A little Music

Last week the first grade showcased a night of patriotic music.  Max has been singing the songs for months it was a joy to see all of them up there singing their hearts out. I think my favorite song was "You're a Grand Old Flag"  I have always love that song.

Grandma and Grandpa happened to be in town so they were able to see Max show off. Well I guess see most of him. It is hard to see any of the kids when you sit towards the back row.  You have to strategically move your head around until you can find a window. The window only lasts so long, until the people in front of you move around looking for a better window themselves.

All is well because we met up with his buddy Cody at Sonic for a celebration treat. 

My 3 March 3

So I cheated again this week.  I took this on Sunday night.  The 3 of them watching Pixar sort films on youtube.  I swear we don't just watch tv all the time but that seems to be what I have captured the last two weeks.

February round up

How did I do this month?

I have been really down on myself the past week. No motivation to get things done and when I don't get anything done then I feel even worse.  So I just have to snap out of it.  The ironic thing of all this is I'm reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin about how to be happy. I really like the book but instead of motivating me to find more happiness in my already happy, good life, I find that I just get overwhelmed with all that I could be doing and feel like I'm falling short.  The best thing I can do is be happy and excited for what I did get done because that is progress.

No sugar until Valentines day. I did it. Now I'm back to sugar and love it. Still at good weight. And I'm still exercising.

February project 12 on 12 check

Read a book The 5 Love Languages (When the goal was to read a novel I meant a book)

Family service project. We sent letters and a small package to missionaries for Valentine's day. 

I realized that if I don't start really planing out the rest of my goals they will not happen. So I have to come up with a game plan this month when I will accomplish them.

Living for the Weekend

It was a busy week. Well I guess just the normal but it seems when you have a 4 day work week it always goes by the slowest and busiest. I guess it is because I have less days to get the same things done.  Just to recap this week.

Lilly: worked on her Civil war project (almost done) and piano lessons. 

Max: was super hard to get out of bed on Tuesday, it wasn't pretty. I did some thinking and I worked out an awesome deal with Max this week. If he gets up happy and is not late for school then he earns 20 min computer time. For the rest of the week he did great, problem solved.

Luke: got his hair cut and has been my big helper in the afternoons. 

Kevin: work, elders quorum meeting and the gym.

Me: preschool, mom, dinner, run,  blah blah blah. I'm not saying that it is bad I'm just saying it is very routine. Taking a break from our normal was welcomed, we had a nice weekend.  

I totally forgot about taking a picture of my kids last week and I only remembered to take a picture of my kids on Friday of this week. With Saturday as my option. I wanted to take a picture of the kids watching TV. Really their favorite pastime on Saturday morning.

I headed out to our stake Women Conference for some spiritual upliftment.  When I got home Lilly and Kevin were out the door for their Daddy Daughter Activity.  Lilly was so stink'n excited.  Kevin told me later that she tried to extend their date by suggesting a movie and dinner.  That's my girl.  While they were gone I watched the littles of 2 of my friends. We had a houseful of 7 kids in total. They all played very well and no conflicts. Oh it is so much easier to have big kids over to play rather than watching babies.  I can handle this.

On a whim we decided to go for a treat and try "Culvers"  The boys were so tired from their day that they fell asleep on the way over. 

Culvers was okay nothing fancy just another burger joint with ice cream. It was fun to be with the family and have ice cream so no complaining here.  At Lilly's and Kevin's activity today they learned about geocashing. Kevin was instantly hooked, so after dinner he took us on a little hunt.  Success!

A Celebration for Pop

My Dad is celebrating his 70th Birthday this year.  I wanted to do something special for him. He is a simple man he has no need for things. His greatest joy is his family.  So I talked John and Shannyn into taking a journey to surprise Papa for his birthday. Kevin was not able to come with us, booo! So were were able to go in one car Yeah! 

Doesn't this look fun. It really was not that bad Only when the kids would complian that my big head was in the way.   Shannyn was so nice and let me sit in the front on the way back to Arizona.

Pops had no clue we were coming he was truly surprised. We let Max ring the door bell and the rest of us hid around the house.  Then we came out when we didn't hear him say a word.  Yep he was shocked.

We quickly got ready to take him out to dinner.  Porto's was the place of choice. It's hard to go anywhere with 2 two year old's. So this was a good place to go where I didn't feel like we would ruin dinner if Luke was a stinker.

 Max enjoying a delicious potato ball.

 The next morning we headed to Travel Town.  We had a good time climbing the trains and playing in the park.

Then moods turned, we had ever intention to ride the train but the line was pretty long then kids where getting hungry.  Luke cut his arm on something and was sulking about that and somehow Lilly's flip flop broke leaving her only one shoe to walk around in.  We called it an adventure and headed to a must stop for John, Shannyn  and Kevin (when he is with us) to Tommy's.

It was John and Shannyn's anniversary that day so they went out on the town while we had some cousin time. We made cookies, played on the ipad, and played basketball.

On Sunday we all went to church where we surprised my in-laws since they did not know we were coming to town either.  We had a family dinner, Matt even brought someone to dinner that I hope we see more of.  At dinner we gave Pop his gift, a book of our most favorite 70 memories we have of him. There were tears and laughs. Just what I hoped for. 

I really don't have words to express how much I love my dad and how lucky I feel to be his daughter. 

So Happy Birthday Pops.  Thanks for everything, all the adventures, walks, swim meets, concerts, oranges, lemons, shopping trips, dresses, tennis lessons, talks, hikes, and babysitting. And 3 cheers to the many more we will be able to enjoy.