Monday, February 28, 2011

A new baby and more

February is just about gone! How did that happen so quick? I'm really testing my memory here in my efforts to keep up with this blog. I really must not allow to much time to go between posts. I swear I can not keep up with time. So to the best of my ability here are some of the events worth remembering from the past month:

Activity Day Talent Show. This one actually took place the end of January. It was such a cute show! The leaders did such a good job. They had a red carpet and created a mock stage. I'm sure each of the girls felt like stars that night. Shelby and Lauren did a dance together. Fun night!

Valentines Day. For the last years or so this has become more a family celebration. Kerry and I have forgone the romantic dinner for two in order to spend it with the kids. I imagine that someday before we know it, it will be back to just the two of us; but for right now we don't mind making it a family affair. As tradition has become, we had a nice dinner set with Valentine decor. This year we bought the kids a few new Wii games and packed a few treats to boot and enjoyed a game night together. It seemed to be a big hit which made me very happy considering that it has become very hard to find a group gift that fits both the gender and age gaps between my kids.


















Birthday lunch and shopping
My mom, grandma, and aunt all have birthdays in February. My sisters and I like to take them out for lunch. A few weeks ago we got together for lunch at PF Chang's and a little shopping to Rod Works. At lunch, we had the nicest waiter who turned out to be a member of the church. Towards the end of lunch and after overhearing bits of our conversation, he said, "I thought you were a bunch of Relief Society sisters." Nice to know that he suspected that of us. I am so lucky to have such great women in my life and live so close to each other. It was a great day! I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of this. I really need to invest in a little camera that fits into my purse!

Lion King and Texas Brazil. We took Brayden to see the Lion King for earning his Eagle Scout. It was such a great play. I'm so glad that we saw it; I hear that it is closing sometime this year. Brayden has been wanting to try the Texas De Brazil restaurant so we went after the play. It was packed. It was a good thing we had reservations. It is not a place for vegetarians even though the salad bar is fantastic. You are given a little card that had a green and red side to it. As long as your card is green, an endless supply of meat could be brought to your table. We had to make sure to turn our cards to red before our plates were filled with more than we could eat. Brayden seemed to enjoy the night. We are proud of him for getting his Eagle.

Last but not least, we have a new baby in our house. Brayden is definitely the most excited about it. Thankfully it's not the kind of baby that wakes me up in the middle of the night. We found it on Craig's list. Actually Brayden found it on Craig's list. His teacher told us months ago that we should consider upgrading pianos. I have to say, I did not see this one coming. I guess that's what happens when you don't play yourself. I was so nervous about trying to buy something like this. To be honest, I just put it off; then Brayden found this one and wrote the phone number down and asked me to call about it. I told him I would try to get to it (not sure that I really would). Kerry called me during his lunch and asked if I had called. I had not, of course. He said that he thought that I should just call. I guess that was the push that I needed and I made the call. I found out that the man was moving in two days and needed to sell it buy then! There was no way I saw us buying the first piano we looked at in just a few days. I totally blew it off, but something kept pressing me. So I called the man who tunes our piano. He also restores pianos and knows quite a bit about them. He immediately looked up Craig's list to see the piano. He expressed some minor concerns and preceded to see what else was for sale. He saw another piano that he thought might be a better buy and said that he would take a look at it after he finished work. I certainly didn't expect him to go that same day but he reassured me that it was fine. After seeing the piano, he called and said that it was fine but nothing special. We decided to wait. Then we received a phone call about a half hour later from him. He made a last minute decision to visit the piano that Brayden had first seen. He told us that he had been wrong about it and that it was an unbelievable buy! We jumped in the car and took Brayden to see it and the rest is history. The man who owned it, did not play and so it sat unplayed. Now it gets played and boy does Brayden play it. I hope he will get every benefit from it.


Wednesday, January 19, 2011

star of the week


Her turn finally came! Claire was the star of the week in her first grade class. She was quite pleased when she came home a week ago with the letter informing me that she was going to be the star of the class. We spent the weekend getting prepared, answering questions, writing letters and gathering pictures. Every day when I picked her up and asked, "how was your day?", her answer was always the same, "It was great!!". Each day she got to share something with the class. The cumulative point came on Friday when she got to bring some of her favorite things and a treat to share with the class. Among the favorites was her violin and snicker doodle cookies. She got to be the star of her class for a week but in our home, she is a star everyday!


Monday, January 3, 2011

Hello Blog It's been a long time!





According to my blog, life ended in the fall of 2009. I can't believe how fast time is going! It's almost scary. Life really did not end for us, in fact I think sometimes that we are too busy. Perhaps that is my excuse for not finding the time to write about our happenings; however, the biggest reason lies with the fact that I have never been consistent at journaling. I have recommitted myself to this blog and hope to capture most of 2011. Thanks in part, to a little probing from my grandma, I have started back.







Here are some of the highlights ( that I can remember) from 2010
1. Birthdays: Brayden's 14th, Shelby's 11th, Claire's 6th, & Spencer's 2nd.
2. Trip to one of our favorite places, Newport Beach, where we played in the sand, rode the waves at the beach, took in an Angels game and spent the day at Knotts Berry Farm.
3. Another great Women's Conference in Provo.
4. I climbed to the peak of Mt. Charleston
5. 4th of July in Prescott
6. First Halloween spent in Utah at grandma's house. (We got hailed on!)
7. Brayden completed his Eagle Scout project. (collected items for the Ronald McDonald House)
8. Shelby made the cheer team and got to go cheer camp in July
9. Claire started taking violin lessons
10. Spencer got to go to nursery and loves it!
11. Another wonderful Christmas season spent with family and friends.




Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Halloween 2009

It's going to be Christmas soon and we've been busy. I must post a few Halloween pics before it seems too late.



Our little witch with her cousins Mulan (Delaney) and Nemo (Avery)






Our little lion cub





The Countness of Darkness. Makeup job courtesy of her Aunt Lori.







Jack Sparrow's pirate sidekick (Braxton), Elphada (Jaden), and Tinkerbell (Kayelyn) visiting at the ward trunk or treat.



These are some of the cute faces of our family's Halloween

Friday, November 13, 2009

One!



One birthday party
One birthday cake
One special boy
One great year
"One"-derful You!





Friday, November 6, 2009

Just gotta dance

So much to blog about, so little time to do it. for now here's a cute video of Spencer. Claire was given this birthday card from her little friend Brooke several months ago. It has a cute tune and has become Spencer's favorite toy. Even though the start and stop of it all can be a bit annoying, I love the way he moves to it and if you listen carefully, you can even hear him hum the beat. It makes me smile!

Friday, August 21, 2009

Not as planned.

School starts back on Monday and I have to report to Jury duty. I was so hoping that My number would not be called. No such luck. Kerry gets to play stay at home dad while I hang out at the courthouse. It's times like these that I realize how much I enjoy being a stay at home mom and taking care of my kids. Now if only I could remember that when they drive me crazy!