Relief Society Mother and Daughter Activity

We had another Relief Society activity this week.  It was a Mother and Daughter activity and the theme was "hands".  Now I don't have any daughters and there are lots of sisters in the ward who don't have daughters at all or they are all grown.  We didn't want anyone to think that they couldn't come if they didn't have a daughter to bring so we decided that we were all daughters and we all had mothers so then we were all invited.  We invited the daughters who were 8 and up to join us with their moms.  We had the best turn out we have ever had!  52 people!  We had to set up extra chairs for our game!  There were even some sisters who haven't been to an activity yet that came with their girls.

We played this M and M game first with everyone.  They got a little handful of M and M's in a cup and they had to choose out 3 and tell us something about them based on the color that they picked out.  WE learned some fun and interesting things about the girls and their moms.  Then we just let everyone sit and visit or make our jar craft, do manicures and then see if they could guess the pictures of the sisters' hands in the ward.  There was a dessert table that was full of yummy treats.  Don and Cayden along with Seren'a boys Braden and Bryton ran the nursery for us.  It was Kyle and one other boy named Barrett.  They had a good time playing with each other and my husband is so good with kids so that makes it nice too!

The jar lid was modge podged with scrapbook paper and then they could take paper strips and write things that they loved about their mom or daughter respectively or they could also do it for whoever they wanted to.    

We went around the ward, texted and emailed all the sisters and asked them to send us a picture of their hands with something reflective of themselves with out showing any defining features.  We made a guessing game of all the pictures.  It was fun to see all the things that represented all these sisters.  We got about 43 pictures which was a lot and a lot of work!  

It was a fun activity and really not as much work as some of the other activities have been with a really great turn out.  Success!

Festus and Velociraptors

Sometimes I wonder if my life can get any nuttier but I shouldn't because it gets repeatedly nuttier day by day!  Kyle loves this cowboy hat and he insists on wearing it sideways.  It is too small anyway and is tearing up on the side but he loves it.  The glasses are from Mr. Potatohead and he won't let us give him any other sunglasses that actually fit him.  He can hardly see through them but he loves them.  Don calls him Festus when he wears the hat like this.  

These would be my velociraptors.  Thanks to Caleb and his ingenuity they have velociraptor  battles.  Yeah it's a little nutty around here!

Teacher Gifts

These are the gifts for Cayden's teachers this year.  The red jug is full of red items like red Solo cups, Twizzlers, Hot Tamales and red Crystal Light.  These are for his two main teachers Mrs. Widdison at the elementary school and Mrs. Parker his tutor.  In 5th grade they rotate to 4 different teachers but Mrs. Widdison is his home room teacher.  This is the last year for a while that I will have to do teacher gifts!  I do try to get something for the school nurses or assistants too since they have to help a lot with Cayden and Connor.  Cayden's nurse assistant is getting a bag of lotion and stuff from Bath and Body Works.  

These cups are for his 2 special ed teachers Mrs. Riggins and Mrs. Williams.  They are filled partway with Reese' Pieces, orange nail polish, orange Crystal Light packets and orange Trident gum.  

I love Pinterest!  I can get clever ideas and just make them mine!  I found the "orange" you glad idea on Pinterest so I used it and then I thought about what I could do with "red" because I couldn't find an orange container at first.  I found the cups a few days later at the dollar store after I had already bought the jugs and the red items.  It worked out just fine!  

From My Garden

Here is some of our first harvest.  This year we planted full plants from the hardware store instead of seeds.  The zucchini has come in really good and full but the yellow squash, while we are getting some off it has not grown very big at all.  I have tried a few new zucchini recipes and of course we have the old standby of zucchini bread.  The bottom picture is our very first zucchini picked on May 8.  The other ones were the next few weeks.  We also have 2 cucumber plants, 8 tomato plants with lots of tomatoes just ready to turn red,  4 pepper plants and 4 onion plants.  We aren't sure how to tell when onions are done though.  

Connor Fishing with Friends

Connor has been spending a lot of time fishing in the river and the reservoir with some friends.  He went and bought himself a fishing liscense and has spent many an afternoon the last few weeks catching catfish and whatever else is in there.  He even had a turtle snapping his lines in the river.  He took pictures on his phone but since he doesn't have texting or internet access I can't get them.  He is fishing with a friend named Connor who is a little younger than him but he has a brother who is severely autistic and Connor is very good with that boy.  It has always been that Connor does better with kids that are younger than him or adults.  Connor went with Grandpa last Saturday to Alamo to check out a potential job and they went fishing at Paranghat Valley.  They had to get a trout stamp at the R Place gas station where they have the best burritos!

Caleb at the Carwash

The Priests Quorum is trying to earn money for their big bike ride in June so they had a car wash on Saturday May 24 at Wally's.  It was not a scorching hot day and it actually rained for a few minutes which could have given them trouble but it soon passed.  After talking to his leaders we think that they washed about 50-60 cars!  

Poppin' and Pancakes

We got some bubble wrap that came out of a package and Kyle had such a great time just jumping on it popping it all.  Who needs expensive toys!

.

One morning last week Kyle wanted pancakes for breakfast.  I gave them to him and he said "nothin' like a cold delicious pancake".  He is so funny!

Number 43

Don does not really like birthdays that much especially since he keeps getting older.  Imagine that!

He doesn't like cake much either so his "cake" was his birthday lasagna!

He had to go out of town the day after his birthday so I made him his birthday dinner on Monday so he had a few days to enjoy it.  He likes leftovers of any kind but really likes lasagna left overs.  

His presents this year consisted of stuff to fix a bike that we have had in the garage for a long time.  It needed a new seat and new tires and tubes.  He also got a bike helmet and some new athletic shorts and shirts.  He wants to get into biking some and be able to ride with Caleb.  We didn't wrap up his presents because he picked them out himself when we went to dinner and the temple the weekend before his birthday.  

Let's see if I can come up with 43 things about him

1.  He likes lasagna!

2.  He likes leftovers.

3.  He can find anything to eat when he is hungry.  He has been known to eat a can of cream of mushroom soup.

4.  He likes really really hot salsa.

5.  He puts Tapatio or hot sauce on almost everything.  

6.  He doesn't eat breakfast much but he will usually eat dinner and then have an after dinner dinner late at night.

7.  He doesn't like to go to bed unless the house is all settled and everyone is in bed.

8.  He doesn't like to watch movies in our room on our bed because he falls asleep.

9.  We do  not like to watch hardly any of the same things.  He likes Swamp People and River Monsters and the like.  I like NCIS and Bones.

10.  The one show we can agree on to watch together is Big Bang Theory.

11.  We used to watch Wings and Everybody Loves Raymond together late at night.

12.  He does like peanut butter.  He will put in on his waffles, pancakes and french toast if he eats breakfast.

13.  If he eats dessert it is usually just a bite of mine especially if it has peanut butter in it.

14.  He loves football-any kind of football.  It doesn't matter who is playing.

15.  He likes to watch basketball too.

16.  He played football in high school.

17.  He has lots of scars on his body from football injuries.

18.  One of his fingers does not bend at the last joint because he tore the ligament in it.

19.  He has of late been Mr. Fix-it!  He has replaced parts on the washing machine that would have cost a lot of money to replace through a repair service.

20.  He fixed up Kyle's bike for him by replacing the tires and tubes.

21.  He is the second counselor in the Elders Quorum Presidency.  I think he has been in 4 if not 5 Elders Quorum Presidencies.

22.  He has taught at least 4 times in the last 2 months.  Once because it was his regular turn but the others because their teachers called in the day of or the hour before saying they couldn't teach.

23.  He is really good at pulling a lesson together quickly.

24.  Other than his eye surgery in 2003 he has only had one other surgery and that was last year for his appendix.

25.  He can really talk to anybody.  That is why he is so good at his job.

26.  He used to listen to country music but he can't hardly strand it anymore.  We can agree on the 80's station in the car.

27. If I want to go to sleep in the car then he usually finds a game to listen to.

28.  He has become quite the traveler.  He goes somewhere at least a few times a month.

29.  He has wracked up lots of airline miles and hotel points that we get to use for various things.

30.  He does not like to go to concerts.  

31.  He does have a little OCD when it comes to travel.  He packs his stuff the night before and checks it repeatedly and he is very OCD about getting to the airport early.

32.  He likes to have the carpet in the front room vacuumed just so and he will ask me to give him the the vacuum so he can do the floor in there just the way he wants.

33.  The bottoms of his feet are really really tough.  He doesn't feel stuff on the tile when he walks right through it and he had a sticker stuck to the bottom of his foot for at least an hour and didn't notice it until I pointed it out.

34.  He loves his kids and really can be quite the pushover for them.

35.  Who are we kidding-he is quite the pushover for me too.

36.  He doesn't take naps much even when he can and he can do with a lot less sleep than me.

37.  It really takes a lot to make him really mad.  

38.  He is really able to think things through and not make irrational decisions.

39.  He doesn't have a Facebook page nor does he want one.

40.  He can be happy anywhere.

41.  He used to have a flat top when we were first married (which I didn't really like that much) but now he has to get his hair cut every 3 weeks because it is so thick.

42.  He has a testimony and he honors his priesthood.

43.  He loves his family and will do anything to make me happy.

We love love love love our dad!

Cayden's First Piano Recital

Cayden has been taking piano for a while now-I think this is the second year.  He had a piano recital on May 20.  He was not thrilled at all to do it and so I kind of  had to trick him to get him there by saying that he needed to go support his teacher and the other students by going and then I figured that once he got there he would do it.  He wasn't happy about it but he did it.  He wanted his teacher to sit by him while he did it which was just fine.  He played a song called The Elevator and he had it memorized.  He did a great job!

This is his teacher Beth Cooper.  She is the sweetest and kindest teacher anywhere!

Kyle Loves the Library

Kyle loves going to the library.  We try to go once a week if we can.  The library had been undergoing renovations for almost a month so we couldn't go but we were sure excited when it was back up and open.  He likes to play with the puzzles and now they have these bean bag chairs that he is enjoying.  I enjoy getting books for us to read and like to pick out books that rhyme because they are just so much more fun to read.  I am constantly amazed at the level of creativity from these children's books.  Yay for books!  

This is one of the fantastic finds from the library recently.  It was such a sweet book and really had a lot of gospel themes and messages if you were looking for that-which I always am.  

This one was super funny and just full of rhyming and tongue twisters.  It also had words that were quite hard and I found myself trying to figure out what they meant.  

Cowboys in the House

The boys thought it would be fun to play cowboys with Kyle.  Caleb's hat is just a bit small and that rope is the real deal and has been on many a horse and cow.  Fun times in the afternoon!

Mother's Day

As much as my kids make me crazy some times they treat me really really good on Mother's Day.  Cayden got me a few things from his school class auction.  They had earned class money all year long and he spent his money on me.  I got a fabulous tiara and wand as shown below.

These are my flowers and balloon from Don my stash of peanut butter candy and my tiara and wand.

This was my delicious breakfast.  Chocolate strawberry waffles, peanut butter waffles and bacon.

Don always sends me 6 blue carnations surrounding a pink rose to symbolize our family.  He is so thoughtful!  The ladies at the flower shop actually brought out 2 vases when he went to pick up the flowers.  One had the rose and the other had the carnations.  He had to explain to them why he wanted them together in one face and they thought it was so sweet!  I also got 3 bottles of Diet Pepsi.  

Cayden picked out this balloon for me.  

I found these chocolate strawberries at Costco and purchased them for myself.  I sent Don a text saying "look what you got me for Mother's Day!"

Kyle gave me a cute card he made a nursery that had a Hershey kiss taped to it.  He helped me eat it.

Connor gave me the "free hug" coupon he printed at Grandma's and the flower seeds were another gift from Cayden that he bought at school with his class money.  

The boys cleaned the house for me Saturday and did the dishes all day Sunday.  They tried really hard to behave all day too.  Cody called me in the evening too.  I told myself before going to church that I was going to have a good day and I would not let any guilt creep in to ruin my day.  Some times on Mother's Day while the speakers are well intentioned it can feel like I am hearing a list of all the things I am not doing or should be doing better.  I decided that no matter what was said over the pulpit that I would not compare myself to others or to this irrational standard that I think I have to reach.  The speakers were all really good and the YW sang a really nice song called I think "My Mother's Hands".  All the women got a big cupcake given to us by the men.  I had to conduct in Relief Society and I felt prompted to tell the women about what had happened that morning while I was getting ready for church.  I try and say my prayers right before I get in the shower if I can so that I can have that quiet time in the shower to think about things.  I get a lot of revelation and impressions in the shower and while I am getting dressed and drying my hair so that's why I do it.  In the shower I started thinking about all the sisters in my ward.  I started on Wells Road in my mind and went up and around it, down Mills and Waite street back to Country Lane 1 and 2 and the along the Boulevard and then into Jim Haworth and Mahalo Circle and then across Whipple over to Stratton Street all the while seeing in my mind each sister in our ward and thinking of her name and her family, kids, jobs etc.  I was able to see in that short amount of time how similar we all are to each other with surprising challenges and concerns.  I was grateful to think about these women in my life who each contribute something to me as a mother and a wife, sisters that I have and continue to look up to as examples of service, charity, love, acceptance, grace through various trials, juggling of various callings, jobs and responsibilities, and the list could go on.  I was very grateful that the Lord let me think of all these amazing women I and my family are surrounded by and to be grateful for each one of them.  I felt prompted to share that with the sisters in Relief  Society that day.  It helps me to know that while I am slugging along in this mortal existence that others are too and we can learn so much and help each other so much.  It was a good day and I am so grateful to be a mother even though it is the hardest HARDEST thing I have ever done. I truly believe that you have to have a testimony of motherhood and of the family to be able to continue forward in this life when things get really hard.  There are many days I would like to throw in the towel and hide in my bed with the covers pulled up around me so no one know I am there but that's not how it works so I will just keep moving forward hopefully and trying each day to be a little better.  I love my mom and my sisters and think they are such great examples to me and my kids.  I love my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law as well and appreciate the influence they have in my life.  

Peas and Carrots

I got these in the mail from Jim and it made my day!  Jim always calls me "Jen-Nay" from Forrest Gump and says we are like "peas and carrots" from the movie!

More Kyle

Kyle came home from church on Sunday singing about a baby bumblebee. He learned that song in nursery and has been singing it nonstop. Of course we are all singing it too.  He really loves nursery now and his teachers say that he talks and talks and talks.  He also was comforting one of the boys that was crying yesterday and told him that it was ok.

His favorite game to play right now is "I wipe off all the kisses". When we give him kisses he says I wipe off all the kisses and it sounds so cute. I don't know where he got that but we love it. 

He loves to sing Do You Want To Build a Snowman but adds in the words to Let It Go. 

He knows the words to the chorus of Cruise by Florida Georgia Line. We usually sing "Baby you're a song. You make me wanna roll my windows down and"  then he sings "Cruise". 

He woke up this morning and I said Hello my punkin pie. And he said yes. I said yes what and he said I am your punkin pie.  I tell him "I'm happy to see you" and he says "happy see you mom".

He is so smart!  When we were at Tahiti Village for Spring Break we were at the pool and he was hungry.  He said that he wanted macaroni and cheese and grapes.  He remembered that he had eaten that the last time we were there at Tahiti Village in September.  We didn't even ask him if he wanted to eat that.

There is an app on my phone that is kind of like flashcards.  He likes to watch the cards and repeat what they say.  There is a section on musical instruments that he must have watched because the other night we were reading one of his books and he saw a flute, and a trumpet and a drum and drum sticks and told us exactly what they were.

 Kyle likes to pretend he is going to school.  He gets his backpack and puts some toys in it and asks me to make him a sandwich and put in a plastic sandwich container like what I send with Cayden for his lunch.

 There are just some days that he is just so tired!  This was Wednesday last week.  Dad was super tired too and they both just crashed.  It is usually around 5pm that he gets really tired and we have found him on the floor face down asleep or on my bed when we have left him the room watching a show.

This is my friend Stephanie McCauley and her new baby Colin.  We had a meeting at my house for Releif Society and Kyle was so excited to see the new baby.  Stephanie asked him if he wanted to hold him and he did.  There have been lots of new babies in our ward here recently and he really wants to see them.  I was so grateful Steph let him hold Colin-he hasn't been able to hold any of the new babies!

I try not to be a crazy psycho mother with him playing with all his thousands of toys.  But sometimes it is just insane the number of toys he has and that he spreads them out all over his room.  On the days that we clean up his room, we get everything organized and put away and I shut most of the toys up in the closet so that Hurricane Kyle doesn't come through 10 minutes after we have cleaned it up.  It really takes the whole family to clean up his room because it is such a daunting task.  I leave the door closet shut for a few days and then let him back in to trash the place.  

Surprise, AZ

So surprisingly, the Phoenix area is not much different from the Las Vegas area! That place is F.L.A.T.One of my good friend's dad died and they the funeral was the Friday of the May Day dances and most of our kids were going to be dancing.  Luckily all of Don's travel has given him a lot of points on Southwest and other airlines so we were able to use points to get airline tickets down to Phoenix.  We flew down Thursday night and were supposed to take the 7:45pm flight.  There is a lot of construction going on right now on the freeway into Vegas and we got stuck in it on the way to the airport.  What usually only takes about 15 minutes to get through took us over an hour.  We barely made it out of Glendale when the slowdown started and we were stop and go all the way past the Valley of Fire.  Luckily I got text while we were on our way that said our flight was delayed by almost 2 hours!  We had to drop off Shelby's kids at their cousins and then we had time to go to Kohl's for a minute.  We got to the airport about 7ish and got checked in.  We still had a bit of time to kill so we ate in a Mexican restaurant near the gate where we were boarding.  We all had a yummy taco salad but the dirty buggers charged you for chips and salsa!  Who does that at a Mexican restaurant!  Luckily the food was really good although the hot salsa was really hot!  Don would probably been able to drink it straight out of the bowl but it was way too hot for me and Shelby.  Karrin wasn't bothered by it at all!  The plane left a little earlier than the expected time of 8:55.  We barely made it on where we could all sit together.  We were literally on the very last rows!  The flight was short and we got into Phoenix around 10.  We had to ride the forever shuttle to the rental car place and then rent our car, a lovely Nissan Altima that made me want another one really really bad, and then navigate our way to Surprise which was about 45 minutes from Phoenix.  Shelby was the driver and I was the "navigator"!  We got to Surprise around 11:30 and headed to Walmart for a few makeup items and got to our hotel around 12:30.  It was funny that there were 4 middle age women shopping in the Walmart makeup aisle at midnight!  We finally got settled into our rooms and Shelby and I were asleep by 2.  I could hear Karrin and Deanna giggling next door at 2 right before I fell asleep and they said that they were up until about 3.  We had to get up around 7 to get dressed and have time to eat at the free breakfast before we headed to the funeral.  We got there around 9:30 and went in to see Gerilyn and her family.  Shelby used to live there and knew a whole lot more people but it was nice to just sit in the chapel while we waited for the service to start.  It was an amazing service and Gerilyn's dad was an amazing man. I did not know him but he lived a great life and was a great example to a lot of people.  It was the kind of funeral where you could listen and listen to the stories that were told and never get bored.  After the service we only had a minute to say hi to Gerilyn before we had to head back to the airport.  We made a quick stop at Sonic and a quicker drive through Shelby's old neighborhood and then tried to get to the airport.  We once again we caught in construction and we barely made our flight.  I was getting pretty anxious about it because we still had return the car and get through security and we were running out of time.  It ended up being fine and we made it but I was sure worried!  We probably could have gotten the next flight but we all needed to get to May Day.  The flight back into Vegas was not fun.  I really thought I was going to puke.  I prayed and prayed and swallowed peppermint beadlets by the mouthful.  It was really bad for me.  If that flight would have been any longer I probably would have had to go throw up in the bathroom.  The bumps and dips and my anxiety were almost enough to push me over the edge.  Finally we made it onto the ground and I was soooooo grateful!  We had just enough  time to pick up Shelby's kids and get home in time to change and head over to May Day.  It was a super short trip but I am glad we were able to go and even more grateful that Don has a job that provides these little perks.  The tickets would have cost over $300 each!

Deanna Harding, Karrin Cox, Gerilyn Heiselbetz, me and Shelby Turner

Out the hotel window.

Another shot our across the Phoenix desert.