Branching out

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to venture from the couch.

Joseph's strategic planning meeting comes this time every year,

and I really didn't want to miss out on the good food,

maid service, change of scenery, and of course 

spending time with Joseph.

The doctor gave me the go ahead as long as I kept my foot elevated most of the time.

How hard could that be?

One thing I discovered was that the middle back seat wasn't really 

meant to be sat on for long car rides.

The hotel was a set of "bungalows" with rock or brick paths in-between.

It was located in the hills of Santa Barbara with a great view

over the city and the ocean.

Unfortunately you can't see it in the picture I took as we were leaving, but that's 

the ocean where the clouds are hanging out.

These brick paths are tougher to roll over than you think.

This beautiful courtyard is where we had the first night's dinner.

Our cute little room is the one on the bottom because of course I couldn't go up the stairs.
This is where I spent my days.  Not too bad, huh?  The only thing that would have made it better would have been
a porch with a soft chair.  I'm sure it was a handicapped room because I could roll
right into the shower.  Pretty sweet!

It was the only time in my life that my shoes didn't take a third of my suitcase space.

And today, with the help of my kids, I went grocery shopping after 4 weeks.

I loved driving the electric cart around the store and

pointing to what we needed.

We were a great team!!

The even better part was that they put it all away when we got home!!

What more could I ask for?!!

Esther's 12, Adam's married, and Joseph brought all his friends home

The price for not recording our life on a regular basis is a

blog post chalk full.  I won't go in order because I want to start with 

Esther's 12th birthday which we just finished celebrating.

In our family, as it is with a lot of LDS (Mormon) families, 12 is a big year for our children.

They get more responsibilities and more privileges.

Esther's birthday was on Wed which happens to be our church youth night.

I tried to play with her excitement by teasing she couldn't go because she was born too late in the day.    She believed me for a second but since I can't lie very well, 

she quickly started to smile again.

Then today, the whole Young Women's organization went to the Primary room to escort her from the children's area to her new class with the teenagers.

She really hit it big that she also got to go to a fireside tonight to listen to Peter Vidmar, Olympic Gold Medalist.  Her comment afterwards speaks volumes about 

this being a new world for her, "he spoke a long time."

Another rite of passage was getting her ears pierced.  She actually handled it better than I thought she would.  But it all pales in comparison to the iPhone that Dad got her.

I couldn't fit it in the collage below, but you should see the face Bekah is making.

Matthew immediately texted the other kids that Esther got a phone, an iPhone to boot!

Our phones quickly started lighting up with shocked texts from the older kids.

They are in awe that the phone age has been lowered yet again.

Now going back a couple of weeks, Joseph and I flew to Salt Lake to take part in our nephew Adam's wedding.  His sister Mary had just been married in December and I posted about it here.

We were more than willing to go back for such a happy occasion.

It was a lovely ceremony, one of which was the best I've ever been too.

The sealing was done by Elder Backman, an emeritus general authority or leader of the church.

Before he married them, he gave them some sound advice.

If it were possible I would have had a pad of paper and a pencil taking down everything 

he said.  We were all truly inspired to go home and recommit daily to our spouse.

Adam and his bride Mimi were just as cute as could be.

It was also great to spend time with our college kids and my family.

The last event that happened actually coincided with Esther's birthday.

Joseph brought all (or most) of his friends home to spend spring break in California.

They were all in our house!

I thought we might have to use a tent in the back yard, but college kids are pliable

so the boys were willing to sleep on couches and the floor.

They were wonderful guests and quite entertaining.  

I didn't get much sleep cause I just wanted to stay up and listen to their laughter.

By the end of the week they were calling us "Mom" and "Dad".   So cute! 

I certainly felt honored and would have them back any time.

Christmas snapshot

Christmas is the best with lots of kids around!!

One of our family traditions that has been on the back burner for a while is Sunday night games.

It was brought back tonight with Apples to Apples. We laughed and got really loud until

I discovered that Abby tried to curl my hair with a small comb.

If any of you have little girls, you'll know that at sometime they will try and curl their hair, a dolls or someone else's with whatever they have in their hand to style with.  I've seen it done with brushes mostly, but Abby got me good with a comb.  It was full on stuck!

Dad to the rescue.

This is what's left of the comb.

Thanks to him and Sarah, I don't have a bald spot on my head.

End of the weekend

Can you read it?  Guess what those last two shapes are.

Allen is the first "marriage" addition to the family.  Aren't they cute?

It's been a couple of days getting back to "real" life (no time left to blog)

and although every surface of our house was covered in 20 people, suitcases,

clothes, and food, it was fun to have the chaos.

I grew up dreaming of big family gatherings full of the noises

that goes with it and . . . I got it.

Isn't that a great bunch of kids up there?

There's going to be a wedding

Today was an awesome day for 2 reasons.

First, we are going to have a wedding!  There's only been one wedding 

in 14 years (my sister's son got married last year, remember?).

Our beautiful niece, Karissa (Joseph's sister's daughter), has found herself a "Prince Charming"

that has swept her off her feet.

Can you tell which of these blondies is her? haha

I know they met each other at school this last semester, but it

seemed to get more exciting when he met her at Disney.  We saw him briefly when we were there, then, they spent the whole next day at Disney together.

We  all embarrassed her when we waved at him and his family.

But you could certainly tell that she had eyes for him even though she

kept saying that she didn't know him that well.

Well, it's 2 weeks later, and she has a ring on her finger.

I guess she knows what she needs to know now.

Congratulations!

My second reason is that I love my kids.  I love that they strive

for their righteous desires and don't give up!

You rock!

sunset beach

Saturday, the kids wanted to take one last trip to the beach to try and catch the sunset.  

The following are the pictures that Sarah took with my camera.

She did a pretty good job.

Mother's day/ I choose you!

I really enjoyed my Mother's Day yesterday.  All my meals were made for me and cleaned up too. Dad and Abi made breakfast and Matthew slaved over Hawaiian chicken for dinner.  Esther even made a pie with Bekah rolling the dough for her.  They decorated the down stairs and used the good china.  They thought of everything. So sweet!

 A message to my kids:  I choose you!!  Ever since I started planning my future, I wanted a large family.  Partly cause it looked fun with lots of activity and laughter (being the only kid most of the time made things kind of quiet).  It was also the large families that I admired most and wanted to be like them.  I felt I could be a missionary by sharing my love of the gospel with my kids and I could keep the commandment to multiply.

And now after all is said and done (yes, we are done), although its turned out to be harder than I thought, I would do it again and I would choose each of you again.  I would choose being a mother again because I love being your mother.  But what I didn't bargain for was all that you would be teaching me.  Each of you have blessed me in innumerable ways, thank you.  I look forward to continuing the journey with you and the discovery of what God has in store for each of us.  Remember Dad and I love you.  Our Heavenly Father also loves you and we each want the best for you.  I'm grateful we all have been put together.

Why I do what I do.

just write

Okay, I've been a little obsessed with updating my blog look and have been neglecting the actual entries.  So I decided to just write.
For the two people who look here on a regular basis (maybe) you might have noticed that I keep changing things around (I promise it will change again).  It's actually very fun but is also frustrating.  I love the creative side of this.  I know what I want to do, but I am computer illiterate.  So it is taking me longer to figure things out.  Anyway, I'll get it.  Having the kids out of school for the last 3 days has helped in that Abi is entertained but my house looks a little too lived it (is there such a thing--houses were meant to lived in, right?).  We are all getting cabin fever.  For you two, I promise to write something of interest soon.  The kids are out of school again tomorrow.  The schools are being overly cautious (no school for 4 days and make-up on Sat!) since a couple of kids have been hurt this year and another died because of ice.  Better safe than sorry!

Today

About today,....

• loved sleeping in
• loved having the kids home from school
• dishonest people make life difficult for the rest of us (twice today for me)
• after at least a year search, I found a great lamp, yea!!
• shopping, shopping, and more shopping
• everybody else in the city was shopping today too!
• long lines
• lost track of time
• it was all good when I saw the excitement in the faces of my kids as they got ready for trunk-or-treat
• smiles, friends, good food, cute kids
• locked the keys in my car.......

Girly girl Abi

My chipmunks

Girly Esther wanted to be a fairy too.

"Bishop Dad" handing out candy