done this?

I was having a very productive day yesterday. It had been a busy weekend and I had a lot of housework to catch up on. It was about 1:30 or so and I was feeling pretty good. I got most of the housework done, plus some extra things... Our landlord was coming in the afternoon and I wanted to make sure things were extra tidy. Around 1:50 or so my landlord shows up and we are outside talking. I heard the house phone ring, but I ignored it. Most of the time it isn't anyone I want to talk to anyways. Everyone seems to call me on my cell phone. I got done talking with my landlord and decided to check to see who had called. It said that Michael had called. When he calls on the home phone it usually means he couldn't get a hold of me on my cell. So I went and got my cell phone to call him back. I noticed I had 4 missed calls. Of course I was thinking in my head...."yeesh Mike get a grip! I was just outside!" (He tends to panic when I don't answer the phone.) I also noticed that I have 2 voicemails and a call from an 858 number. I sort of recognized the 858 number as possibly being the kids' school. Oh no! I thought maybe one of the kids was sick and I missed the call. That would explain all the phone calls from Mike. I was half right. It was the school. AND Mike did have a legitimate reason to call me so many times. OOOPS! I forgot to pick up the kids! Normally the kids get out of school at 3:20. On Wednesdays they get out at 1:40! Fortunately I have a fantastic friend who turned around and waited with the kids. I didn't even leave the house until after 2. Fortunately I have very forgiving children. They will be teasing me about it for the next month, but at least they aren't bitter :) Have you ever done this?

Who has control here?

Yesterday we went to Poway Lake. (I will add more about that later) We took Bella with us. Jimmy kept on asking and asking if he could hold her leash. We told him "yes", but he had to make sure he controlled her. As you can see in this picture he did quite well.

Until.........

Bella decided it was time to play soccer. Hmmmm... who has the control now?