Family Review January to May

Ok so I am bad at blogging.....but i did create this fun quick snip it of some of our family highlights from January to May of this year.


If you click on the picture it will open up bigger so you can actually read the captions.

It's a New Year~again!

Here we are again...where did the year go. I find myself watching them go by faster and faster.

Well this is a big year for our family

#1 I turn 40 in August...really I know you can't believe it because i look so young...haha

#2 Emily Turns 18 ...how do i have an 18 year old??

#3 Emily goes to College...yes COLLEGE -BYU-Idaho to be exact. I could'nt be more proud!

#4 Sean and I Celebrate our 20th anniversary.

So bring it on 2012

I must give credit to Katie Sabin who took this great Family photo for us

It's a BIG day around here!!

Emily had her first day of her SENIOR YEAR! I have mixed emotions I am both exicted for her and Sad for me. It is amazing how we get to where we are and the adventures life takes us on. I am so grateful for the wonderful amzaing talented girl she has become.
This year she will be performing with dance ensemble, writing for the school newspaper, and will maybe throw in some photography classes as well....doesn't that all sound fun? Of course there will be a little english (her favorite) Economics, history, oh and the nast thing called math :{ As well as some ACT studying, college applying and driving herself to and from school (my FAVORITE part) a few football games and some hanging out with good friends.
So here we go a new adventure!!

Our annual Valentine's dinner born out of the fact that for this time in our lives having a couples romantic valentine's day does not usually work with three kids. So about 4 or 5 years ago we started a new tradition where Sean and I make a very fancy dinner for the kids we deck out the table and give them small gifts to let them know we love them. I LOVE this tradition !! I hope that one day they will look back and no matter where they are on Valentine's day they will always know that mom and dad love them!


This years menu:
Filet Mingnon with crusted blue cheese (yummy- we have Filet every year)
Yummy gooey Potatoes with cream and Gruyere cheese
Parisian salad (yes this was the kind you get in a bag at Costco)
Big fat fluffy rolls ( they are the ones I put in the middle of the table on the cupcake stand)

 Mom's Gift to the kids:
This year I bought each of them their own copy of the book "I'll Love You Forever" I loved reading this book to the kids and so I wanted each of them to have their own with a message I wrote inside to each kid.


Dad's gift to the kids:
Ok he usually gets the award for being the most creative since he does not have much time and waits till the last minute- honestly I did not think he would pull it off this year since work was crazy and he was sooo busy but he came through with these  "license plate" gifts and the kids LOVED them see if you can guess what each of us got?

And of course you can't end the evening with out a fabulous dessert! 

Why do little boys have to grow up?

My oldest daughter Emily is currently taking a photography class at school.  She often has projects that need certain perspectives so one saturday as we  ( me and the children I was forcing ) were cleaning the backyard I noticed all of Adam's tractors lined up behind the sandbox rusty with weeds growing up through them. I thought how sad it was, he used to spend hours playing with those tractors in the sandbox and now they needed to be gotten rid of. But before we moved them I made the comment that they looked like they were in a tractor graveyard so Em grabbed the camera and shot these great pictures of the Adam's tractor graveyard and I mourned just a little bit for the little boy who played with them.

What's Happening

So here we are already April...where does time go? Here is an update on some things we have been doing and some projects I have completed.
I made this cute Rag Purse fro my friend Kadee's Birthday. I LOVE the way it turned out. I have big plans to make more of these for friends for birthday's. You can check out how to make it here.

My assignment for card swap for March was Adult Birthday. We are doing something new this year in my card swap group where we each have an assignment so we go home with a stack of different themed card each month. You can check out all our card swap cards at The Rowdy Rooster
I saw these on a blog somewhere and decided it would be a quick fun journal to make. It sits on my desk and I like to keep track of all the projects I would love to do....if only there was more time in the day.


These were some fun Valentine cards I made with just 3 sheets of paper. I was playing around with the technique of wetting down paper with a squirt bottle and folding and twisting it... I saw a lot of this at the craft and hobby show.

For our February Card swap we had a baby shower for our fellow card swapper Amber who was having a boy. We each brought her a set of thank you cards she could use to send thank you's after her shower. These were mine...you can see more at The Rowdy Rooster.
I love this Baby gift Jar. It is my favorite gift to give right now. I usually fill it with cute ribbon burb cloths , an outfit, and or toys. Everyone loves a gift that includes cute storage right? :)
In March my kids preformed "Joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat" with Arts off Broadway. They had a blast! The Uncle Jon was the Director and their cousins and Aunt were also in the production. It was a lot of work but they had a grea time. Emily played one of Joseph's brothers, Sarah was an adoring girl and one of the wives, and Adam was evil corn.

Nothing says spring like a little boy ( ok not so little but still little to me) hunting for easter eggs in his baseball uniform. Easter and Baseball it is certainly spring!



Ok so the girls think they are too big to hunt for easter eggs but I did convince (and it took a lot of convincing and eye rolling) them to pose for these cute pictures.



We have just returned from the land of cold and snow in Park City Utah. We spent spring break sledding, skiing, shopping , seeing new things, reading books, hanging out and just plain Family fun. I will post mor fun pics once I get them organized. Here is part of the clan heading to the sledding tow to take them back up the hill for another thrilling ride.

Road Trip Thanksgiving 2008

Whew I am soo behind...Here is the first of a few posts to catch you up. The week prior to Thanksgiving...or rather 5 day prior to Thanksgiving we took the kids on an amazing road trip. About a week prior to this road trip my husband let each of the kids make a list of places in California they would like to see or visit. They could search the internet, ask family and friends etc. They complied a long list and some suggestions even overlapped.He finally narrowed it down to 2 choices for each kid between our home in San Diego and San Francisco. Here is how it unfolded

Stop #1 Sarah Choice Pismo Beach
Rolling down the sand dunes at Pismo Beach, yes she did mean that literally. We had to find some really fun dunes and wait for all the motorcyclist to pass ( us being the family without those 4 wheeling toys) and jump off an roll down the hill....This made Sarah very Happy! We also got to drive on the Beach which the kids thought was cool, but Emily was even happier when we let HER drive on the Beach...
Here are som more pics from Pismo
We made sure we booked hotels where they had free breakfast...here is where we ate breakfast the first morning outside our hotel room...Gorgeous View!

Stop #2 Emily's Choice Winchester Mystery House

Okay so we only got one picture outside the Winchester House. No pictures were allowed inside. All I have to say is that was the weirdest house I have ever seen. Tha winchester lady was a little bit of crazy. We had the most annoying tour guide who had memorized the whole script for the tour and did not or could not deviate from it..litteraly, she coughed twice in a row and kept having to rewind herself. It was one of those events that made us all laugh and will make it memorable.

Stop #3 Sarah's Choice Golden Gate BridgeWe did it all...we drove across it one way, got out took pictures walked half way back across it (until some little children got scared..we won't name names) and then went back and drove back across it the other way. WOW that is alot of the Golden Gate Bridge. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. When I was younger we did not go on vacations, I always imagined families vacationing during the summer to the Golden gate bridge so this was a great day for me to take my own kids there.

Stop #4 Adam's Pick Alcatraz

Alcatraz was fascinating if you are ever in S.F you should most certainly take the tour. It is a self guided audio tour which Adam LOVED he is a sponge for information like that. He loved every minute of it!

After Alcatraz we spent the evening at the Famous Fisherman's Warf



Stop #5 Emily's Pick Jelly Belly factory

Once again no pictures allowed so here is a picture of the kids outside the factory posing with the Jelly Car.

This was so cool to see all the Jelly Belly's being made every time you turned a corner you could smell the kind of Jelly Bean they were making....and the colors of all the bins of Beans was amazing. If you hare ever near by this is a great stop.

Stop #6 Adam's Pick

Well adam wanted to pan for gold but unfortunately the pass we need to go through for that was closed due to snow so we took another route which led us up through south Lake Tahoe and then back down through Mammoth. We spent the night in Mammoth and the hiked a little and I emphasize little way in to an old Gold Mine.


So ther you have it our Road Trip November 2008 It was a whirlwind trip all of that in 5 days. We saw lots of amazing things, laughed alot, even fought a little (what would a trip with kids be without a little arguing :) but we made some Great Memories! Thanks for a great trip I love you Guys.

Here are some of my other favorite pics from the trip
That is looking down at an earthquake fault in mammoth.

August Birthdays

Sean Turns 40
Emily Turns 15
Love You Both!!!

It's Summer

Not much posting going on but I have quite the tan from being outside all summer. A quick update weight loss is still going great at around 13lbs GONE! Sarah left yesterday for a 3 week trip 2 week with her grandma in wisconsin and Tennessee then we will meet up with her in TN. Emily leave today for EFY so that leaves Adam an only child for a whole week. We are excited and have big plans for Legoland and Chuckie Cheese. I am collecting some great craft ideas for myself and church and will get back to creating once the kids are back in school.

Color Explosion

When we bought our home almost 9 years ago this first thing I planted were Hydrangeas. I love them and could not wait to have a yard to put them in. Year after year they never fail me....the bloom and bloom and are absolutely beautiful! I love to come around the corner to my house and see those wonderful blooms.

THANKS MOTHER NATURE!

Strawberries= it's almost summer!!!

Last week we headed out with my sister in laws and 8 kids in tow to pick strawberries.
Here are the highlights

You get to EAT ALL the strawberries you want while you are picking

You get to make yummy freezer jam that will last even when the strawberries are gone..okay not in my house but it might last that long in someones house.

We had tons of fun....Thanks cousins!