Service Project

Thanks for your comments. :) If I even mention to Kate about moving she gets sad and says she doesn't want to move. She was saying that her and Preston would have to ride the bus to get to school if we moved and I was like no you'd go to a different school. That didn't go over well with her. haha!

As for her school, Odyssey Elementary, our ward had a service project there last Saturday. They cleared blackberry bushes and put down bark on this trail in a wooded area. It's a nature walk/trail for the kids to play in, but it was overgrown and needed lots of work. It was raining that day so instead of us all going down there I stayed home with the younger kids while Chelsea napped and I cleaned the house (bathrooms, swept/mopped, dusted and folded laundry). I didn't think Preston and Lindsey would be much help anyway. The principal, Ms. Boze, was there at the service project and Kate informed me yesterday that she, and the other kids that were there, are in the school newsletter now. She was all excited. Ms. Boze is awesome and reminds me of my awesome high school principal Mr. Cordell. She goes out of her way to get to know all the kids' names and is very involved in the school. She is spoken very highly of by all the teachers. I'm thankful for good school leaders and teachers. Kate found out about the service project the Sunday prior and immediately went to school on Monday and asked Ms. Boze if she was going to be there. haha! She said she was. I just think it's funny how Kate is so social and not afraid to go ask the principal about stuff. Ms. Boze was impressed with all the work they got done and fed them pizza afterwards. Kate has been showing the trail to all her friends at school and led her class through it today.

We went to the Mukilteo Beach last Saturday after the kids' afternoon naps and the service project. We first got Jamba Juice to go along with the kettle corn I made (yummy recipe shared by Jeni. We use a stir crazy popcorn popper, add 2/3 cup mushroom popcorn (any variety will do, but that's my fave), 1/2 c vegetable oil and 1/2 c sugar. Let it pop away and then salt if wanted. Voila you have yummy kettle corn!). We drove around then went to the beach and got out. It started raining and was windy and cold. After 2 minutes of swinging and being there we got back in the car and went home. Gotta love the lovely spring weather we have on the west side.

Still Here

More families and friends are moving out of our ward. It's hard to still be here after so many people have come and gone. Our ward consists of a lot of young couples and families and a lot of older couples/families/people. There's not a lot of youth so usually people move in then move out after a short while. We've been in the ward for 8 years now. That's a long time for this ward. It's been a good ward for us. I'm just itching to move because everyone else is! Well, and plus I want a bigger house really bad. We are busting out of this 3 bedroom townhouse of ours. But with the lovely housing market that tanked after we bought this house we are kind of stuck right now. It gets depressing when I think about it too much. I have to try to focus on the positives like: I have less house to clean (big positive), I love the kids' schools (a lot), we have friends here (well the one's that aren't leaving), we are close to everything (freeways, shopping, schools, parks, beaches), our mortgage is fairly cheap (compared to buying a bigger house- homes here are SO expensive, ugh), our neighborhood has a nice park for the kids to play at (even though there are some annoying neighbors) and the kids are happy. Kyle and I don't even like change or handle it all that well so I don't know why I even want a major change. {sigh} I keep telling myself, "the grass isn't always greener on the other side." Or is it? Who knows. Time will tell what will happen.

Our Spring Break

We had our Spring Break right after Easter so the kids and I stayed at my Mom's for a couple days while Kyle went back home because he had to work. Marci stayed too because she had Spring Break and Kyle drove her car back and Marci rode with me. It worked out good. 

Reagan was sitting here watching Preston and just giggling at whatever he was doing. It was really cute. I should have gotten a video of it. Jeff and Sadie left Monday after lunch. We were able to spend the morning with them before they went home. 

In the afternoon, Marci and I took most of the kids out to the field where my Dad was planting hay. We rode on the planter for a while then Marci ended up staying out there and discing because my Dad didn't have anyone helping him. 

On Tuesday morning, my Mom, Jeni and her kids, me and my kids and Marci all left bright and early to go to our house. We had a fun couple of days planned. Aubree has been wanting to go to the American Girl Doll Bistro and Store for a long time. And Jeni's kids have never been to Jump Planet because it's never open when they come on the weekends. So we were able to do both. It was a lot of fun and Kate was really excited to have her cousins come to her house. She said she could day dream about them coming over all day and night. Jeni said her kids had been telling everyone what they were doing for their spring break too. haha! 

Aubree, Paige and Kate with their matching dolls. It's a fun experience at the bistro, but the food isn't all that great (for adults) but my Mom, Jeni, Marci and I had fun anyway. I had a babysitter come to watch the other kids at my house plus Chelsea and Lindsey were napping.

The girls ordered a dessert and Kate had ordered this daisy flower pot dessert. Well, it came out without a flower. Kate was devastated! She wanted that flower and was so sad. What a disappointment for her. We asked the server and she said they were all out of flowers. That would have been nice to know!

Well, my Mom said something to another lady and she went and found this flower to put in her pot. Kate was very happy to get a flower. But between getting her dessert and flower, Kate spilled over her flowerpot spilling all the cookie crumbs. She was having a hard time, but in the end it all worked out because she got a flower and they brought more cookie crumbs. Phew. 

After lunch, we went shopping in the American Girl store then we did some more shopping at the Lego store, Disney store and Nordstrom's. 

After naps, we headed to Jump Planet. The kids had lots of fun there. We came back to our house for dinner then, Jeni and her kids went down to Marci's to spend the night. Kate tagged along with them. My Mom stayed at my house. My Mom and I went to TJ Maxx and JoAnn's after kids were in bed.

On Wednesday, we met up at Ikea for more shopping. haha! The kids were actually fine with it because they got to go into the play area. Marci and Jeni and the kids were busy in the morning going to a park,Walmart, Round Table for free pizzas for lunch, Tacoma Boy's and then Ikea. My Mom and I hung out at home organizing, unpacking and putting things away. Not too exciting, but it was nice having my Mom's help with everything. After Ikea, my Mom, Jeni and her kids headed home.

We spent the rest of our spring break playing with friends, playing at the mall play area, running errands and watching our new favorite movie, Wreck it Ralph. It was a fun week!

Happy Easter 2013!!!

Easter morning right before Church. Even though it's a pain to get all the kids together (and Kyle) to get a picture taken, it's worth it. :) 

My Grandpa and Grandma Sabin wanted to join us for Easter and we are so glad they did. It was fun to have them there and to see them. With my grandpa's health it's hard for them to get out so it was nice they made the effort to come.

Chelsea with my Dad. And kind of a view of my parent's new kitchen with new cabinets, counter tops and lighting. It looks really nice.

And they are off to find all those eggs! We had almost 300 eggs hidden plus my Mom had a golden egg for each kid with $5 inside. 

Preston and Lindsey sat down to open their eggs to get the candy before the Easter egg hunt was even over!  I made them get up and go find more eggs.

The three little cousins born last year. l-r: Zane (October), Chelsea (June) and Baylor (May)

Still on the hunt for all those eggs and of course the Golden Egg with money inside!

Preston said he cracked his eggs open. He would hit the egg on the side of the bucket then open them. :) 

It was a beautiful day and nice to relax outside as a family.

Hailey and Lindsey

"Let's Go Fly a Kite"

Lindsey and Reagan played good together and loved getting into the dress-up.

Me and Jeff 

I love the top picture of Sadie with Kate, Paige and Carter. I love their funny faces. Makes me laugh.

The Men and Kids

Thanks to Kevin and Jeff for taking pictures while we were gone Saturday. We were able to see what the kids did. They had fun and got nice and dirty. They were out at my Dad's shop doing some clean up.

Reagan and Lindsey dragging brooms all through the dirt. 

All the kids helped carry empty seed bags and piled them up to get burned. I love how even the little 2 year olds, Lindsey and Reagan, were helping. The bag is as big as them. Cute. 

Kate and Carter were watching as Aubree was trying to start the seed bags on fire to burn them. It's fun being in the country where you can do things that you can't do in a city. 

Lindsey wanted out of the tractor and I don't know if it was because there were so many kids in there or what. She usually likes riding on the tractor so this picture made me laugh. 

The kids riding on the back of the planter. My Dad is planting hay in one of his fields. 

All the kids piled into the truck to hang out. 

Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun

We had our annual Girl's Weekend over Easter weekend. It was a lot of fun. Jeni hosted it at her house in Pasco. She planned lots of fun things for us to do. We met up Friday night at Texas Roadhouse Grill and we devoured yummy rolls and yummy food. Then, we went to Jeni's house where we exchanged our favorite things. We stayed up late to shellac our nails with fun new colors. Then off to bed we went and we were excited to sleep in.

On Saturday, Jeni tried a new recipe and it was a yummy breakfast casserole with eggs, hashbrowns and ham. Then, we got ready before making emergency candles, four cute cards and a monogram board using moss. An idea off of Pinterest and it turned out cute. Jeni tried a new recipe for lunch, bruschetta chicken sandwiches, fruit, chips and raspberry lemonade. It was tasty. Jeni was super organized and we were amazed at all her crafty decorations in her house. She finds things for cheap and then turns it into something fabulous. We were impressed. In the afternoon, we went to see Grandpa and Grandma Wright before going shopping. We headed back to Mattawa late at night. Thanks to all our men who watched the kids while we were gone. We found out the kids had just as much fun and the men survived. :) Thanks to Mom, Sara and Sadie for some of the pictures. 

We all brought one of our favorite things that was $5 or less to share with everyone. I brought Dave's Good Seed Bread and my favorite floss. My Mom splurged and gave us mouse pads with pictures of all her kids and grandkids. Jeni gave us washi tape. Marci brought Bath and Body Works Soap and her favorite fancy pen. Sara brought us a cute insulated cup with a Spring printable inside and a snickers bar. Sadie gave us Mambas, washi tape, hand sanitizer, gum, paleo cocoa almonds and cute geometric kleenex. It was fun to see what everyone likes. 

Making cards and chatting away

Our pretty lunch we ate.

My Mom with Sara's boy, Zane. He got to hang out with us too. We kissed his cheeks lots and held him lots.

Our emergency candles. Simple and effective. My Mom helped us make them.  

 The mess of making our cute signs. Thanks to Kevin who cut and glued all those wood signs together. He's amazing with his wood skills.

A cute collage of pictures from Sadie of our cards, candles, signs and nails. 

All of us girls...we had lots of fun together.

Sadie and I soaking up the sun.

I was attacking Zane's cheeks. I couldn't help it but pinch them!

Waving goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma. They always stand outside their house and wave as we drive away after visiting them.