Leah's Birthday Celebration

For Leah's birthday celebration she got to pick two friends to go down to Griffith Park with and ride the ponies. Her poor other friend got sick the morning of her party and couldn't come. We were super sad but Leah was thrilled to still have Gracie.

These two are just adorable. I have such great memories of my elementary bff's and I'm so very happy that my girls have found good friends to travel through the kid years with.

Each ticket was just two laps around the arena, so they both got 5 tickets and got to go for a fun little ride.

Afterward we took a swing around the arena on the wagon.

Right as we were leaving Leah started saying her face was itching and her eye was starting to turn red. I knew what that meant. Poor thing is allergic to horses. SO SO SO sad. Luckily we were leaving anyway, but she was pretty heartbroken about it. She really loves horses. I gave her some benedryl and within an hour or so her eye was looking better and she wasn't itchy anymore. 

On the way home we stopped for lunch at Chili's where the girls laughed and chatted like teenagers. 

Then back home with the family for cake and presents. 

The annual matching shirt from Gracie. So adorable! 

Leah got a new outfit, a boogie board tablet she's been wanting and a magic set full of fun tricks. 

That night we took her to Target to spend her money from Grammy and Pop Pop. She was dying for a pogo stick, but didn't have enough money. All of the sudden I remembered that I had gotten her one for Christmas but had not given it to her. So it worked out quite well for her as she ended up with yet another present and still got to spend her money from Grammy and Pop Pop too. This is one lucky girl I tell ya!

The next day (Sunday) was her actual Birthday. She got breakfast in bed. Her request was bacon and pop tarts. Then we headed to church where she counted the minutes until her ACTUAL birth (2:17 pm). Then she was OFFICIALLY 9!

I sure love this girl. She definitely gives me a run for my money, but she is loving and kind and really has such a great heart. She tries her best and is always the first to apologize when she knows she's upset me. Now to get her to practice piano without whining. Not sure I'll ever win that battle, but someday….if I'm lucky…..she'll thank me for all those years of making her practice (because no, she's not quitting!) 

Happy Birthday my little Leah Peah! I'm one lucky momma to call you MINE!

My FIRST Relief Society Activity

I'm getting in to my calling now and had my first activity (well I guess we are suppose to call them "additional RS meetings" but that is too long and sounds lame to me). We did a cooking demo night at Emily Gruppman's home and I think it went really well. We had about 20 women come, which is good for a home activity and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. Emily taught us to "suprem" an orange and how to crystalize ginger. Then we made this delicious citrus salad and had copycat Starbucks Ginger loaf to go with it. It was so yummy! 

Everyone got to practice supreming their own citrus which then went into their salad. 

Emily's so resourceful that she also showed us that we can take the peels from all the citrus and put them in a big jar filled with vinegar. She taught us that in about 3 weeks we will have our own "Environmentally friendly" household cleaner that smells good too.

Love how everyone is deep in thought working on their oranges…especially Hailey. She cracks me up! 

Emily LOVES to cook and is really good at it. She's also super personable and is a great host. That's what made the evening so fun. It makes it interesting when the person you are listening to and learning from is really excited and passionate about their talent. I plan on using other people to my advantage for this calling as often as possible. Takes the pressure off of me and then we get to hear from and learn about more people. It's win win right?

Crystalized Ginger. 

And the makings of our salad which went over greek yogurt that was infused with some of that yummy ginger. It's the perfect side to lighten up a heavy meal. Or makes a great summer salad for a picnic.

President's Day

This isn't from President's Day but I didn't want to forget that Ashlyn and I got to go see our cute little friend Nicolas Waldron perform in Annie. It was a darling show and we both had a really great time. Ashlyn was excited Grace wasn't in it this time so that she could sit next to her BFF!

Back to President's Day. 

We started out the day with a little nail salon time at home where I put gel nails on Leah's fingers and Ashlyn painted her own.

Paul has been dying to teach the kids to play tennis so we bought a few rackets at Walmart and headed to the park for some lessons. The kids had a great time, Paul and I got to play a little together and we enjoyed a picnic while the kids played on the playground afterward. I'd say it was a pretty nice day. We came home, showered and cleaned up and sat down for a family movie night. 

 Bless Brandon's cute little heart. He picked me a flower. And before I knew it I had a whole bouquet! Love that boy. He's rough and tough but has a sweet side too. I'm glad I get to see it from time to time. Ya know…between the "hilarous" toots and burps he walks around performing for us all day!

Just another week (again)

Life is pretty normal (hey I'm not complaining) but I like to keep up with what we do from week to week since I'm pretty terrible at writing in my journal anymore.

I watched Beth's little boy Cole on Monday while she worked in the morning. The boys played at the house for a while together, then we went on a walk just down the street by our house. On the way home we found a baby lizard so the boys had to stop and watch it forever. 

I play a game or two with Carter almost daily. Especially during the week when the kids are in school. I'm gonna enroll Carter in TK for the Fall, but I plan on pulling him out early most days so that I still have time with my little guy just me and him. He's getting bored with me (apparently running errands is not very entertaining to him and he likes to remind me of it CONSTANTLY), but I still enjoy our quiet time together. 

Me and Becky were comparing children's messy rooms one day. She sent me pictures of her kids beds, so I sent some back to her. Unfortunately,  I won the "messiest bed contest".  Lucky me huh! She has at least one or two kids who attempt to make their bed every morning. I have….let's count….NONE! I must be doing something wrong. 

Spent the afternoon at the park one day. The weather was beautiful, it kept the kids happy for a few hours and I got to chat with some friends. It was perfect!

My little monkey who is looking far too big these days. He's turning a corner I feel like. He's been much more compliant these days. Not fighting me AS much. I'm seeing more of the sweet loving Brandon I use to see all the time (as I'm typing this he stopped to give me a hug and some "flowers" he picked from the backyard) It's nice. But it seems that it's been just in time for Carter to turn on his 4 year old attitude. LOL. I guess it will always be like this. A balancing act between toddlers, kids, teenagers and hormones!  I hope I survive without losing my mind.

Valentines week! The week of love. The kids made cards for all their school friends. 

Carter did some watercolor painting. That's a sun with mountains incase you couldn't tell. haha…

Brandon got to go to his friend Carson's birthday party. It was an art theme. Brandon was SO excited and had a blast. Came home with fun art supplies and projects he had made there.

 Ashlyn completed her first "powerpoint" presentation in class. At the ripe old age of 11. I'm not sure I had to do a powerpoint presentation until college. She did awesome, but was really just glad to be done. But I guess technology is the name of the game these days and they have to teach them young. Not a day after she did her presentation, she came home with a new one to be done on google's version of powerpoint. 

Meanwhile I had a busy week myself. Prepping plans for my first RS activity next week, a 3 1/2 hour RS meeting, visiting teacher appointments (At Cafe Rio. I have awesome VT), helping with a baby shower and prepping for Valentine's Day. This was my quite messy kitchen the other night. I decided it was a good idea to make homemade pizza and bake cupcakes at the same time. I didn't think that through too well because my cupcakes were still baking while my pizza needed to get in the oven before my crust rose too much. It all worked out though and after an hour or so, my kitchen was back to clean and tidy.

Tonight Paul and I are going to the Temple together and then out to dinner afterward. I'm excited for a nice relaxing evening.