Slow Down and Appreciate the Little Things....

I follow numerous blogs on a regular basis. There are a few that I have been following closely that really stand out in my mind right now. The first one is somebody I don't know personally, but I have been keeping tabs on. She lost her daughter tragically almost a year ago in a drowning. Yesterday I went to her blog as it had been awhile since I had been on. Ironically it was the 2nd birthday (the first since she had been gone) of her daughter that had past away. She was asking people to do random acts of kindess in memory of her daughter. She also invited people to visit her site and let her know what was done even anonymously. I did today and I too encourage you to do the same. http://adailyscoop.blogspot.com/ found her blog through an acquiantance of my sister who also lost her son www.dbkunz.blogspot.com

The next blog I have been following is my cousin Rachel's family blog. Rach delivered her son 2 weeks ago and what should have been a normal delivery has been anything but. Her son is in NICU at U of U. Please keep her family in your prayers. http://www.krisandrachblog.blogspot.com/

The last blog I have been following is the niece of a friend of mine. (My daughter's preschool teacher's niece) She also went in for a normal delivery and the baby has had problems almost immediately. http://www.thebouckfamily.blogspot.com/

Please keep these people in your prayers. Kiss your own children and appreciate the health that they have. Be kind to others as you don't know of their struggles and slow down and appreciate the little things.

April....

This month we celebrated my birthday. My best husband in the world started my birthday off with fresh fruit, juice and muffins left out for me with a card when I woke up. He also got the movie Twilight for me. The idea was to have a relaxing day and to lay the kids down for a nap and watch a movie. One day that may happen as I also had a sick baby I was up with all the previous night, although my loving husband got up with Aidan too. (He usually claims to never hear the kids. I am glad his ears were working well on my birthday though.) :( Oh well.
I took the little ones to see the Easter Bunny and Aidan ran away. Ashlyn on the other hand sat down and pinched his nose as she posed for a picture. She was sure he wasn't the real bunny, but said that was ok because he still made kids happy. We also decorated Easter Eggs as all do. On Easter we spent the day at my sisters and had a big dinner. The kids had another hunt there too. Aidan wasn't to in to it. He was content finding 1 egg and opening it and eating the candy right there.


Gus also got a haircut.

We also discovered this week we have an owl living in our neighbors tree. It has been the highlight of everyday around here seeing if he came back to his same spot.

March....

This last month was eventful. We celebrated Tim's birthday. Yes he is getting old. :) We also celebrated Hannah's 8th birthday. She had her first slumber party. She had 3 friends stay the night and Ashlyn had 1 friend so she didn't feel left out. Hannah planned all of the activities. It was cute. The next morning a brave daddy took all of the girls to Home Depot for their Saturday kids day. I on the other hand bonded with Aidan at home.

We also attended Luke Air Force Base Airshow. We went with some great friends of ours. It was a HOT March day, but we still had fun. We saw the Budweiser Klidesdales, The Thunderbirds and Tim's favorite the new F22 Raptor. It was a litte hard to take pictures of the planes as they don't exactly move slowly.

Insanity.....

For our Spring Break we decided to go to California. We had only 4 days and we planned to cover 1/2 the state. How do you do this with 5 children (Marissa's best friend, aka my other daughter joined us) and a limitation on time?? Well here it goes......

Day 1- Hit the road at 5:00am travel to Tehachapi to pick up Marissa who has had a headstart on Spring Break visiting a friend. Continue to Fresno arriving at 4:00 at Grandpa and Analee's where we burned off energy at the park. Dinner, visiting and plans set for day 2.

Day 2- Early to rise and a 2 hour drive to Yosemite. Motion sickness through the windy road, a picnic lunch in the park and many hikes to waterfalls, playing in the snow, up close encounter with deer, and a 2 1/2 hour ride home (not so windy road back). Arrived back at Grandpa's and Analee's for dinner, bath and to bed by 10:00. By 12:00 am had repacked suitcases and laid clothes out for day 3.

Day 3- 5:00 am wake up call for quick 4 hour drive to Knott's Berry Farm. Checked in to Knott's Hotel and walked into the park. Met our dear friends the Genco's and kids again burned off much needed energy on rides. Spent a great day riding many rides at the park. Both families left to grab some chicken at "Chicken to Go" outside the park and ate in our hotel room. (Great Food!) Redress the little ones in warmer clothes and back to Knott's to close the park down. The kids were all trooper's. Back to the room at 11:00 pm.

Day 4- We slept in until 7:00 am and got ready for our trip home. We had breakfast at the buffet at the hotel. Stopped for Ashlyn's souvenir's (she fell asleep after the last ride) and repacked the car. We drove to the beach to make "sand castles" and of course the big girls had to do some last minute shopping. It was Aidan's first experience at the beach. He kept wanting to go into the waves and screamed, "MINE" when we didn't let him. We had lunch on the boardwalk and last minute potty breaks before climbing in the car for our journey home. The kids were thrilled with idea of the drive as you can imagine! The drive home was only 2 stops (We couldn't all agree on the same fast food restaurant). We pulled into the driveway at exactly 1600 miles round trip. It was a great trip and many memories. Did I also mention.... Insanity!!

By the way I forgot to mention that Marissa got a sinus infection and Hannah, Ashlyn and Aidan all got pink eye while we were gone and on the last day Aidan ruptured his ear drum. Day 5 was spent at the doctors office. :(

I am trying to keep blogging...

It is still my goal to continue to blog. As I have said before please don't give up on me. I haven't been able to upload pictures and I just got this problem solved so heres to another shot at blogging on a regular basis.