Jileigh's 15th birthday party with her friends

This is Jileigh's birthday party with her friends. They ate turkey sandwiches on homemade rolls, dyed eggs and just hung out. I had to take off for about an hour to go to Zumba and left them, but they were all fine when I got back!



Elody, Katie, Angelique, Sara, Mercy, Safia, Taylor, Jaren, Shyanne, Jileigh, Beau, Makenna, T

Chicks again!

I can't believe we are doing this again!!! I figure my hens will probably only have one more good laying summer, so we picked up 20 baby chicks this morning. Right now they are in my bathroom until we get the chick habitat from our friends with their water and food feeders.

It's hard to keep my Elody from climbing in there with them!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I celebrated the 10th anniversary of my 29th birthday!

This morning my little Beau came into my bed snuggled with me. Nothin' like snugglin' with my favorite person!

The day was a regular day with regular chores.

For dinner tonight we made egg rolls, which was my choice. They are a lot of work, but they are really good and we had an assembly line making them so it wasn't so bad.

Tonight I did my favorite thing in the whole world, I went to Zumba! My instructor and dear friend Pam had to work tonight, so she asked me and another friend Jen to lead for the first 30-40 minutes until she could get there. I created a playlist of her zumba songs which made it go over smoothly. It was a lot of fun and I think I get a better workout when I lead because I am just exhausted by the end!

Good night all!

My sweet Little Beau

Not every or even many 4 year old kids have an innate ability to be kind and considerate. My little Beau emanates amazing Christ-like characteristics that he astounds us on a regular basis.

Tonight the kids and Matt wanted grilled hot dogs for dinner. (I get the turkey hot dogs with no nitrates or nitrites.) Since there are only 16 in two packages and we would need 18 to feed our family, I offered to not have any and I bought me a steak. Darn. :) Matt left to a meeting. I grilled their hot dogs first and set them to eating and then I grilled up my steak. (FYI: I did share a strip each with Jileigh and Matt.) Anyway, I just figured they would know to save some for their Dad. When I finally made it back to the table, there was only 1/2 a hot dog left and kids were off playing. I was in a panic. I yelled out to the kids, "who had 3 hot dogs and didn't leave any for DAD?!" Of course I didn't really get an answer and was a bit upset. Then my sweet little Beau comes in and tells me that he, on his own, took two hot dogs, put them in a bag, and put them in the frig for Dad so he would have some when he got home and then he showed me where they were. I knelt down and gave him a big hug and kiss for being so considerate and thoughtful. We are so blessed to have this little boy in our family.

Blue Angels

Saturday, March 17th we took the kids to see the Air Show Starring The Blue Angels. It was pretty awesome. We didn't going into the airport area. We went up on the nearby mountain. It was actually a great place because the Blue Angels would fly all around and we could see it all. It was a windy day, so we mostly just watched from inside our car.

Afterwards was David and Julie's reception. Dave is Matt's 1st cousin who is 42 and finally found his bride,who is 31.

My awesome swimming niece Breeja - AMAZING!!!

Here's the link to watch it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvE2u9D-36c

Marni and Kjell are in the bottom left hand corner. Kjell's sister, Hollie, is the one holding the "GO AGGIES' sign.
This is Breeja being HUGGED by her team mates. So so sweet!
This is Breeja being interviewed right after her race.

BREEJA BROKE THE US RECORD FOR 100 BREASTSTROKE!!! With a 57.71!!!

Tonight Breeja raced and won the 100 breaststroke race breaking the US record at the NCAA finals. She is Marni's 2nd daughter! Marni and Kjell got to go to the race and watch her. Last week she broke the NCAA record. She swims for Texas A&M. It was pretty awesome to watch! Hopefully soon the replays will be posted and I can link them.

I sent Marni a text after the race was finished and said, "Awesome!!!" and she replied, "I'm shaking." I bet she was!!

(I got all these pictures from the Texas A&M swimming and diving facebook page.)

Found this article at www.swimmingworldmagazine.com in Lane 9 News Archive: NCAA "AUBURN, Alabama, March 16. WITH dreams of breaking Tara Kirk's American and U.S. Open record filling her days and nights all year long, Texas A&M's Breeja Larson finally broke through with a sterling time in the 100 breast at the NCAA Division I Women's Championships.

Larson blasted a time of 57.71, after taking the swim out in 27.12. That swim clipped Tara Kirk's American and U.S. Open record of 57.77 set for Stanford in 2006. Larson is also the first person to post a pair of sub-58 swims, as she bested her NCAA record of 57.92 from Big 12 prelims last month. The win gave Texas A&M just its third NCAA titlist of all time, joining Alia Atkinson and Julia Wilkinson as Aggie victors.

"

http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/College/30004.asp?q=NCAA-Division-I-Women%27s-Swimming-and-Diving-Championships%3A-Texas-A&M%27s-Breeja-Larson-Clips-American%2C-U.S.-Open%2C-NCAA-Record-in-100-Breast

Her goal is to go to the 2012 Olympics!

Here's the link again to watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvE2u9D-36c

Jaren's 9th Birthday

We are in our Spring Break. Wednesday, March 14th was Jaren's birthday! It the afternoon we went to the park to play with Candy and kids. Then that evening, after dinner which was his absolute favorite baked ziti and oven roasted cauliflower, they came over and had dessert with us and to sing Happy Birthday to him. We made a baked custard. It was still too warm to put the candles in, so Angelique and Colton just held them for Jaren to blow them out. The custard was really good and that is what he asked for. Jaren is my happy smart sweet boy.

Jileigh's art

Last Sunday was our stake conference. Matt took the kids alone since I was traveling home at that time. They took paper and art supplies. Jileigh drew this beautiful SunMoon she calls it.

Boys Hair Cuts Finally!

My boys traded their winter mops for springtime buzzes. They were well overdue! Jaren wanted to wait until after crazy hair day and so we did. Talon had his cut just about a month ago, so there wasn't much change for him. Beau's is the light blond pile and Jaren's is the big pile!

Princess Twinkle Toes

Elody is my little princess! Marni's youngest daughter grew out of the little slippers and wanted to give them to Elody!

Sneaky Purchase while I was gone

While I am sitting at the luncheon, Matt calls me from Costco and tells me that he is buying a playset. He's been talking about it for a while, but I kept telling him NO. This day, there was an in-store $200 OFF and we also had our AmEx rebate check. So, he called to tell me that he was buying it, not taking NO for an answer. He spent the next 2 1/2 days putting it together. The kids have LOVED IT! They took out a bunch of toys out there and played to their hearts' content. Today I finally made them bring all the stuff back inside. It's suppose to rain this weekend. It's been a nice place for them to play with friends OUTSIDE!

Day 3 of me being gone - PJ day

Friday, March 9th was PJ day at the elementary school. Matt had the day off and stayed home since he work the previous Saturday. He got the kids ready, took their picture and sent them off on their bikes. A minutes later, Beau came out and said he wanted to take his and Elody's picture with them too. He was so disappointed that he missed them, that Matt put them in the truck and caught the kids half way to school. He then took a picture of the 5 of them together. It totally made Beau's day!

Meanwhile, Friday for lunch my mom took me to the little Greek restaurant and we both got a gyro. It's been a long time since I've had one of those. I really enjoyed getting to spend some time with my mom and my sisters and my sister's kids over the weekend.

Day 2 of my being gone - At Home

Thursday, March 8th was crazy hair day for my kids. Angelique did the kids hair since I was gone. I forgot to ask anyone at home to take the kids' pictures and I was devastated! So emailed the kids' teachers and told them I was out of town and didn't get to take the kids' pictures. So Jaren's teacher, bless her heart, took Jaren's and then went to Angelique's and then Safia's classes and pulled them out and took their pictures and emailed them all to me!!! I was very thankful for her thoughtfulness.