Tuesday, March 8, 2011

2011 already!!

Well 2010 came and went and I hardly blogged! I wonder if anyone is even out there to read what I post? :0)

Just an update on everyone: Everyone has had another birthday since I posted.

Shaleea is now 5 and started kindergarten. She really likes it but misses being home with me. The feeling is completely mutual! I miss having her home too. She still acts like "my little baby" sometimes and I guess thats ok, sometimes. She is reading really well and has lots of friends.

Kirsten turned 8 and is now baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She was so excited for her baptism date to get here. Family come from Arizona and friends and family from here all celebrated the special day with us. She is such an athletic little thing. Her p.e. teacher has told me several times that he can't wait until she is in jr high so she can play sports for him. I told him, lets not rush it!

Ashlynn is 10 and is still such a good student. We recently got her latest report card and her lowest grade was a 97. She was so worried about the Taks test but I am sure she aced it. She is still a mamma's girl and loves to do everything I love to do. She is about the most nurturing person you will ever meet. She can't wait to babysit and babies LOVE her!

Cody is now 12! He soon will be ordained to be a deacon in church. That means he will get to pass the sacrament to the congregation every week. He can hardly wait. Cody was able to play sports this year with his school. He played football and then basketball. He is becoming a pretty good athlete and he enjoys it so much. If it wasn't for sports, he would be begging me to home school him. He is not like is his sister. He hates to learn! Typical boy!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Congratulations Cody!

Cody crossed over from a cub scout to a boy scout right after his 11th birthday in March. I am so proud of him! He worked so hard to earn all of the badges that he needed to finish cub scouts. His leader told him that he has earned more badges than any scout that he knows. Cody is a hard working kid and I am thankful for that.


It was a tearful night for me. It is hard for me to come to terms with the fact that my only son is growing up. He is growing up to be such a fine young man and I am very proud of him. Cody has always been such a happy person and such a good example to those around him. I have parents tell me that their kids think Cody is so awesome! I am glad that my son can be that boy that others look up to.


Cody- You are amazing!! You are my favorite son!!! :0) I hope that you continue to have a strong testimony of our Savior. I hope that you will always strive to reach for the stars and to be the best person that you know how!! I love you very much!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Little Dribblers

Yep... It's that time again! Time to duke it out on the court apparently! Cody has some issues that he felt like needed to be taken to the court. Nothing like a mortified mother! LOL! I was running the clock and stats and with every foul or every wildly thrown ball, I was wishing I could crawl under the stats table. Wes wasn't so lucky as he was refereeing the game. Hopefully Cody will have a better attitude at this weeks game.



Ashlynn and Kirsten both push so hard while playing. I think that all of my kids will do well in sports when they are old enough to play. The little kids are so fun to watch. Some of the kids don't even dribble the ball! They just pick it up and run! We have so much fun watching them. The kids will play their last game on April 1st. They will each receive trophies there so more pics to come! I will post a video of Ashlynn playing too. I didn't get a good one this time.


Brainiac

Reposting this. I noticed that it was still a "draft" from March of last year!


I had a late night last night so I went back to bed this morning after I got the kids out the door at 6:30. I had just fallen back to sleep when Shaleea comes running in and tells me to come and look at what she made. I was thinking that she had just colored a cute little picture again and tried to convince her to let me sleep but she wouldn't give up. So I got up almost irritated to see what she had colored so early in the morning. I tried to not show my irritation by putting on a smile while walking into the kitchen. I was in for a little shock!! Low and Behold.....It was NOT a colored picture. She made her version of a xylophone!! What?! Where did she learn how to do this? I have no clue where she got this idea but it sure was a neat surprise! I had to grab the camera and make her do it again!!



I am proud of my little brainiac!!



Thursday, February 11, 2010

Disneyland

We were able to go on a trip to Disneyland at the end of January. That was the best trip ever! Disneyland is truly magical! We chose the perfect time of year to go. The weather was beautiful! We left rain and snow and arrived to warmth and sunshine.


The kids were so excited to fly in an airplane because it has been about 7 years since they have flown. This was Shaleea's first time in a plane so she was ecstatic!!
Our flight was delayed because of the bad weather here and by the time we arrived in LA, got our rental car and drove to the hotel it was after midnight. The kids were exhausted but almost too excited to sleep. We let them sleep in a little but I was too excited so I got them all up and we were off to Disneyland! We tried to take one section of Disney at a time and do everything in the area but later found out that we didn't have time for everything so we had to start to pick and choose what we were going to do.
I had budgeted for eating out one meal a day and I was going to try and have that one meal not be in the park so I didn't pay an arm and a leg for it. Well I blew that theory the first night. It was worth it but CRAZY expensive! We were getting ready to leave the park to go back to the hotel to rest and then go to dinner. I noticed that the Celebration parade was getting ready to start so we decided to just stay and watch the parade and eat dinner there. Cody and I went searching for something to eat while Wes and the girls stayed to save us a spot on Main Street. Twenty minutes later I came back with 6 hotdogs, 6 small bags of chips and 3 small sodas. Guess how much that cost??? If you guessed $53 then you were right!! I told you....CRAZY expensive!!! I had a friend tell me that I should have taken a picture of my $53 dollar hotdog to scrapbook it!
We were able to do most of the rides together as a family which was really fun. I opted out on going on the tea cups because I am a wimp and get sick on rides that spin you around endlessly! One of the best rides that the whole family went on was Soarin' over California in California Adventure. That was awesome! That was the ride with longest wait time and it was only 30 minutes. The rest of the rides were no more than 15. Perfect time of year to go. This is a video of Shaleea on a ride called Fliks Flyers in "A Bugs Land". We went on this about three times while everyone else went on the Tower of Terror. She loved it! In the video she kept digging in her pocket for her lucky two sided penny that she found on the ground because she was afraid of loosing it.


The girls got to meet Cinderella, Snow White and Aurora. We all met Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, Jesse from Toy Story, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore.




Our last night at Disney we went to the fireworks show and I had the biggest "mom"moment then. I am a big baby and I almost cried at how awesome it was to be in such a magical place with my beautiful family sharing some of the best memories of their lives. I have always felt that family trips were a necessity to bring your family closer but this just confirmed it. The fireworks show was absolutely unreal! Tinker Bell flying over the castle with a million beautiful fireworks going off all around her, was just the icing on the cake!


The next day we decided to go to the beach before we flew home. We found a really nice beach in New Port Beach to stop at and let the kids play. By kids, I mean all of us. The water was a chilly but that didn't stop my children and husband.




While we were at the beach, Wes went to the van to get out a bag of cereal we had left over. He started to feed the birds and HOLY COW... they came from everywhere! He was surrounded by them. Reminded me of the bird lady from Home Alone 2. Anyway, Wes would toss cheerios into the air and the birds would catch them with no problem. I couldn't believe how quick they were. The best part was a big pelican even flew in to join in on the fun! The kids followed him around and pet his head. I was laughing and thinking of my good friend Ruth the whole time (she HATES birds). This picture is for you Ruthie!!