Memorial Day

It's always nice that Kevin has holidays off so we can be together. We went and saw my grandparents graves on Memorial day. It is a nice tradition to do that. It was fun that we had my parents with us for one more year. Its going to be sad next year when we don't get to do stuff like this with them.

As I'm sure you can tell we are not a selfie taking family.  We tried hard to get everyone in the picture but we just couldn't do it. This was the only one with Annie's face in it, sort of. So I have a funny face going on. Oh well.

Stuff

 We got Clara this new shirt and she loves to wear it, she calls it her sunshine shirt.

 Russ is the best big brother to Clara. He loves her so much, he is always so sweet to her.  I honestly cant remember a time when he was mean to her!

 we may have overfilled this bath a bit. Haha!

 They both wanted this swing so they shared, I'm not quite sure how they felt about it.

 I decided to try and grow Clara's bangs out. I think she is so cute with bangs, but I know she probably will want to be without them when she gets older so I thought I would just do it now instead of waiting like we did with Nellie and then it was way harder.  I think it is going to be cute.

 I tried to take a picture to demonstrate how Russell  is my worst kid at creating dirty clothes, but its really hard to tell in these pictures.  He really does have twice the amount of clothes to fold when I do laundry. It drives me nuts!  Shouldn't my one boy be better than the girls!?

Lunch with Liz

A couple times a year, Lizzy's school holds a family picnic where we get to go on campus and eat with our student. The spring one got delayed because of weather and then the new time Kevy had a work lunch he needed to go to, so it was just Lizzy and me and the little girls, I asked Annie if she wanted to go late to Miss Patty's Place or if she wanted to miss the picnic, and she didn't want to miss any of her school so it ended up being just Clara and me. We went and got Lizzy Panda Express because that is is her favorite and I got Lizzy a big Dr. Pepper to go with her lunch.  Clara just had to have some and against my better judgement I gave her the drink in the car. She of course started sucking it down and when I asked her to hand it back to me she dropped it and the lid came off and it spilled all over the car. Then we had a hard time finding a spot to park. We ended up being late, ugh! It took some time to find Lizzy too!.

 It all ended up working out okay and we had a good time together.  Clara always loves being with her best friend. haha!

Baseball With Grandpa

Its been a bit of a sad year knowing we are counting down the time that we have left to be with my parents. We have been so blessed these past 7 years that they have been out here with us.  Since Grandpa is retiring in August and then they are moving to Utah we thought it might be the last time that we could go to a Dodger game with my dad.  They were playing in San Francisco in May and them not again until September, so this was it. Kevin went online and found some tickets for pretty close, (by our standards) and got them for himself and Russ and my Dad. I will admit I was a little jealous, but there just wasn't a way for me to go too. They were all so excited the morning of the game.  Kevin took the day off work and my Dad had train vouchers so they were able to ride the train down and then BART to San Francisco. 

 Russ thought the train was pretty dang cool and even more so when he won a free cookie and Pepsi.  This boy sure gets spoiled. But since he is such a good boy its hard not to do sometimes.

 It was all so meant to be because Kershaw just happen to be pitching the game they went to.  They were so lucky!  And it ended up being a great game!  Russell had a bit of a hard time.  He loves the dodgers but in a little 5-year-old boy way and so he has no patience to actually watch the game. 

 Kevin left watching the game for a while to take Russ to the slide and around the ballpark but I told him he spent too much on the tickets to miss the game and Russ was just going to have to tough it out. So Kevin got him more treats and he made it through the rest of the game.

 It's a good thing that he didn't get a sick stomach from all the junk he ate that day! 

I'm so glad that they got to have this special memory with my Dad.  I love those three guys so much!

Mother's Day

 I wanted to be a mom every since I could remember.  From the time I was in preschool I would fantasize about being a mom.  And then as I got older I would worry so much about not being able to have kids.  I just wanted to get married and have kids.  Now here I am. I have these 6 amazing kids and and amazing husband. I have everything that I always dreamed of when I was a kid.  Of course as a kid I had really  no idea about how absolutely soul crushing difficult it can be to be a mom. It takes absolutely everything out of me most days. And yet I wouldn't change a thing.  It may be the hardest thing I have ever done but it is also the most incredible thing too. I am so very grateful that Heavenly Father blessed me with all of these beautiful souls to care for. I continually hope and pray that I am doing a good enough job and not totally screwing them up.

 My cute little Annie girl had her special Mother's Day Tea, and I got to go and see her perform the cutest little songs ever.  I am seriously going to be so sad when all my kids are past the age of the Mothers Day Teas, and I don't get to go anymore and hear their sweet little voices sing me songs. I really look froward to their little gifts they make me and how they try so hard to please me. My heart! 

 

 Just look at these faces!  I am just the luckiest mom out there!!!

 I got to go to Russell's Mothers Day Tea as well and it was just so sweet to be with him.  He was really funny though because he sang the songs, but would NOT do any of the actions.  I don't know why, but at least he sang to me.

My Birthday

 It was really fun to have a day date with my honey for my birthday.  We went shopping and to lunch and thne to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2. It was the perfect day with my favorite person.  Honestly that is all I ever want for my birthdays is just to get to spend the day with Kevin. He makes me so happy and I just love every single second with him.

 The next day was my birthday and it fell on fast Sunday. Whenever my birthday is on a Sunday it is fast Sunday which honestly stinks. I struggle with fasting in the first place but on your birthday too, I want to just skip it, but then I feel guilty, so I do anyway. At least I had a really great dinner to look forward to. My mom made me yummy sour cream chicken and I made myself a birthday cake.

I had seen this cake on Pinterest that sounded really good and then I of course tweaked it. I was sick of never getting a cake on my birthday and since I wanted something specific I just decided to make it myself. I would have to say in my humble opinion that it was amazing!  It was a lemon cake(real lemon, I bought a white cake mix and added lemon juice, zest and a little extract to.) with raspberry filling,( homemade again)with buttercream frosting and toasted coconut on top. It may sound weird but it was SO good. In fact I  had my parents request it for their birthday cakes too!   It was a great birthday overall and I am so grateful for this life I have and another year to live!  I have so much to be grateful for!

Annie's Birthday Party.

 Birthday Parties used to stress me out more than I can say. I think the biggest problem was I was so worried about how it was going to be, I constantly compared myself to people that threw these super elaborate parties and I felt like mine were crappy and not good enough. And then as the years went on I realized that it didn't really matter. The kids didn't really care, especially the little ones. As long as they got some presents and got to have cake and friends over they were happy. So lately birthday parties have gotten a lot less stressful and more fun for me. They consist of going and buying some decorations for cheap that I can hang up, finding a little game that the kids can play, having a pinata and making some cupcakes, which is the one thing I am good at. Don't get me wrong, when they decide to forgo a party in favor of more money or just do an activity with a couple of friends I am all over it!   We had Annie's first birthday party and it was super fun.  She loved that she got to invite her church friends over and get lots of presents.

 She wanted a Shopkins party of course and we found a really cute Shopkins bingo game online that worked great!

 Then we had a pinata and since they were all just little girls we just did it in our family room.

 Annie was super thrilled with all the presents she got. It was so fun for her to have her very first party and see what it was like.

 

 

    I made some Shopkins cupcakes which I thought turned out pretty cute.

 It turned out great!  And I didn't even feel very stressed, so bonus! About an hour after the guests had left Annie puked. I didn't know what to do, should I tell the other moms, I thought it was maybe from eating a lot of junk , but she continued to throw up all night long. It sucked so bad, because the next day was the day I was looking forward to because Kevin was taking me our for my birthday for a  day date and I was so worried we wouldn't be able to go with him. But by morning she seemed to be doing better so it was only a 12 hour thing. And none of the other kids got sick so who knows what it was.