Pre-School Graduation

Miss Shelley's preschool ended for Rachel this past week. Rachel has loved her teacher and friends and learned so much from Shelley. Her graduation was so cute! She signed her name, sang songs and we watched a cute video presentation of all the field trips and activities the kids participated in this year. I was so proud of Rachel! She is so excited for Kindergarten and Shelley helped her prepare for it and I am so grateful to her for that! Rachel started pre-school very shy and hesitant to go. She was very clingy and though she'll always be a little apprehensive about change, she is much more confident and excited to try new things. Congratulations Rachel on graduating preschool! We love you!

Mavala Stop

Okay, I know this may sound weird, but if you have thumb or finger suckers, like 3 of my 4 kids, then this is the stuff for you! Within one week my kids stopped sucking fingers and thumbs. My Abby who is 7 was the worst of all. It was constant and nothing I've tried worked. I tried socks on hands and rewards with money and nothing seemed to work. This stuff worked miracles! Thanks to Lynette, my SIL for telling me about it, I am forever indebted to you and your awseome dentist!

My Special Day

I woke up this morning to french toast, apple juice and 3 beautiful girls smiling at me, ready with hugs and kisses. It was a wonderful surprise! Dan always makes my birthday, our anniversary and Mothers Day the best days of the year for me. He goes ALL out! Yesterday Dan took Hailey with him for a couple of hours and brought home a beautiful display of spring flowers. I had been resting with Abby who had not been feeling well and came out to see him putting away a massive amount of yummy food and a big gift on the counter and those beautiful flowers. I'm a huge sucker for flowers :) I had such a wonderful day, with all the beautiful pictures and cards the kids and Dan gave me and my gift was classic...a big tub of Red Vines, Jujy Fruits, 2 brushes and weight lifting gloves. Dan told me Hailey picked them all out for me. Red vines and Jujy Fruits are obviously my favorite candy! The brushes made me laugh because every morning I yell through the house for the girls to bring me my brush! The weight lifting gloves are for the fast that I'm a weight lifting monster these days. The poor kids ask me every morning "do we really have to go to the gym?" I feel bad that they don't like it, but it's an hour each day for me to somehow maintain good health, you know with the red vines and jujy's on the side...LOL.

Church was wonderful as well. Great talks and a beautiful musical number the youth sang, and I had the privilege of being able to accompany them. Our lesson in Young Women's was on Temple Marriage and we had some great discussion, how I love my calling and these girls who are 14 and 15! How I pray for them to be morally strong in a world that is morally disintegrating!

Dan ordered me to go lay down while he made a beautiful dinner! He made the best Jello ( I love Jello, yes I know that's weird), and a beautiful roast, with mashed potatoes and asparagus and rolls. Dan is a great cook. He bakes a yummy peach pie for later and then he and I took a nice long nap after dinner. It was such a nice relaxing day.

We just got back from visiting my parents and wishing my mom "Happy Mother's Day" She really is the best Mother! I hope someday I can grow up to be just like her. You know as you grow into adulthood you find that most adults are pretty human, but my mom still is as sweet and patient and kind as ever. I never hear a cross word from her about anyone! She is empathetic and understanding and I don't know what I ever did to deserve her.

I hope all of you had a very special day! I can't wait to hear about yours :)
It was such a beautiful day, I made the kids take this picture with me.
These flowers smell so dang good!


Dan and Hailey making dinner. I love how he always involves the kids.

Spring Trip to the Zoo!

I love the Zoo! We've been trying to go for a couple of weeks now, but it was soo busy, we couldn't even park the first time, and the second time, Hailey had been throwing up the night before we were going to go. We finally made it! My SIL Traci lives close by and we both got memberships for the year and went. It was soooo much fun! It wasn't too warm, just right, in my opinion. We took a trip on the train and then the kids wanted to see the elephants. I haven't been to this Zoo since we moved here a year ago, and hadn't seen the updates they had made and it was really neat! Most all of the animals we had wanted to see were out. The kids did great and had lots of fun together. I can't wait to go again.

The Donation

One of my biggest tasks each day is to brush Rachel's hair. It is beautiful, so straight and silky smooth but hearing her cry everyday is more than I can bear and I'm sure more than she can lol. So she wanted a haircut and I've been putting it off hoping we can work out the 'kinks' with her long hair, but it was finally time. So we took her in to Great Clips and found out she had enough to donate! She was excited to help other little girls have beautiful hair, like her. I love her new haircut...it's so fun and soooo easy!!! Yes!

Crazy Drivers

My cousin sent me this video link and I don't quite know what to say about it....lol!

The only thing that came to mind...is what a bunch of animals. My mom called the "natural man", the "animal". When us kids would fight growing up or when other lose they're temper they look like tigers or bears or whatever. I always laugh when I see this sort of behavior and think "What an animal"!

On the other hand, sometimes, I feel like being one myself...lol!

http://www.ourlighterside.com/videos/menopausal-woman-drivers.html

Will Christmas Never End?!

I've been telling my girls every day to NOT where they're sandals to school, it's just too cold. Well, yesterday, Abby didn't want to take my advice and trapsed off to school in a sweater, capris and flip flops. I didn't realize at 3:40 when she came inside sobbing that it had been snowing outside! She was soaked and freezing and I felt like the most horrible mom ever! I helped her get in the shower and get warm and recommended that she put away her flip flops until May. I think she got the message because today, she came to me with pants, sweater, warm socks and shoes, coat, and asking for gloves and a hat. She looked like she was ready to go build a snowman. Sometimes, we all learn the hard way...right?! I wonder how many more of these "hard lessons" I'll go through myself and with my children...lol