A Great Weekend

Another Oral surgery under my belt. At least taking it easy is what I need to do at this time. I did however got to Zocalos in the Fountains shopping center. It was beautiful and the mango salmon was extremely yummy. We had a few birdies come by and visit us as we sat after dinner and enjoyed being outside. It was a great date night with my Hubby!

On Friday, Spencer had no school for a teacher development day and Brian took off work to get ready for the Father Son campout with Joseph. They saw a river otter and enjoyed a priesthood fireside. But before they went , instead of resting a bunch, we got very motivated and organized the garage. It had been a long time coming, but with beautiful steel storage racks, we lined up the bins and got things off the floor! There is so much space to walk around my car, it is fun. We've even had two cars in there when Spencer refuses to get out of the car and he stays in the garage for a few minutes before coming in. I don't think I've ever had my garage this tidy and believe me I've tried. I'm hoping with these racks the mess on slowly get in the walkways as everything has a place. Emmy had a great time at the Sadie Hawkins dance with Andrew, They were the most matchy and really enjoyed themselves.

On Saturday, we played a bunch of different board games and had a great ride to Deseret Industries. Brian found me a U2 cd that I'm enjoying listening to in my car as I pick up kids from school. Celia is getting ready to be baptized late this month so she is practicing getting splashing by the slip and slide in the backyard. Joseph shows her how to run and slide face first on his tummy, but she will slide on her knees only so far. Seeing them play in the backyard reminds me that I've been doing this ort of thing with Emmy and Spencer when they were very small. How blest I am to have years of water fights and playing in the backyard with the kids. I feel very grateful for those memories.

Magnificent Mother's Day

I feel like we have been celebrating me or Mother's Day for a week now. It was great having all the cards, kind words, and gifts culminate in a nice lunch with Rah Rah and Papa and having our picture taken. Spencer was so sleepy, his allergies were really bothering him so he took a nap for several hours. Brian Bbqed some steak and salmon. Rah rah brought over her yummy mashed potatoes with chives in them and homemade rolls. We also ate asparagus and lemon loaf for a little dessert. It was relaxing and a beautiful day. Emmy got to come to Relief Society with me at church and sing in sacrament meeting a sweet primary song about mothers. I felt the spirit strongly in Sunday school as we talked about doing the will of the father, (examples of Balaam in Timothy and Martin Harris in Joseph Smith History)having our desires with His and gaining a personal revelation of our relationship with him. It definitely helps us to do the work we are asked to do 

if we know we are loved and supported by our Savior. I've also been thinking about how important is to be kind to others and mindful of our actions and thoughts. I feel very fortunate to have such loving family. We played some games together and Spencer wanted multiple long car rides to finish off a great day. We are blessed.and I think this was the best Mother's day I've had. 

Winds, clouds, and flowers.

Celia was in a play at school. It was a red riding hood skit. She played a flower singing cute little puns that were names of flowers. I loved her headdress. It was handmade by a mom and was the best costume there. Due to extreme vertigo I had that day, I was a few minutes late to her play. I was happy to see part and my heart melted as she gave me my Mother's day card and gift she had worked on so hard that day. It was a wonderful painted box with coupons to spend time with her snuggling, getting kissed, doing art. I'm so glad she's mine.

The clouds have been awesome this last week. I felt like I was in Colorado San Luis valley with the rain clouds rolling in each day and the clean air. Allergies are a problem for Spencer and I, but the views of the sky have been worth any discomforts. Spencer got hurt (bit) by another student at school so we rested as much as we could after school. We did go to.the park across from the Sacramento zoo. The lake was so nice. Spencer was so happy seeing the ducks, geese, and squirrels. Celia picked flowers.and we listened to someone beating on a drum as they lead a drum circle. Across the pond from us were teens taking pictures for a formal dance. Spencer was quite interested. He loves being around teenagers. I was glad to see him so happy on this outing.

I was walking at a park nearby my house and decided to take a trail I hadn't been on before. I was pleased to fine a river, gorgeous weeds, and a swing on a tree. I want to go back with my children, they would love it. For a while I felt like I stepped into a fairytale adventure book with cool breezes, plenty of foliage, and freedom to roam around. Happy day!

Super Saturday

Today was a great day. Celia and I went to the stake activity day. It was quite the production  put on for mom's and their daughters, ages 8 to 11. There were classes, and treats, and meaningful messages shared all the the theme of "Theres no place like home" from the Wizard of Oz. My favorite parts were singing with Celia and hundreds of other women and girls  and hearing a sweet toddler sing her part in a family musical number. My children are growing older, but I'm glad they still need me and we can share precious moments together. Since Emmy had a mock AP test and I was off with Celia, we quickly got her ready for Senior ball. It was hectic, but it worked out and she was happy and looked lovely. I'm glad to support her. The rest of my kids and I went for a car ride after pictures with Emmy for her big night. I loved seeing the my children smile, laugh, and sing. Celia is excited for more activity days and I'm excited for her to meet more girls her age at church.

We had a few hiccups getting ready for Prom. Her hair is curly, but it was awfully hard to get a loose tosseled curl. I painted her nails and there seemed to be a smudge by surprise quite a bit. She had a sparkling nail polish coating so it worked out. Emmys corsage bracelet was too big, so for once she pinned the boutinere with one try and the  corsage required more tenacity to put on. We used a safety pin. I realized Emmy was driving to Prom and so I had Brian put on the new correct fitting hubcaps just in time. They were off to the Serrano country club where they only have valet parking. It should be a fun fancy smancy occasion. Emmy and Andrew are going to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance together too, before school ends for Andrew and he embarks on his two year mission. As a creative invite Emmy made Andrew a pillowcase with cute lyrics from a Relient K song written on it. Yes, she made a pattern by drawing letters, cut them out and we sewed them on until two in the morning. I'm glad she was so creative and I'm sure he can have the fun pillow case as a memory keepsake for quite some time. These years are fun for me. Celia's next!

Andrew's Dad took some great shots of these kids too, so I added them here. Emmy and Andrew are so cute together!

Never a Dull Moment

You would think that after all of the birthdays and parties happening around here had passed that things would be pretty uneventful for awhile, but that is definitely not the case.

The day after Spencer's birthday Emmy invited three of her friends over and they made a sarcastic hot pink birthday cake for a boy that one of her friends used to like. They had lots of fun baking and driving all over town, and Spencer sure enjoyed having all of teenage girls at the house.

On Monday Celia got to have "her hair done" for an E.E.G. like the ones that she got when she was four. We went to visit Dr. Chez, hers and Spencer's neurologist, for the first time in almost four years and he remembered us. He said that he wanted to get to know Celia again and to make sure that the nightmares that she sometimes gets aren't from any seizures that we don't know about.

On Wednesday Andrew came over to pick up a guest pass from Emmy so that she could go to his Senior Ball next week. She had forgotten it at school, but luckily I was able to go pick it up from the office at her school and bring it over to the office at Andrew's school a few hours before the deadline. While he was at our house, him and Emmy decided that they wanted to make a pizza from scratch. They went out and bought all of the ingredients that we didn't already have around the house and spent the rest of the evening making the dough, waiting for it to rise, putting toppings on the pizza and then putting it in the oven. They seemed like they had lots of fun doing all of that while in the meantime Brian and I went on date night to Costa Vida. I decided to try their raspberry chicken salad, and I think it has become a new favorite of mine!

On Friday afternoon I dropped Joseph off to go on a campout with his boy scout troop, and he felt like he was better prepared for camping this time around since he could use the hiking backpack that he got for his birthday to carry his things during all of their hiking instead of having to carry a couple duffle bags. Celia felt like she wanted to go camping too so while Joseph was packing his things she took out all of her own camping supplies, only all of her things were much smaller and all pink. He seemed like he had a great time and enjoyed telling me about all of the hatchet throwing contests they had at the campout. He didn't get home until late on Saturday night, but he was all smiles and didn't even seem to mind that he was covered in dirt.

Also on Friday, I got around to replacing the hubcaps on Emmy's car. She had been missing her front left hubcap for awhile, so Brian decided to order her some new ones. I put them on her car by myself, but they turned out to be too small. We had barely even gotten off of our street before three of them came off. Oh well. We're ordering some different ones that are the right size, and after a carwash and a week and a half of being in the repair shop her car will be all the way nice and spiffy again. It's so nice that we have a working car for her to be able to drive herself places and we're glad that it will be working for another few years.

And after all that, we all enjoyed just being able to relax.