VW retro bus

I need one of these:

Wouldn't I look awesome driving a retro VW bus?  (Rebecca you could totally photoshop me in there.)  I'm really sad it's just a concept and not for real.  This is the first family sized car I'd be jumping out of my chair to drive!

We are moving up north, WAY north.  Like if we could get into Oregon we would, but something about Justin working for California...  Anyway we've had our transfer request in for a while (a year) and it went through!  We are so happy and shocked, but mostly happy.

Oh the joy, and the rain.  I'm pretty sure it's wet up there, we'll find out soon enough.  Justin can't wait for the first hunting season and Kennedy is determined shoot her own deer.  I'm ready to have neighbors who live far enough away that I don't hear their tv at night.  Watch now we'll only find apartments for rent, HA!

We're visiting up there next week and we might just see this guy on our way up.  Stole this pic from google.  This will be such the opposite moving from the hot desert!

Parker, he's 1 already!

Parker

cheetah face

Nothing says Happy Easter like a purple cheetah face.

French song

We're learning all about France.  I guess "all" sounds really cool, I should say some as our attention span isn't that long.  Anyway the kids learned a french song about planting cabbages.  You go through the song and plant it with your hand, foot, elbow, nose and head.  Here's a little snippet of that.  

Makes me smile.  Can you see how much Grayson loves being big like his sisters?  He might actually be getting this second language business.  

Temple Square, where they send all the "hot" sister missionaries

I just loved my mission. LOVED it! Nothing like workin Temple Square for 18 months with 200 of the most amazing sisters in the world. It's been 10 years since serving together and when we got together at the reunion, no time had passed. There were children everywhere, but other than that we are all still as awesome as ever. That's right, awesome.

Las Vegas

It's birthday month for my friend Kim and let me tell ya, the girl knows how to party. On her birthday she went out to eat and had a huge dance party. DJ, lights and no kids, although I'm sure the kids would have loved it. I danced like I was 12 years old sneaking into a stake dance. It was awesome. But why not enjoy a little shopping trip to Vegas as well? Our group: Cassie, Kyra, Kim... and Liz. Should've gone by my middle name to fit in?

I've never shopped so much in my life and thanks to a little Dr. Pepper and no kids I didn't even get grouchy!

Cassie originally told me she couldn't go, but I asked her husband for her and he said yes. Totally out of her comfort zone to leave her 3 year old and husband at home for a few days, but she had a blast. Can't wait to do it again!

Joan of Arc

We are learning about Joan of Arc, a little more hands on than a text book and Kennedy is ecstatic. She's gone through her family history and found a family member who was within a days walk of where Joan fought for France. Kennedy's reply was, "Good. I don't want to be English, they're mean." Ha!

This is the girls piano teacher, Giselle, as Joan.

We all had to dress in 1400 time period clothing. Grayson was beyond happy to be involved and pretending to be in France. However he wanted me to know he was "Merlin" and not a boy wearing his sister's stretchy pants and his mom's shirt.

Kennedy loves learning history. All she can talk about is what Joan might have done when she was alive. It's only been a week, but MacKenzie has decided she wants in. At first she couldn't give up her Mrs. Hobson, but after she saw these pictures she's been beside herself with envy. She's joining homeschool starting this morning. (Wait, what? Did I just say we're home schooling out loud? Yes, I did.)

The Swing Set

We have gone back and forth over swing sets for years. Wood will rot, cheap ones are cheap. It's got to be heavy duty to survive our family and 300*-10* weather changes in the high desert. So that leaves you with nothing to choose from in our price range. And then I was on Costco.com... I saw this and bought it immediately. Couldn't help myself and I'm SO excited. Even better we had it up and working in about an hour!

Pure joy. How could you not smile at that face?

Nothing says good morning like sleeper jammies and boots.

Justin can't handle all these new changes. Cats, swings... he got this weenie dog for free last night to even it all out? We're calling him "Hotdog" (the dog, not Justin).

Shootin' at the range

I'm really good at trash talking, but for real I'm kind of a wimp. The first gun I ever shot about ripped my shoulder off. The second made me deaf and turned me off altogether. When the girls kindergarten teacher heard about my experiences she took me under wing and had me shoot a 22 (translation: smallest bullets/least about of kick back/beginner gun)... not so bad. In fact a little bit fun for the first time. I now am excited to get out every now and then for a shooting date with my teacher friend. Here's from earlier today.

I'll leave out the part where I invited my other friends Cassie and Brandon to shoot with us today. They brought their 9mm guns (cop guns with LOTS of power) and I took one shot with Cassie's and about pooped my pants.

I'll stick with my wimpy guns for now.

Sparky the cat

Justin HATED that I brought Tiger home, until the next day. Then he was SO SAD that Tiger won't let anyone hold him (my favorite animal of all time). He took Kennedy and MacKenzie cat shopping and adopted Sparky from the pound. This animal is Justin in cat form, loves to play and socialize. The kids are in animal heaven!

A few days ago neither of us would admit it, but we're cat people. I've got my mouse hunting antisocial Tiger in the garage and everyone else has Sparky.

We have a cat

His name is Tiger!

I don't know why we didn't get a cat forever ago. Since he's been in the garage I haven't seen him at all. He pees and poops in his kitty litter, makes no noise... best pet ever!

Photos by MacKenzie

High Desert Living

My little Clovis Cougar

Thanks Amanda and Brad Harmon for the awesome warm ups! Parker looks so cute in them and every time it reminds me of water polo and swim practices and meets.




And speaking of high school, here's a little video I ran across on facebook:

My recent obsession with Carol Tuttle

I can't stop talking about the positive influence Dressing Your Truth is having on me and my family. It all started when I told my friend Sarah how AWESOME she looked! She immediately told me, "Oh it's this program I've been doing." Of course I wanted to learn more, right? Who doesn't want to look and feel awesome every day of their life?! I started reading the Dressing Your Truth book... couldn't put it down!

I think that's why I haven't been blogging as much. However, I've been obsessed with thrift store shopping and reading more about my own natural tendencies, the way God created me. I've come to understand my bumpy acne skin... part of my nature as a rich/dynamic woman. And why do I always say things out loud and then want to pick up and words and shove them back in my mouth? Oh, because I'm active and reactive. I was born that way! (and I have a bright animated mother as a role model) Does that mean I can say whatever I want when I want, not really, but I can embrace it and love myself for being true to my nature.

Anyway I just love the creator of this program, Carol, and can't wait to meet her someday. She's changed my life forever and I'm grateful!

We've got an impromtu vacation goin on this week

It's birthday week around here. My plan for Kennedy's birthday was to go to Sea World on Wednesday... but when I filled up the car on Friday afternoon I immediately wanted to go somewhere. We took off to Fresno to visit all our grandparents there. My mom and Manuel took the 3 big kids to the "sweep mop" and zoo Saturday. My dad and Pennie celebrated Sunday afternoon with lots of food movies. And who wants to drive home late at night? Not me. And since the kids were going to be absent and miss one day, I might as well miss 5 days and call it independent study right? So we had to swing by Taft (because it's on the way home?) and complete the grandparent tour. The kids are having a blast. Kennedy couldn't be happier on her 7 years old birthday and Grayson wants to make sure he's staying away from home for at least 10 days!

I've got no pictures from Fresno, but she's had candles on her birthday cup cakes, a birthday cheese cake and tonight it sounds like she and Justin are getting combined birthday brownies. What a lucky girl. Thanks to all our grandma and grandpa's for making this trip fantastic!

Parker wants in the bath

Mom, it's already summer time

Every few days Grayson asks for the pool to be put up. "I need to go swimming RIGHT NOW!" Me too Grayson. Here's a video I finally uploaded from last year.