Busy

I'm sad I haven't kept up with the blog for my own records.  I just have to remind myself that I've been really busy with several important people.  :) 
 

October

Another month in review.  Here we go...

As our kids get older, I can't believe how busy we always are.  Sometimes important things happen at the same time.  This happened early in October when Becca had her first choir concert and Breanna was inducted into National Elementary Honor Society.  We are so proud of them both.  Here is Breanna with....a princess?  No, that's cousin Emily, who was also inducted into NEHS.  (No picture of Becca's concert.)

Richard and I went up to Utah for a mission reunion.  It was a great trip.  Richard really enjoyed his reunion of the California San Fernando Mission under President Snow.  He is now the Church Historian, and brought lots of neat artifacts from church history.  President and Sis. Snow were so great to talk with, and said such nice things about Richard.  I'm a lucky girl!

He had a great time visiting with some old companions, Muggleston and Freeman.

We were able to get tickets to General Conference and happened to be at the same session with my brother Steve (from Maryland).  Very fun to meet him and Rob (Steve's son) for dinner.

We had October break and I think we had some sickness or something.  (That always seems to happen when we have a week off of school.)  We did manage to go on a hike or two in October.  As you might guess from Katie's expression, not every member of our family enjoys hiking.  Mario did great though.  :)

The City of Mesa had a cool evening where there were tons of fun free rides and city vehicles to see.  The pony rides were a highlight of the night.  But Jonny loved to see all the cool trucks, motorcycles, and helicopters.

The older girls had a piano recital at the mall.  They did a great job, as always.  (This was one of the 4 or 5 times BEFORE Halloween that we had to wear costumes.  I was so tired of Halloween before the 31st even got here.)

So...Halloween.  Fun stuff.  Lots of parties.  Eh, whatever.

Spiderman aka Jonathan

Cutie Megan the ladybug

Freaky Katie

Afro-circus Breanna

Pretty witchy (but not in attitude) Becca

And of course, Batman and Catwoman.  ;) 

     

September

There is too much.  Let me sum up.
So....
The kids started school back in August.  :)
Rebecca is in 7th grade.  She is loving her new school and the many classes she gets to take, especially dance, choir, and band.  We are all happy that she doesn't have school on Fridays!  YAY!

Katie is loving 1st grade.  She has beautiful handwriting and loves to read.

Breanna is growing up so fast!  She is now in 5th grade and loves her fun teacher.  Breanna also started band this year and is following in Becca's footsteps, playing the flute.  They have band on different days, so we haven't had to buy a second flute yet.  ;)

Jonny started school this year too!  Preschool!  Here he is in the hot car ride there.

He is so happy that cousin Bella goes to school with him.

Megan graduated from her crib.  She had been crawling out for a few months and it was pointless to keep the crib.  So this picture represents all of my babies who slept in the same crib.  Kind of a sad day for me to give that crib away.  But it is time to move on to a new chapter of life....

Labor Day party!  This shot shows the great setup we had in our backyard all summer.  The kids really enjoyed the big pool and Jonny and Megan were more comfortable in the little pool.   The shade was great too.

I had to include this one, because Megan is so cute in her little swimsuit and it is awesome that she's eating with 2 forks!  She certainly keeps us busy!

Birthdays!  Richard spoiled me and gave me a "make-up' birthday breakfast in bed.  Awesome!

Then it was his turn for his real birthday! He enjoyed a relaxing day off work and then we all enjoyed going to see Madagascar 3.  I still have that afro-circus song stuck in my head.

Jonny started soccer.  We were really lucky to have a wonderful coach and team for our first sports experience.  Jonny loved to play, but was easily distracted.  The Blue Sharks won every game they played (if they kept score, that is).  It was a lot of fun for us!

I don't know if I have mentioned on this blog, but I am the primary music leader in our ward.  I love it!  We had our  Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation in September, and that meant lots of practice before it.  It turned out wonderfully and I really felt the testimonies of these young children through their singing. 

The last birthday of the month was Rebecca.  She is a true teenager now - 13! She loved her breakfast in bed.

She had a few friends from her new school over for a party.  They made their own TV news show.  It was pretty funny and I loved to hear all the giggling.  

We surprised Becca at the end of her party with a new addition to our family.  Mario (the dog)!  I didn't take a picture of Becca and the dog for some reason, but here is Jonny with him.  Jonny calls Mario his best friend.  We are so blessed to have such a great dog.  Our friends, Josh and Ellen, had their hands full and needed to find him a new home.  They have trained him so well and we love him!

 

Summer in a Nutshell

For some reason, I was under the delusion that I would be less busy during summer and could get so much stuff done.  Boy, was I wrong!  This past summer was crazy!  There is just too much to catch up on so here are some of the bigger highlights.
The three older girls had their annual dance recital.  This year it was "Snow White."  Rebecca and Breanna were jesters and did an awesome tumbling routine, while Katie was the cutest little squirrel.

We made an unexpected trip to Utah in June for the funeral of Richard's grandpa.  What a wonderful man he was!  It was wonderful to be with so much family and make lots of new memories.  (Some memories I could do without, such as lots of car problems, but we made it!)  Here is Richard's parents' family (well, as many as could be there...probably about 65%.)  So fun to have so many of us together.  We hope to get them all together next year for a happier occasion.

Another fun "reunion" was an impromptu get-together of some friends from high school.  It was so fun to see all these wonderful people and laugh together.

And we have multiplied.  We made all our children line up next to each other by age.  Crazy!  How did we grow up so fast?!?!

Uncle Steve came for a quick visit.  The kids had a great time with him in the pool.

Rebecca and Breanna participated in a 6-week Fit Kids Camp.  Four days a week for 4.5 hours each day, they would spend exercising, such as dodgeball, swimming, dancing, etc.  The best part was the field trips each week to places like Polar Ice, Laser Quest, and Sunsplash.  They had a blast!

In July we went on a family camp-out with a few of Richard's siblings.  Despite the heavy rain, sunburns, bugs, and poison oak we really had a good time.

Richard and Mike made a great shelter to hang out during the storms.

A double rainbow ended the camp-out.  What does it mean?!?!

During the month of June, Katie and Breanna got to go to "Bug School" 4 days a week, all morning.  There they learned all about bugs and did lots of fun crafts.  The best part of it was the price...FREE!  And they were fed breakfast and lunch.  As my dad would say, "Can't beat that with a stick!"

 

Richard and I celebrated our 15th anniversary, and what better way than to going to a Batman marathon. I love my husband so much that I will even wear a  cat mask in public for him. We actually got a couple nights away from the kids, and that was wonderful!

We went to visit my Dad and Kay in July.  We love going to California.  The weather was wonderful!  This picture was on my birthday when we went to Ruby's on the pier for milkshakes.  

We spent most of a day at the beach.  Richard and the kids built this awesome sand fort.  It actually got bigger/deeper, and all the junior lifeguards were very impressed.  But when at the beach all day, you really ought to apply sunscreen more than once.  Ouch.  Lesson learned.

We also took the kids to Magic Mountain.  The girls were very brave and went on lots of huge roller coasters!  *So proud.*  Even Katie went on Revolution!  Jonny wasn't quite tall enough, but he wanted to go on the big rides.  We were actually so thankful that we had Megan so we qualified for a line pass.  We waited, but not in lines!  Awesome!  

The weekend before school started, Becca went to her first year of Girls' Camp.  She had a great time and came home with a stronger testimony.  She is really growing up!

 

Hope you had a good summer too!

End of School Year Craziness!

Another school year has flown by!  And the last month of school is always the craziest/busiest of them all.  Lots of fun though.  If I was a better blogger I would have written a whole post of each event, but...I'm not.  So there.  ;)  Instead, I'll just highlight some of the bigger events.
The older two girls were involved with the school choir concert.  They love to sing.  Our school doesn't have a regular choir program, so this was the first time my girls have had an opportunity to be in a school choir.  They each had a couple of moments in the spotlight, so to speak.  Breanna had a speaking part and Becca put together a slideshow for one song and played the drums in another.  I'm sure choir concerts will be regular occurrences in our future.  Can you pick them out of the crowd?

Projects and more projects.  The last half of the year is full of them.  Here is Breanna on her pioneer day, holding her book report on Number the Stars.

Band concert.  I will refrain from stating my opinion on what a goofball the band teacher is, although he didn't even conduct the band once during the concert.  Oh wait...I just did.  Anyway, I'm still quite annoyed with him, so I will just say that Becca played the flute really well.  :)

Rebecca was also on a team, with good friends Cassie and Andrew, for Battle of the Books.  They won at the school level and went on to compete in the District Finals.  They did great!  (Can't locate my picture of that right now.)
TALENT SHOW!  This is always so fun for the kids.  This is our kids' 3rd talent show to participate in a small group with their cousins, Emily and Kacy.  The song was called "Chocolate" and they used lots of props.  It was a little stressful getting things ready and practicing, but they did great and they were a big hit!

Katie's kindergarten class did an act too.  She can twist, mash potato, and shake it with the best of them!  Too cute!

Breanna's class did an act to "Rockin' Robin."  With gloves like that, you know it was good.  :)

The sixth graders did a farewell act too, but the lighting was bad so no picture.  They changed the lyrics and sang to the tune of "Moves Like Jagger."  Sixth graders have to be cool like that.
 Awards assembly.  So proud of Rebecca and Breanna.  They are very good students.  Do you see the stack of certificates Becca is holding? :)

 Last day of school is so hard.  Lots of tears were shed.  This was Rebecca's last day at Falcon Hill.  She will be attending a charter school in the fall and none of her classmates will be at the same school.  She will still see friends at church but it isn't quite the same.

Breanna is lucky to have two really close friends, and one is even her cousin.  She had so much fun this year.

Katie loved her whole class.  I love that they can have so many "best" friends in kindergarten.

We had two graduates this year.  Rebecca graduated from elementary school.  Can't believe it!  She is growing up way too fast.  I am so proud of her and the young woman she is becoming.

Katie graduated from kindergarten.  Wow!  (They didn't really have a ceremony, just took a picture and sent it home on the last day.  Feel kinda gypped, actually.)  She is reading so well. Her teacher gave her a few Junie B. Jones books and she finished them in a couple of days.  She is a sponge.

I'm so proud of all our children.

But I'm so glad May is over!  Whew!