Mother's Day

Better later than never right? These are my mother's day gifts from the kids this year. I love the homemade gifts I get each year. I think it's my favorite part.

Mason's card says:

Dear Mom, I love you because you are the best person ever. And you do lots of things for me. You are the best best best best best best person ever. p.s. Happy Mother's Day! Love Mason

MJ's card says:

Dear Mom, Thank you for making me a good kid. You're a special person. I love you.

From MJ   to mom

I just love how precious my kids are.  I love being a mom. (most days)

Reunion with my best friends from High School

Yesterday we went to Wenatchee to see my best friends from High School. Only Sarah, Aubrey and I went to our 10 year reunion 5 years ago, so it was so much fun all being together again after all this time. Thanks to Sarah planning this 6 months ago and to Facebook for keeping us all in touch, we were all able to be there. Sarah flew here with her family from Indiana, Aubrey lives in Ellensburg, Emily lives in the tri-cities, Mari lives in Wenatchee, and we came from over the mountains.

Emily, Sarah, me, and Aubrey

Sarah and Emily with Paige

Ethan, Sam(in red shirt) Mason, MJ, and Kaylynn playing in the water.

All the kids getting eachother soaked from the pool and the hose.

Hanging out eating our hamburgers.

Austin, Sarah, Mr. Jackson, Halle Mae and Aubrey

Mari and 2 of her 3 kids. Ilsa 5, and Clara Rose 3. She also has a 15th month old boy Johnny and she's pregnant with her 4th due in August. Her husband Alan and Johnny weren't able to come.

Aubrey and her 2 girls Halle Mae 31/2, and Kaylynn 5.

Emily and Paige, 4 months

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Sarah and Jeff with Benjamin, 6 months. She also has Ethan 7, and Sam 3.

MJ and Kaylynn became best friends right away. They're soaked from all the water and having a blast.

The 5 of us all together again after 15 years.

And with all our kids, minus Clara who didn't want to be in the picture.

Hanging out in the orchard next to Emily's house.

All the kids got ice cream cones.

We went to Aubrey's house after the bbq to see her parents Phil and Susan. Sharina and Jeremy were there with there 3 kids, Elijah, Jade and Olivia (standing inbetween MJ and George). They're the same ages as my kids 10, 8 and 6. And TJ her younger brother was also there.

The kids played games in the backyard and ate popsicles.

It turned out to be such a nice day, besides the 90 deg. weather, visiting with everyone and hanging out was a blast. We can't let too much time pass before we do this again. I'm so thankful to have such good friends that has lasted all this time and we can still get together and it feels like just yesterday. I have such great memories and did so well in school because of them. Friends make all the difference and we were very blessed to have eachother.

Apple Blossom

I was so excited this year for Apple Blossom. I think the last time I was home for it was 1997, crazy. It's just one of those fond memories of tradition that we did every year and now here I am finally taking my own family to it. The parade, craft and food fair and carnival. This time though all the kids actually participated in the 1 mile run before the parade and Marnie and I did the 10K run. I've never done that before, I was either watching the parade, or in it (every year in HS as an Apple-ette), I never had any desire to run. But this year was a little different since Marnie and I are training for a 1/2 marathon in Seattle next month. I'm so glad she talked me into it. I was hesitant at first 'cause I didn't think I was ready, but it turned out to be great. I surprised myself and actually jogged the whole time. Marnie walked most of it and I stayed right next to her up until the very end, the adrenaline kicked in and I got excited to finish and I kind'a left her. I don't think she minded though, I hope. I finished in 1 hr 27 min. which is, yes, very slow, but I didn't care. I wasn't doing it for the time. I'm just glad I finished, I jogged the whole time and it was really fun doing it with my sister. I didn't have my camera, but Marnie took pictures with her phone, so hopefully one of these days I can get copies.

The whole gang watching the parade.

After the run with their new cute t-shirts. I think we started a new tradition.

Eating at the fair. Kids got snow cones and Jeremy and I ate my favorite - Teriyaki beef and noodles. I don't remember what everyone else had. It was so crowded though we didn't stay long. We headed over to the car show where Preston had his car.

After resting at home for a while, I was tired and a little sore, the kids were begging to go to the carnival so we went and rode a few rides.

The Scrambler has always been my favorite, but now it Maryjane's too. We went on it twice and just died laughing the whole time.

I don't remember what this one was called. It's kind of like the teacups, but you're spinning yourself up in the air. Maybe the Tornado?

A sign of pure exhaustion.

I think we all had a great time and were pretty tired by the time we left Sunday afternoon.

(You give the kids their ipods or DS's in the car and it's always a quiet, pleasant ride.)

Vancouver Temple

We got the chance to got to the Vancouver Temple's open house a couple weeks ago. I was so excited to take the kids and show them the inside and how beautiful it is. Jeremy got off work early and I checked the kids out of school a little early so we could take our time and not be rushed. Unfortunately it rained the whole time we were there. It wasn't suppose to, but it did. I was hoping to walk around the outside and get pictures, but that didn't happen. I got a few pictures from the car instead.

The temple actually is not in Vancouver, it's in a town called Langley which is only 80 miles from our house. So not too far away.

Waiting for the shuttle to take us back to our car down the road at a church. MJ decided to hide and not be in the picture.

I think the kids favorite part was the baptismal font with the 12 oxen. In Primary we've been learning about the 12 tribes of Israel and the blessings promised to Abraham's posterity if they remain faithful, so they got to understand the symbolism of it. And they also liked the mirrors in the sealing room. When you look in them you can see for eternity, never ending, just like our marriage and family.

I hope they remember the way they felt while in there and how special of a place the temple is and will look forward to going back when they're older.

Getting a little caught up on blogging

It's been so long since I've posted I need to play catch up and I thought since I have so much to add and way to many pictures I would just use my Project Life book. And maybe if you click on the pictures you'll be able to see them well enough to get a good idea of what we've been up to. I've tried to add pictures to Facebook of Spring Break, but they won't upload. Maybe I'm trying to do too many at at time. But then I get discouraged and give up. So one of these days they'll be on there. But here are my picture of the day pictures from March 19th to April 14th.

March 19th-25th Highlights:

 - Went to Wenatchee and helped rake leaves

and met Jennifer Holman and her baby Payton (not picured)

 - Finished my first quilt

 - Parent teacher conferences

 - Scouts

 - MJ got her cast off just in time for Spring Break. Yah.

March 26th-April 1st Highlights:

 - Went to Utah for Spring Break

 - Played Wii Dance

 - Baby Isaac was blessed

 - Had an Easter Egg hunt

 - Stayed the night at G'ma Laurie's house

 - Ate lunch at Cafe Rio and shopped at Tai Pan with friends

(plus dinner at In n Out)

 - Saw the movie Diary of a Whimpy Kid and went to

Chuck E Cheeses with all the cousins

 - April Fools. All the cereal was switched by Adam.

 - Woke up to 4 inches of snow. left for home anyway.

April 2nd-8th Highlights:

 - Finished the book series The Mortal Instruments. Great Read.

 - Watched General Conference on the internet.

 - Easter day we went to Anacortes and walked the beach

and walked through some tulip fields on the way home.

April 9th-14th Highlights:

 - Met up with my cousin Emily. We hadn't seen eachother in almost 20 years.

We talked for 3 hours in Starbucks and had a great visit. I thought we looked a lot alike.

 - Went to Kayak Point for a Sunday afternoon walk on the beach and saw a gray whale just off

the shore. It was amazing.

Well how's that for 4 weeks. Now I'm only behind 2 weeks. So maybe in the next few days I'll get caught up completely. There's a lot to share that I want to make sure gets on the blog.