What we've been up to this week.

Harry Potter, Here we Come!

The Fair

Celia with her pillow pet we won.:)

It was hot, but the kids enjoyed funnel cake on a picnic table under some evergreen trees.~

We've been up to having fun this summer. Each day we do what we need to like getting ready and cleaning up a little bit, then we do some sort of fun activity. Emmy is a slave driver of fun. She asks" Are we going to go anywhere today?" everyday! Her and I went and saw The last Harry Potter movie. We enjoyed it a lot. Its so great to have mama daughter time. Emmy went to the temple with her youth group too. Brandon came over to pull rides with us and those two were so cute together. They played guitar hero on hard and expert mode, then listened to music sharing the same pink headphone sitting on pink camping chairs in the back yard. Its fun to have people over and Emmy likes to have friend when the tutors are here because her younger siblings are occupied.:) Bri and I still have our date night on Thursdays and the kids and I go have fun during the day! We've gone out to yogurt and to the park, to volleyball and for walks. I Love how there is so much to do in Sacramento. We don't have to travel too far to really have a great vacation.

Spence as been having lessons on traveling well in the car, so we go on all sorts of community outings with his tutors. Yesterday, we went to the California State Fair. It was a big hit with the kiddos. There were eight of us all together with the tutors. Some highlights were; seeing the brand new baby piggies, using darts to shoot balloons for a pillow pet. ( I popped one with a dart first try , thank you very much), Emmy riding an extreme roller coaster(Firebolt), and seeing the insect exhibit. I wish I took more pictures, but the batteries kept falling out of my camera lol. Celia remembers it well and can't stop talking about it. Today, Emmy and I are going to see "Seventeen Miracles" at the movies with some friends of mine, and tomorrow she goes boating after piano practice. We're lovin' summer!

Preparing to Understand.

How can we gain understanding of things we don't know about? We can't. We must first expose ourselves to information and study things after that. We need to make deductions, try out ideas and come to conclusions. It is easy to decide what we are going to learn in life and what paths we will follow, but is it a fulfilling choice? I learned when I was young we don't get something for nothing. I mean I was spoiled, but as far as effort for results was concerned, there definitely was a correlation in reaping what we sow. The past few days our little family has been playing Wii sports. My Wii fitness age was pretty high. I think my last test said 54 years old. Yes, this is just a video game, but it goes to show that I don't practice hitting home runs very much. The kids do though and their scores are better. If we learn an instrument and practice it, we will understand music more and learn things we couldn't have other wise learned had we not had the experience. We put forth the effort and then we come to understand how it works.

I bring this up because I believe life can be a great learning experience. We can comfort others as we battle the same challenges. We can feel empathy and do good as we prove ourselves strong in this human existence. Spence probably won't learn to talk just by praying it that way. He needs every level of effort and instruction we can give him, plus professionals, and prayers. Some things I am just not interested in learning at this time in my life, like how to run a half marathon! hehe. Other things I am interested in understanding. That's the beauty of it, we can choose what we value and ponder on those things.

We cannot learn to swim or ride a bike or do our finances successfully unless we work at it. I want to work on reading my scriptures and help my children to value that. I'd love to learn more about genealogy too. For now, I am learning about behaviorism and taking time to teach my children things that can help them to learn, grow, and understand life. I value my opportunity as a stay at home mom to be involved in their upbringing. There is much to learn and I'm glad to have Brian to help me to teach our kiddos. He knows quite a bit.:)

This thought of preparation before understanding hit me as I was being in a situation where Spanish was spoken the whole time. If I hadn't had so many years of instruction in High School , college and exposure to Spanish in my home growing up, I wouldn't of been able to understand as much as I did. I would have missed out on wonderful family stories and great thought provoking lessons given there.

I used to get down on myself thinking I knew only a little about a lot of things, but wasn't super fantastic at one thing. I thought it would be great to be a concert violinist or an expert swordswoman.~ Now, I say well good as least I got some exposure to some things to help me to learn, teach, understand, and help others. Hooray for life and the great experience that it is!

Family Fourth of July

Happy Independence Day. We loved the BBQ (all the kids kept talking about how there was beer in the marinade for the ribs lol), pool, fireworks, and birthday celebrations. It was nice hanging out together and relaxing on a hot July Day. We had to keep the kids busy, so they played crochet in the front yard, and rolled down the sun dried grassy hill and swam a lot! We enjoyed Tanya's infamous red velvet cream cheese frosting cupcakes for the birthday men. The fireworks near the Mulesteins house are always amazing. We loved the show. Celia was so cute. The sound of the fireworks going off surprised her at first, but then she loved them when she saw us all smiling and enjoying the show. She said, "It's a Ryan song!" and starting singing "Light up the Sky" by Yellowcard. We roasted marshmallows after the show and went to sleep grateful for our time at the grand folks. Fire works pictures taken by Emelina Holmes(my mom)

Spending Sunday Together

Sunday was a great experience. We went to church with my parents to the Spanish Branch they attend. I loved being there, My mom translated some patriotic hymns into Spanish and the choir she is in charge of did a great job. We met wonderful people and I enjoyed brushing up on my Spanish. I could understand so much, the kids weren't catching it all, but hopefully they'll get a desire to learn this wonderful language! We had Mexican food after and I enjoyed watching Churchy type show with my parents, a nap, and relaxing. They do so much service in the church, its nice to celebrate the holiday and worship with them.

Enjoying Twilight Knott's Berry Farm.

Day Two of our trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house was pretty fun too. Each Morning Grandpa makes us breakfast and then the kids swim a while. It is so beautiful and relaxing in their backyard. We shopped all afternoon getting Joseph some church clothes, visiting Henry's Shoe experience, our favorite shoe store around there, and grabbing some ultra yummy seviche for lunch. My kids are fish eaters and gobbled it all up! They love to have paletas in between their swims and the taco bar is a big hit as well. Who can pass up beef Chile and Chile Verde tacos, tostadas and nachos? Yum!

In the afternoon, Grandpa headed off to the Temple and my mom and I took the kids to Twilight Knott's Berry Farm. We got a great discount, a lady I didn't know gave me a coupon too, gotta love that. We went on many rides, enjoyed a couple funnel cakes, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The Highlights were; The Calico train ride where we watched an extreme bike show to the song "For you and your Denial" by Yellowcard while we waited to ride, the Log Ride(Celia said how much she loved this ride the entire time), the bumper cars (Celia and Emmy vs. Mama and Joseph), and the tumultuous ride called the wipe out. Joseph liked the foot massager while we waited for Emmy to go on the Ferris wheel, and Emmy and I got wet on the Big Foot Rapids right before it was time to go home.:)

We got Celia a stroller and a lollipop and she thought it was a good as Disneyland.:) We left around 10:30pm and we were happy campers. Grandpa made spaghetti for us and we went to bed having full tummys and having been fully entertained. Now this is vacation!

Hacienda Hills Hike

We went to the La Area to visit my folks for fourth of July. I was so afraid of holiday traffic on a Friday we left on Thursday. It turned out to be a great idea. We didn't hit any slow downs or traffic despite the signs of upcoming delay( we took a detour) and the looks of on going construction. The kids were great and we made it there without problem. On the way into town Celia decided we should go hiking since she had a new over the shoulder pack and Joseph had just got a new back pack in the mail to prep for his Colorado trip. So the next day Tanya and her kids and our crew went to the Hacienda Hills trail. It was hot and steep and I think Celia changed her mind about hiking. I was impressed about the kids not complaining, except for Celia. Its great to hike with buddies, we sang songs for Celia on the way down when she thought she couldn't make it and she had to take bites of cinnamon apple waffle grandpa made to make it through such a hard endeavor. It made for a nice afternoon of swimming in the grandparents pool. Tanya and I got to volleyball and yogurt that evening. It was a wonderful active day, Loved it.~

Like Mother like Daughter

I love the outdoors. I love to beautify, renew, and grow something beautiful. My friends and family must know that because I do it so often and I'm starting to receive presents of that nature. I received a cute red daisy potted plant from Joseph's fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Talley. It is so cute I planted it in the front yard where my lavender failed to come up after being smashed because the kids were filling up water balloons, its all fun. Spence was able to choose a gift for me before mother's day at his school and he chose the exact red flowers(begonias) we already have in the back yard that one had died. His teacher said he was adamant about picking that one out of other options. I told Spence he chose great and he just smiled.

Yesterday, I worked on the backyard and made a little room out of the furniture we had that I didn't have room for in the house since we redid our tile. Joseph and Emmy helped and we got all the leftover construction mess and materials out of the way and made a beautiful area to sit and to have friends hang out in. I was glad I did it and realized that my mom had been working on beautifying her yard the same day. Her pictures were beautiful, her yard looks amazing and I realized I get the creative bug from her and the love of planting and beautifying. What better way to renew then to take after my mother. I am happy to have children to pass down traits and talents too. It is all very fulfilling.:)

Underwater

Who doesn't love swimming? You are weightless, and it can be such a refreshing experience on a hot day. We have had high temps around here this week and and swimming as been the theme of the week, for Emelie at least. She's been to two aquatic centers more than once, two other pools and boating. It's multiple times a day that she is swimming and she experienced her first sun burn. I think it will turn into just a nice brown tan by the end of the week, Lucky girl.

Last week Emmy was at camp and went canoeing there too. We are planning to go to Mammoth in August and kayaking is something we want to do there. Its official, we love water. Emmy's friend Kimberly bought an underwater camera and took these pictures of Emmy and her friends. It reminds me of the movie twilight when Bella is under water.:) I'm glad they make those kind of cameras, it captures just a little bit of the feeling and look of being under water. I think we'll play in our Jacuzzi this week too if the high temperatures hold up. It'll be a good opportunity to teach Celia to swim.~

Magnificent Men

What makes a great father? Is it the support they give day by day, the time spent with each child, and the support to the wife? Absolutely. Mothers do what they do best no matter the time of day or how the day has gone. Fathers that are fantastic do the the same. They go to work when they're tired, they take the time to show interest in the children's day despite what has gone on in their day. They read stories to little ones, they cook meals when needed and occasionally spoil the family to death with their favorite things. I am fortunate to have one of those type of fathers. My Dad cooked for us growing up. He supported us having friends over and cares about our family and their well being deeply. He supported us through all the expenses of teenage girls and big wedding receptions. He taught us to pray and read the scriptures and to be honest. My Dad is so honest , kind, full of Truth, loves to smile, and be happy.

I am doubly blessed to be married to such an amazing man that is an extraordinary father to my children. We have such wonderful monkey kids, its not always easy to have family home evening, game nights, and give quality time to each child but he does it and does it well. He has charity, is strong, extremely intelligent, loving, and such a great example to our children and a great support to us all. I am grateful for these men in my life all all they do not only once a year but every day and the diligence it takes to be these magnificent men. :)