Pictures of our trip to San Fernando

One of the oldest libraries in California

Sarah, Ellie, Kate, Abby

Kate and Ellie- BEFORE she was tramatized.  :o)

San Fernando Rey de Espana

With fourth grade comes the opportunity to research one of the California missions. Kate chose San Fernando's mission in northern LA. We had a free day at the end of December and decided it would be a fun educational trip to go and actually see the mission. We had a great time exploring the entire mission from top to bottom. The girls were amazed at how intricate and fancy everything is in the Catholic religion. I have no problem with Catholics, but if I can be honest I was kind of creaped out by it all. I could hardly pull Ellie away from the display counter where they had a row of graphic figurines of Jesus Christ on the cross. I thought she was going to start cyring on me. "Why is Jesus bleeding?" "What are they doing to Jesus?" We of course had taught her about the crucifixtion, but it was quite dramatic to "see it." We did learn a lot of California history and the paintings and the architecture were amazing. One of thing of interest was Bob Hope is buried there. He has his own garden off of the chapel they have there. It is a beautiful spot and his entire family will be buried there. Bet you didn't know that did you? Picture here is our replica of the mission. Now let's hope Abby and Sarah can pick this mission too! After all, Ellie was tramatized enough for a lifetime. Hee hee!

Christmas Eve

This is the first year the kids actually wanted "perform" the Christmas story. We have done it many times with family and friends, but never just our little family. In case you haven't noticed there are quite a few males in the story and well we are just a tad lacking in that department. But that did not stop my oh so creative girls. And the best part was no one fought over who got to be what. Sarah was so VERY sweet as Mary. She was very protective of Jesus and it made her blubbering Mom cry. I couldn't help but envision the future. Darin/Daddy got to be Joseph. Isn't he handsome?!?

Then we had in the supporting roles, Abby as our beautiful angel, Ellie as our WiseWoman (crown, cape and present included), and Kate as our shepard with lambs hanging all over and a "staff" to boot.

Here is our shepard, afraid in the fields as the angel appears to bring good tidings of great joy.

It was really a very spiritual experience.  We sang, read scriptures and enjoyed the night.  Thanks Darin, Ellie, Abby, Kate and Sarah-you made our night so great!  I loved it.

Twinners

Mother of twins. Yes I am. Let me give you a glimpse into what it is like to be a mother of twins.
Here is the scenario:
Christmas Eve
Plate of goodies for Santa and a glass of eggnog
Sarah and Abby in jammies
Mom with the camera
Mom: "Smile!"
Sarah goes bug eyed, Abby smiles
Mom checks the camera
"Sarah, you look goofy. Smile!"
Mom says okay 1, 2, 3
Sarah smiles, Abby goes bug eyed
Mom sighs
3rd times the charm
And so it is. If one isn't doing it the other is.
It is a CRACK up! (MOST of the time!)

Would I trade it for the world?!?!?! NEVER EVER EVER. Love you Sarah and Abby!

Christmas Jammies

 

Cozy, cute, fuzzy and warm.  What is better than a new set of jammies on Christmas Eve?  Maybe four sweet girls IN those jammies.

Let the Chaos Begin

Ahhh, those Fall days when the leaves change, the air gets crisp and you just want to eat all the yummy apples you can.  A sign that the first day of school has come.  NOT!  It is hot, it is dang hot and there are only leaves turning brown because they can't stand the heat one more day.  It is way to hot to breathe, eat, sleep and especially to cook.  It is August.  School is here.  UGH!  I know I am one of those weird Moms that like my kids home.  It is nice to be together (usually) and I enjoy not having a schedule to stick by.  If we want to go somewhere we do.  If we want to sleep in, we do.  And like I have admitted before, I don't really care for homework.  I know it is important and that it is good for my kids, but really I think it is one of the necessary evils of life.  I just want to let my kids run wild in the backyard for awhile and eat snacks and go for a bike ride.

Now there are pluses to this annual event.  It makes me get up in the morning and get going.  I finally admit that I am a night owl.  I haven't wanted to admit it.  I am supposed to go to bed early and rise early.  I know it is better.  But I admit, I am not one of those people.  Being on a schedule really does help me be better.  And secondly, I now have three kids in school all day.  Eee gads.  Amazing.  Unbelievable.  When they were 2 and were constantly destroying EVERYTHING, I could not invision this ever happening and now we are already there.  Mind boggling.

So now that I have bored even myself with my rants and random thoughts, I will post the pictures we have all been waiting to see.  The FIRST DAY SCHOOL PICTURES.  My cutie pututies:

PS Sarah is in the brown shirt and Abby in the orange.  In case you need a little help!  :o)

CANNON BALL!

happy birthday to the best cannon baller I have ever seen. You can rock the water out of the pool like no one's business Dad. You still have it in you, no matter how old you are. :o) We are thinking of you today on this special day.  We love you so very much Papa!

Don't you wish you lived in Michigan?

I have been meaning to post this post, hmmm, post this post, yes I guess that works.  Anyhow, I need to give huge props to my brother-in-law David for taking the incredible pictures you now see on our blog.  I am so excited to grace our walls with these new family photos.  We took them on the beach in Lincoln City, OR in August. Credit needs to be given where credit is due.  Check his work out HERE.

Thanks a million David.  We will treasure these ALWAYS!  We love them!

It's All about the PJs

Who needs to get dressed on a day like today? My kids declared that today was a do nothing, wear nothing (but PJs of course), go nowhere kind of day. I was more than HAPPY to oblige. Ahhhh kind of nice. Well I admit that I did get dressed, but it is only because all my PJs need a washing! :o) The kids were out of school on Friday and today so it has been a long 4 day weekend. Too bad Darin worked Friday, Saturday, Sunday and TODAY. My sweet husband, he works so hard for us all. I know he too was sad we weren't camping or hiking. I even made the kids clean their rooms on Friday and Saturday. Yikes I am mean. I made shakes last night and chocolate chip pancakes this morning, so I have tried to make up for my meanness. But in my meannes I really did have purpose!

Last Monday, our FHE lesson was out of the D&C 88:119, "Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God." I talked to the girls all about how their teachers organize their classrooms with rules and schedules. How crazy it would be if they didn't follow, or what it would be like if they did have the rules to follow. They all agreed it would be wild if their teachers did keep order. We then talked about how we are doing with each of these things, now that we determined it was a good thing to have all of these things. We do pray, we do fast, we try to exercise our faith, we try to teach (HOMEWORK!), but we were lacking ORDER!!!! I had them each close their eyes and envision what their rooms looked like at that very moment. Mommy's included! And I asked them if they thought we had order. There was a resounding NO! I should have taken pictures of our house. So we all promised, with right arm to the square! that we would do our best to help our home have order. Then maybe it will be a house of glory too. I tell you last night, with the help of the kids, we had the dishes washed, the dishwasher running, the table wiped, the floor swept, the living room picked up, the home teacher come and gone, and all of us looking at family videos of our summer trips. It felt nice to be together. To laugh, to remember, to be a family. The scriptures really can teach us and help us to be want we want to be: Happy!

So I guess my kids deserve a break from the homework, the soccer practices, the piano, the get up and hurry mode we have been in. We have done the work and we are on break! The key is to make sure the break ends today. :o) Here's my cuties:

Back!

July 2009

What a weird feeling. I am actually posting! I know you all can die of shock now. What can I say? I have already said it all before. I haven't been able to find the time. And then I got so far behind that it seemed overwhelming to post. So now that the kids are back in school, I just plain am going to have to try to fit a few in. This is my journal. And there is a great big fat hole now in it called SUMMER. Back in the saddle again! Here we go!

One other important note. Well maybe not so important to you. I have decided to go private. Yep. So it is only important to you if you want to be invited. :o) I got a phone call from a man two weeks ago. He knew our names and threatened us. He threatened to hurt us and threatened to black mail us for money. As you can imagine, I flipped and am now a little more paranoid. Yes I called the police, but I have decided that I just plain have too much information on here and way too much precious cargo to lose. Have not figured out how to do it yet, but I am going to. So comment if you want me to invite you. Or if you have my email, please email me so you can be included. I won't be offended if you don't. Really we are not all that exciting. LOL! It would help a little if I wrote. . . . .

Have a super weekend!

With our kids growing up, it was my first chance to go to on a field trip with any of my kids.  It was fun!  Ellie got to tag along too.  This is her class standing in front of a huge section of a sequoia tree. We went to a county museum and learned a lot about the history of our valley.  I learned a lot and feel ashamed that we hadn't been to the museum as a family.  We also took a walking tour of our city's historical sites.  Hence the picture of the girls altogether in front of the first school in our city that has since been restored and made into the children's library here.  As much as I hate projects, this was very informative and Kate did a great job.  (I would hate the projects if we just got started earlier.  Well we always start early and then don't get it fnished until midnight before it is due.  OF COURSE.)

Kindergarten Celebration

Hard to believe school is OUT for the SUMMER! On June 3rd Abby and Sarah had a special program at school to celebrate their "graduation" to 1st Grade. They sang (all 5 classes) and we saw a fun slideshow of the year. They were so cute! They have learned so much. I have to say their teacher Mrs. Simons was the best! She is one of my favorite teachers EVER. I was constantly amazed at how kind and thoughtful she was and is! I have never had a teacher express so much appreciation for my work in the class. She always thanked me profusely for coming in and volunteering. It made you want to go everyday just to be uplifted by her. I pray Ellie gets her for kinder too. Mrs. Simons was also so great at helping Abby and Sarah learn and grow. I can't say enough about her!

Some highlights of the year: 100th day of School, Halloween Math and Science Day, Pajama Day, Zoo visit, Valentine's Day Serenade, Christmas Parents Day, Water Day, Easter Egg Hunt, Readers Theater (Sarah the fox and the horse in the Gingerbread Man, Abby as the Cat and the Wife in the Big Turnip) and lastly Kindergarten Celebration.

all the pics are from their last day of school. . . . .  

I admit. It is too much.

I have to finally admit that I can't do it all. I kept thinking that I was drowning a little. Drowning in life. Drowning is a strong way to describe how I have felt, but it certainly fits. It would seem that I kept trying to keep my head up while treading in the water. But the water has been getting higher lately. It seemed that the water not only rose, but got choppier. I got to the point that only my nose and lips were above water. The worst part was that I seeemed to be adding more water to my already percarious situation. Everything from working in kid's classrooms, helping with the PTA, Young Women activities, meetings, projects, fund raisers, kids, discipline, laundry, gardening, lawn mowing, bills, piano lessons, bathrooms, bed wetting, sick kids, family outings, cooking, cleaning, babysitting, errands, etc etc. I didn't even get time to talk to my Mom. I used to talk to her everyday. And I kept missing phone calls of my sisters and good friends. I think I realized that I was drowning, when I started to cry in front of Abby and Sarah's teacher. Bawling. I decided that I was going crazy. Not just the usual crazy that I mention all the time. I am talking the truly almost mental and emotional breakdown stage. Do I dare admit this? That I thought for a bit that I should just stop volunteering, ask to be released and crawl in bed. The very least I had to do was quit blogging. So for the last two months I have desperately tried to keep myself from sinking. I think my kids and husband have suffered the most. I used to think I didn't PMS. But I think it lasted for weeks this month. But I finally decided one day that I was trying to do it alone. That once again hadn't I learned it was impossible to do? That only with Heavenly Father's help can I make it! I know I am slow to learn. But here I am. Blogging. It must mean I didn't drown. Does it mean I am out of the water? Nah. I think the water is permanently a part of life. So it means I have to look at all this treading as good exercise. And that when it really is too much, there is someone who has literally walked on water and can help.

I promise myself that next time I'll actually talk about something inspiring and fun. And I promise to cover the last few months. There has been much good to report too!

As soon as my computer returns from the computer doctor. It has died. It has been dead for quite some time. And now we await its revival. . . .