Cleaning Projects

(The only before and after pictures I took were of the boys room.) I was determined to make some progress on cleaning up our house and property. I spent about two solid weeks just cleaning up outside: front yard, back yard, side yards, and garage. I filled both of our dumpsters 3 times plus we took a load to the dump. Inside we went from room to room cleaning out and cleaning off. There is something about cleanliness and organization that brings me peace. :)

Elody's Birthday - 2 years old

My dear sweet 7th child is now two years old. She has definitely hit the terrible twos with a vengance! No really, she is a sweet, adorable child most of the time. Just sometimes, if she's hungry or tired or just simply wants her way, the irrational two year old in her comes out. We sure do enjoy her though. She really loves her mom and dad. She wants to always be with one of us, usually it's mom. When she is in a happy good mood, she plays really well with her brothers and sisters. I posted several random pictures of her that the other kids have taken of her, even though they aren't suppose to play with my camera. The red shoes are her favorite shoes to wear and pretty much the only shoes she would wear. Now they're getting to be too tight for her, so whe will wear other shoes now. The birthday cake is a large baked custard. That was our favorite way to use up eggs this past summer.

Finished Jileigh's New Bathroom

After months of hard work and a portion of our income tax return spent at Home Depot, we now have a working 3rd bathroom! It's off of Jileigh's room so it is considered the Girls Bathroom. Matt did all of the work himself, except for the rough-in plumbing, which our skilled brother-in-law plumber Jake did with Matt and Matt's brother Aaron helping. It turned out beautiful, only now the two original bathrooms look plain in comparison.

Our 15 year wedding anniversary

June 28th was our 15 year wedding anniversary. We really didn't have the money to go away on a vacation so we found an alternate plan. We sent the kids away to Matt's mom's house for a day, a night, and a day. We went to the Temple and went through a session and then did a bunch of sealings. Then we went to Benja's Thai food for dinner. The absolute best! Then we watched a DVD together. We finally had a night of uninterrupted sleep! The next day we went to see a movie and then made dinner together. This picture is of our dinner: Tilapia with squash and beets on chard from the garden with some Martinelli's on the side. Then Matt went back to get the kids while I went to Zumba! He is such a skilled, hard worker and sweetheart and I can't believe how lucky I am to be married to him.

Kids playing in the irrigation

Just for fun - a picture of my bread that I make weekly and my feet

Kid's concerts

Jileigh's end of the school year concert. Both Talon and Jileigh had the opportunity to sing in a small group for the solo part.





Talon's end of the school year concert





Safia's Kindergarten "End of the school year" Concert. I took a picture of Safia with her Teacher, Mrs. Reid and another one with her best friend Alyssa.






I forgot my camera at Angelique's end of the school year orchestra concert, but we enjoyed it all the same!

May 4th - Happy Birthday my little Beau!

My little Beau turned 4 years old. He is my greatest gift. He is the most Christ-like child I have ever met. It's all his own doing too. He just came that way to us. Every day I am so grateful, honored, and humbled to be his mother. I love him so dearly!

We had our own little family party on the day of his birthday and then an extended family party with Matt's family at the park on the 5th of May, or Cinco de Mayo. We had a potluck dinner of fresh Mex burritos. Jileigh had to make a cake for young womens from scratch and then decorate it. She did a very nice job.

Angelique's Science Fair project

For Angelique's final report for 4th grade, she had to have an entry for the science fair report. She did it on the effect that different sugars have on teeth and which one would start to show decay first. She used white sugar, Sierra Mist soda pop, evaporated cane juice, and raw honey. The teeth in the soda pop decayed first and then the teeth in the raw honey. Strangely, the honey turned to alcohol. The bacteria fed on the honey and turned it to alcohol. We thought that was very interesting. Anyway, she didn't win, but it was fun doing the project. Her friend Emily was right next to her, so I thought it would be fun to get a picture of them together!




In working with my camera trying how to take the pictures of the little teeth, I figured out how to do the close-up option. I took these close up pictures of the girls. I love how they turned out!