365: WEEK 34

Preschool. Pregnancy. Swimming. Kids. Life. My favorite image of the week: August 26th - Up, Daddy. This girl. She is a lover. Especially of her daddy.

365: WEEK 33

Hi. I've been on an emotional roller coaster for the last week. And let me tell you, pregnancy hormones only heighten the ride. The week started off wonderful with the return of a dear, dear family. They had been on a mission in Leeds, England for the past year. Seeing them return home brought me so much joy. Fast forward to Sunday evening, when my baby girl received quite an injury. Little girls should NOT have to deal with broken noses or nasal bone x-rays. Such a heart-breaking experience. I'm sure I'll write about that later. My favorite image of the week: August 13th - Homecoming. I already talked about this day in my last post AND shared this photo, but this picture makes me so very happy. Yep.

HOME

Story time!
Seventeen years ago (gasp!), my parents moved our little family from one side of Mesa to the other. The day that our new house closed, a group of 3 or 4 girls came over with a plate of pink sugar frosted cookies. You know. THESE.

image via: Cooking Classy
That was my first exposure to the LDS church (which I think is humorous as I grew. up. in. Mesa). Turns out that those girls were the Achievement Day girls, some of whom I have remained friends with after all these years.
But my real journey began a few months later, with the neighbors who lived across the street. The Allens. I quickly befriended their family, getting to know their seven children well. They adopted me as their own, joking with others that I was their eighth kid. They invited me to church and I eventually agreed. I went on family vacations with them. I played after school with them. I went to church each week with them. It was wonderful. As with all good things, it came to an end; they moved after we were in the neighborhood for a few years. Though I no longer had the opportunity to see their family regularly, their move had little impact on their continued support of me. The day before I turned 17, Mark baptized me before a room full of family and friends. Debbie was one of the speakers at my baptism. She was my escort when I went through the temple. He was one of the witnesses in the sealing room when the mr. and I were married. She has helped plan my showers. He has helped bless most of my babies. They have been like second parents to me. So when they returned home from their mission in England last night, I was right there with their family, welcoming them home. And I realized something. Even though things change and time separates, relationships remain the same. I have grown and have a family of my own; I am not able to spend a fraction of the time with this amazing family as I would like. But being around them is the same now as it was when I was younger. I still feel like I am part of their family; I still feel like I am right at home.

Side note: Do you KNOW how difficult it is to get good pictures at the airport when
there are 70 people attacking 2 missionary couples in love? Nigh on impossible.

365: WEEK 32

This past week has been crazy. I have a kindergartner. I HAVE A KINDERGARTNER! Excuse the exclamation, but I have 5.5 kids and can finally send one off to school. I love it. And, more importantly, he loves it. I've never been the overly emotional type when it comes to parenting, so no tears were shed that first day. I was too excited for him to go off and begin learning and growing in new ways. I look forward to watching him progress in his education in the years to come. My favorite image of the week: August 9th - Musing. This girl. She is such a little lover. I have absolutely adored having a little best friend. I cannot imagine what life will be like next year when I have TWO girls.

365: WEEK 31

This week has felt fast and slow all at the same time. I don't even know. I have spent so much time with different tasks here and there that this past week has flown by. BUT I have been so anxious about my oldest starting school that this past week has dragged on. Either way, we are here. And I am more than ready to get into school mode. Summers just don't feel as structured and organized as the rest of the year. And you know me. OCD. My favorite image of the week: July 31st - Lego Towers & Car Crashes. These three rarely play together well. Toys get stolen from one another or things get thrown. I was shocked to see them working together to build a tower of legos. Once they were finished, they rammed their cars into it so it would collapse. Boyhood bliss.

CALI

A week and a half ago, we took a little trip to California. Our trip last year was incredible; I knew this year would be a blast, too. Not entirely. We hit a fair share of bumps before being able to enjoy ourselves. Needless to say, we learned a few things:

- don't leave for a trip right after naps only to arrive at bedtime

- don't wait until 10am to try to find parking at Newport beach

-don't go 4 hours at the beach without using any sunscreen

Despite our rocky beginning, we did have fun. We met up with wonderful friends and played for hours at the beach. I wish we lived closer to the ocean; the littles were in heaven. They rolled in the sand and splashed in the surf. It was hard to leave. After a delicious dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory, we hit the sack and were all asleep by 9pm. When we awoke the next morning, we discovered just how badly we were burnt. We skipped a second morning at the the beach and instead headed to Aquarium of the Pacific where we were able to get a taste of the ocean without the sun exposure (no pictures - I promised the mr. a camera-free outing). Once we finished at the aquarium, we hit up an In-N-Out Burger before making the journey home. I'm already looking forward to next year, especially because we will be spending 3x as much time in California.

They were a little bit excited about In-N-Out. Pretty sure this is going to be
one of our California traditions (I basically refuse to eat at the one here).