May May May, and a bit of June

May is a bit of a blur. I had a great Mother's Day weekend.First it started on the Friday where Nate and Brielle had a Mother's Day Tea at Strong Start.

I was able to sucessfully surprise my mom with flowers this year ( I have never done that before). Ginny and I were able to take Cindy and Judy out for our annual Mother's Day Lunch.

Sunday was a nice day for me. The kids all gave me nice homemade gifts and Tanner gave me some Cirque Du Soliel tickets, that was great :) Raeann, Krista and I had a dinner at our place for Kathleen and it was a really nice night.

I really enjoyed Mother's Day weekend.

Tanner went to Quebec with his Grade 8 class. I think this was his 6th year. It was another fun filled trip.

While he was gone, we were still busy with baseball, homework and the daily grind, but I have to say the kids were really great and I was really impressed with Tyler and how much he helped. That was a big change from last time Tanner was away. He really struggled with missing his dad and it came out in bad behavior. So it was a huge relief to have him be so great. The kids were also able to go to the Temple for the 1 yr anniversary and plant Dogwood trees and have other activities to celebrate the Temple.

Because this day was so long, (We had Nathan baseball pictures at 8am then I had Jitterbugs at 9:30am, Ty had baseball pictures at 11am so we stopped and played at the Children's festival in between and then we went to the temple) I thought the kids could use some crazy run around time so we stopped at Captin Kids for a bit. it was a full day and I was tired, but it was worth it, we generally had a great day, in between the times I could have killed them :)

We were all happy to see Tanner again and we had a nice long weekend together.

Nathan and Brielle had a yummy field trip to Birchwood Dairy to see how Ice cream was made....and then eat some.

We had some beautiful days among the rain and during papers they found a patch of dandelions that they have to stop and play in,

The rest of the month was more and more baseball, and lots of Canucks!!!! We have made it to the Stanley Cup finals and it has been fun and intense at our place. Tyler is a big fan like Tanner now and we have lots of fun cheering when they score and going to South Fraser Way with all the crowds when they win. Brielle is a great little cheerer. She was yelling : "Go Canucks Go" better then anyone and for a very long time! She's so cute.

Tanner and I were able to go and see another fantastic Cirque Du Soliel, it was amazing!!!It was so nice that it was in Abbotsford, it was so easy. Tanner got us front row tickets, which meant that the clowns fouled around with us a bit and taped us to our chairs, it was pretty funny. The other nice thing about having it local is that you see so many people you know. I hope they do it again here next year and we will have to take the kids.

Along with all of this, Tanner and I have been still trying to sell our house. It has been a very frustrating process but we were very blessed to have Ron and Kirsty come help us finish up some things and spruce the place up a bit to maybe help things along. I don't know why it is taking so long, but after us praying, a lot, we have decided that we need to keep this place up for sale. We aren't sure if it will sell any time soon, but we do know we need to be patient and have faith and that the right ting will happen. I was released from Young Women's secretary and called to the Mai MAid Advisor and was given a very nice blessing when I was set apart that helped us both feel much better about the situation and reaffirmed that we are doing the right thing. So I guess we will see, it is in the Lord's hands.

May 1st, 2011

This was a great week. Monday we had a fun family Easter Monday. In the morning we went swimming and in the afternoon we had dinner at mom and dads. We had so much fun playing "Just Dance 2" on the Wii at a party Saturday night, we had to go buy it and bring it for all the family to play. Everyone danced, it wasawesome. The kids we great, Nathan was hilarious.

The moms danced the dads danced and even grandpa dance to Rasputin...

I have video of that and of Dan and Krista's Bollywood number,

so funny. Dinner was good too, it's always good food.

Tuesday Tyler had cubs and I met Kirsty for Hot Chocolate. Tanner stayed home to watch game 7 of the Canucks 1st round. I came home in time to watch the end. It was so funny to just watch Tanner watch the game. There is lots of yelling and jumping. I think he was on his knees watching for a bit, it as very tense. Thank goodness the Canucks scored in overtime and won! Ty and Tanner were jumping up and down and then they went downtown Abbotsford with some other friends and walked around cheering and being a part of the celebration. They didn't get home until after midnight, but it's all part of the fun.

Wednesday I have JitterBugs starting early at 9am, so the morning is aways a little hectic. To make this better Brielle wasn't feeling well and when I got her up to get dress she stood up and barfed all over me and my bed. Awesome. So I took her with me and made a little bed and thought she would just be lathargic, but that only lasted for my first class and she wanted to go home, but my problem was that it was too late to cancel classes so Grandma K graciously came and picked her up. Poor baby girl was so sick and had a high fever, but as the day progressed she did get better. It must have been a 24 hour bug, but of course on my busiest day of the week. Tanner had his last grade 6 basketball game after school and I was able to go and do my step class that night, I needed a work out.

Thursday Tanner was very lucky and was able to go to game 1 of the 2nd Canucks series with his dad. He had a great time sitting in row 10! He said the vibe was awesome and he loved it! Tyler had a baseball game that night and Nathan had his Ready Set Learn for Kindergarten. He had so much fun doing all the centres and feeling like he was in kindergarten, we are both really excited for him to start school in September.

Friday morning Raeann, Krista and I headed out to Seattle for Time out for Women. We had such a great time and laughed so much, and of course no of us remembered our camera's so we have no pictures to show for it. We went early so we could stop at the outlets and do some shopping, but as soon as we crossed the border we had our first bump with a train crossing, but the train was not moving, so we decided to follow some other people and take a detour. Raeann finally got the GPS working and we were on the right roads and made it to Bellingham, and then to the shopping. Krista and I found a lot of good stuff, and then we stopped for a Jamba Juice where we had our first laughing fit, and Krista could barely eat :)

we got to Seattle around 2ish and we went to the nice hotel Krista booked and dropped off our stuff and then walked down tot he Pike Fish Market and found this little alley cafe and hand a surprisley delicious salad and sandwich and we sat outside in the sun and had some great singers singing. It was so cute to watch one busker tip the other one, it was really sweet how they treated each other. After walking through the shops and market we heade back tot he hotel. Krista is a rep for Time out for Women so she had to get there early. Raeann went to workout and I sat on the bed and read my book. While I was reading, it was so weird, this seagull came on stood on the little ledge on the window by my bed. It freaked me out at first and he kept pecking and slobbering all over the window. This bird stayed there for 20 minutes and then, I think, he actually slipped off the edge and then flew off...so weird! After Rae got back we freshened up and we walked down to the Conference Hall and met up with Krista who had saved us great seats and we enjoyed the evening with John Bytheway. Micheal McLean, and Marima Kullon. They all gave great talks and sang good songs. Marima was very touching, she was from Sierra Leon, who suffered many tragedies but had a strong testimony and an amazing outlook on life. She was grateful to be alive and wasn't going to waste it, plus she had on of the best laughs I have ever heard.

After the night we headed over to Hard Rock Cafe for the worst dinner ever. Krista's nacho's, which are an easy please, were covered in beans....BEANS! they were gross. I ordered a cheesecake, but I got a glass filled with cream cheese, seriously! We walked back to the hotel and saw lots of interesting people.... We made it back and got ready for bed and laughed so much all night. You learn a lot about people when you have a sleepover, it was awesome. Krista and I finally fell asleep, but poor Rae had a harder time :( Morning came way to early, and we walked down to hall. Rae and I left Krista there and we tried to have breakfast at this nice little cafe, but it was a coffee shop, not a bagel shop, so we weren't satisfied at all. We did get some good smoothies from Starbucks though. We had a full day at Time Out and it was so good. The speakers were great and made for a really well rounded presentations. Mercy River sang through out the day, and there was a nice spirit felt all day. We had some good laughs waiting in the bathroom lineups, mostly at Krista gaging and running out since there were alot of stinky moments. We also had on of the best lunches ever. We found a great sushi restaurant. It had amazing food, great people, location, and the decor was really cool. Plus we all ate with lots of left overs for $40. It was amazing! After a great day we headed home and we shopped a little more and had just a great time with each other.. I really loved the experience and the things I learned at the Conference and I really loved going with Rae and Krista, it was full of laughter and appreication for who they are, it was great!

I came home to my family and they had a good weekend too. They had lots of baseball and some birthday parties. Grandpa helped out with Brielle, and Tanner said the kids were great so he took them to Red Robin's for dinner, so I came home to a happy family. Today we had a nice morning at church, Ty gave a talk in primary, and did a good job. We went on a beautiful sunny walk with Cole and Krista after church and had a late dinner. Sarah came over and we all watched Funny Home videos. It is so deceiving with the sun out later, but the kids went to bed and it's time to start another week, time is going too fast.

Easter

April 24th, 2011

This Easter weekend has been so fun. Friday morning we had a visit from the Easter Bunny! It was a good surprise except Nathan recognized it was Grandma K because of her candy :)

Later we went over to mom and dads for Tyler and Matteo to have there first lesson in cutting the grass. Dad has hired them to cut their grass since Dallin and Jeff are serving missions. They were both excited and eager to make some more money. The grass was crazy long so Rae and Tanner helped a lot but the boys got the hang of it pretty quick and I think this will be a great job for them. After we went to the park to play and the boys did their papers. The rest of the afternoon we went with friends to the Leavitt's property in Langley for a bonfire and be outside in the beautiful sunshine! We cooked hot dogs and marshmallows. The kids all played and went on little adventures, jumped on the trampoline and then al the end of the day went on a hayride.

Bro Leavitt took us to Jamestown, which is the old town they use for movies and what they used for Trek, (it's on his neighbours property). It was really cool and the temple they built at Trek is still up, which was very cool! We were there until it was dark and then we all headed home since the guys like to go play hockey. Ty went with Tanner and he was happy to stay up late and play hockey.

I let the younger kids stay up a bit and watch a movie after they had their baths, but after the day they had they all fell asleep in my bed after 30 minutes :) It was so funny to sneak a peak at Brielle and Nate having a bath. There were both singing a song, which song... I have no idea, but they were singing so loud that it caught my attention and I had to take a picture of how silly they looked ,

Saturday was a clean up day. Tanner and I cleaned and organized the house and garage, which was really good. It was a gorgeous day, the kids road their bikes and played. We lost Brielle for a couple minutes, which was a little scary. She always wants to play out front, which is fine when we are able to keep an eye on her. We were cleaning the garage and she was playing then all of a sudden she was gone. We thought she might be hidding in the house, which she does, but she wasn't coming when we called her in our "serious" voices. So the hunt was on. I wasn't terribly worried yet but I was getting there, and then out she popped. I don't even know where she was, she just kept saying she was with her friends, so I think she was in on of the kids backyard's... we were not happy, well we were happy we found her but ready to kill her!

After lunch and we had cleaned up the house we took the kids and Cole out for the sun. We wanted to go to Cascade Falls but after driving there, the park was closed, boo, so we drove a little further to Chehailis River where we threw rocks and the kids put their feet in the ice cold water...not me.

They all fell in, of course, but Ty was the worse and had his whole side of his body fall in, so cold. I can't help myself from laughing, even when someone hurts them selves, I know it is totally mean but it just looks so funny. We had a nice afternoon outside, we took the kids out for dinner and then home, and tanner and I went to a friends birthday party.

This morning was the Easter Egg Hunt, and the kids were ready to go at 6am. The boys had to wait for Brielle to wake up so I set them to their room until she did. They tried to wake her up without me knowing and then finally at 7:30 I let Nate wake her up, as soon as he said Chocolate, she went wide eyed and was scrambling out of the bed. They did so good, not one negitive word said and they all helped each other so nicely to find everything, it was a nice morning.

Church was good, we had a beautiful musical number of "I Know my Redeemer Lives" and of course, it made me cry. It was also the first Sunday with our new Bishopric, Manual Hererra, Quin Martin, and Adam Swan. It was sad to say good bye to our Bishop, I really like Pat Croonan, but I am excited for the change. Last week when the changes were made, the chapel was filled with the spirit, it is definitely what the Lord wants. Bishop Hererra will be a great Bishop.

Tanner and I have made some new goals to be better at reading and praying as a couple. We know that this is obviously right, but we are going to try harder and make a conscience decision to to do it everyday. This whole house selling thing is not going how I thought, and it is frustrating, but we figured we can't be blessed all the time without doing more work to be worthy of the blessings. I know that I have to be patient, but when things don't work out easily I question if my answers to prayer were my wants shouting over what the Lord know is best. There was a good lesson on Revelation today and I am going to work on and practice knowing my own answers or personal revelations. Krista had made a good comment on recording your process and that is what I am going to try, I almost forget what my answer was 5 months ago. I remember it feeling right and good, but I don't remember there being any doubt, and I wish I would have written down all the feelings, if that makes sense. Anyways this is what I am trying and what Tanner and I are trying together, so we will see what happens.

We had a nice dinner with mom and dad tonight at our place and tomorrow we are having a family Easter dinner, which we are looking forward to.

Bye Bye Jeffy

April 17th, 2011

This weekend is Jeff's last weekend before he goes on his Mission to Georgia. It's kinda crazy that he is leaving, but it is such a great thing and we are all so excited for him. We all went to the temple with him last week, which is always very special, and over the weekend we had his farewell. It was lots of fun and he had lots of support from family and friends! We are going to miss you Jeff!

The rest of the weekend we had some outside fun with eachother. Friday Krista and I took the kids to the Vedder river. It was a Pro D day and the sun was out for a bit. The boys threw rocks and of course got soaked, but they loved it. I took Brielle's BFF Neko for the day and the also had fun throwing rocks and playing.

We had a new Cold Stone Creamery open up so we had to take the kids out for some delicious Ice Cream, Yum, so good!

Then on Saturday night the Torrances came over with their bikes and we went for a fantastic bike ride along the trails by our place. I haven't ridden a bike for probably 12 years, and Rae brought one over for me, but it was so much fun, such a great family activity. Now, I totally want a bike :)

Everyone rode their Bikes and Rob pulled the 2 girls in a little trailer behind him and they were happy as pie. We went for about an hour and it was great!