She's home!

She's home!

Soccer camp

Connor's week at soccer camp is over and he had a great time.


At the closing ceremonies receiving his award. He looks a little puzzled as to why...


...but in the end he was proud of being an "Outstanding Goalkeeper"!


The whole camp.

The Little Gym

Just because Madison doesn't get to go to camp this year doesn't mean she is missing out on anything. She and I just finished up a mommy and me class at The Little Gym which she LOVED!



Swinging.





Balancing, with a little help.





Playing with bubbles.


Even Connor got in on the action!




Here she is at the very end of class receiving her ribbon.

What's a Mom to do?

This morning I sent this one off to her first ever Girl's Camp.


This one is done with camp, but is still hangin' in Utah with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.


And, I send this one off to a half day soccer camp every morning.

What's a mom to do?


Looks like me and this little one will be spending a lot of quality time together!

Happy Father's Day

Shaun is REALLY hard to buy gifts for. He doesn't really want much, but what he does want he is VERY particular about. Plus, since I have no income of my own, anything I buy I have to use money that he has earned and I wonder, is that really a gift, spending his money on him? So I usually just don't buy him gifts and that in it self is a gift, not spending his money. He kind of went all out on Mother's Day this year so I felt like I should do something. Amanda and I put together a CD of some of his favorite songs and mostly just songs about being parents and kids. This is how it turned out. I don't know if he was thrilled, but at least I did something!


I typed out the play list in side and each of us signed the CD. We even left a spot for Sam to sign it when she gets home.


This is what we made in Nursery today for Father's day. It was a cute white shirt and necktie made out of paper with a Big Hunk candy bar in it. I let the nursery kids decorate with crayons and stickers. As you can see Madison won the award for most stickers!

My kids are so lucky that they have such a great dad and I feel lucky to have him for my husband!

I am also lucky to have a great dad myself and I hope he has a great Father's Day in Vienna!

Double digits

Today is Sam's 10th birthday. Double digits. That's a big one and she's not even here to celebrate it with us! This is a picture I took of her just last week at Disneyland and I figure it's a pretty good representation of the kind of girl she is. She's a very girly girl(hence the bling bling sunglasses), but is also my super sporty girl (notice the girls softball hoodie).


For your birthday Sam we went to the beach. We missed you , but still managed to have a good time!

Love you cute girl! Happy double digits birthday!

Sam is gone

Saturday Sam left to go to Utah for a couple of weeks...without me. She's a big girl and probably much more independent than her 12 year old sister, but that doesn't mean I won't miss her. I know she's going to have a great time. She gets to spend one week at a softball camp at BYU and then a week of doing whatever she wants! Even though I have four kids Sam is very much the middle child. Amanda is the oldest and gets to do EVERYTHING first. Connor is the boy, enough said, and Madison is the baby. Sam is just stuck there in the middle somewhere. She really thinks she should have been an only child, and for a couple of weeks she'll get to be. Have fun Sam, we'll miss you!

Polka Dot Party

Last night was Sam's 10th birthday Polka Dot Party. We had Polka dot purse invites, we polka dotted our walls, our front door and our ceiling. We made polka dot magnet crafts. We played polka dot games (Guess how many gumballs and Twister). We ate polka dot pizza(pepperoni) and had polka dot cupcakes. Then we sent home polka dot goodie bags with polka dot treats. By the end of the night I was definitely seeing spots! ( During the party Madison went through two polka dot outfits!)

But, the best part of the night was probably that Connor was not there. He has successfully transitioned from the "cute" baby brother, the the "annoying" little brother. He and Shaun and Shaun's dad went to our wards Father-Son camp out.

School is out!

Finally, school is out! We had a fun filled last week of school. Monday was Field Day for Sam and Connor.



Then on Wednesday night we attended and Academic Award ceremony for Amanda. She's a smarty pants!

It's officially summer now!

Fun with Grandparents

My kiddos are so lucky to have two great sets of grandparents and we've gotten to spend time with both of them this week. My dad came down to Laguna beach for a conference this weekend and so we went up there and spent the day with him and then brought him down to spend a couple of days at our casa. First thing on the itinerary in Laguna was to hit a Mexican restaurant. It was so yummy!




Then we played on the beach.


And in the water.


We walked around, most of us with our pants on, but not all of us.



The weather was beautiful, and we really had a great time!


The day after Grandpa Tom left we went up to Disneyland and met Grandpa Dell and Grandma Vicki there. We had a blast! Grandpa taught Madison how to scream on ALL the rides!


Quite a daring bunch, with their hands up on Heimlich the Caterpillar ride! Grandpa Dell was not quite so daring on SCREAMIN. I think he went on it for his first and last time ever!


The fam all in a ladybug.

Taste the Rainbow

Sam was supposed to take a treat to a party today, so we decided to make a family favorite, Skittle popcorn. Everyones favorite part is separating the Skittles. Don't worry, everyone washed their hands, ESPECIALLY Connor.


My big helper.


All done! It looks especially cute layered in cellophane bags to give away, or just all mixed together in a big bowl for a party!

Here's the recipe for anyone that's interested:

2-16 oz. bags Skittles-divided by color
1/2 cup butter for each color
1/4 cup light corn syrup for each color
12 cups popped popcorn for each color

Place on batch of popped popcorn into a very large, lightly greased bowl and set aside. In a saucepan, combine one color of Skittles, butter and corn syrup. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. (Skittles will melt close to the end of the 5 minutes.) Pour over popcorn and mix thoroughly with a large greased spoon. Place coated popcorn into a greased 9X13 or larger baking pan. Bake at 200-250 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Remove from pan and place on sheet of aluminum foil to cool. Repeat this process for each color. When all candy popcorn is cool, break apart and store in airtight container. Keeps well for up to two weeks in airtight containers.

Lewis and Clark and Cassie

Last night Sam was in a class play based on the exploration adventures of Lewis and Clark. It was a musical/comedy. I don't think it was originally intended to be a comedy, but non-musical fourth graders doing a musical led to comedy .She was Cassie, the narrator. (The same part her sister played two years ago. I've rehearsed those lines so much now, I could be Cassie!)



Here's a little taste of what you all missed.

A final bow, or kind of a curtsy in Sam's case.

Our Weekend

Friday night was our schools Country Fair. The most popular attraction is the cake walk. Sam wanted to make this Sandcastle cake to donate. It turned out cute, maybe a little crooked, but still cute.


Mads spent most of Country Fair going on this obstacle course and slide. They finally quit making me pay tickets and just let her go, over and over and over again.


On Saturday Connor had his end of the season party for t-ball where he received his trophy. Made his day! Sorry about the shirtless pic, it's really hard to catch this boy with all his clothes on!