Happy Mom

Today was a PHENOMENAL day! Not only was it beautiful, but it was very productive. I woke up and went for a morning run, went to supervise Young Women futsol, went to Diva's soccer game (she had 3 goals!) and then managed to clean out my car, install Baby Z's bigger car seat, clean out my fridge, kids were good and having fun in the sun, my lawn got mowed (kind of a perk of owning a lawn business) and then off to some friends for a dinner date. And now I am off to get groceries-my Saturday night ritual. AAAAHHHHHHH, there is nothing better than days that just.feel.good. I am a happy mom.

Crazy driver

For Christmas Lolo got a Barbie Jeep-the kind I wanted as a kid, but never got. My sister, on the other hand, asks for one on Christmas Eve and BAM Santa brings it to her! Life is unfair sometimes. ANYWAY, Lolo is still not a great driver. I have taken her to the church parking lot to practice, but it's still not quite her forte. So here are some cell phone videos of her "driving" her jeep.

Forcing my sister to run...

Background: My younger sister was born with 12 toes; this is not an exaggeration. She literally had 4 big toes. So at about 6 months of age she had surgery to remove the extra toesies and my parents were told that she would need more surgery in the future.

Jump ahead 17 years to January of 2009-Lyndi is a senior in high school and has surgery on both her feet. She has to wear those not-quite protective "shoes" for months and then she is told she needs yet-another surgery. I think she got to wear normal shoes for a few weeks in the summer-I could be wrong, but it was not for a very long time.

ANYWAY, last August (I think) she had her surgery on 1 foot and wore a stinkin' booty til January or February ( I can't remember dates because I haven't lived in the same house with her since 1999). So when the weather started to get nice I started forcing her to come to my house and run with me. The first day we jogged for 5 minutes and walked the rest of the time. The next time I made her go 10 minutes, and then 10 minutes again the next time after that. Today, she was able to go 15 minutes. I asked her if she was ready to knock me out for "making" her do this andthis was her reply: while holding up her thumb and index finger about an inch apart she said, "Just a little bit!" NICE!
Moral of this story, it's fun to have a sister to do things with AND it's freakin' awesome to get out in this great weather to RUN! Plus, I have two races coming up in May and in June (including an 8 mile stint down from a ski resort!...if Carla still wants to trade) that are not going to be easy.

So if you see Lyndi, encourage her to keep going.

People that bring me joy!

I finally figured out how to load a video clip (thanks Heidi) so here are two clips of three of my greatest joys (and sometimes stressors) in life. Both were recorded with a cell phone, so the quality is not that great.   Enjoy!

THANKS HEIDI

I wanna give a shout out to my sister-in-law Heidi for helping me become not so blog-dumb!  I think I have a much cuter look now...so  THANKS!

Help!

How in the world do people have DARLING blog backgrounds?  I found some, but how the HECK do I make it work for me?  I am welcome to anybody coming over and fixing this problem for me!!!!  If you know me, then you know how to get a hold of me.  HHHEEEEELLLP!!  I just want a CUTE blog...sniff sniff.

Birthday!

Sporty's birthday was on March 14th.  Now, this is one of those milestone birthdays, because he turned 8 years old.  My baby boy is 8!  He now has made the choice to be baptized (we are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints...aka Mormons) on March 28.  His dad will be baptizing him and confirming him a member.  As a young mother, I didn't really think this day would come so soon....but it did!  We are so proud of Sporty and of the choices he has made in is VERY young life.  I am so grateful for the Priesthood my husband holds and that he will be able to be the one to baptize Sporty.  I thought it would be fitting to put a few pictures of Sporty showing how he has grown over the years.  I am not really sure why the pictures scanned with lines....Enjoy!

Welcome to the bright world!

Welcome to the world of photography at 7 weeks.

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

And today at 8 years old.  He is such a goofball!

Who'duv thunk.....

Region Champs!

I have mentioned before that I LOVE to play basketball.  Well, tonight my Church Ball team (from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) WON the region championships.   HOORAY for us!  Good job Ladies!  We had a lot of fun and ran A LOT!  Same time next year ladies?

Debut

I am sooooo proud of my husband!  This is his first season as the new head baseball coach at a local high school (my alma mater, actually) and he is off to a fantastic start:  2-0 baby!  I hope his debut season sees many highs...aka WINS!   We are all here to root you and your team on.  Good job, Love!

It's Here, It's Here

Okay, entry #2 today-For a few years Trevor and I have been looking for a bedroom set for Sporty to have and be able to use until he leaves for his mission-but alas, nothing ever spoke to us to buy it......until now.  Sporty went with us to look for a bedroom set and he had his heart set on a bed with a door and a cubby, a secret space to play.  Well, we found it, we bought it and today it was delivered.  Sporty was so excited this morning in anticipation of his new arrival.  I put the new sheets and comforter set on it (sports themed, of course) so that when Sporty gets home from school it will be ready for him.  The girls had a grand day today playing house in the cubby and jumping on it-until I saw what they were doing and they got an earful from me.  They kept asking when their new beds were coming....uhhh, not for a few years, dears.  So here is the kicker-the store we bought it from actually told us that they don't give deals when customers pay in cash (as in us) because they can make more money (even with giving deals) on those customers who charge it.  Does that seem messed up????    Uhhhh, Yesssssssssss!  Crazy, mixed up world.  Oh well, Sporty will still enjoy sleeping on his new mattress and bed.  
This is Sporty's reaction when he saw the bed. Ignore the plain walls-I am painting on Monday and rearranging where everything goes. Alas, I am not strong enought to move that by myself.

All Finished....FINALLY

I have officially read the "Harry Potter" series!  HOORAY for ME!!!!  I was in college when the first book came out and I couldn't read a textbook without falling asleep so I didn't even bother trying to read "Harry".  So last November I opened up book 1 and never looked back.   I have to say that I THOROUGHLY enjoyed it.  Although "Order of the Phoenix" was a yawn to get through, at first, but I couldn't put the book down once all the action began-but I LOVED the movie.  Now what am I going to do with all my free time????  I do write that with a bit of sarcasm...To anyone who has not read the series, Go And Read It!  Now I just need to watch "Half-blood Prince" and I will be good until book 7 comes out in a movie(s).  "Yay Me!"  as London Tipton would say.  When you have kids, you learn to watch some darling shows like "The Suite Life" on deck or Zack and Cody on The Disney Channel. 

Happy Birthday!

Today is Trevor's birthday.  Happy birthday!  I will admit that this isn't his best birthday-he's had a rough day.  Yesterday he did something to his abdomen while  hanging up baseball nets and the pain has carried over into today and it doesn't look like it will end any time soon.  So, needless to say, this day could have been better.  But we will be celebrating this weekend so all is not lost. I can still remember when Trevor turned 19 years old.  He all ready had his mission call to go serve in the California Sacramento mission.  BOY-we were youngins!  I feel blessed to have spent every birthday with him since he returned (with honor).  I love you Trevor.  Happy Birthday! 

Sensitive little guy

I am sorry, but I have to gush about my son.  He is so sweet and sensitive and just cares about people.  For example, he has witnessed me being prepared for 3 c-sections and the kid will not leave my side.  He lays in bed next to me rubbing my arms and kissing my cheek while the nurses prick and prod me up one side and down the other.  He is worried until he sees me being wheeled out of the OR with that brand new baby, and then he won't leave my side-not even to eat.  Such a sweetie!  So, on to my point-Sporty starts telling me about a third grader at school who doesn't seem to have friends (this is from a 2nd grader's perspective) and so he has been talking to him and asking him where is friends are, etc, etc.  Well, Sporty starts getting teary eyed-he doesn't understand why he has SOOOOO many friends and this other little boy doesn't have any.  Of course, Trev and I comfort him and let him know that this boy does have a friend-Sporty-and how proud we are of him for being so concerned.  Poor kid-he just felt so bad.  In his bedtime prayer he said the sweetest thing about this boy and when he woke up this morning Sporty couldn't wait to get to school so he could talk to this 3rd grader some more.  Such a GREAT kid!  We are truly blessed.  It's times like these that make me feel like we are doing O.K. as parents-just a little bit.

Where did February go??

February is gone, and frankly, I am glad.  February was out of control for me as a mom.  Let me recap:  Sporty had 2 basketball practices on Monday, 1 on Tuesday, games started on Wednesdays, 1 baseball practice on Thursday, 1 basketball game on Thursday, and 1 basketball practice on Friday.  I teach piano on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and played basketball on Tuesdays-plus I had Young Women's sports on Saturdays.  Trevor's basketball games (he coaches) are on Wednesdays and Fridays.   All of this occurred after 3pm each day and many of the events were 25 minutes across town (with traffic).  OI!  Now that March has settled in we are down to Sporty playing on one basketball team and one baseball team, Trev's basketball is over, but baseball has begun, and I am done with basketball after tonight, but still have piano (which I love and I love my students!).  Diva's soccer season starts up very soon as well.  Good thing I have my "mommy calendar" plastered on the fridge to keep me afloat!  I understand that everyone, especially mommies, are extremely busy-I am just choosing to vent for a second. 
Now, February was just BUSY, but there was a lot of good:  Diva celebrated her 5th birthday!

How cute are these girls!

.

Diva kept telling me that I was the BEST mom ever!  Diva with her a few of her party goers.

We played musical chairs, freeze dance and put Cinderella in her window.

I also wanted to include some of Lolo's birthday pics:  Her birthday is in January.

My girls get to be queen for the day on their birthdays...thus the Tiaras-my boys get to be kings.

I enjoyed Valentines day-Trev got me some beautiful roses and my FAVORITE chocolates, the kids got me chocolate covered strawberries and I got each member of the family a small box of chocolates.  Since V-day was on a Sunday Trev and I went to eat on Saturday.  Overall, it was very enjoyable.

We also had a surprise 30th birthday for Trevor's brother Nick.  It was very amusing watching him walk into the restaurant and then turn right around and walk out.  We honestly thought he wouldn't come back into the restaurant-Nick doesn't like the spotlight.  But it was fun being with all the family for an evening.

Lastly, on Sunday, we visited Great Grandma Ilene for her 79th birthday.  All of us grandkids packed up our own kids and drove 45 minutes north and surprised both her and grandpa.  They were very happy to see us and our kids love to see them.  I think it's great that my kids get the opportunity to know their great-grandparents...I always lived away from my grandparents and never knew my great grandparents, so I think this is wonderful.  Plus, Trevor's grandparents have accepted me as their own since Trevor and I even started dating.  Love you Grandma and Grandpa-thanks for everything!These pictures were actually at Great Grandpa's 80th birthday party back on Dec 29, 2009.

Diva time

Be still my heart-my little Diva asked me to go outside and ....get ready....shoot some hoops with her!   She may be a basketball player yet (sniff, sniff).  We had a great time-she kept telling me to cheer out loud for her as she attempted to dribble and then shoot the ball.  Sporty lowered  the basket so she could actually make shots-such a nice big brother.  Oh, if only....Happy Day!