Time for the MONTHLY update

I can't believe that it is already May. Really where do the days go? Lately I have been sleeping a lot or least feeling like I want to but they can't have all passed me by that quickly, could they? I went to get pictures from this last month and realized they were all still on the camera. Now that I have them loaded I decided I wanted to make some scrapbook pages so may be later you'll get an insight into our past month.

Look we now access our family room! Which also means it is much easier to banish our children to the backyard. I can't wait to move in the furniture, the painters and electrician come this week...and this next weekend we should get to move into our new bedroom! Hurray! The end of construction is in sight! Up until yesterday there was a piece of plywood separating the rooms.

Ballet School

The girls and their cousins performed in our ward variety show at the beginning of the month...I had almost forgot about it until I saw it on my sister's blog. This month has been an overload month...I can't wait for it to be over!

They did a little ballet school where they had a new member "Frankie" (he's our home teacher) that they had to teach to dance. They got lots of laughs and loved performing!

Just had to share this one...

as most of you know we are doing a major overhaul on our house and yards right now, on Monday the lawn guys were getting ready to put in the sod which meant a bit of fertilizer for the yard as we went out the door that afternoon Lainey says..."EVERYBODY COVER YOUR NOSE HOLES!" I couldn't stop laughing and had to snap a picture to remember it forever!

February and March happenings...

Just got back from a "girls night out" and yes we had FHE first and then Dad's got to put their little ones to bed....I love that I have my sisters here in town....wish you were closer Chels, and that they are truly my best of friends. Dang it I forgot to take a picture of us together and I even had my camera! Our addition is moving right along and I needed to find bedding for our new room, hence the girls night out, so I could decide on paint colors...I can't wait! The concrete set perfectly and it really is beautiful as beautiful as concrete can be! The drywall is being hung and Justin came home with the tile today and a few weeks ago we picked up the wood burning stove. Last Friday I finally found my perfect sectional on craigslist, it is this really cool bluish color and I also bought the rug that they were selling too! My sisters and I even picked it up and moved it home all by ourselves!

We started February with a visit from Justin's brother's family. The kids had so much fun playing together, as always the visit was way too short and the girls continue to ask when they will get to see their Utah cousins again. We then headed to my nephew's baptism up north and came home via San Francisco, where we stayed with a friend of mine. I love the fact that only time I can get all my family to look in the same direction is when a total stranger takes the photo. It works every time!

So my youngest sister decided we ought to have an anniversary party for our parents, it was a total last minute thing and it was so FUN. They were absolutely surprised about the whole thing! And my whole family was there...Chelsea and her family surprised all of us and drove down for the big party! Happy 36th to the BEST parents around!

Lainey and Malia started karate a few weeks ago we got a REALLY good deal on lessons at a YW camp fundraiser and they have loved their classes. They can go up to 3 times a week and the smiles on their faces is so worth it! I love that Malia now bows when she steps off the rug in our living room and says "yes mam" to me. Lyndie likes to sit on the side and try to do whatever they are doing...she and I are taking a swimming class together through her school and today she amazed me by swimming about 7 feet under water...I can't wait for our summer pool days to start again!

In honor of Dr Seuss we celebrated with Green Eggs and Ham...we had the missionaries for dinner that night so they got to join in on our birthday celebration!

Strawberry season is here again! This stand is less than 1/2 a mile from our house and they have the BEST berries you have ever eaten.

We've celebrated 2 birthdays in the last month...it's so hard to believe that our baby is 3 now. We went to Disneyland on her birthday...it was the last day of our passes and her last time to get in free! Lainey opted for a wacky olympics party which we celebrated at the park with her friends and cousins. And to think she is now 6...as my mother in law put it she's a third of the way to 18, I told her I didn't want to think about that!

And that concludes our month in review...
until next month!

Please don't let it RAIN...

Usually we welcome the RAIN, but please Mr. Weatherman could you hold it back a few hours? We (well not me, but my dear husband and dad) just finished with the last of the concrete and it really needs time to set a bit more! In the last two months we have had countless amounts of cement poured down the side of our house and now finally in our driveway and up to our front door. It is so beautiful!

This is my dear friend Katie aka Harmony who came to spend the day with us on Valentine's with her family from Idaho. Beautiful weather and guests from out of town meant we had to make a trip to the beach. Katie and I met at Academy for Girls and then worked together to create a camp for girls called Retreat for Girls, which she and her husband now run. This year they had partnered with Deseret Book.

The next best thing to spending the day with Katie and Jeremy was watching our kids become friends. I hate the fact that we live hundreds of miles away from one another.

This was our yummy Valentine's Breakfast...Daddy's homemade pancakes with real whip cream and the most delicious strawberries around! The stand around the corner from our house just opened and it is so tempting to stop everytime I drive by.

Our 2010 Valentine's photo...has it really been 9 years?

Lyndie getting ready for her upcoming birthday...yes the pinata is bigger than her, and NO it is not completely filled with candy. She had so much fun trying to decide which one to pick out.

Olivia Owl from preschool helped Malia put her handprint in the sidewalk....we kept forgetting to put the girls handprints in the concrete.

I think this one has been watching too many old movies with me. We love to watch old movies together, recently we watched a bunch of the ones with the underwater ballet in them. She got all dressed like this when we went to the pool this last week.

May be...

someday I will get back to posting more regularly, for now I am enjoying my new found freedom, I was released as RS President at the beginning of January, while Justin was called to be Elder's Quorum President this last time (2nd time's a charm, right? I think it's actually 3rd time!). Malia's reaction to my release was, "Now you don't have to go to any more meetings!" I think she was really excited.

Don't these look amazing? They were, Justin made them from scratch for my birthday. He decided it was just as easy to make two as it was to make one... I am so LUCKY, and so are my hips!

For those who may think we are moving and or building a new house, we are still in the same home, just adding on. The addition will double the size of our home, but remember houses here are small, and we don't get all of the space. Part of it is a big garage for Justin to keep his work stuff in, but I am so GRATEFUL for the space and the beautiful backyard I will have. But we do get a big family room/playroom...I am still bitter about the sweet deal on a sectional couch that I missed out on that was on Craigslist today, an enlarged bedroom for the girls, and a very sweet bathroom with a jacuzi tub..complete with light therapy in it, (only because we got the floor model from the plumbing shop), I will be renting it out by the hour for those who want to use it! Or if you just come and visit I may even let you use it for FREE. When people ask when it'll all be done I just answer, SOMEDAY.

Mud pigs...I think Malia looks like she's ready to become a future dancer at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

The littlest driver

So glad to no longer have to see this when I drive up to our house!

This is how you sled without snow...

The girls have loved the remodling process, they became well versed in the names of backhoes...etc, and even got to help drive them, they love rolling in the dirt, LITERALLY, mud pigs in a new found favorite game, even Lyndie can drive a nail in a board now, one of my favorite memories is watching them slide down the dirt hill in a swimming pool. We are happy to no longer have our backyard in our frontyard, we have slowly moved all the toys back to the back but we have lots and lots of cement for bike riding and scootering!

We have already hosted Thanksgiving and 2 Elder's Quroum potlucks in our big unfinished family room, I don't what we'll use for a table once the drywall is actually up on the walls but for now it makes a really good huge table that you can fit at least 30 people around! Sadly I don't have any pictures of these events.

We took the girls to Disneyland before Christmas. Check out the snow on the castle.

We were able to spend Christmas with Justin's mom, it was the first time she has been here for Christmas. One of the highlights was the fact that we got to talk to his brother who is on a mission in Argentina. The girls loved playing with Grandma Aleen and we were sad to see her leave.The girls are all growing up way too fast. Malia had learned to ride a bike on her own, Lainey mastered her Heelys skate shoes she got for Christmas, and the other night when we couldn't find Lyndie at the church she was finally found in the chapel where she was "praticing my testimony".

Justin convinced us to campout outside of an REI for an REI garage sale on the 1st of January so we could be among the first into the sale. I was a bit hesitant but it was actually really fun!

I think that's enough for now...can you believe that January 2010 has already passed?!

See what you're missing?

This is what you miss when you don't have children who wake you up before 5am in the morning. We are going for our 2nd morning of early rising and I am afraid I am going to hit a wall about 3pm today...we'll be turning on a movie. We even tried taking Sunday naps/book time in your room yesterday..it didn't work! And at 6:30pm they were still going strong, we finally reverted to the strap them in the car so they can't move and they go to sleep method! Too bad I still had to go to a Presidency meeting at 8pm. Luckily the SUNRISE out my kitchen window made it worth it.