Primary Program 2014 - Families are Forever

This past Sunday was our ward Primary Program - the second program I've written since being called as the Primary President of our ward. And I have to admit (in all humility, because it was all them) that it was awesome! Every single kid had their speaking part memorized (or close to at least), the songs were sung beautifully, the messages were clear, and the spirit was strong! I feel so blessed to be part of such in incredible ward with such strong families.  

Our amazing Primary chorister made these cute invitations to pass out (Spencer just sketched in an additional person on this one to make it fit our family): 

The girls and I gave out lots of invitations and we were thrilled to see our school crossing lady- Ms. Linda, there on Sunday morning. I had her come sit up close with our family. One of the kindergarten teachers from our elementary school was there too (good thing since 5 of our primary kids are in her class this year, and she counted a whopping 17 kids who she was either currently teaching or had taught in the past)! Lots of other friends, neighbors, and extended family came too - making it a packed house! It was definitely a program to remember. 

I sure love serving in primary and being able to be in there every week with these beautiful girls of mine! 

Spencer's 35th!

Spencer's birthday fell on a Monday this year, so we spent the weekend celebrating. We invited his parents over for a tri trip dinner with Lemon Meringue pie on Saturday, then the Bells invited us over for dinner on Sunday and we brought over a razzleberry pie for dessert (Spencer's not a cake fan - he's a total pie guy). On Monday we kept it low key and spent the day celebrating as a family. I made Spencer's favorite buttermilk pancakes for breakfast, we were able to go out on an afternoon sushi date for lunch (thanks to Lindsay for watching Cal), and then had a birthday celebration with the kids in the evening. 

The girls went all out in making birthday hats, cards, and wrapping all sorts of great presents in hopes to make it a special day for their dad. Their excitement was infectious! I love celebrating with our kids! 

Happy Birthday babe! How lucky we are all to have you in our lives. 

Catching up

I've been feeling like a crazy lady lately - living just one day at a time, trying my best to squeeze everything in. I gotta get a bunch of "little things" documented before I can feel the relief of having my blog all caught up and be able to move onto all that we've got coming up.

Elle scored her 2nd goal of the season this past Saturday which we all celebrated afterwards!

We had a free Saturday several weeks ago which we spent at the Santa Barbara Zoo, and then onto our  favorite family restaurant - Padaro Grill:

We decided to take a walk along the beach before heading home and were kicking ourselves that we didn't just bring our suits and spend the afternoon at the beach.

I sure love watching my kids develop close relationships with each other. Elle takes such good care of Calvin:

Elle got into the 9am kindergarten group so she and Cal now have an additional hour to play each morning together. Cal feels like such a big boy when he gets to line up with Elle at school drop-off. 

What a stellar kindergartener Elle is! I get to work in her classroom almost every week and I love seeing how well she gets along with everyone and how quickly she gets her work down. And check out her beautiful handwriting:

Madi is thriving in 2nd grade! She loves school and is learning tons! She had a pretty awesome field trip out to a farm out in Santa Paula last month and came home with some great produce to share! We all enjoyed those hand picked carrots! She's also been busy with swim lessons M-W which explains her attire.

I love being there to watch Madi swim and Elle likes to take my phone and take lots of pictures while I watch!

Our trip to Utah/Wyoming had me in Logan on a Friday morning with nothing going on, so I took advantage of the time and met up with my favorite cousin for a morning run - which turned into a hike up some steep hills overlooking the Logan temple! Absolutely gorgeous and such a blast to spend a morning with this amazing cousin of mine who I love so much!

Speaking of Logan..... it was fun for my kids to get to play with their cousins while we were there. Calvin and Bailey really hit it off which I was happy to see.

In case you're wondering what they were up to in the first picture, here's a picture with the creek they were busy throwing rocks into:

Such sweet little friends!

And the Hales have some pretty awesome toys in their backyard which helped to keep our kids entertained while we were there.

Loved this shot on our drive home from Utah. We tried to get Boppi to trade seats, but she insisted that she was comfortable back there. Not sure how well she could walk the next day!

Cal's little preschool group is the cutest! I love getting pics sent to me afterwards and hearing about how much fun he's having with all his buddies!

Conference weekend was awesome! I had the perfect activity for Madi to work on while she listened. After 4 sessions of conference we'd created an awesome wreath (I'll have to post a pic of the final product)!

Of course we made our annual Conference cinnamon rolls which the kids always look forward to:

Camarillo is finally cooling down and starting to feel like fall! Hallelujah! I've been loving my morning runs - the fog this particular morning was pretty awesome:

Oh, and I broke my toe 11 weeks ago. It obviously didn't heal correctly and I'm guessing I'm always going to have a weird looking left middle toe.

Friday was our annual school dance-athon - 80's theme.

Cal and I had fun going to the school to dance with Madi and Elle.

And more to come on these sweet kids I love so much!

beach days

I sure was ready for school to get started back up at the end of August - I love the structure and schedule that school brings, but I tell ya - this year has been kicking my butt! I've totally been missing the simplicity of summer lately. And I especially miss our Wednesday beach days! I love looking back at these pictures- taken just over a month ago, but seems like an eternity ago. 

Below: Madi with her friend Elena, and ALL the people behind them were part of our Wednesday beach group! 

Below: Taken on Labor Day - I'll be doing a lot more body boarding next summer! It was an absolute blast to be out there, laughing my head off with friends. The kids got a pretty good kick out of seeing all the moms out there too! My favorite comment came from one of my 7 year old primary boys after I missed a big wave - "What happened Sister Jenkins?!? You totally had that!"

I loved watching Cal warm up to the beach this summer too. By the end of summer he was out jumping waves, getting buried in the sand, and helping build castles. 

8 kids

A couple weekends ago Lindsay and Shaun headed to MN to finish packing, loading up and tying up all the loose ends there. Since Boppi and Grandpa Al were off on their Alaskan cruise, we volunteered to take all the kids for the weekend. It was quite a party with 8 kids! I can't resist talking pictures whenever we have a big group of cousins together!

I had a full van picking up all the kids after school on Friday - after getting Kaitlyn, we were on to get Brittany from Cam High.

After school pick-ups and an afternoon at the park, we headed home for pizza, popcorn, and movie night! Elle and Tyler got bored with the movie and resulted to Legos:

Ashley and Cal choose to take a bath instead of the movie:

After the 5 youngest were asleep, Brittany, Kaitlyn, Eric, Spencer and I stayed up playing "Sync Up" and eating Reese's Pieces, Hot Tamales and ice cream bars!

Saturday morning Spencer and the kids headed off for a morning donut run to Rolling Pin . . .

We hit up the park mid morning, then I dropped Brittany off at an EFY activity, and took Kaitlyn shopping at Michaels before we all loaded up for Elle's soccer game at 4pm.

After the game we had a Saturday evening backyard BBQ . . . .

Sunday morning we were up early to get ready for 9am church. I made a big pot of apple cinnamon oatmeal for breakfast to fill up all these bellies. . . 

Church was awesome - I loved taking up an entire row for our group and having big kids to help with the littles!

Our last meal was Sunday dinner before the kids headed back to Boppi and Grandpa Al's.

It was a crazy busy weekend, but sure a lot of fun!