Day 3 - Grow A Garden

Today is Day 3 of the 77 Days of Summer GROW A GARDEN... Well, if you saw yesterday's post we went on a 4 mile hike. The kids were completely EXHAUSTED from their hike. They had no desire to do any gardening whatsoever. Can't say that I blame them. On top of that Jimmy also has bronchitis and Eberly was spending then night at a friend's house. So we decided to move onto Day 4...HAVE A READING CONTEST! What a great way to spend the day when you are exhausted. We changed it up a bit though...Instead of doing the number of books we read..we are doing the number of pages. I thought this would make the contest a little more fair since Jimmy's books are only a handful of pages and Eberly's are just slightly longer :) When the kids finish a book they will let me know and we will record it. I will also take this time to discuss the book with them to make sure they really read it :) I will keep you posted how they are doing. I think I am going to join this contest too.

Day 2 - Treasure Hunt

Today is Day 2 of the 77 days of summer. Today was HAVE A TREASURE HUNT! I decided to change it up a bit. We did a Treasure Hike instead. Mike, Katie and Jim are going to Little Lakes Valley in a few weeks. They really wanted to test out Katie's shoes and backpack and to see if she could handle a hike. So we went on a hike together as a family at Daley Ranch in Escondido. We hiked about 4 miles. We had a fantastic time. And yes...we did find some treasures along the way....pretty flowers, great views, lakes, a tarantula halk, snake trails and yes...coyote poop..and lots of it. We had so much fun. Even little Jimmy who has bronchitis did a great job. This hike had a lot of hills too. I was really proud of them.

77 Days of Summer

Yes.. I am finally blogging again. My mother in law has a fantastic list of 77 things to do over the summer. http://www.gingerproffitt.com/res_list.php?cat=13536&cn=77+Days+of+Summer+Fun I have decided that I am going to try and follow this list..as closely as I can. I may have to arrange things here and there.. but I will give it a shot.. Today is HAVE A PAJAMA DAY!!! Yep... It is noon and we are all still in our pajamas. I have accomplished a lot today while still being very comfortable... I have worked (from home of course), done dishes, done about 5 loads of laundry, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom, made my bed. I think we need to have more pajama days.

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...