Monday June 23, 2014

Finally warm enough to take advantage of the pool membership I bought. I love Chester Hills pool. Even better that some of our best friends also have memberships. It's clean, there's a life guard and it's never packed. It's absolutely perfect. Can't wait for more swimming days here this summer. (After Alabama, of course)

My kids love to swim, that's for sure!

We love the McLuskie girls!

Sunday June 22, 2014

Besides being the day that my most favorite little sister was born, the 22nd was a good day! I love Sunday's. I love resting (kind of) and getting caught up on things at home (kind of) of course, going to church and enjoying the spirit there. (in between whisper yelling in sacrament meeting for the kids to stop fighting and pay attention) :)

This Sunday was the day. Tucker HAD to learn how to ride a two wheeler without training wheels. I felt bad that he is like the last 7 year old on the planet who rode with training wheels. I would take him out every now and then and we would practice with one training wheel off, and he really just had no desire. Plus, I think his bike is a little too small for him. Last year was just so busy with a newborn, and we leave every summer for a whole month almost, it just kind of gets pushed aside. 

Not today, today was the day!!!

A little wobbly at first:

But he picked it up pretty fast and did pretty well!!! Still needs to practice some, but that will come. I'm sure by the end of the summer he'll be a pro!!

He did have a fan club!

The neighbors were cheering him on:

Papa was cheering him on:

Kathryn was cheering him on:

Taylor was definitely cheering him on. And busting out some awesome dance moves while at it:

After an hour or so, he finally started feeling confident and comfortable and made a few independent runs down the street to the end of the block.

It was the perfect, most beautiful northwest summer evening:

Taylor was trying to inspire him by performing 'let it go'...

This guy, on the other hand, wasn't so impressed...

But he sure is cute! On his new little tractor that our neighbors just GAVE him! It was the nicest thing ever! He loves it!

I love these lazy summer Sunday afternoons with my family!

Then Ben had to go and show off and make Tucker feel bad about his mad skills!~

Saturday June 21, 2014

Saturday we headed to the lake. I love where we live. I love that we have so many fun and beautiful lakes and rivers so close to play in.

Taylor wanted to help me make my salad for lunch, and wanted to help cut the onions. I warned her. She didn't listen.

Her first experience crying while cutting an onion.

I've heard so many things throughout the years. Like, run the faucet while cutting them, burn a candle. I have worn goggles before and that did help, but I couldn't find goggles close by. So I gave her my glasses hoping that they would help a little. Not so much! :)

We went to Hauser lake. I didn't think I had ever been. But as soon as we pulled up, I knew it was the lake I went to all the time with my friend, Emily Stephenson growing up, and her family. I recognized it immediately. I hadn't been here in years!!!

Ben had the Christensen's jet ski while they were in Africa for the month of June, so we took that baby out. I was hoping to get a ride in, but that is hard with a one year old. Ben took the kids on plenty of rides while I held down the fort with Jacks-o.

It was a fun family day in the sun. The kids loved playing in the sand and riding the jet ski, and there was a park right there. 

This little man was so white trash. (is that his fault or his mom's?) Double beef jerkying it up, naked with food all over his entire body!

Here's a close up of what he looked like before I stripped him down:

Tucker is such a good big brother:

He got him going SO high on the swing, it was making me nervous. But Jackson loved every minute of it!!!

I'm excited for when Jackson is a bit bigger so they can really play together, I think they'll have fun! Love me some family days together!

Friday June 20, 2014

Friday came and the big event for the day was Taylor's gymnastics program. Her gym, Northwest Gymnastics, has a performing team for girls 7 & up, I believe. Until they are 7 (and all those girls 7 and up who are not on the team) they put on performances twice a year. Taylor was very excited about it!

I knew it was going to be a good one, when our clouds looked like this on the way to the gym:

{I love me a good cloud pic}

They break up the classes, so not all the girls are performing at once. This was Taylor's group:

First up was a floor routine with some tumbling over some mat's and wedges:

Next up was the bar. Those pointed little toes just kill me! :) She sure does love gymnastics, and works really hard at it! She is a tough little cookie and I feel like she has a good gymnastics body.

The absolute best thing in the world was the look on her face when she was done doing her performances. She has got the Ta-Da thing DOWN! :)

The beam was next. Did a few ice-cream scoops...

A few high kicks:

And one great dismount! (I only wish I would have had my nice camera so these pictures didn't turn out so blurry!!!)

Jackson seemed to enjoy the show:

They all got to take turns standing on the #1 spot on the podium for pictures and to get their certificate, after:

My cute little gymnast:

So proud of my girl. I really do think she's found her thing. I hope she continues to love it so much and want to work so hard at it! :) It is the cutest thing in the world!!!

Papa and Kathryn also came to the show to watch! Lucky girl!!! :)

Thursday June 19, 2014

Obviously my momentum had already run out in my efforts to make this summer so wonderful every day and having all these fun crafts and activities to do for my kids. Four days later, and the only picture of the day I have is of these two boys snuggling on my bed. I don't even remember what we did that day! :) HA! So much for documenting our month so well! :) 

I do sure love these kiddos though!! These boys love each other, Jax loves his big brother and Tucker loves his baby brother!

And also this one of how Tucker sleeps. It amazes me every morning when I see it. I don't understand how this can be comfortable, but he has been doing it since he was a baby and he is the most flexible person I know!

I do love these lazy summer days mixed in with the busy fun days, though!

Wednesday June 18, 2014

Our activity for Wednesday was to make cookies for our new neighbors. Since the McLaughlins had left, we had been trying to catch glimpses of our new neighbors. I know that she is pregnant with her second baby and I wanted to introduce myself in case she needed help at anytime.

Anyway, we went to work and the kids had a heyday with the sprinkles...

I was excited to finally meet our new neighbors that I had been meaning to introduce myself to for days, and they weren't even home. We left the cookies on the doorstep, and hopefully one day here soon, we'll actually meet them. Tara told me that they were actually really nice. I know that he is a fireman, and that they have a 4 or 5 year old son who is on the same soccer team as one of my good friends son. And that the dad is the coach of their soccer team. How bad could a soccer coaching firefighting dad and a pregnant mom be, right? :)

Tuesday June 17, 2014

Tuesday night we invited two of our friends from the branch, The Vazquez and the Reyes to our house to watch the Mexico World cup game against Brazil.

Somehow Juan got both Odalis and Jackson:

Whenever there are a gaggle of kids over, somehow this wig makes it's way out. Tonight was no different! :) Ben with two of his former Young Men, Brian and Adrian:

Then, of course, Ben had to hug it out with Juan while wearing the wig. These two are so funny together. They work together and play together all the time!

Monday June 16, 2014

So, I guess technically, Monday the 16th was the first day of Summer break. I was feeling a little ambitious, and thought to myself that I should do one fun activity with the kids every day during the summer. Most of the days' we would be doing things outside, like swimming or the park, but the weather wasn't the best, so I found this recipe on line for 'Frozen' snow. And I had all the ingredients. So, we went for it. It's actually called 'clean mud' but since Frozen is so huge right now, you can add sparkles of glitter and it becomes Frozen snow!!! :)

All you do is get a tub, or container for each child. Have them unroll a roll of toilet paper in the tub, get out a cheese grater, and grate a bar of soap in the tub with the toilet paper. Then you add water until it's the consistency that you want it. It really does feel more like mud, but it's totally clean and smells good from the soap. :) I added some blue and green glitter, because that's what I had, and we had a grand ol' time!

Taylor, of course, had to make Olaf:

It was fun until they started actually playing with it like snow and had a snow ball fight in our kitchen and got wet toilet paper all over! Then, I decided that it was an outside only toy and put the containers in the back yard. It then rained for the next three days straight. Needless to say, we had a huge white mess in our back yard for awhile. I guess that's what I get for trying to go above and beyond and be super mom, right?! :)

Sunday June 15, 2014

Sunday the 15th was Father's day! We sure do love the daddy's in our lives!

My friend had Taylor fill this form out in Preschool before the end of the school year to give to her dad for father's day. I thought it was too cute, I had to share! My favorites are that his name is Uncle Ben, and that he is 84 years old, and that he is smart because he knows when her and Tucker are nasty! :) (and nasty they are sometimes!) :)

Ben, the lucky dog got to sleep all day. Sleep in before church and take a nap after church!!! Kathryn and I planned a nice big taco bar meal. It was so yummy!!! Of course, dilly bars for dessert, they are my dad's favorite.

Since I had made my mom hand made mother's day gifts, I decided to do the same for my dad. I found this cute magnet idea, so I made one of each of his grandchildren. I also made some for Ben of his three children. Look at all these cute kids:

I love my dad so much. He has become one of my best friends over these last few years, and I just don't know where we would be without him. He loves us and helps us and supports us and does whatever he can to make our lives easier, and we are so lucky to have him. My kids are double lucky because they get to have him as Papa, AND Ben as their daddy. He is such a good dad and they love him so much. I couldn't ask for a better baby daddy! :)

Saturday June 14th, 2014

The first day of our summer vacation was spent making tamales. Our branch had a tamale fund raiser to raise money for girls camp and scout camps this summer. Since I am going as an adult leader to girls camp, the only leader from our branch, I decided I should help. (Even though, funny thing, the fundraising didn't help the leaders at all--these kids better be grateful!!!)

This was actually Friday night, we had to do the prep work, so we all crammed into the Vazquez house and cooked and shredded chicken and pork. I was there with the kids until 9, took them home, left them with Ben, and went back and shredded chicken with Maria and Sonia until 11. And these crazy kids:

Maria & Sonia were the masterminds of the whole thing, and worked harder than I have ever seen women work in my entire life!!!

The next morning, we met at the church at 6am to start the tamale process. They initially told us to come from about 8-4 to help. All the people who ordered tamales were told to pick them up at 4 at the Evergreen building. Well, it wasn't until we got there that we realized we had sold 212 dozen orders of tamales. Chicken and pork. That is over 2000 tamales. It was insane. We ended up starting early to make sure we had enough time to finish, and then with all of the orders, we ended up calling the people to see if they could come at 6 to pick them up.

Jackson with his friend Starling:

Our two young women who are going to camp along with some other helpers:

The men making the maseca for the tamales. Yes, they used a drill to mix the dough:

Sonia & Maria; I love these two women!!!

Our assembly line. We scooped up a scoop of the maseca, pasted it into the cleaned and dried corn husks, put some meat into the middle of it, and folded them over, and folded up the bottom. It was actually pretty simple. (once the meat was cooked, salsa was made, and maseca was made, of course)

My little helper. She was such a good little helper and willing to do whatever was asked.

Once the tamales were made, we had to cook them. It was kind of hard, because the tamales had to be cooked for an hour or two. And we just had all these gas burners that members had brought. So we had about 8 or 10 pots full of tamales cooking. And it was hard because then we never jsut knew exactly how many we had, or were cooking. We definitely learned a lot and what to do different next year.

It was a fun day though with most of the members of our branch, though. It was LONG and tiring, but great. We ended up being there until 8pm waiting for people to show up to get their tamales. I had several people tell me that they were the best tamales they had ever had. And they were. I ordered a few dozen.

My friend Melissa and I were there the whole day and learned a TON! We now know how to make it more organized for next year. We had people telling us that next year they want to order more, but I'm not sure we could handle making more. It was a TON of work.

I love our branch so much! And we raised enough money to send our youth to camp for like the next 10 years! :) woo-hoo!!!

June 13, 2014

Friday the 13th! Last day of school! Woo-Hoo! I snuck into his class that morning to say good bye to Mrs. Larsen and spend some time with him on his last day. They were playing don't eat Pete when I walked in. I love his little smile. :)

 There was just a buzz in the classroom, it was so fun. Everyone was just so excited to be done with the school year. And I totally remember that feeling when I was that age. After some games and t-shirt signing in the morning, they head out to form a tunnel for the 5th graders to run through and give every one a high five on their last day at Sunrise.

Also, since my friend Emily's mom, Mrs. Tyson was retiring as a teacher at Sunrise, she also ran through the fifth grade line... I love Jan!

And my friend, Danna's son, Tate running through his last fifth grade high-five tunnel:

My sweet boy and his wonderful first grade teacher, Mrs. Larsen:

All these boys loved Mrs. Larsen so much!

Tucker, Spencer, Brayden, Caden, Carson & Mrs. Larsen:

It's been a great first grade for Tucker. I'm so grateful for Mrs. Larsen for loving him and knowing him well enough to know how to teach him and love him. And I'm grateful for the cute little friends he's made and I'm so excited for the years to come for this sweet little boy of mine.

June 12, 2014

I can not believe that this little man is a year old. I love him so much. He is my little side kick and friend. He has the best laugh with his little hippo teeth. He is happy and sweet and loving. He will snuggle and attack me with loves and kisses all the time.

He loves to clap:

He is the most inquisitive child I have ever known. Which has proven difficult since he has no desire to use his legs! :) He gets so distracted so easily at every little noise or sight. He has to investigate everything and uses his little fingers to touch every little nook and cranny he can find.

His physical therapy is going so well, and he is SO on the verge of crawling. He will be there any day now. 

It seems like just yesterday we were here in the hospital together:

I can't believe that this was a year ago. In my mind he is still this size, but when I look at the older pictures, he is SO much bigger!

His second mama, Yulissa and her son Starling did come by to visit him and bring him a birthday present; the lucky boy.

He did get some special J pancakes that morning for breakfast:

I love these crazy kids of mine:
Since we had already had a little party for him on Sunday, we just hung out and celebrated our little boy. ( I love that he's pictured here with one of his favorite treats, a big ol' pepperoni stick)  I am so very thankful that he is ours.

June 11, 2014

Wednesday was Tucker's field/play day at school. It was so much fun. I totally remember this day in elementary school growing up. I was so glad that I was able to go. I wasn't able to volunteer much this year with Jackson. I tried. I had signed up to go in every other Tuesday all year, and when I showed up on my first day, Jackson was not allowed back. (even though he was asleep in his carseat in his stroller) Anyway, I tried a few times, but it gets hard to try and find someone to watch your kids all the time. So, I didn't get into the classroom as much as I would have liked to. Anyhoo...I was happy to be there with my boy for the day. We had a great time!

Tucker and his friends outside of the bounce house; Ezra, Carson, Tucker, some girls & Noah...

Hula Hoop chain with his friends, Brayden & Caden:

Hula Hoop champ:

Tucker's friend, Caden & his mom, Melanie who has become one of my friends...

Tucker & his friend Brayden in the three-legged race:

So fun to get to spend the day with my boy:

June 10, 2014

Since this was the last week of school, it was a busy week, but was luckily broken up by a slow and easy day on Tuesday.

{I love me a good cloud day}

We also had some friends over after school which is always a treat. Especially when it's warm enough to put the sprinkler under the trampoline...

June 9, 2014

Monday came and it was the day of the big Sunrise Elementary Variety show. Oh, the variety show! :) A few weeks before school got out we got a paper home from school about the school variety show. Tucker, being the spotlight seeking child he is, of course, had to do SOMETHING for the variety show. The paper said, 'PLEASE only well practiced and planned acts' I knew they meant business at Sunrise elementary. Last year at McDonald the flyer said that all were welcome, and that if they didn't have enough time for all acts, they will combine numbers and work with the kids on a group dance/performance. So, I knew that even if Tucker didn't get in with his Party in the USA rendition, he would still be happy to be a part of a group performance. Not the case this year. I knew that if he wasn't ready, there was a chance he wouldn't get into the show.

He had just gotten a Magic book at the library, and was kind of obsessed. So, of course, he wanted to do a magic show. I was a little nervous and actually, tried to talk him out of it. (mother of the year) He wanted to do it with his friend, Carson. Finally after some begging and convincing, I called Carsons mom to see if they could get together to practice. She was nervous because it was so close and they didn't have time to practice much. So they were out. And I tried to convince Tucker to wait a year and he could do a magic show next year. No such luck, he was pretty set on doing his magic show. So, he tried out, after just a few rounds of practicing. And his friend Carson was just going to be his assistant. Well, I went to watch the try outs, like I had done the year before at McDonald, and they wouldn't let me watch them! So, I had to wait all day to hear how it went and then the next day we found out that he had made it in!!! I was shocked!

So, we practiced the next week and got his magician outfit ready. Kathryn found a plain black hat and hot glued two cards to the top. He had one card trick, a disappearing coin trick, an appearing coin trick and a floating cup trick. I thought he looked pretty good, myself! :) He was so cute and excited! Oh, and Kathryn made him a wand, out of one of those cardboard covers that go on wire hangars and painted black.

My mom and I got there super early. Since she was still in town and so was my sister and her family, Tucker had quite the fan club. The participants had to come in early to get in their order of shows. Carson ended up being his assistant, and helped him with one of his acts.

Two cute boys:

One girl (actually two) sang 'Let it go' from frozen, so there were two happy girls during that performance!!! :)

Then it was time for the performance! I was so nervous, I was sweating bullets. Even more so than last year and last year I was over 40 weeks pregnant with Jackson. (He was born that very night) I had put all of his supplies in a bag for him, and told him that when he got on stage to take everything out and put it on the table that was there for him, so he wouldn't have to fumble around in his bag during his performance. Of course, he forgot. He got up there, and said, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, we invite you to the Tucker & Carson magic show! For my first act, I will need a coin.' And then he fumbled around in his bag for a few minutes, and I thought to myself, 'oh, no, this isn't going well!' I seriously wanted to rush up to the stage to help him. AND THEN....he says, 'well, it looks like I've forgotten my coin, I'm going to have to make one appear...' And my heart skipped a beat. He knew exactly what he was doing, and he had totally recovered.

He did so awesome! He totally worked the crowd, and had such good stage presence, and I was so proud of him. The kids were laughing and paying attention. Honestly, the magic tricks weren't that amazing, but his performance was so so great!

I was so proud of him!

We were so proud of him that we took him to Froyo after to celebrate his awesome job!

I am so proud of this little man. He is so confident and funny and silly and sweet.

June 8, 2014

The next day, Sunday, since my mom and sister were in town, we decided to have a little early b day party for our little man.

I invited our friend from the branch, Yulissa, who is Jackson's second mom. She always tells me every Sunday that we will be just fine as long as I understand that we have joint custody and that Jackson is mine Monday-Saturday, and that he is hers on Sunday's. She seriously takes him every Sunday during all three hours of church. She changes him, feeds him and sings to him--she does it all. He is seriously all hers during church. And her son, Starling is just the same. He has told me many times that he considers Jackson the brother he never had.

Jackson & Yulissa:

Grandma and the birthday boy:

We just had a little family dinner and then some cupcakes made by Kathryn, the resident baker:

He was pretty intrigued by the whole thing.

He just needed a little help...

And, of course, instead of digging right in like most one year olds, he got out that little pointer finger and began investigating...

Apparently, it passed the test because he went back for more...

The whole party gang:

Me, Yulissa & Starling with our little man. This guy sure is loved!

I loved celebrating my little man. I seriously don't think I could love a baby more than I love him. I think I've said that with all three of my babies, but it's true!!! :) And we were so lucky to have so much family in town to celebrate with us.

June 7, 2014

Saturday came and we had our big neighborhood garage sale, and Jesse's wedding. I spent all night Friday night getting ready for this stupid thing. The morning came, and we were all ready to go! It was so much fun, we've never had a REAL garage sale and it was so fun. We had a lot of traffic because of the whole neighborhood thing.

Of course, I had to work with these crazies:

And, of course, my kids all of the sudden had to play with all the toys that they hadn't looked at in years.

We made about $200, so we were excited about that! :)

Then, I was off to spend my afternoon with these crazy people:

Luckily my mom was in town to watch my kids while I was at the temple and I was able to watch the Croskrey grandkids during the sealing. Since I had to be there anyway, I got to hang out with my Kenzie girl.

Photo bomb by the bride:

Hannah was so fun, totally my kind of girl. My sister is lucky to have some great sister in laws.

Then Pat, the couple and I headed up to Mica to a brickyard and some train tracks. And I got some great shots of these two:

Then grandma brought my kids over and the real party began! :) Their reception was so much fun and beautiful!

Milk & Doughnuts...

Kayla and her other beautiful sister-in-law, Jenny. It was fun to hang out with her too for the weekend, she's so cute! 

These two cousins sure had fun playing together:

This guy just chilled the whole time:

Then he hung out with his Papa:

This guy sure loves his papa:

The boys dancing with their grandma:

For me, it was just fun to hang out with my sister. She's about to pop any day and I'm kind of sad that it didn't happen while she was here. I was hoping. Then she would have a good excuse to stay longer! :)

We were practicing cheesy maternity poses...

And that, of course, turned into some warm embraces:

It was such a beautiful perfect evening, and I was so glad I got to spend it with my little family.

On our way home, I wanted to take advantage of the perfect setting sun light so I snapped some pictures of my kids by the temple real quick. This is what I get for not checking them, but just snapping one shot and being done. This is why I take thousands of pictures. 

I think it's funny that in both of them, the background is what is in focus, and both of them are closing their eyes! :)

Such a fun evening! Thanks for getting married Jesse & Hannah!

June 6, 2014

Friday was great because grandma got into town to see Jason & Kayla and we got to see Tucker's class do their poetry reading. It was the cutest thing ever. First they did a reading of Johnny Appleseed that they had been practicing for a few months, then they read poems that they had written through the year. Tucker was the narrator for the Johnny Appleseed reading. He did so good and had all of his lines memorized, but he sped through them so fast we could hardly understand what he was saying! :) Good thing he's so cute!!! :)

Kenzie came with us and after he read his part and since he was the first one to read his poem, as soon as he was done with his poem, Kenzie went up and sat with him and stayed on his lap the whole time. It was pretty cute! I just love this boy so much. He is just so sweet.

After the poem readings, we got to go out and play with the kids. It is fun to see Tucker play with his buddies. He is such a social little guy, and has so many friends. Here he is with Carson, Noah and Caden. And, of course, he has to take Jax with him wherever he goes.

That night we went to Jesse & Hannah's family rehearsal dinner. It was nice for me to meet Hannah and her side of the family since I would be taking their wedding pictures the next day! :) Also fun to hang out with the Croskreys and family for the night.

They played a fun game where they were asked questions about who was 'better at' what or 'more' whatever. It was a really cute and fun.

Jackson was lucky and got to take a little nappy the whole time! :)

June 5, 2014

June 5th was pretty chill. Not much too exciting. Hung out with Kenzie, didn't take many pictures except these two:

After dropping off the McLaughlin boys at their house, there was another amazing cloud day. I couldn't help but take a picture:

Oh, and on the way to pick up the boys, I saw this sign at Sunrise elementary. Miss Tyson is retiring! I can't believe it! I was a bit sad when I saw the sign, but also so so happy for her! So happy that she gets to retire and spend some time with her little Ryder boy!