Wednesday, July 29, 2009

oh what a night...

i have to jot down these memories while they are still fresh in my mind.

1. pdubs' manager is in town and we needed to have a work/dinner. i was invited. babysitter. yeah!

2. the dinner was good. always a plus. however, i was feeling a little weird because i didn't have my wedding ring on. (it broke and is getting fixed.) ( don't know why, but i didn't ever realize or pay any attention to it until all of a sudden i didn't have it anymore)

3. after dinner, we went to ASU and visited some of pdubs' old practice rooms, bumped into a few old teachers, made a few random calls to old college friends, you know, the usual....

4. went to an old meeting spot, where we used to meet between classes.... yep. paully got down on one knee and proposed to me again. with a sparkly new re-tipped ring. i don't remember the last time it was cleaned. it looks so pretty.

5. got home to 4 sleeping children and the best babysitter ever. super- brainiac, beautiful, uber-motivated, the kind of teenager you can only hope for kind of babysitter ( i directly relate this to her superior previous babysitter while she was growing up~moi.)

6. she gave us the ultimate compliment..... she said "i hope you know your oldest daughter is going to be a brainiac". i melted at that point and didn't need to hear anymore.... however, i will share. she (the babysitter) is studying for her SATs. S decided she would sit down and try to figure out some of the problems. D (the babysitter) couldn't believe she logically thought out and solved a few problems. yeah! that montessori education is paying off!

7. i am super motivated to be as passionate as D. she is involved with a program bestbuddies.org
i really need to be better at this. she just got back from an international convention for the program and shared with me some of her experiences and ideas. this girl is going to go far. and i am so proud of her!!! she has all kinds of ideas and plans to raise awareness and funds for the cause. anyway, she talked a little about stopping the "r" word. i am going to sign off and go join the facebook group.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

9 years old


how could this be? it seems like just yesterday this little rosebud was my whole life!
we took so many pictures of this beautiful child. we couldn't believe she was ours!
and the outfits.... between myself, her god-parents, my mom and my grandma, we just couldn't get enough cute outfits!
dressing up, pretending... how did these years fly by?
well, lucky for us you are still impressing us with your unique outfit choices, your crazy laugh, your sharp memory and your beautiful imagination. happy birthday my rose! i love you so much and am so lucky to have you as a daughter!





Tuesday, July 21, 2009

summer san diego trip...

the trip to san diego was almost off, but then a call from my mom was all it took to get things moving again. it didn't take much convincing that we needed to escape the 116 degree weather and go to the beach! i packed a cooler, put the kids in the car, and we were off. noni was smart and bought plane tickets. we met up at the hotel and the adventures started!


the girls had so much fun playing in the sand and collecting shells. the big girls could have stayed out there all day. the little ones had a blast until they needed to rinse off the sand. they were then traumatized by the water and i'm sure won't go near it again until they are teenagers. the second day at the beach, D refused to put on her bathing suit and insisted on staying put on the towel. she was wiping every single sand granule off of her tiny foot. i was impressed at her determination.

S loved playing with sand toys. thanks noni.
we even saw dolphins jumping and swimming so close to shore! so cool!!
S was chasing her sisters yelling "jumbo squid". she really got a kick out of that.
self-portrait. note to self: remember sunglasses next time.
every shell was so important.

beach babe.
after the beach, we hit the boardwalk. the girls went on their first roller coaster! i was a little nervous, but the girls were fine. until it started to move. S turns around and says i don't want to go..... JERK! SHAKE! TWIST! we were off. they were freaking out a little bit. as we were climbing up for the first drop, there was a man hand tightening the bolts. just what we wanted to see as we were about to plunge into nothingness. L bumped her nose, S was literally scared stiff, but we were fine. we decided to wait to get ice cream due to their uneasy tummies.
on one of the days, we took the kids to sea world. it was so wonderful. we started the day off with the shamu show believe. oh man did it have us in tears. when D looked in awe at the giant whale jumping out of the water, she said "look mommy!" i don't know why, but that really got me. those are the things that make it all worth it.
even noni was impressed. see her face? they gave a wonderful acknowledgement to all the armed services and a huge applause. tears continued.
poor D. she thought that if she raised her hand, they would pick her to come down and pet him. that is all she wanted to do. she kept that little hand raised..
(this is where i explained to the kids that shamu is getting old and they only have him do 1 trick now) they showed everyone how to do the sign for splash. shamu came out and splashed the crowd. we didn't get wet. ( i later found out that shamu is just a stage name, they call all the whales shamu. the original shamu died in the 70's! hello??? where have i been?)
"shamu".
i also pointed out to the kids that you can tell shamu from the other whales because of her signature bent fin. where was i getting this stuff? so wrong. sad.
still raising that hand.
yep, still raised. i was contemplating in my head what to do. mama bear part of me wanted to stop the show, march her down there, and insist that she be allowed to pet that orca! i mean how cute and patient is she? then the other part of me, my better judgement, explained to her that we are not allowed to pet him. only the trainers. whatever.
they were so amazed.
S picked that starfish right up.

there was a strange resemblance between my girls and these sea lions. when they wanted something, they just opened up their mouths and screamed until they got it. hmmm...
noni was nice enough to buy the girls fish to feed the sea lions. the attendant warned her that the birds were very aggressive and would snatch the fish right out of their hands. so be careful. ok. we will. noni turns around and looks at me excited, holds the fish out tightly in her hand, with a big smile on her face..... a bird swoops right down and takes the whole thing out of her hand. she screamed. S begged the attendant for more fish, and she got it. we were paranoid then, but it was still fun.
L was so excited to have a picture with her mommy.
polar bear. noni said the polar bears don't really look like this in alaska. the beluga whales were a big hit. they also really enjoyed the penguins.
walrus. huge!
we went back for a second shamu show. that's how much we liked it. we also enhanced it with some cotton candy. i didn't get a picture, but D went down to the fence a little closer and..... raised her hand.
waiting for shamu.
D wishing she could reach through that glass and pet him.
she finally got to pet this shamu. she seemed pleased enough with this option. i almost bought it for her. but i didn't.
we got to watch the sun set with daddy one night ( he was in san diego, but at a training all week)
we were so happy to see him. we had a wonderful time. thank you noni for joining us! we missed you when you left!
we enjoyed a quick 6 hour drive home listening to 2 cd's over and over again. VBS and multiplication facts. it's still ringing in my head.

can't wait to get back to the beach!!!!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

then and now

then...




and now...


the other day in the bath, little S informed us that...

"jesus christ is allergic at dogs."

thank you S. i wasn't aware.

Monday, July 6, 2009

knocknasheega


camping. not usually my cup of tea, but the kids have so much fun and are making wonderful memories and that makes it all worth it. plus, i really really like s'mores. we were lucky enough to have some friends join us. the kids ran out into the wild and disappeared until it was food time or bed time.


riding the quads... D kept calling them qua's.
we took a day trip to snowflake. i liked the flags and lamp posts along main street.

mmm...... ice cream. i opted for a chocolate malt.
hi tow.
we also stopped at a craft boutique in taylor. it had a pretty green grassy field in front with plenty of dandelions just right for blowin'.

the girls each got $1 to buy a craft. they decided to put their money together to buy banana bread. i found a frame and some fresh bread.
D taking a break from the wilderness to play on the iphone...
Koda was the alpha dog.

fun fun!