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This last Wednesday Ashton started piano lessons. He loves practicing, I love the enthusiasm. This last Thursday Sierra started her soccer class. I had class and Jake went to the Hart football game so my mom took her, Thanks Mom! She learned some great skills and on Friday evening I was sitting outside in the back while Jake played basketball with Ashton and Sierra was showing me what she learned at soccer. :)

Craziness!

There has been no time to blog. Here I go, catching up.

August 21st was my birthday! What a great birthday! I woke up early and went on a run with my mom. When I got home Sierra was standing in the kitchen with a plate of pancakes just for me for my birthday. She got up early and made them all by herself! She found a recipe on my phone for peanut butter pancakes and she knows how much I love peanut butter on bananas so she sliced bananas on top. What a sweet sweet daughter I have!

 

Then I had made an appointment for me to got get a manicure and pedicure which I never get to do, what a treat for my birthday. I got gel polish, what a treat! My fingernails and toes looked SO good! Then when I got home my kids wanted to take me to get sushi for lunch. What sweet children I have. They know how much I LOVE sushi! They each bought me a roll, they each brought $10 with them. I asked them to try sushi for my birthday so they each ate a piece of a roll. Sierra gagged a little :) but she did swallow. She said she was thinking about the fishies swimming around in the sea. :) Ashton ate it and said it was ok, he wasn't quite so dramatic, go figure. :)

Then we went to Lady Di's and got a $2 cupcake cause my birthday was on a Tuesday and they have $2 cupcakes on Tuesdays. We shared a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting.

Got dad from work and then took the kids over to Grandma and Grandpa's for the evening. Jake and I went to the temple for Blake and Mashaela, Mashaela was going through for the first time. After the temple we all went to a mexican restaurant to celebrate Blake and Mashaela. I ordered the steak and Jake ordered the enchiladas. The steak was the best. :) After all it was my birthday! :)

On August 22nd Blake and Mashaela got married! What a beautiful sealing done by Brother Halverson. What a beautiful day! What a beautiful couple!

What a FUN night! Their reception was the funnest ever. We danced the night away, the DJ was the best, SO fun!!! and Happy 7th Birthday Lincoln!
August 23rd me and the kids went to the Getty Museum. We got busted alot! What was the deal, they were watching us like hawks! Sierra was pointing at something on a cabinet with her paper in her hand and she got yelled at, she wasn't touching it but apparently she was too close.

The garden was our favorite! So beautiful and noone yelled at us there.

The last time me and Ashton came to the Getty on a field trip we sat on these square stones in the water so we wanted to sit on them again with Sierra. Last time we didn't get yelled at but this time we did. :(

After the Getty we went to Meet the Facilitator night at the kid's school. Ashton got to meet his teacher. Sierra is in Middle School now and we just left there frustrated, no idea what is going on, all we knew was that Gris is her Advisor and she will be moving around from teacher to teacher for her various subjects, good enough. We'll just figure it out the first day. :P
August 24th Lincoln's birthday pary, swimming and games, What fun! Jake and I went to the park for a Glasshouse party, didn't stay long but it was so fun to see Andrea face to face again. :)
August 25th Ashton had Zach's birthday party, Lazer Tag
First day!!! August 27th. Kids were nervous but did great! Sierra got everything figured out. I dropped her where she was supposed to be. I stayed with Ashton for about an hour.

2nd day Sierra was in tears, she had no classes with her friends. Since then all is well! Her councelor got it all figured out and she is a MUCH happier girl. 6th grade is different, alot harder, she says, alot more work. :)
August 28th Jake's Happy Birthday! Jake and I went to Sushi for lunch with my dad and Sophi, Lucy and Rocky. I had my first day of school that night. :( Jake ordered pizza for he and the kids. He opened presents when I got home.

August 29th, April Lawler came to our house and massaged Jake and I for our birthdays. SO thankful for her hands! :)

August 31st, Sierra went on a playdate to Chloe's and Ashton and I went over to help Sophi make tissue balls for Brenna's baby shower. Lincoln got a go-cart for his birthday and Ashton got to ride it. Now, he wants a go-cart.

Saturday September 1st. Me and Sierra went to pick up the gigantic balloons for the shower. They were SO huge! The most awesome balloons that I've ever seen. So appropriate for the shower. There were 4 balloons. I could only fit 3 in our car. I could hardly see where I was driving. I texted a picture to Sophi with these captions...

On our way. Where's Sierra?

Oh there she is!

The shower was SO lovely...so looking forward to snuggling my sweet new nephew!
Labor Day
We went to the Ward Breakfast...enjoyed breakfast burritos. :)
Went to Taylor Brixey's Baptism at OLPH. What a sweet family the Brixey's are. Love the Marchionda's too. Sweet baby Taylor is such a lucky baby!
At home did laundry and some studying and then we were invited over to the pool to party with the Delhoyo's and Phillip's. What fun families they are! What a great time! Thanks for the invite! :) Thanks Heather for all the pictures!

What a crazy life! What a blessed life! :)

What shall we do?!

Ashton had a fun weekend camping! They went to San Diego and Coronado Island. They visited the Mormon Battalion. They rode on a Trolley that felt like a roller coaster and Aunt Briana lost her hat! :) Ashton told us all about every detail when he got home, took about 30 minutes. :) LOVED hearing ALL about it! :)

Ashton got an early birthday present from grammy...much needed.

BEFORE...

 Uncle Norris came over to help put it together. :) Thanks Uncle Norris! You're the best!

 Ashton was his BIG helper!

 AFTER...

In the midst of all of this excitement our air conditioner broke. We flipped the braker and the air lasted in the blasted heat for the night and then by the next morning it was done, no more air conditioner. We called my dad, he had his guy come over and he said..."need a new one!" (in so many words) :0 Was going to come back to install the next day. What were we to do all day, couldn't stay in our house, we would bake for sure! So, we went to the beach. We left at about 1:00 and got there about 2:00. We played at the beach for several hours. I even went boogie boarding with Sierra. So much fun! Then we left the beach and went to Duke's for dinner. After dinner we drove home about 7:00. We showered (took cold showers) in our 90 degree house. Put on jammies and had a sleepover at Terry and Janelle's. We came home the next morning cuz they were going to install our new precious air conditioner and Ashton had a karate lesson but his Sensai had car trouble and didn't show. Take advantage of cold air until it's not there anymore. SO grateful for air conditioner!!! What a fun day and evening at the beach though!
Ashton got to give his talk in Primary last Sunday! He had practiced a ton so it would help with his nerves. He was SO cute! His talk was on Honesty. He was shaking and his voice was quivering when he first stood up there. I could tell he was nervous. He asked me later, "mom, I was shaking. Could you see I was shaking?" I told him I could but it was because I am his mom. I don't think anyone else knew he was nervous.
We had dinner at my dad's last Sunday cuz it was my dad's birthday! Happy Birthday Dad! xoxo
Trina took pictures of our family too. Can't wait to see them.
Briana announced that they are having another baby...Trina announced too! :)
Sierra made cupcakes, delicious cupcakes for the Bartley Open House last night.
Sierra also got to shave her legs for the first time last night. WHOA! Going into 6th grade. Was going to have to wait until she is 12 (she's 11 1/2) but people would say stuff to her about her hairy legs, I'm sick of the drama. She has to shave her armpits anyways. Want to make her as comfortable as possible to start a new school year.
And...we don't start for another week! :) What are we going to do?!

Pizza Night

Homemade sauce from homegrown tomatoes. Homemade crust. Yum!

Night Swimming

FHE. The kids have wanted to night swim and with this crazy hot weather tonight was a great night! :)

Last weekend Briana was hiking the Grand Canyon with my dad and Norris, Mom and I got to take care of her boys. Loved having them. Love building those relationships! Want them to love their Auntie and cousins! On Saturday Briana came home and on Sunday we got to have everyone over for dinner. Mom made yummy food as usual and I pulled homemade (by Sierra) cupcakes out of the freezer. We sang "Happy Birthday" to Corbin! He turned 2!

Last Friday Sierra had planned a swim party for her primary class. Luckily 2 of her friends came. They swam and we brought popsicles. Because there were only 2 girls plus Si and Ashton and Nixon they each got to have like 5 popsicles. :)

 I registered for my class. That is terrifying.
Sierra's legs are finally healing thanks to the introduction to Doterra Essential Oils. LOVE them!
We have been really enjoying watching the Olympics! Swimming is our fav!
Ashton was invited to go with my mom camping with Brett and Briana and today they are at Sea World! Lucky guy! He was going to have a busy weekend but we let him make the choice. Of course he chose to go with Grammy.
Today was his last day of basketball, a private karate lesson, his bball party and tomorrow he was supposed to give a talk. Hopefully he can give his talk another week cuz he already put it together and was practicing it. He's a busy guy! :) We signed up to bring cupcakes to his party and we still need to make an appearance cuz Jake helped coach. Sierra made cupcakes and we frosted them this morning. They turned out SO cute!

Miss my boy! Had fun last night with Sierra, took her to see "Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days". Cruised around the mall, Brookstone is SO fun! Took her to Soup Plantation for dinner. Jake and I have never been. Sierra went for a birthday party and now it's her fav! I ate so much!!! All you can eat buffet=danger! It rained yesterday too, lightening and thunder, AWESOME!

The Doctors Office...our 2nd home!

Friday night, Friday FUN night! The kids have been earning smiley faces and each smiley face is worth 2 pts. Ashton cashed in 10 of his points tonight to have a family movie night, a special surprise was...mom pulled out the couch bed! The kids were SO excited! We watched National Treasure 2 on the couch bed and daddy made popcorn. What fun!!!

Saturday we went to Ashton's bball game and he made lots of shots but nothing was going in, we brought donuts for after game snack, not much option when you don't have a snack schedule and someone reminds you by email at 9:30 the night before but we made it work. Went home and Jake and Ashton went on a bike ride while me and Si checked on Leanne's house then at home we worked and cleaned and later got slurpies. When we got home Sierra wanted to make cupcakes, she did! I only helped a tiny bit, she did a great job and they were DELICIOUS! Homemade yellow cake with homemade chocolate frosting! Saturday evening we went down to the pool and swam before dinner. Me and daddy even got in a played...so much fun! Then we went home and cooked up some hotdogs and corn for dinner. Sierra came out after getting jammies on and wrapped a blanket around herself (it was still really warm outside and in our house). I asked her if she was feeling okay. She said her throat was a little sore. Oh no!!! I felt her forehead and yep she was warm. Both of my sisters families just had strep throat. I gave her some advil and watched a little something together and then off to bed. At 6 am she woke me up and said her throat hurt REALLY bad. I felt her again and warm again. I gave her more advil and ice water. Her throat hurt so bad she didn't even want to swallow her spit. She kept spitting in the sink. :P I dropped Jake and Ashton off at church and then took her to the urgent care. The doctor just looked in her throat and said "yep it's strep!"Gave us a prescription, went and picked it up and then home we went. Jake and his friend Miles gave Sierra a blessing after their presidency meeting, so grateful for the Priesthood and for good men who honor it. We had a nice dinner at home, just the 4 of us. I made pot roast, carrots and potatoes.
This morning we went to the doctor again to get Ashton's staples out. Yay, they're out but he still can't swim for 3 days, needs more healing time. Geez. Sierra is feeling much better.
I'm so grateful that overall we are a healthy family and rarely have to go to the doctor.