Happy Eighth Birthday, Celia

The squirt guns were a big hit this morning for Celia's Birthday. Especially the one shaped like a cupcake. Celia was running around watering the plants with her squirt guns and saying "Put your hands up, I'm a cop." She loves her lalaloopsey sister dolls , new shirt and a whole bunch of new socks. Celia has kind of been getting her birthday presents all week and for Easter. She is happy and spoiled. It was a beautiful day. We were forecasted to have rain, but instead we had beautiful fluffy white clouds and blue skies with a cool breeze.  She let me cut her bangs and her hair flys everywhere s she runs, but I love it. Celia is excited to have friends over for a party to celebrate some more on Friday. She is excited to be baptized. She tells us she knows everything and that she'd like to ride in the front seat of the car now. She is so fun and has a great personality. Love you, Celia!

Celia got to do some more celebrating with Rah Rah, Willow, and the rest of the family on her Birthday Evening. Celia loves her Laloopsey backpack from and we loved visiting. I loved the baptism dress Rah Rah and Papa got for Celia. It is great to be Eight and she is going to be baptized next Month. We are all so excited!

Visiting the Castle

Many times we had passed the "Castle" nearby our house and Celia noticed it. It is known as "Sun Splash" and we were excited to be invited to go mini golfing there with a few friends. It was Celia's first time and she did pretty well, much better than I did. I think she liked how chaotic my ball was and the adventure is cause. I didn't get it in to the water, but others in our group did and we even had to call an employee to come and get our balls out of the house that swallowed them up. Alex is such a nice friendly friend of mine. I'm grateful for her. She was so kind to take to me have my foot surgery and bring me food, and now she is my visiting teacher, lucky me! Her teenage kids are pretty nice too. We went to the park with them during spring break and Spencer came out of the car and sat with us at the picnic table. Spencer loves teenagers and I'm so pleased when they are kind and accepting of him. I love that he is calming down quite a bit. he bites his hand less and aggresses toward other infrequently these days. I am hopeful he will continue to calm adown and we can take him out in the community more and have fun.

Easter Sunday 2014

We've had a lovely Easter. it is beautiful outside. Church was nice. We gave the opening and closing prayers with Spencer lasting about 10mins as usual. Brian is so good to go for car rides with Spencer. It is relaxing for Spencer and it makes it possible for us to attend church. Celia got interviewed after church by the Bishop to see if she will be ready for baptism. She passed( she says she knows all that stuff when we talk about it) and said she answered a thousand questions for an hour. We had dinner at Lunchtime and had a great visit from Rah Rah. I like that Easter is Sunday during spring break so there isn't a lot of things requiring our time and attention away from home. The kids got Easter shirts and dresses for the girls. It felt a little bit like I was stuffing stockings rather than Easter basket last night. Christmas and Easter seem similar to me in the way that there are celebrations of Christ and for traditions or fun. I tried to make open tomb rolls, but they just turned out as cinnamon rolls with a marshmallow on top. I guess the stone is still in front of the tomb, hehe.

I'm grateful for My testimony that Christ is the redeemer of the world. He atoned for or sins, died and resurrected on the third day. We can live with our families together forever. I have a hard time getting the family together for a family picture, but I know we are happy and I hope we can appreciate our time together here on earth being nice to each other as much as possible.

Decorating Eggs with my Daughters

Emmy reminded me how we only get to color eggs once a year. She was sweet to thank me for doing it with her. We had a great time. I sure enjoyed dying and decorating eggs with my girls. I loved the vibrant colors and the patience they were exercising getting the green dye to make the egg green. Celia was a bit upset when the wind rolled her egg right off the table. A big bunny, some hugs and a book helped her to feel better later. Even though my children are older now,( three teens) they still love Easter festivities including the hunt, chocolate, eggs and of course Easter baskets. I hear the Easter bunny is bringing church clothes. Maybe, I can sneak a picture of the kids together. That would be dreamy.

Egg Hunt With Merlene

Merlene has been  a respite worker for us for over 8 years. Last Easter and this Easter time she has set up an egg hunt in our backyard. There were so many eggs.  Joseph helped hide them. However, this gave him an advantage of finding the eggs quickly! He soon had his basket overflowing with eggs. He found the gold egg that has money inside. Celia found quite a few too. Emmy came in last minute and found the ones hidden high up and in tricky places. Merlene and the kids hid some eggs in the front room for Spencer since he was napping during the outside one. It was such a great hunt, I didn't feel we needed to go to our neighborhood's one with all the crowds. Celia keeps the excitement of holidays going since she is younger and so excited about everything.

Creative Invites and Dances

Prom Prom and more Prom. Senior and Junior Prom have been a topic of conversation around here lately. A month a go Andrew, Emmy's boyfriend, called me and asked if he could take her to an All Time Low concert on the 15th of April. It was was sold out. I agreed and he found a way to get tickets. Andrew took Emmy to the Jelly Belly factory after she took the ACT and had a poster that had an Ace of spaces card for the yes option. She chose yes and the Ace of spaces is where the concert will be and a copy of the tickets were there. Emmy was so happy and excited. Her friends are so happy for her. Many times Emmy had mentioned how she wanted to go and how she can't believe she isn't going when it is nearby in Sacramento and during Spring Break. I had to assure her she would be okay when the disappoint of not going was amplified as the drummer from Yellowcard(her favorite band) left. Andrew was determined to keep the surprise.  Emmy built him a cake(Napoleon Dynamite) to ask Emmy to Junior Prom and he promptly said yes. I loved how the cake was purple and she wore a purple dress, I love the matchy matchy.

We went over to Rah Rah's to visit Lance and his boys. We had dinner, borrowed some hairspray for Emmy's hair and ended up taking pre prom pictures in their backyard. They then traveled to our house and took a picture in front of a neighbors house that had a palm. They stood there for Andrews junior prom pictures last year, They duplicated a shot. It was fun photographing them They got to dinner late ( outback Steakhouse when Andrew's brothers happen to be having dinner, oops)and almost didn't get in to the Prom. Andrew talked to them and they got in. They had chocolate fondue and Wii at the dance and Emmy was happy to report no grinding in the dancing area. I'm glad they had a great prom.

Grateful

General conference was inspiring. The family time with Lance's family visiting from Utah was great. The weather has been beautiful despite allergies flaring up around here. There is much to be grateful for. We are at the beginning of a busy time with Spring. Right now I'm feeling appreciation for the respite worker we have had for a few years. She moved away and trying to fin d a replacement has been tricky. We do have Merlene coming this week and I appreciate her so much after trying to train new workers to understand Spence and successfully get his needs met. He is doing well right now, but he can be tricky to take care of.
I also feel grateful for being safe. A tornado touched down in our neighborhood, but we were okay. I went on a field trip with Joseph and the school chartered a bus. They arrived safely home, but further up the road a chartered bus was struck by a fed ex truck and there were injuries and fatalities to the students, drivers and chaperones. Life is short and I'm grateful for the time with my family and our temple sealing as comfort that we can be together forever. There was also a high speed car chase in Antelope last week where we used to live that took the life of a father and daughter. The community has reached out and come together to support their family.  Whenever tragedy strikes I just want to pull my daily close and hold them near me. I want to follow the prophets advice and stand in Holy places. That can be our home, temples, meeting houses and anywhere where we are keeping the commandments and engaging in good. I'm grateful my parents have been safe through the many minor earthquakes in L.A. Also, for the rain we have been receiving.

The field trip turned out to be such a great time. I met and talked with Lindsey and Chris who are Brian and Sean's moms. I drove to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. We experienced the museum , had a great time driving around the city and walking on the Golden gate Bridge. it was cold and foggy, but so fun and beautiful. We hit traffic on the way home, but our conversation was engaging and we love stopping off at El Pollo Loco for a Mango Chicken Tostada. I feel like I have a few more friends over at Joseph's school and would love to chaperone again.