Family Pictures

Lucky Me...

My best boy and my best girl. I love being an aunt.

Two of my favorite girls. Heart them.

The best thing to be besides a mom, is an Aunt... :)

Life in general...

I feel like I never do a post just about the goings on in our lives! Not just mine, but the kids and kaleb too. So, here is a little recap of what we have been up to!

Me: This is the first school year that my kids have all been at school that I haven't had a job. I worried all summer that I would be bored, but, nope...not yet!! Every day is busy with cleaning, laundry, friends, family, reading, scrapbooking, shopping, walking.....I keep wondering if I should get another job, but I don't feel like I should right now, so I am just waiting. I still play bunko once a month, I just got moved up to be a Mia Maids advisor, so I am excited to be back with celine. I shuttle my kids around more than anything. I drink more diet dr. pepper than should be allowed. I watch a lot of movies. I sit in my hot tub. I read more books than I have time for. I keep feeling that sometime in the future I am going to have to make a big change in my life, but I don't feel like that time is here yet.

Kaleb: poor kaleb works more than anything. His job is going pretty good, we seem to have hung on by our fingernails through this whole economy. I am just grateful every day he has a job to go to. He planted a garden again this year. He plays video games. He teases the kids. He watches movies with me. He talks to tage about soccer. We love watching his games. He talks to celine about boys. He did the finish work with my b-i-l on a house my dad is building. He goes to the BYU games. He goes motorcycle riding with his dad and brothers. We look forward to the jazz playing again.

Celine: she's a 9th grader this year. She tried out for the school play, Beauty and the Beast, and made it! She has practice every day. She texts a lot. She always does her homework. She reads almost as much as I do. She is getting more and more social, but definitely still loves her alone time. She is still fun to have as a teenager.

Tage: he's in 5th grade this year! He wasn't sure he was going to like his teacher, but has since decided that he does. He is the class clown. He is our family clown. He is back in soccer and enjoying games and practices. He is a webelos in scouts. He still loves to play with his friends more than anything. Video games is a close 2nd. I am trying to get him to love to read, we are working on it.

Aliah: a 2nd grader this year, but she is in a 1rst/2nd split class and so far it is going really well! She loves her teacher. She is starting dance again tomorrow. She has decided she wants to play soccer too, but we will wait til next year to see if that holds true. She spends a lot of time singing. And being dramatic. And making me want to pull out my hair. :) She is turning 8 in exactly 22 days. She has lately really been into fancy nancy. She likes to read, but doesn't love it...yet. She is going to be a social butterfly. She thinks she is going to marry Justin Bieber.

This is us. This is my life.

One

My vacation countdown as of this morning:

One month

one week

one day.

:)

Where were you on 9-11?

I think this is a day, that no matter how long we live, we will always remember where we were and what we were doing when we found out that the Twin Towers had been hit. It was just another beautiful Sept. day for me. I had had a quiet morning and had no idea what was going on in NYC. At noon I got celine, who was 4 at the time, into the car and we headed for preschool. All the moms were standing around talking and thats when I found out. We were under attack. Airplanes had hit the twin towers. People were dying. Buildings were collapsing. I ran home from dropping her off and turned the TV on. The first thing I saw was a person falling from the Twin Tower. I sank to my knees and stared unbelieving at the TV. I watched the first tower collapse, and then the second one. I heard the reports of other airplanes crashing. I couldn't even move. I couldn't believe this was happening in America, to my own people. I watched the TV all day, and over the next few days, as numbers of people who had died, of heroic stories came out of people helping others and reaching out, people who died trying to save others, I was horrified, but also so proud to be an American. And here we are 10 years later, and once again I am horrified, but also so proud to be an American. Horrified that politicians in New York City are keeping out the very people who risked their lives on 9-11 from the tribute they are hosting in honor of 9-11. Policeman, Fireman, people who more than anyone deserve to be honored. But I am proud that we still remember, and that we will never forget, what happened on that day. I am proud to be an American. And I will never forget.

The only predictable thing about life.....

is that it is completely unpredictable.

What is true one day, may not be true the next.

What makes you happy once, may never do it again.

A person you thought you could trust forever, might just end up breaking your heart.

And the person you never thought you could be close to, ends up being your best friend.

The same sentance that seems hurtful to you, if you look at it in a different light, may actually be kind words.

Some days you might want the sun, and other days you might crave the rain.

You think there are people that you can't live without, and then you have no choice but to learn to live without them.

One moment of peace can lead to an hour of chaos.

And after a trial you never thought you would make it through, comes more joy than you could ever imagine.

Life is like a roller coaster, not only up and down, but sideways and backwards and circles and twirls. Sometimes it makes you sick, but there is always that thrill. Enjoy the unpredictability, enjoy the ride.

Another year older.....Lets Celebrate!! :)

I am all for celebrating my bday!! Its a great excuse to go out, get dressed up and of course you get presents!! I don't necessarily like getting older....ok, it pretty much sucks!!! But, I guess thats part of the package. The friday before my bday I got to go to lunch at Red Robin with my bunko peeps, it was super yummy and of course the company was fabulous! I just love those girls. We went to dinner on saturday night with kaleb's family to Carrabbas, another of my favorite places to eat!!! What a blessing kalebs family is to me, I am lucky to have them as my family too!! On my bday I went to lunch at the training table with my mom and some of my sisters, then we did a little shopping. I am so blessed to have a wonderful mom and 5 awesome sisters. I think thats part of the reason I love celebrating my bday, because I get the opportunity to celebrate with all the most important people in my life. After the kids got out of school the day of my bday, I took them to cold stone for some ice cream then they were nice and did a little shopping with me. Then me and kaleb went out that night. He gave me a Kindle for my bday!!!!! SOOOOOO in love with it. In fact, a little obsessed. I can read to my hearts desire now with thousands of books at my fingertips!! Does my hubby know me or what? We ate dinner at La Jolla Groves, even though we didn't love the food, the ambiance was fun and its always great to get one on one time with kaleb. After dinner we went and saw The Help, which I have been dying to see!! It was such a great movie, definitely recommend that and the book!! Then we came home and I told him all I wanted to do was snuggle and watch Friends, so we did. What a great birthday it was!!! Thank you everyone for all the bday wishes and the luv, I feel very blessed!!!

I got in trouble taking this picture in the movie theatre, some guy behind us wasn't very happy about me taking pix! Hey, the movie hadn't even started yet, and we were just sitting there! :) I wanted to tell him that it was my bday and to bug off, but....I didn't. :) And I still took the picture (and a few more) anyways. ;)