California 2008

Our family returned home from our weeklong trip to California . We had such a fun time! My mom rented a beach house in Oxnard, right next to the beach. It was a great place. Lots of room and really close to the private beach. All of my family went; my sister and her family, and my three brothers.

We spent a few days on the beach . The only bad thing about it was that it was pretty cold! The water was freezing, but I don't have a lot of brains left (I gave birth to them four times), so I spent a lot of time in the water! I love the waves and body-surfing them. I grew up visiting my grandparents in California a lot and we spent a lot of time on the beach, so for me, it was sweet memories! My three brothers and two nephews and I had a blast diving into the huge waves, boogie boarding, and body surfing.

We spent one day a Six Flags. That was sooo much fun! That is another thing from my childhood that I remember, going to Theme parks with my grandparents. I love rides and the scarier, the better! My brothers and I spent the majority of the day hanging out together riding all the crazy freaky rides! My wonderful husband kept my kids in the kiddie parks, which they enjoyed.

Sissy Boo and Big Dog are not so fond of the rides, but we did get them to try the Superman, which is sooo fun! They also tried a couple smaller coasters and enjoyed them.

The only hard part of this vacation was the 40 hours we spent in the car! It was such a long drive for us that I just tried to enjoy every minute because who knows when we will be able to do it again!

California Trip 2008

Vacation Time...

Okay, I am having "bloggers block" lately. I don't have anything really interesting to blog about. I am leaving on vacation tomorrow for a week. My family is driving to California to stay in a beach house with my mom and siblings. It should be really fun. We have been very excited. I am a bit nervous about the drive--all 14 hours of it! But, I came up with a few ideas that I hope will help keep the kids entertained and on good behavior!

Thinking about warmer days...

I realized that my slideshow was erased with pics from our cruise a couple months ago. I am dreaming about this week all the time because it was WARM and so relaxing! Matt and I have decided that we will be going on a cruise every other year...if anyone wants to join us, come along! Our next one will be the Mexican Riviera in 2010!

Sweet Pea trying to stay warm!

This is our sweet little pink puff ball enjoying her outing to the baseball park! It is so stinking cold lately that we pulled out the full-body snow suit to keep her warm! She loves to be outside and spends most of her time on mom's lap, it is a rarety for her to wander away, but she always comes back!

Sissy Boo hard at work earning some dough!

Sissy Boo has found a way to earn a little money to go toward cheerleading this Summer! She has been selling treats and drinks at the baseball games. She has done pretty well. She has sold popcorn, sunflower seeds, candy bars, suckers, drinks, and will attempt to sell popsicles this next weekend, if the weather permits. This picture was last weekend and as you can see, she is wearing a coat on June 7th!

S.B. will be competing on the cheer team this year. She is really excited about this. It is going to be a lot of hard work and dedication, but she is so excited to get some tumbling passes down and be on a team with two of her cousins!

Big Dog hard at work doing what he truly loves!

Here is our catcher hard at work! Big Dog has worked his you-know-what off this season as he has learned this position. I never realized how much the game depends on the catcher! He is amazing to watch as he does not flinch when the ball comes to him! He really has loved playing baseball and the season comes to an end this next weekend. We only have two more games until next year!

It has been really fun watching this team this year. They were formed last year and have really improved. Baseball becomes a way of life when you spend each and every weekend with the same families. They become your family in a way and it is really neat!

Three Wishes...

Okay, today was a wonderful Sunday. I had a great day at church and a good time with my family. I am very grateful for all my many blessings. I was thinking today about these blessings and started wondering what I would do with three wishes, if I could have anything I wanted. Of course, I could wish for money, a bigger house, nicer cars, etc., but what really occured to me was what I would really want if I could wish...

1. I would wish for my sweet little boy to be healthy. I have wanted this for more than five years, and in a way, I have gotten that wish because of how healthy he has been under the circumstances. But, I would love to know that his battles are over and that he won't have to endure any more pain or suffering. As this cute little guy gets older, it is getting harder to watch him have to endure the hardships of his condtion because now he knows what hurts and he knows that he goes through a lot of things that other kids don't. This is my first wish, and if I knew it could come true, would be my only wish...

2. I would wish for my family, all my family, to not have to go through any hard times. I know that these experiences are for our learning and growth, but I look at my family and those whom I love and I see the pain that they go through for different reasons. I just wish that they could all be happy and not have to face hard times...

3. I would wish that I could be the person I most desire to be; one who does not judge, one who loves others no matter who they are, one who is Christlike in every way. I wish I could be the one who loves my children unconditionally and never gets upset or angry at them; one who never speaks an unkind word, one who has all the time in the world to serve others and be there to help those in need; one who gives more, loves more, and needs less.

These are my three wishes today, but I am most grateful for all that I do have. I know that my life is richly blessed and I am very grateful for the opportunities that are mine to learn and grow!

Still waiting...

Is anyone out there as sick and tired of the cold weather as I am? I really don't understand what is going on that it is JUNE and still COLD! I am looking out the window at this moment and watching the field behind me as the grass sways in the lovely wind!

I set my kids' pool up last week. It is one of those above-ground pools that is like 3 feet deep or something. Anyway, they have used it like twice and even then it was still cold!

Today we went to the library and signed up for the reading program. It will be better this year because they are only required to read one hour per week. That is doable! I am trying to get my kids to understand how important it is to continue reading throughout the summer.

I guess I will report on our Summer activities that I so carefully and strategically laid out before school ended! We are doing pretty good with the whole routine. The kids are getting up later than I had hoped, but I began to realize that getting them up at 7 am makes for a very long day! The one or two times that this has actually happened, I have struggled to make it through the day! So, we are slacking in that area, but it is fine. We do have our morning routine down well now. I made chore lists and each day the kids get theirs and go down the list. I even included things like; brush hair, brush teeth, and little reminders like that.

My kids LoVe the prize box thing! It is so nice to be able to say "If you do_____________, I will give you a token!" It has been a lifesaver for getting things done, and a cheap way to reward them for it. They get excited to turn in their tokens and pick out a cheap prize!

The VIP is also working wonderfully! It is a nice way to avoid conflict. The kids all know that the person who is the VIP for that day gets to make the decisions. It has eliminated most daily arguments and also helps me with meal ideas too as the VIP gets to choose what we eat for that day.

All in all, we are doing pretty good with the summer so far. We will have our schedule interrupted as we prepare for family vacations and things like that, but it works out!

Now...about the weather...UGH!!