Happy Birthday Kim!!!

Pregnant with our third babies!!!

I wanted to wish my friend Kim Hodson a very Happy Birthday! We have been friends ever since we met in the Mother's room at church with our first born children (so I guess that makes it almost 6 years). I thought I would list a few things that I love about Kim:

* We are alike in many ways and she understands how I tick

* She doesn't judge me even though I tick the way I do

* She is a great friend and promised me that when she moved we were not going to lose touch

* She likes to do crafty things like scrapbook and sew

* She always knows what to say when I need a little encouragement

* She shares her testimony with me

* She has really cute and smart kids

* We get mistaken for sisters : )

* She is a really neat (as in tidy) person and I want to be like her when I grow up

* She is a great interior decorator and I want to hire her

* She has a beautiful smile and a great laugh

Kim I just wanted to wish you a very Happy Birthday! I hope you know how much I treasure our friendship! You are the best! Have a great day!

Experiencing Technical Difficulties...

Can I just say...I deserve a pat on the back. The only formal computer training I have is the Computer Science class that fulfilled my Liberal Arts Core Curriculum requirement. Anyways, the sub woofer on my computer just stopped working the other day. If there is anything I can't stand is when something just breaks and there is no explanation. So I played around with it, checking all the connections and reading the help page on the web. Well, I fixed it! It was just the master volume slider thingy on my desk top...probably the kids accidentally clicked on it and turned the volume way down. Anyways, something off my list of things to fix, turn in, fill out, drop off, clean up, research, pick up and so on and so on!

Have a great Monday!!!

I'm Hungry Mom!

What do you guys feed your kids for lunch?

I have been stuck in a rut for a long time! Sometimes they eat leftovers, but mostly it is pb&j and turkey sandwiches around here. The only thing I change up is the fruit. Usually I give them something like pretzels or crackers with it. I also give them cottage cheese, sliced cheese and yogurt on the side sometimes. Oh and I throw in some veggies here and there.

Help! Will you guys tell me what your kids favorite lunch is and post it in the comments.

Thanks
Julia

Scrap Night

Kymberly McIntosh and I are getting together a combination Scrap Night and Stampin' Up! Workshop this Friday April 11th. I just thought I would post it here so that if any of you want to come you can mark your calendars and get the husbands on board to watch the kids and such. We will be starting the Scrap Night at 7:00 pm. But feel free to come anytime after 6:00 I will have some Stampin' Up! Make and Takes and some Demonstrations going on as well. Even if you can't stay for the Scrap Night come and see the New Stampin' Up! Catalog and cute papers and stamp sets! If you want to stay and scrap with us just give me a call so we can save you a spot to scrap!

Sorry...

I've been kind of a lame blogger lately. We have been busy around here...doing what? I'm really not sure but Spring Break came and went already and I can't believe it! I will write more later...I am off to the gym and to pick up Rowdy's cousin for a playdate this afternoon.

They can feel the spirit too...

Last Monday night for Family Home Evening we had a lesson about Easter. We didn't talk about Easter eggs, jelly beans and the Easter bunny. We talked about Jesus, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Here is the lesson if you want to do it next year...Easter Lesson. Anyways, I used the Gospel Art kit to supplement the lesson so Rowdy and Avery could take turns holding the pictures.

The picture above is one of the pictures that we used in the lesson. It is called The Triumphal Entry. It depicts when Jesus traveled with His disciples to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover, and He entered the city riding on the colt of a donkey. Large crowds of people gathered to honor Jesus. They spread clothing and palm branches in His path. The people rejoiced and shouted, "Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Mark 11:9).

The kids really seemed to enjoy the lesson and were attentive the entire time, mainly because they got to find things, open things and hold pictures. We had fun and we all felt the Spirit.

But it wasn't until Sunday that I felt that they might have understood and retained some of what we talked about. When we walked into church and this same picture was hanging on the wall just as we walked in the building both Avery and Rowdy with so much excitement and joy said "Look! There is the picture of Jesus from Family Home Evening!"

I didn't even notice it...but they did! I was so proud of them!

Corn Beef and Cabbage!

This meal is a tradition from when I was a kid. My Mom would make corn beef and cabbage on St. Patricks day! Yummy! We all got together at my Mom's on Saturday night to eat and meet my new niece Morgan.
We're so Lucky!

My mom and Morgan. Couldn't you just eat her up!!!

Big Leprechaun and Little Leprechaun!!

My favorite part! If you guys don't know this about me already...I love cake!

Roomies!

This is my friend Amy. She is the type of friend that no matter how much time passes between times we talk it is as though no time has passed. She and I were roommates in College at good ol' Western Oregon State College (before it became University). At any rate we got together on Saturday. It had been way too long since we had seen each other. It was so fun to see Rowdy and her daughter Lauren together. They are exactly 8 days apart. We looked through some old photos that we had taken of them when they were one month old and again when they were one year. They were so little and have changed so much. They played so well together and had a blast performing puppet shows, having an Easter Egg hunt and a dance performance too. Oh and Lauren was so cute with little Bodie Man. She loves babies and was really comfortable holding him. Thanks Lauren!!!

Thank you Amy so much for having us over. It was so great to see you. We will have to do the BBQ you talked about for sure. Have fun with your new Wii, kick Aaron's tail!!! Be sure to e-mail me those photos too.

The girl's got some software...

Before Lightroom
After Lightroom

So I tried a 30 day trial for a photo editing program here is my first attempt. I still need to play with it. It is called Lightroom by Adobe.

He on the other hand...

is learning to pose for Mama!

Look at Mama!

Do you like how I have to take this.....
this.....
and finally this....
to get this!

Do I need to say more?

Fitness Matters

Ok I can't keep it quiet anymore. I have been thinking for quite sometime I want to start a fitness blog. So I did! It is in my sidebar. I was going to keep it private for awhile to see if I would keep it up, but I want you guys to be in on it from the beginning. I'm not sure exactly what I will be putting on it. My goal is to inspire others and to stay focused on my personal fitness goals. I will be sharing my knowledge of proper diet and exercise. I will share with you some of my favorite healthy recipes and other tid bits of info. I would also be glad to help you with any questions you might have about diet and exercise. If I don't know we will find out together.

Boogie Boardin' Fools

Avery is 4

She got this little party dress for her birthday and she didn't want to put it on. So Aunt Rebecca told her the person who wears the dress gets the presents. At first that wasn't enough to convince her to put it on. So Uncle Aaron stepped in and said "I want presents, I'll wear it"...we put it around Aaron's neck and that is all it took. She didn't want to take it off that night so we let her sleep in it.
Best Friends

Happy Birthday Avery Girl!

Rowdy, Maya, Malea, Katinia, Avery, Keiana and Aaron eating cake!

The Beach

The kids absolutely loved the water. We went in everyday. The beach was 100 paces from our house. We didn't have to get in the car or anything. We could literally walk through the back yard to the beach. Because of this the beach was totally private. The only people we saw on the beach were a handful of people taking walks on the beach and a few fishermen.
Avery took some time to warm up to the idea of getting in the water...
but she quickly adjusted and enjoyed jumping over the surf and the running away from the waves as they came in.
I even Boogie Boarded and body surfed a little bit. It was just paradise to be in the ocean with the kids and see them enjoy the water so much. The weather was perfect. It wasn't blazing hot or cold. The water wasn't warm, like it is in the summer time. But we could go swimming anytime without it being too hot.

One day it rained while we were playing in the water. It was coming down really hard and Rowdy started to run for the house...I said "where are you going buddy you are already wet from head to toe"...he said "I don't want to get more wet"

He also said to me on another day "Mama, did you know there is salt in that water"

Coconuts

Traveling with Roger and Maryanne to Hawaii was like having our own personal tour guides. They knew where to eat and showed us things that we would have missed out on if we weren't with them. Roger got some coconuts for us to try. We drank the milk right out of the coconut and ate the meat out of the coconut.

PCC - Polynesian Cultural Center

Warrior!
I absolutely love watching the differnt villages perform their native dances.
Learning how to play with the Rhythm sticks.

This is where we stayed...

Shave Ice

It was hard to decide with all the choices of flavors. Avery got Rainbow, Rowdy got Rootbeer and Ron and I got berries and melon flavors....YUMMO!