Mother's Day

I had a nice Mother's Day this year. It was nice not to have to get up and be at church early, so even though I ate breakfast at the table and not in bed since the kids all came in and woke me up in the morning, at least I didn't have to make it and I was still in my pajamas. The Sunday before Mother's Day, J.D. and Jake made necklaces for me in Primary. Jake also made a pin for me at school. (See me wearing them in the picture below.)

I received some lovely cards, flowers, and gifts.

Here's Jake's card. He made a flower pot with his handprint.

Here is J.D.'s card. It is more like a book.

Some of these pictures are sideways, so I will quote the text for you.

"Dear Mom

On Mother's Day I am going to clean the dishes."

And he did! She picture above.

"A poem for Mom by J.D.

Mom

Loving Kind Caring

favire color is purple

Mom"

"The most important thing I've learned from you Mom is not to be afraid of dogs."

"Mom you are special because you tell me to watch Janalynn and I rearry like that because Janalynns cute."

"The nicest things my mom says to me are.

1. Your welcome

2. thaks"

"Just once I would like to you Mom go to disney world because it seems like fun."

What a great card! And a great Mother's Day. Thanks kids (and Jim).

Aunt Megan's Graduation

Janalynn and I flew to Utah (well, actually Las Vegas, then drove to Utah) at the end of April to go to Aunt Megan's graduation from Southern Utah University. (Nana was in Texas to help hold down the fort.)

Megan received her bachelor's degree in Business and Marketing. It was really cold there and we had to bundle up. It even snowed on us. That didn't stop Aunt Megan (on left in photo below) from wearing her new open-toed orange shoes. On our walk to the University-wide ceremony, we saw Megan and some of her friends lining up, so we stopped to take a picture.

Grandpa carried Janalynn in the Baby Bjorn on our walk across campus.

Megan took the opportunity to pose in front of the backdrop that SUU had set up for photo ops.

With the parents who made it all possible.

On our walk back to Megan's house, she did a pose in front of the bell tower.

Me with Megan in her living room (in my only warm clothes that fit--not used to dressing up in the cold!).

Janalynn loved snuggling with her Uncle Justin.

Janalynn met her new cousin Timothy who was only 2 months old, but is almost as big as her!

Janalynn also got to visit with her two Great-Grandmas (my Grandmas) at the graduation party.

On Sunday after church, we posed by this photo display in my parents' house that shows both me and Megan at one-year-old wearing the same dress that Janalynn is wearing. Funny how Janalynn looks a lot more like one-year-old Megan than one-year-old me.

We had a good trip, even though it was cold and Janalynn was so tired on the plane ride home. The only way I could finally get her to sleep was putting a Baby Einstein movie on the DVD player for her to look at so she would settle down and lay on my shoulder and fall asleep. Congratulations, Megan, on your graduation!

Nana's Visit

Nana came to visit for Janalynn's birthday back in April and to stay with the boys and Dad while Janalynn and I went on a trip to Utah. We didn't really get any pictures of what she did, but she was helpful. She went as a chaperone on J.D.'s field trip and played with the kids and took them to the park. While she was here, we tried to get a few pictures of the kids on the trampoline, but the sun was in their eyes and Jake did not want to cooperate.

If you really look, you can see her behind Janalynn in this picture.

Thanks for coming to visit Nana!

Janalynn Turns One!

We celebrated Janalynn's First Birthday the day before her actual birthday with a party with neighbors and friends. We had an evening barbeque with a cupcake theme. The only bad part was that because it was Sunday, the birthday girl took a short nap at the end of afternoon church and then wouldn't take another nap when we got home, so she was pretty tired for the party.

Our good friend, Jeannie, made her birthday cake. It was a giant cupcake to match the cupcake on Janalynn's shirt.

For dinner we had hamburgers, grilled chicken, hot dogs, and sides, with cupcakes, of course, for dessert.

Here's Janalynn with her birthday buddy. She was born on our next door neighbor's birthday, so it was nice to have him celebrate with us.

When it was time for cake, we lit the candle and gave the cake to Janalynn with the idea that we would sing, she would blow out the candle (with help), and we would let her dig into the cake and make a big mess. Here she is looking excited.

Well, after we sang to her and one of her brothers blew out the candle, she just looked at the cake and didn't know what to do. We tried to give her a taste of it and put her fingers in it so she was know what to do, but she just started to cry. I think it was mostly because she was so tired.

Later, we tried just giving her one of the smaller cupcakes to eat, but she didn't want anything to do with that either. So, we finally just gave up on having her eat cake on her birthday. (Incidentally, we've been to a couple of birthday parties since then and she has chowed the pieces of cake I have given her.)

After the cake fiasco, we let her open her presents. She was really excited. She got some cute dresses, a little see n' say and a play cell phone. Jim and I gave her a little table and two chairs and a tea set.

The boys gave her "Jessie" the cowgirl (for two reasons--1) they love all things Toy Story and (2) her middle name is Jessica and Jim wanted to call her Jessie.

I used the same idea that I did for Joey's party and gave water bottles with cupcake appliques as favors. However, since we had lots of adults, we just filled theirs with Crystal Light and chocolate instead of other candy and toys as we did for the kids.

Here she is right before bedtime, playing with Jessie and a balloon from her party. I think she had a fun time, even though she was tired.

The following Sunday, we were in Utah for Aunt Megan's college graduation (see separate post), so we had a little birthday celebration for her with my family. I experimented with putting cake in a couple of pyrex pans and made a medium-size cupcake for her.

We sang to her and someone blew out the candle. She had the same reaction to the cake we tried to give her in Utah that she did in Texas. She just cried.

Grandma and Grandpa gave her some really cute outfits that Grandma had sewn for her. She had fun ripping the wrapping.

Happy Birthday, Janalynn!!!

Easter 2010

We had a fun Easter this year, with lots of festivities. Since Easter Sunday was during our church's General Conference and we wouldn't actually be going to church, we didn't worry too much about Easter clothes, but I did take a picture of the kids the Sunday before Easter when the boys were wearing matching polo shirts and Janalynn was wearing her cute polo tennis dress. We snapped a few, but this is the best one we got.


Also, the week before Easter, the kids had fun opening their Easter package from Nana.

Janalynn was really excited!

On Good Friday night, a group of girl friends and I went to our stake's sing-along Messiah and an art exhibit of The Reflections of Christ. We went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner afterward. We had a great time and it was a fun (and spiritual) way to start Easter weekend.

On the Saturday morning of Easter weekend, the kids all got up and came to our room for some reason without going downstairs. This rarely happens so I had to document it. (Of course Janalynn did not come in our room on her own, she had help.) Daddy looks like he is still asleep.

The kids all went downstairs to see that the Easter bunny had paid a visit and left them each a bucket with candy and a few toys and movies.

Janalynn got the yogurt snacks she likes and The Princess and the Frog movie that came with a little purse.

J.D. and Jake got Nerf guns and accessories and Joey got Thomas stuff.

We watched conference in the morning, then after the first session our neighbors and a few friends came over for lunch and an Easter egg hunt. Janalynn was excited for her first egg hunt. She used her new Care Bears sand bucket to collect eggs.

Here are all the egg hunters getting ready to hunt. (We had sixteen kids ages 1 to 13 for our hunt.)

Joey (in the red shirt bending over) was off quickly and started grabbing eggs.

Janalynn was more interested in eating the plastic eggs than looking for them.

Jake helped Janalynn collect a few eggs.

After all of the eggs were found, we brought out the 10 dozen or so confetti eggs and everyone had a great time smashing them on each other's heads. (I was vacuuming up confetti in the house for weeks after.) Oh well, it was fun!

We tried to get a family picture, but the sun was in everyone's eyes and they were grouchy.

Here are all of the ladies that were there with their kids (+ Janalynn). For some reason I didn't get a picture of the food, but it was yummy!

Thanks, friends, for joining us for a fun Easter Saturday!

On Easter Sunday, we just relaxed at home and watched conference. We tried to make it a more spiritual day to focus on the true meaning of Easter.

Blog Catch-Up - We're Finally Back!

Yes, it really has been over 2 months since I posted anything of substance on the blog. Now that school is out and before we leave on our summer vacation, I am going to try to catch up. There is a lot so it will probably take a few days. Keep checking back and if you don't have Google Reader, scroll down so you don't miss anything!

Janalynn's Photo Shoot

Right before Janalynn's first birthday, my talented friend, Ralphie, did a photo shoot with Janalynn in the beautiful Texas wildflowers (including the Texas state flower--blue bonnets). You can see a preview of the photo shoot here. The blue dress she is wearing is one that my mom made for me to wear when I was one.