spring is sprung?

There are some signs of spring around here, not warm weather, but we do have some blooms on trees and in flower beds. This weekend the cherry blossoms are supposed to be at their finest in DC. I am hoping we'll get down there to see them.

The kids are undeterred by the chillyness of the outside and still want to go out in the fresh air.

They've been practicing their mad scooter skills while poor H lays inside on the couch.

Today I was watching Dr Phil and he had this guy on who did a research project and discovered that moms have more free time then they claim. Interesting. He sited several examples of said free time that moms are completely underappreciating:

time spent getting a root canal

time spent waiting for an oil change without the children

time waiting in traffic while driving to work

what were the mom's of the world thinking? clearly we have a plethora of free time.

He was not well received by the audience.

thanks Nana and Abba

first post surgery smile

rough night

Poor little H had a rough night and isn't such a happy camper this morning. It will be a long day of watching movies, force feeding Popsicles and giving her yucky meds that taste bad. This was to be expected...:(

To cheer us up Tate sent this cute photo last night of her enjoying her Easter box!

surgery update

Here she is before. Even her whale got a hospital bracelet.

It was a long day, and now she is tired and sore but everything went well. Hopefully her recovery will go well too and she will be a healthy girl from now on!

spring break

Last night J braved the rain and wind and boarded a plane headed for TX. Nothing could deter her from her destination.

She made is safely and now will have several days of spring break fun before bringing Emma back here with her.

Today is our first "official spring break day" we are spending it in the hospital with Hannah, who is having her tonsils out.

G and E will spend the day playing with friends.

Neighborhood Egg Hunt

We got up nice and early this fine Saturday morning and headed across the street to our neighborhood egg hunt.

The kids were very eggcited as they waited for the 4 and under hunt to be done.

and they're off!!

surveying the landscape from above.

getting the hard to reach ones!

now we are off to a day filled with soccer games, birthday parties and tonight the YW's broadcast and soup social.

rip stick

Hannah and Sarah are good friends. They live one block apart from each other and are in the same class at school. This is such a fun treat for Hannah.

The two girls took turns riding Sarah's rip stick while waiting for the baby egg hunt to be done.

no arms were broken :)

play date

After school today Lu invited our little neighbor Mackenzie over to play. They had a snack, painted each others nails and played Barbies. So cute!

lunch bunch

I had lunch bunch at our house today. It was a lot of fun. Everyone brought yummy food and we ate and chatted!

This is just half the gang: Sudha, Shelly, Kim and Cecilia. Not pictured are me, Colleen, Nicole and Amy. We also had assorted little ones running around:)

Sudha brought this beautiful egg cake from the bakery. It was so delish! and she left some for my kids to have after school. So sweet :) What wonderful sisters.

a culinary miracle

I made dinner last night and everyone like it...a miracle.

Black Bean Soup

I did a quick soak of the beans and then set them to boiling in some chicken broth.

Then I sauteed green onion, bell pepper and carrots all diced up in oil, cumin, cayenne, black pepper, salt and garlic powder.

Added that to the beans, poured in some OJ which gave it a yummy citrus flavor that really contrasted well with the peppery cayenne.

I served it with diced tomatoes, avocados, grated cheese and sour cream. Everyone could do their own toppings.

H had a friend walk in the door with her and ask to stay for dinner and all the kids and Katie all liked it! I liked it too..and it was healthy. SCORE :)

bunny noses, vampires and almost spring break

We got the New Moon DVD this past weekend. I watched it yesterday morning. Loved it again:)

Today I went to Lu's class and helped the preKers make bunny noses out of pipe cleaner and egg cartons. So fun.

Friday starts spring break! Yeah. I hope we'll have warm weather. Today is chilly, so was yesterday and we had rain. We did have several wonderful days to tease us before hand.

PRP- not a hoax

at our house we frequently participate in a pet relocation program (PRP). Many a gerbil, hamster, fish, turtle, frog, snake, salamander, lizard and bird have been released into it's natural habitat after spending a period of time as pets in our home. And once we found a new home for a cat, Ivan (who peed every where) and a puppy, Jack, and little chihuahua named Lola.

Now it is time for Tommy the guinea pig to find a new home. I told Brother I thought he needed to be set free in the woods behind our house to roam free with the other wild guinea pigs. But before we do that I am offering him up to anyone who wants to drive to my house and pick him up, with his cage and bag of food and take him home. He is a good little piggie. He is quiet and calm. We love to feed him fruit and watch him dig in with gusto. Sadly I am tired of cleaning his cage, and I am the only one to do it. I am also tired of reminding the kids to feed and water him and Lucy, who loved him most and LOVED to play with him, turns out to have an allergy to him...so off he needs to go.

Any takers?

Conference Weekend

We had a wonderful conference weekend. It kind of started on Thursday night when I went to a YW round table meeting where Pres. Sakai gave us such great information and counsel.

Saturday night we had the adult session of conference and today we had a broadcast from SLC. Pres Packer was the last speaker and he was so funny and relevant. I just LOVE hearing from the Lord's Apostles and receiving counsel for our day.

After church the children enjoyed the warm sunshine!

Seneca Stake Prom

Last night Sharon and I drove some of our youth over to Seneca VA to the multi stake mormon prom. It was decorated so nicely and there were tons of kids there.

While the youth danced we met up with Amy at Red Robin and had a fun night chatting :)

Got home late yawn

see this cute boy?

this one who slept with me every night until he was 5, who is so cute and charming and funny, who is spoiled rotten, who I lay with every night and read out loud with, who always wants me to go on his field trips and help in his class, who thinks I am the best cook in the world (when he is not hating my food), the one I gave birth to and caught with my own two hands as he slipped into the world in the front seat of our suburban on a hot june morning in down town Ft Worth (for heaven's sakes!)....well, this summer he will be a cub scout. And he gets to go to camp!

Last night I told him the good news and said "guess what! you get to go to cub scout camp and I get to go with you!"
and guess what....he doesn't want me to.
He said it would be embarrassing
crushed, broke my heart.
Even after I told him all the moms have to take a shift he still said he didn't want me to go.

WHAT?? I thought I was going on his mission with him to tuck him and his companion in at night, and to college to pick out his outfits in the morning and approve his dates.
This is a very unexpected and sudden turn of events...and not at all to my liking.

sigh, looking back I guess I should have seen it coming since this fall he told me not to kiss him good-bye at the bus stop any more. Who said they could grow up so fast???

Happy St Patty's day

Today is Happy St Patricks Day! Yeah! Everyone loves a little blarney :)

The kids were all excited to don green shirts and eat green pancakes!

and they are looking forward to pinching any unfortunate friends who are not similarly prepared (I cautioned them that pinching was not nice)

We've been having a great time with our 4 day sleep-over. Everyone has been sleeping, YEA! The first couple nights Brother had to sleep in our room, his idea of sleeping with friends involves a lot of jumping on the bed and laughing loudly all night and it has been school nights. Last night he did well and was able to sleep with his buddies.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the park, which everyone loved. They have been playing nicely, clearing their dishes, and being so fun and cute!

Tonight the girls will make green cupcakes for activity days. We will eat green jell-o. And we will play at the park.

sooo, on the top we have brother Older and sister Older

and here we have brother Younger and sister Younger

the girls have made new friends, which is fun. And they are good boys, which is awesome. Brandon is leaving on a mission very soon. Jordan is off to BYU in the fall. In the meantime some fun times.

I've been giving this some thought, what is it about grandchildren? I think it's because you have all the delight and joy and love that you have with your own children...but someone else is ultimately responsible.

My hope is that I will be a force for good in my grandchildren's lives. That I will be a good example and another voice affirming what their parents are trying to teach them. However the responsibility is squarely on my children's shoulders, not mine.

That said all that is left is the good parts. It is such a joy, such a happy fulfillment for me to see Dani all grown up and being an excellent mom. She's a better mom than I was, careful and structured and thoughtful. Tate is a lucky girl. Her parents are goodly parents. It will be wonderful to see her grow. It's nice to watch and measure my own job at parenting. I must have done okay because she is a lovely young woman and lives the values and principles I tried to teach her and show her. You do your best, and frankly you know that it is not "good enough" and then you pray that it is "good enough"...and then do we ever know? Kids have free agency and we love them when they are being good and when they are being bad. Ultimately Heavenly Father's greatest gift to his children, well top three greatest, is our free will. Our own will is really the only thing we have to give back to Him, that isn't already His. That is why our obedience to His commandments is so important, it's the only way we have to show Him that we love Him and want to be with Him again. Anyway, with that comes our opportunity to parent children who similarly have free agency and can and do choose for themselves how they want to be, how they want to live their lives. All we can do is teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves (at some point).

Enough thinking :)

onesie mania

We spent our last night making cute onesies for Miss T.

the elephant was my fav :)

she couldn't decide and wanted them all!

uh oh....going going

gone....

have a safe flight baby.

hair

my 5 girlies
sisters

me and Si, post hair cuts:)

last day

tomorrow they leave :(...but I am not going to think about that.

It's been SOOOOOOO fun having them here.

fine dining

We have been very lucky to share our table with many loved ones lately! This week we have the cute Martines kids staying with us. This was breakfast this morning:) The kids are doing great, everyone went to sleep nicely last night and got ready quickly this morning. They enjoyed a gourmet breakfast of cereal and now are off to school. Michelle, there is still room for three more!

And this sweet little cupcake is here for one more day!! She loves her baby food :)

SAT, brownies, and a nap

yesterday J took the SAT. Big stressor. I am sure she did great, however I did not envy her. After she came home, napped, then in the evening Jordan came over. They made brownies, ran an errand for baby Tate, watched a movie and went to Taco Bell.

It's great to be 17!

Baltimore National Aquarium

Today we went to the aquarium and it was so way cool!

Really pictures do not do it justice at all.

We had a really fun time looking at the jellies and the sharks and all the fish.

The best part was that on Wednesday a dolphin calf was born and we got to see him, from a distance. It was so sweet. The trainers were all out and we got to talk to them and learn so many interesting things. I love dolphins:) One interesting thing was the mother is not very experienced so another female is nursing the baby. She just spontaneously started lactating. Strangely wonderful huh?

It was rainy out but luckily we got passes so we can go back. There was so much to see and do :)