Caught up….

Yeah!!! I’m all caught up on my blog! I’ve done about 20 posts in the past 2 weeks but I’m done and up to date and feeling SOOOOO good about it! Read below for all the updates!

COUSINS

Last weekend Adam was lucky enough to go to the US OPEN in Pebble Beach with my Dad, Brother and two Brother In Laws! While he was gone I stayed home with my 5 kids plus my sister Heather’s 3 oldest children while she flew to Utah with her baby to run in the “Wasatch Back” 24 hour Relay with my other sister Julie! It was a fun weekend with me, 8 kids and a dog! :-)

Heather’s kids are adorable and were perfect little Angels! It was so fun for me and my kids to get to know them a little better!

TYLER (9)  BROOKLYNN (7)

JOSH (4)

8 IS ENOUGH!!!

We Miss You Guys!!! Come Back Again Soon!

Los Angeles Lakers Are the NBA CHAMPIONS….AGAIN!!!!

Whoot! Whoot!

Sorry to all you Boston Fans or Laker haters or Kobe haters out there!

The Lakers have done it AGAIN!!!!

Whoot! Whoot!

At this house, there was much JOY, HAPPINESS and CELEBRATING!

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

WE LOVE OUR LAKERS!!! Through thick and thin! Through good players and bad! Through bad life choices and good ones! Through Phil and well,,,Phil! WE LOVE OUR LAKERS!

We watched every game!

We kept track of every player!

We hated our opponents

We loved our heroes!

We wore our jerseys!

We cheered LOUD!

We got grumpy when they played bad!

We got Toilet Papered when we lost (by our Celtic friends)

We sent “gifts” to our Celtic Fans when WE won!

And most of all …

We NEVER lost hope!

Lakers, Thank you for WELCOMING us back to California!

WE LOVE IT!!!!

 

GARAGE SALE

A few weeks ago we FINALLY had a Garage Sale! One side of our garage has been packed with stuff from Colorado that we should have gotten rid of when we still lived there. We finally had time to go through it all and pull it out onto the driveway in an effort to get rid of it!

Since I’ve posted about my LOVE of GARAGE SALES before, most of you know that I LOVE me a Garage Sale! There is something about pulling out my trash and viewing with new eyes $ $!  And then to see who sees it with the same value I once saw in it too! Anyway, our new city has an ordinance that Garage Sales can only be on the 2nd Saturday of the month! SAY WHAT????? Are you kidding? What about Thursday? What about Friday?…No no no, only one Saturday a month! So, with that in mind, I posted signs with arrows to find our house and the start time of 6:00am. When my alarm went off I wasn’t tired at all. I was excited! I jumped out of bed, threw on my clothes, gently nudged my sleeping hubby and asked him to come help me set out stuff and headed outside! I couldn’t believe what a great day it was and how sunny it already was. It was going to be a great Garage Sale day! As I started pulling stuff out a man drove up ready to browse. “Wow, this guy wants a jump start, can’t even wait til six”! As soon as the thought passed through my mind Adam came outside and announced that the actual time was 6:40 and I had done something wrong when I set the alarm. I OVERSLEPT!!!! I was so bummed that I had missed the first 40 PRIME minutes of my garage sale! Dang it! Thankfully things picked up after about a half hour and soon Adam had to go to the store to get more dollar bills for change! When he got back he told me that our main sign had been taken down or lost or blown off. OUCH!! Another problem. When the kids woke up and came to see what was going on, they decided they wanted to help. With their little minds working together, they decided to dress Logan up in his former Halloween costume and send him dow the street with a sign pointing to our house. At first i was a little hesitant but soon gave in and sent them off! I’m so glad I let them go! Business picked up drastically and people were telling us how cute our kids were down on the corner! One lady even paid Logan for his hard work! Annie had the camera and brought it back to show us what was going on!

 

   

Shake that Barney tail!

Garett’s 8th Birthday – Part II

What better place to have a Birthday Party than in a pool in your own backyard? That is where G decided to celebrate this year! It was so easy and super fun! He had 7 friends, plus his siblings, a pool, bbq hotdogs, soda, ice cream, cake and presents! What more could a kid ask for!

Cute Camille- This little beauty and Garett are just 2 days apart! Her mom and I were pregnant together! It’s so fun to live close again! We always hoped they’d be good friends when we were pregnant with them and now that we are here, they are already on their way to being life long friends!   

Blowing out the candles!

Checkin Out the Presents!

Dear Logan’s Glasses,

The first few months of your life with our family have been quite adventurous for you. You’ve lived in 2 states and visited or passed through 2 others. You’ve been dropped, bent, stepped on, chewed by a dog and a baby, scratched, bent, reshaped and lost countless times! Happily, you have endured each trial you’ve faced.

Your latest trial comes at the fault of Logan and I. We are so sorry that we left you in the Target shopping cart last week. We (I) didn’t know you were in there. When we arrived home a few hours later and realized you were gone we thought it was too late, that you were gone forever…..

Frantically the call was made to Target to see if you had been found and sadly, time and time again, the answer was no. How sad we all were that it appeared you were gone for good. Three days after losing you I stopped by Target’s customer service counter in one last hope that you’d be there!

Silently, quietly and completely squished and ruined, you sat on the counter, waiting for us to find you! The joy we felt at the sight of your mangled little frame was unexplainable! You were alive. You had survived! And you were still under WARRANTY!!

Sadly, however, we must now say goodbye as we send you off to the “Spectacle Hospital”. We will be receiving  a new pair of glasses (for free :-) and you get better. Please know that we love you, that you served Logan’s little face well, and helped him see things he had literally never seen before.

We will always remember you. You became a part of our family that each of us cared for as best we could! We are so sorry we failed you and hope that the new face you find to rest your reshapen self on can love you as much as we did and can take better care of you than we did!

 

Sincerely,

Logan’s Mom

Graduation Day (6th Grade and Preschool that is)

Spencer and Logan both had their graduation (or Promotion as they call it here) from 6th grade and Preschool. Both of the schools had really nice little “Promotion Ceremonies” for them. Spencer’s was in the morning, out in the school yard! It was a beautiful day! Spencer was able to be part of the Flag Ceremony as he and some of the other boys in his Scout Troop were asked to present the colors! He also was able to give a little “thank you speech” along with all of his classmates! He did such a good job! It was a little sad for me to see him graduate from 6th grade with only a few kids he knows. Up until about 8 months ago, we never would have imagined him moving on to Jr. High without being surrounded by all the kids he’d grown up with. That said, he was happy to be finished with Elementary School and is excited to start Jr. High in the fall!

  

My Handsome Boy! So grown up!

Walking to Present the Colors

 

Waiting to give his speech                                                                           Thanking his family, friends and teachers! I’m one proud Momma!

Logan’s Preschool Graduation was later the same day. Logan is such a little “man” and always tries to keep up with the big kids which makes me forget that he is only 5 years old! Watching him in the little program reminded me that he’s just a sweet, adorable LITTLE boy. As much as he wants to grow up and be like the older kids, I need to do my best to keep him the age he is! And right now, he’s a cute little 5 year old boy, graduating from Preschool!

 

Look at that little white face! Even in the California sun he’s white as a ghost!       BIG Yawn!!!

His friend Spencer who is in our ward and will be in Kindergarten with him next year!

Orange County Girls Trip

At the beginning of June all my COLORADO Girls game to California for our Annual Girls Trip. We had planned to come to California before I even knew I was moving here so to have them come HERE was something I’d been looking forward to for months!! I don’t know why I am so blessed to have these woman in my life but I will be forever grateful for each one of them. They inspire me, they make me laugh harder than humanly possible, they let me just be me, they strengthen  me, they put me in place when I need it, they pick me up when I’m down, they encourage me, they support me, and they love me! I only hope I do some of the same things for them!

Neeley- happy, positive, beautiful, strong

Mindy- deep, loving, encouraging, spiritual

Tosha- talented, genuine, open, courageous

Erin- real, funny, sincere, strong

Tanya- giving, selfless, true, constant

Tamara- true , beautiful, flawless, adored

Brecken- positive, brave, deep, supportive

Yvette- funny, courageous, strong, real

Adam was worried for me to come home fearing that it would put me back into the funk I was in when we first moved here. It actually did just the opposite! I came home rejuvinated and ready to move forward. Spending the weekend with my Girls helped me to understand that our friendships run deeper than the city we live in. These woman are part of me and no matter where I live, they will be forever!

We took soooo many pictures that I only have room for a few. Each shot has a memory that goes with it. How to choose just a few? I’ll just give you a highlighted version but know that I laughed harder than I have in years, stayed up later than a mother of 5 should (even when she’s on a girls trip) and enjoyed every minute of the 3 days!  

GOTTA GET OUR WORKOUT IN

First Stop….In N Out Burger

Next Stop….BEACH

 

FIGHTING THE FOMO (fear of missing out)

Every night we’d come back to my mom’s house and stay up way to late! Poor Brecken has a reputation that she can never stay awake later than midnight! Since she’s pregnant right now it only made things worse and she needed her sleep more than usually! Cute girl always sleeps right through everything. This particular picture will bring laughter to my life FOREVER though!! The story behind it is one of those “you had to be there” moments so I’ll spare the details. Just know I will laugh and laugh and laugh everytime I see it! Love You Breck! Thanks for being a good sport!

OUT ON THE TOWN

 

Mindy and I! Been through a lot with this girl over the past 8 years! Love You Girl!

 

Charlie’s Angels are at it again! (the three of us take a picture like this whenever we are together)

I may not have the greatest shoe fashion sense but that “fault” of mine has come in handy for my sweet Mindy a time or two. In New York it was when we had to trade shoes because we walked all the way from Broadway to Serendipty’s and she had on stillettos. We ended up trading shoes because her blisters were so bad! This year, she wore the shoes on the right, which are not as high as the NYC shoes but close. What’s bad about this year is that Mindy’s big toe had torn off from her running so much. She was sacrificing for a good outfit but by the evenings end, she was done! I traded shoes with her once again! My foot is on the right in her heals, her foot is on the left in my blinged flip flops!

PAPARAZZI

We saw Gwen Stafani coming out of the grocery store and getting into a mini van driven by…. Oh wait, that’s just Neeley and Tam!

    

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER MIDNIGHT …

 

We get a little crazy!!! Who’s taller than who? Who’s the shortest? Who falls in the middle?  Well that depends if you are sitting or standing.

Just wanted to make sure Breck was included in the height contest!! :-)

And the winner is….Erin is the tallest standing, Neeley comes next, but when she sits down, almost everyone is taller than her! She’s got some LOOOONNNNGGGGG legs, that girl!

NURSE TANYA

I’m so proud of Tanya as she just graduated from Nursing school. Neeley gave her some practice hours when she passed out a few days before the trip and ended up with stitches in her eyebrow. Tanya got to take them out for her! She was such a professional! :-)

ALRIGHT, so that was more than a few pics, but it was so hard to choose!!! :-)