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!)

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!

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!

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.

Seymore Family

Ever since I saw this picture I've wanted to take photos in a cotton field.  Dreamy right?!!  This photo shoot was a wish come true and I'm really pleased with how they turned out.  I've taken pictures of the Seymore family every year and they are such a photogenic little family.

five senses

The other day we had some rain and the girls begged to play in it.  Pure joy.

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seeing
The temple lights.  Every year.

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hearing
Pandora holiday music.  Michael Buble Holiday, Indigo Holiday,  and Mindy Gledhill Holiday.  Do you have any favorites this time of year?

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tasting
Lots of soups.  This one is a good one.  I've made about 6 soup recipes from this site and they're all delicious.

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touching
Little Rupert as much as possible.  He's been sucking his thumb every day now.

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smelling
The goji berry candle.  It was my birthday present to myself.  Smells divine.

five senses inspiration

Rupert's blessing day

Today was Rupert's baby blessing.  He is now 10 weeks old and such a wise little soul.  In the circle we were blessed to have Bishop Dan Speakman, President Broc Hiatt (the Stake President), Dad, Chris, James, Garrett, Ammon, Riley Weber, and of course Andrew.  Peter and DJ arrived a minute too late so they missed out.

Andrew gave him a beautiful blessing.  Rupert is loved by Heavenly Father.  He will be strong physically, mentally, and spiritually.  This will help him when he serves his mission.  His family and friends will help him accomplish his goals that will not only bless his life, but those around him.  Those are some of the things I remember being said.

I bore my testimony about how it takes a village to raise a child and my ward and family are my village.  I couldn't raise my children without my support system.  I'm also grateful that Andrew took me to the temple to be sealed for all eternity so my children could be born in the covenant.  My heart is full today.

Andrew snapped these two photos right before church and I'm so glad he did because the blessing outfit was in the wash halfway during church.  Well, it was there when we needed it.  Love this little boy of mine!