Inspection...

Tonight we had cubscouts at our house and Jake was doing his routine formal inspection of the boy's in their uniforms. One of our boy's was missing his neck tie and slide and Jake just mentioned it, "you look great all you need is your..." Ashton left the room and came running back with his clip on tie clipped on his shirt and he stood in the line next to the other boy's in attention ready for his inspection. SO CUTE!!! He just heard the word tie and went running. :)

Welcome home NICK!!!!

Today my cousin, Nick, arrived home from his mission for the LDS church. He served our Lord in the Taipei, Taiwan mission and spoke Mandarin. We are so proud of him and are so grateful for his service. We are thrilled that we were invited to join his family to pick him up from the airport. It is always such an exciting time when a missionary returns home and I loved being a part of it. :)

We were all congregated in this area that was packed with people waiting for other passengers. We were just enjoying each others company.

Jessica, Marshall, Norris, Aunt Ruthie and others were looking for him...

Jessica, Jack, Uncle Randy, don't know, Aunt Ruthie, Sam (in the army green shirt)...


Sierra and Timmy always enjoy each others company...they were visiting while we were waiting.

Rocky and Rossi were fighting over Grammy...they both wanted her to "hold you"

A tearful reunion...My favorite moment was watching him hug his mom and then his dad and just break down in tears. What a great moment for a parent to be reunited with their child and be able to hold them again after 2 years...and for a child to be hugged so tenderly by his mom and dad after only letter and email hugs for 2 years and being so proud of him for finishing a job well done...is a great moment.

Sierra got her hug and Ashton got a high five and I got my hug too.


So GREAT to be home!!! Nick didn't even recognize his brother James. The one with the furry face. SO FUNNY!

Nick's brother, Timmy, and his niece, Melissa, proudly holding the signs!

The boys and Melissa busy drawing in the dirt.

When we left the airport we stayed down and had IN 'N OUT because it was evening time and we didn't want to sit in traffic. Right next to IN 'N OUT is a large grass area. It was cloudy and freezing but we ate our hamburgers and huddled together and watched the airplanes fly right over us (so exciting!) and sang Happy Birthday to Uncle Randy (really fast because the wind was going to blow out the candles) because he turned 50 yesterday so mom brought carrot cake cupcakes, white cupcakes with chocolate chips and homemade chocolate frosting and peanut butter chocolate brownies. I tried every single one and they were all worth the calories. :) The boys and Sierra and Timmy loved running around the grass and loved watching the airplanes and running away from the airplanes when they were right over us. There was a homeless person that we had to tell Sierra and Timmy to get away from and don't go over there. Uncle Randy was telling us to do the motion "HONK YOUR HORN" that we do to semi's and we were all doing it, so funny! It was such a great day!!!

I want to...

In May Jake's sister, Crystal, and her family went to Yosemite and Thomas took his girls, Alise and Kelly, and they hiked Half Dome. I wanted to post this picture because I thought it was so awesome. I want to hike Half Dome, maybe someday I will!

Up to...

Thursday, got new goggles to use this year and new swim suits for the kids for next year. Went to Melissa's Kickboxing class. SO GREAT!!!! SO FUN!!!! Met the Sharp's at the pool on Friday to get our girl's together because they will be going to the same school. Ashton loved his new goggles. Watched together "Race to Witch Mountain." Saturday, went to Melissa's Kickboxing class. Again so fun!!! made cookies for Jake's lesson on Sunday, Ashton went with Jake to the grocery store to get candy and flowers for his lesson and they got my car a much needed washing. Grandma stopped by to give us names for the temple and asked if Sierra could go get icecream, I stayed home and looked at blogs and did the dishes after making all the cookies. The kids went to Sophi's for the night-THANKYOU SOPHI-and Jake and I went to the temple and then went to dinner with the Garcia's and the Bartley's, a great night-VERY FUN! Sunday, Jake taught his lesson today on the History of the Relief Society and I'm sure he did a great job, he put a lot of time into it to make it fun and interesting. He said it went pretty good, but I think it probably went GREAT! Went to Jake's mom and dad's for dinner and a few games of Domino's. Went to my mom's house and found my mom already home from Utah with Norris and Brenna there and Brenna's family. What a fun surprise to have everyone there. Brett and Briana are on their way home from Utah and are stopping here and Briana is going to stay for a few days, so excited, it's always so fun when everyone is here. I feel like I'm on vacation too! :) So glad Sierra is not in school yet so we can just play!

My Dad's Birthday!!!

THIS IS MY DAD!!!

and today is his birthday! We went to his house for dinner and brought a big yummy salad with lots of veggies and bleu cheese crumbles and enjoyed lemon chicken (that Tori made) too with yummy corn (Sophi made). For dessert Tori made a delicious lemon tart and an apple pie. Then we all got our bathing suits on and soaked in the hot tub. The kids of course went back and forth from the hot tub to the pool. We all had a great time and love it when there is a birthday so we can be together and enjoy each others company.

I adore my dad, he is my dad!!! He is there when I need him most. He makes me feel safe when I am with him. He makes me laugh. He is strong in the gospel, he has a strong testimony. He is fun to excercise with, even at 52 he still kicks my butt. :) He is so much fun to be around, he loves to have fun! FUN, FUN, FUN!!! I love you, DAD! Happy Birthday!

Wednesday...

Today is the first day of school for most but not for Sierra, she gets to be home with me and play for another few weeks. YAY!!!! She will be going to a Charter School. We are so excited for the new adventure that awaits us. So we got to go to the free movies today and see Spiderwick Chronicles (which we have never seen) with Sophi and boys. Great movie, Ashton got scared but I distracted him with candy, Me and Sierra loved it. Then we went to the mall and got 7 hand soaps for $20. (I actually bought 14, I do that when they have these great sales, I stock up.) Now I need to take a nap because I am so tired, was up at 5:00am to go swimming...

Tuesday...

Again no pics, what is wrong with me! Today we babysat Baby Blake because Carla had to go be in her classroom all day, tomorrow is the first day of school. We went to Pool Day and had a great time playing and visiting with friends from our Ward and eating Heather D.'s oh so yummy cookies. Came home and had dinosaur chicken nuggets for lunch, I had leftover chicken and potato salad. :) Sophi came over and we got to visit and the boy's played, Jake came home for leftovers too, then Sonora came over for a play date. Blake got picked up and Grammy picked up my kids because Sierra wanted a haircut in the worst way. They both went to Grammy's and Jake and I went for a run together, so much fun!!!! Came home and had enchilada's (made by my mom but heated in our oven) together and we were able to just talk with no interuptions, that counts as a date (running and dinner). I love my husband, we always have so much fun together! Here's a picture for you, I just took it...

Isn't she so cute!!!! Grammy did a great job, she always does! I love it! Thanks Grammy!