Memorial Day Weekend

We had a fun Memorial Day weekend, despite all the rain. On Saturday I forced everyone to work in the yard ALL day. Since our flower gardens were weeded for my birthday, I want to keep them under control so I made everyone weed and then we mowed the lawn. The yard looks great now! We put some weed control in all the flower beds so hopefully we won't have to do this again for awhile. Luckily, it didn't start raining until right after we finished it all.

Sunday night we had movie night. We watched Gnomeo and Juliet together.

Since everyone worked all day in the yard, they earned the right to go see Kung Fu Panda 2. We went to see that this afternoon. We all love going to the movie theatre and pigging out on popcorn and candy. It was a cute movie!

Tonight we had a Bar-B-Q with Dale's family. We lucked out with the rain again. It was raining right before and a little while we cooked dinner but stopped while we were eating and we were able to play outside. The boys had a great game of basketball while the kids did all sorts of things together outside.

I'm glad that my kids live close to their cousins and have such a great time together! Katie and Macey are so cute together. Long after everyone else was done eating, they sat and talked and ate together in the clubhouse. It was fun weekend. Too bad everyone has to go back to school tomorrow!

Great Game!

Last Thursday night Jadon had such a great baseball game! This season he has struggled a bit with hitting. He can really hit the ball far when he's not in a game but when he's up to bat, with all that pressure, he gets nervous. Dale has been working with him and telling him he needs to get really pumped up and do something like growl right before he gets up. Dale has been the assisstant coach for Jaxon's team so he hasn't been to very many of Jadon's games. Luckily, he was able to go to this game. On the way to the game, he was pumping him up with up beat, really loud, music. It was fun to all sing along together to the music. When Jadon got up to bat the first time, he looked pretty nervous. Dale started cheering him on and when he got his attention, he growled really loud. The smile on Jadon's face was priceless. Sure enough, He hit the ball. Unfortunately, the other team caught it. I don't think Jadon cared. He was smiling when he came into the dugout. The next time he got up to bat, Dale started cheering again. That got everyone pumped up. We counted to 3 and all the parents, and all the kids in the dugout, growled at Jadon. It was awesome. He hit it hard! It went way out into right field and he got a double! He was feeling very confident and stole 3rd with the next batter. He made it into home with the next batter and had that same big smile on his face when he got into the dugout! I was cheering so loud. I told Dale that I didn't care if they won or lost, it was still a great game! The whole team played really well and they ended up winning 17-4. It was such an awesome night!

Homerun!

Tonight I was only able to go to part of Jaxon's game because Jadon had an orchestra performance. As I was getting ready to leave, Jaxon came over to tell me that he was up on deck next. I told him that I had to leave and asked him to please hit a homerun for me before I left. He told me he would only do it if I watched. I guess he thought I would miss it because I was talking to my friend. He got up to the plate and swung at the first ball and missed. Then he hit the next ball and it soared all the way out into the field. He started running and his coach kept telling him to keep going. He barely made it safely to home but when he did he had a huge grin on his face. It was very exciting! Who knew all I had to do was request a homerun to get it?

DARE Lagoon Day

Friday I got to go to Lagoon with Kierra and her friends for DARE Lagoon day. She has been planning this day almost the whole year. The friends that she wanted to go with changed almost daily depending on who could go. I had been preparing her all week that we might not go because of the rain but she continued to stay positive and said it would be a nice day. When it was pouring all day Thursday, I thought we would be staying home for sure. Luckily for her, it wasn't raining on Friday morning when we woke up. After the freezing cold day I had with Jaxon at This is the Place, I went prepared with gloves, coat, boots etc...

It actually turned out to be a great day! It rained on us a few times but not for very long. It was nice to be standing in line without being hot. It was crowded in the morning when we got there but by the end of the night we there were hardly any lines.

The girls had a great time together and everyone was brave and went on most of the rides. Kierra had a tramatic experience on two of the rides but at least she went on them! I had fun hanging out with Kierra and her friends. She has some great friends and I'm glad that they have such a great time together!

Great Birthday!

I had a great birthday yesterday. When I woke up in the morning, I looked outside to check the weather. I noticed that all my flower beds had been weeded! I was thrilled! I had been gone the night before and Dale had some guys come weed the front and back and prune the bushes. It was dark when I got home so I didn't notice. I get so frustrated in the spring when the weeds are growing like crazy! I can't get rid of them or my allergies will get out of control. It was so sweet of Dale to take care of it for my birthday! I signed up to go on a fieldtrip to This is the Place Monument with Jaxon. I was a little disappointed, but not surprised, when we woke up to rain. It almost always rains on my birthday. As we traveled on the bus, in the rain, to the monument, I kept thinking how horrible this was going to be. At first the kids were complaining and all I wanted to do was find shelter and sit in it. The people at the park had other plans for us. We went on the rotation they had planned for us. We started at the handcart pull. One of the volunteers told some wonderful stories about what some of the pioneers went through to come to this valley. As she was telling these stories, it started snowing! So all the kids got to do the handcart pull in the snow! It was actually really cool! They all had smiles on their faces even though they were soaking wet and getting muddy. I really enjoyed the time I was able to spend with my little Jaxon! I don't get to spend one on one time with him very much. He was so sweet to me all day. I had brought a cooler for our lunches and he never let me carry it. He had written a Happy Birthday note to me and put it in my lunch along with 2 of my favorite candy bars. When I signed up to go on this fieldtrip, I thought Jaxon would just hang out with his friends and I would be along for the ride. He didn't at all. He stayed with me the whole time and just talked about everything with me. I couldn't ask for a better present from him! While I was on the fieldtrip, my e-mail on my phone was going off all day. I was getting happy birthday wishes on Facebook from friends and family. It was such a great feeling! When I got home, I found that Kierra and Katie had decorated my bedroom doorway. They didn't have any balloons or streamers so they used ribbon and put all the flowers that we put in the girls hair on the ribbons. It was so cute! Kierra is so creative. That night Dale and I went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It was yummy and nice to go out on a date. We were going to go to a movie but didn't see any that were too exciting so we went to Blockbuster and rented "Date Night". I had a great day! I can't wait until next year when I turn 40 because I am going on a cruise or to Hawaii!!!

Tired Baseball Players

This is what Jadon and Jaxon looked like about 1/2 an hour after we got home from baseball tonight. Everyone was just watching TV and I looked over and saw them both asleep. Neither one of their teams did well tonight and I guess it took a lot out of them!

Cute little mommy

I have made several baby receiving blankets lately and Katie loves to watch and try to help. My sister in law gave me a bunch of fabric to do some blankets for her. I had left the fabric in a bag in the front room. While I was cleaning today she got them all out and made little beds for her dolls. She spent a long time spreading them out so they were just right. She called me in to the front room and said "Mom, I need some more fabrics for my babies." I love to watch her play with her babies. She is so sweet to them and takes good care of all of them. I left her babies wrapped up in the fabrics all afternoon and Katie loved it!

Happy Mother's Day!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! This morning my family let me sleep until 8:00 am. When I got up they had made a yummy breakfast and had the table all set with flowers and everything. They made kneaders french toast and had kneaders yummy cinnamon syrup. Dale got the recipe for the french toast from Kneaders and He, Jadon, Kierra and Jaxon made the french toast the night before. It was so sweet and it was fun to have a sit down breakfast before church.

At church, Kierra spoke in sacrament meeting. She gave a very good talk. After church my family let me take a nice nap. Right before I fell asleep, they gave me two cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes. A chocolate chocolate chip and a red velvet. Yummy yummy!

Then they all worked together and made and cleaned up dinner. Every time I tried to do something, they got mad at me and made me let them do it. It is so fun for me to see my family working together. Dale said that they all planned out the meals they were going to make together. They wanted to make the things that I would love.

Here is our family having a yummy spaghetti/raviolli dinner!

After dinner, we went to visit my mom. Several people have decided to change their profile picture on facebook to a picture of their mom for Mother's Day. As I looked through my pictures, I realized that I didn't have a picture of me with my mom so I had Lisa take one tonight. My mom is a wonderful mother. I am so thankful for the wonderful example that she is to me. She is a very positive person. She is one of the most selfless people I know. I would be honored if anybody ever told me I was just like my mom! I am so thankful for the family that I have been blessed with. They mean everything to me and I am so thankful that I get to be a mom!

Great Analogy

Today Dale and I spent the morning working in the yard. While he was mowing the lawn, I did some much needed, and long overdue, weeding. Last year we dug up all of our tulips that were in the flower bed in front of our house because they were getting old and didn't look very good. Somehow, we missed a few. After I was done weeding, I asked Dale if I should dig up the lonely tulips. He looked over at them and automatically said No. He said they represent our family in this rocky, dirty world. I really liked his analogy! After we were done with the yard work, I left for a while. As I drove away, I looked back at the two little tulips and couldn't help but smile!