One last preschool field trip

A bunch of lasts going on around here. Sniff sniff. Today was Carter's last field trip at Youngstars Preschool. And it was a great one too, so I'm glad I canceled on volunteering at the other kids classrooms and went on it with him. They went to a cake and candy shop with the funnest grandma of a teacher who taught them to make marshmallow pops, chocolate covered animal crackers and "gourmet" chocolate covered pretzels. Then they got a tour of the candy shop and headed back to preschool with their baggy of goodies they made. 

Carter was too funny. The lady kept calling the marshmallows on a stick "pops" so Carter kept watching it after he made it and then finally turned to me and said "when is it going to POP?" Haha.. cute boy!

And cute Baylee who I have trained to call me "Auntie Amber". Hehe..I'm sneaky like that.

Carter and his weird food issues made him very leary of this marshmallow pop. But he wanted that marshmallow pretty darn bad, so he was willing to bite into the sprinkles (which he doesn't like) to get to the yummy center.

But as you can see from the look on his face, he wasn't sure it was worth it. We had to go to the bathroom to wash his mouth out from the "yucky stickiness". 

This poor boy. I sure hope he learns to handle more textures in his mouth or he will forever be doomed to eating his cookies letters morning, noon and night.

And here's a couple of other cute preschool friends. None of which will be joining him at Valley View in the Fall. :-(

Caden Spencer

Lucy Lamas

The zoo and lunch with Daddy

Trying to savor the last few weeks I have at home with just this little guy. I'm gonna miss him when he is in school next year. Luckily he's just gonna be in TK and it's not as rigorous as real school and I can pull him out early (or have him skip a day) if I want to.

The weather has been super cool lately, which I'm really not minding. Especially since we have gotten some very much needed rain. I hope it keeps coming. But Wednesday was really nice and even though it was a bit chilly and I should have brought a jacket to the zoo, it was nice to hang out with friends for a couple of hours and see the animals too. So a big thanks to my friend Beth for getting me in on her passes because I never renewed mine after they expired last year. I guess 10 years of having a zoo membership did me in. But I am grateful to still get to go from time to time. And Carter always has a great time too. Unless he knows he's going to see Daddy for lunch afterward. In which case, he just wants to leave after 30 minutes and go see his Daddy. Can't say I don't blame him. But we still had a fun morning and then stopped at Dreamworks (since it's only a couple of miles away from the zoo) for lunch and some Daddy time. 

Serioulsy skinks are scary looking. I couldn't decide which end was it's head at first. Creepy. 

One happy little boy that's for sure!

Busy Monday

So after my crazy morning with Carter and the gym incident, I collected myself (it took a good hour. I was quite upset at him), went home (never having gotten to exercise), showered and then got some lunch. I picked up my Zaycon ground beef delivery (20 pounds of ground beef. yahoo), picked up the kids from school, made 22 jars of strawberry jam (from the strawberries my awesome brother got me for Mother's Day) and then headed out to Golden Valley High School for Ashlyn's very last Elementary School band concert. I have SO completely loved having her be in band. She has learned so much and worked so hard and I'm just so proud of her for sticking with it. I think she really enjoys playing the flute and I couldn't be happier about that. 

Cutest flute player around! Love you my sweet Ashlyn! Always and forever!

Mother's Day Weekend

I don't understand why women don't like Mother's Day. I've always loved it. I know I'm not a perfect mom. Far from it. But celebrating Mother's Day or being happy it's here doesn't make me feel guilty.  It's a day to celebrate motherhood and all of the great women in my life who have mothered me or influenced me for the positive. It's also one of the only days of the year that I can get my kids to do what ever I want simply by saying "but it's Mother's Day". I fully do not mind using that to my advantage. 

Having said all of that, I had a great Mother's Day weekend. Friday night was the Mother/daughter activity night that is held yearly. I got to take both of my girls for the last year together. We made cute picture frames, had ice cream sundaes and listened to great speakers talk to us about being modest physically and spiritually and loving our roles as girls and women.

Then the next morning was a Stake RS conference themed "You are Amazing". What woman doesn't want to go to a conference with that title? We got to pick two classes to go to. I picked one on relationships where the speakers were uplifting and absolutely hilarious. Then I picked another one about finding the "amazing" in everyone. Because we all do great things..small or large. It doesn't matter. If we are trying to help or serve one another and be more Christlike, than we are doing ok!

Then after a "tad" long (one full hour) musical presentation where I may or may not have gotten distracted reading "cleanhumor" on my instagram account (I never said I was perfect), we had a yummy lunch and then I headed out with Becky to go shopping for the afternoon at the mall. That night Paul and I went on a little date out to dinner at BJ's Restaurant and then on Sunday I got showered with love and chocolate and affections all day long. It was fantastic. I loved it. I got to sleep in until 9:30. Got up and made breadsticks (for dinner that night) and a Texas Sheet cake (for RS that day) and then went to church. We had dinner at a friends house and partied until well…8pm cuz it was still a school night after all. I considered myself pretty darn lucky. 

Which I had to remind myself of the very next day when Carter threw such a ridiculous fit about staying at the kid's club at the gym that I had to yank him out of there before he threw up, completely missing my class and embarrassing myself pretty bad in the process. Just keeping it real people!

Leah made me this Mother's Day box which I thought was so completely adorable and even more so because she thought to make it all on her own. It made me so happy! 

And since I won't keep it forever, I took thorough pictures of it to remember it well.

RS Temple Meeting

Sometimes we get to go to the Temple for our Relief Society Meetings. Works great cuz there is always traffic going down so we chat about things, get to do some temple work and then chat on the way home. Today we brought two of our sister missionaries with us since they get to go to the Temple in their birthday month. Cool huh! Hopefully they had a good time. They definitely got a glimpse into the ward happenings. haha….

Then I came home and ordered myself this dress for Mother's Day. I'm in desperate need of some new spring dresses, but it's so hard to find ones that are long enough and still pretty. So here's hoping I look half as good in this dress as this model does. (update: I returned it and found another dress at the mall that I liked much better.)

Teacher Appreciation Week

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week and while I'm not hugely involved in PTA at my kids school, I do like helping out with this week. No one was in charge, so I volunteered to head it up. I figure one crazy week a year is better than being the President and stressing all year long right?!

So I didn't go all out or anything. I made posters for two of my kids teachers.  Ms. Ellingson and Mrs. Fisher. Leah's teacher has a room mom so I didn't make the pacman one, but I thought it was cute so I posted it too. I also made one for all the teachers to put out in front of the school. I wanted a daily reminder for all the parents driving through valet that it was Teacher Appreciation week. Unfortunately the wind blew it down in just one day so I had to put it up inside the teachers lounge. I was at least happy it wasn't stolen, which is what I thought happened to it at first. I wanted to cry. It took me a long time. It's BIG!

I helped organize a breakfast for this morning and am doing a dessert bar on Thursday. We had a couple of cute pinterest type gifts we put in the teachers boxes and the Principal is doing a lunch for the teachers tomorrow, so my biggest part is done. Next year I'm gonna plan a little earlier and hopefully get more parents involved in making signs for their teachers doors. 

But I am really grateful for good teachers and shoot, I want my kids with great ones because they do spend a large part of their day with them now. So I figure I better do all I can to support, appreciate and help them do their job. I have always felt that a little act of appreciation can go a long way! 

At least it does for me.

Girl time!

Took my girls out for a little mommy daughter daughter time while the boys were at home helping a friend with a pinewood derby car. We used some gift cards we got back at Christmas time and got our nails done, hit the mall for a little shopping (Leah wanted to get her bff a birthday gift) and then stopped at Chick Fil A for some lunch. I sure love having girls and I treasure the "one on one" (or one on two) time we get together. I wish it happened more often. 

Have you tried their new frosted lemonade? If not, you totally should. It was delicious.

The girls were nice and shared a little with me. Next time I'll know to get my own.