Monday, November 2, 2015

Rupert turned ONE!!

Rupert is already 13 months now but I wanted to share his first birthday! I think he had a good time! :) We took him to Joes Farmgrill where he enjoyed some pancakes and to Oregano's where we sang to him and shared some pazzokie. First birthdays are funny because Rupert won't really remember what happened but we still wanted to celebrate his day and make it fun for the kids.
Every month I took a picture of him and posted it on Instagram. Sort of wish I did this with all the kids! Babies grow so much that first year, so it's been great seeing that! So far the first year is my favorite age. Rupert is such a mama's boy most of the time, he has a very contagious smile, has 8 teeth, and was my earliest walker.
We really couldn't imagine life without him. Happy birthday Rupert Francis! We love you!!

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Happy Halloween 2015

(^^ traditional doorway pic ^^)
This year has flown by just wanted to pop in to share our Halloween costumes.  Oldest to youngest: farmer, Pocahontas, Egyptian pharaoh, gypsy, Tiger Lily, cave man baby. Last night we went trick or treating in two neighborhoods and went to a friend's house who had a fire going and Andrew took the older two to a Haunted House down an alley in the neighborhood. The weekend wore us all out but we had a good time!
Really looking forward to a new month. I love November! It means thanksgiving and my birthday are right around the corner. This year I turn 30! Good this happening for sure!

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Mexico vacation 2015

Last weekend we went with friends and family to Mexico for our first time. It was a dream vacation! The kids entertained themselves and the weather was perfect and it was so beautiful!
We need to take our family to the beach more often! It was s great way to start our summer break. Now that we're home and have all summer ahead of us I've been trying to give the kids something to look forward to every day.

Last week Elliot and Avery did science camp while Zara did girls camp at Sara's and this week Zara starts swim lessons and Avery starts ballet at a new studio. Elliot will also be taking hip hop and tumbling. Can't wait to see his new moves!
Earlier in the month I crashed our car so we bought a new van. We also bought a car from the Mannings so we have two cars again. Yay!!!!! Chris and Kristy moved to Missouri last week and we are so proud of them! Hopefully we can visit them soon! 

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Avery's fairy party

My baby girl turned six! She wanted a fairy party and blueberry cake.
This was our first party with only girls which allowed us to be totally feminine. Each girl wore pink lipstick, a flower crown, and had fairy wings and wands. 
The girls painted fairy houses, had their faces painted by Julie and played Don't Eat Pete with M&Ms. I asked Avery her favorite part and she said it was opening her presents. She also like her cake and wings.
So glad we had this fun party for her!

(This is my first blog post from my phone. Hope it works!)

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

March summary

Last night for Family Home Evening we talked about our family tree.  We only went up a couple generations and the kids loved remembering everyone's names.  We talked about how we have temple work to do for Andrew's side of the family.  Last month Andrew took his first family name to the temple for an endowment session with the ward council.  I'm so proud of him for getting it started.  We love our family and want to get to know them better and be with them for eternity.  It was a good lesson.

The month of March was an expensive one.  Mostly good things!  We finally got a MAC desktop computer!  I'm using it now, in fact.  Still getting used to it.  We also replaced my broken phone with and iPhone6.  It's amazing how good it is compared to my last.  And, for once, I'm on top of technology! Ha ha!  We also got our AC unit repaired, but who wants to know about that?!

In other news Rupert developed exzema - new to me.  Mostly just on his face but i finally found a cream that is helping. We also went to the Easter Pageant last week and got to see our family in it.  This year Mom is still helping back stage, Dad is the High Priest with the rams horn for the second time, Ruth and Elmina are in the crowd, and Ammon is the Sadducee that says "Master, rebuke thy desciples".  He nailed it!  At the beginning of the month our brother-in-law in England, Richard Smith, had a 16 hour surgery removing a brain tumor.  I know!  He's only 25 too!  It was a big one and they had to leave part of it in but it's not cancerous and he's healing well.  He was discharged a week and a half ago and Claire, Andrew's sister, is due with their first baby on Friday.  A lot of prayers have been sent there way!  We can't wait to see this little baby.  A surprise gender, just like Zara was for us!  We also had spring break where we did something fun every day.  Sara had her birthday get together at the park, we had our first annual family whiffle ball bbq, I took the kids to see Cinderella and Rupert behaved.  Rupert also turned 6 months old and is crawling all over!

This all has really been a journal entry so thanks for bearing with me!  I haven't been much of a journal writer for a few years now (I used to be so great in my teen years!) but then again, I do have 4 children now.  There's always instagram though!  My next goal is to set up my favorite RadLab presets onto the new computer and start editing my photos from our England trip last summer and eventually post them here.  Fingers crossed it'll get done soon!

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Zara turned THREE!

Zara is turned three on Tuesday!  We had her birthday party today at the park along with our friends the Weber's son Sterling's 6th birthday party. The double party wasn't intentional at first and then we thought it'd be fun and we all had a good time.  Zara has always been a ray of sunshine.  She was such a comfort to me when she was born and I'll always be proud of her natural delivery.  She is quick to smile, always talks in a loud voice, and knows what she wants.  I just don't always understand what she's saying.
Top left \\ I made her two lamb cakes.  For her birthday it was a white cake with butter cream frosting and for the party it was lemon cake with a homemade lemon meringue and lemon cream cheese frosting.  Yum!  Her favorite part was blowing out the candles.

Top right \\ Our surprise gender baby!  I really can't imagine life without our Zara girl!

Bottom left \\ Four generations!!  Lita passed away the year before Rupert was born so Zara was the last of my babies Lita got to hold.  I'm not sure I even have four generation pictures with Elliot and Avery either so I really cherish this picture.

Bottom right \\ Took the girls and Rupert out to Oreganos for Zara's birthday lunch and had pizza and pazookie.  Zara liked the pizza best and Avery and I preferred the dessert.  No surprise there!

Saturday, January 31, 2015

New Year's Day 2015

I didn't want another month to go by without posting something sharing something here.  This is how we spent the first day of the year!  In snow!!  Normally we go on a hike but this opportunity was too good to pass.  The snow in the desert on the way to Pine was just stunning!  Look at those snowy saguaros.  Just beautiful. 
^ ^ Just after making snow angels. ^ ^
^ ^  Even Rupert enjoyed the snow.  Zara stayed in the car most of the time. ^ ^
^ ^  Yep.  First sled ride.  It only lasted about five seconds but that was enough for my heart. ^ ^
One of my goals for 2015 is self mastery.  It's an ongoing thing but one specific goal I had for the month of January was to complete the whole30 challenge.  You can learn more about it here.  After all the junk I ate over the holidays this was a natural choice to help me eat more healthy.  Yesterday was my last day and it was great!  I found some new recipes, learned how much I love almond butter, ate lots of veggies and lost a few pounds.  For February I want to focus on going to bed earlier and waking up earlier and working out more.