Words of Wisdom By: Sierra

My kids spent the night with my sister and she took them to the grocery store. While there Sierra had some words of wisdom for Martha about some of the things she saw at the store. Here they are:
Chocolate - is good for my heart, it makes my heart beat faster and it makes me more enthusiastic!!!

She then saw some Little Debbie 100 Calories desserts

Calories - are good for my lungs they help me breathe

Watermelon - good for my brain it makes me think

MERCY!!!!

It is amazing what kind of influence other people can have on a person. My friend Heidi always shares a good influence for me everytime I am with her. The last time we visited her two things made a great impression and for some of you it might seem like these things are silly but she helped me realize I don't do enough fun little things with my kids. I dont' feel too old yet and I guess I should be more willing to not act so old all the time too. One thing we did at their house we will never forget there were about 11 of us and she doesn't have a huge house but we played hide-n-go seek it was so fun and at first I know Steve and I were like "for real, can't we just watch the kids play" needless to say we like to be lazy. No way could we just watch everyone had to participate and we had to hide about 9 times so every could have a turn to find and we all had so much fun, it didn't cost anything and I bet the kids at least mine will remember that fun afternoon for a long time. The other thing that she did was turned on some music turned it up and danced around the living room with the kids. On my birthday Sierra was playing some music and the kids wanted to tear down the streamers from my party the night before so they tore them all down and then we danced and twirled streamers and wrapped them on heads and just had a good ole time. The song Heidi danced to was Mercy by Duffy and I had never heard the song and wasn't sure I liked it at first but now we listen to it all the time and love it and it is a great song to jam to so for all of you that need to bring a little youth back to your life I will try to update my playlist and add that song then turn up the computer volume, get off your bum and DANCE!!!!! This can be a great workout, after about three or four times of the song I was definetly sweating. Thanks Heidi and Darren for being such great friends and good influences on our family we couldn't ask for better friends.

School Days, Dear Old Golden Rule Days!!!

Boy did I need my kids to go back to school. Talk about it felt like we had no rules at our house the kids were driving me crazy. They absolutely haven't listened to me for a least a couple of weeks I think they have been on Mars or something. I think they were ready to have some structure in their lives that we were lacking at home. Sierra started last Monday and Carson had his kindergarten assessment that day and thought he should get to go to school the next day but he didn't get to start until today a week later. Sierra doesn't love school but she is very smart and is a quick learner. Carson loves school and wanted to know why he couldn't go to summer school, and last week he kept asking how many days until he got to go to school. He went to preschool at the school last year so he felt right at home today and just played on the playground and went straight to class. These pictures are from both first days of school and of course Briana wanted to be a part of it too.

Sweet Suprise

Another year older and wiser too!!! Whatever, I really think another year older and less brain cells to work with. This was a fun birthday. About a week before my birthday Sierra got up before me and turned the computer on and was talking to my sister Martha on the computer trying to have her help plan a suprise birthday party for me!! When I woke up she said you can't come over here, so I knew something was up. She actually did a cute job of planning, on Sunday Martha came over and they went on a walk to do some inviting and Sierra invited my friend Chris at church. Sierra made the mistake of telling her brother and sister what she was planning and they wanted to tell me all about it. I told Sierra Ididn't know what she was planning just that she was planning something. She had one of my sisters make a cake and have us over for dinner to get me out of the house and the other sister came over and decorated and then my friend brought the drinks. Sierra was a very good hostess and made sure everyone had some dessert and then her and my neice even cleaned up the kitchen. Anyways Sierra came home on Tues. and I looked in a planner she got at school and there was the note on Wednesday Surprise party for mom!!! She saw me read it and I still just said I didn't know what she was planning. We went to Martha's and had pizza and then Sierra came home with my other sister and then a little bit later we came to our house and I came in the livingroom and said wow I get two birthdays this year and Sierra said this is what we were planning she was so excited it was so cute and such a sweet thoughtful thing for her to do for me. Thank you Sierra you planned a great party. Here are some pictures of our party. I got some great presents this year season tickets to a theatre, a pedicure, a cute picture for my living room, and two gift certificates to two different restaurants. I had a great birthday and hopefully many more to come!!!! Thanks to everyone who gave me a call and wished me a Happy Birthday too!

Mother's Lullaby

I turned on the Primary songs we are learning this year to listen to as we were getting ready for church. I was in the bathroom fixing Sierra's hair and I heard Briana start to sing. I kept listening for a minute and then went to look and she was sitting in front of the CD player singing to her babydoll. I had Steve grab the camera and then I had him change it back to I am a Child of God and she got mad that he was changing it so he said I didn't get to hear that song so I am just turning it back. So she started singing and I started recording and wouldn't you know I realized I was holding the camera the wrong way and you would once again have to watch the video sideways so I deleted that and tried again so here she is singing I'm Trying to be like Jesus, (I think). It is a little hard to hear because we were standing back so she wouldn't know we were recording her because she probably would have stopped singing immediately. I thought it was so sweet of her to sing to her baby. Make sure to turn the music at the bottom on pause and turn your volume up otherwise you probably can't hear her.

Fun in the Sun

We got to spend some time with some friends of ours this weekend. It was their little boy's birthday and so we went to a really fun pool with them and the kids got to slide down the pirate ship and they had and indoor part that was shallow with slides and ropes and fun things and we all enjoyed a waterslide too. I haven't been on a water slide in years but last weekend we went to a pool with one and we went down once and that was enough for our kids and us and this weekend we went down about three times I think this one was a little less scary than the one last weekend. Anyways the kids seem to have fun no matter where they are especially if there is water involved. They also had a climbing wall that the kids tried out but it was pretty hard, Sierra got a ways up but got nervous and jumped down. Steve got on for the picture!!!!

No Longer HOT!!

Just an update I guess Briana just had a one day fever she seemed much cooler last night when I went to bed and she no longer had a fever this morning. I was so glad because she has had some virus at least twice this year that you get the high fever for 6 days straight and once the 6th day hits you are better and there are really no other symptoms so we were glad this was a quick one and the "HOT" went away quickly.

Poor Briana

Last night Briana got up like 3 or 4 times (it felt like 17 times) then she was up early this morning also. When it was time to eat breakfast she said she was too tired to eat but I made her eat a little anyways. When we got done I took her temperature and she has a 102 degree fever. I left her at home with my sister while we went to a little play group down the street and she slept the hole time. When she finally woke up she felt a little better but her fever was higher so I gave her some medicine and some Chocolate milk (her choice of beverages). She is now telling me "I am not sick anymore the hot just won't get off" I thought that was a cute way to think of it. She also told me if she drinks all of her milk she will be thirsty!!!! Funny how kids think. We hope she feels better soon.

Noise Maker

Elizabeth is staying with us for awhile and Kaden her baby loves to make this loud obnoxious noise. She says her mom always told her she would have a child just like herself. Boy is she seeing what mom meant. We can't seem to get him to be quiet and he has a very loud voice to go with it. He is cute though and he will just lay there and make this noise for hours it seems but really I am sure it is only minutes. Hope the family enjoys seeing Kaden and what he is up to these days. Sorry about the sideways things I forgot again one of these days I will get it right.

Rainbow, Where is the treasure??

Last night this rainbow was in the sky. I had to take two pictures to get both sides of it the middle was behind a cloud. I love rainbows but was slightly disappointed in that usually you get to enjoy a little rain (treasure)with it (my garden could sure use some). Steve said he had a little sprinkling when he was on his way home from work but I never saw a drop. I did just hear thunder though and am holding out that some of the gloom from this week might give my garden a good bath. Just wanted to share one of the many beauties of the earth with everyone.