Memorial Weekend

Memorial weekend was full of bbq's and fun time spent with friends and neighbors. On Saturday morning I went on my first long bike ride since last Fall. I don't like to ride when it's chilly outside - I'm whimpy that way. I headed up to Black Forest where there are some challenging hills (at least for me). There was only one time I felt like puking! It was such a blast! After I got home we headed over to our neighborhood park and had a fun time visiting, eating, and playing with friends. The weather was warm and gorgeous and believe it or not there wasn't even much wind!! Monday, we hosted a bbq at our house with some neighborhood families. The weather was much cooler but we still had a great time. I love Memorial weekend because it feels like the official start of summer!

Kent taking a very excited Jake to the park on the quad (yes, the bike helmet is a hand-me-down from his sisters, poor kid!)

I sent Kent home to get the cooler and camp chairs I had forgotten. I kind of thought he would take the van. Silly me!

The bbq at the park on Saturday.

Monday in our backyard

Jamie helping Jake pet the dogs

Crazy week!

What a crazy crazy week we have had! Lots of fun end of the school year activities, dentist appointments, church commitments, etc. I have found that its harder to stay up on this blogging thing once you let yourself get behind. So, I will give some quick updates since this is my journal/scrabook too! Here it goes...

Last weekend we had Elder Holland visit our Stake for conference. What an incredible experience I had at the Saturday night adult session. I was so grateful to be there and to have felt the Spirit as stong as I did. It was such a refreshing and uplifting experience. The part I loved most was when he said to pretend that he was sitting with us in our living rooms having a discussion that was immensly personal. It really did feel like he was just talking to me. He spoke on withstanding adversity and gave us hope to endure lifes difficulties. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the night. (these are from my notes so they are not exact quotes)

- "Be a disciple of Christ through all our pain"

- "This is a gospel of happy endings" (I especially love this one!)

-"Many of us say I want to be long suffering but I don't want to suffer and I don't want it to last long"
-"God loves broken things! It takes broken clouds to nourish the land, broken ground to nourish the plant, broken grain to make bread, and broken bread to nourish us. These are the cycles of life"

-"All broken hearts are mended through the Ressurection"

Anyways, it was a beautiful night and I was so excited for the girls to get to see him the next day. I broke out the Ensign and showed them his picture and challenged them to try and find him at church. Apparently I was more excited than them. Abbie and Kate tried to show some enthusiasm but really just wanted their snacks. The next night for FHE Kent was talking to the girls about Conference and they actually were able to repeat some of the things that were said (it was such a proud mommy moment!!!) I guess maybe they get more out of it than I think!

Well, here are some pictures of the rest of the week. Mostly from Claires fieldtrip to the zoo and field day for Abbie and Kate.

Our zoo has an awesome giraffe exhibit! It is always a big hit. Claire's cousins Bella and Azure came with us to the zoo too! Azure is in Claire's preschool class. Bella was definetly not nervous around the giraffes! (thank you Paula for helping me keep track of all the kids!)

Jakey had SO much fun at the zoo. He loved the gorillas. This is his Ohh! face that he makes all the time. It cracks me up and I am glad I got it on camera.

Lizzie, Claire, Bella, and Azure walking to see the Hippos!

Kate jumping rope at Field Day

Abbie, my future basketball star!

Abbie and Jake at Field Day.

Whenever I am at the school with Jake volunteering, Abbie will grab him and run off to show him to a giggling group of girls. I love that she is so proud of her Jakey!

Gymnastics!

Claire has been taking gymnastics now for 7 or 8 months. She absolutley loves it and her teacher Mr. Zach. I decided we would take the summer off so I thought I would post some pictures of my Claire Bear doing her thing!!!

Cute Apron!

Some friends and I were talking about how cute aprons have gotten lately. Check out these adorable aprons. If your going to wear one you might as well look good doing it. This is one of my favorites. emmeline_demo1.jpg (image)



Here are some of the links I found:
http://thisnthatboutique.blogspot.com/
http://epicureanstyle.blogspot.com/ (i like the kids aprons #8 and #3 & 14- its reversible!)

Messy Jake!!

I am not quite sure what my thought process was but I knew I had others things to get done and didn't feel like standing there feeding every bite to Jake. So I handed over the yogurt and spoon and away I went. I really don't think that in the end I saved any time!!! There was as much in his lap that there is on his shirt and face.

Claire's Preschool Program

On Thursday Claire had her Mother's Day/Father's Day preschool program. She has 10 kids in her class and I thought that it was great that every single one of the Dads made it too. She did a fantastic job singing her little heart out! Here are some of the songs she sang...

"Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"

"The Intsy Weensy Spider" (is that how you spell that???)

and "The Hokey Pokey" (she's putting her tongue in and shaking it all about!)

After her adorable program Mrs. Amy had each of the kids give their mom and dad presents. Kent got a cute picture frame and this is the adorable wind chime Claire painted for me! She also gave me the little book that had questions that Ms. Amy asked each of the kids. Here are Claires responses:
1. What is her favorite T.V. show? Oprah
2. It makes me happy when Mom ... makes me cookies.
3. When she goes shopping what does she like to buy? Lunchables (oh yes, my favorite thing to buy!)
4. How old is your Mom? 69 (yikes!!!)
5. How tall is she? 9 feet tall
6. What is her favorite thing to cook? cookies
7.If your Mom could go on a trip or vacation, where would she like to go? Hawaii (good answer!)
8. I really love it when my mom...lets my friends come over.
9. What is her favorite thing to do at home? wrestle with Dad (okay, all the moms had a good laugh over this one! I am hoping that Claire meant this is her favorite thing to do. he hee!)
10. How much does she weigh? 29 pound (SWEET!)
11. What color are her eyes? blue
12. What color is her hair? brown
13. What is her favorite song? A german song my daddy sings or "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

I sure love my sweet Claire bear! She is my little buddy during the day and I love her cute sense of humor.

Happy Birthday Uncer Spencel

Happy Birthday to my baby brother Spencer! We sure love him and wish we could be with him to help him celebrate today the big 28. When Abbie was little she called him Uncer Spencel (she switched the endings on uncle and Spencer!) We sure miss having them close by. Have a great day Spenc we love you so much!

This is Spencer and his adorable wife Saralyn and baby Emmie (baby brother is expected to come this September). We love you guys!

Daddy day skiing!

Kent and four of his friends took the older kids out for a day of Spring skiing. There ended up being four daddies with a total of 7 kids. What great Dads they are!!! Abbie and Kate had a blast! Kent put them in ski lessons for the first couple hours of the day. He said they did great and after lessons and a few practice runs on the bunny slope they attempted a longer run with great success! They came home exhausted and said they had a fantastic time.
This is Kate on the "conveyor belt" ski lift. I had never seen one of these before but it looks like a lot fun!!!

Go Abbie!!

Crazy weather

I hear this is "typical" Colorado weather - 75 one day and snowing the next! It is driving me crazy because I get spring fever and put all the heavy coats away and the next day have to take them out again. Oh well... its a good thing we love it here so much! Notice my pictures from two days ago on my previous post and this picture was taken the very next day looking out my back door! Who knows what tomorrow will bring...

and what you don't see from the picture is the 30 mile/hr. winds!