"The week of awesomeness and business" - says Damon

This week was busy, but I can't remember all the things we did.  I didn't take a lot of pictures but this is what I got:

I finished the bike rack project that I started last week.  I love Pinterest and other people's great ideas.  It took a bit of time to saw/cut all the pieces but it was pretty easy to put together.  It felt really good to get that done.  It works great but I think I will lengthen some of the spaces so that the bikes aren't so close together.

 Tuesday was scouts. Wednesday was Girls Night Out - we had a  'favorite things' night where we wrote down some of our favorite things and then had to guess who they belonged to.  We also did a gift exchange.  We stayed until after 11:00 - it was a lot of fun.  Thursday I was able to go to the temple for an endowment session.  I got to see one of the movies I hadn't seen yet.  The last couple of times we have gone it has alwyas been the same one, so it was neat to see something new.

Friday Chris had a field trip with his preschool to Old McDonald's Farm.  It was an okay place, the one we went to in Firestone was bigger, but we were able to pet the animals at this one - plus have a train and pony ride.  The kids had a good time.

 Note our jackets - it was really cold when we got there weird for around here.  It has been so hot and humid even when it rains.  So it actually felt great to be a bit cool and it was perfect by the time we left.

 Chris said he liked the rabbits the best.

 The giant sand mountain was fun too.  The girls climbed up but needed help getting down.

 The goats kept us on out toes.  This little one came to say hi to Kaylee and the bigger ones were nibbling on all of our clothes!

 The girls didn't make it home to nap.  I just left them in the van and read a book in there with them.  It wasn't a great nap, but it was the best we could do.

Friday evening we rode our bikes to the park.  It was lovely weather - not too hot.  

 Gotta have the popsicle when we get back home.  We finally bought more camp chairs so they were all excited to have their own to sit on.

Saturday afternoon there was a crazy down pour of rain.  Tyler and Doug had already left for soccer.  Tyler got to practice for about 20 minutes before their canceled the rest of practice and their game.  Doug said the roads were lakes.  This morning there was a tornado warning for a bit and lots of thunder and lightning.  

Happy Birthday Tyler

Happy Birthday Tyler - 8 years old!  Now it is Tyler's turn.  Tyler had a good day, I will say he was a bit disappointed by not having many presents to open in the morning.  We bought him a nice bike and we told him that we wouldn't be getting him much else and I just let the grandparents give him money so there wasn't much to unwrap.  But he was excited later in the week when he got to pick out some Lego sets with his birthday money.  

 Minecraft figure

 Wipeout Wii game

For birthdays the parents can bring in a treat at lunch time.  I haven't been in the school much so it was good to see how things run.  There are a lot of kids and it was loud.  

This is almost all of the 2nd grade.  Then the other half of the room filled up with the 1st graders.  

Damon was good to watch his siblings so we could take Tyler out to eat - he chose McDonald's.  We had to hurry a bit since it was late.  We had had swim lessons earlier and they had been pushed back due to rain.  

 Saturday Tyler had his birthday party.  Only two friends were able to come, but they had a good time.  Doug was awesome and filled up water balloons that were disposed of very quickly.  We played with water guns and jumped on the tramp.  We had pizza and popcorn balls and Tyler opened his presents - Tetris Jenga and a Super Soaker water gun.

 They played a bit of Tyler's new Wii game, Wipeout, as well.

 It was a fun day and we were so glad that it didn't rain.

Mother's Day part 2

So real quick, I had to show how the lilies of my bouquet bloomed.  They got sooo big.  They even got bigger after this picture - so pretty.

I made fruit pizza for dessert and just let the kids put on their own toppings.  They had fun doing that.

Also I had Doug take a picture of me and my girls, I wanted to compare through the years. :)  I remember taking this first picture with the girls on Mother's day and I remembered to take one the following year. The camping one wasn't on Mother's Day, but it was close. Then this year.

Kaylee /Jenna

Jenna/Kaylee

Kaylee / Jenna

Kaylee/Jenna

So grateful to be the mom of these two cute girls - and my three handsome boys.

Mother's Day

Doug was so good and bought me flowers and a card. The flowers are so pretty.  I ordered some new aprons, but I guess those count as coming from him too. :)  Tyler made me a card at school and for primary the kids wrote on flowers saying why they love their mom's or something nice they will do.  It was pretty cute.  My mom sent me a card too.

I left sacrament early to help set up the primary room and I missed the chocolates that they were handing out.  I figured Doug would grab one for me, but he didn't.  He went back after church to look but didn't see any.  Oh well, guess I'll have to eat some chocolate chips.

The girls wore their new dresses they got for their birthday.  They were excited to do their hair in hearts like we did for Valentine's Day.  So much fun.

Weekly report

Other things that happened this week:

We went to the library on Monday and then we went to Toys 'r Us  to let the girls pick out a toy from the money that Grandma Petersen sent.  I was pretty patient until the very end.  I let them look all over the store and try out different things.  But trying to decide was a bit tricky.  In the end Jenna chose a vacuum and Kaylee chose a pretend learning phone.  We did some grocery shopping on the way home as well.  It was a long day of errands and we were all tired.  I think we got home so late that I didn't even have the girls take a nap but they did ok without.

Damon had scouts on Tuesday, Wednesday I had book group.  We talked about These is My Words.  I almost had finished reading it again.  I read it years ago, but I needed a refresher read.  It is such a cute book.  Thursday Chris did a cute little Mother's Day program at preschool.  They sang us a couple of songs and we had a little luncheon that they helped prepare.  They made us cute 'mom' necklaces too.  Chris's preschool teacher is amazing, the best we have had.  I wish she would be available to teach my girls in two years.   I also had my presidency meeting in the evening - so two nights of trying to get the kids to bed quickly so I can leave by 8:00 and then getting home late 10:00+.

Friday I watched my friends two girls in the morning.  One is 6 months old and I am reminding of how much I don't miss the baby stage.  I am very grateful to have my kids all be 3 years and older.

Saturday was  crazy busy.  I got up and got ready quickly and went grocery shopping.  I hadn't done any pantry shopping for awhile so it was a bigger trip.  I always fill my cart to the max and end up having to have 2 carts to make it to the van.  It took me about 3 hours to get there, shop, unload, and put everything away - tiring.  Then Doug ran some errands to look at twin beds for the girls.  While he was gone I took the kids to our community pool.  This was our first time going and we had a fun time.  There weren't many people there.  I bought puddle jumpers for Chris and the girls and 3 kick boards.  Kaylee was a bit clingy and didn't like it as much.  The water was a bit chilly but it was warm enough to not be freezing.

Tyler had a quick break then went to his soccer game with Doug.  Damon went too because they went to look at bikes afterwards.  I worked in the kitchen all while Doug was gone making lasagna and cleaning up - so I wouldn't have to cook today, for Mother's Day :).

They got home around 5 and we had dinner and got the kids ready to go.  The YW put on another fund raiser to babysit.  They have fun activities for them to do and let them watch movies too. (Damon was a marshmallow man as we left). We went to a Thai restaurant with two other couples from the ward.  It was great to sit, eat, and talk without having to find a baby sitter.  We got back home around 9 so bedtime was a bit late.  The boys slept in but Jenna still joined us at 6:00 - not a very nice Mother's Day present.  She did stay with us in bed until about 6;45 so I guess that is sleeping in a bit.

Later in the evening on Saturday our beds were delivered so now we have two twin beds to put together for the girls.  I'm excited to use their cute quilts again - they have been sleeping on crib mattress on the floor and the twin quilts were too big for that.

 Random shot:  Damon playing with the girls' new cupcake game.  It's kind of fun to make different cupcake combinations.