Wrapping up May

So much from this month never got documented.

Like . . .
-Our last family date night at the Oxnard Cafe Rio. It closed down a few days later (it was very poorly managed)- truly a tragedy! We're still trying to cope with the loss. Guess we'll just have to hold out for when we go to Utah.

- A friend's Pirate birthday party that the girls came up with their own costumes for. Madi's disguise had me rolling!

- Finishing reading the Book of Mormon as a family. We've done it before, but this was the first time Madi and Elle actually paid attention (well, most of the time). Sure love this book and the discussions we've been able to have while reading it.

- Open House at Madi's elementary school

Madi with her fabulous Kindergarten teacher- Mrs. Newton!

- Cal's buddy Houston came into town. I only got to hang out with Lora for a few minutes of her short stay, but luckily Houston stayed longer and we got to have him over to play. It was so fun watching these two little buddies together.

- Cal turned 14 months and is as adorable as ever (gotta do a post on him soon). Wish I could have 3 more just like him!

- The kindergarten speech celebration

Madi recited the poem: Musical Career by Shel Silverstein and did a fabulous job. She loves performing in front of adults, but for some reason she was a little nervous since it involved her peers. She said the sweetest prayer before we left - "bless me to enunciate and to be able to look at more  people than just one." Love this girl!

Of course she had to have a picture with her #1 fan! Elle could barely wait to run up and give Madi a big hug after it was over!

These two might get extra crazy when they're together, but they really are so sweet and thoughtful to each other. Not much tops seeing your kids love and adore each other!

- Aloha Day! Wish I would have taken pictures of all the spirit days at school this year.

Madi liked this picture better:

Can't believe that June is already here! Only 10 days left of school - gotta get working on a schedule to keep me sane this summer.

Memorial weekend

We spent the first part of our Memorial Day weekend in Brentwood. We left Thursday night after Spencer got home from work. While traveling at night was a complete nightmare and we definitely won't be doing it again anytime soon (Cal's too young and moaned/cried from 9pm-midnight), it was really nice to wake up Friday morning at Gram/Papa's and have the whole day to play. The purpose of our trip was mainly to meet the newest member of our family - Karlee and Jeremy's new baby, Leila. And it just so happened that Bobby, Amy, and Matthew also had the same idea! Clark also just happened to be there for a guys weekend with his high school buddies. It felt like a mini family reunion. We had such a blast! We had lots of hang out time to sit and enjoy baby Leila (and take a few hundred pictures!! :)

She's such a sweet little baby and we were all smitten with her. 

Even Cal was in love! He just kept saying, "baby" over and over again.

Madi didn't want to leave Leila's side. She was always the first one up in the morning waiting to see when Leila was going to wake up.

It was always a fight over who got to hold her and/or sit next to her.

Leila is definitely one loved little girl!

Aside from adoring Leila, we also managed to fit in a bit of fun. Some of my favorites:

Watching my kids being adored by their grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Aside from Leila, they were the only kids there the whole weekend and were given oodles of attention. 

Dad always has fun projects for the girls to work on. This one was an early Father's Day present for Spencer. We're thankful that Dad's thumb is intact after the router mishap! Spencer had fun playing doctor the rest of the weekend after that incident.

Hair cuts. Cal's hair had to be cut in stages this time and it was quite the production-we got him to sit still by distracting him with his his favorite train video and simultaneously feeding him raisins and cheerios while mom did her thing!

Hot tubbin' with the kids!

A sunset bike ride on mom and dad's beach cruisers - total blast!

Evening bonfire and marshmallow roasting

We had quite the send off Sunday afternoon when we left! Thanks mom and dad for hosting the fun weekend and big thanks to Kar and Jer for giving us something to celebrate! Love you all! Can't wait to see everyone again at our reunion in July!

We got back Sunday night in time to unpack and get kids off to bed. As much as we would have loved to stay in Brentwood longer (the girls were begging not to leave), it was nice to be able to be home on Monday and enjoy Memorial Day rather than stuck in the car in traffic the whole day. We were able to visit Spencer's parents in the morning. It was a gorgeous day and we played outside the entire time. The kids jumped on the trampoline, rode bikes, ate lunch, and Grandpa Al even got out the old teeter totter!

Then later in the afternoon we had some friends over for a BBQ. We grilled up some chicken and carne asada for tacos, with homemade guac, Lindsey's rice and beans, Chelsey's salsa, Spencer's fresh squeezed lemonade, topped off with strawberry shortcake! Delicious! We had such a good time, and the kids all played super hard. Elle played so hard in fact that she put herself to bed (for the night) at 5:30pm! What a sweet little girl, all tuckered out from our action packed Memorial weekend!

The end of an era

In October 2002, as a recent college graduate, and first year teacher to a class of 4th graders in Orem, UT, I found myself in need of a reliable car that could get me to and from work each day. Being single, I was given lots of suggestions to get something cute and sporty. But the practical side of me always wins - my only thought my wanting something that could last through my first 3 kids (ya like that - I was thinking about my kids even before I was married :)! In the end it was a brand new, 2003 Nissan Altima that beat out the rest! While I might have cried in the bathroom of the dealership on the day it became mine, I survived my first big, grown-up purchase! I worked diligently to get it payed off in 4 years (before we even started having kids)! And what a great car it's been - through roommates, dating, close to 9 years of marriage, 5 year of teaching, 4 cross country trips, 3 years of law school, and 3 babies home from the hospital! Funny how cars start to feel like a part of the family.

In 2011 we bought the Odyssey, officially making the Altima Spencer's car. With all the driving he's had to do for work, the Altima quickly packed on the miles and lots of wear and tear.  In the past year or so, we've spent hundreds of dollars trying to keep it in good shape.  But once the Altima started burning through 4 quarts of oil a week, we knew it was time to get a new car.  Luckily Spencer had been doing car shopping for months and knew exactly what he wanted.

We got a good trade in value for my beloved Altima. Then I said my goodbyes in the lot of the Ford Dealership, signed over the title, and the rest is history. I drove back home with the kids, leaving Spencer behind to take care of the rest of the details. A couple hours later he arrived home with his new baby - a 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid!

It was dark when he got home and all the kids were asleep, so I ran outside and let Spencer show me  all the cool features of his new car. With all the hours Spencer spends on the road, I'm so happy that he gets to drive a car that's reliable and gets amazing mpg! The best thing is that Spencer's firm reimburses him for all his mileage.  On his first trip, he averaged 43 miles per gallon - that's almost double what he was getting in the Altima.  Which means more $ in our pockets! His reimbursements will cover the entire car payment, all the gas, and more. That makes me very happy!

Mother's Day 2013

Mother's Day didn't turn out to be quite what I'd hoped for this year, but there were some pretty great moments throughout the day/week that I want to remember. The day started early (no sleeping in for me) - Cal woke up somewhere in the 4 o'clock hour (which he never does and totally took me by surprise). I tried to ignore him and think I drifted in and out of sleep for the next hour. Finally, about 5:30 or 5:45am I went in with a binky hoping it'd get him back to sleep. No such luck. He was up and wanted to play. I mustered some strength and started my Mother's Day! Then Elle woke up cranky which just added to the start of my fabulous day. Thank goodness for Madi who'd been preparing for Mother's Day all week! I was sitting at my computer, half asleep, reading emails, when Madi runs out of her bedroom, big box in hand, and tells me, "Happy Mother's Day!" So sweet! Inside the box were a bunch of notes she'd written and pictures she'd drawn. Loved every one of them!

1st favorite moment of the day:

Please excuse the immodest jammies - she was embarrassed by this picture because she's immodest. Her other jams were in the wash. 

7am- I layed Calvin down for an early nap and went back to bed myself - 2nd favorite moment of the day! 

Spencer was up at that point- feeding the girls and working on the finishing touches of his talk, so he held down the fort while I snoozed. It was such fabulous nap with dreams and everything!

Once I woke up, I showered and got ready for church cause I had to catch someone from the Primary Presidency in 3rd ward to get into their closet and copy a booklet for our "Eight is Great" program this Sunday. I ended up spending the rest of the morning doing primary stuff and getting the kids ready for church while Spencer got all his stuff ready for church. You'd think having church at 1pm would give us plenty of time to get everything done, but we were scrambling at the end and I never did get t a picture of me with my kids - the ONE thing I wanted for Mother's Day (biggest bummer of the day)! I thought maybe after church, but it never happens after church!

I hadn't thought twice about Spencer speaking on Mother's Day and was actually excited to hear his talk, but after talking to Tish and hearing about the graduating seniors who spoke in their sacrament meeting, I realized how much nicer my morning would have been if Spencer didn't have that darn talk to prepare. I might have actually gotten breakfast in bed!

3rd favorite moment of the day was the the 12 minutes that Spencer spoke (he was the last speaker and sadly had to cut out a bunch of his talk). I love hearing Spencer speak and his talk did not disappoint.

4th favorite moment of the day was having the YW take over the 3rd hour of primary, allowing all the women to go to Relief Society! It was such a treat and totally worth all the work it took me during the week to orchestrate! We all got to sit back, relax, enjoy a great lesson and delicious strawberry shortcake!

After church we were rushed- I had to make a bunch of copies for the "Eight is Great" booklets we'd be compiling at our presidency meeting later in the week, while Spencer zipped home with the girls to change and pick up stuff for the Coleslaw/Salad he was making for part of dinner. By the time we got to Spencer's parents it was almost 5 o'clock. I was exhausted, and stressed cause I knew we wouldn't be home by 7pm for Elle to get to bed on time (anything after 7:30 and she becomes a disaster). I was also feeling terribly guilty for not having done anything for our mothers. I had meant to get a photo card in the mail for my mom. I had started it and everything, but the week got away from me and it was never finished. And I was bummed that Spencer didn't have time to think of something special for his mom.

Dinner was delicious though and we had a nice visit with Spencer's parents and a special visit from Tanna (who had flown in for the weekend)!

5th favorite moment of the day!

All in all, it was a good day, but not great. Something was bugging me and I couldn't pin point what it was. The next night, while Spencer drove home from the Burbank airport (just a day trip to Oakland), we had a good heart to heart about traditions for Mother's Day and Father's Day. Neither of us grew up giving gifts so we both agree that that's not something we want incorporated into the holiday, but we also agreed on the fact that in raising our children, they are learning from everything we do. From here on out, the spouses job is to enlist help from the kids to help make it a special day for the honored parent. As much as neither of us like having breakfast in bed, we both think it's a fabulous way for the kids to help. Oh, and sleeping in is a must! And a picture - that's another must! Looking forward to Father's Day next month to set the precedent for what should really happen on the holiday. Gotta train our children right!!

Just a few other things that totally made my week . . .
* Cards like this throughout the week with sweet messages!

*Going to Elle's preschool class on Thursday, watching her with her friends, and hearing her sing, "Skidamarink". At the end she handed me an adorable card and flower (Elle's on the far right). These are the moments mom's live for!

* Going to a Relief Society activity Thursday night and being reminder of our sacred role as mothers. It was fun to share things we learned from our mothers!

*And of course, spending time with my favorite little guy!

Cal really is so sweet - always happy and content. This picture just makes me want to run scoop him up, smoother him with hugs and kisses, and listen to him laugh and laugh.

How lucky I am to be their mom!!

Our Saturday

Just finished getting all three kids off to bed for the night. Madi's the straggler who always seems to come up with one more thing to do or talk about before going to bed. Tonight she had created a plan for her birthday party next month, complete with the guest list, games she wants to play, and treats she wants to have. Her ideas keep changing, but she finally says she's sure and WILL NOT change her mind. I'm exhausted though and not ready to start party plans tonight.

Today was one busy day!

It started out with the PVSD (Pleasant Valley School District) Creekside 5k race (which I didn't enter, but ended up doing my own 5k from home to the park) and the 1 mile Chicken chase which I'd signed Madi up to run. Elle told her she wasn't interested in running the race, but once we got there I think she got caught up in the excitement of all of it and ended up being a great runner, unlike Madi who kept dragging behind.

Near the end Elle and I left Madi in the dust and ran onto to the finish line. Madi felt pretty special though cause the chicken everyone was chasing ran back to finish the race with her and another little girl. Glad I had my phone on hand to document!

We hung out at the park for awhile afterwards. The girls jumped in a bounce house, colored a picture, and got some prizes. Spencer was going to meet us at the park once Cal woke up from his nap, but I got tired of waiting and decided we'd just run on home. A couple minutes into our run back, I looked down and realized my stroller had a flat. That would explain why it wasn't so easy pushing the girls to the park! Within minutes Spencer was there to the rescue! 

We took our picture once we got home- medals in hand:

Then I had a whopping 15 minutes to shower and change before heading off to a free swim lesson that I'd signed the girls up for (a perk for National Water Safety month).

I'd been preping the girls for this swim lesson for awhile, reminding them that it was their one chance to show me and the teacher everything they're able to do in the water. Madi was on board and agreed that she'd go under water and show off all the skills she learned last year. But of course she chickened out right at the end and screamed bloody murder (seriously - it was out of control) when the instructor told Madi she was going to put her under water. And props to the instructor who did it a second time too even after Madi was in such hysterics the first go around. But at least she got in the water. That was more than Elle would do.

Instead, Elle sat on the beach and watched in fear.

At the end she agreed to at least put on her swim suit and cool off in the splash area outside.

Swim lessons were followed up with a a little face painting (cause that's what you would think to do after swimming right :).

Madi chose a butterfly:

Which of course Elle wanted too:

Our Saturday was finished off with a birthday party for a little girl that Madi and Elle are both friends with. Spencer had gone to help cook tri tip for our Multi-Stake Mormon Prom, so I brought Cal along too. It was a fun party - a little out of my comfort zone since I only new the friend's mom, but like I tell Madi, it's good to make new friends!

Then it was home for clean up, dinner, baths, scriptures, stories, and bed!

Now to get ready for church tomorrow... Spencer's speaking and I've gotta get sharing time ready for the young women who are taking over - allowing all of us moms to go to Relief Society! Looking forward to a good Mother's Day tomorrow!