6 Months!

We came home in August and decided to move! During the first week of school we moved from one house to another. Jared was still in Texas. It was amazing the help I received from friends, family, and members of my church. People came over before the move and took all of the heavy stuff from upstairs to the downstairs. TONS of people came the day of the move. We were moving from 8am until 9pm. I was so grateful to everyone and especially for our sweet friend who took my kids (so I could have 15 minutes of peace) and got us pizza for dinner after we hadn't eaten most of the day. Then even more people came over to help me clean our old house to get it in perfect condition to turn the keys in. It was crazy and oh so difficult to have Jared gone during this time, but I had so much help.

Then my computer crashed. Hard to homeschool with no computer. Jared ended up coming home mid September to help me out. It was just too hard on both of us at this point to have him gone.

October was fun with Halloween. Alyssa was Snow White, Nathan was Charlie Brown, Savannah was Fancy Nancy (FUNNEST costume I ever made!), Alanna and Arya were Sparkle Fairies.

This is a picture of Arya waiting for Amy Ayala to come pick her up for preschool.

November has been a very difficult month. Our very good friends the Ayala Family moved. We have been good friends with them for five years. We did dance lessons together, preschool, and even started a business together. Alanna cried and cried as they were moving. Arya talks all the time about her best friend Sofi and how much she misses her. Such a hole when people leave.

I've been looking for work. Jared has been getting a few side jobs. People have been calling him for alarm systems. We have been very blessed, but every day is a struggle.

Alyssa and Nathan are both involved in Musical Theatre through school. Alyssa got a lead role this year. The are doing Fiddler on the Roof. Alyssa auditioned and got the part for the middle sister Hodel. She is the only female lead with a solo! Nathan is in the ensemble. This is his first year. He is very talented and I'm sure will get better parts as he gets older.

I'm working with the Cub Scouts now as Cubmaster. I love these sweet boys. We are planning our first Arrow of Light Ceremony. It will be great!

I am so thankful for all I have. Things sure could be better, they have been better in the past, but I have a wonderful family, beautiful, smart, amazing children, a husband I wouldn't trade for anything, a warm house to live in, food on my table, and we are all healthy and working on being happy.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Alanna's Party

Alanna had a cooking party with her friends this year. We had about 15 cute kindergartners here. Fortunately I had Alyssa and two of her friends to help out. Savannah also had a friend over to help with the activities.

Alyssa and her friends coordinated the events and helped keep everyone entertained. Here they are playing toss the bean bag in the cupcake tin.

Savannah was amazing with the children. She kept them in order and talked so cute to them! Here she is leading them in Simon Says while I am cleaning up the lunch and getting the cupcakes ready to decorate.

Alyssa made these amazing cakepops for Alanna's party.

One of the activities was to make these cute flowers for their bakers' hat. Alyssa and her friends helped the guests with it. Aren't those hats cute!!

It was a huge success thanks to many helpers!

Alyssa turns 12!

For Alyssa's 12th birthday she wanted to have a party at Build A Bear.

Surprised? I was too, but I humored her and did it. She was worried her friends would think it was too babyish, but they all loved it. They built their bears and then we went back to our house for food and a movie. Those girls can eat!!! They ate almost nonstop during the whole movie! Ahhh to be young! Alyssa is such a great young woman! She keeps me laughing and is a joy to our family.

Happy 12th birthday!

Alanna turns 6!

Happy 6th birthday to my sweet, sweet Lanicake! Here she is with her gifts: the movie Tangled and her favorite candy Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. I think she was more excited for the candy!

Easter 2011

Getting five children to smile,

With their eyes open,

All at the same time,

After church when they are hungy and grumpy,

was impossible today. But the kids are adorable anyway!!

New Belts

Nathan earned his black belt in Taekwondo!! We are so proud of him. There were so many times he begged me to let him quit and yet he persevered and got through it. He wants to train to be an instructor now and will hopefully test for that in June.

Alanna earned her yellow belt and Savannah earned her red/black belt!! Savannah may be testing in June for her black belt! I'm so proud of their hard work.

Sea World Field Trip

Being this close to Sea World, my youngest children are always asking to go. We haven't gone to Sea World in almost five years! Arya was so excited! This is her watching the Sea Lion.

The last time we watched the Shamu show a swarm of bees invaded the stadium! Nothing that exciting happened on this visit.

Nathan LOVES sea horses, so we had to visit this little guy.

Alanna and Arya were so scared of these ice caves. Every so often a bear will roar and it scared them to death!

By the end of the day the kids were exhausted. I thought they were getting over a cold, but by the time we got home three of the kids had fevers and I got it really bad two days later. They were troopers through the day and we really want to go back on a day they are feeling better!

Above: Nathan and Alanna just trying to get through the day. They just laid in this tube for about ten minutes hoping to feel better. It didn't work. We left very soon after this.

Savannah, Alanna, and Arya bouncing.

Arya and Elmo and Zoe! Arya was so excited!!

It was so hard to get a good picture of all of the kids. I like this one below the best even though they are facing the wrong direction and Alyssa is almost hidden. It is fun to see how tall they are together and their hairdos from the back! This is a view that I normally don't capture. I love Arya's "twirly kirt," tights and boots!