Homeschool

Just thought I'd "brag" for a little bit, Alex was tested and he started off the year testing at 2nd grade level (which is what he is), now at almost the end of the year he is testing 4th grade level! Great job Alex! He is so excited to "skip" 3rd grade!

Projects

I've had this sticker sitting on top of our entertainment center since probably September, and I finally found a scrap piece of wood, painted it with some light blue that I got for really cheap in clearance, put on the sticker, and hung it with some ribbon I found in my drawer. Katelyn took down all of her boxes in her closet and set up all of her porcelain dolls.

Our Wal-Mart store was getting rid of their fabric section so the striped fabric was on crazy clearance and Katelyn wanted it for her room. I bought what I thought was enough (couldn't go home and measure because it might not be there when we got back). I measured and realized I didn't have quite enough but thought maybe I could make it work. No, it didn't work. So I went to JoAnn's Fabric store and bought a contrasting fabric to let it reach the windowsill. I am so glad I didn't have enough striped because I think the green really makes the curtains!

I've had these shelves sitting in Katelyn's closet for over 2 years. They were black and used to be in my room in our old house, but I changed my room's colors, and it didn't work anymore. So finally with some more cheap green paint, and the same cheap blue paint I got around to painting her shelves. Just perfect for all her little nick nacks. Now all we need is to get Alex out of her room, and it will look great. (And poor Alex won't be surrounded by girly stuff!)

Nightstand

Before

After!

I think it will look better centered, but then there wouldn't be room for my basket full of diapers and wipes:)

I'm tired of my room being the catch-all room. So slowly I have been trying to make it a nice place to go at the end of the day.

So, I took an old nightstand that we got from Joel's grandpa. It is a really nice and sturdy nightstand, but it just didn't go in the room. I got some paint in the clearance at Lowe's for $2.50, painted some of Katelyn's things with it and decided I liked it a lot. So I bought some antiquing glaze (the blue is a pretty light blue, but without the glazing the nightstand looked like it belonged in Katelyn's room, not mine.) and I went to work. I'm pretty proud of myself because instead of taking shortcuts like I normally do, I did all the steps, primer, paint, paint, glaze, and gloss. And I bought some new handles (thanks to my mom who went with me and stood there as I looked through probably every single handle they had until we found one that would work). I really love it a lot!

Empty Laundry Baskets

Laundry is one of those awful chores that just never goes away! This is one of the first times in a long time that I can remember ALL of my laundry baskets being empty at once! I am enjoying this right now. But in about 20 minutes the dryer is going to beep and it will be no longer. But except for the load in the washer and dryer ALL of the laundry is cleaned, folded, and put away. WooHoo!!

Baptism

For some reason I had July 11 in my head for Alex's baptism date, but it is actually July 10. I changed it on the post, but I thought I would make a new post. Thanks! Hope to see you there!

Girls Weekend

Friday Katelyn and I waved goodbye to all the boys (even Benjamin!) they went to a Father's son campout, then we went to get a pedicure, got pretty, went out to eat, went shopping, went and rented a bunch of movies and got a ton of junk food. Then we took the movies home and lied down in my bed and then we heard a mouse in our ceiling. We banged on the walls, and then we turned the tv up and it just got louder. So we packed up our stuff and drove to my mom's house. We got there and vistited my grandparents, then we went out to dinner again! We went back to my mom's house and watched a movie.

Saturday Katelyn and I stayed in bed until 11:00. Oh it was wonderful! We started watching a movie, and then the boys came home. Then we went to an antique store, then out to lunch, then we went to see Shrek in 3D.

Now we are home, everybody is whiney because they are tired, and I still have to practice the organ, and pack up the stuff for sharing time in primary. It was sucn a fun and busy weekend. I got absolutely nothing done, but had a blast.

Mother's Day!

My awesome friends Audra and Erika watched the kids so my husband and I could go out for a date. While we were gone they made mugs and posters for Mother's day. It was such a wonderful surprise!

On Mother's day Joel made all the meals, cleaned up all the mess, and I got lots of rubs! What a wonderful mother's day!!

Service Project

All across California on May 8 our church did a service project. Our city did a service project at a park. We raked, we picked up trash, we picked up sticks, we laid down bark, and I'm sure there was more. The picture above was in the newspaper.

Alex is my 7 year old son, who let's face it, is not a very good cleaner at home. But let me tell you, I have never seen him work so hard! For 2 hours straight he raked hard right next to his dad. Raking was tiring me out, he did amazing!

Katelyn, Ben, and I picked up big sticks. It was a nice morning, and I am so proud of all my kids. Even Benjamin worked really hard the whole time. I think it's a very important thing to learn to serve others. As King Benjamin said, "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God."

Baptism

I got my 1st digital camera in 2005, so all of the baby pictures of Alex are in his scrapbook, not on the computer. But here is Alex when he had just turned 3 outside of his preschool. Okay, now look closely at his smile. Okay now look at the next picture.

Alex on Easter. I love how he still has the cute cheesy smile!

My cute little baby boy Alex is turning 8 next month! I can't believe it!! He will be getting baptized Saturday, July 10 at 5:00. We'd love to have anyone that can make it come! I'm sure I will have some sort of get-together at my house afterwards. It'll be fun!!

My new phone

Here is a picture of my new phone. The guy at Verizon tried really, really hard to talk me into getting a more expensive one. I didn't bite. So I hope that I don't have problems with this since he said I might. But I talked to my awesome brother, Jon, and he sat on the phone with me and looked up reviews, and gave me his opinion.

So, what seemed like 2 hours at the Verizon store I got a new phone, the one I wanted. Cheaper, but still way more technologically advanced than I have ever had. I will say that I was a little irritated that the guy at the store was treating me like a little kid when he was trying to explain how this thing works. I took the phone and hooked up both my emails and facebook while he was doing something on his computer, and he was very surprised that I could do it that quick. Hello, I'm not stupid:)

Alex (7) was with me at the store, and he took the phone while I was talking to the dude, and he found the App store, got a few games and was sitting playing them. Okay, now that I was impressed with. How do these kids learn these things so quickly?

phone

I did it I bought myself a fancy new phone! I love it so far and there is so much to learn. I am lying in bed snuggling with my baby and posting to my blog on this little phone. I have never had a laptop so this whole not having to sit in a chair is pretty awesome!

Easter eggs 2010

Katelyn showing off her eggs.

Alex showing off his eggs.

Ben with his good ol' cheesy smile, and grandpa Clift.

Every year grandpa Clift comes over and dies easter eggs with the kids. They all have so much fun! (and grandma doesn't have to worry about egg dye at her house:)

California Ag day

For a field trip I took the kids to the California state capital for Agrictulture day. They had horses, sheep, alpacas, produce, flowers, milk, nuts, pretty much everything that California produces. Alex and Ben had fun playing in a huge tractor. Katelyn got to spin some Alpaca wool. There were a lot of people, and Ben was too nervous to sit in the stroller and made me hold him almost the whole time so I didn't get many more pictures. But the kids and I had a great time, tried some new things (like lamb--we didn't like it), and learned a lot!

Valentine's Day

We were so lucky to have so many loved ones near us for Valentine's day! Joel's brother's family was here, my sister's family then came too. I made sugar cookies and had all the kids frost and decorate valentine's day cookies with sprinkles. They had a blast! Then we decorated a big valentine's banner with a bunch of stickers (don't have a picture of that though)

Feb 2010

We went to Jelly Belly with Joel's brother and family. We had so much fun with them when they came to visit!

Update Pictures!

I am the musical director at the local catholic school, and we put on School House Rock Jr. in February. They tricked Joel and told him they needed help lifting heavy things behind stage, instead they gave him a wig and he was a "founding father" He was a really good sport!

Katelyn got to be a dancer in the play. She had a lot of fun, and she loved the experience!

Our fun cousins came to visit, and we loved spending lots of time with them. Cami and Katelyn are the best of friends!

With our cousins at Kids Gone Wild.

Joel's birthday. He went to a LDS bookstore and bought tons of new books and such, so on his actual birthday all he had to open was hair cutting clippers!

We celebrated Joel's birthday with his grandpa. He always treats us so great on our birthdays and gets us delicious cakes!

I have hundreds of pictures to go through. That's what happens when your camera dies and then your computer dies. So many more pictures to come!