WAY behind!

I haven't blogged in AGES!!! And I miss it! I miss the privacy of writing whatever I want and not having to worry about who is going to read it (now that blogging is not a thing anymore and no one checks the blog). I miss the detailed documentation of my life. I need to start recording more and this is my first effort in getting back into my journaling.

Life is so busy and time feels to be speeding up. James is turning 4 next month and it makes me want to cry. He's growing up so fast and I am really going to miss having a little in the house. I love our time together. I am trying to enjoy every single minute of it, knowing that before I know it, he'll be heading off to real school with his siblings.

As for now, - January 2020, our schedule is as follows:
7:15am  Everyone awake, getting ready for school
7:50am  Family prayers and big kids off to school

Mon/Wed - James has preschool from 12-3pm

2:30pm Everyday I leave home by 2:30 to pick up kids from school

Monday-Friday Madi has swim team from 4:30-5:30pm
Tuesday afternoons from 3 - 4:30 pm we have piano lessons
Wednesday Madi and I have YW's, every 2nd and 4th Wednesdays Elle and Cal also have an activity
Thursday we leave straight from school pick up to violin lessons. We get home about 4pm.
Friday Madi swim team and Elle volleyball (Lava Lite).

I love our schedule and I love spending time with my kids.

I am not a big fan of play dates and prefer to just have my kids come home after school.

When Spencer is home and not traveling, he's usually home by 6pm. We eat dinner and then have scripture study. This year we are studying the Book of Mormon and I am loving our nightly readying and discussions. I am very grateful for Spencer's knowledge of the scriptures. He helps all of us to understand it better.

Costal County Clean-up

Write up by Madi: 

On Saturday, at 9am my dad and I went to the Mission Oaks Barranca to take part in the Coastal Cleanup program by picking up trash.  We found almost every category of trash you could think of; chip bags, plastic bottles, cardboard, food wrappers, dozens of glass shards and more. We also passed by so many other people with as much trash as us and it was sad to think how much trash there could even be here. After about an hour and a half my dad and I went to go weigh our bags. Our 2 trash bags weighed 6 pounds, and our recycling bag weighed 1.5 pounds. That’s 7.5 pounds of trash that my dad and I picked up in one short hour.  I was surprised by how much trash we found. I had been to the Barranca many times and never noticed there was so much hidden trash. It felt good to help our community and keep it clean.

         Coastal Cleanup is really important because it brings awareness to our community about how much litter there really is all around us. It also helps keep our community more beautiful and clean.  I think the community should participate in this event because we all live here and it is our duty to keep our environment clean. Keeping our coastal community clean benefits everyone and everything; the plants, animals, the air we breathe, and the people who live here. I would definitely recommend this event to everyone. It was such a good experience for me and I will make it a priority next year. If everyone could participate in this program think about how much more beautiful our environment would be.  

FHE hot tubbing

When we first started looking at houses back in March & April we found a couple house that had pools but not hot tubs. I didn't think it was a big deal and kept saying all we cared about was the pool anyway, but now fast forward 5 months and I am SO glad that we got a house with a hot tub and a pool! It has been so much fun to have family time in the evening, once the sun has gone down, out in our hot tub! These pictures are 2 back to back weeks of holding Family Home Evening in the hot tub! We are so grateful for how everything worked out and talk daily about how blessed we are that we found the perfect house for our family! 

James at 2 1/2

This morning the kids all run into the kitchen telling me that James found an old binky in the pocket of his backpack! James was so excited and says, "Give it to me right now and I'll go take a nap!" James has been without a binky for a little over a month now so of course we don't want him to have one now! Elle and Cal tell him, "Binkies are for babies James."
To which James' responds: "No, binkies are for bedtime!"
Then James grabbed the binky and stuck it into his mouth. After seeing our disappointed reaction, he quickly pulled it out and chucked it on the ground.

Breaks my mama heart so much to see him wanting something that keeps him young, innocent, and still napping, but I also don't want to get back into the habit. I could tell he was sad and so I just sat and held him for awhile.

James is such a sweetheart and I am loving all this quiet alone time I am getting with him now that the big kids are back in school! Everyday James just follows me around the house asking me where I'm going, and telling me not to leave him. I get lots of "I love you's" out of him as well!

My favorite is probably his constant singing! Anytime we're in the car, going somewhere, he sings to us . . . ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, BINGO, Wheels on the Bus, and I am a Child of God are his favorites. He has such a sweet, happy disposition and I am so grateful for his in our family!

 PS. Did I mention that he falls asleep most Sundays during our 1pm sacrament meeting?! It is the cutest thing!!

Elle's 9th Birthday!

My sweet baby girl turned 9 years old today! 

 We celebrated with some of her closest friends (well, the ones that were in town - it's super hard having summer birthday parties)! It wasn't Elle's year for a party, so we did no presents - just bring a favorite treat! It was so wonderful and low key with these cute girls who swam, played games, made ice cream Sundaes, and just had a grand time being together!

Birthday breakfast was a bagel (always Elle's favorite), with fresh fruit - strawberries, bananas and blueberries in yogurt! 

Madi student of week posters

 Packing week over here and I'm in total sentimental mode as I remove things from the walls and my kid's doors. I took these off Madi's door today - her student of the week posters from 2nd and 3rd grade. Had to document!

Mother's Day 2018

I feel so blessed to have the honor of being mom to these four! 

For Mother's Day I asked for one thing - happy, helpful kids. I told them the only thing I didn't want was fighting and/or crying. The morning (before church) went perfectly. Elle helped Cal get dressed and he didn't complain about anything (which is huge)! She helped James get ready too. Then we came home from church and Madi was bummed out about her primary class which she is not a fan of (she's been anxiously awaiting our move so that she can be in the Las Posas ward where she has several friends and girls her age). So there was some sulking and sadness... not wanting to take the picture below . . .

The afternoon was ok - I just wanted to be able to enjoy my kids on Mother's Day, but I found myself getting after them for not helping get ready for dinner. We volunteered to host dinner at our house with Spencer's parents and the Beede's. I made rolls, Spencer barbecued tri tip, we did baked beans, and baked potatoes, Corinne made a salad, and Grandpa Al & Boppi brought strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was a good meal. After dinner we went for a  walk to Heritage park and then came back for dessert. 

One of my favorite things about Mother's Day is all the cards and sweet notes my kids make me that I will cherish forever!!! 

I am one lucky mom!!!

Family Meetings . . . 5 years ago!

While going through more papers I found a binder of agendas from our family meetings. Funny thing is that I totally remember planning for these family meetings - doesn't seem that long ago and yet it was 5 years ago!  Wanted to include photos of our agendas before I throw away.