Folk dancing at Bubb

All of the first graders at Olivia's school learned many dances to represent different countries across the world. She really enjoyed herself. Some of the kids had a very serious face as they danced, but Olivia was always grinning from ear to ear!


Here is Olivia with her partner Frank.

I was so proud of Olivia. She decided she wanted to announce one of the dances.

Sam's artwork

Well, at age 5, this is what Sam thinks of us:



This is a picture Sam made when they were studying rain forests. I asked Sam about the picture and this is what he said:
the top shapes are clouds, the shape next the the tucan's beak is a butterfly, the bird is sitting on a branch and the things under the tucan... well that is the fire, hence the tucan's scared look. I can see the panic in the bird's eyes...can't you?!!

Since I am posting funny art work I decided to add this. A few months ago when Barbie and Poppy Mike were in town my mom and I left my dad in charge of the kids. When we returned home we found this note taped to the garage door.

Apparently, my dad and the kids, except Olivia got into the ice cream. That rectangle is a picture of the fridge and she started to draw a picture of a bowl of ice cream.
Well, I thought it was so cute I left it up on the wall, until one of Daniel's friends came to visit. He saw the note and asked why we imposed such negative views of the Pope on our children at such a young age!

The Gingers

Just before school let out Olivia the friends in her club over to play. These are the Gingers!
Ayda, Oliva, Sophia, Daniela, Fabiana, Morgan and Nina.

They had a tea party and made a play about Peter Pan. They had such a great time.

Day 2

This is what Day 2 without Dory looks like!!!

I can't believe I am going cold turkey. Dory has been such a blessing in our life. Some might have seen the help of Dory in our family as a luxury, but we needed her. Daniel has said that she was an answer to our prayers. I don't know how moms have large families with kids very close in age...I tried to do it, but it about did me in. I was at the end of my rope and I needed some time to get myself in a place where I could be the mom I want to be.
Well, we have arrived at that place and I am ready to take over. Dory has gone to visit her family in the Phillippines for now and will be ready to work for someone else come fall. Let me know if you know anyone who is interested.
It took me a REALLY long time to go thru this laundry!!

Our first camp out with the kids!

Over the Memorial Day weekend we took the kids camping in the Santa Cruz mountains. We had a great time!!

We invited the Carmacks, Freys, Barlows, Pieronis, and Notleys. We arrived Friday night, set up camp, and then started a fire. We roasted marshmallows and had some left over hot dogs. The kids just roamed around and played with the 11 other kids. Lula was such a good girl. She did not roam off far and came back whenever I called her.

This little boy is Jared Frey, he is a week younger than Lula.

I thought the kids were going to stay up late, but around 8:30 Sam and Olivia said they were tired. So I took them into the tent and got their jammies on. It was a cold windy night, I was worried they were going to be cold. But it turns out they were fine. After we got the kids to bed Daniel and I went out to the fire and enjoyed talking to our friends and playing with the fire. The wood was wet, so it was a smokey fire. I love roasting marshmallows. I ate way too many. The Freys and Daniel and I had a great talk. It was finally time for us to sleep. I was warm and cozy in bed. I put in my ear plugs and went right to sleep. But Daniel, on the other hand, had a long hard night; he was cold.

Saturday morning we just hung out and talked. The kids ran around and played or would come to sit on our laps every so often.

Here is Logan Frey, Olivia, and Miles Carmack.

After hanging out for the morning, we all went on a walk to the playground. After we played at the playground for a while, Daniel took the baby back to camp for a nap. The rest of us went to the pond. While at the pond we found some salamanders.

We had a great time just sitting around watching the kids play. After a while everyone but us went back to get lunch. I stayed and talked to the kids and just messed around. It was such a wonderful moment for me. I love being a mom and love having time to tell my kids about life! Finally we decided to take the long way home and, on the way home, we ran into Daniel who came to find us. We talked and sang songs and just enjoyed each other. We took some great pictures on the walk back to camp.


Saturday night, I was in charge of dinner, we made tin foil dinners. I told each family to make their dinner into their own tin foil animal so the dinners would not get mixed up in the fire. We were the rabbit family. The only problem with that was that Chlover did not want to give her rabbit up. After dinner, we ate 2 frozen pies. My dad told me exactly how to cook them so they would not burn or still be frozen. It took a little extra work, but the pies turned out PERFECT. Daniel said one of the other dads said, "I have never seen pies cooked that way before!" Well, you can bet I felt pretty prideful about my pies!

This is Fiona Carmack and Lula, some people in our ward say they look similar. I see the resemblance.

Cute, but blurry!

As a side note, when we got home from camping, Daniel showed the kids youtube videos about World War II. Sam, of course, was interested in the bomber planes. Then some how they found a lego picture of a bomber plane. For the next 2 days Sam was working on creating The Perfect bomber plane. He did a really good job. Sam will sit on the table and search for the perfect piece. And now look at how great his plane is!

boring

The kids are always saying the funniest things and I never write them down. I will try to do better.

So before Daniel left for his Sunday morning meetings he got all excited and told the kids to come get a map he drew of our house and that they should go find a treasure using the map he drew. The kids were all excited. They started off to the bedroom and brought back some random toy and said, "Is this the treasure!?!" Daniel told them they were holding the map wrong and that was not the treasure. Then less than 30 seconds later Olivia walks up to us holding a Book of Mormon and says, "Is this the treasure?" Daniel gave a great big smile and said, "YES, you found the TREASURE woohooo!" By now Sam is standing behind Olivia and Olivia says, "BhhoooRING," hands Daniel the Book of Mormon and they both walk off.

I looked at Daniel and we busted out laughing. If you could have heard how she said boring you would have died laughing too. I guess what makes it even more funny is that Bob has been planning this awesome treasure hunt for a year and this great devotional about how the scriptures are like treasure and in them can we find true joy......blah blah blah!! I am sorry that is disrespectful, it is just the way she said "Boring" and her body language was so funny. Oh you don't get it, do you!

p.s. If you noticed I referred to Bob. That is a nickname I gave Daniel when we were dating and I still love it.

Trash day

Every Tuesday Morning we have trash and recycling pick up. Pick up time is anywhere from 8am-11:30am. Daniel and I know we should put out our cans the night before, but I forget sometimes and Daniel has indoor soccer at the church. So we usually end up running out to the curb in our jammies to get the cans put out before the truck reaches our house. This morning was no different. We heard the garbage truck down the street so Daniel scrambled to find his flip flops and he ran to get the garbage.

What was different about this morning was that Olivia was interested in watching the garbage truck come get our trash. While I lay in bed finishing my scripture study I heard Olivia in front of our house so I yelled to Daniel to make sure she was off the street and on the grass where it was safer. To my surprise Olivia could hear me. (which tells you how thin our windows are-I hear every car that passes) So I looked out the window to see if she really was on the street where I thought she was. This is the moment I knew today was going to be a good day!

Daniel was standing by the gate my dad put in our front patio, holding Lula with Chloë and Sam standing next to him. Then I watch Sam lean into the gate and call out to Olivia to remind her to stay on the grass where she will be safe. My heart was full of Joy. I loved seeing Daniel hold Lula with Chloë close by and I loved hearing Sam's concerned voice for his sister.

There have been many moments similar to this. I need to be better at recording them. I love my kids and I know they love each other. Let's just hope we can make through middle school!

Spring Sing

Olivia's first grade

Father's day campout

Daniel did not take the camera to the Father-Son camput, but he said they had a great time. As soon as Sam came home he sat down and started working on his legos. He was not up for talking about the campout. He was pretty grumpy.

And this is Daniel right after the campout. While he was telling the girls about the night he feel asleep at the table.

Sutton Swim

I started Olivia in a swim class at the beginning of this school year. She has made a LOT of progress and is a great swimmer. This school focuses on the students stoke technique. Sam started around Halloween and quickly moved up a few levels. Now he has found his spot and is working on his leg kicks and breathing. Sam swims on the other side of the pool, so it is hard to get a good picture of him.
This was the best pictures of Olivia, but it is blurry because she is
always bobbing up and down with such enthusiasm.

I started Chloë in April, just so she won't be so dangerous around my mom's pool this summer. She can sit on the pool deck and hop into the water, turn around and swim back to the side and get herself out of the pool.
I think that is good.
This coach (fixing the boys goggles) is also Olivia's teacher, his name is Tony.

All my kids LOVE swim lessons. They have huge smiles on their faces for their entire class. Not this fake smile Chloë is showing us in the picture above!

Name them one by one

I have TONS of posts to enter, but I wanted to share a quick story about today.

Today was a good day for us...I went to Costco with all the kids at 4pm(bad idea??). They were angels. Olivia drove the cart, Sam followed or lead, and the 2 little girls sat buckled in the entire time we moseyed around Costco (almost 2 hours). Then Olivia and Sam picked up our dinner at the Costco "cafe" and we all walked to the car. No one argued about getting more lemonade to drink or who was going to give the receipt to the check out lady. Everyone sat in their car seats quickly and we listened to Fiddler on the Roof on the way home.

But my luck ran out once we reached home. The kids were yelling and crying. Somehow water spilled all over the floor, Olivia's shoe got wet and she slipped on the floor. Meanwhile I am putting the baby to bed and she is crying. Chloë was eating dinner even though I asked her to wait till we said the prayer.

So amid this loud chaos Daniel arrives home to a kitchen filled with our Costco purchases and crying kids. I was trying to put the baby to bed, but thought Daniel would like to do that so he could see Lula. So I asked him to come sing to the baby and finish putting her to sleep. So he comes into her room with me, looks into Lauren's eyes and starts singing...

"When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one. (yes, by now we are laughing...but keep singing) Are you ever burdened with a load of care? Count your many blessing angels will attend, help and comfort give you till your journeys end. Count your many blessings see what God hath done."

A lot has happened over the past 6 weeks, but we have so many blessings and we thank God for all the we have.

Mother's day at St. Tims

Sam walked in with his favorite buddy, James. They were so cute! It took them a while to stop holding hands.

The kids learned 3 songs to sing to us. Sam knows all the songs. I have heard him singing them at home.

Thanks Sam for the Mother's day wishes and kisses! I love you.

Olivia

Just a quick note about Olivia. I am always hearing such nice things about Olivia from her first grade teacher, which I love to hear, but today I got a nice compliment from a parent even though it was not intended to be a compliment.

There is a boy in Olivia's class who is autistic. He has very poor social skills to say the least. So his mom approached me today and asked if Olivia would like to have a playdate with him. She said the teacher recommended Olivia as a good classmate to play with the boy because she could handle her son's social level, be a good example of how children play together and still have fun(not get frustrated with him). Last year the district psychologist approached me because Olivia's kindergarten teacher said similar things about Olivia. She also wanted Olivia to be a mentor to a girl with mild autism.

I am very proud of Olivia. She must be representing us well. She already serves her friends just by being her.

Green Hudson by Martha Stewart

For our 10th anniversary Ann gave us a new set of dishes. I was looking forward to them because the wedding dishes we chose were blue and white. As a side note, when Daniel and I registered for our wedding gifts we still did not know each other very well. If I would have known how little he cared, I would have chosen more things on my own. It turns out he chose the blue and white dinner ware because it had the largest cereal bowl!! Anyway, a while ago I became tired of the blue dishes and put them way. Ann knew I was tired of the blue and thought it would be fun to get new dishes for our big anniversary. She loves dishes and has quite a collection of her own. Here are the plates we choose.

As I took the picture of our dinner setting I began to see how telling this picture is of our family at dinner time. I thought I would point out some small details to tell you more about us.
1. I like to serve dinner around 4:30pm. Sometimes Daniel is home and sometimes he isn't, but the kids are hungry by then and I like to get dinner over with.
2. The kids always like to sit by Lula and take care of her. Today she is sitting by Olivia on the end.
3. Daniel and I always sit together...me as far from the kids as possible!
4. Olivia and I really like to have a napkin. Daniel does not like to have a napkin(I gave Daniel a small napkin for the picture). Sam needs a napkin, otherwise he will use the front of his shirt.

5. All the kids, especially Lula like the small glasses for dinner...no plastic cups.
6. I started using a pitcher of water (today it is lemonade-it is VERY rare for us to not have water...we never drink milk or juice with dinner) because someone is always spilling their water and needs a refill.
7. At Ikea we bought these high chairs that the kids love.
8. Most of the time my salad dressing is olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
9. The kids are only given what I have made for dinner; I don't allow them to go make a pb and j if they don't like what I cooked. I like the kids to try different things, not just noodles. Usually there is something they will eat.
10. I like the dinner table to look nice. So, thank you, Ann, for the new set of dishes.

Happy 10 years

At 2pm...well 3:30pm (but that is a different story) Daniel and I became Husband and Wife April 21, 2000.
Happy anniversary Daniel. My mom sent us these beautiful flowers.
The green ball flowers are something that were in my wedding bouquet and are always fun to see again.

The other day I was riding home from dropping Sam off at preschool and I saw a lilac bush blooming. It reminded me how much I love lilacs and their smell. I was delighted to see lilacs in the bouquet my mom gave us.
Thanks mom.

Surfs Up!

Daniel had a great time learning to surf. He is ready to do it on his own!


For Bob's birthday I gave him surfing lessons.

surf