Twofer

I had a great weekend.  Saturday was our 14 year anniversary (aww!) and Sunday was Mother's Day so it was pretty awesome.  On Friday Ryan took me on a date to see the Avengers and go to lunch and I had such a good time.  That movie was really good, I love that Joss Whedon guy, he has skills.  My Ryan is such a great date, he makes me very happy.  I'm glad he let me catch him. 

Saturday was a busy day we had a butterfly birthday party to attend for an adorable little girl in the ward who is a friend of Peter's, Ryan handled that while the girls and I went to a stake activity days Mother/Daughter luncheon.  All three of my girls qualify for activity days now, Alana turns 8 this month so they invite her to come to the activities.  She chose a great month to come, earlier this month we did mother/daughter hair styles for an activity and there is another activity on Wednesday.  She is really getting her money's worth.  I think it is crazy that I have three girls in activity days.  Yikes!  So the Saturday luncheon, we invited my grandmother, Phyllis, to come with us and she graciously accepted.  She is always fun to have around.  They had a little program and then the lunch.  It was very fun and sweet to have all my girls and my beautiful Grandma with me. 

My babies got up at their normal time Sunday and worked and worked in the kitchen to bring me breakfast in bed.  Jefferson was a capable leader, he had a vision of how it was to go and he carried it out.  Unfortunately his sisters snarled his plans a bit so there was a kerfuffle, but breakfast was delivered safely by 6:30am.  They bring me breakfast and I share it with all of them, it's a fun tradition, all my little baby birds lined up for a bite of pancakes or banana bread.  We made it to church on time.  Alana has had a sore throat and a slight temp so she was pretty sure she wanted to stay home but I strong armed her into coming and she survived.  She did end up coming to Relief Society with me and sitting with her sweet gymnastics teacher, Mrs. Katie.  Hopefully that will help her grow up with the impression that RS is a happy fun place and she will be excited to go there for reals in ten years.

After church we went out to Chandler to have dinner with my Mom and sisters.  Whit had a photo backdrop set up and we all raided her closet so we could look cuter and she took pictures.  Or rather, Tyler took pictures.  He was entertained by our silliness and we were entertained by him and his brothers hanging things over the back of the backdrop into the pictures while we weren't looking.  Good times.  It was brave of Whit and Nathan to have us over since it was the very same day as their 15th anniversary!  Nathan is a good sport, who wouldn't want a bunch of weird giggly "grown" women in his closet trying on his wife's clothes and letting their kids run wild in his house on his anniversary?  It was a fun party and some of the pictures were okay.  I like all of our reactions as we see the pics, "Oh my hair! My double chins! My belly!"  Why do we have to get old?  But I love my sisters.  I love my Mom, she is a great lady and I am grateful for her example. 

So, to all the ladies out there, I hope you had a great Mother's Day weekend and that you felt loved!

All About My Ryan

When I picked up Zeke from school today he got in the suburban and said, "Why is this car all broken in here?"  I said, "Uncle Ryan took it apart to fix the rear air conditioning, when the part comes he will put it in and put everything back together and it will work!  Isn't that wonderful?  He can fix anything." 
Zeke, "Oh really, anything?"
 Me, "Yep, anything." 
Zeke, "What about brick walls?" 
Me, "Yep." (sure, why not). 
Zeke, "What about metal?"
Me, "Yep." (as long as Mitch came over with his welding stuff probably).
Zeke, "What about a car with no roof, no windows and no seats?"
Me, "For sure, he's done that lots of times."
Pete, "Dad has fixing powers!"
Me, "Dad has super fixing powers!"
Zeke, "If he had super fixing powers he wouldn't need tools."
Pete, "Dad has lots of tools."
Me, "Dad uses tools and his big muscles and his super smart brain to fix things."
Pete, "My dad can lift the banana chair!"
Zeke, "Can your Dad lift that candy store over there?"
Pete, "No."
Zeke, "I could lift a chair."
Pete, "You and my Dad are strong."

Little boys are adorable and Daddies are wonderful.

What I've been up to...

 I made these, but that's old news, I also made the swimsuits they are wearing.  Nope, I haven't even cut Alana's out yet, I need a couple of days to work up the nerve again.  Sewing takes a lot out of me mentally.

I inherited a box of tomatoes so I scalded, blanched, peeled and froze them to use for laters.  I've been inheriting or otherwise acquiring lots of veggies this spring and I've been putting them in the freezer, it's nice to have chopped onions, bell peppers and eggplant on hand.  I think I need to start canning though...  That thought makes me tired.

Today I finally stopped talking about and thinking about how the house needs to be painted and I just went ahead and started painting.  I got half of the front trim painted and it no longer makes me cringe as much thinking how ugly it is out there.  I will just go ahead and paint a couple hours in the mornings and eventually it will be done.  Who woulda thought it wasn't as hard as I worked it up to be in my mind?

Also, I lost a foot, or I cut off a foot.  Of hair length.  Yep, it is gone and it feels so very nice to be able to not get it caught in doors or windows or behind me or under my arms...  Also, I'm pretty sure my vacuum beater bar will thank me.  That thing has had a rough time of it.  I have reports that it looks good and Ryan seems to still like me so I'm very happy with it.  Bring on summertime. 

But not really, school is out in three weeks and two days and I don't feel prepared.

I love to see the temple

So yesterday at church the second time Ryan had to take Peter out of Sacrament Meeting (he was a bit of a handful yesterday), they had a sweet little conversation that went sort of like this:
Pete: What's a temple?
Ryan: It is the Jesus' House here on earth.
P: Can we go there?
R: Of course!

So we definitely had to go see the temple yesterday after church.  The Mesa temple is kinda far so we thought we would go see how our new Phoenix Temple is doing, it has been a while since we went to see it.  I knew the little visitor's center probably wouldn't be open on Sunday, but they have a viewing platform (see above pic) where we could stand and see what they've been up to.  We laid about a bit after church and I finally got the feeling that we should go brave the heat and go.  As we pulled into the parking lot, another car arrived loaded up with boys.  We all walked up to the construction trailer together and there was the missionary couple waiting outside.  I was a bit confused that they would be doing tours on Sunday.  Pretty soon I found out that the group of boys was a cub scout den from Anthem and their leaders had called ahead and reserved a showing so we just slipped in with them and got to see the tour.  It was kinda a miracle.

 I am thankful for Peter and for his desire to go see the temple, and that I received a timely prompting to get out the door and that Heavenly Father cares so much about our little family to help us have such a neat experience.  We are so excited about our new temple.  It will be beautiful, all the kids decided they will be married there.  They are just smart, that's all. 

Easter Chicks

I made Easter dresses for the girls and they turned out so cute so Jessica and I dressed them up and made them pretty this morning for some pictures.

They looked really pretty. And Arnon took some lovely pictures, I can't use them quite yet because they are in raw? Hopefully Arnon will cook them for me so that I can post them and stuff. As you can tell, I am up on all that photographic jive talk lingo.

But Jujo likes her dress and I made her and Alana little hair bows. I'm excited for church tomorrow to show off my little ladies.

So between the funeral for Nadine Kellis, which I helped with and our ward Easter party in the park behind us, it was a busy day for us.

Tomorrow our wonderful family will get together for Easter dinner and an egg hunt. Should be fun. Maybe I'll get some cooked pics to show you :)

Happy Birthday

Our Pumpkin Eater is turning 4 today! What?!

We looked at pictures this morning of when he was smaller. He agrees that he is the cutest.

He has been a lot of fun to have around. He keeps getting sweeter and he is learning more and more how to be a good boy.

I just love his face.

Happy birthday darling boy. We love you a lot.

April Fools

Jessica took Leah and Tessa for a sleepover we told her to pull the same tricks on them as we did to the ones that were at home so after the kids fell asleep last night we moved them to different beds and we drew on their faces. Jeff woke up in Tessa's bed, Alana woke up in Jeff's bed, we left Pete in his own bed. Jeff and Alana were both up pretty early and Alana said, "Jeff, why are there swirlies on your face?" Jeff went to the bathroom and I heard him say, "Alana! Why did you draw on my face?!"

I quickly got up to enjoy the confusion. They couldn't figure out why their faces were all drawn on. I fessed up and they all got a good laugh. Peter was amused to see his nose colored like a bunny and pink freckles and a heart drawn on his face, and his tummy had his name on it. Alana's art didn't turn out as well, she was a bit sweaty when I drew on her and it mostly wiped off while she slept.

For breakfast I made blue pancakes and purple eggs with orange bell peppers. It was colorful.

Jess brought the girls back and they laughed about their adventures. Jessica had a hard time drawing on their faces, Tessa kept waking up, at one point she woke Leah up and said, "Leah, someone is drawing on my face." Leah said, "no they aren't, go back to sleep." Good times. They were moved to a different room while they slept and when they were in the wrong room when they woke up Jessica accused them of sleeping in the wrong room! They were confused. Good times.

The downfall is that when I just tried to take a little nap I sensed people sneaking into my room so I said with my eyes closed, "You are not allowed to draw on my face." "Aww Mom! How did you know we were here?" said Leah with a marker poised above me menacingly. "I know everything. You will never be able to sneak up on me." I thought she seemed a bit too keen on sending me for a nap, she even volunteered to wash a pot. Sneaky little kids.