Quantity Time

Its great to spend time with the family. Last night we had our Thursday night date night. We took Emmy and Joe to Costa Vida. Joseph had an enchilada with steak in it and Emmy had a steak taco. I mention it because I think its a great treat for them to go out. In my younger years, I remember eating liver and onions(quite a bit different than steak) at my house and I don't remember eating out. We took Emmy and Joe to the Galleria mall because that is what a 14 and 10 year old want to do, apparently.~ There was a fire there several months ago in that mall and the kids wanted to see if it had opened up the areas that were burnt. I took a few pictures of us in the mall and Joseph was adamant about no picture taking, saying "No blogging"! I loved his funny faces, so I will definitely include those in my post.:) My camera had been in the shop for almost a month. Now my wireless keyboard is missing a piece, but I am planning on catching up with my blog this month!

Joseph and Spencer used to share a room and Spence didn't sleep. We have found a solution for that that we all love. Joseph has it own room and the decluttering alone was enough to make me extremely happy. Joseph wakes up with big smiles every morning in his peaceful sancturary.:)

My parents came in town to visit and to attend Uncle David's son's wedding reception in Reno. We went to Deseret Industries on Saturday with them( because that is what we do;) and also his the fruit market at the auction. The nectarines were especially delicious. My mother is fabulous at growing succulents so we found a nice pot and she planted some succulents for me that are on the front porch. Beautifying and organizing my home makes me happy. I am in the right place staying home and taking care of my home and family. I feel I can influence them and teach them to be good friends, neighbors, and great members of the community. Today we had a picnic day at the kids school. We brought blankets and sack lunch and listened to music, played with hula hoops, and enjoyed being together with the school children and their families.

Joseph was hugging me and Celia and was happy to be around us even in front of his friends. When we genuinely like being around each other I can feel the love increasing. When my folks were here we played Mille Bornes, the card game. It was cute to see how competitive everyone gets and how much fun we have together. Brian and I play a lot of games with the kids. My favorite is called Thunderstone. Right now I am reigning champion which makes me quite happy because Brian usually wins at all the games.:) I am glad I have kept the over scheduling of our time to a minimum this school year. I am trying to simplify and enjoy our time together, it goes by too quickly.~

Life moving right a long~

This month has been a little different than in the past. We had a lot of fun and a lot of challenges. Spencer sleeps about every two nights. We can't believe he can just stay awake for 48 hours sometimes then crashes. We are helping him and I am sure he will be back in the sleeping groove again soon. Good has come out of it though. Mr. Joe is getting his own room! Spencer will like having his own room too, I believe.

The boys are growing up.:) Spencer is growing taller and thinning out some and expressing himself a bit more which is very exciting. We practice community outings with Spence and his tutors and that includes riding nicely in the car. He is up to 30 minutes of sitting in the car without hitting windows or acting out. Joseph comes home from school and finishes his homework right away and has shown some skill in cleaning things up all the way. We definitely want to expand that skill;)

Emmy began high school and traded in her marching band class for guitar. She sounds really good and I think it is a better fit for her. She has been going to seminary and dressing up for her school spirit days. This new year seems to be going well for her so far.

I enjoy seeing the sunrise as I drove home from taking her to seminary. The morning time is such a beautiful time. I feel blessed with so many good people in my family. Some blessings in my life that it makes healing from my second oral surgery a little more bearable. Brian was such a great help being with the kids during their tutoring hours after my surgery. I can't wait to feel strong again I am getting better everyday! I realize how grateful I should be for my health, even dental health. Joseph had a perfect visit to the dentist yesterday, no cavities.:)

Celia didn't have her visit since we all were maxed out all dental insurance this year. Its been a year of dental procedures, but luckily it passes and we are on to better things. Celia is getting her permanent front tooth in and thinks she is already an adult.:) Celia spent the night at Rah Rah's.(She can't stop talking about it and how Rah Rah to her to kindergarten even!) She is doing well in her new class. She follows the line, earns paws tickets, and makes the quiet coyote sign with her two fingers to show the teacher she is listening. She was pretty cute the other day, she said, "You can go now!"when I waited next to her in line. Celia realized the other parents weren't hovering, but I assured her I was just creating shade by standing next to her. She was okay with that.:)

When September comes , I think we will be adjusted in our transitions. It will be so nice for have my parents visit, Joseph have his own room, and everyone else continuing to grow and learn through this upcoming fall. In the meantime, we are keeping up our date nights. Last night Brian, Emmy, Joseph, and I went to El Pollo Loco for some fabulous grilled chicken and mashed potatoes and went and saw The Green Lantern. I love Thursdays for date night and am looking forward to many more!

Seventeen Years~ August 12th 2011

Anniversaries are great. Its nice to remember back seventeen years ago when we married in the Los Angeles temple. I pulled out my wedding album and found a few fun pictures that depict what happened the rest of the day. The luncheon was yummy. I liked having Grandpa Holmes there along with Aunt Dixie, Uncle John, Aunt Kathy and both sets of Brian's Grandparents. I've been taking Emmy to a lot of wedding receptions lately. Its so fun to see them dance, toss the bouquet and cut the cake. Each wedding is different, each are so important to that couple. I'm grateful so many of my miamaids I taught when Celia was an infant are now married in the temple. I'm glad we have fond memories of our day and the reception. It was so hot an usual 107 degrees in Santa Monica when we were married. I love that it cooled down to 70 degrees for our outdoor dinner on the lawn at the Richard Nixon library. I am glad the rain began only after we drove to our destination in the Le baron convertible after dancing until 10pm! The pictures look a little antiqued, but I figure they are jsut likeus and get better with age.)

We tried to celebrate our anniversary all weekend. We had a hard time leaving Spencer at his out of home respite. He had been having a lot of trouble sleeping and had been on a medicine vacation. It was rough on everyone. However, Brian and I were able to go and sing more holiness give me together at a choir practice for new members, Elders quorum presidents, and their wives. we were able to go to all sessions of stake conference and have a quiet time with the rest of the kids. We enjoyed going to Rah Rah's house for brunch on Saturday. We played Yahtzee and have yummy German pancakes with fruit, and sausages. Its so peaceful out on her porch, we had a lovely time. I feel blessed to have family around and support during times of stress or even to celebrate events. We picked up Spence early. He had a rough time there, but since has been been happier and we feel so grateful to have him home with us safe, and well taken care of. I am very pleased to be married to my best friend who is such a great guy, father, and support to us. Happy Seventeenth to him. May we have many more together!~

Back in the groove.

The kids have started school! Well except for Spencer, he started August 17th.~ Emmy is a big highschooler now and started her first day of seminary today. I enjoyed going to the seminary fireside with her and remembering my time as a seminary student. She got up well this morning , had an ego waffle and away we went. I'm excited for her to learn about the Old testament this year. She'll probably be able to teach me a thing or too before the year is up. Joseph likes his teacher and is starting off well with a planner and doing his first project on immigration. Celia seems to like her new class and is doing well with Mrs. Franklin who was her summer school kinder boot camp teacher. Celia was excited to earn a paws(positive attitude) ticket. She realized you can earn little toys with those. We are bringing snack next week and she is quite happy in her new class. What big kiddos we have. I love how they are good students and want to learn and grow. I have them reading from 3:30 - 4pm each day and music practice for Emmy at 4pm and we make dinner together at 5pm while the tutoring is going on. We love to spend time with each of our children and see a real benefit to them( and me) when the have a structured day. We drove by beautiful places around here with Spence on some rides and stopped by his school. He was excited then sad when we didn't stay. Two more days and then all will be in order again with the kiddos in school.:)

Birthday Celebrating~

It's the middle of August and it has been eventful! My birthday was lovely. I had a great day with the kids. We went to Mountain Mike's pizza for lunch. They have the best pepperoni there:) We also went to dollar tree and the kids each got me something for my birthday from the coins around the house that we've collected in a jar to keep and save. Brian and I were able to go out to Red Lobster which was totally yummy. I loved the lobster and shrimp and spending time with Brian. We saw our friends there, the Bruce's, and it was cute how Irene threw a sugar packet at me to get my attention and it nearly hit the waitress. I just said, I know her its all good.:) We continued our week with tutoring then Thursday afternoon Brian came home early from work and the kids and I sans Spencer went to Mammoth Lakes California for a little reunion with my parents. Tanya,and her boys.

In Mammoth,we enjoyed a beautiful gondola ride up to eleven thousand feet elevation to send off my sister on her bike ride down the mountain. It was beautiful and picturesque. It was a cool 55 degrees at the top. I wasn't even too scared of the ride up even though it was my first time in a gondola and I am afraid of heights. The kids did well. Celia stayed with my mom on that trip and with them again as we rented a boat on Saturday morning and attempted to fish for trout in Lake Mary. It was a great time. My favorite part was being in charge of the motor boat and helping the kids with their poles since I had the most experience of the group with both which isn't saying much. We were excited to be out in nature and learn the principles of patience, persistence, and survival:) We did get stuck on the boat and pulled out the oars which was fun and got rescued with a start for a motor.

We had a super lovely yummy meal at the Tamarack Lodge with my parents, Emmy, Celia, Joseph, My sister, Addison, and Kieran for my birthday. The kids had great manners and it was a blessing all around. I loved biking, swimming with the kids and using the Jacuzzi. We attended sacrament meeting there and many of us bore our testimonies which was a special experience for the extended family there. We enjoyed T-shirt shopping, going out for pizza and rides in the mountains to see beautiful views.

The 50 was closed( due to a traffic accident) on our way home so me and the kids took a detour around lake Tahoe to get home. It was beautiful and I really enjoyed stopping in Truckee to purchase peridot( my birthstone) earrings with my birthday money from RahRah,

to match the watch my parents bought me there for my birthday seven years earlier. I was glad that Spencer and Dad did pretty well with out us, but of course coming back together as a family was the best part.:) It was great celebrating my birthday in this way and I feel happy and blessed.

Pictures of me

Sometimes, I change my hair color. This time I went lighter and took some pics, for me to see how I liked it.:) It is silly I know, but thats what I do!

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)