Some Valentine Fun

Just some fun things we did to keep the love alive in our home this last Valentine's.  These sugar cookies were a hit and we had fun delivering some to Gramma and Gramps and other loved ones.

 This was our "love jar".  Each day we would all draw a name for someone else in the family and do something nice for them. After we did the nice thing, we would leave a chocolate heart for that person. It worked pretty well for the most part! Sometimes it was hard to think of something, but that was good for all of us to try a little harder to show love!

Jeremy and I got the urge to learn and practice our swing dance moves.  Some of the Young Women in our ward put together a swing dance night to learn how to swing dance for an upcoming dance.  Jeremy and I couldn't make it to teach them, but we wanted to learn a new move anyway! This one is called the Lindy helicopter.  We got better and better and the kids a good time watching their dad throw around their mom!  Atalie was our videographer!

2012 Recap

I have been thinking about our year and wanting to recap it in one place, but I'm having trouble even remembering what I did yesterday, let alone a whole year ago.  Last January, Jeremy decided to take an anatomy class to maybe go in to nursing school.  Needless to say, through a lot of hard work and studying while working full time, holding down a weekly scouting calling and being a dad/husband, he managed to get a C in the class.  And yes, he was relieved and happy about it.  Of course he would have liked to do better, but was satisfied with it.

We were able to take a trip to Italy this year, which was definitely a highlight.  We loved being immersed in the Italian culture and getting out of our comfort zone a bit.  We had an answer to prayer while we were over there: Jeremy was a bit nervous to go to church, wondering if there would be anyone to translate for us.  We had a little prayer before we went, almost didn't find it and when we went up into this humble little chapel, there were the missionaries, ready to translate for us! One of them, Elder Green from Palm Springs, had the thought that he would be translating for someone today!
We had a great spiritual feast with these dedicated Italian members.  The closest temple for them was a day or two bus ride away.  It made us realize how easy we have it with some things.
Jeremy is still with Verizon and enjoys it for the most part. He loved his scouting calling, but got released when they officially put me into Young Womens as the Mia Maid advisor.  Now he teaches Sunday School for the 14-15 year olds in our ward and loves it.  We are both teaching the same age group and they are good kids with a lot to offer. Jerm loves to spend time with his family and tries to ride his dirt bike as much as possible.  Truly his passion. Did I mention he loves volleyball, too!

Cozette (12) started the seventh grade this fall after a fun summer of Carpinteria, beach days, lots of swimming, Just Dance parties.  She was a couple weeks shy of turning twelve to be able to go to camp this year, but she is super excited for this upcoming year.  Cozette is a good student and loves to play the piano as well.  She LOVES children and really likes babies and babysitting for other people as well as her own siblings.  We love that she has this gift and enjoys sharing it.

Atalie (10) is now in the fifth grade and is a super student.  She is pretty fluent in Spanish and often helps Cozette with her homework.  She was on the Super Quiz team this last year as part of the Camarillo Academic Olympics.  It was fun to watch her team work together and answer the questions.  They studied out of this book called Earth Matters by DK publishing. A great book for any collection.  She is good at babysitting also and loves to do crafts, sew, play the piano and dance.
 
Wyatt (7) is in the first grade and is doing well.  We've had a few hiccups with a little bit of misbehavior, but he is a fun loving, rough and tumble boy full of life.  He LOVED soccer this year, especially since his mom was his coach this year! That was interesting for me, but I have learned a lot.  Wyatt loves to play with legos, explore outside, ride his bike and dirt bike.  In fact, he lives in his riding gear anytime we go camping and is on his bike from first thing in the morning until it gets dark.  I think he wishes he had a light on his bike so he could go at night. His Daddy is very proud.  All the kids love to ride, and that makes Jeremy really happy.

Scotty (4) is loving preschool this year.  We loves to ride his bike (never used training wheels thanks to his Strider bike) with me to take the other kids to school in the morning and watch movies or play games on the itouch while I'm coaching or working out at cross fit.  He is a sweet boy and definitely a mamas boy, but loves to help daddy in the garage or out in the yard.  He loves to read books with me and go to Gramp's store and get a treat, which usually equals about five treats. We also had a lot of fun going to Disneyland, just me and Scotty and sometimes Aunt Kirsten and Elina, Gramma and Gramps. Although we did take Wyatt for his birthday, too!

I still am running and working out at cross fit.  I do some book keeping for my dad and teach a few piano lessons.  This year I actually got a real piano teacher for my own kids and I LOVE IT!! She is great and the girls practice and are learning much more then me trying to teach them with not steady lessons each week.  I love to work out in the yard and read and have read some great books this year including Unbroken.  I continue to try and not get stressed and balance everything I need to do with what I want to do.  I have learned to love my kids more as well as learned how to enjoy other children more thanks to working in the nursery for a few months at the beginning of the year.  I loved it!  At first I wasn't so sure, but I really feel I have grown this year.  I coached Wyatt's soccer team which was also a learning experience, but a good one, thanks to having great parents on my team.  I also learned that when I get stressed, I turn into a crazy monster and that I need to slow down.  When I take the time to read my scriptures and take care of my Holy Habits every day, I am much happier and less stressed.  Time is marching on more quickly then I'd like, but we are all enjoying the ride and looking forward to a new year with more learning and adventures.

 

Summer happenings...

These are just a few things we have been up to:

 Mormon night at Dodger's Stadium.  The kids had so much fun and I'm so glad we took them.  Then Dodger's were embarrassing, but the kids didn't care.  They loved all the things that were going on: the calliope playing, the crowd cheering and doing the wave, the beach balls being hit around and the fire works afterwards.  We had a great time.  And Alex Boye even sang during the 7th inning stretch!

 Jeremy at his "Avenger's" 36th birthday party! I can't believe he is 36!  We played volleyball ate BBQed taquitos and nachos and then played some almost full contact Ulitmate Frisbee.  It was a great evening!

                                               Cozette helping decorate the awning.

                                                Our homemade root beer...

 Jeremy has a "mad crush" on Thor.  Something about the hair and all the muscles.  I like Cpt. America. :)

 Heating up the charcoal for the taquitos.  This worked really well!

Wyatt doing a very thorough job of vacuuming under his bed.  I was very impressed!

Apparently Scotty was really tired after the dodger game that he fell asleep on the couch the next day watching TV.

Mother's Day

This years Mother's Day was great.  It helps when you try not to have expectations.  Jeremy made me a yummy breakfast in the morning, complete with fresh squeezed orange juice!  He then made two chocolate cakes that were delicious that we took over to my parents for dinner. He is a great chef!  It was nice to have my kids be happy and to be happy myself.  I'm so thankful for Jeremy for taking good care of me and my sweet kids.  They are so great, most of the time... :) I love being a mom and I hope that I will continue to get better at it everyday!  I've always wanted to be a mom! I just hope and pray that I don't ruin my kids.  I want to build them up, love them, and show them that love!

A new addition

I've been meaning to post these pictures awhile ago with our new trampoline.  After the boys kept taking the cushions off our couch and jumping on them, stacking them up the stairs to bounce down the stairs and hopefully not bash their heads into the banister or the now bare couch (our living room is small), I thought, hmmm, I better look around for some kind of trampoline for these boys.  After doing a little research and having limited space and funds, I found this 6.5 foot trampoline on craigslist here in town!  It was great!  Only a foot and a half off the ground, too.  We measured it out, made the phone call and went over on a Tuesday night to get it.  It was from a family with five, going on six kids, not LDS, can you believe it?  They had a little boy with some sensory issues and I have to say I felt pretty bad buying his trampoline from them.  They were about to move into a bigger house, but smaller yard and didn't have room for it.  So now we have this great trampoline in our little backyard!  The kids love it.  If they have time before school, they jump, after school, they jump, in their PJs, they jump.  It's great!

Almost summer!!

A friend of ours gave us this surfboard awhile back, and since Memorial Day was coming up, we decided to finally fix it and use it on Memorial Day!  It was a fun project for Jerm and I to do together.  I love working on things with him and learning new things together.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to use it on Memorial Day since the beach we ended up going to didn't allow surfing.  Ah well.  Now it's ready to go for when school gets out!

 Scotty helping sand down some of the extra resin.  He was very helpful!

 Our little chickens, Chloe and Daisy, are about one month old now.  It's amazing how quickly they loose all of their soft downy feather for their adult ones.

 The end of the board had a big split in it, so we filled it with resin, clamped it down and when that dried, put fiber glass around it and more resin.  Boy, did our garage stink!

 Beautiful Atalie before her dance recital.  She did wonderful and even got to do a back bend in it!

 Beautiful Cozette! She loves to dance as well.  I love that they have been able to do this together.

Such good girls! I love them both so much and don't know what I would do without them! They are such great helpers to me.  They help with their brothers, too and love playing with younger kids.  Thank you girls, for being so terrific!
Wyatt danced Hip hop last night, too, but in the rush of getting him there on time, I didn't get a picture of him! He did awesome and loves to dance!

George the Caterpillar

A couple of weeks ago, we were helping weed at my parents house and Hans and Wyatt found this cool looking black caterpillar, with yellow and white stripes on it.  Wyatt and I decided we wanted to bring it home for a pet and watch it metomorphosize.    We have not been disappointed.  George had a really yummy diet of milkweed and some other plant that he was eating when we found him.  He started to hang upside down for a day and then the next thing we knew, literally within an hour, he was in his cocoon!  It was May 9 in the afternoon.  In the first picture, his cocoon is bright green and his skin is all bunched up at the top.  We've had caterpillars before, but this one was different.  He was bright green for about one and a half weeks, then this morning, it turned black.  When Wyatt, Scotty and I were leaving for swimming lessons, we looked in there, and there was George! Out in his full beautiful glory!!  We don't have a butterfly pavilion and the bug catcher he was in was not tall enough or wide enough to let him stretch his wings.  After looking around the kitchen for something, we decided my Pampered Chef juice mixer/pitcher thing would have to do.  I opened up the bug catcher and let him walk on my hand, to put him gently in his new home!! This is such a cool thing to do as a family! I highly recommend it to anyone.    We'll keep him in there for a couple of days and then let him go outside.  WE LOVE BUTTERFLYS!!!!