Girls Camp 2011

My two oldest girls got to both attend Girls Camp this year with our ward. Sam turned 12 just days before they left and was so excited for her first girls camp! Amanda is an old pro now, it was her third year going. They got to go up to Camp Buckhorn and they both had a great time!


Amanda repelling.

Camp skit.

This is the girls just hours after they returned home. Not quite as enthusiastic or energetic as they were when they left!

Father's Day 2011

This year for Father's Day Shaun happened to be substituting in Madison's Primary class. I went in to help them make a Father's Day gift for their dads. I was excited to do this since I had seen this idea last year just after I was released from Nursery so I didn't get to do it. I think they turned out so cute! I hope the daddies liked them!

Promotion

Amanda graduated from 8th grade this year and is moving on to High School. I can't believe I will have a High schooler! In fact this year I will have one child in High school, one in Middle school, one in Elementary school and one in Pre-school. Anyway...Amanda's promotion day was very fun! My parents got to be here for it which was very fun. They had gotten in to town the night before just in time to addend the Middle school awards ceremony and then got to come to Promotion the next day. Amanda's friend Rachel came over at 6:30 in the morning to do Amanda's hair for her and it turned out very cute! The ceremony was little long...over 400 names to call. 406 to be exact and Amanda was number 405! After they called her name my mom and I sprinted out of there to go over to Mads end of the year party at her preschool. So, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures from the day. Luckily one of her friends mom got this picture of Amanda with three of her good friends after the ceremony.
After the ceremony we hosted a post-promotion party for about 15 of Amanda's friends. It was really fun. There was a lot of swimming, a lot of Beatles Rock Band played and A LOT of cupcakes eaten! (Those girls ate 5 dozen cupcakes in a matter of three hours!)

Olympics

I have so many of the school year "things" I want to blog about. Unfortunately my camera broke/got lost. So I'm doing my best to find pictures that other people have taken. One of the biggest events for 6th graders at our school is the 6th grade Olympics. It is a two day event. I wasn't able to go because I had a field trip with Madison, but Shaun was able to get the day off to go cheer Sam on!
Sam was on the Netherlands. She competed in the mini-marathon, the long jump, the 200 meter and the 4X400 relay. She took 5th place in the mini-marathon, and her relay team took 3rd.
Sam and her friend Marissa.

Goalie!

Madison played on her first soccer team this month. She was so excited to do it...until it was game time. She all of a sudden got super shy and wouldn't even go on the field some weeks. With just a couple of weeks left in the season her coach finally found what she loved, being goalie. She would go in the game only if she could play goalie.

Mads with her trophy and her treats!
The whole team.

ASB

This last week Sam decided to run for ASB (Student Council). She spent a lot of time getting applications filled out, writing her speech and making this cute poster. It all paid off because she won! I am so proud of her and I am excited for her to be involved in it next year!

Cup cake cookies

A couple of weeks ago my mom sent us a cute cupcake cookie cutter and we couldn't wait to use it. We also got out our new princess crown cookie cutter from Grandma Vicki. We had so much fun making them. According to Amanda I was having too much fun!

Field Trip

Shaun took a couple of days off of work last week to go on field trips with Connor and Sam. He didn't have a camera on his trip to the Wild Animal Park with Connor but Sam brought hers on her Field trip to SDSU. I think they both had a great time with their dad.

Mother's Day 2011

Every year I love making treats for some of my mommy friends. This is what I made this year. You can find the idea here.
This is what Sam made me for Mother's day at Girl Scouts. The bigger jar was red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. In the smaller jars were two bath salts, a lemon one and a strawberry one. I loved it! I also got a new vacuum and I LOVE it! Sad, but true!

Teacher appreciation

Teacher appreciation week seems to sneak up on me every year. On Monday, the first day of teacher appreciation week our school always has you bring a flower to your teachers. I struggle with that because you can't buy them too far ahead or they wilt and we don't shop on Sunday so I always end up at the grocery store early Monday morning. This year I decided to try and avoid that and instead see what I had around the house. This is what I came up with. All I can say is , "Man I have a lot of STUFF hanging around this house!"

Crazy boy/ crazy hair

During Sam's softball tournament this year her coach told the girls that if they won they could spray paint his hair any color that they wanted. They won, but I didn't get a picture of the coach, just a picture of Connor who wanted in on the fun. Since Shaun helped coach, Connor spent a lot of the time in the dugout with him and he kind of became the team mascot. He knew all the softball cheers as well as the girls! He had a blast getting his hair spray painted too!

Easter

I was excited for Easter this year because for the first time in about 10 years the Easter bunny had new places to hide the eggs! The only sad part was that I finally have a child that is not excited to dye eggs with her family. Can you pick her out in the picture?
Any guesses on whose eggs these are?!

We still miss you

Just so you know Holman family, we still miss you!
And Connor's chalkboard wall still looks like this.

Point Loma with the Holmans

One of our first outings with the Holman's was to Point Loma. Unfortunately no low tide so we didn't get to explore the tide pools, but it was still pretty fun!

Uncle Matt

With the Holman's still trying to get ahead of the jet lag we spent another day just laying low and relaxing. Uncle Matt was the first adult to brave the chilly waters of the pool, and we caught it all on camera!

Best conference weekend ever

It worked out perfectly for it to be General conference the weekend Matt and fam arrived so that we didn't have to get up and rush off to church. We could just lay around and watch it on the couch. The kids all had conference packets and that kept them entertained for the first hour or so.
This is how the adults watched the afternoon session, on Matt's, I mean Jenny's, new iPad. I'm pretty sure this is how conference is meant to be watched, poolside and with a Coke.
This is how the kids spent the afternoon session. Since this is our first time having a pool we haven't really established our Sunday pool rules, and since cousins are here we just kind of let it slide. All I know is the kids had a blast!

And we're done!

We finally got the appliances installed in the kitchen and we have a fully functional kitchen! Just in the nick of time, the night before Matt and family arrived. I love how the new kitchen turned out but never want to remodel anything again. It wasn't nearly as fun as I thought it would be. We still have a lot we want to do around the house, but no more big projects for a LONG time!

Cousins are here!

The much anticipated arrival of the Holman cousins is here! Matt and family flew 14 hours to come and visit us and we couldn't be more excited! They were pretty tired when they got here, but not too tired to take a little dip in the pool!

Spring Break

Friday after school Spring Break officially started for the kiddos. It was also one of the first really warm days so the kids decided to go for their first real swim in the pool. All the other times they have gone in has been more like a polar bear plunge! I think we're going to love our new pool!

Sink

Last night we finally got the faucet and disposal and all that stuff installed. I never thought I'd be so excited to hand wash dishes. So much better to do in a standing position looking out my window at palm trees and the pool rather than kneeling on a tile floor over a bathtub doing it!

Bees

This appeared in our backyard a couple of days ago. I don't like. It sort of freaks me out and I'm really not sure what to do about it. First gophers, now bees. Maybe having a little more land isn't all it's cracked up to be. Then again if I get my chickens that I want it will all be worth it!

Kitchen progress

We're making progress! We've been at kind of a stand still since the granite was put in waiting for the tile for the back splash. First not enough was ordered, then when they did get it in they had ordered a few of the wrong pieces so it had to be reordered. Yesterday afternoon they came to finally put it in. He'll be back this afternoon to grout around it. I'm so excited! I love how it looks. After he's done the plumber will be back to hook up the sink faucet and the rest of the appliances. In a couple of days I could have a fully functioning kitchen. No more washing dishes in the bathtub!

A four year old princess

Mads on her fourth birthday and just home from church. She insisted on wearing her new sparkly shoes that Grandpa Dell and Grandma Vicki got her!I'm really trying to avoid the whole "birthday party with friends" for as long as I can and just keep it to simple family birthdays. Just like last year Mads wanted a Princess party and with the craziness around here I didn't have enough time to do that, but Grandma Linda came through and sent her "Princess Party in a box", so she got her princess party after all.
Excited to open all her pink presents.



Blowing out the candles.

One of the gifts she got was this little table and chairs. She and Connor are excited that they are the only ones that can eat at it because it's for ages 3-8!