cali vacation

So we went to Cali for our family vacation this year and there were soooooo many things that we wanted to do as a family before david and i left the kids fo 2 weeks. We were able to go and visit grandnanny and Aunt Hope, Amanda and Barbara. Isn't it funny how much you don't realize you miss someone till you have to leave? i mean don't get me wrong i miss everyone in cali but i didn't realize how very much i miss them till we had to leave. We went to the coast next =) i wanted to go to Splash Cafe and david was soooo nice, he took me....yummy clam chowder and fish and chips =) i don't think my kids realized how good it would be until they ate their food and started in on mine =) we then went to avala beach where david and the kids and i had a lot of fun, we were building a sandcastle and felicity was trying to destroy it as we went so we decided to trap her in =) mom went with us and was kind enought ot take lots of pictures for us including a family one...which of course i look silly, since we were traveling i didn't put makeup on....so in our family pic i'm makeupless. I though for sure that Felicity would pass out when we got in the car but she made it down the street to Avala Barn and was able to go around feeding the animals with mary and josh. When feeding the cow, lissy had her whole hand go in the cows mouth and she was so excited and grossed out at the same time.... it was funny. Well we then left cali friday night and left our kids with mom =( i love that they are having fun getting to know their cousins there and grandnanny. next week mary and josh will go and stay with my in laws for a week and lissy will stay with mom and then at the end of the week i'll get to see them again! in the mean time i'm going through boxes and getting rid of unwanted and unneeded junk....including some toys =)

random picture

i'm still here! i swear!!! =)

ok, ok.... i figured i didn't really want to wait a year before i posted another blog. We are still all here and doing well =) The kids just finished with school last week and they are super excited that their summer has begun. Both Mary and Josh got excellent report cards and it turns out they are both above average in science and math, not sure they are my kids anymore =) not much has changed in my life, david is still looking for an accounting job...he actually got turned down for a job because he already had a job....how lame is that! and with other interviews he doesn't have enough experience or he has too much....does that make sense to anyone else?

Felicity has FINALLY started potty training she does really good in the morning and early afternoon but after that (which is normally after nap time) she gets lazy =( but hey at least she's trying right =)

In my last blog i had told everyone i had an awesome calling that i loved, well i was released from that calling in march =( and now i'm on the relief society meeting planning commitee ( that's a mouthful) =) i have had a lot of fun serving with the sisters in this commitee =) we range from early 20's to into the 70's and we all have a ton of fun =)

Mary had some interesting projects the last month of school she had an economics project which they called a "Mini Society" and with this project they had to make a product, well 30 of the same product, they couldn't spend more then $10.00 total and for every hour the parents helped, the kids had to do a 1/2 hours worth of chores. After me working for a few hours mary decided she didn't really need my help =) She made personalized bookmarks which i must say after seeing all the other projects the kids did, i was impressed with marys. She also had a project of having to earn money to go to and end of the year movie party. Mary's class went to "Kung Fu Panda 2" on opening weekend and she had to earn the admission price ($8.00) and if she wanted snacks she had to earn money for that too (appr. $7.00) and so she did her chores for $0.50 a day and since she has 2 chores a day she earned it just in time to turn her paper in =)

I had an AWESOME suprise on memorial day weekend both mom and dad flew in and suprised me =) on 2 seperate days! you see david came home and said "Laura, I have an idea, let's go ot to dinner" of course i said "YES!" well when we drove out of castle rock i was a little confused but david said " don't worry we're going somewhere we've been before" i of course said ok and i didn't pay attention, when we got on the 225 i was a little more confused and i remembered that we'd gone to a jack in the box out by the airport before and he said "yes, you got me i'm just going where the gps told me to go" well lissy started to get fussy so i thought i would pull up gps on the phone so lissy could listen to how much farther and we drove right past the last exit before the tollway and i told david we needed to take the tollway exit and turn around and he said "we'll just loop around the airport" cause he didn't want to pay a fee and i told him there wasn't a fee to get off and turn around and he turned to me and said " We'll just take our time and loop around the airport, it's not that much longer" and i closed my eyes and remembered something dad had said to me on the phone a few days before, he had said he wanted to do something other then go to strawberry fest. and we discussed what there was to do here in colorado... and then the light bulb in my head went off and i turned to david and said "wait!!! are we picking someone up?!?!? is it dad?!?!? we talked about this kind of on sunday! is it dad!?!? is it mom!?!?!?!?" and he looked at me and said with a big smile " we're just looping around the airport" and then 3 seconds later i got a text from mom saying "landed" which in turn made me start to cry...ah heck it still makes me cry a little... after we picked mom up we THEN went to Jack in the Box =) the next day david was going to take josh on his "Man"date and he said he was going to go to the store pick up some things and go to McDonalds with josh and get an ice cream sundae and he was supposed to bring some back with him for mary, lissy , mom and I. well mom painted mary and lissys nails which turned out really cute =) and felicity literally fell asleep while having her nails painted =) and an hour passed, when we hit the hour and a half mark i was starting to get frustrated, i know how long a trip to the store and Mcd's takes and i couldn't figure out what was taking so long ={ i kept calling him and he wouldn't answer i swear i called, like 50 times, and i heard him pick up and hang up....that really pissed me off, and then the worry started to set in..what if he'd gotten in an accident?!?!?!? why wouldn't he pick up the phone? i was really really getting upset/worried, all the while dad is on MY phone with mom because he said he kept trying to call her phone and couldn't get through, well they just kept talking and talking and talking! and when they hung up i started calling david again...still no answer. dad called me back and apologized for not talking to me when he called mom and he said that was rude of him to do that =) we talked for about 5-10 min and he telling me i was being to hard on david maybe he and joshua were enjoying their "man" date. I assumed dad was on his way home to tehachapi ( you know how he calls and just likes to chat while driving) =) i can't remember exactly how i got off the phone with dad but when i did my phone started beeping that i needed to charge it so i went into my room to plug it in and once again i called david (abt3-4) times and decided i had to go potty and i heard the door close and knew david was home and then someone knocked on my bedroom door. I thought it was david and said "I'm BUSY!!!" well a few min later i opened the bedroom door and there sitting on my couch was DAD! boy did i feel bad for getting soooooo upset with david, that poor guy puts up with so much crap from me=), we had an awesome weekend...well i thought it was awesome, on saturday after marys movie with her class we drove around denver looking for a quilting store that was actually open, all but one was still in business, and to the temple =) on Sunday we took aroud trip up through NE Colorado up into nebraska into wyoming and back down to castle rock =) it was fun and we took some pictures that i'll post. I was sad to see dad go on monday and sad to see mom go on tuesday but i have to say i enjoyed having them visit with me =) i miss them so much.

Wwell that all for now,I'll do a post of just pictures next, sorry it's so long =)

no good excuse

Athought i have plenty of excuses for not posting a blog i really don't have any that are good =) wow since january so much has happened.....where to start lissy started walking on feb 1st and hasn't stopped, she's a pro at running and is soooooo sassy...not sure who she takes after=) she's still very small at 21 lbs. but she is growing more and more lengthwise and she is super smart =) she's a regular little monkey climbing and hanging on things, she now sleeps in her very own big girl bed in the kids room, which i wasn't ready for=( she just decided one day that she wanted to sleep there and hasn't looked back. Josh is the fastest runner in his class =) he is sooooo proud of that=) and he is loving 1st grade, he is super excited for his birthday which is coming up next friday and he won't let me forget about it. He loves reading and seems like a natural when it comes to spelling. Mary is loving 3rd grade and she too is also loving reading, we got the percy jackson series from a book order and she is loving reading it=)she is awesome at math and science and has impressed the teacher with knowing almost all of her multiplication tables(i think that's what they're called). She was baptized at the end of May and mom and dad were able to make it down which was so much fun=) she loves reading the scriptures and is working hard on her articels of faith. I got a new calling in march, R.S. Secretary i love my calling it has helped me get out and meet new people and it is a lot of fun=) i got my tonsils out in August and mom came out and helped me with the kids for almost 2 weeks =) i appreciate her help more then she'll ever know=) david is doing good, still working at sears as a delivery man, he's constantly looking for a new job but unfortunatly like before , everyone wants 3 or more years experience. Well i have a monster headache so hopefully i post more later=)

we're here

ok,ok, i know i've been a slaker lately. Well so much has been going on and at the same time i don't really have much to say=) We had an awesome Christmas, the family got a Wii and the kids have had so much fun playing it =)New Years was kind of sucky, we just let the kids play the Wii till they fell asleep. Felicity is starting to TRY to walk, she has really good balance and can stand in the middle of a room forever but after 2 steps she just drops to her knees=( her 2 top teeth are finally coming in, in fact today one finally broke through, you can see the other one it just won't break through=( I got a new sewing machine!!!!!! which i love and have used almost as much as my old one =) it's amazing how fast and quiet this new machine is =) I am also teaching myself how to knit =) My friend Susan knitted an adorable hat for felicity and i think that it's so awesome looking that i had to try it, i am almost done knitting a scarf for Joshua, i have to say knitting is much easier and faster then crocheting, at least it is to me =) Mary and Josh are amazing with their little sister, they are so good at helping her walk and they're so patient with her when she climbing on them and pulling their hair and head bonking them, i couldn't have asked for more awesome kids.

~Wii~

~Wii games~

Felicity was so tired at the end of christmas day, that she passed out

here is a picture of Ferlicity enjoying a chocolate covered spoon for her birthday=)

here is joshua with his awesome pj pants =)

here is mary modeling her apron and her mp3 player and her pj pants=)

Felicity's Birthday and more!

OK i know I've been lazy the last couple of weeks, sorry... So last Thursday was Felicity's birthday=) she was so funny all day long. I know this sounds weird but it was like she knew that that was her day of course it helped that i kept breaking out singing "Happy Birthday" everywhere we went and i gave her everything she wanted...which was mainly she wanted to be constantly held while i tried to cook and clean. I can't believe she's one already, my how time flys...of course it might be harder for me because she's still so small=) i took her to the doctor 2 weeks ago and with 3 jackets and a wet diaper she was 18lbs 14oz but when i took her in for her one year immunizations a week later she was 17lbs. 8oz., it's amazing how much weight jackets add to you=) she is still in the 5% for weight but she's now in the 25% for her height and her head is in the 85%....you can say she has a big head but i would like to point out that it actually looks small, we'll just say her brain is big=)

I also took family pictures last Sunday, now please forgive felicity for her wild hair but she pulled it out and wouldn't let me redo it=)

Chocolate Show! Thanksgiving! & more!

So the past few weeks have been busy=) first i would like to say i will never ignore anyone carrying a carseat, diaper bag and a carry-on bag at an airport ever again...I say that because i was carrying a laptop bag, camera bag, diaper bag and an infant carseat through both Denver and Salt Lake City international airports and although i got several weird looks no one offered to help=)believe me it's not easy,... so Felicity and I flew to Salt Lake City to suprise mom and go to the chocolate show with the girls=) it was a lot of fun suprising mom...we made her cry...=) but retarded me didn't take any pictures of the chocolate show and all of us who went but i did get some cute ones of Will and Felicity.... I really enjoyed visiting with Suzi and her girls, Aly, Shannon and mom =) For Thanksgiving david the kids and i spent it with The Cheeks and Warrens and cait's family =) we had a lot of fun the kids and i made rolls and homemade cranberry sauce and and yummy "That's It" salad and then on saturday we decorated for christmas=).

see the size difference?

bathing together



Mary and Joshua helping me make rolls

felicity with a pickle....we couldn't keep them away from her

Chansens deep fried turkey...which was delicious

Cait and Nikki and their baked turkey which was also very delicious...Mmmmm

here are the homemade rolls that the kids and i made
here are the kids =) they wrote and performed a little play for thanksgiving=)
Mary, Josh and Felicity helping with the tree =)
So I came out this morning and this is joshua decorating my tree...can you tell me what he's decorating it with??? if you guessed star wars toys you'd be correct=)