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Mother's Day 2012

"I hope that my dear sisters throughout the world - grandmothers, mothers, aunts, and friends - never underestimate the power of their influence for good."  - President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (attached to the See's chocolate they passed out to all the Relief Society women at church)

After getting to sleep in and shower, uninterrupted, this is what I walked downstairs to, along with a sparkling clean family room and kitchen thanks to Lauren:

After church photo session.  The three littles had drawn pictures of me in Primary and when they sang in Sacrament meeting they held them up at the end.  It was very sweet to see all the Primary kids beaming and waving at their moms.

After a great day at church, we enjoyed salmon, corn on the cob, green salad and cool whip-cottage cheese-jello salad for dinner.  Emily and Lauren did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen (my favorite part!), and we walked up to the water tower to see the goats that have been brought in to eat the vegetation for fire-proofing purposes.  (It doesn't take much to entertain us around here:)  Scripture study, prayer, and Daddy put the kids to bed.  It was a great day!

It's a party year!

(Get ready for a whole bunch of pictures!)

It's an "on" year for birthday parties and the first one of the year was last Thursday when we celebrated Maren's 7th birthday!  It was a Barbie extravaganza!  She woke up to this:

After school we braced ourselves for the arrival of 15 friends to join us for a Barbie Fashionista Birthday Party!  We did hair, make-up, and nails so the girls could rock our red carpet runway.  

Presents were next on the agenda.  Maren was very excited to see what was in all those beautiful packages.  I think Barbies would be a very good guess!

Next came cake.  Maren wanted "the cake lady" (our friend, Davlyn, of Flour and Flower Designs) to make her a "tall layer cake".  I told Maren it was wedding season and the cake lady was probably too busy making wedding cakes, including one for her own son, to make a birthday cake.  I just didn't feel up to the task of making a cake though, so I went over to Albertson's and found a Barbie sheet cake for $34.  But Emily Puckett would hear nothing of that!  She insisted on making Maren a six layer rainbow cake that she decorated beautifully with light pink roses.  What a gem!  (Emily and the cake!)

And to wrap up our Barbie-licious birthday celebration, we went to - can you guess? - Ruby's!  For the third year in a row!  Each year it's been a different Ruby's location though - thank goodness we have so many so close to us;)

I'd say it was the perfect 7th birthday.

Annual Easter Photos

A Last "First"

Our last child lost her first tooth tonight.  Oh, it is bitter sweet, all these "last firsts"!

!Viva Febrero!

I have been unmotivated about my blog lately.  

But there is nothing like a beautiful Saturday afternoon at the beach to inspire me!  

Yes... Definitely inspired!

 

Happy Halloween 2011

Halloween went on for days around here.  Friday night was the school's First Annual Mako Monster Mash which Craig took the kids down to.  Saturday night was our ward's Trunk or Treat.  And then actual trick or treating on Halloween night.  Phew!  All that for a silly holiday that I'm not even sure why we celebrate!

Ashton (Nerf Warrior) and Nathan (Harry Potter) ready to go on Halloween night.  

 

Maren wanted to be Rapunzel from "Tangled".  I happily bought her the costume and wig.  I'm just grateful to have one more year with a little girl who wants to by a princess for Halloween.  This could be the last year :(

 

Ashley wanted to be a Barbie.  She even spent her own money on a blond wig, which she wore for part of the night at the ward Trunk or Treat, then decided it was too hot and itchy.  This is where Mom gets to say "I told you it was a waste of your money to buy that wig!" :)

 

Lauren (recycling her costume from last year) met up with her friends in the neighborhood for trick or treating Halloween night.

 

Emily (as a cowgirl) and her friends at the ward Trunk or Treat.

 

Maren and friends at the Trunk or Treat.

Emily (as Anikan Skywalker) and Alexa (as Darth Vader) on Halloween night.  They went to a Halloween party at a friend's and trick or treated in that neighborhood.

Nathan and his 8 pounds of loot!  Craig bought it off him and Nate bought himself some Lego Ninjagos.

Our neighbor, Jenna, with Ashley and Nathan, organizing their candy.

Fun nights!  Glad they are over!  Counting down the days til our annual Thanksgiving trip to the desert!

 

our month in review

I just didn't have it in me to do the 12 of 12 this month.  So how about 12 photos (give or take a couple) of our activities in the month of September?

 

Labor Day - Ashley and Nathan rode their bikes while Craig jogged from our house down to the beach.  I think Ashley's face says it all.  They called me to come down and pick them up and we went and got doughnuts and hot chocolate as a reward for their great efforts!

 

Maren and Malia after the first day of school, cooling off in the Galland's pool.  

 

Ashley is playing soccer for the third year.  Her team is the Bazookas (for bazooka bubble gum).  She actually is complaining about playing, so we reminded her that it was her idea to sign up, we've already paid the money, her team is counting on her, and she doesn't have to sign up again next year:)

 

Nathan and Ashley quit tae kwon do at the end of the school year in June.  Nathan wanted to start jiu jitsu with his buddy, Ashton.  Nate loves it!  He likes that they learn "take downs" and wrestle on the floor.  He is all boy!

 

Alexa, Racquel and Emily - First day of seminary - Day One of the next 12 YEARS! (for me at least)

 

Emily and Lauren wanted to have a photo shoot on Emily's birthday.  We went down the road to the fake guard booth and the girls flashed their best smiles and struck some sweet and silly poses while I tried out my telephoto lens.

 

Emily is running on the cross country team at the high school.  She loves it and is improving her race times.  

 

Craig celebrated his 43rd birthday with his own personal mini triathlon, Hawaiian shave ice, and dinner at Wahoo's with the fam.

 

We sang and had cake the next day with the Hoffmanns, Christian Macey, and the elders from our ward.

 

Same people, different party!  We sang and had cake for Emily's birthday two weeks later.  Emily went around all day on her actual birthday singing Taylor Swift's "Fifteen".  Emily says 15 definitely feels different, but maybe it's because she also just started high school and everything is new.  She can hardly wait to get her permit in 6 months!  And she is already picking out the truck she thinks she's getting next year :)  

Well, there's our month.  It was jam-packed.  

And there is lots more to come this month!

A sadness... and a happiness

Our pet cat of 11 years, Magic, is no longer with us.  On Wednesday, August 24, we left at 5:30 in the morning for St. George.  Magic went out of the garage when we left.  No biggie.  She is an outdoor/garage cat.  After all, this is the cat who disappeared for 3 months upon moving into this house 6 years ago, only to be found living on the hillside in the cul-de-sac across the street, much skinnier I must add.  She was an extremely savvy cat.  On nights she stayed out, she would make her bed in the engine of my car.  When I would go out for my early morning runs, she would always jump out below the grill and have me let her into the garage via the front door.  We always said her name, Magic, definitely fit her.  But I guess she had used up 8 of her 9 lives.  She never came back home after that  Wednesday morning.  My neighbor, Allison, who was taking care of the house while we were away and cracking the garage door for Magic to come in and get food and water emailed after the first night to say Magic hadn't touched her food or water or used the litter box.  That continued the whole time we were gone.  We came home Sunday morning and the kids got out of the car and immediately went over to the cul-de-sac hillside to look for her. They discovered Magic's collar laid out on the green electrical box in the cul-de-sac.  This leads me to believe that the HOA landscapers that had been working in our neighborhood all that week had found her, or at least the collar.  We presume that the coyotes finally got her after all these years.  Lots of tears were shed by my kids, especially the three littles.  Ashley took it particularly hard.  Ashley has worked her own kind of Magic on that cat over the last several months, to the point that when Craig opened the door to the garage in the morning, Magic would run in and up the stairs to Ashley's room.  And remember, Magic was a musical cat, coming in to sit on the piano bench next to whomever was playing.  I will particularly miss the fabulous job she did at keeping the rodent population down.  We never get mice or rats.  I was hoping the landscapers would be back in the neighborhood last week to ask them a few questions, whether they had actually found her or just the collar.  We've just told my kids that Magic is now in Heaven with Jesus and Nana's dog, Tieka, and all of Grammy's dogs.  It's hard to believe she is really gone - we will miss her.

That's the sadness.  But there is a happiness.  I told the kids I think Heavenly Father was preparing us for what was going to happen to Magic.  All summer my kids have been pestering me for a kitten.  Ashley only checks out cat books from the library.  They talked me into taking them to the animal shelter to look at the cats.  We went to visit those kitties 3 or 4 times.  All this talk and visiting the shelter made me consider whether we could handle another cat.  I kind of decided that Magic probably wouldn't take kindly to another cat in the house.  And I kept saying that we would never find another cat as savvy as Magic. But I think all of this prepared all of our hearts for another kitty.  So last Sunday, on the day we returned and found Magic's collar and my kids were so sad, we attended Sacrament meeting in another ward as we had returned too late for our ward.  Our good friend, Cindy, is in that ward and after the meeting Lauren mentioned to Cindy that our cat had died and we were going to get a kitten.  Cindy told us that she just got an email from someone at work who has a friend who found a kitten that needs to be adopted.  She forwarded us the information the next day.  Tuesday we went to the animal shelter again and their kitten choices were slim, not to mention they won't adopt cats to people who want them for outdoors.  Long story short, we contacted the lady with the kitten, she brought him to us Wednesday night and we are now the happy owners of a little black tabby named Tucker (although Craig is trying to rename him Sirius Black. We are on a Harry Potter video marathon around here this week).  He is playful and cute and we promised to keep him inside... and we will for the first year at least.  He has brought the joy back to some wounded little hearts as well as some fighting over whose turn it is to hold/play with him.  I'm sure that will wear off once he gets a little bigger. And the kids are headed back to school this week.  That leaves Tucker to me :)

 

ah, the lazy days of summer!

Sleeping in, no schedule, sunny weather... I am loving these unstructured summer days! 

Ashley got her turn to go to Catalina with Grammy for 4 days.  Emily and Lauren have each gone in the past.  Ashley got to get to know her second cousins better, like Melanie, above.

Nana is in town for the week and as a special treat, I got us tickets to see the Broadway production of Mary Poppins that is touring here in Orange County.  It was Nathan's turn to get a taste of the big theater and my friend, Allison, joined us as well.  It was a fabulous performance!

The kids wanted to go to the beach today, so we headed to The Hole for the afternoon.  Lauren stayed home with Nana for some sewing and movie watching (Nana introduced her to Jane Austen's 'Emma'). Emily dug a hole to China - well, not quite, but she reached water and it completely swallowed up her siblings.  Craig even showed up at the end, and stayed for some ocean swimming with The 3 Littles while I drove Emily home to get cleaned up for a babysitting job.  

Ahhhhh, summer! 

St. George and Provo, UT

For the 4th year in a row we took our family to St. George after school got out to spend some time at Las Palmas Condos at Green Valley.  Grammy joined us this year, as she had been in Mexico for 2 months and missed the kids, and Grandpa was still down there.  Craig worked from his St. George office. Grammy, the kids and I did what we always do - swam at the pools, shopped at the usual shops, and ate lots of shaved ice.  One evening, the whole family went to see CARS 2.  Another we went to Gunlock Falls for some rock jumping (everyone jumped except me!).

We ate dinner at Cafe Rio, which is always great, even though we now have one here in the OC.  We stopped in at the historic Jacob Hamblin home which has tours run by the LDS church.  Grammy drove Craig's car back home on Saturday morning, July 2, while the rest of us piled in the Expedition and drove the 250 miles to Provo.  I had not been to Provo since 1998!  It has certainly changed and grown.  But around BYU's campus, much was the same.  We took a drive down memory lane, driving past the little studio apartment Craig and I lived in for the first 4 months we were married while Craig finished his last semester at BYU. We drove past the apartments we had lived in when we were single.  We drove over to Tony Roma's, which is now an Italian pizza place, where Craig and I met. We took the kids on campus and admired the beautiful Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni Building...

...and the library, both new since we were there.  We ate at the Cougar Eat and shopped in the BYU bookstore. That evening we went to the Stadium of Fire at the Lavell Edwards Stadium on campus.  It was a huge patriotic celebration, with everything from parachuters, dancers, singers (David Archuleta and Brad Paisley) and a fly over by the jets from Hill Air Force Base. And of course, the  spectacular fireworks show at the end.  It was a fun night, even though we didn't get back to our hotel until about midnight.  We slept in til 10 am Utah time, then hurriedly got ready for church and attended my cousin, Marianne's ward. We'd not met her husband or kids before, so it was fun for my kids to discover new cousins.  

(Josy, Haily, and Myka Gary with my kids.)

We drove up to Sundance after church and enjoyed the beauty of Provo Canyon.

Then we met up with my dad's siblings and their spouses who happened to be in Provo for the 4th.  We visited, had brownies and root beer floats, and enjoyed a walk along the Provo River. 

(Dave and Carole Hayden and Claire and Bob Nees)

Monday, we got Emily checked in to Especially For Youth (EFY) for her first taste of BYU campus life.

Her good friend, Sophie, was also attending with her cousin, Rachel.  Emily had a nice girl from Arizona for her roommate.  Emily's favorite adjectives for describing her week at EFY?   "Amazing" and "Awesome"!  The new acronym we all learned was "COW" - Crush of the Week.  Let's just say Emily has a COW in Sacramento :)  We introduced our kids to BYU's ice cream at The Creamery where they serve ginormous scoops!

After getting Emily checked in, our family piled back in the car and drove back to St. George for one last night at Las Palmas.  We enjoyed the pools for a warm 4th of July evening.  We ate dinner at The Brick Oven, a pizza place that originated as Heaps of Pizza in Provo long ago (like my dad's BYU era:)  It had changed the name to Brick Oven by the time I was at BYU and now has locations around Utah.  I was pretty disappointed in our meals, but of course, we didn't order pizza, so that was probably our mistake. Tuesday morning, Craig went into the office for one last day of work there.  The kids and I ate breakfast at a favorite place, The Bear Paw, where they serve huge vanilla creme brulee stuffed French toast and delicious apple-oatmeal-pecan pancakes.  Then we met Julie Dyer and her kids, who were in town visiting Julie's sister and family, at the splash pad next to the St. George Tabernacle.  The kids had a blast playing in the water features of the park.

Our vacation came to a close at 4pm CA time, when we packed up the car and made the 6 hour drive home.  It was a great week+!  I'm still trying to recover from the trip.  It's good to be gone, but really good to be home!