Gone To Grandma's

My youngest two cuties have been at their grandma's house for the past week!!! I have felt a lot of different things this week, so I want to write them down before I go get them tomorrow, and my crazy life is back to the way it should be!!

*My house is soooo quiet without their little voices asking me hundreds of questions a day!!! I have really missed Kamren and her drawings and ideas for yard sales and cards for friends and family members. I haven't had to pick up a random piece of paper with a little drawing on it in almost a week!!! And Daxton just not being around has been hard! He is like my little buddy and I miss having a little buddy!

*My big kids could care less where I am or what I am doing!!! I have gotten out of bed after 9 for at least the past 3 mornings in a row and nobody seemed to care! My girls were already dressed, fed and had all their chores done before I even had my eyes open for the day! They even asked me when we were having scriptures, this morning!!! It is amazing how lazy you can become when nobody is dragging you out of bed asking for breakfast!

*I can see a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the craziness of Sacrament meeting! As I glanced down the bench on Sunday, with only my 4 big kids on it, it was amazing to think that in 6 short years THIS would be how church would be every week! No trying to jump off the bench, no bathroom trips or drinks needed! Just sitting and listening! Wow! I can't even imagine such a thing, but I know it is coming because I got a glimpse of it!!

* I really miss being the mom of little ones! Yes! They can be annoying and aggravating and crazy at times, but I love the craziness that is my life! My life is not the same without all of them here!

*Boy can my house get clean without anybody messing it up all week! Since the big kids really don't need me, I put on my I-Pod and cleaned my little heart out this week! I cleaned Kamren and Daxtons rooms of any broken/Junkie toys! I cleaned the toy room under the stairs, to the point where there are almost no toys at all under there! I finished the girls room, finally!!! And today, the rest of my house got a good cleaning!!! So maybe I am not ready for them to be gone for a week again any time soon, but a few hours here and there would be nice!

Well, tomorrow life is back to normal! I am meeting my mom half way in Fillmore! I am so glad they have had so much fun at grandmas, but I am ready for my little ones to come home!!!

Anaheim

Though this trip was almost 2 months ago now, I want to remember all the fun we had, so it is just a little past due!!!

We went to Anaheim for National Cheer leading, our last year, YEAH!!! Kaylee did great! Her team, not so much! They ended up finishing 7th in their division! She is an amazing tumbler! Now she moves onto High School cheer for her senior year!

Cheer leading was just the beginning of our trip!!! Next we headed to the beach!!! Burrrrr!! Um....we didn't stay too long! It rained on us!!

Kenzie's 9th birthday was on Sunday! Her dad was so sweet! He went out to get her some medicine at 6AM that morning for a tummy problem, and came back to the hotel with an ice cream cake and a couple little presents for her! Nothing like blowing out your birthday candles on a luggage rack in a hotel!!! She still had a fun day!!!

The next day, we were scheduled to go to California Adventures with our free passes from volunteering, but the weather had other plans for us!!! After getting all the way ready and heading for the door, it started to down pour! We improvised and ended up at one of our kids favorite spots in Anaheim, the Discovery Science center! They had a blast and always seem to enjoy this place! We love it because they don't actually realize how much they are learning at the same time!!!

This is actually a wind simulator, that has wind speeds of up to 85 miles an hour! I laugh every time I look at this picture!

Later that day, we went to see the movie "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". Never see a movie in California!! $65 for matinee tickets for the 6 of us, Yikes!!!! We finished off the day by having dinner with our good friends, the Chapmans, who moved back to Cali a few years ago! We love seeing them! They are the only family that rivals us in numbers! It was so good to see them!

So, Tuesday ended up being California Adventures day!!! It was kind of fun to just do one park, and not enter the crazy world of Disneyland and all the autograph taking and princess pictures!!! We had a fun day!

I found out just how much of a "thrill seeker" our Kenzie really is!! This is on the big ferris wheel that literally almost made ME throw up! Not Kenzie! She went on any big roller coaster, dropping elevator, scary anything she could find and loved every minute of it! Good thing her dad is into that kind of stuff too!!
Oh thank goodness we found Woody! Daxton was in Woody heaven!!!



The Toy Story ride is our new favorite ride there!

I love, love. love this picture and these two guys!!!!

Our trip didn't end there, though we thought that would be the end!!! After California Adventure, we were going to drive home! As we got in the car, Tony turned to me and said, "You know, it is actually 9 PM at home, we won't get home until after 3 AM"!! We both are not good night drivers, so we decided it was best to stay one more night. We found a hotel, ending up at the one we had been staying at, just not getting the same great rate we had in the previous nights!!!!

Thank goodness we stayed!!! We started driving home the next morning with our tire gage light on. Tony went to a gas station and tried to fix it by putting more air in the back tires, but it stayed on! So we started to drive! We got about 10 miles out of Anaheim and our right back tire BLOWS!!!! Yikes! On the side of the freeway with a blown tire!! Nice!! But our Heavenly Father was watching out for us in more than one way!!! I happened to be on the phone with the insurance company about my lost wedding ring at the time, and so they were nice enough to inform me that I had tow coverage since we couldn't change our tire thanks to lug nuts that were too long!!! They sent a tow truck that piled us all in the cab(Daxton loved it), and drove us to a tire store! Too bad we were taken to the worst tire store on the planet!!! They got us a new tire but didn't have the right tools to tighten it properly!!! After an hour of waiting! I couldn't handle it anymore! I started asking questions, found out exactly what kind of tool they needed and started calling other tire stores in the area, asking if they had the right tool to do the job! After a few minutes, I found a tire store we could SLOWLY drive to back in ANAHEIM!!!!! We drove there, ended up needing ANOTHER back tire, and were back on the road!!! Quite an adventure that could have turned out a lot worse had we left the night before like we had planned!!! I feel extremely blessed that needing 2 new tires, and spending an extra few hours in a tire store was as bad as our problems got that weekend!!!

Things I've Missed!!!!

I need to be better about blogging!!! I look back at all my pictures, and realize how much I miss!!! So unfortunately, all the details are missed and memories are forgotten!!! I am going to be better! But for now, here are some fun times I missed!

We had an Enrichment activity, at the end of March, that we called "Flash from the Past"! All the ladies, and their girls, wore outfits from our favorite era! I choose the 80's! We had so much fun crimping our hair(Thanks Kendra! I promise I will give it back!), putting on wild earrings and bracelets and wearing stirrup pants! Yes! I actually found stirrup pants! It was a very fun night for all of us!

In April, Kenzie had her first track meet at the local High School. She was so cute! I was shocked that she was actually excited to run! I had no clue that the girl liked to run! Although, she was not interested in the long runs like her mom was when I was young! She did great! She ran the 50 and 100 meter dash, finishing 2nd in her first race, and 3rd in the second race. I was very proud of my little lady!

A little tired after the race!!

Also in April, Kenzie had her 9th birthday, something else I missed since we were in Anaheim at the time!!! More about that later! She decided when we got back, that she wanted to take her friends to dinner and a movie. We headed out to the Pizza Factory Express and then to see How to Train A Dragon in 3D! The girls had a great time and I just enjoyed being their to listen to all their 9 year old chatter! It is so fun to see your kids grow up and get to experience their growing personalities! I love 9 year olds!

And finally!!!! Troy went to his first, and last dance of his high school experience!!! He even did it all by himself! We were shocked!!! A teacher at school helped him ask the girl and pull the whole thing off! He ended up having dinner at his friend Taylor s house, with some help from Taylor s dad doing the cooking, and then going to the dance! Nothing fancy, but we were so happy that he finally experienced a small piece of high school, and looked pretty handsome doing it!!!

Playing with color

Now that I have taken the pictures, comes the hard part! I can't say that I love to edit pictures, or that I am even any good at it!! So can somebody please just come and edit all my pictures, add some color textures and funky crops and then just let me choose, please?!!! I am not sure what look I want to go with in their room. I love the bright look! Things always look good bright to me, especially with their eyes being such a huge contrast!!! But then their are the other things that you can do that might be kind of fun to. Seriously, what do you guys think, Oh Mighty Photo shop Queens?!!! :) Seriously! Somebody get over here and show me how to use textures! I am not good with reading how to do it, I need to be shown! Sometimes twice! :)

Sisters

I am sooo lucky that two of my little beauties let me take them out to take some pictures for their new room!!! Dinner and a little ice cream bribery seem to go a long way with these two!!!

THIS is how they wanted to act the whole time!! Thank goodness they got the silly out of them!

Kenzie Lou lou, I Love you-lou!!!

Kenzie had a birthday a month ago, but we were in Anaheim over her birthday so her birthday post got forgotten! Oooops!!! She came home from school the other day looking like this, and it reminded me how much I love her little free spirit!!! She has been free spirited as early as I can remember! From her days of playing in her closet in her room all by herself as a nine month old, to her climbing, at 2, to the top of our panty in the middle of the night to get to the chocolate pudding; I always knew that she would be very independent, and very much her own person!! Her personality really hasn't changed much!! She is very easy going, doesn't really seem to be bothered by much in life. She is always willing to play with her siblings, and usually is the ring leader in whatever new game, play, art project or other adventure they are involved in! I am so impressed by her ability to not let others sway her or her opinion. I really hope that this is something that sticks, as we all hope our kids will stick with their values as they become teenagers! :)

I have had so many little reminders from my Heavenly Father over this last year of how special this little girl really is, and that she was sent to our home for a reason. So many times I have looked at her and just for a moment, wondered where she would be if her Birth Mom had made a different choice. I am so grateful to her Birth Mom, for her choice and for the amazing gift that she blessed our home with! I KNOW that our Heavenly Father had a plan for us and Kenzie, and that all that waiting for a child was specifically so that Kenzie would be brought into our home. She is a very important part of our family, and our family would not be complete without her!

Happy birthday, Love Bug!!!

Some of her favorite things @ 9:

1 Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Lightening Thief Series are her favorite books!

2 She loves Chocolate chip pancakes and Mini Wheats for breakfast

3 Her favorite color is brown, because it is the color of her eyes and the color of chocolate! That is something new I just learned!!!

4 Her favorite part of school is Math. That's a new one to me too!! Maybe we should play this game more often!!

5 Her favorite dinner is Chicken Rollups! She can even make them by herself!!

6 Her favorite thing to do when she has free time is to draw and color.

7 Her favorite sport is baseball, but she is an excellent swimmer!

8 Her favorite thing to do when she is outside is to play and explore on the swingset

9 Her favorite movies are Alice in Wonderland and The Lightening Thief.

Funny, funny girl!!

Mothers Day 2010

I feel so blessed today to be the mom to such amazing kids!!! My day started off early!!! Kenzie just couldn't wait to make breakfast for me! The first time I looked at my clock it was 6:11 AM, and there was my little Kenzie trying to wake her dad up enough to help her make breakfast without waking me! Too bad for her, I sleep with me eyes open, so I see it all!!! I told her to go back to bed, but I know she didn't, I could hear her in the kitchen deciding to make her own Mothers Day breakfast! A little while later, here she came again with her breakfast she was so proud she made all by herself! It consisted of 2 pieces of toast (without butter, she couldn't find it :), 3 strawberries, and juice with a little umbrella that somebody had given her at school! How cute is she that she saved it to put in my drink!!!

I was pretty much up after that!!! Next, was the showering of cards and "Mommy Coupons", my favorites being the "Slave for two hours coupon", from Kenzie, and the "Babysit Daxton for two hours coupon", from Karlin. Finally was the great present my dear husband gave to me!!! He had drawn me bubble bath, lit candles around it, bought me a loofah sponge, and a good smelling cinnamon candle, and placed my I-pod by the side of the tub and then he locked the door and said see you in a couple hours!!! How sweet is that?!!!! He even left me a card by the bath that said, Take the day off with pay, you deserve it"!!! I took full advantage of this!!! Shaved my legs, enjoyed my bath, tweezed my eyebrows, painted my fingernails (clear, of course), but I never even paint or file my fingernails!!! :) After a while, in the quiet of me, my I-pod, and my thoughts, I got a little bored, realizing that I missed the hub bub of my hectic family!!!! I realized that I really love having them surround me!!! Though it is nice to have a break every once in a while, it is so nice to have them need me!!!

I am so proud of the people that they are becoming!!! The compassion that they have for each other, the ability they have to do most things by themselves, and the satisfaction I get in watching them succeed, is amazing!!! I look at them and KNOW that they are going places and that their Heavenly Father loves them and cares for them just as much as I do!! I feel like the luckiest girl in the world today, and every day!!!

Happy Mothers Day everybody!! Oh, and thanks Dion, for the amazing pictures!!! I will cherish them always!!!