Face Paint

D recently went to a carnival where he got his face painted. He was pretty proud of this character choice.

I'm Another Year Older.

This year was like the year of never ending birthday celebrations for me...not that I minded. :)

We started out the day before my big day. We took the kids out to dinner, then Dave got me a delicious Ice Cream cake from DQ (Yum!!)

She just couldn't wait to get her hands on it!

He took the big family pic, so I insisted that he get in a picture with me.

The next day I had planned to do a whole lot of nothing...Well actually, I started out planning to finish get my house clean, becuase, you see, my fabulous mom and little sister had come over the day before and had done just about everything except mom and clean my bathroom. However, they came back over on the morning of my day and finished. (Seriously, can you think of a better present???)

After that, my sister invited me to lunch. We went to Olive Garden and I really enjoyed the salad and breadsticks. SOOO good!!! Beth and our friend Maithe came too (though left before our picture).

That night, there was a ward BBQ. It was a lot of fun. They had a a hay ride, bounce house, little fish pond, and (KL's favorite) a little tractor train ride. Seriously, all night when I couldn't find her, I would just go look over there. She would be laughing her head off in these little cars.


For entertainment, they had each presidency preform a skit. Since Dave is the ward clerk, he got to be a part of the bishopric skit. Here he is all "cowboyed" up. He really did learn to play the bass guitar for this!

The next night, we were at my mom's. It was General Conference weekend, so we went over there to meet up with all the men after Priesthood session. Here is where I got to open all my fun presents.

Love this dress? Dave picked it out. I've had lots of compliments on it.

A couple of months ago, I discovered that my diamond fell out of my wedding ring. Thankfully, I discovered this BEFORE sweeping into the disposal with the rest of the crumbs on the counter. While I was waiting to get it fixed, I mentioned to Dave how much I woudl love to get a Hawaiian Heirloom ring to wear. He totally came through. I love wearing it! It is beautiful. Here he is putting it on me.

While I'm out pictures, the celebrating didn't stop there. My neighbors took me out to breakfast a couple of days later. It was fun and I'm so thankful to have had so many years around so many fabulous people. What a great birthday! Thanks, everyone!

CK's Zoo Field Trip

At the end of March, CK had a field trip to the Zoo (or "zoom" as KL would say). I wasn't able to be a chaperone because I didn't have anyone to watch the little girls. Besides, I knew they would have fun, so me any my 2 little stay-at-home- buddies hopped in the car and went to join CK on her field trip for a little while. It was a very fun morning.

CK and KL

CK

KL

Me with my pretty little girls. What a lucky mom!

A was just happy to be out walking round in her stroller!

Without really meaning too, we ended up getting in line to be able to go and feed the giraffes. You had to pay extra, and I didn't have enough cash all of us, but I did have enough for CK. It really was cool!

With her 3 friends from school who are triplets

It was a hard thing for KL that I didn't have enough cash handy for her to go and feed the Giraffe too. She ended up making do with finally being able to look in one of the telescopes.

They were both pretty wiped out by the time we got home after such a fun adventure!

The thing I never thought would happen, has happened! We have actually started our house. It is exciting, yet still very overwhelming. We got started a couple of weeks ago. Much to Dave's embarassment, we had a "ground breaking". We got a bunch of shovels, had dinner at the little picnic area across the street and had one of future neighbors take our picture. It was a fun FHE.

By the end of that week, we officially had a sign marking our lot with our builder. Even little flags in the back marking our property line.

They started digging the day Dave and I left for San Francisco. This was on our way to the airport.

KL was both excited and nervous of the big tractor.

All the kids got to come down and see it after the hole was finished.

Not Quite Broken

A month or so ago, B hurt his ankle playing football at school. Thankfully, it wasn't broken. Still, his sprain was right around his growth plates, so the doctor put him in a cast for 2 weeks. Right off the bat, B wasn't too excited about the presence of the cast. The doctor said he was surprised because most kids are excited about getting cast on...at least for the first time. B couldn't be fooled. He knew what this would mean to his active social life.

It was a happy day when it came off.

There was some anxiety present with that saw.

Mostly, he said that it tickled.

He is still limping around with a brace, but he is able to get around quite a bit more and there are far fewer tears shed when his friends want to play ball and he can only watch.

Yoga

A few weeks ago, I was on the phone when my nephew was over. He and KL were trying to put on a movie. My Yoga video was in the DVD player. Since I was on the phone, I was distracted as they were frantic about some sort of problem with the movie. I eventually realized that they were climbing all over me because they were trying to turn on the movie. Naturally, I removed the yoga, thinking that they would be happy so they could turn on whatever they were after. However, that only made them scream louder. I eventually put my phone conversation on hold and tried to listen to them. It turns out that they were trying to turn on the Yoga, because they "want to get stwong." I turned around to realize that they had the yoga mat out, as well as some small free weights. After I got it one, Sam faithfully completed his work out (KL was less committed to the process).

My yoga tape is a Biggest Loser one, and Bob is the trainer on the video. I couldn't stop laughing when at one point, I heard Sam turn to KL and say, "Bob thinks I'm doin a gweat job."

Mariana's Birthday

My little sister recently celebrated her 21st birthday. It wasn't a huge celebration, but we were still happy to go and have the chance to spend a little time with her. We love her so much and are so thankful for the addition she is to our family.


Mariana had borrowed a tiara for her special day from a friend. My mom got her one of her own, so she let the little girls have a turn wearing it while they played with the dress up clothes.

A Time to Honor Granmda June

My beautiful, fun loving, and every other positive adjective you can think of recently passed away. She was nothing if not a wonderful example and strong matriarch. I can't possibly write everything I would like to about her, so I won't. This post would be too long, plus there are so many things that are just too personal for me to try and explain (I did a little in a previous post just after her death).

She spent the last few years of her life spending winters (and then even more) here where it was warm. I so thankful to have had this time with her.

She passed away on April 25, in the early morning hours. We held a memorial service down here on Thursday, April 28, then a funeral service up in Midway on April 30. I was blessed enough to go to both.

I didn't take too many pictures down here, but still, here are a few from the day.

Mariana and A

Kalais asleep

My Aunt Julee had some beautiful displays to honor Grandma and the things she loved.
(the portrait on the left of the lady with her head bowed is a painting of her mama)

After the service, the ward made a dinner for us. The once done eating, the kids had so much fun running around the stage.

Since we had the 3 little girls together, we had to take their picture

L, A, CK looking at flowers.

The next day, D, A, and I hitched a ride with my parents up to Utah. I stayed with Dave's brother's family (which was heaven to D, since their oldest is just a week younger than him.) We woke up the morning of the funeral to 8 inches of snow. Thankfully, my brother in law was willing to shovel us out of the driveway (I was borrowing my little sister's car at this point).

At the cemetery. The Pall bearers moving the casket.

Putting their boutonieres on the casket.

Aunt Jo, Uncle Don (who came home from Hawaii where they are serving a mission at the PCC) with Grandpa Pug

Terri, Brent, Jo, Don, Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Pat, Marcee, Julee, Ron, Robyn
(the kids with their spouses)

This is a picture of all the grandkids who were present. It was pretty special for me to have been able to see each of my cousins with in just a few days of each other. While not everyone was able to be to both services, everyone was able to to make to 1 or the other.

Members of my dad's family who were there.

Me, my June Baby, and D

We had another family dinner after the internment. Here I am holding A, and my little niece Abney

Funny picture my sister took of the adults trying to get the babies to look for the pictures

After the dinner, some of us went back to my aunt and uncle's house for a nice long visit and talk with my cousins, uncle, aunt, parents, and grandpa. We were able to share stories and feelings about my grandma, as well as her mama, who, while I never was able to know in this life, was just such a part of Grandma, you just couldn't talk about her, without Mama. I truly am thankful for that time and I hope never to forget the stories and other things they shared.

Eventually, we left (much to D's relief--he was desperate to see his cousins too)
We did have a little bit of time when we got home for D to play with his cousins.