Claire turns 5

I'm backing up to last month. Claire had her 5th birthday. She was so excited because this is the age you get to go to kindergarten. I decided a Pinkalicious party would be so much fun. Claire was excited and then decided she wanted a blue rainbow party. I told her maybe next year. We had a fabulous Pinalicious party. They played Pinko (akaBingo), pin the cupcake on Pinkalicious, read the story about Pinkalicious and we enjoyed treats and cupcakes that were all decked out in PINK. I made bottle top necklaces and gave out wands to all the friends who came. Enjoyed every minute of it because she is growning up way too fast.

Mother's Day 2011

This is why I celebrate mother's day. These 3 beautiful children are such a blessing in my life and I
am grateful to be their mom. I got 2 cds from Hannah, an angel from my husband, a wind chime
Claire made in school and Porter made me a book of 10 reasons why I love my mom. It was all
sweet and made my day.

Looked What I grew!

I planted bulbs last November and didn't know what would pop up this spring. This is my first attempt and I was so proud of myself. Not only can I grow tulips and daffodils, I can grow three pretty cute kids too.

Our New Addition

This is it. It is a 1927 piano. It has all the original ivory keys and it just needed a little tuning and a home.The inside has been replaced pretty recently too. As you can see the front is off but it does have a front and is in pretty good shape. Porter just started piano lessons and loves them. I grew up with a piano and my mother would play often. I loved to listen to her play. So it is pretty neat to hear the sound of a piano in my home. I hope that Porter sticks with it. My mom said," finally someone in the family will play." She tried with all her children and no one plays. I can play one handed and read music. So maybe I will take lessons from Porter someday. It is one of the things on my bucket list. Oh yeah the best thing of all it was FREE!!

Proud parents

This is Hannah at her choir concert. She is on the left side bottom row. It has been so fun to go and listen to them sing.She has really enjoyed her teachers and choir in 7th and 8th grade.This is my Porter. He recieved many awards this day. Of course I forgot to take a picture just with him and his awards. He recieved awards for good citizenship, most improved, A/B honor roll, and student of the week. We are so pleased with him. Notice the height.

This is Claire's art work and writting. She wanted to make a book with her friends on the front(Hannah, Claire, Cousin Bella and cousin Ryan) and write a letter to her friend Emilia. As you can see she copied my hand writting and it was her own words. I thought her hand writting was pretty good for a 4yr old. This is the first time she has written her name backwards.


This is my Hannah showing her certificate from her induction ceremony into Avid. This is a program she was asked to be in and had to interview and be accepted. She also had to take two pre ap classes and also has to do community hours. She has stepped up and has risen to this new challenge in her life and we are so pleased.

Kindergarten and High School all in one year

I have been thinking about what lies ahead. Two huge changes will take place next school year. Hannah will enter high school and start early morning seminary and Claire will start kindergarten. Wow that is a lot for me to take in. It seems just the other day we were bringing Hannah home from the hospital.

Claire and I had the talk about her starting kindergarten and I told her I will be so lonely without my buddy. Her response was, "you still have Bonnie" aka the dog. I was thinking but the dog doesn't come and talk to me or dance and sing to keep the house from being so quiet.

I remember just a few days (years) ago I was begging for peace and quiet and now its right around the corner and I'm worried. Claire tells me all the time, "I want to grow up momma." How can you take that from her.

As far as Hannah I have her for 4 more years and then she is off to school. (I hope) Where did the time go? My worry for her is that, have I taught her all the things that I should?

So as my little girls keep growing I will continue to enjoy the journey and hopefully it will slow down just a bit.

Can we start 2011 over?

As you read this don't fall down from shock. It is really me. I am going to try to start blogging again.

We have started 2011 with a bang. All of our family got the flu bug and Claire had strep with it. It has been joyous. Lots of washing and cleaning. Lots of moaning and groaning. Now they are going stir crazy from being cooped up so long. So lets see SICK KIDS + CRAZY MOM = INSANITY.

I hope its all coming to an end. I can see light at the end of the tunnel. So soon i can say

WELL KIDS + HAPPY MOM= PEACE . As for dad he got it too but tends to run when throw up starts so need I say more.

Our Summer fun

Family

I've never had a computer where I could write a blog while I was on vacation. I have been visiting my family here in Montana and it makes me really appreciate family. My parents are getting a little older and that makes things change. I do stop and think of what my future holds with them. I have enjoyed them. Also my 90 soon to be 91 grandma is in an assisted living/nursing home and is very fragile right now. It is so hard to go and see her and see her not be able to feed herself and dress herself. She speaks very softly and has very little energy. This was the grandma who was up with the sun and still up before everyone went to bed. She worked very hard. We have had some really good conversations since I've been up here. Sadly to say she is tired and ready to go. Selfishly we all want her to stay but she is done here on earth. I was able to give her a hair cut. I have never done one in a bed but I did and it turned out pretty good. We also got together with my brothers kids. The twins are 9 and Brynlee is 7 almost 8. Then there is little Dallin. He is 1 and just adorable. He is the happiest baby and he is good almost all of the time. My brother was out of town and so I got to spend some time with my sisiter in law Lisa. We had fun just talking about LIFE. We still are going to get together again with my brother. Just alot of bonding time and great memories are made. I am so grateful for each family member because they touch my life and my childrens life.

Volley Ball

Hannah just finished another season of volley ball. I must say I love to watch this sport. Hannah has improved every season. Now if I can just get her to be a little more agresive. She has a really strong serve. There is a spin on the ball and it goes hard and all the way to the back by the line. They have a really hard time hitting off of it. She is also very consistant on hitting it over from any direction. So here are a few pictures this season. They were called the Dippin Dots.

Easter Pictures 2009

Mother's Day

I had the best mother's day. It started out with dinner and a movie on Saturday night with my mom, my mother-in-law Betty, my sister-in-law Theresa, her mother-in-law Margaret, and Betty's sister Shirley. We all met at Chili's and had dinner. Then we went to see 17 Again. I wasn't quite sure how it would turn out but I had a blast and enjoyed it.
Then on Sunday we had church and then came home. My mom and I went upstairs to change our clothes and started talking and then we called my Grandma. We then laid down and continued to talk. Then in came sweet Porter to take our lunch order. He brought up two sandwiches on rolls, chips and cokes. It was so fun to have lunch in bed. I mean seriously who does that? Later we looked on line at these really cute purses then we went downstairs to sneak our favorite ice cream (Haagen Daz Hawaiian Lehua Honey & Sweet cream) To die for!! Just try it. Nothing like being full and taking a nap.
So as you can see I enjoyed the sleep, food and company. Not having to do dishes, or pick up messes that day was great. Thanks Jimmy for making it happen and making me queen for the day.

Easter pictures

Notice the lime green finger nails and the

Happy Birthday to Claire #3

Look how much she's grown. We had a fun day today. We went to get mommy's hair done and Claire got to go play with Aunt Stephanie. They went to Wal-mart and she picked out a Barbie cash register. She got to go to lunch and get her toe nails and finger nails painted. She had to have the brightest purple there. Then we went home and played on the swings while Porter had baseball practice. Then we went to Chili's for dinner and they sang to her. She wiggled and danced while they sang. She opened two gifts at home and crashed. She couldn't quite figure out why today was her b-day and her b-day party is Friday. Too much for a 3 year old. Maybe next year. We have had so much fun and can't wait for another year of fun and surprises.

Where is the cutest kids contest? Sign these three up!

A little plug for my friend Romy- Thanks for the hat and look how cute it is.

Our fun filled Spring Break

We had our friends Gage and Grant come and spend the night. Monday we went to Putt Putt. We all hit our ball and sometimes with a little help from Claire. Then we went into the arcade. We played games and won tickets and bought prizes. Then on Wednesday we looked at dogs in all the pounds around our area. No, we haven't found "THE PERFECT DOG" yet. Then on Friday we met the Greasers up at the lake. We put up tents,roasted hot dogs and marshmallows,rode in the boat,went tubing,relaxed,got caught up,and ate again. We had so much fun. Oh and Hannah did not go just in case you wonder why she is not in any of the pictures. She had a b-day party to go to. You know how much we rate!

New Beginings

New Beginings is a program to introduce girls who are turning 12 during the year to the Young Womens program at church. We had ours several weeks ago and it turned out so so great. Romy was in charge and did a beautiful job. We talked about the personal progress program. We set up all kinds of lights and did tables for each values. We introduced out new value which is virtue. Then we had a parent introduce each of our new girls and to describe what kind of light that best represents them. One of them was Hannah and I asked her dad to do that since I had to speak. He chose Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights). These are the things he said about Hannah

-Only seen at night- Hannah being shy and you only see her true personality every once in a while
-Multi-colored/ they come in all different colors- personality/always wears colorful clothes and is really into fashion/likes be creative
-Unsure of why the lights appear- unpredictable/we never know what kind of mood she is going to be in and it could change in an instant
-Lights are magical- her spirit is magical/she seems to amaze us with something different everyday
-Aurora measns Greek Godess- she has some Christ like attributes
-The Scottish used to believe that the more active the lights were the more severe the weather was going to be and (because of our Scottish Heritage)-When she was little we called her "Hurricane Hannah" she could get into things very fast and make a mess very fast

I was very happy/sad to see this all take place because it means my little girl is growing up. She is ready to grow up so I guess I will let her and just hang on to the memories.

CLair's way of saying "things"

Claire says

Chucky Arms for Lucky Charms
I don't know either for I don't know
sicky cup for sippie cup
Elmo's Quarld for Elmo's World
Dollar Bills for Dollar Store
I go to school morio for I go to school tomorrow
Dranma Ila for Grandma Ila

Popcorn popping on the acerpot tree for Popcorn popping on the apricot tree
We got to the library for reading time and her favorite song is 5 little monkey's swinging in a tree. She likes when you say "SNAP that monkey right out of that tree.
She colored with a sharpie all over her dresser,crib,wall,door,tv screen and picture of Porter. My mom said it reminds her of when I colored all over my grandma Eldora's wall,night stand and ironed pillow case. I used purple which is still my favorite color and I made a big spider on her pillow. This is the grandma that you Do Not sit on her bed spread. Need I say more.

She has 21 stuffed animals,dollys ect in her crib. She calls them "her friends"
She told Ali,"your mean, but I like you anyway"
She takes a picture with a camera and says,"ahh,cute"
She calls a kid in the nursery Tater tot and his name is Tate
She loves broccoli and calls them trees and can out eat anybody with her trees
When she goes to bed at night she calls it her naps and when she wakes up she says," I had good nap." Loves to go to bed and I can count on one hand how many times she has fought it. Love her for that.
She will tell Hannah and Porter when they have been naughty, "its time to go to time out"


I'm sure I will add more later. Enjoy, We have

Bahama Cruise 2009