Hearts Hearts Everywhere

     Today was one of those days that never ends. Let me explain. The upside of the day is that it is Thursday because that is my night off from cooking dinner..woohoo. I ran all day because it is someones birthday this week and I wanted to have everything ready so when the kids came home from school we could work on Dads birthday surprises.  We worked quickly and then got ourselves all presentable for dinner and then ran to pack meeting.  From there we divided I took Julianna and Jensen home to bed while David and David went to the ShelterHouse to finish up a project that was left unfinished on Saturday(David was so excited to go back to the ShelterHouse to work I couldn't very well stop him from going to give his time to the community).  They returned home sometime around 9:45ish and then it was off again to drive to Sanford to drop off a truck we had been borrowing and then back home again.  By the time we returned home it was 11:15 and I was exhausted and I am sure David was too.  I explain this day because I am finding them very typical around here lately but something was different this day.  As we drug our exhausted bodies up the stairs and turned on the lights in our bedroom we were welcomed with a fabulous surprise...Hearts Hearts Everywhere!!!!  While we were away our children cut out hearts and put them all over our room.  Some were plain, some had writing on them, or pictures colored on them, but one wall was the best.  It had 2 big hearts on each side.  One said I love that you... and the other side said Love with all the kids names signed.  All the hearts in the middle had all the things we do or who we are.  It was one of  those days when the exhaustion was all worth it or efforts were recognized.  We love you our children, you are all wonderful..Christian, Kendra, David, Julianna, and Jensen!!!

End Of School Year 2011

Last Day of 2nd grade

They had fun at the fun zone just playing, eating pizza, and playing some fun group games.  Here I interrupted a fleeing of some sort of sea creature..I love boys and the adventures they take themselves on!!!

Last Day of 1st grade

They played too at on of their classmates homes.  They had sundaes to eat, played some fun games and had crafts and face painting too!!!

Teenagers are hard to run down for these types of things..he did have a last day of 11th grade and went to BDUBSs(Buffalo Wild Wings for those of you that don't have teens yet) and hung with his friends!!!

Articles of Faith

     We are currently working on memorizing the Articles of Faith and have a little chart set up for the kiddos to encourage them along the way.  This has been quite a motivator for my children, they are pulling out their scriptures all the time trying to memorize the next one.  The other afternnon I was working one on one with Julianna because she was stuck but Jensen also wanted my attention too.  I asked David if he could work with Jensen on his next one since he knew that Article of Faith so well  and they gladly worked together, so I could give Julianna the time she needed.

      Every morning we gather in our living room and we read the scriptures, or read a story, or sing a song and this morning was a bit different I gathered them around but I was not quite ready to go so I had asked them to grab their book and read quietly while I finished getting ready for the day and then from upstairs I started to  hear singing.  I quietly snuck down the stairs to see what was going on and I wish my camera was in my hand becasue what I saw next was inspiring.  David was sitting on the ottoman with Jensen and Julianna in front of him and he was teaching them a song to one of the Articles of Faith.  It is one of those moments as a parent that you treasure.

Mommmmmyyy!!!!

Even though I am not caught up on adding our summer adventures to my blog, I am also realizing I don't want to forget to add our moments that make our life sooo precious, the little things that we will want to remember when our children are gone creating their own lives and our memories are not what they used to be,  thanks for the reminder my friend. 

My youngest has started Kindergarten.  At the school he attends the Kindergartners have there own entrance and exit you pick them up from and you wait for them outside near the playground.  They have been back at school for roughly 3 weeks now and everyday as I stand waiting for him, I can't wait to see his smiling face make it to the front of the line. I have always felt that way with all my children but with him it is different because I can see him 3 or 4 children back in line and he is already scanning for me and after he gives his teacher the password for the day, the next thing you hear from his sweet little lips is, "Mooommmmyyyy!" and he runs to me with his arms wide open as open as they can be while trying to keep a backpack on your back and gives me a huge hug. 

I often reflect how overwhelmed I was when I felt like we should have another baby and even more when David confirmed that feeling and I still remember his words to me at that time, "This baby is going to change our lives!" and he was right!  Because his simple exclamation of Moooommmmyyyy has changed my life, a constant reminder of who I am....Mommy!

Our California Adventures #1

We had a true CA adventure and here is the 1st adventure I am going to share going to Disneyland and California Adventure:

Meeting the princesses and eating at Ariels Grotto.

Breakfast at Story Tellers Cafe with Chip and Dale and some other fun friends.

If you know Jensen then you know when we saw these green army men we were stopping every time we saw them!!!

Another funf riend from Story Tellers Cafe Terk from Tarzan!

Doing a fun dance at Story Tellers Cafe wrapping up a parade through the resturaunt...the kids loved this and we stayed long enough they did it twice!

I LOVE toontown and we were special guests one day and the kids loved going into Toontown early with out a lot of people around.

They even got to go on the rollercoaster several times in a row with out waiting in line!!!

They loved the teacups!!!

And look who we found while we were waiting for the parade to start!

It's a Bug Life!

We were waiting for Monsters Inc to come and snapped this quick pic.

Here we are in Pixie Hollow!

and in Mickeys House after we got to say hi to the mouse himself!!!

We have a ton of other pictures too these are some of the highlights!

There faves were D4 and D3 Tower of Terror they went of that while the rest of toured a Bugs Life and all their rides!

The New Star Tours was loved by all!!!

They loved the Aladdian show and any other Parade or show that were in the streets!

We had a fabulous time and they were just the right ages for it!