double digits

Kelsi and me having lunch at Sassy's together.

It's Awesome Time! Kelsi Leigh turned 10 years old on June 3rd. She felt like her birthday was going to be pretty boring and uneventful since we would be starting to babysit 2 boys that Monday. I had agreed to take over watching these two brothers for a little while to help pay for all of this tumbling, piano, softball, and on and on and on......that my girls like to do. June 3rd was our first day. Kelsi wasn't too thrilled about that fact. But we made it fun and went over to Rhodes Jr. High to try out the Flow Rider. We had ice cream, cake and gifts the night before. Her traditional birthday cake is an Ice cream Sandwich Cake that we make together. It's delicious. Kelsi's favorite thing to say is, "I'm awesome", so I found this shirt for her and gave it to her for her birthday.
I've decided June is almost as crazy as "end of the school year" May, and it right on up there with the business of December. I am always gung ho with the summer schedule and get the girls involved in swim and dive team, tumbling clinics and Kelsi played All Stars in softball this summer. One of the days in June, Kelsi went to swim and dive from 9-11, tumbling at 1:15, and softball practice from 7-9pm. I have a little bit of an obsession with keeping my girls busy and finding their "thing". On a day like this though, I realize it's a little out of control. No more summer tumbling clinics I've decided. We'll see if I follow through on that. But it's really fun for them and I feel that if they learn how to juggle their time a little bit, and keep busy, it will benefit them in the long run. We were finally able to schedule a birthday party for her double digit birthday on June 26th. I figured it was still her birthday month right?

 After taking these fun girls to do the Flow Rider, we stopped and got some bahama bucks. The party was super fun and I've decided way more fun than a party at my house. I loved driving these girls around and watching them interact with one another. Everything was drama free and fun. I can't believe I didn't take more pictures. I made cute little cupcakes and put them in a dollar store tumbler with M&M's inside. Everything was themed, "Hangin' 10" and turned out great. I am always so crazy with the details that I forget the pictures. Next time....
Kelsi Leigh, I love you! I secretly love that you are a "daddys girl" and am grateful you have such a wonderful dad who you can look up to. I love your smile and your hair. I love your chill, go with the flow attitude about things and you remind me to relax and calm down when I feel uptight :) You are a wonderful big sister and take such good care of them when you babysit. I have to enjoy each and every minute with you sweet girl! Time goes by way too fast!

Some of Kelsi's favorite things right now are:

Favorite food: Mashed potatoes
Favorite restaurant: Cheesecake Factory
Favorite dessert: Cherry cheesecake
Favorite singers: Kelly Clarkson, Cher Lloyd, Hunter Hays
Favorite song: Without Me by Eminem
Favorite thing to do: softball
Favorite sport: softball

Father's Day 2013

We Love Our Dads!

End of the School Year Crazies! 2013

 Intermixed in the already busy month of May are the recitals, concerts and programs that come with the end of the school year. I love watching each of my girls grow and become so proud of their accomplishments. Kelsi and Kaitlyn have really improved their tumbling skills this year. Kelsi was able to do her round off, back handspring and land on her FEET! A week before her recital, she kept landing on her knees and she worked so hard to nab that foot landing. So proud of her for that! Kaitlyn has her double and sometimes TRIPLE back handspring down! They are both so fun to watch. They both go two times a week and attend Jamie's Allstars and Flips. Kennedy goes once a week to Jamie's Allstars and is just the cutest little tumbler! Those legs are as straight as can be as she does cart wheel after cart wheel. My girls are begging every day for us to get them a trampoline.

 Kelsi began 4th grade orchestra this year. She really begged and begged to play the cello and we finally gave in and decided to let her try. I didn't hear much practicing throughout the year, but their concert was super fun to watch. It gave her the motivation to continue the cello throughout 5th grade and I'm hoping it will become a passion of hers. But we shall see....

 Kelsi and Kaitlyn both played spring softball and had a lot of fun. Kaitlyn was put on a random team, The Super Balls (?!?) but still enjoyed it and made some new friends. I was terrible at remembering to take pics at Kelsi's games but she did great! Even making an end of the game awesome catch! They are also taking piano lessons and did amazing in their piano recital and each played from memory.

 Throughout all of this end of the year business, we through in some swim lessons for Kennedy and Kamryn. They loved it!! I love, love being at the school with my girls for the end of the year activities. Kelsi's class was a little harder to go to, because her teacher didn't need much help. But she had an awesome end of the year party complete with a fire engine spray! Kaitlyn enjoyed a pancake breakfast on her last day of school and Kamryn even got to be a part of that fun. Kennedy had a water party with slip n slides, popsicles, and water games. Each one of my girls had fantastic teachers whom I adore. They learned so much and were so well taken care of throughout the school year. I'm so grateful for that!!

 Our last day of school dinner of choice: Café Rio! Can you tell they had been swimming all afternoon?

 Kaitlyn's folder that she used and loved all year long. It was almost in shreds! She received all 4's (straight A's) on her report card. So proud of her! Kelsi and Kennedy both improved their grades from the beginning to the end of the year as well. Yay~!

Valentines Day

 In my effort to persuade my husband and let him know that I need a camera, I've decided to blog more and just go ahead and post these sweet, fuzzy pictures of mine, courtesy of my iphone. The problem is that I've had nice, expensive cameras in the past and, for whatever reason, I don't like them. So they become toys for my girls instead. Hmmm...that's beside the point.

We keep our Valentine's Day pretty simple and low key over here. Jesse will always bring them home a treat from work...last year it was balloons, this year it was a big, fat Hershey Kiss. I think Kamryn started to devour her's before the picture was taken so she is just holding a big, fat mound of foil. I've decided that I can give my girls one of two things. The first thing is a pinterest inspired day full of themed out breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes; maybe even coordinate their outfits specifically for vday. Kelsi changed out of her pink shirt into her tumbling clothes before I snapped the picture. I really didn't put much thought into their outfits this year at all. The second thing I can do; and what I actually did, is help out in each of their classroom Valentine's Day parties at school. Bringing whatever treats, games, and fun energy that I may need for the day. This is pretty much exhausting and gives me enough points leaving me off the hook for doing anything else Valentine-ish for the rest of the day.

 Here is Kelsi with her good friend, Maggie, showing off a fun scrapbook page they decorated. Another really cool mom, made a backdrop, brought props, and took pictures of the kids the week before. Kaitlyn made one too and they were both super cute. I was in charge of a couple of games involving Sweetheart Hearts (my all time fave candy).

 Kennedy's class is so cute and I cannot say enough about her teacher, Mrs. Dill. Kennedy's a young kindergartener and I was really worried about her progress at the beginning of they year. Now, she is reading wonderfully and has aced each and every spelling test so far! This is, no doubt, directly related to the hard work of an amazing teacher! After they sang a cute Love Bug song, I helped the kids play Don't Eat Pete with M&M's. Below is a Valentine's card from my sweet Kennedy Rae. How I love this girl. It says, "Happy Valentines Day. I riley like win you giv me kande."

 I'm so sad that I failed to take a picture while in Kaitlyn's class. I helped them decorate scrapbook pages and basically just had fun partying with the 2nd graders. That's probably why I forgot to take a picture. So here she is after school, eating one of her many goodies from the day.

There is no place else I'd rather be during the day than with my girls. Even, and especially, in their classrooms instead of making cute, yummy treats at home.

Polar Ice

 Unfortunately, Christmas break began with me getting the flu. I was sicker than I ever remember being in my entire life. It was pretty awful. Once I got sick, my family soon followed suit and it felt as if someone in our family was sick for the entire month of December and well into January. It will definitely not go down in the books as one of the best Christmas breaks ever! But the Saturday before school started, my girls were aching to get out of the house and had been begging for weeks for us to take them to Polar Ice. Just the name is making me cold right now. Kennedy had a birthday party, Jesse stayed home with Kamryn, so it was the perfect time to take my two older girls out for some mother/daughter fun. As we passed San Tan Mall, I tried to coerce them to stop and go shopping instead, but they weren't fooled. We headed into the freezing cold 30 degree skating rink.

 I was suprised that it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Kelsi had been before with her school for Student Council and skated like a pro. Soon Kaitlyn was keeping right on up with her. I skated pretty well until I fell and whacked my knee hard on the ice. Kaitlyn was behind me and about peed her pants laughing so hard. Sweet, sweet girl, that Kate :)

Our trip wouldn't be complete without hot chocolate and donuts to fill up our bellies and warm our freezing bodies. Yum! Shopping will just have to wait...

Time to buckle down and blog...

One of my new year's resolutions is to update this blog. I need to be better at documenting the important events that happen in our life as well as the perfectly boring and uneventful. January is a perfect month to start! Not only is it a new year and a new beginning, but it was my second daughter's 8th birthday on New Year's Day. Kaitlyn brings so much joy into our life.
Here are 8 reasons why I adore my Kaitlyn E.
1) Her smile is contagious and it spans from ear to ear. It is impossible not to smile right back at her.
2) She is smarter than she'll ever know. Her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Hubbard, told me during a conference that Kaitlyn will do great things with her life. Mrs. Hubbard was not one to just say things off the cuff, I truly believe she saw something in Kaitlyn and I am so grateful for those words. I will never forget them.
3) She is a wonderful nurturer. She has always taken great care of her younger sisters and will always play with them and make them feel good inside.
4) This girl knows what is right! She stands up for the good. She always remembers, without fail, to say her prayers. When Papa G was pulling out a loose tooth, Kailtyn was nervous and we were all watching. Kailtyn said, "just a second", and quickly left. I knew exactly what she was up to. I peeked outside, only to find her on her knees, saying a little prayer. When she came back in, she was calm and brave, and that tooth came right out!
5) She gets 100%'s on all of her spelling tests. And pretty much all of her others tests too. Her last report card was all 4's! I wish I could take credit and say that I push her to do her best, and help her with her homework all of the time, but she is very self disciplined and does it all on her own. I can't complain about that!
6) Kaitlyn loves to make people laugh and is a great friend to everyone around her. Everyone loves being around this girl!
7) This girl can dress to impress! She puts together her own outfits and will always be head to toe cute. Earrings in, hair done, perfectly coordinated. Kaitlyn's got style!
8) She lets me cuddle and hug her whenever I want. I love the times when I've got nowhere to go, nothing to do and we can lay on the couch together and relax.

Kaitlyn's baptism day was on Saturday, January 26th. Everything was perfect. We found her dress at Crismon's boutique and it was one of the first dresses that she tried on. Kaitlyn knew right away it was "the dress". When Kelsi was baptised, I took her shopping with me and we searched for that perfect dress. We went to the mall and browsed through many stores having so much fun. Kaitlyn was with us and has reminded me ever since, that she wanted to go with me to shop for her dress. Unfortunately, with her birthday being in January, no mall stores had white dresses! So we went to Crismon's after school one day and came home with her baptism dress.

The day of Kaitlyn's baptism was perfect! Not to say that everyone was always on their best behavior...(tears, tantrums, typical busy morning fun), but the Spirit was felt so much in the chapel and Kaitlyn was a joy to watch on the stand. Jesse baptised and confirmed her and did a wonderful job. Papa G gave a wonderful talk on the Holy Ghost as well. After the baptism, we came back to the house and ate subs, salads and Grammy G's famous carrot cake. Grammy G also makes all of the grandkids a beautiful quilt when they turn 8. Kaitlyn sure felt like a princess all day long.

On her 8th birthday, it is tradition that my mom buys the girls their very own set of scriptures. Kaitlyn has carried them with her to church faithfully every Sunday and loves to get them out every morning that we are organized enough to have family scripture study. With school starting at 7:45am (and, I swear, by my clock, the final bell rings at 7:37!) we haven't figured out how to put this ritual in place for more that a few days at a time. Working on that one.....

Stand Still

"So If I could, I would ask

Time to stand still

So I could hold you a little longer

I'd make the minutes stop so we would always have today

I won't let the sun go down, until you know how I feel

I love you so much, I wish time would stand still."

Hilary Weeks

I attended Time Out for Women in November and was most touched by Hilary Weeks and her inspiration to write this song; Stand Still.

She was eating lunch with her young daughter one day and watched as she ate mouthfulls of macaroni and cheese. The thought occurred to her of how lucky she was to know her daughter as a child. She related that we will have the opportunity to know our children as adults all throughout eternity, but to raise them and know them as children is a true gift.

I love this. As the new year begins I am determined more than ever to enjoy, love and treasure every moment I have with my sweet girls.