Birthdays

Monday was Tessa's 8th birthday - I can't believe she is 8 already, yikes. We went out on a date to Baskin Robbins for her free birthday cone, she chose America's Birthday Cake flavor, it was actually pretty good :) Then we went to see GG. I'm posting a picture of GG and Tessa, yes, GG's poor beautiful face looks pretty terrible, it kind of kills me to look at her at first, but then I look at her more and I see that she is still beautiful and it looks kind of like a big colorful butterfly landed on her nose and spread her colorful wings out over her face. So now I just enjoy the colors. You can see a little red scratch on her nose, that's where it was broken. The swelling has gone down a lot and now all that's left is the discoloration which will slowly dissipate. Are you ready for the picture?

She is still beautiful, isn't she?

Next Tessa and I went shopping and she picked out a little present for herself with her birthday money.

Then we came home and got ready for the big birthday party at G&G Livingstone's. We had yummy food.
Fun times swimming.


Delicious birthday cakes. It was kind of ice cream themed. I was trying to recreate a birthday cake I made for Tessa years ago. I can't find a picture of it, but it turned out better before, I had melting issues this time. But it tasted really yummy and Tessa liked it so that's all we needed, eh? Amanda's birthday cake was made with ice cream sandwiches, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, peanut butter, toffee bits. . . Tessa asked me when I was making it why I thought Aunt Nunu would like it? I told her it was just a wild guess on my part :) Silly girl.

And last night Amanda's brilliant plan of getting all sisters to go to a Diamondbacks game and sit at the Friday's Grill place and eat lots of food was realized. The baseball players played baseball and we did not really pay attention at all. We did notice that when a home run was it it was hard for us to hear each other though. . .

We had SUCH a good time. I can't remember when I laughed so hard or ate so much. It hurt. Sisters are the best.

Who else understands that "Las Cruses" is really funny and that it needs to be said a certain way. Who else knows that Lindsey can't hear very far with that eye?

Or that this next picture is really funny for many reasons?


We had too much fun and I love them a lot. I hope my kids like each other when they grow up too :) Genius idea, Pookie.

Utah Trip

We went to Utah this past weekend for Baby Stone's blessing. We left Wednesday afternoon, it always amazes me the sheer volume of stuff we need to take with us. Here's a picture of just our flip-flops.
But we somehow managed to get loaded up forgetting only a couple cruxial items. Here's the beasts in the car on the way out of town.

Here's a little video clip. This is Alana's fun name spelling game. She likes it because she gets to just say A for most of it :) It's because some of us are from cAnAdA eh!



We got there and I didn't take the camera out for any of the fun Utah stuff because I was having too much FUN! We played with Katie, Kent, Afton, and Stone the first day. We went to several parks and had a lovely time being OUTSIDE and not frying (although we did get some suntans). The kids loved frolicking about and rolling in the grass. It was lovely. Kent's family came from the Middle East (ha-ha, just kidding, from in the middle of the country and east of us, more specifically Iowa and NC) that night so we were dismissed from the Griffiths and sent away. Although, to her great credit and as a testimony to her patience and good will, Katie offered to continue putting us up even though she had five people arriving any second.

But we moved along even though it would have been super fun to have 9 adults and 7 kids under their lovely roof for the next three days :) We went over to the Ballards house (that's BallaRd not Ballad - a Ballad is a boy duck). The parent Ballards were on their way home from Girl's Camp but 9 year old Kennedy opened the door for us and immediately said, "Where have you BEEN!" It made us feel good :) We've missed the Mighty Mighties.

The next two days were just fun. The kids loved running wild and playing, it was very agreeable to all, Ryan and I hardly saw them except when it was time to eat and go to bed and we were all happy with that. Ryan and I played with Jared and Trish. We played tennis two mornings and, as promised, I was TERRIBLE. Sometimes I hit the ball but it mostly didn't go to the right place. It was sad sad sad. But Trish, Ryan and Jared were really good. Ryan and I won maybe 2 sets out of like 20 or something terrible like that. We also went swimming and that was lots of fun too. Peter and 3 year old Gannon had so much fun fighting with each other, they were adorable. They missed each other when they weren't together but as soon as they were within a foot of each other they were shouting and kicking. Good times. They will be best friends. They kind of remind me of Jared and Ryan. . .

Here's Gannon, Afton, and Peter in the tub after an especially gritty park trip. I am telling you these are three of the sauciest two and three year olds you will ever come across! They are awfully cute though.

We had a picnic at a park (the weather was just too nice, we spent most of our time at parks) with all Kent's family and ours, Ryan's parents and Jess and Mitch came up too so there were enough "Livingstones" around to make it a real party :) Tiffy Fletcher even came down from Salt Lake to join us for the picnic. Grandma Griffith taught us a card game called "Farmers Rummy" which I was really good at except I lost both games due to poor dealing on Terry Livingstone's part. He's gonna have to practice. It was fun even though I didn't win. Kent's sister Michelle and her family were there and she's got five kids and thankfully the older two, Luke and Josh, are boys who are close to Jeffey's age so he could run around with them for a while and get in some Boy Time. He is very patient with the girls but he needs some Boy Time occasionally.

The main event was the blessing of Baby Kent, he is an adorable little pleasant baby - by the way. Their ward was packed because they blessed 5 baby boys that morning. Yes, 5. All Boys. Yikes. That nursery is in for it in 18 months :) Kent did a wonderful job giving sweet Stoney a lovely blessing. They are a darling family. Kate was a gracious and fun hostess and we all loved it.

We were sad to come home to 111 degree weather but we came home anyway.

Today is Tessa's birthday so we are ramping up for hers and my Amanda sister's birthday party this afternoon. There will be pictures of all that fun tomorrow, so stay tuned :)

Grandma

Today has been quite a day and even though it is late I had to write about it. I've been so impressed with my family today. My Grandmother, Phyllis, is pretty much an institution for me. She is just always there, unstoppable, completely loveable and she has this wonderful tendency to say the most shocking and surprising things. Well, she's had a hard day, it started out rough and it culminated in her falling on her way back from the dining room this evening and landing square on her face. My sister Lindsey got there to find that Uncle Phil had already arrived even though his youngest son was in the hospital after he cut his hand very badly this morning doing home repairs. Uncle Phil stoically came to the rescue of his dear mother while he received updates about Marc's impending surgery from my Aunt (it turned out he severed 5 tendons, one artery and a nerve - it is a life changing injury that will take at least a year to partially recover from, thankfully he was able to be given wonderful care by skilled doctors and his prognosis is much better than it should be considering how bad the injury was.)

Anyways, they took Grandma to the hospital to find that she had broken her nose and needed three stitches. I arrived at the hospital in time to see them numb her up and stitch her up. I used to think that I was fairly tough. I don't get woozy around blood, I can handle situations. But I've got to say, watching them stick a big needle in her gums to numb her up and then seeing them put the stitches in while she squirmed a bit and seemed so uncomfortable, and seeing her blood dripping down her face, I got woozy and I kind of wanted to punch that nice doctor lady in the face. Then as she was getting ready for bed after we got her home, she found yet another injury up under her bangs near her hair line where she'd bashed her head open in the fall that nobody had noticed (we hadn't wanted to mess up her hair, it really is very pretty). So we got that cleaned up and got her more settled and Uncle Phil went to be with Marc for when he woke up from surgery. And I stayed to help her get to bed. Rubbing her feet I noticed that I got her feet. Pretty soon I noticed blood start dripping down her face after it had filled up the bandaid she had on her nose. It was because of the blood thinners she is on to protect her from having yet another stroke, she has had at least three already. It hurt me to see her hurting and bleeding. She has been thru so much. She lost four baby brothers. She lost her dear Husband to cancer and has been alone for almost 25 years. She lost a dear son. And yet she is still happy and cheerful and so funny. She is a joy to be around even when her face is bashed in and she's had a terrible day.

I hope I got more from her than just her lovely feet.

Talent Show & Kindergarten Graduation

Here are my dearies. Leah sang "Fireflies" with her friend Bliss for the talent show on Wednesday and Tessa and a bunch of her friends did some gymnastics. Unfortunately they turned off the lights for "effect" for Tessa's tumbling so you can see a little skinny shadow doing cartwheels and such, but you get the idea. Then there's some clips of Alana's Kindergarten Graduation. I hope you don't mind the long video, it's like 9 minutes long. Plus the videographer had a hard time being steady since she had a two year old in her lap most of the time. But you get the idea.

We love our little girls!

Happy 12 Years

Today is our 12 year anniversary. The picture above was taken 13 years ago tomorrow at my sister's wedding reception. She was married May 13th, so her 13th anniversary is tomorrow and our 12th is today. I like the symmetry in that. We were too cute then.

These are some of our engagement pictures. We were cute then too.

See how lucky I am?
I remember when I fit into those jeans. . . Good times.

Then we got married. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful husband who also happens to be a fantastic father and an honorable man.

Plus he is a hottie.

A Good Weekend

I had a good weekend. On Saturday we had our friends the Lee's over for dinner and we all managed to squash around the kitchen table (all 12 of us, it's a big table), the kids had fun and Ryan and I enjoyed visiting with Jared and Alyssa. We talked a lot about their little boy Edward that they recently lost due to his very premature birth, they showed us pictures of him, he was so tiny, just over a pound in weight but he was perfectly formed and so beautiful. I am so grateful to know that we can have our dear ones with us forever and that Alyssa and Jared will have the opportunity to raise their son and that their relationship will continue forever. It makes me squeeze my babies a little bit tighter. After we shed some tears we got the kids to come inside and play "spoons" with us. I remember loving that game when I was a kid and I still love it, it's fun to sit next to Ryan when he passes the cards to me, I don't know how he does it but he can somehow monitor exactly what he's passed me and he keeps track of what I've kept so he knows when I've got four of a kind before I do and he's always ready to grab a spoon as soon as I do. He is too smart. And cute, he's cute too.

On Sunday I woke up to Peter climbing on me asking me to come help him get a bowl of cereal which is how I wake up every morning. Thankfully my darling children were on their game for Mother's Day so they removed him and took care of him and I got to shower while Ryan and the kids made me delicious chocolate waffles. They served me breakfast in bed as is the tradition and they climbed all over me and begged for bites, which is also traditional. I got to eat a lot and so did everyone else. Then they presented me with a lot of Mother's Day cards. About 30 actually. Tessa and Alana were very focused on quantity this year. I looked at my haul and immediately thought, oh good, they used all my envelopes. They did, every last one. The girls were very pleased to have found them up in the cupboard and they made good use of them, after all, they were just sitting there, doing nothing.

About five minutes and a few paper cuts later I had opened them all and enjoyed all the hearts and I love you's. I'm pretty blessed to have such thoughtful and loving kids :)

Church was lovely. I got to teach the Mia Maids and Beehives combined and they were really fun girls, we had a good time. I love going to church.

We hurried home to make dinner really quick, our next door neighbors, Margaret and Robert, came over for dinner. We had a lovely time. They don't have children yet so they watched our lively kids with wide eyes. I hope we didn't convince them not to have kids :) They were really fun. I recently ordered a solar oven online and when it gets here Margaret and I are going to cook food in it, we're also going to see if we can get our gardens to grow, we had fun sharing stories of our failed gardening attempts. Although, I don't want to jinx it by telling you, but I do have something growing in the yard, I'm 90% sure it's a tomato plant, it's growing in the compost pile. It seems happy there so I'm going to leave it. We put a bunch of bell pepper seeds in there from dinner prep last night, maybe I'll get a pepper plant in my compost too! Cross your fingers!

After dinner we went to Ryan's parents house for the Mother's Day Phone Call from Elder Livingstone. Justin has been out for a little over a year and he is doing great. I got to talk to him for five whole seconds :) We're proud of our little brother. He is a good boy. I also got to see and visit with three of my sisters there, plus Ryan's parents and his brother David and that was fun.

We came home and I got to talk to my Mommy and Dad who are in Montreal on their mission. It was lovely to talk to them for 48 minutes. I love them a lot. I'm thankful for my dear Mother and for all she has taught me. She is wonderful.

It was a great weekend. I love spending time with my family, especially my Ryan. I wouldn't be a mom without him. He makes my life fun and happy and I love him a lot. The kids are great too, but like I tell them when they ask who I like the best. The answer is always Daddy, he's my favorite. I picked him first :)

Funny Ha-Ha

Alana and I were driving to see GG (my grandmother) today and here's what Alana said:

A: "Why aren't you allowed to say the letter P?"

M: "Huh?"

A: "There's a sign with a letter P and a line thru it."

Ha-ha! Get it?! She's funny.