Track Meet

Eliza had her last track meet last night. She competed up an age group because the long jump in her age group was on Sunday, so in order to do long jump, she had to compete at the Bantam level. She did the 100m., 400m and long jump. I just crossed my fingers that she wouldn't get last in her heats. She did great! She got 4th in the 100 and like 7th in the 400m in her heats. Not first, but not ever last and the girls were one and two years older than her. She long jumped 2.51m but didn't make it into the finals. She had a great season and really enjoyed it a lot. She is already looking forward to next year.

Swimming Lessons

For the past two weeks, Ellie and Hattie had swimming lessons. Ellie did great and had so much fun swimming around. Hattie on the other hand, didn't care for it so much! She cried every time it was her turn and would say things like, "I don't want another turn" or "I want _________ to go first" and she'd name another kid in the class. It was heartbreaking at times! She did well though and could get to the side when Miss Jenny dropped her in. I think if she didn't cry so much she could have learned a little more. Oh well...there is always next time.

Summer

The first week of summer has come and gone and it was great! I had a lot of fun with all my girls home and I think they had fun, too! I always go back and forth about what our routines will be and how I'll approach our summer. Here is what I decided: each morning, just like during the school year, the three oldest girls will have a "chore chart" that has their chores they have for that day. Every day they do their "daily 5" (make bed, tidy room, say prayers, eat breakfast, get dressed (put PJs away) along with two to three other chores. Sometimes one of them is to do a workbook page or just typical household chores--it all just varies. Those are just things they have to do. On top of that, they have the chance to earn "Daddy Dollars" which they can redeem for bigger things--like a date with mom or dad, a new t-shirt, etc. I have it set so it'll take them at least three weeks to earn one of those things. They have to do bigger things to earn those dollars. I was going to have all their littler chores be worth Daddy Dollars and they had to use them for TV time or computer time, but I didn't want to start something that would be too hard to keep up or keep track of. And with my girls they don't typically abuse TV time or they aren't on the computer too much, so I figured unless it became a problem I would not do that. So far so good. Each day I try to have some sort of activity. This week it's been easy because Ellie and Hattie have had swimming lessons, so everyone got to swim. one day was the library and on Friday, we got to meet my cousin Emali who is visiting from Oregon. We met her and her three girls at Desert Ridge so the girls could play in the water and Em and I could visit. So fun!

Random pictures:

For a while, Ruby would make this really funny face. I am glad I got a picture of it because she doesn't do it anymore.
Hattie training another princess-to-be...
One afternoon we made bread into animal shapes.
We got a couple of zucchini from our garden!

Ellie's Music/Art Class

Since January Ellie has been in a little music/art class one day a week for a couple of hours. She had such a blast with Miss Carrie. They did music, bell, fun songs, and various art projects. A couple weeks ago, they had their last class, where the moms came and watched them sing some of their songs. Carrie also gave them the cutest ABC book that had pictures of them somehow representing each letter. Ellie was so sad her class had to come to an end! (Hattie got to help with the bells on the last day--she wasn't in the class!)

Princess Ruby

Eliza and Hattie had fun dressing Ruby up the other day.

Pictures

I've done a few photo shoots lately but haven't posted anything. So here is what I've been up to. The last couple were just some fun presets I was playing around with in Lightroom.

A few days before Mother's Day, Terri and I hosted a little dinner and photo-shoot for some deserving Moms who just needed a little pick-me-up or needed a little love on Mother's Day. We had a spread of food and then took pictures of the moms with their daughters. What a fun time.

Birthday

So today I am another year older! I started my day out with a hike, then we got the girls off to school. It's their last day. My mom took Ellie and Hattie to their swim lesson because I had to pick my girls up from school. I'll get to that in a minute. For my birthday my parents got me a really nice blender. (I asked for one!). Ours was leaking and pieces were breaking off. So I was really excited to get a new one. Then tonight Brian took us all the Paradise Bakery for dinner, then he had ordered a really cute ice cream cake from 31 Flavors. It was pink and in the shape of a purse. It was very yummy, too. It was funny because Brian had bought me a blender, too, but I'll just return that one. He also got me some cooling racks I've been wanting and a gift card to Kohls. They have some perfume and sunglasses I want. Yay! It was a good day, but I don't like getting older! I feel like I have more and more aches and pains. Ugh!!

Summer has officially begun! Today was the girls last day of school. They found out who their new teachers are for next year. At first Eliza wasn't excited but after she met her and heard a few more things about her, she is excited. And she has a few friends in her class. Libby didn't get either of the two teachers i was hoping, but she seems excited and her really good friend is in her class and her cousin. I am excited for her about that. Both of them had a really good year this year though and did great! They are looking forward to some downtime now!

Mother's Day

On Saturday Terri and I photographed a wedding, when I got home, Brian had the table all set nice for two, with a table cloth, place cards (Eliza helped), a dozen red roses as the centerpiece and some Harry Connick playing in the background. The bummer is that I missed my hint to pick up some food! He texted me "Going to get dinner?" I said I could for him, but he said he didn't need any (he had eaten earlier). I had already eaten, so I just came home. We had ice cream instead. It was for sure the thought that counted!

On Sunday morning I got to sleep in a little bit and they brought me breakfast in bed. It was my typical oatmeal with peanut butter on a cookie sheet for my tray. Everyone had made me some cute handmade cards. Brian gave me a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure and gift card to Down East. The most meaningful part of that gift was that he took all our girls out to Chandler Mall to get it on Saturday. They had fun though--they got to eat in the food court and play.

Church went well. The young men were in charge of the Mother's Day gift. It was total guy--they handed each mom two Hershey bars--one with nuts and one without. It was perfect but I had to laugh.

I was out with Ruby for Sunday school and most of Relief Society. She is just in that happy but I've-found-my-voice stage. After church and after Brian got home, we headed to my parents' house for dinner. Both of my brothers and their families were there, too, so that was fun. The guys took care of dinner--BBQ hot dogs and burgers, salad, chips, soda and pies for dessert. My parents spoiled me and the sisters-in-law with gift cards to Kohls--now I have to decide if I want the sunglasses I found there or some perfume I have been eying.... We had a great day! The kids had fun, too!


Happy Mother's Day to all!

The Family Proclamation

I'm behind because blogger was giving me issues with pictures!

Two weekends ago was stake conference. I loved the adult meeting on Saturday night. It was one of my favorites so far. At the beginning of the year, we were asked by our stake presidency to memorize the family proclamation. I thought, "Yeah right." It was so long and I was so busy. Then I decided to do it. At one of the ward conferences I attended for stake young womens, the young women who gave them lesson handed out 3x5 cards and had us write down a goal. She was introducing our stake theme and for one of the months the challenge is to give up one worldly interest for a spiritual interest. She had us write down the worldly interested we would give up and what we would replace it with. I said i would give up some sleep to study the scriptures more. So every morning i got up at 5:20 and before I went hiking or running, I would read scriptures and after we got this proclamation challenge, I worked on memorizing that. So that is how I did it. I think I had it done by March. I am very glad I memorized it and I have learned a lot from it and have internalized so much more from memorizing than just reading it. (Brian on the other hand really only took maybe a week or two and crammed it in and had it memorized!).

My point with that other than for documentation sake is that a lot of the conference was dedicated to topics from the proclamation. Sunday's meeting was good, but I was trying to keep five girls reverent.


Other things I have been busy with include our stake YW leadership meeting. We did kind of a "role-play/discussion" type thing where someone read a situation and then we discussed doctrine behind it and ideas of how to deal with it. I thought it was a good meeting, but we were disappointed at the lack of attendance. We get to do it again in October, so hopefully more people will come!

Go Fish! Musical--With Pictures Now

On Tuesday night Libby had her 1st grade musical--Go Fish! This was huge for her. She'd talked about it for a while and she never acted like she wasn't going to perform or go on stage, etc. She did awesome! The musical was so cute and Libby got up on stage and sang all the songs and did all the actions. It just made my heart sing!! We were so proud of her. This is the Libby who won't give a talk in primary or go up and sing for the primary program. Little by little.

The songs were just darling that they sang and I could tell Libby was just having a blast performing. We love her!

I got a lot of cute pictures but for the past two days I can't upload any on here. I'll keep trying!!!

Coming Up For Air

Another week (and a half) has gone by! This past weekend Terri and I photographed a wedding. During the ceremony, I never worked so hard on my camera settings. There were some clouds and the sun kept hiding behind the clouds and then coming out, so I was constantly having to change my settings. It was a lot of work.

I went to the chiropractor on Monday for my leg. He said I have a strained or pulled hamstring. Ugh. It has gotten better though, so hopefully soon it will be back to normal.

The other day I took Ellie and Hattie to the resort for free horse rides. Terri told me about them, so we met up there. Hattie even wore her boots. It was fun.




On Sunday we had a dinner for the laurels who are graduating this year. We made them dinner and then President Wagner spoke for a while about section 84 of the Doctrine & Covenants. Now we just have our leadership training meeting tomorrow night and maybe I can breath a little easier.

Trek & Track

Today started early for Brian and me. Abbie came over at 6:30 to babysit and Brian and I headed off to the church to meet for our trek training. We had to wear our trek/pioneer clothing--we sure looked cute. Ha ha. We drove up to Cherry and were trained in our role as a ma/pa on the trek. We'll be in charge of a family--made up of about 5 boys and 5 girls (ages 14-19)--and we'll reenact the trek the pioneers made across the plains (but only 3.5 days). Today they went over details and equipment we'll need and all that jazz. We also pulled the handcart for a few minutes so we could see what the youth will be doing (on the actual trek, the mas/pas aren't allowed to help push or pull). We also did several activities that we'll be conducting with our family and how we'll process each activity with them. We are excited about our chance to be a ma and pa on this trek. It will be a ton of work but worth it, I'm sure.



Today was also Eliza's big track meet. There were over 2500 athletes in this meet. She ran the 200m and the 100m. There were so many heats of the 200 that it went from about 8:30 till 2 for just that event. Crazy! Eliza did great! She got another PR in the 200 (37.4) and got 2nd in her heat. She got 3rd in her heat in the 100. To pass the time, she and Libby (and my dad) helped sell the programs for the track club and they snacked on yummy snacks provided by Grandma and Grandpa! They had a fun time on the sleepover/track day!

Ouch

Today was much of the same as the rest of the week. I ran the hills and then I came home and complained. I think I pulled muscle or something in the back of my leg. It hurts SO bad. So that has been a big downer for today!

We had a bit of a crazy morning--took Ellie to her class, took Hattie to a birthday party and I went to a camp meeting, then I retraced my steps to pick everyone back up. This afternoon I tried not to walk around too much to see if I could get my leg to feel better. It doesn't. My parents picked Eliza and Libby up from school. They get a little sleepover tonight. Brian and I have trek training all day tomorrow and Eliza has a huge track meet, so they are going to cover for us and take her. THANKS!!!

Tonight we took the little three to Cabelas, then Brian and I grabbed a Which Wich for dinner. SO good!

100 miles an hour

Tonight I told Brian I'd like to have a day when I wasn't going a hundred miles an hour! Today I had a presidency meeting, then we came home for a quick bite to eat, then it was off to the doctor. For me this time. I've had this nagging sore throat for about a week and half which has also caused my ear to hurt! It's so annoying. They swabbed for strep, but he doesn't think it is. He thinks it's just a viral upper respiratory infection that will just have to work its course. Fun!

We came home and I made dinner while the girls played, then Eliza and Libby got home. I nagged...er...encouraged them to get their chores done, then we had dinner right when Brian got home. I helped get everyone out the door to track--Brian took them tonight so I could go to Relief Society. It was about food storage and three-month supply. I have used most of my three month supply, so I need to restock and think of a good rotation system so I am consistently restocking. I don't know why food storage is so stressful to me, but it is!!! I probably think about it too much and make it harder than it's supposed to be. Ackkk!!

Whoa

Wow. I can't believe my last post was on the 6th. Time slipped away! Unfortunately I can't remember what we did each day.

I do know that this week started out clear as far as my calendar, but it really filled up. On Monday, I cleaned up the house from the weekend. I made a yummy salad for dinner--thanks to Karolyn for the recipe--and we had our neighbors over last minute to eat with us. Tuesday we did a few errands in the morning, then we went to my mom's and she made my apron for the pioneer trek. We also taste-tested some scones that she made for an upcoming book group night. She made one from Our Best Bites and one from The Pioneer Woman. Both were so good--different in their own respects but very good. That night Brian and I went to the Suns game. One of the young women in our ward was dancing with her dance company in the pregame show. So we went with the rest of the bishopric to the game. Tyson happened to have tickets from work, so we were able to use those. They were really good seats and 2 were on the floor at the scorer's table, so we rotated those seats during the game. Brian was in heaven! You couldn't get the smile off his face. He's always wanted to sit on the floor at a game. It was a fun experience to be down there. The players are huge. We were two seats over from Al McCoy. He is so little! And right behind us Brian was SO excited to see Mike Wilbon from the ESPN show PTI. He chatted with him for a minute, which was fun for him.



Today turned out to be so busy, too. Chrystalyn called to see if we wanted to plant a row in my father-in-law's garden. Somehow everyone had heard about it but us, so I was totally unprepared but we got seeds and planted a little space in his garden that we'll care for and hopefully get a vegetable or two from it. We went straight from there to track and then home. I am enjoy sitting down right now for a little rest.


I thought this was cute. On Sunday we did our Sunday Stations--thanks to my creative friend Rachel for the idea--but we have different stations that they rotate through. One of them was to build a temple from the blocks. Here is Eliza and Libby's creation. I loved how they made a little lake out front like the one in Mesa.

Track Meet

On Saturday, Eliza had a track meet. She ran the 100m and 200m. She wanted to do the 400, but they don't have that event for her age. She ran well--getting her PR in both events. She placed 12 overall in both events. 12th out of 61 in the 100 and 12th out of 49 in the 200. But better her previous time by one and two seconds was awesome!

Maybe my mom will update her blog and post some pictures. Wink, wink!

Easter

This year for Easter, the Easter bunny sent the girls on a little scavenger hunt to find their baskets which ended up being out back on the BBQ. They always have fun hunting for their baskets. Inside they found some chocolates and a swimming suit. Of course, Hattie had to wear hers around all day and hasn't taken it off much since she got it. We ended up exchanging Libby's, Ellie's and Ruby's to get a different size or fit, but everyone is set now. The rest of the day we watched General Conference. For me, there was a obvious theme about motherhood and the importance of mothers. I have such a huge responsibility as do all mothers!
(watching conference in the tent)

For dinner, we went over to Brian's parents' house for dinner. We had turkey, ham and the fixings. I made a Chocolate Mousse Crunch Cake for Brian's birthday. Yum!!

Rice Cereal

I always start my babies on rice cereal probably later than most. The doctor always suggests it around 4 months, but I don't start until about 6 months. For me it's like once you start, you can't stop! Ruby has liked it pretty well but is just trying to get used to getting it in the back of her mouth to swallow properly. My other girls love watching her eat and helping to feed her.
(excuse the red-eye)

Field Trip

I forgot to mention Eliza's field trip. Last Monday I got to go with Eliza and the rest of her grade to the Desert Botanical Garden. We had a fun time. It was nice because they have guides there that take you around and teach you things. I thought it would be like the zoo where you have a small group and you just wander around. I did have a small group, but we were with a couple other small groups and a person from the garden who showed us around. It was much better that way, I thought! We also were able to go in the butterfly pavilion. I did well this time. I don't like things flying around my head--even butterflies--but it wasn't bad this time and nothing came too close. We did see some very pretty ones, too.

31

Today is Brian's birthday. It didn't turn out as expected in that he had to stay home from work to watch the girls while I was in bed with a migraine. I guess it was good that he got to stay home, but it would have been more fun if we could have done something fun. Last night at track, my parents came for a minute and gave him his gift from them--a gift card to Cabelas. He wants a hat for the trek, so I think he'll use it for that. This morning Eliza helped me get his gift wrapped. I got him a pair of slippers that he's been wanting. Exciting, huh? He looks at them every time we go to Ross or Marshalls, so I knew he wanted them. He likes them because he can wear them out if he wants to. They are kind of like the ones here but his are brown. I also ordered him a couple of USA World Cup items but they are on back order so he'll get them in a week or so. I got him a shirt and a hat.

So for Brian's 31st birthday, I want to write down 31 fun things about him and things things that I love about him:

1. calmness--when I get stressed out or frazzled, he helps me calm down and put things in perspective
2. loves soccer--watching it mostly and playing when he can. His goal is to go to the World Cup sometime in his life.
3. is a great dad--loves to play with the girls. He can be found out back playing soccer with them or playing catch with the football or running races with them. Today Hattie said they played dress up while I was out of it in bed. I asked if Daddy dressed up and she said no.
4. is a great husband--at night he can very often be found doing the dishes or folding laundry.
5. enjoys watching Phineas and Ferb
6. can still play basketball with the best of them. He has a reputaion for his nice three pointer.
7. loves having things organized and efficient...hard to explain. It's not to an obsession but he loves tying up loose ends...loves finishing off the last of a cereal box so he can throw it away and loves having things complete and working properly.
8. is a hard worker to provide for our family. A couple months ago he made it to "segment 5" at work. When you first start at Edward Jones you start at segment 1 and then you have different levels of production that get you to the various
segments.
9. enjoys quoting movie lines
10. wants to own a VW bus sometime in his life
11. has to have the fan on at night when he sleeps
12. still records Suns games or soccer games on a VCR--one day we'll get TiVo!
13. knows the scriptures really well
14. loves peanut butter and chocolate ice cream
15. would love to live in Manhattan one day
16. would love to live on the beach
17. is honest
18. is concerned about his kids--it frustrates me when dads don't know who their kids' school teachers are or what grade they are in even. Brian knows and cares about those things.
19. is not a handy man but is man enough to admit it and will ask for help when needed.
20. is real...what you see is what you get.
21. supports me in my church callings
22. always fulfills his church callings
23. gets up with the kids if they wake up in the night
24. enjoys reading--always has a book he is reading
25. would eat El Pollo Loco every day if he could
26. he is always telling me that I look great even when I know I look frumpy!
27. can always make me laugh
28. loves late night snacks about as much as I do
29. doesn't complain when I complain to him.
30. stays up late with me
31. If I ask him if the doors are all locked, he'll get up out of bed without complaining and check.

Happy birthday, Brian. We love you!!!!!!!!!

Cleaning

The past two days I've spent cleaning all day. On Wednesday I spent the morning cleaning Eliza and Libby's room. It's easier if they are not there to go through their things and kindly discard some of their treasures. Bye bye to the Valentines that they haven't looked at since they got them. ...things like that that just needed to go. I think I was done with their room around noon, then we had lunch and then I was able to work on the rest of the house. It felt so good when it was over. Yesterday I did laundry all morning then I cleaned out my closet and the linen closet in my bedroom. It looks so much better!

Today my hard work was rewarded with a migraine. Boo hoo!!! When I woke up this morning to go running, I thought I might be getting one but hoped I was just dreaming. I was getting into the car when I thought twice and figured I'd better not risk it. So I went back to bed. Luckily Brian was able to stay home today, so I stayed in bed most of the day and slept it off.

Fun Run & Easter Party & YW Broadcast

I've been busy. Let's see.
I survived the trek fun run. I wasn't nervous that I wouldn't finish in time, but I wanted all my running/hiking to pay off. I was able to finish the 4 miles in 37 minutes. Brian did well, too--I think he finished in 38. I only felt a little bad for beating him. :)

After we finished with that, we came home and got ready, then headed out to our family Easter party. We met at a park near Chandler. We each brought our own lunch, so we ate first, then the kids played--riding their bikes and scooters. Each family brought some sort of game. Brian did Tootie-Tah with the kids, then we did three-legged races. The kids hadn't done that before, so that was fun to watch them try to figure that out. Dan and Chris had bubbles for the kids to do with all sorts of blower things, so that was fun. Then my parents had gotten each grandkid and their dad a small marshmallow shooter. So they had a marshmallow war for a while. They loved that! After they did that for a while, my parents did their traditional "fish pond." That's always a big hit, too! They kids got chocolate bunnies, a shirt and a book. The kids and dads also spent a while hitting the baseball around. We had a fun time!

We left the park and zoomed home. I jumped out of the car, got ready, got everything together and raced to the church. It was the YW broadcast and I was in charge of heading up the refreshments and the recognition of the YW who received their medallion this past year. First for the dessert: I did a "value sundae" bar. I brainstormed one ice cream topping that went with each of the 8 YW value colors.
We had vanilla ice cream and then all the toppings.
Faith (white): whipped cream and sno caps.
Divine Nature (blue): York Peppermint Pieces. They look like M&Ms. They come in a pack that has blue and white, so I had to separate the blue ones out (and eat the white ones).
Individual Worth (red): cherries
Knowledge (green): sixlets
Choice & Accountability (orange): Sprinkles
Good Works (yellow): bananas
Integrity (purple): M&Ms
Virtue (gold): caramel




For the recognition, my friend Leslie found this cute idea to make a bracelet from a spoon. Thanks to her and her husband, we made bracelets for each of the girls who helped out. They turned out so darling. Hanging from the side are some beads along with a Liahona charm and an iron rod charm.



The broadcast was excellent, too. I especially loved Elaine Dalton's talk and President Uchtdorf's talk. Loved them!!!

The night went well, but I was SO glad and relieved when it was over. Now on to the next thing!