The Little Graduate

This evening Mia graduated from Pre-K!

The ceremony was nothing short of adorable. She was so pleased with her accomplishment :)

We are proud of you Mia. 

1 more day

Our little countdown is almost finished!

Tomorrow is the last day of school for the year (Well...Mia's last day was today, but we are all celebrating tomorrow!).

The kids are so excited and I am thrilled for the lazy days ahead. It has been a wonderful year. Last year, when Max was in kindergarten, we moved across the country and Max was in 3 different schools. It was so nice to have him in one classroom with one teacher for the whole year. He made some wonderful friends and did great.

Mia had a fantastic school year as well. She is so excited to be going to kindergarten in the fall. She is most looking forward to meeting new people. She is my little extrovert!

Happy Almost Summer!

(1 more day!)

New Shades

 Next week we are headed up the coast to Santa Barbara and Monterey for a little fun in the sun.

I wanted all of the kids to have sunglasses so that all of our outside time would be more enjoyable.

These are Zoey's!

I think the bright pink color and the sparkly jewels are a perfect fit.

She didn't seem to mind wearing them either!

Marine Biologist

 While Max and Mia were at school today, Zackary was enjoying a movie called, "Turtle Tale". It is about a little baby sea turtle and Zack was loving it. 

I don't know why he needed to stand so close to the screen :)

I noticed he had a little ship Ty had brought home from Peru.

 Maybe he will be a marine biologist! Or maybe he will just watch a lot of movies.

Headbands

 Ty laughs at me for putting headbands on Zoey. He says she has no hair to hold back.

I think they look adorable on her little head, and I think she has plenty of hair :)

 If she had hair she would wear bows, but she doesn't so sparkly pink headbands it is!

We love our little Miss Zoey!

Memorial Day

 We had a wonderful Memorial Day Holiday!

It was so nice to have everyone home. We had a quiet morning. The kids crafted with play-doh and I made some granola. Later we did a little chocolate dipping. I melted some chocolate and cut bananas into pieces. We dipped the bananas into the chocolate and then into chopped nuts or marshmallows and graham crackers. Ty decided it should be a Memorial Day tradition from now on.

My parents came over in the afternoon for the official BBQ.

We grilled burgers and hot dogs. There was watermelon and root beer and a fresh batch of

Cake Batter Ice Cream!

 I used THIS recipe from Annie's Eats.

I added sprinkles right into the ice cream mixture during the last few minutes in the ice cream freezer. Max and I thought it was awesome!

After the BBQ the kids played some computer games and bounced on the trampoline. We ended the night with a quick FHE lesson on John the Baptist, Baptism, and following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ. Zack fell asleep during the lesson so it was pretty quiet!

Back to school tomorrow!

4 days until summer vacation.....and I can't wait!

My new toys

I had a special delivery this weekend.

A cherry red front loading washer and dryer!

Our old washer has been on it's last legs for about a year and we have been trying to make it last, but it finally expired. Our dryer was still working well, but we decided to go ahead and get both :)

I am more than a little excited about these new additions.

Now....time for a laundry room makeover!

 

 

Thursday

1. So happy that today is Friday for the kids and I. Ty will be working tomorrow and on Sunday, but the rest of us are looking forward to a 4 day weekend ;) 

(Poor Ty. He is off on Monday. We will have to throw him a party.)

2. Memorial Day Sales are everywhere. I took advantage and did summer shopping for all of the kids online. Happiness.

3. I keep thinking the cold days are over and done, but they keep sneaking back in. 

4. Only one week until summer break! We have a lot to look forward to. There are trips planned and I have been working on summer activities for the kids and I. I think this summer is going to be wonderful!

5. Zackary has been waking up before 5 am. I honestly don't know what to do with him. I love him, but there is only so much Diego I can take before sunrise.....

Hurray for Holiday Weekends!

Movie Time

 Zoey is enjoying her first viewing of a Baby Einstein DVD.

She has been a little fussy today and not up for her usual activities so I pulled out the big guns.

 So far so good!

She is one happy little miss :)

Worn Out

Each morning Zoey wakes up and starts her day.

She smiles and plays with her feet. She usually eats some breakfast and has a quick bath (the bath because of the breakfast!). Next she gets dressed for the day. By the time we drop off the older kids at school Zoey is all tired out and ready for a nap.

I can't help but laugh when she is so sleepy at 9 in the morning. I think everyone could benefit from a nap between breakfast and lunch!

Banana Mini-Chip Muffins

 We eat a lot of bananas. 

The baby usually eats a banana with her oatmeal in the morning. I almost always add a frozen banana or two to the kids breakfast smoothies. Max and Mia like to eat theirs covered with peanut butter or nutella and Zackary is basically a monkey and prefers bananas over most other types of food. I buy 3 bunches of bananas at a time and we almost never have leftover bananas for muffins and we really like banana muffins!

This morning we lucked out. There were 3 perfectly browned bananas waiting to be made into something delicious.

I used THIS recipe for banana peanut butter breakfast muffins. ( I left out the sprinkling of flax seeds and added mini chocolate chips.)

Max was shoving these muffins into his mouth whole. I am hoping we can make these last a few days and I can serve them for breakfast this week.

(Zackary helped me by filling the muffin tins with the mini liners. He did a great job!)

Sunshine Day

Yesterday was a gorgeous Southern California Saturday.

The morning was cool and the afternoon was warm enough for outside fun.

We went to Redlands and stopped by Target and Trader Joe's. Next we visited with my parents.

 My Mom and Dad have a little baby swing in the backyard hanging from an apple tree. It was Zoey's first time in the swing.

 She smiled the entire time. She loved it!

The older kids spent some time in the pool. Zackary is usually pretty cautious around the water, but today he was feeling brave.

 He was like a little fish. All that time in the sun and the water wore him out.

He fell asleep in the car on the way home. We brought him in thinking he would wake up, but he stayed passed out on the rug for a good 2 hours after we got there!

It was a lovely Saturday! I can't wait for summer to officially arrive so that we can have play days every day. Only 8 school days left!

Good Stuff

1. It's Friday :)

2. I had good intentions of running errands this morning, but it's cold and gray. I had to come home from dropping Max off and turn on the fireplaces instead.

3. Zackary is finally getting over his stomach bug. I am so happy to see him feeling better!

4. Last night we bought "If You Give a Dog a Donut" from Max's school book fair. It was an instant hit.

5. Max is giving an oral presentation today on a book that he read this week. Part of the project was to fill a paper bag with items that would help him tell about the book. We had lots of fun with this. His bag contains: one small stone jaguar, one mango, a picture of Ty in the Peruvian jungle, a small leather money pouch from Peru, and a monkey. The book he read was "Afternoon on the Amazon". I can't wait to hear about it this afternoon!

6. Ty is working a LONG day today. Good luck Ty.....Good luck me :)

Happy Friday!

The "Office"

 We have a nice office in our house that I use as my exercise room. We are using a section of our bedroom as our office space. We have a large desk that looks similar to the one in this picture. I LOVE this picture!

 I love the whole package. Chair included.

I am planning a makeover right now. I hope Ty doesn't mind the girly-ness!

Rawr!

 We took the kids to Cabazon to see the dinosaurs.

 Poor little Zackary was terrified!

He was literally shaking. I thought he would enjoy it the most. Poor baby!

 Max wasn't phased.

 There was a little set up where the kids could search for treasures (aka: rocks)

 I love how little things absolutely thrill them!

It was a HOT day so after the dinosaur adventure we stopped at A&W and everyone had a root beer.

Wednesday Morning

Ty is home today. He took Max to school and I got to stay home with the 3 younger kids. Zackary was upstairs and I was downstairs with the girls. I was making a batch of granola and Mia was pretending to be a caterpillar. Zoey was seated happily on our big rug playing with her pink blanket. 

I love these little happy moments :)

A couple years back.....

 I met a really cool guy named Ty.

He was from Payson, Utah.

I fell in love with him and he fell in love with me.

We decided to get married. I had just turned 20 and Ty was 22. We didn't have a clue about weddings or planning or anything.

We did everything wrong and made everyone mad.
I felt bad about the whole thing for years.

Today I read this quote:

I am sure glad everything turned out the way it did :)

In Case You Need a Reason

Today, May 15th, is National Chocolate Chip Day!

We will be celebrating with a little cookie baking.

THIS recipe for chocolate chip cookies looks perfect. 

Happy Chocolate Chip Day to you :)

Miss Zoey turns 6!

6 months!

I love this little Miss.

Zoey is sitting up all on her own. She loves to watch her sister dance.

Zoey loves bananas and sweet potatoes AND nutella :)

Zoey enjoys taking walks in her stroller and visiting with friends in her high chair.

We love you Zoey!

Mother's Day and more....

1. I made the best quiche for Mother's Day! I was so happy to have leftovers today.

2. I enjoyed a wonderful weekend with my family. It was busy but happy. My favorite part was on Saturday night. I was in the kitchen making the quiche for Sunday. Ty and all of the kids were with me. We had some good music playing and we were all tasting and having a very happy time.

3. Home made ice cream is far superior to store bought. We are still loving our little cuisinart!

4. The primary did a fabulous job singing the Mother's Day songs in sacrament meeting yesterday. I always have to try hard not to cry. I am just so proud of them! 

5. Our school district recently received some extra grant money and the schools are offering free breakfast for all of the students. Max has been really enjoying eating breakfast at school with all of his friends. It has allowed him to sleep in until 7:10 as well. He is up and dressed with teeth brushed and then out the door at 7:20. 

6. Mornings around here are always hectic!

Happy Monday!

Mother's Day Festivities

I have been drooling over a few things from Williams Sonoma for a while now. I thought they would make perfect Mother's Day gifts. With today being the last shopping day before Mother's Day I thought that perhaps Ty had already bought something. I asked him if he had and he confessed that he had not yet been able to....I told him that was perfect! I asked him to take us out to Victoria Gardens for a little Mother's Day shopping spree.

(I think Ty was pretty relieved!)

We walked into Williams-Sonoma and they had just begun one of their kid workshops. The kids were invited to decorate cupcakes for their moms.

They got to pick between chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and a variety of frosting colors.

Mia chose a chocolate cupcake and pink frosting.

 Max chose a chocolate cupcake with yellow frosting.

 When they were finished decorating the staff packaged their cupcakes into adorable gift boxes. Mia loved her pretty pink one.

Zackary refused to participate in the cupcake decorating because he had found something with Cars on it and he would not be moved.

I picked out some tart pans and kitchen goodies for myself.

After shopping we made a stop at the splash pad and the playground. I love my family and I so enjoyed our outing together!

(note: Max and Mia did not give me the cupcakes. They ate them! Oh well. I love them anyway.)

Homeade Brownies

Today we made some brownies.

and they were good :)

Chocolate Chip Cocoa Brownies

recipe adapted from: Sifted

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup butter (melted)

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

3/4 cup cocoa powder

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8x8 inch square pan.

In a large bowl mix together the melted butter, oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

Stir in the cocoa powder, flour, salt, and the baking powder.

Finish by adding the chocolate chips.

Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 35 minutes.

Cool for an hour before cutting.

Chocolate goodness!

Hunter Hayes - "Wanted"

I heard this song for the first time today and I love it. It is so wonderful to be with a man that makes me feel wanted.

Yay!

1. Mother's Day is this weekend!

I am excited to help my kids make cards for me :)

2. My brother is coming for a visit on Thursday and he requested that I make jambalaya for dinner. I am not known for my Cajun cooking skills but I am up for the challenge.

3. I have a whole stack of brownie recipes that need to be tried and tested. 

4. I snuck in a 30 minute nap this morning while Max and Mia were at school. Zoey fell asleep and I quickly turned on Diego for Zack. It was glorious.

5. I tried to plant Max's baby sunflowers that he brought home from school. I think I may have killed them. 

6. I can't believe Zoey is 6 months old. Certainly this has been the fastest 6 months ever!

7. Today is one of those days where Ty goes to work before everyone wakes up and gets home after everyone is in bed. I always ask Heavenly Father for extra help on these days and I know I am blessed with that help when I ask. 

It's Tuesday. Still plenty of time to make this the best week ever.

Be....

 I read this quote yesterday and just love it.

I especially like the words nurture and build. This year I have been using the word: nurture, to help inspire me and guide me. I find it especially helpful in my role as a mother. 

I certainly don't want others to be worse off for knowing me. I hope to be this kind of person.

Mia

 Mia is 4 1/2. 

She is almost done with pre-K and she can't wait to start kindergarten in the fall. She has long blonde hair and a beautiful smile.

Mia loves writing her numbers and letters. She loves playing with her stuffed animals. She loves going on walks and visiting the library.

Her favorite color is minty green.

She is wonderful and I love her.

New Toy

 My mom found this activity cube at a garage sale yesterday.

With a little help from some pillows Zoey can sit and play all by herself.

Max, Mia, and Zackary like the cube as well. They were all playing on a different side last night. It is a perfect toy!

and Zoey is a perfect little girl!

Happy Now

Everyone I know has been doing posts about things that are making them happy right now. So, right now, here's what is making me smile:

1. new music on my i-pod

2. realizing that Clueless is based on Emma (I was watching Emma and found myself thinking, "She is just so Clueless!" and it clicked.....I can't believe it took me 28 years to figure that out.)

3. picking strawberries in our yard

4. roasted almonds, hazelnuts, etc...

5. longer days and lots of sunshine

6. reading ensign articles on my elliptical

7. last minute dinner invitations ;)

8. chatting with Ty via text messaging while he is at work

9. our countdown to summer vacation

10. chocolate

Happy :)

The weekend

1. Ty and I tried to go on a date yesterday. We left the kids with our friends and waited in line to see the Avengers. Once the line started moving we realized this particular theater only took cash. We got out of line and quickly realized we had missed our opportunity to see the movie. We decided to drive to another theater and try to catch the next showing there. We arrived just in time to miss that show as well. We decided to stay and see a different movie. We had brought Zoey with us because she is still a special little friend that has to be with her mommy. I was up and down with her through most of the film. After the movie we drove to pick up the kids. I think we spent less time together trying to go on a date than we would have if we had just stayed home. We tried! A for effort :)

2. Today Ty is at work. The kids and I are going to do the Sunday thing on our own. I have had a cold and my voice is pretty much gone, so singing time should be interesting today! 

3. I have a loaf of our favorite bread rising for dinner tonight so even if church doesn't go well the dinner should be good.

4. Zoey is happily drinking water from a bottle now. The weather has gotten quite warm and she is a thirsty little person. 

5. Tomorrow is career day at Max's school. Ty will be representing CRNA's everywhere :) Ty is one of the final speakers of the day and he is planning to take Max to see the Avengers after school. I hope they have better luck on their date than the two of us did.

Have a lovely Sunday!

chocolate therapy

This afternoon I made a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookies. I used regular all purpose flour, butter, and large amounts of dark chocolate. 

It was serious chocolate therapy.

You can find the recipe HERE at dishing the divine.

Happy Friday :)

This and That

 You can see from this picture that little miss Zoey is starting to get some hair!

I was running a comb through the little bit of fluff on her head last night. Soon she will look just like Rapunzel :)

 We are back in sweaters.

I really thought we were done with cold and I had put all of the winter clothes away.

I am more than ready to move onto sunshine. I am marinating chicken to grill tonight. Maybe a BBQ will make it feel a bit more sunny.

Zackary loves playing in Mia's kitchen. Mia really hates it when he does. I have tried to explain to Mia that having a friend to play with her will make kitchen time more fun, but she disagrees and sends Zac away.

Poor Zack. He can help me in the real kitchen, which sadly does not hold his interest like the toy one.

We are enjoying some after lunch play before we go to pick Max up at 2.  Ty will be home for dinner tonight. I love it when there is a real reason to cook. Last night the kids and I ate a loaf of cinnamon swirl bread for dinner, because Ty was working. 

The kids seem extra hungry lately. Is it possible that they are all in the middle of a growth spurt at one time?

I spent a lot of money at Crate and Barrel today, but I am very excited about the new dinnerware I ordered.

It's almost Friday, hooray!

Speaking of birthdays......

I think this year I am going to need one of these.

It is high time that I join the Pioneer Woman and start a collection of Le Creuset cookware.

Coming Up

The final year.

Next month, in June, I will be turning 29.

A lot of my friends have already reached this milestone and have expressed a desire to accomplish certain things while enjoying the last year of their 20's.

I have been thinking about what I would like to do. I don't have a 20's bucket list full of exciting things that I would like to do before turning 30, but I have set some goals for myself.

I want to focus on the spiritual aspects of my life. I want to be less worldly. I want to bring the spirit into my home. I am going to think before I speak. I am going to be kinder to my husband and children. I am going to listen to uplifting music. I will seek for peace. 

There is so much good in this world. We have so much knowledge and such wonderful opportunity to grow and better ourselves. I want to seek after these good things and be better.

Until next month I am going to enjoy the rest of 28 and hopefully 29 will be awesome.

(29 forever right? It must be a good year if so many people are willing to stick with it!)

 What would you suggest for the final year of my 20's?

May Day

It's May!

It is hard to believe that we have already made it to month 5 of 2012.

On this first day of a new month the morning dawned full of fog and cold drizzly rain. Not what I would have expected, but a chilly day makes for lots of cozy inside moments.

Cozy moments like this one!

Zackary has taken to napping and sleeping in our big bed.

He sneaks in onto Ty's side in the middle of the night and we don't notice until he starts snoring.

Last night Ty took him back to his own room, but at some point he came back. Oh well! I guess he is needing a little more security.

Good things so far this month (all one day of it)

1. Ty unexpectedly had the day off. This resulted in a spontaneous Taco Tuesday party. Think of it as a pre Cinco De Mayo celebration.

2. I am making fresh bread with sun dried tomatoes and cheese to go with our dinner tonight. 

3. 4 weeks until Summer vacation!

4 weeks left until Max is done with first grade and onto 2nd.

4 weeks left until Mia graduates from pre-K and we move on to kindergarten.

4 weeks left of ballet and tap.

4 weeks until our Monterey trip.

4. I hope the 4 weeks of May are fantastic, because obviously we have a lot to look forward to!

(there are a lot of 4's in this post)

5. I have been watching "The Biggest Loser" while I work out. It is amazingly motivating and inspirational.

6. I ran a few errands today. It was just Zoey and I. This allowed me to totally rock out in the car before I came inside. It was awesome and Zoey didn't mock me at all :)