hellllooooo???

is anybody out there? i guess i've been a little busy and haven't taken the time to record my doings. let's see.... i'll have to do a major catch up... but here's the gist...

school let out.
we drove thru 15 states and 1 district to see the white house, which we did not get a tour. AGAIN.
we chilled. (or burned, az summers)
p & i somehow miraculously arranged childcare for all 6 and went to london with friends for 11 days.
we chilled.
kids went back to school.
we started some house projects.
they turned into major projects and we moved to my moms for 2 weeks. (she was outta town)
we moved some kids around & redecorated their rooms.
i gotta go now to pick up kids.
and R needs a towel right now.
mom... mom.... MOM.... MOOOOOOMMMMMMMM

jet setters

Our little family packed quite a few trips into the last couple of weeks.

D & s had their annual school trips, which also meant that p & I had our annual trip with our friends. And I decided to cash in my chips for a few overdue girls trips in the mean time.

D and her 4-6th grade class hopped on a plane and visited our nation's Capitol, Washington, D.C.

                       

 S packed her bags and headed off to tontozona camp for 3 days with her 1-3rd grade class.

I managed to squeeze in 3 trips. A bit ambitious but like I said, overdue.

My first trip was, my very first friends girls trip, to a catholic women's blogging conference.  Despite the name, it was an awesome time filled with laughter, bonding & faith filled discussions. 

It was hosted at a beautiful home & I loved the fresh flowers on each of the tables.

I'm always a sucker for cookies... Especially with my name on it :)

We flew on a Friday, phx to Burbank & back Sunday night.

The next morning we took a 6am flight right back to Burbank. It felt surreal. And I might mention the turbulence was terrible!! So smooth the previous 2 times, but oh man I was scared.

As soon as we arrived we drove straight to a local bakery & filled out car with pastries galore to get us to our lovely Santa Barbara rental.

We arrived just in time for sunset.

This was our cute vrbo spot... The funk house.

Mr. B had crepes on his mind and whipped up crepe Suzette for breakfast.

We spent most of our time doing n.o.t.h.i.n.g.

We just relaxed. And enjoyed the quiet.

 Oh and when we did decide to walk around, we didn't get far. We kept getting really thirsty.

This pic doesn't do this giant fig tree justice... It was huge!!

So thirsty...

Ok we did do one real thing, we toured the Santa Barbara mission. It was so beautiful. I loved the gardens in the back. 

We saw some sea lions frolicking in the water just a few feet out from the shore.

This isn't a pic of them, I'm just recalling it. It was in this spot. Okaaayyyyy

We spent quite some time at this little Boardwalk winery. It was so comfy & peaceful. They had fleece blankets available to snuggle up in. 

We headed home from our very chill and peaceful trip on Wednesday night to my dad who was hanging in there with the kids despite being sick. Thanks dad!!

Friday morning I jumped on a GIANT plane with my sister and headed to Indianapolis.

My cute grandparents... I love them so much.

We stayed at my aunties house. She had our room done up so cute. We died. Not literally. She even had our pics put into picture frames...

She whipped up this amazing breakfast for us before taking us out antiquing and thrift shopping. We died. Again. Not literally.

We stopped into the Irish mutt... Because we were thirsty.

I just love this beautiful calendar my aunt got from etsy.

Fresh flowers from the yard... At my aunties again.

She took us to the cake bake shop. Ok this time we almost literally died from happiness & sugar overdose.

 We ordered a glass of pink champagne, 2 lattes, southern Carmel cake, a chocolate chip cookie & fresh berry cheesecake.

S.o.s.o.g.o.o.d.

This is my gramp in his front yard picking dandelions. He is very proud of his dandelion free yard. It's quite a process he has to remove them. He's very serious about it.

 We went to the lilac fields at butler university. Such an amazingly beautiful campus.

My uncle kept begging us to go down to the brewery down the street from my grandmas. How could we say no? Goll he must have been thirsty ;) ;) ;)

Preparing for family dinner.

The creek at the end of my gram's street.

My mom used to play in it for hours when she was little, looking for treasure and other wierd things.

By this time I was actually starting to miss my little family back home. I headed home Monday and arrived. To a clean house, happy children, clogged toilets and 1 more week of school.

And to top it all off with a bang, my mom spent the next weekend at our house so that we could celebrate our

17th wedding anniversary! 

That just seems crazy. But the dates don't lie. Holy moly that seems like a long time.

18 years ago we attempted to climb camelback. I had a little hussy fit and quit while the rest of our group finished. I have always regretted that & swore I would try again.

Well I let a few years pass by & decided we would conquer this mountain together in honor of our anniversary.

So we did.

The hard trail I might add. Echo canyon.

We had a backpack, water, hiking gloves... The whole kit & caboodle. We were pretty much professionals.

Anywho, WE DID IT!!

it was hard, but I was so proud of us!

We headed over to the camelback inn for a celebratory beer afterwards.

We spent the night at the buttes and took advantage of their many jacuzzis.

We were a little sore from our ambitious hike.

We had a lovely anniversary dinner at the top of the rock.

                   

We ordered breakfast in bed & headed out to the jacuzzis again before checking out.

We stopped by defalco's Italian deli to pick up lunch and headed home.

We were so thankful to my mom for watching the kids so we could have a night away. They were all so happy & in good moods when we returned. Thank you mom!!

All that time away made me thankful, reflective & RELAXED! I had a great time and of course missed my scmoopies, but I SO appreciated the freedom. And I knew they were in good hands. And I didn't feel too guilty since we were gearing up for a cross county family road trip as soon as school let out. I'm sure there will be a plethora of together time then.

april-may moments

i'm just gonna chronicle our last two months so they don't fade away. lots of everyday stuff... but those are the things i wanna remember. the goofy faces, the crazy things that happen around here on a daily basis. the activities the kids were doing... all of it. 

can't remember if i already used this pic but i love it. we were waiting for the sisters to get out of choir, playing in the church field. they were having a great time running wild & were resting for a moment. J wrapped his little hands around his big bro & i snapped right away. these brothers sure love each other.

we have a hate/hate relationship with our mailbox. we just can't seem to keep it together. i walked out this afternoon and saw neighbors taking pictures of our mailbox. we did get a note from the mailman this day telling us to fix it. i apologized later. he said in 30 years he's never seen anything like that.

we had a bunch of trips coming for various people in our family so i tortured myself shopping several times with the little guys. R is not so bad but J..... oh my. he's a terror right now. shopping anyway.
i also learned my lesson about giving R my phone when i'm trying on clothes. that was an uncomfortable sight when some unflattering pictures popped up on our streaming iCloud pics.

my amazing friend dropped off these pretzel croissants. they were seriously one of the best things i have ever eaten.

S & L were in the school play carousel. they were adorbs.

school pics always crack me up. the kids get so excited about them even tho i never buy them. i did snap a pic of them tho before we turned them in. i love these two girls so much. they are so sweet and i just want to freeze them how they are now.

more fun shopping times...

this guy was in hog heaven at a western bday party he attended. complete with real ponies!

i chaperoned L's 7th grade class on a field trip to the zoo. my group was surprisingly sweet and aware. they made sure they stayed with me and were very respectful. the boys even cleared everyone's plates after lunch without being asked. such gentlemen! they did take any chance they got to run through the sprinklers tho.

my bad baby wasting kleenex on earth day.

R was pretty excited about this warrior get up he put together. he said he would be able to protect the whole house if he slept in this. i said his rocket might be uncomfortable. he said oh you mean my blaster?? no, it's fine.

J playing legos in the relaxing light from R's window.

this guy cracks me up with his little habit he has of laying flat on his back wherever he goes.  he just has to get the view and then he's done. he also says "why" after EVERY statement said to him and uh-uh, even when he means yes, after EVERY question.

 one early morning in my family bed.

that's one way to clean up a spill.

mother's day 2015: i posted this pic for my mom. i was really confused-entranced by my morning hair.

we went to church, lunch, dropped kids off at home, rode bikes to get "apples" at whole foods, ignored threatening texts from the children, enjoyed our "apples", rode back home and Paul & my bro  grilled up a feast for the mothers in our family.

R's last day of 4's preschool :)

this was the season for lots of 1st communions and confirmations. 2 of my sweet godsons received sacraments!

i really like this little babe of mine...

my dear friend Liz was in town with her boys (more sacraments... baby was baptized!!) and we went outside to snap some pics. love this one!