The Gallup Family

We have a new blog!

2009-09-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, I started a new blog. It has taken me a looooong time to get caught up so I am finally "revealing" my new blog address. It is:

thegallupfamily2.blogspot.com

For a while there, I was enjoying not blogging. Life is so busy, I honestly don't have the time. Home schooling is soooooo demanding. But I realized that I LOVE blogging, it's like scrapbooking and journaling combined and also a great way to stay in touch. So I forced myself to get caught up.

I thought long and hard about possibly making the new blog private, so that I would know who's peeking in, but I finally decided that I would rather have an open blog that is easy to access. (Sometimes I do wonder what weirdo might be looking at all our pictures!) :)

If you like reading our blog, I would love to get a hello from you. I don't necessarily need a "comment," but I do like to know who's been checking in, (and reading every detail of our lives!!) :)

I truly would appreciate a hello!

Love to all!
Suzy

I might have to change my blog address

2009-09-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

My dear three readers, :)

Well, I haven't blogged in almost a month. It's partially due to being super-busy, but it's also because I completely used up all the space blogger will allow me. I actually paid for extra space, but for some reason my account does not reflect it and nobody will help me resolve the issue!! So I can't add any more pictures to my blog. :(

We've been super-busy around here. We took a camping trip in mid-August and we also started school last week! I miss blogging, but like the extra time I have when I don't blog. I'm not sure yet what is going to happen!!

Just thought I'd post this info.

Love, Suzy

Visiting the Rices!

2009-08-03T22:32:00.000-07:00

We spent Sunday with the Rices. We went with them to their ward which was very nice. My girls LOVED going to primary with Tristan! Afterwards, we went to their trailer back on the farm. It was exciting to be greeted by all of their animals! They have a lot more goats and chickens than they did the last time we came to visit. The kids all had a blast playing together. They played on this motorized thing, the new swingset, and waded in the pool. It was HOT!!

We had yummy barbequed hamburgers for lunch and DELICIOUS, fresh goat's milk from Amelia. It was my first time drinking goat's milk and I was very happy to find how wonderful it is. Brieanne milks her goats every morning. Brieanne and I had a wonderful visit, just talking and talking while the kids played. Craig and Eric went to do some of Erics farm chores together-- feeding the pigs among other things. After it cooled off a bit, we took a little walk with the goats and then came back to make dinner. Brieanne made fajitas, rice and guacamole. It was so fun to be with the Rices!! I miss them being close soooooo much!

Burger Lounge with the Frasers

2009-08-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

So we left my brother's place and went up to La Jolla to visit our good friends, the Frasers. We LOVE hanging with these people! Standing is sooooooooooooo sweet to my girls (even though I know they drive him a little crazy!)

We really wanted to go out to eat, but Craig and I really wanted to eat somewhere healthy. (We are more committed since seeing Food, Inc.) Can you believe there is a burger place in La Jolla that makes their hamburgers from 100% organic, grass-fed meat? Their buns are organic whole wheat and locally made. The produce is local and organic. The food was AWESOME!! Probably the best burger I've ever tried! The place is called Burger Lounge and I can't wait until I can eat there again! I can't recommend this place enough.

The "Purple Pearls" and the Birthday Party

2009-08-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

My nieces Yazi and Ari play on a little league baseball team called the Purple Pearls. On Saturday we got to go see them play which was very exciting! It was fun to root for them when they were up. Unfortunately, for her turn, Yazi struck out because of a bad call. (A very low pitch called as a strike) It made me kind of mad at the umpire and I realized that I probably wouldn't be good at having my kids play little league. (Some of those parents get pretty crazy!) But when Ari had her turn at bat, she got a single!! And then she stole second and third!! I thought it was pretty cool that she got a hit for her birthday.

After the game, her team mates sang Happy Birthday to her, which was nice. And although they don't officially keep score, their team actually won. It was fun to root for our cousins and see them play!

After the game, we went back to my brother's for Ari's party. My sister-in-law made a delicious lunch of corn, potatoes, and barbecued chicken. The party started with presents because none of the girls could wait!! We then sang to Ari and had cake and ice cream. Later, the kids all went swimming. It was so nice to be with my brother and his family!

Soak City and Padres Game!

2009-08-03T21:25:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we went to Soak City in Chula Vista with my brother and his family to celebrate his daughter, Arianna's, 7th birthday. We had a blast!! The kids LOVED it! It was so nice to spend time with my brother, my sister-in-law, Sandra, and my adorable nieces and nephew. Sandra's mom was also there and Sandra's brother's twins, Jocelyn and Jose. We played in the big wave pool, the lazy river, (you can just float round and round in it) and went down the various fun slides. I was glad I got to go down the slides with my older girls while Craig enjoyed the lazy river with Ceci. My girls were just sooooo happy to be with their beloved cousins! We're pretty sure Arianna had an AWESOME birthday. It was hot and quite exhausting, but really fun!

So after the fun at Soak City, we went to Petco park for a Padres game. My dad came down to join us too. It was really fun! The ballpark has been recently redone and it is beautiful!! They designed it to be like the old school baseball parks and it lies on the waterfront of San Diego. We sat in the outfield where they have a sandbox for kids to play in. The kids loved it!! (Although I was a little disoriented to be in the outfield, I usually sit behind home plate!) It was really exciting when a home run was hit, and fireworks went off! It was also awesome when the Padres won because then they shot off more fireworks!

The coolest thing was that a whole fireworks show was scheduled for after the game. Where we were sitting is where the fireworks are shot off. So we got to go and sit on the field to watch the show. It was really exciting to be able to go out on the field!! And the show was beautiful!! What a wild, fun day! (I'm still recovering!)

Swim Parties

2009-07-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

We've gotten to have some small "swim parties" this week with some of our friends.

First, Bella's best friend from church, Violet, came over with her two sisters to swim on Monday. It was evening and I didn't get a picture until after they got out of the pool, but they had A LOT of fun!!

On Wednesday, we had some friends from our home school group over to swim. We had a GREAT day with a delicious pot luck and lots playing in the back yard too!

Today we had some church friends over to swim which was also super-fun. We feel so blessed to be able to share our pool and be able to spend special time with our good friends! (Thanks everyone for coming!)

The VW's

2009-07-29T21:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we visited our dear friends, the VanWagenens. They now live in Texas but came to visit Michael's family in Newport. We LOVE to catch up with them when either they visit us or we visit them. Michael introduced Craig and I!!

We were super-lame, though and got to their place way later than we meant to. (Traffic, not finding a Trader Joe's and a loooong line at the ferry that Craig insisted on taking.) It threw everything off, because WE were bringing dinner!! We all ate late, and after what seemed like a very short visit, it was midnight. All our kids fell asleep before I could even think to take a picture of them! I just hope the VanWagenens still like us! We sure love them!

Balboa Island

2009-07-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Newport Beach and Balboa Island. Lately, I've been remembering a summer when I was 9 (1978) when I went with my family and spent a week there at a beach house. Besides tons of swimming and shell-collecting, one of my favorite things we did was go to Balboa Island. We played skee-ball, rode the ferris wheel, and got Balboa bars. We got to the island by the ferry and it was so cool to take our car across! These memories inspired yesterday's family outing.
We drove onto the island and then took the ferry to Balboa. We went on a really crowded day, so the line was pretty long. When we got to the other side, we played games in the arcade and rode the ferris wheel--they sent us around LOTS of times, it was sooooo fun! (If you click on the picture, you'll see us up at the top!

We also rode the carousel.

Later, we went to the beach where the big girls played in the ocean while Ceci napped. The waves were HUGE!!! (Like, in-the-news, huge!) They were beautiful, but a little scary!

After swimming, we wandered around Balboa a little more before taking the ferry back to the other side.

We then got some frozen bananas covered in chocolate!

We finished off our day by having dinner at Whole Foods-- soup and sandwiches. The Tustin Whole Foods is reeeeaaallly nice! What a fun and exhausting day!

Go see Food, Inc!

2009-07-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

I absolutely loved this movie. If you care about your health, the health of your family, and want to change a bad system-- go see this movie to get started. It was very well-done and although hard at times, very positive and leaves you with a feeling that we all can make changes for the better. Truly, this movie could change your life!!

GO SEE IT!!

* PS-- I've got some posts to fill in--I've been a really lazy blogger this summer. We've been so busy and partying a lot-- just not blogging it. So check back for some fill-ins if you are so inclined.

A Date!

2009-07-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

It's been a loooooong time since Craig and I have been able to go on a "date." He really deserves to do something fun because he's been working really hard this summer on a curriculum planning team with his school district. (Which is a HUGE blessing to us that he actually had a summer job!) He also just finished a super-hard first year of teaching in a very tough district. ( I think our last date was the "nightmare" Grad Night at Disneyland!) So we finally got to go out!

We went to a wonderful, healthy restaurant in Brentwood for lunch called "A Votre Sante." They serve mostly organic food. We got a salmon salad and a grass fed hamburger. We shared both and they were soooooooooooooooo good!! We've been working really hard on eating really healthily for the past couple of weeks so it was nice to go out and still eat healthily! I highly recommend this place.

After lunch, we went to the Temple which was very nice.

We were then able to go see a movie, called "Food, Inc," which was so fantastic, I had to write a separate blog about it!

Farmer's Market with Brieanne!

2009-07-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

Today we had a wonderful surprise visit from Brieanne and her dollies. It was so fun to meet up with her at the Farmer's Market!! It was crazy, hot and the kids were all over the place, but it was just so nice to be together. We bought tons of rainier cherries and they may be the last of the season. SO YUMMY!!

It was just so great to see my dear friend and to be at one of my very favorite places!

My iPod

2009-07-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

I just had to report that yesterday, for some very strange reason, I finally decided to open an iPod that Craig and I bought.

Two years ago.

We are old and not with the times.

We're not used to these newfangled devices!

I'm still not sure what made me do it.

But it inspired a crazy uploading frenzy and now I have about 1/4 of our CD library on our ipod. (We have A LOT of CD'S.) I've been making lots of fun playlists and occasionally buying songs from itunes.

We are having fun and are kind of excited to take it in the car on our road trips. Imagine, I don't have to put all the CD's in that giant case I have and lug it along! It all fits in this tiny box that fits in the palm of your hand-- and it holds 30MB!

Welcome, Craig and Suzy, to 2009!

Mid July Report :)

2009-07-19T17:34:00.000-07:00

This past week has been a bit of a recovery time. I've cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned some more. I washed every towel in the house (since every single one was dirty!) Besides cleaning and doing laundry, we've just been mellow. A big highlight of the week was when we went through some bags of clothes that a friend gave us-- it was seriously so exciting for the girls, some of the things fit Bella and some of them fit Lala and they were both so happy!! Ceci LOVED trying it all on, thus the picture.

We also had some home school friends over to swim but somehow I failed to take a picture. (I know, not like me at all!)

Today we went to the Pasadena Farmer's market which was fun, although super-hot. We got fresh corn, strawberries, lots of nuts and some dried apples among other things. It was really nice. Craig's about to drink some wheatgrass juice in this picture.

We also said goodbye to our rooster, Kathryn. Wasn't he pretty? We knew we could never keep him but on Friday he started cock-a-doodle-dooing pretty loudly and so it was time. He is going to live at Brieanne's farm until his luck runs out! In exchange, we got two new little hens from Brieanne! I need to get a picture of them.

Tonight we did some night swimming which is very fun! The water feels really good at night for some reason. Hope every one else is having a nice summer!

The Triplets' Baptism!

2009-07-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my sweet triplet niece and nephews were baptized! It was a beautiful service. We sang many beautiful songs and their ninety-year-old Great-Grandma on Hector's side gave a fantastic talk on the Holy Ghost! It was so wonderful to all be together as a family and see there precious kids take the important step of baptism. I made Sophia her pearl bracelet and got tie tacks for the boys that say "I am a child of God."

Before the baptism, we took the opportunity to take a picture of all the cousins who got baptized over this past year in their white clothes. Josiah was baptized last November, then Yazi in February, then Bella and then the triplets. What a special year for our family. And these cousins are so lucky to have each other!

Yvonne made a DELICIOUS meal for us--a huge taco bar all cooked and prepared by mostly herself ( we all helped chop some veggies!) It was soooooooo good!

This night was bittersweet because it meant our big, crazy family visit was over. Brenda and Cindy drove to Utah first thing in the morning from Yvonne's. So we all had to say our goodbyes last night. :( As I said before: How I wish we all lived close to each other!!!!

Special Time with my Sister

2009-07-10T20:31:00.000-07:00

Today I got to spend really special time with my big sister, Brenda, who (waaaa!) lives in Japan. I am so grateful that she makes the trek all the way out here so that we can catch up every year. We had a WONDERFUL morning going to the Los Angeles Temple. After that, we had a delicious lunch at the Scarlet Tea Room in Pasadena. It was such a nice time to take a break just the two of us amidst the chaos!

This morning, before we decided to go to the Temple, I was feeling really sad knowing that she and my other sister, Cindy would be leaving tomorrow. So I am so glad we got to go!

How I wish we all lived close to each other so that we could all get together as often as we wish!

Vincent Lugo Park

2009-07-09T21:21:00.000-07:00

Today we went to this awesome dinosaur park that we used to go to all the time as children in San Gabriel. It is such a cool park. The kids had a blast. It was really hot though, so we're glad we could hurry home to the pool!

Santa Monica with my Dad and the Klevens

2009-07-07T22:14:00.000-07:00

We started with lunch from Hot Dog on a Stick.

Then we checked out the little aquarium that had lots of neat things to see!

I loved that the kids could touch the starfish and other sea creatures! And the jellyfish were so pretty!

Then we went down to the ocean where the kids swam and played in the sand for hours!

Got some yummy ice cream!

Then we went to the pier for some rides. Josiah and Bella did the roller coaster together. Then Cindy and I rode the ferris wheel with our younger kids. I LOVE the view from the top!! I LOVE this ferris wheel! What a fun day!

What a beautiful memorial

2009-07-07T22:04:00.000-07:00

I just had to mention how BEAUTIFUL Michael Jackson's memorial was. I didn't love every part of it, (not a fan of Sharpton) but on the whole, it was a beautifully done memorial, celebrating an amazing and big-hearted talent. It was great to go over all of Michael's amazing achievements in performance. And it was wonderful to see so many other artists honor him. My favorite performance was by Stevie Wonder. If you look up the words to the songs he sang, you will know he chose them very carefully. ("Never Dreamed you'd leave in Summer," and "They wont go when I go." ) His performance reached deep into my heart bringing tears into my eyes. Click here to see it. What a lovely memorial honoring such a gifted artist. "We can't help but love you forever, Michael."

4th of July!

2009-07-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

I can't believe what an AMAZING 4th of July we had! We were still down at my brother's so we went to his ward's breakfast in Coronado. The breakfast was held on the route where they have a wonderful parade! It was awesome!! And we were so lucky to get a front row seat!

The parade was HUGE. It went for at least 2 hours. It was super-patriotic. There were tons of veterans and many different groups representing our armed forces.

I have to admit, I got really choked up when I saw the Pearl Harbor survivors-- one who had received the medal of honor. How special to see these heroes who have risked their lives for our freedom!! It was overwhelming.

It was fun to see the many Shriner's driving in their tiny cars. This funny "Grand Poo-Bah" Shriner was driving this cute mini police car. The clowns were fun too.

It was an AWESOME parade. I am so glad I got to spend my 4th of July morning with my brother, my cunada Sandra, and their precious kids and at such a nice parade.

We then went back to my brother's place where we had DELICIOUS barbecued chicken and other yummy food. The kids also all went swimming one last time before we needed to get going. We also enjoyed ice cream!! We really hated to leave. My brother and his wife are the best hosts! We wish we all lived closer together (and not 130 miles apart!)

So we left around 3pm to get back home to Alhambra. We were shocked that it took us less than two hours! There was no traffic. (The same drive has taken me 4 hours many times!)

We got home to find all three of my sisters at the house with all the kids swimming. My sisters were busy making potato salad and fruit salad. We had a nice dinner-- more barbecuing. Grandma Ginny had come up too!

When it got dark, we went to Allmansor park to watch the fireworks. Crowded, but really fun! We ended by doing our own fireworks at home! (Lala doesn't like the noise, so she stayed inside and Ceci had fallen asleep!) All the cousins had a wonderful time!

A Visit to my Brother's

2009-07-05T21:05:00.000-07:00

We spent most of this weekend down at my brother's home in Imperial Beach. We had a really fun time! Craig, the girls and I and also Cindy and her boys drove down on Thursday night. We had originally planned to go to Petco park, (AKA Padres stadium,) to see the Dodgers-Padres game. But the game sold out!It was a bummer because there was a firework show planned for afterwards that we wanted to see AND the Dodgers won! Also, we wanted to see Manny Ramirez play his first night back! Oh well, we still had a wonderful visit with my brother and his family! Sandra, Cindy and I started our Friday by going to the local pool for a water aerobics class. It was really fun and seemed so easy. (I was very sore later!) The kids started their day by swimming in my brothers pool.

We then went into the city of San Diego to check out Petco park. It was really neat! In the outfield, they have a park and even sand for kids to play in. It was fun to see the park and we hope to go down for the next Dodger-Padre game.

We then went to Coronado and had a picnic at a beautiful park there. The kids loved playing there.

We then went back to Imperial Beach and went to the beach! We got a great picture of the kids on this neat, new surfer sculpture.

We then went back to my brothers and the kids swam some more!

We watched the Dodger game for a while on TV. Then Harold and Cindy took all the kids to the drive-in theater to see "Ice Age" (3?) and "Up." It was a super-full and fun day!

Tea Time

2009-07-01T21:42:00.000-07:00

When I got home from Victorville, I was informed that we had a tea reservation for 4pm. That sounded good to me!! Brenda's sister-in-law, Angie, was over visiting and it was so nice to have her come with us!

As you can see, the food was delicious and we had a wonderful time!!

Aaron's Home!!

2009-07-01T21:07:00.000-07:00

Aaron finally came home from the hospital!! He came home on Monday after being in for 2 weeks and one day. We were all pretty tired from our San Jose trip, but we really wanted to welcome him home, too. So we all drove out to Yvonne's home in Victorville to celebrate his getting better and coming home! It was great to see him!

We ended up staying at Yvonne's for two days which was such a nice break from this house! Yvonne cooked us some delicious food, such as tostadas with Spanish rice and Pad Thai with chicken. We also watched fun movies such as Dickens' "Little Dorrit," and the new Masterpiece Theater's "Sense and Sensibility." Little Dorrit took almost an entire day to watch because it lasts about 8 hours! It was so fun watching it! The Sense and Sensibility is also very very good-- I love the Edward in this one.

The kids had a blast playing dress-up, computer games, and swinging on the swingset and jumping on the trampoline. It was great to be with Aaron and seeing him doing so well--almost as if nothing had happened! We are so glad that he is all better!

Hayes Mansion and the California Coast

2009-06-29T22:53:00.000-07:00

We were super-lucky to priceline a hotel for our stay at the Hayes Mansion in San Jose. We had never even heard of it, but we got it for $50 total. It was beautiful!!! We wished we weren't staying for such a short time-- we didn't even get to use the pool, which was gorgeous! Our room was AWESOME though, with a flat-screen TV, a fridge, a beautiful bathroom, all the amenities you would expect. We got ready for the reception there and then didn't get back until after midnight. Ceci and Lala were out by then, but Bella and I walked around together checking it all out, which was fun. After a great night's sleep, we got ready and then wandered around some more, exploring the mansion part of the hotel, such as the piano parlor. We then had their buffet breakfast which was delicious. We wished we could stay a whole night more! But we had to get to our church meetings!

After church, we met up at my Tio Hector's place. We hung out, had lunch and hung out some more. (I had a great time looking at my cousin Tara's beautiful wedding pictures with my cousin Lisa!) Then it was time to get going. Craig wanted to drive through Carmel and Big Sur!

We had a beautiful drive home. Carmel is GORGEOUS, I wish we could have stayed there a week. But all we did was get lunch at this cute store there and drive around the town for about 20 minutes. What a super-cute town. We then went down the coast which was mostly foggy, but still so beautiful.

Just before it got dark, we got to San Simeon to see the Elephant Seals!! It was really cool to see them. One of them did a really cool barking thing that I wish I would have videoed, but didn't. They were so neat to see! We really enjoyed watching them. It got dark, and so we did our best to get home quick-- (about 3 more hours?) What a fun trip we had!!

My Tio Hector's 50th Wedding Anniversary!

2009-06-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

We had the most amazing weekend!!! We all drove up to San Jose for my Tio Hector and Tia Petra's 50th Wedding anniversary celebration! My tio is my mom's older brother. It was also his daughter (my cousin) Olga's 25th wedding anniversary with her sweet husband, Javier. (Olga is named after my mom.) What a PARTY my cousins know how to throw!!

It started with a beautiful ceremony where my tio and my cousin renewed their vows. My cousin Olivia and Olga's husband, Javier, sang some beautiful songs while Olga accompanied them on guitar. It was sooooo beautiful!! Their voices are gorgeous!

After the ceremony, we were treated to a wonderful slideshow that showed the many special landmark times of their lives. Then, Olivia's daughters, Tatiana and Penelope danced with their little folklorico group. They were adorable!

Ceci and Zeke decided to do their own dancing while they danced!

We were then treated to a Mariachi band!! They were FANTASTIC, we LOVE to hear Mariachi music. During their playing, dinner was served-- we had a delicious dinner of pollo, arroz y frijoles. It was super rico!

It was so wonderful to see all my cousins that were able to attend-- My mom's sister, my Tia Lula came with my Tio Larry and my cousin Lisa and her son Hunter. (picture on the left.)

I also got to see the children of my Tio Mel, my mom's other older brother (he passed away in 1998.) His children are Hector, with his wife Sylvia, Freddie, Angie's son, Angie, Perlyne, (David did not attend) and Danny, Freddie's son. It was so great to see all these people! (picture on the right.)

So after dinner, Hector, Petra and their children all went out so that they could come back in and be introduced and dance. I felt pretty honored when they asked me if I would be Max's escort!! Since he is the oldest, we were the first to come in. Then it was Olga and Javier, Olivia with her husband, Joseph, and then Hector Jesus with his wife, Sari. Then Hector and Petra came in and started dancing. Then we all danced with them. There was a fantastic live band that played some great latin music.

Can you believe there was a playground where the kids all played for much of the evening when they weren't dancing?

There was dancing all the way until midnight to the great live band. We danced to banda, boleros, nortena, rock, and they even played some Santana-- "Oye como va" and "Guajira." Very cool!! We had soooooooooooooooo much fun!! We LOVE our family up in San Jose!! They are wonderful, and they so know how to party!

This big picture on the left was the one we got with as many of us as we could get!! The one on the right is of Hector and his family after the toast.

Los ninos-- too many to name!

Las chicas!! Cindy, Angie, Brenda, Olivia, Olga, & me! I love my cousins so much! What a wonderful celebration!

Two Parties!

2009-06-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

Today my girls were invited to two summer parties. The first was given by my friend Kikanza and it was a summer solstice party. There was storytelling, lots of singing, and a delicious potluck. I was also very impressed with how well Kikanza's garden is growing. My girls had so much fun, they didn't want to leave!! It was a good thing I was taking them to another party immediately following!

We next went to an end-of-the-year Girl Scout swim party. It was so nice! It was at the lovely home of my friend Colleen whose daughter is also in girl scouts. Their home is in Altadena right up in the mountains. The pool had fountains that sprayed into the water!! And their dogs loved it!! This pool party was also very special in that it was the first time that Lala "officially" swam!! She's been working on it all summer and using a small life jacket type help, but today she swam without it!! Yay!! What a fun day for my girls today! We are so blessed to have the friends we have!

I loved his music.

2009-06-25T21:41:00.000-07:00

I am soooooo sad. I don't necessarily mourn his death. I mourn what his life turned into quite some time ago. I have always been so saddened by some of the awful things that transpired that I prefer not to think about them. And I'm so sorry he felt he had to keep changing his looks. He was so handsome in the early 80's and didn't need to change a thing. I will remember him looking the way he did then.

But his voice and his talent were AMAZING. What a phenomenal and gifted performer! I will always remember him for that. I will remember him for the great songs that are a part of my life forever. I loved "Off the Wall" as an 11 year-old and remember listening to it through all my years, even as a 20 year-old deadhead and still as a 40 year old mom!

His talent, voice, music and the memories associated with his music will live on forever in our hearts.

God bless you, Michael. I wish you peace.

Beach Day!

2009-06-24T22:04:00.000-07:00

Today we drove out to Huntington Beach. Brenda's sister-in-law, and our "adopted sister," Angie, lives there with her sons and daughter so we went out to spend a day with them. Yvonne (balancing time between home and Aaron in the hospital) also joined us which was so nice.

It was a beautiful day although a little chilly for me! There were hours of castle-building and swimming. Later, we got everybody changed and we built a fire in a pit to roast some hot dogs and marshmallows for s'mores. YUM! I love the last picture of a bunch of tired kids on their way home!!

Olvera Street

2009-06-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

We always love to come here. Today we ate at "La Noche Buena" which has some delicious food! I loved being crammed into their little space.

We had a lot of fun browsing and shopping. We got my dad some new Guayabera's and I got the girls some new embroidered blouses and a "Los Doyers" shirt for Craig! :)

Birthday Luau

2009-06-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

Today we went to a beautiful luau at the Athenium at Cal Tech for our friend Maya's 4th birthday. It was super-fun!! The setting was gorgeous, the buffet was delicious, and the entertainment was great!

And I was sooooooooo happy that Brieanne came up with her little ones. My girls were thrilled to see Tristan and Eathen!! I loved sitting and eating with Brieanne.

We started with a fantastic dinner--salads, tons of fruit, fried rice, amazing mahi mahi, bbqed chicken and kalua pork. Soon, the entertainment started with dances from the various Polynesian islands-- Hawaiian, Tahitian, Mauri and more. After every few dances, the dancers would invite the children up to learn the dances. It was sooooo much fun!! Bella especially liked learning the dance moves and really seemed to do it well! She started begging for lessons well before the party ended. After lots of dancing we all sang Happy Birthday to Maya. We had such a good time! Thanks, John and Masami for such a wonderful party! Happy Birthday Maya!

Father's Day!

2009-06-21T22:19:00.000-07:00

We started father's day with breakfast in bed for my dad and for Craig! I made my dad's favorite, waffles, and then Craig's favorite, french toast. It was fun to have so many grandkids here to deliver the french toast to my dad!! I think they liked their breakfasts!
After breakfast, we (Brenda's, Cindy's and my family) all went to my dad's ward. Yvonne went home to be with her hubby. After church, we had a DELICIOUS lunch of homemade enchiladas, rice and beans per my dad's request. Cindy and Brenda worked hard the night before making the enchiladas and they were sooooooooo good!

Here's us finishing singing "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home" by giving our dad "a great, big, kiss!"

Last year, I had the opportunity to give a talk on Father's day about my dad, if you would like to read it, here it is.

How I love my wonderful daddy!

Later, Craig got to open some presents from the girls. He got a new Dodger hat, a Dodger t-shirt, and a Lakers t-shirt. He is a Daddy who LOVES his girls, and they love him! How I love the daddy of my children! It was a very nice day!!

Sleeping Beauty, Porto's and Forest Lawn

2009-06-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

Today we had a super-busy and fun day. It was a rainy day so it was perfect to have plans other than swimming. We started by seeing a musical version of "Sleeping Beauty" at the Glendale Center Theater. It was a great production, made especially for kids. (And very different from the Disney version.) We all really enjoyed it. After the show, some of the kids got to meet the cast and get their autographs! They were very nice.

Porto's is one of our favorite places to eat and is pretty much next door to the theater so we all went there for lunch. It was a zoo!! Super-crowded! But we still got some yummy sandwiches and yummier desserts!!

Because we were so close to Forest Lawn, we decided to visit my mamma's grave. We always love to go and take her some flowers. It was a really nice day!

Ezra's 5th Birthday!

2009-06-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrated Ezra's 5th birthday! It was a lot of fun--especially because lots of old and very special friends came! Our friend Celeste came, who I hadn't seen for over 10 years. She came with her three gorgeous children. Also, the Tsugawa's came, who I hadn't seen for maybe 4 years. I've known them since their children were babies--now they are teenagers!! How does this happen? I also got to see Tiffanie, who I get to see only a couple times a year! Anissa also came, but after we took the group picture!! It was great meeting her husband and youngest son! It was so fun to have a little reunion with all these dear friends!

I think Ezra had a really fun birthday surrounded by all his cousins!!

Lots of Swimming!

2009-06-18T21:44:00.000-07:00

Just the other day, we got the girls these new bathing suits. I love the colors--Craig picked them out! Today they wore them for the first time!

This week, there has been LOTS of swimming going on. Everybody is having so much fun!

Dodger Game

2009-06-17T22:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight some of us went to the Dodger game against the Oakland A's. It was fun, but the Dodger's didn't win!! :( It was close though and pretty exciting. It was fun to sit with my sister Cindy and just feel the L.A. feeling in the Chavez ravine. It's such a pretty view from the top deck!

Cuteness

2009-06-15T22:14:00.000-07:00

Today almost all the cousins were together with the exception of my brother's kids. We are all going to be together for the next few weeks! So lots of fun, and lots of chaos!! I got a couple of super-cute pics of Ceci, Mimi and Zeke! I love how they were riding around on this broom together!!

Bella's Baptism

2009-06-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Bella's baptism day. It was a beautiful day. We were so blessed because the day before, two of my sisters arrived with their families: Brenda, (from Japan!) with her 5 kids, Joshua, Brandon, Zak, Summer and Elijah, and Cindy and her husband Doug, (from Utah!) with their 3 boys, Josiah, Ezra and Zeke. My sisters were wonderful because they helped me with all that I needed to get ready. It felt so good to have them here! I had spent the entire day buying groceries and running LOTS of errands and I still had lots to do and they helped me do it. (Lots of fruit and veggie chopping!) My other sister, Yvonne, was helping us by picking up some things that we needed from the LDS bookstore-- we wanted to give Bella her own set of scriptures and needed some other things.

Bella's special day started with our regular church meetings. It was exciting for her to have so many of her cousins with her in primary. After church, we went home for a quick lunch. We needed to get quickly back to church because we were attending another baptism first-- the baptism of our very dear friend George Ramirez, the husband of my very dear friend Amanda. It was a VERY SPECIAL baptism! It was truly a dream come true to see George take this wonderful step!

There were about 30 minutes until Bella's baptism. I got her ready in her white dress so that I could take a picture of her in it with Craig in his white clothes. I also snuck in a picture of our family and one of her and I. (If you look at Ceci in the family picture, this will give you an idea of how she acted the whole baptism.) Then I slipped Bella into the dress she would actually be baptized in!

Now there is a reason why she had two dresses-- one was to be baptized in, and then one was to wear when she dried off, and got confirmed. The dress I made her was not to get wet in, but to wear to be confirmed in. Most kids are usually baptized in a little white jumpsuit. But I had a beautiful dress given to us by my sister Brenda and there is a nice, (but long) story to it! When my oldest sister, Brenda, was baptized, my mother made her a beautiful white dress. She was baptized in it on a Saturday and then it was washed and dried and then the next day, she wore it again to church to be confirmed in. Then when I turned eight and was baptized, I wore the same dress the same way. Then my younger sisters, Yvonne and Cindy also wore the same dress in the same way! So it was a very special dress. SO . . . when Brenda's daughter, Summer, was baptized, my brother's mother-in-law, who is an excellent seamstress, made a replica of this very special dress. (Our original dress became too old and yellow) So now all our girls can be baptized in this second gorgeous dress!! And nowadays, children are baptized and confirmed on the same day rather than a Saturday and Sunday. So you need to have something to get wet in, and then dry clothes for afterwards. So this is why Bella has two dresses!

We were blessed to have many very dear friends attend. Almost my entire family was there. Yvonne and her family came--Daniel, Sophia, Hyrum and Amelia. (My sweet nephew Aaron was not able to come because he was feeling very sick and so Hector had actually taken him to the ER-- he was very missed-- and I'll explain later what happened to him!) My brother Harold and his family-- Sandra, Yazandra, Arianna and little Harold all came. It was wonderful. We were also blessed to have my cousin Lisa and her family, our dear friends, the Frasers, my dear friend Lori and her daughter Natalie, and my dear friend Lisa Busch and her family!! Of course, Brieanne and Eric Rice were there. We also had two families from our home schooling group come! We were also blessed that many of our beloved ward friends attended-- many of Bella's classmates and long time friends from primary--Luke, James, Logan, Forrest and Riley and their families.

Amanda made Bella a GORGEOUS book for people to sign for Bella. I can't get over how beautiful it is!! Bella got some wonderful messages in it. I wanted it for her so that she would be able to remember this special day and who came forever.

And here is the program-- the front, inside and back. Bella drew the cover!!

We planned a very special program. We began by singing the song, "Baptism," one of our very favorite songs.

Baptism
Jesus came to John the Baptist, In Judea long ago,
And was baptized by immersion In the River Jordan’s flow.

‘To fulfill the law,’ said Jesus, when the Baptist questioned why,
‘And to enter with my Father In the kingdom up on high.

Now we know that we must also Witness faith in Jesus’ word,
Be baptized to show obedience, As was Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Then Sophia gave a very sweet opening prayer.

Then my dad gave a wonderful talk on baptism. He told Bella some special stories of his own childhood and baptism.

Then Bella and Olivia got up to sing "When I am Baptized"

Olivia was going to sing the first verse and then Bella, the second verse. We had practiced a lot, and Lala never seemed nervous before. But sweet Lala got cold feet. When it was time to start, she shook her head and said "No." So some of us just started singing for her from the audience. Then Bella just took over and sang the whole song, beautifully in the microphone. It was really nice.

When I am Baptized
I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain
and ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

I know when I am baptized my wrongs are washed away,
and I can be forgiven and improve myself each day.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

Then we went into the room with the font where Bella was baptized by Craig. It's a small room, so it was very crowded! Ceci was being super fussy because she had not napped. She made me hold her and was crabby and wiggly. I wish I could have enjoyed the moment a little more! Bella only had to go under the water once. In our church, we baptize by full immersion and if a toe or a hair goes up, it's needs to be done again! Bella was so happy when she came out of the water!!

We went to get her dried off and dressed while everybody went back into the chapel. We showed an animated video about Jesus being baptized to everybody while they waited. Bella's cousins, Summer and Sophia helped her get ready and brushed her hair.

When Craig and Bella were ready, we went back into the chapel. Grandma Ginny then gave a sweet talk about the Holy Ghost. She shared some very special experiences about how the Holy Ghost has guided her in her own life.

I then sang one of our very favorite songs, "If the Savior stood beside me." We try to sing this song almost daily in our home, especially when we get grumpy!

If the Savior Stood Beside Me
If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do?
Would I think of His commandments and try harder to be true?
Would I follow His example? Would I live more righteously,
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?

If the Savior stood beside me, would I say the things I say?
Would my words be true and kind if He were never far away?
Would I try to share the gospel? Would I speak more reverently
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?

He is always near me, though I do not see Him there
And because He loves me dearly, I am in His watchful care
So I'll be the kind of person that I know I'd like to be
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me.

Then Bella came up to be confirmed. Confirmation means to be given the gift of the Holy Ghost. Because Craig holds the priesthood, he has the authority to confer the Holy Ghost. Bella sat in a chair and Craig placed his hands on her head and told her to receive the Holy Spirit. He was assisted by my brother Harold, my brother-in-law, Doug, our Bishop, Bishop Halverson, my cousin Lisa's husband, Todd Sowell, Craig's second cousin, Morris Bird, and our home teachers, Shaun Jorgensen and Ben Willardson. Craig then gave Bella a very beautiful blessing.

After the confirmation, all of the cousins sang "When Jesus Christ was Baptized." They did a fantastic job.

When Jesus Christ was Baptized
When Jesus Christ was baptized
Down in the River Jordan,
Three members of the Godhead
Were present there in love.
The Father spoke from heaven
When Jesus Christ was baptized;
The Holy Ghost descended
As gently as a dove.

And now when I am baptized,
I’ll follow his example—
Be baptized by immersion
Through sacred priesthood power.
Then I will be a member
Of Heav’nly Father’s kingdom
And have the Holy Spirit
To guide me every hour.

Then Bella was welcomed by the Primary as a new member and then by the bishop.
We ended by all of us singing one of our family's very favorites, "My Heavenly Father Loves Me."

My Heavenly Father Loves Me
Whenever I hear the song of a bird
Or look at the blue, blue sky,
Whenever I feel the rain on my face
Or the wind as it rushes by,
Whenever I touch a velvet rose
Or walk by our lilac tree,
I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world
Heavenly Father created for me.

He gave me my eyes that I might see
The color of butterfly wings.
He gave me my ears that I might hear
The magical sound of things.
He gave me my life, my mind, my heart:
I thank him reverently.
For all his creations, of which I'm a part.
Yes, I know Heavenly Father loves me.

Then Arianna gave the closing prayer. It was a beautiful service. Bella was so happy and we felt so loved and supported by friends and family.

We were blessed to even take a big group picture at the end, thanks to Brenda's awesome suggestion!

Bella with the brethren who stood in her confirmation circle.

Bella with our Bishop, Bishop Halverson.

Bella with all her cousins on the Phelps side!

Our family with Grandma Ginny.

Back at home, we were blessed to have family and friends over for dinner. We had taco salad and fruit salad. Bella LOVED being surrounded by her cousins and beloved friends. This was when we found out that poor Aaron's (Yvonne's son who went to the ER) appendix burst and was literally in emergency surgery. It was mind-blowing! Of course, Yvonne was very upset and we were worried. Thankfully, we also all felt that everything would be fine. Today we know his surgery went well, and he's in recovery. I surprised Bella with a cake with her picture on it. She loved it!! We had a great night relaxing with all our family and Bella received some wonderful gifts.

More Chickies!!

2009-06-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my dear friend Brieanne came to visit us with her sweet children. My girls were soooooooo happy to see them!! She brought us two wonderful treats: 12 new baby chicks, and a beautiful felted birthday gift for me. Brieanne designed it with the artist and it is supposed to be me!!! I LOVE it! She looks like a nature goddess. She says the spiral around the belly is to signify fertility-- I am hoping to become pregnant before the year ends. I love my gift and we love the new chicks. We are keeping the chicks only temporarily until they get a little bigger, the goats have harmed some of the them back at the farm.
I hope we can keep them safe!! I'm going to have a lot of extra little kids here next week!! It was so wonderful to see my Brieanne!

The Funny Little Women

2009-06-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

So Yesterday Bella and Olivia were in their Armory art class play. It was called "The Funny Little Women" and Bella and Olivia were two of the funny little women along with their friend, Oona. The story was adapted from a Japanese myth about three ladies who make yummy dumplings. When one of their dumplings rolls away, they go looking for it in an unsafe area where the wicked Oni live. They are warned by the goddess of nature and the goddess of the stars, but they don't listen. They are then kidnapped by the wicked Oni and forced to make dumplings all day, every day with a magic wooden spoon. It is exhausting for them because the work is non-stop, so they finally escape when the wicked Oni are sleeping. They are almost caught, but they get away--with the magic wooden spoon. At the end they start a dumpling business where people come from all over to buy their delicious dumplings--including the wicked Oni!

The girls were fantastic! I was especially impressed with Lala because this was her first drama class. She had no problem memorizing her lines and her teacher said she memorized everybody else's too! She was so cute! All the performers were great. The wicked Oni were especially cute because they didn't seem wicked at all!
I was so proud of both of my girls. Craig brought them flowers and we also had some flowers for their teacher, Grace. This was Bella's third semester with her, so we've grown pretty attached to her.
They made her these adorable cards.

In this class, they made their own scenery and costumes. I love this little part of the scenery where Lala painted a bird!!

It was a really fun night. I know the girls felt very accomplished. It will also be nice to have the summer off!

Up!

2009-06-09T07:13:00.000-07:00

For a little more celebrating, we took the girls to see this last night. (Although Ceci changed her mind so sweet Craig took her to the mall playground) My older girls and I LOVED it. It was really really cute and had a very good message. I'm glad Ceci didn't stay though, her intuition was right-- it's got some scary dogs!

But what a sweet movie, very entertaining, funny, and uplifting! We highly recommend it!

My Birthday!!

2009-06-07T21:44:00.000-07:00

Today was my birthday. There were not a lot of options for partying because it was a Sunday! But I had a WONDERFUL birthday. By the way, I turned FORTY!! Can it be true?

My sweet and kind husband and sweet little girls made me breakfast in bed. The girls literally squeezed me fresh orange juice! They wre so excited to help and surprise me. Craig made me bacon and quiche!! ( I LOVE quiche!) Also, yogurt with blueberries and blackberries. The best part was the cute delivery by my girls! (Look at Ceci with the orange juice!) And the roses! The breakfast was DELICIOUS!

We then went to a very nice church meeting.

After church, Craig told me I could relax while he made lunch. It was a little while, but I was surprised with THIS!! A beatuiful tea party!!

There were egg-salad sandwiches, salmon sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, olive-cream cheese sandwiches, and lots of veggies. YUM!! And we had raspberry tea with honey. We then had blueberry scones with cream and jam. YUM!

Here I am with the sweet man who worked so hard to do all this! He is sooooooooo thoughtful. I mean, how many men are capable of this?

Later, everybody sang to me and I blew out four candles representing FOUR DECADES! It was REALLY REALLY nice.

(P.S. I'm still hoping for a karaoke party somewhere down the line when all my sisters come to visit! I need to do something crazy to make me still feel young!) But what a perfect birthday I had. I am so thankful for my precious husband and children!

Bella's Jewelry & Photo Shoot!

2009-06-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

So now that the dress was finished, I just needed to make Bella some matching jewelry. We had already gone to (the dreaded!) mall earlier this week and found her the perfect little ballet flats and a beautiful pearl headband and earrings, but I wanted to make her a special matching baptism necklace and bracelet that she can wear when she is baptized. I have a pretty nice bead collection because once upon a time I made jewelry to sell at Christmas boutiques. So this morning I made her this necklace and bracelet. I wanted to keep them really simple. For the necklace, I used tiny pearls and then put an aquamarine drop in the middle with a few aquamarine beads in between the pearls. I chose pearls because they represent purity and preciousness and the aquamarine to symbolize the waters of baptism. :) I then made a bracelet with larger pearls, the aquamarine beads and a heart clasp. I am very happy with how they turned out! Once she was all put together, I thought she looked STUNNING! (I am a mother in love with my children!)

So this afternoon I took these wonderful pictures of my baby. We borrowed the gorgeous backgrounds of a couple of our neighbors. I especially love these daisies!! I am so happy with how they turned out! Once I got my favorite one printed, I spent the rest of the evening making invitations. Tomorrow is my birthday, and I really wanted to celebrate today, (my dream would have been lunch at the Inn of the 7th Ray and maybe Karaoke in the evening?) but I knew I couldn't have fun until I got these things done! It's the best present for me to have these things accomplished! I am really happy.

I finished it!!!!!!

2009-06-06T00:45:00.000-07:00

I am soooooooooooooooooooooo happy! I finally finished Bella's dress. It was really hard! I can't believe I was able to finish it after torturing myself by going to Disneyland instead of sleeping! But I HAD to finish today (Friday night) so that I could take pictures of her in it and then make an invitation. So tonight I worked and worked and finished what was left-- the sleeves, the underarm seams and then the neckline. I prayed sooooo hard!! I feel I was very blessed. It's not perfect, but I truly am so glad that I made it. I put my blood, sweat and tears into this dress (literally-- it made me do all those things!) But more than anything, I put my LOVE into it!! I am so glad I made this dress. To accomplish something hard is truly exhilarating! :)

We are CRAZY!!

2009-06-05T15:20:00.000-07:00

So last night, or I should say early this morning, Craig and I went to Grad night at Disneyland. Craig was asked by his work to be a chaperone and he came home all excited one day a couple weeks ago saying we could go to Disneyland for free! That sounded GREAT!! We LOVE Disneyland! We had passes from about 2003 to about 2007 and went A LOT. But we sort of burnt out going so often so we hadn't been for the past two years. (We also really can't afford it!) So the thought of going sounded wonderful, especially with my birthday coming this Sunday, it felt like an early birthday present! We thought it went from around 9pm to early morning and I planned to leave around midnight or 1am.

In reality, we got to Craig's school around 9pm and we left around 10pm. When they gave us the tickets, they said 11:30pm to 6:30am!! And there didn't seem to be a way that I could leave early. Uh oh! We took a bus over with SCREAMING crazy students. It was wild!! And LOUD!! And we were their chaperones!

After the crazy bus ride, we had to go through a whole bunch of security but finally we were in the park! The place was NUTS! It was like they turned Disneyland into a giant techno/hiphop/house dance club! It was totally surreal. I thought it was kinda cool (at first.) "All the single ladies" by Beyonce was playing and I kinda like that song. Here we are with the castle-turned-danceclub behind us.

We headed to Space Mountain right away. I guess that was everybody's idea because next thing we knew, we were in a crazy crowd that was so tight, it was scary. I kept thinking of my kids and decided to just get out of the line. I went under a rope where there was space for breathing room and Craig followed. It turned out we had just totally cut to very close to the front of the line! No one noticed or cared. So we stayed in line and got on the ride pretty shortly after!

Of course, Space Mountain was awesome. Craig and I planned to kiss for the picture, but I had no idea when it was going to happen! So Craig was doing what we planned! :)

We then went on some of our favorite rides. We also got to eat at the Plaza Inn where they gave us a complementary dinner and breakfast. (Which was nice, but not yummy.)

As the night went on, things started to get weird. As it got later, and we got more tired, all we wanted was to go home and go to bed. We were so tired, we kinda didn't know what we were doing anymore. And we had to stay as chaperones! I kept feeling so old! But it was comforting to see 18 year-olds falling asleep too. The techno/hip hop stuff started to become grating and it started to feel like we were in a a really bad dream! From like 3 to 4:30am we rode the train around the park over and over again and just slept. I think I can safely say I will never go to another grad night again! It was weird to see the sun coming up at Disneyland. The next time we go, it will be in the daytime and with our three sweet girls!

Sewing a Baptism dress for Bella

2009-06-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

My precious, first-born baby is getting baptized!! I can't believe she is eight and that she will be taking the important step of baptism. Normally, a child is baptized very soon after their eighth birthday, but Bella wanted to wait until the summer so that her Utah and Japan cousins could come.

And because I like to torture myself, I decided I just had to make Bella a special baptism dress (as my mom made for me and my sisters.) The thing is though, is that I'm really not a very good seamstress! I usually am miserable the whole time I'm sewing something because it feels like a really hard math problem.

BUT I decided to do it because I have three daughters and I wanted to make a very special dress that they could all wear when it comes time for their baptisms. When Bella was born, I made her a special blessing gown ( I almost had a breakdown making it!) and then Olivia and Cecilia both got to wear it for their blessings. It made things so easy that I already had a special dress for them.

So I had to make this special baptism dress. I even had the chance to borrow a beautiful one from my sister-in-law, that my niece Yazi had worn, but I just couldn't allow myself to take the easy way out. :)

So a couple months ago Bella and I went to look at patterns. We found this adorable Burda pattern. It didn't look too hard and I think it is very elegant. We are doing dress A, and I don't think I'll need to do the underskirt part. I bought a GORGEOUS hemp silk fabric. It is stunning. I also bought an organic cotton sateen fabric for the lining and some silk thread. The fabric sat for almost a month because I was afraid to cut it!!

Finally, last week I started the dress. I cut the pieces and started the sewing. I was very nervous because I felt intimidated by such beautiful (and expensive) fabric. I also was intimidated that it was such a "special dress!" But finally I started because otherwise it wasn't going to be ready in time.

So I've been working on the dress for almost a week. As I said before, sewing for me is much like a really hard math problem. Sometimes I have to read a sentence over and over again before the information sinks in. I have really prayed a lot for help and thankfully, my prayers have been answered. The truth is, I started making the dress wrong and I had to undo everything that I did and start over last Monday. Picking out a whole dress is not fun! But I was so grateful because I felt that the Spirit helped me realize what I was doing wrong. After I realized, the pattern made much more sense to me and everything I needed to do is now very clear. (Except for a couple of parts still!) Hopefully, it will all come to me! Wish me luck!

Stake Fair

2009-05-31T19:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our stake fair. The girls had a blast! There were 6 jumpers, two of which were waterslides!! There was also a train ride, pony rides and a petting zoo. We were so happy that my sister Yvonne joined us with her husband Hector and their five kids. Bella LOVES to see her best friend/cousin Sophia and they had a wonderful time running around together!

Ceci needed a nap so she was a little grumpy. She and I waited in line for the pony ride for 20 minutes just for her to say she didn't want to do it! She also didn't want to do the bouncer stuff. But she did enjoy the chickens and the goats and LOVED the train ride. Afterwards, Yvonne and her kids all came over to swim at the house. It was a super-fun day for my girls!!

Friday was our official last day of school so the fair was a nice way to celebrate.

So thankful my baby is okay.

2009-05-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

We had a nightmare experience this past weekend. Our precious little Ceci got a hold of some medication and accidently overdosed. Before I say more, I will clarify that she is TOTALLY FINE now. There are no lasting effects from what she took. We are so grateful (but still a little numb.)

Ceci took the medication on Sunday right after church--we had no idea. But she was high as a kite, talking incessantly. To be honest, it was actually really cute at first. But after an hour or so, her behavior started to concern us and I started to think she might have taken something. So I called poison control and told them her symptoms and they told us to take her to the ER right away. The fear was that she could possibly have heart problems or seizures. One big blessing was that the attending doctor was my friend from a mommy and me class! She was so wonderful to us. But my poor, precious baby, what a nightmare experience she had! :( She vomited several times, (all over me!) had to get an iv (they had to stick her in two places to get it right, and then to draw blood, they had to stick her 3 times, 3 different people because it was so hard to find a good vein.) It was AWFUL--very hard for me to watch. There she was, trippin' and being stuck with needles. She did a lot of screaming and crying, poor sweet baby. It was very, very hard.

The biggest blessing is that Craig was able to put his hands on Ceci's head and give her a priesthood blessing. He blessed her that she would make it through everything totally fine. That was a huge comfort. What was remarkable is that she talked non-stop the whole day and night, but she was totally silent during the blessing. She was given an antidote which finally calmed her a little. She finally fell asleep at 2am. Then at 5am we were taken by ambulance to the Huntington Hospital because they felt she needed to be observed longer. That's where she and I spent our Memorial Day. (No fun festivals for us!) They did more poking and prodding which was very upsetting, but she finally fell asleep again (she was still a little high.) Eventually, she came down, and really slept. When she woke again, she got to watch lots of Beatrix Potter videos which were such a comfort--we really like those. She also enjoyed all the fruit they brought her. We checked out last night around 7pm. It was so nice to come home.

We are now just so grateful that she is okay! I know many people have it much worse, with more serious and chronic health problems. When I saw the other children in the pediatric ward, I realized how truly blessed we are to have three very healthy little girls.

Enchanted April!

2009-05-21T21:41:00.000-07:00

Great news!! One of my favorite movies of all time, finally has come out on DVD! (This month) It was a long wait, the film came out in 1992. I jut got my copy.

If you have not seen this beautiful movie, please put it in your netflix queue. It is one of the sweetest movies I've ever seen! A beautiful story and gorgeous scenery.

Cherries!!!

2009-05-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, they are now in season and DELICIOUS!!! Rush to your nearest farmer's market and enjoy one of God's finest creations. You will feel a bit of heaven in them. These red ones are incredible, but the Rainier's (the yellow ones) are even better! Yum, yum, yum.
And don't forget all the other wonderful summer fruits that are just coming into season--apricots, nectarines, & peaches!

The Renaissance Faire!

2009-05-17T16:27:00.000-07:00

We had the most wonderful time yesterday!

We met lots of interesting people.

Ceci played the ocarina for us.

We made beautiful necklaces.

Bella and Lala danced the maypole!

At St. Cuthberts, Bella and Lala learned to grind spices with a mortar and pestle--they ground some nutmeg.
Ceci made a sachet with dried rose petals.

Bella LOVED watching the dipped candles being carved into beautiful designs.

We saw gorgeous fairy houses that we learned we could later make too!

Various booths had hidden gnomes--so we hunted for gnomes (getting a stamp on our special gnome map for each gnome found) and then got a certificate as official "Gnome-Hunters Extraordinaires!"

I bought some GORGEOUS beaded earrings from my friend Blooming. She had come from Mendecino for this weekend only so we were very lucky to see her. She has been doing the faire since the late 80's when I worked there a couple years! I ADORE her beadwork and LOVE my new earrings!

We went back to St. Cuthbert's and relaxed with this sweet lady while she knitted. It was a very hot day!

We had a delicious lunch--Shepherd's Pie, Steak on a steak, curly fries.

Bella and Lala made these wonderful fairy houses with our sweet friend, who we met at the Northern Faire in '07. We are so glad she comes all the way from Oregon to do this fair! She made the above fairy houses and other unbelievable beautiful fairy paraphernalia!

Thank heavens Ceci fell asleep. She was grumpy all day because she was so tired!! Craig and the girls got to watch Moonie's show in peace while I wandered a little bit!

I was so lucky to run into our good family friend, Lisa, "Mistress Howard" who is royalty and part of the queens court! She introduced me to many of her fun friends as her little sister and it was really neat to run around with her for a while and watch the Poxy Boggards with her! (their family-friendly show.) :) I can't wait to hang out with her again next year!

We then ran over to the Kids Kingdom where there was a Knighting Ceremony for the children. Bella, Lala and Ceci were all made ladies. It was really neat! The queen talked to them about always being honest, and brave and they got a certificate. I was shocked when the queen told Lala that she remembered dancing the Maypole with her last year!!

The girls LOVED this jester and his parrot. And then this man played music through a YAM! He played "Twinkle twinkle little star" while Bella sang! There are so many entertaining characters to meet at the faire!

Right at closing, we had a WONDERFUL swing ride. We didn't want it to end!!

Then, sadly, it was time to go! We already can't wait until next year!

Releasing our Butterflies!

2009-05-14T14:22:00.000-07:00

Today we decided we should let our two painted lady butterflies go. We really didn't want to, we wanted to observe them longer, watch them eat and flit around and possibly see mating or egg-laying? But they really didn't seem happy! They were so eager to get out into the world!

We did this for our circle time. We watched them eat one last time and then read "Waiting for Wings" before releasing them.

Watch our Video!

By the way, right after I turned off the video, Lala DID get a turn and then so did Ceci for about one second! Then the butterfly shot straight up to the sky like the first one did!! What a beautiful experience!

Afterwards, we read "The Butterfly" and then I put the girls up on my feet and let them pretend they were flying too. It must be so fun to be a butterfly!

I am so glad I videoed this, because now we'll always have the memory of exactly how it happened!! Butterflies are meant to FLY!!

Butterfly Update

2009-05-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

So very early on Craig's birthday, I went to check on our butterfly and chrysalises. I found that one of the wings on the butterfly was actually stuck to the ground!! :( I felt so terrible for her. I didn't know what to do, but I decided to wet it a bit and then I very gently unstuck it's wing from the bottom. My surgery was successful, although her right wing was sadly permanently bent because she didn't come out of her chrysalis properly (which I guess is why she got stuck?) I felt so bad, but then I gave her some agave water and she ate with her proboscis!!

Minutes later, the 2nd chrysalis opened! I don't know how I missed it, because I was very nearby reading. I was determined to see the 3rd one open, and stayed watching. As soon as I walked away for 2 minutes, I came back and it was open!! These two opened perfectly and were very healthy and active. The girls were still asleep when they opened, but they woke up right after and were so excited to see them!

We made sure to give them their nectar. (Probably too much!) At one point later in the day, one escaped and Bella and Ceci got to hold him!!

It is so neat to have butterflies in the house. I've thought about keeping them for a week and then letting them go. It would be neat to see mating or egg-laying, but how do I know if they are male or female?

By the way, our first butterfly, never really thrived. She just didn't seem to be able to orient herself. So today, I decided to gently euthanize her by putting her in the freezer. I just didn't want her to possibly be in pain. I felt HORRIBLE about her and worried that it was my fault that she got stuck and had a bent wing (because she was on the ground, and not hanging) but many of my home schooling friends assured me that they've had healthy butterflies that had also fallen to the ground. I hope her spirit is flying somewhere!!

Happy Birthday to Craig!

2009-05-12T06:22:00.000-07:00

What a fun birthday celebration. And we are so good at celebrating! We started with breakfast at Marston's in Pasadena. It was super-yummy. We got a big omelette and french toast and shared.

We then got the kids and went to the Science Center in downtown.

More than anything, we wanted to see the baby chicks and hatching eggs that they have there. The chicks are so tiny and cute! It makes us realize that our chicks are getting sooooooooooo big! Very soon they'll be chickens and roosters.

After wandering the Science Center, we went to see the IMAX 3D movie they have showing there called "Under the Sea." It was amazing!! The 3D part was incredible. There were times I seriously felt like I was snorkeling! I wish the girls had liked it as much as Craig and I. They got a little scared, took off their glasses, and towards the end, Ceci said she wanted to leave. Bummer. Because it was really great.

So then we wandered Exposition park for a while. The girls wandered this cool Earth day display and also around the big fountain and the rose gardens while enjoying paletas (popsicles.)

We then went home and gave the girls dinner. We sang to daddy one more time with super-cute cupcakes from Dots.

Then we took off to go out to dinner!! Craig had been wanting to go to this Argentine place in Pasadena on Green Street called Malbec. It was GREAT!! It had a beautiful, European feel with sidewalk seating. It was dark but all glowy with candles. Our dinners were fantastic! We started with delicious empanadas. Then Craig got a ribeye steak with mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach and I got a chimichurri marinated steak with grilled veggies. So good! The dessert we got was carmelized apple-filled crepes with ice cream. It was delicious and beautifully presented. We would highly recommend this place. It was a very fun day-- Happy Birthday Craig!! If you have to get old, you might as well enjoy it, right? I love you!

A Sweet Mother's Day

2009-05-11T06:31:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful Mother's day! I was spoiled by this yummy breakfast in bed and the girls made these adorable cards for me!

We went to a nice church service where Grandma joined us. We took these pictures when we got home.

Craig made a delicious dinner for us. We had soft tacos with shredded beef, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, salsa, tomatoes, cilantro and cheese with black beans on the side. I was allowed to rest and blog and play on facebook while he did all the cooking! (and later, cleaning!)

After dinner, Craig helped the girls make this beautiful bouquet for me!

Later, as I was walking by our butterfly nursery, I noticed that the chrysalis on the floor had opened up!! It was so exciting to see! The butterfly opened her wings a bit, but she's taking her time. I am just so grateful she survived!! I put some agave water on a tiny sponge for her.

Then it was time for presents. Grandma got some gorgeous cards from the girls and a beautiful lavender plant.

I got a pink ipod shuffle! So cool!! (Thank you soooooooo much Craig, I love you!) I also have this great t-shirt coming in the mail that I just had to have! I will wear it proudly because I really am a grateful mom, so thankful for the sweetest and most wonderful little girls in the world!! I am truly so honored to be their mamma.

THEN we sang to Craig because today is his birthday! Grandma made him a DELICIOUS lemon cake. YUM!! Happy Birthday, my love! We are going to celebrate today.

Happy Mother's Day!!

2009-05-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to acknowledge my BEAUTIFUL Mother today. She was THE BEST! It's been almost 4 years since she passed away, even though she is not gone at all. Her spirit and presence live on, she is in my life every single day.

I wanted to share a beautiful quote about mothers by President David O. McKay that I felt my mother knew very well.

"The noblest calling in the world is that of mother. True motherhood is the most beautiful of all arts, the greatest of all professions. She who can paint a masterpiece or who can write a book that will influence millions deserves the plaudits and admiration of mankind; but she who rears successfully a family of healthy, beautiful sons and daughters whose immortal souls will be exerting an influence throughout the ages long after paintings shall have faded, and books and statues shall have been destroyed, deserves the highest honor that man can give."

I also thought I would post these verses from Proverbs 31 which also very well describes my mother:

"10: Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. 11: The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. 12: She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. 13: She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. 14: She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar. 15: She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. 16: She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. 17: She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms. 18: She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night. 19: She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. 20: She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. 21: She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet. 22: She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. 23: Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. 24: She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant. 25: Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. 26: She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. 27: She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. 28: Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. 29: Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. 30: Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. 31: Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates."

Mom, I call you blessed!

To conclude, I thought I would post what I posted last year about my mother since I would probably write almost the same thing again anyway!!

HOW I LOVE YOU, MAMMA!!

Today is the 3rd anniversary of my mom's passing. Needless to say, I've been thinking a lot about her and have shed a few tears. Of course, I missed her on Mother's day, but I miss her every day! I just felt like I needed to post some of my feelings about the most wonderful person I ever knew, my mother.

My mother is the most Christian person I know (in the truest sense of the word.) She loved our Savior and sincerely tried to follow Him. She was totally dedicated to our family--loving each of us with so much devotion. My mother was a true Matriarch, a beacon in our home. She did so many things to help make our home a haven. She taught us to believe in God, to pray, and to live as we were taught by our Savior. She taught us to love, to forgive, to not judge, to be kind, to work hard and do our very best. Because of this, there was a lot of peace and happiness in our home. My childhood wasn't perfect, but it was pretty close thanks to her efforts. No matter what I ever did, my mother loved me and was loyal to me. And I did a lot of things to break her heart. But she never gave up on me, ever.

My mother was totally dedicated to serving people in all kinds of capacities. Of course, she was the PTA president for many years, and excelled in her callings in church, but she also loved and cared about every friend we ever brought over (even the somewhat strange ones!) My mother was not just my mother--she was a mother to many, many people. She had the biggest heart. She let countless people come and live in our home when they needed a place. And she would love these people as if they were her own.

As we started families of our own, my mother fell in love with each of her many grandchildren. She was the kind of Grandma that LIVED for the next time she got to see one or some of her grandchildren. She loved each of our children and when she was with any particular one, she seemed to love them best. But she loved them all the same--she was the BEST Grandma. (That's the part that hurts so much!!) I can't possibly express what a wonderful Grandma she was. Only my siblings could understand.

So now I have an angel. When I pray, I feel like she's listening too. And because she was such a good teacher, I feel like I always know what she would say when I need some advice. She was so practical, logical, unselfish, and wise. I am so thankful for having had the best mom in the world! I could go on and on, and tell tons of stories that support my claims, but you just have to trust me!!

I found this email that I sent out the day my Mother died and I wanted to share it:

My dearest friends,
I just wanted to let you know that my whole world will never be the same
again. My beautiful, devoted and angelic Mother left this world yesterday
at 1:37pm. She was surrounded by my Dad and all 5 of us children and we let
her go with a family prayer, a priesthood blessing and singing "Families Can
Be Together Forever" among other beautiful hymns and songs.

She had had a very painful and aggressive form of cancer called Multiple
Myeloma for over a year before it was diagnosed. The disease had literally
broken a vertebra, pinched a nerve and fractured her spine and 5 ribs. On
March 28th we finally found out what she was suffering from. She was given
chemotherapy the next day but by the 15th of April she was back in the
hospital with pneumonia. Her immune system had been devastated.

My Mother has spent the last 10 months in great pain and we are now so
thankful to know that her suffering is over. We are so thankful that she
lived a full and exemplary life totally dedicated to her Heavenly Father,
her Savior and her family. I know that she accomplished all that she needed
to do here and that it was Heavenly Father's will to bring her home to Him.

I know this life is a short testing period to prepare ourselves for
eternity. I know my Mother passed her tests with flying colors. I am so
thankful to know that she is now in the best place and that one day soon she
will resurrect in a perfect, healthy body. I know that I will see her
again.

My Mom had of way of making each of us feel like we were her favorite. I
will miss our special times together. I am so thankful that she was my
Mother. She was also my best friend.

I want to thank those of you (who were aware) that offered prayers in our
behalf. The prayers have truly carried us through this. Our faith has
increased and we feel more grateful than sad, just knowing how blessed we
were to have her. She made our home a heaven on earth.

I LOVE MY MOMMY!!!

Love,
Suzy

Here are some family pics--excuse the poor quality--some are pictures snapped of pictures.

Top Row: My parents engagement picture and Mom and I in the hospital :( 2nd row: My mom sharing her last Sundae from Twohey's with my girls and our last family picture with Mom in 2004
Bottom Row: Family picture without her, but her presence is still there!!

All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother. --Abraham Lincoln

A nice Saturday

2009-05-09T21:08:00.000-07:00

Today we finally started building one of our raised garden beds. Our lives have been soooooo busy that we just have not had the time!! Craig worked very hard putting this 16' x 4' redwood bed together. We now just need to dig holes to put the posts in and then fill it in. We would have finished, but we wanted to rush off to an Art Festival in Studio City.

I wanted to go to this art festival for several reasons. First, because I LOVE art festivals! Second, because I had decided not to go to The Dead concert even though I really wanted to. But for some reason, I just kept feeling like I shouldn't go. I have not seen the Dead since 1990, and this may be their last tour ever. I almost bought tickets several times, but just couldn't. I finally decided not to go and then I felt very peaceful. (I truly feel the Holy Spirit was guiding me because I had prayed a lot about it.) So I went to the art festival to try not to think about the fun I was missing at the Dead show! I really needed it!

The third reason I wanted to go to the art festival is because I was going to pick up a BEAUTIFUL bracelet that I couldn't stop thinking about. A couple weeks ago, I went to an art festival at the Waldorf school. I saw a bracelet that was totally me, but didn't buy it. Days later, I was still thinking about it so I emailed the artist to tell her how much I wanted it! I didn't hear back from her right away and worried if I would. Almost a week later, she wrote back and told me I could come get it at the art festival in Studio City!! She is a glass artist and made each of the beads herself! She, Lucia, does the most beautiful work! Oh, how I love this bracelet, and what a fun time we had at the festival!!

We then went to the South Pasadena Art Fest to my friend Amanda's studio. She had some gorgeous sculptures on display. (The picture does NOT do them justice.) They are little boxes with hinged doors that open and close. They are covered in beautiful papers and together they have a quilt look to them. It was fun hanging out with Amanda and her husband for a while and checking out the art of all the other artists in her studio. It was a fun day, (even though I sort of kept feeling I was missing out on a fun concert!)

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

2009-05-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

Being a Tuesday, we kept things pretty mellow. I would have loved to have gone to watch some good folklorico dancing, or to have seen some Mariachis, but we just put on our beautiful Mexican dresses and went to the park! Then for dinner, we went to Caramba! I just needed some delicious Mexican food to fill my half-Mexican soul! My brother-in-law happened to come over that night and he is from Puebla, where the battle of Cinco de Mayo happened. It is not the Mexican Independence day as many assume, (that is Septmeber 16th) it is a celebration of the Mexican Army defeating the French in 1862 when the French had invaded and were attempting to occupy Mexico.

Nowadays Cinco de Mayo is more a celebration of the Mexican culture in general, more celebrated here than Mexico!! (with the exception of Puebla!) My brother-in-law thinks it's to sell beer! Okay, that's it for the history lesson. FELIZ CINCO DE MAYO!!

Sprouts and Caterpillar updates

2009-05-04T21:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't been good about showing how our sprouts have been doing. And some are now actually planted in the ground!! We started our seeds back on March 25th. Here are some pictures of how they were by April 3rd. It is seriously soooo exciting to see the spouts emerge and then begin growing their leaves and taking their forms!

Our tomatoes were quick, but especially the the beans!! I love how you can still see the coat hanging off the bean sprout!! That was in 9 days time.

< This picture shows how they were today!! (click to enlarge!)
And this is the girls planting the beans with Craig!!

Our caterpillars had come on April 24th. This is them at 1 week old, on May 1st, huge!! They were already starting their silk when I took these pictures. On Sunday, May 2nd I saw them still as caterpillars starting to attach themselves to the top of their cup. On Monday, the 3rd, they had already shed their skin and were in their chrysallis stage! It was amazing! It happened so fast! We found their skins and we found two caterpillars that didn't make it. One of the chrysalises fell on the bottom, I really hope it survives!

So today we put their nursery together and then put them inside. We made some butterflies out of wool to decorate their nursery, but then decided to hang them on our nature table tree and put the nursery next to the tree. We are soooooooo excited to see our butterflies emerge!!

My Brother's Visit!

2009-05-03T22:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I had a wonderful visit from my brother, Harold, my sister-in-law, Sandra, my nieces, Yazandra and Ariana, and my nephew, little Harold. They came late Friday night and it was great to wake up to them here on Saturday morning. My girls were THRILLED to have their cousins here to play with. Of course, things started with playing with chickies! My nieces loved them. After some breakfast, (even though it really wasn't hot!) my brother and all the kids went swimming. They had a blast!

We had a really nice day just being together. We sat in the yard much of the day talking and the girls played and played. In the evening, we went to Susan's opening but then met my dad, brother and family at the Dodger game!! I had not been to a Dodger game in maybe 3 years! (I think Craig took the girls in 07?) The truth is, I have always really enjoyed going to Dodger games but it seems we've been too busy the past couple of years. Tonight it felt really good to be back! I LOVE L.A!

The kids LOVED the game! My nieces had recently played on a softball team so they really paid attention. It was great when the Dodgers won in the 10th inning 2-1! I LOVED the excitement all the fans felt--it kinda made me feel like we were all one big family. It was fun to see the team all hugging and high-fiving too. And It was GREAT when Randy Newman's "I love L.A." came on. We all sang and danced to it! How I really do love L.A!

The next day we all went to church together. My nieces looked so pretty in their pink dresses! I got this wonderful picture of all the girls under my mom's flowers.

After church and lunch, we headed over to Forest Lawn to visit my mother's grave. We brought flower's from our home which I would think she would really like!! Most of what we brought, she planted herself!

After visiting her grave, we went to another part of the cemetery where the graves of my two grandma's and two uncles are buried. When we got home, my brother had to pack up and leave. We were so sad to have to say goodbye! All the girls had such a time together!

Susan and Andrew!

2009-05-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days, (Wednesday-Saturday) our dear friends came to visit!! Susan came because she had a wonderful show at Space gallery in South Pasadena. We were just so happy to have her and Andrew here. The girls love Andrew like a brother! They were thrilled to see him.

On our first day together, she had birthday gifts for all the girls. They LOVED them and it was just so nice to all be together.

The next day, we all got to go to the Farmer's Market together which is something we did regularly when she lived here. It was so nice to be at the market together again!
The next day (after our May Faire) we all hung out together, watched "Max and Ruby" and later went to Whole Foods which was really fun. (No pictures!)

The last day of her visit was the day of her opening. She had a FANTASTIC turnout and her paintings looked wonderful! We are sooooooooo proud of her. To see her website, click here.

How we wish she could have stayed longer, but we are just so glad that she came and that she had such a wonderful show! I am so proud of her!

Happy May Day!

2009-05-01T22:17:00.000-07:00

What a sweet May Day we had!

One of the best parts is that we had had no expectations of meeting our friends today because Bella was scheduled to do Star Testing! :( (which is what we've done the past two days in Claremont.) We were so bummed to think we would miss May Day with our friends to do testing! But then Bella's testing finished yesterday! So we realized we could go!! Yay!

Our May Faire was in Encino at Balboa Park. To start, everyone made flower garlands to wear in our hair. We braided twine and then put flowers and ribbon in it. Soon after, all the kids and some moms got to dance around the maypole!! It was really fun. I got to lead the singing. We sang lots of spring songs but especially "The First of May." To be honest, I was dying to sing that song so I was sooooooooo happy that I could!! Claudia sang with me and many of the children that knew it.

Good morning lords and ladies, it is the first of May!
We hope you'll view our garland it is so bright and gay
For it is the first of May, oh, it is the first of May!
Remember lords and ladies, it is the first of May!

(and there are 3 more verses, btw!)

PS I still have lots to catch up on but I just had to blog today's fun. Scroll down for some new posts!!

Claremont

2009-04-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

So the past couple of days, we had to go out to Claremont for Star Testing. This was the one thing we had been dreading about being a part of a public charter school!! I was so worried how Bella would feel about the testing. But it ended up being totally fine! She came out of her tests happy and completely unfazed. She said it was easy! Gosh, it's nice how things work out. She tested on both Wednesday and Thursday from 9-12. The first day was cold and gloomy so my friend Amanda and I hung out in a cute bakery called "Some Crust" in the heart of adorable Claremont, while her son, Lala and Ceci colored. The next day, which was sunny, we hung out at a park and the kids had a blast.

On Wednesday, after the testing, we went to see my friend Lorell and her kids, Abby and Seth. We had not seen them for over a year!! What a wonderful reunion!! We got to hang for 3 hours before we had to leave for the Armory.

On Thursday, after the testing, we decided to wander Claremont a bit because it is just so charming. What a cute, hippy, college town! We stopped because I HAD to check out "Espiritu." What a beautiful store full of Mexican folk art! We then went into a new store called "No Sugar Added" which carries organic clothing and natural toys for babies! They gave us balloons there. I LOVED the name of this Yoga studio. Later, I was delighted to find that the Birkenstock store was owned by the same lady that owned the Pasadena store I used to shop at 20 years ago. I bought my first Birk's from her (and my 2nd & 3rd!) back in the late 80's! It was really great to see her! She closed the Pasadena store 5 years ago but her Claremont store is still going strong. We had lunch at a place called "Full of Life," peeked in a toy store and then headed back to Alhambra. We needed to meet Susan at the Farmer's Market!

Wow!

2009-04-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

Today several of my worlds collided-- or would aligned be a better word? It was sooooo amazing!!

My church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka the Mormon church) conducted a nation-wide service project through an organization of our church called "Helping Hands." I was delighted to find out that my particular stake (Pasadena) was volunteering at the Pasadena Earth Day! Not only that, this event was held at and sponsored by the Armory center for the Arts where my girls take their art classes! I had not even planned to attend because I was already planning to meet Brieanne and Eric at an Art Festival up at the Waldorf school. But then I thought I would stop by to check it out. Thank goodness I did, it was amazing! The first thing I saw before I even parked, were two missionaries on Colorado Blvd. handing out flyers trying to get people to come up to it.

When I actually got there, I was surrounded by tons of my church friends, and then many of the eco-friendly organizations I love to support. The organic green truck was there with their yummy food. One of the first things we did was make cute little magnets from old magnets--the girls glued little embellishments on them. Path to Freedom and Freedom Gardeners were there! I LOVED seeing my homegirls, Jordanne and Anais. We had a good time talking about chickens because Jordanne is an expert! And they had pizza baking in a solar oven, which was so cool. It was such an amazing mix of my worlds! Even the missionaries who taught and baptized Brieanne and Eric were there and it was so wonderful to see them! Thank heavens Brieanne and Eric were up visiting so they were able to come meet us too and see their missionaries! It was neat to be able to introduce Brieanne to Jordanne because they have so much in common. The missionaries were manning a booth where they were making pots out of folded newspaper and then kids could come and fill them with dirt and plant poppy or sunflower seeds!

There were lots of booths that were educating on how to better care for our earth through recycling, saving electricity, saving water, etc.

I could hardly leave because there were so many people to talk to. And I was just so excited that our church was supporting an Earth day event!

But we finally left to go up to the Art Festival in Altadena. It was a great event too--beautiful arts and crafts. My girls had a blast playing with Tristan who they miss very much since she moved. I wish I would have taken pictures of them playing! But Brieanne and I were too busy admiring all the art. What a great day!

Chickie fun and Caterpillars

2009-04-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

Today I found my poor dad covered in chicks!! I am so blessed, he is so sweet and easy-going! He's also an animal lover, so he really didn't seem to mind being woken up by chicks and silly little girls. Later, I happened to see Ceci giving another chick a makeover.

Later in the day, we got CATERPILLARS in the mail!! We are so excited to see them turn into Painted Lady butterflies! They are very tiny right now, so we're looking forward to seeing how big they get.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!!

2009-04-22T22:31:00.000-07:00

Hope everybody has a wonderful Earth day celebrating this beautiful planet our Lord so lovingly created for us. May we cherish it and be the responsible caretakers we should be!

What a fun Earth Day we had! Lately, our days begin and end with little chickies and today was no exception. We've been bringing them outside during the day to enjoy the outdoors. The girls LOVE them! Ceci wore her new "Green is the new black" t-shirt and Lala wore her "Organic Rocks!" t-shirt for the occasion. :) (I bought these organic t-shirts at Sears of all places! But sadly, they didn't have them in Bella's size.) We had circle time outside and I read the story of the creation from our children's Bible. Then we sang two very fitting songs:

My Heavenly Father Loves Me
Whenever I hear the song of a bird, or look at the blue, blue sky
Whenever I feel the rain on my face, or the wind as it rushes by
Whenver I touch a velvet rose, or walk by our lilac tree
I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world,
Heavenly Father created for me!

He gave me my eyes that I might see the color of butterfly wings
He gave me my ears that I might hear the magical sound of things
He gave me my life, my mind, my heart
I thank Him reverently
For all His creations of which I'm a part
Yes, I know Heavenly Father loves me!

and

This Pretty Planet
This pretty planet, spinning through space
Your garden, your harbor, your holy place
Golden sun going down
Gentle blue giant, spin us around
All through the night,
Safe 'til the morning light!

I LOVE that our archway is in FULL BLOOM right now! How perfect for Earth day! My mom planted these purple flowers (I have no idea what they are, but they always make her presence strongly felt. ) They also make me think of the quote, "The earth laughs in flowers." Aren't they wonderful??

We decided to gather all the flower seeds we had and to plant them! Most of them were collected from different eco-fesitvals we've been to. We planted California Poppies, Cosmos, and then some unknown wildflower packets in our front yard with our roses. Then we planted Marigolds with our tomatoes. It was fun, although a little hot for planting. Today the girls had their Armory drama class so we soon headed off for that. During their class I went to the Rudolf Steiner bookstore in Old Town Pasadena where I bought the cutest book, "The Sun Seed." I thought it was a wonderful Earth Day book. The illustrations are amazing because they are made from felted wool! Afterwards, I went to Whole Foods where I got us some yummy chocolate Earth balls. I just couldn't resist for Earth day! We enjoyed them with some tangerines after dinner! For story time, we got to read our new book. :) (And then it was time for LOST!)

Happy Earth Day! Let's make every day Earth Day!

Topanga Earth Day

2009-04-18T22:07:00.000-07:00

What an AWESOME day!

The only bummer was, that it was TOTALLY HOT. But otherwise, what a great time we had! It started with yoga. I did some until it was just too hot to continue. (It had to have been 90 degrees at 11am and I really didn't want heatstroke.)

So I went and checked out some of the booths for a bit and then joined Craig and the girls at the opening ceremony. It was a BEAUTIFUL peace ceremony where we wished peace on every country in the world! People who wanted to participate lined up to get a flag and then would wave the particular flag and we would all say "Let there be peace in (name of country.) Bella and Lala both got to do it. But Lala LOVED it and did it about 5 times! As time went on, I thought I would like to go through with Ceci. So I got in line and was totally thrilled when by chance I ended up with Mexico's flag! A little later, we did the last flag--the United States. It was pretty cool that Lala was again the flag-barer!! Everybody of course, cheered like crazy for our country (and for little Lala!) It was so neat! Then, to end the ceremony, our friend Woody came out with an Earth flag and then Stephanie came out with a peace flag and they waved them together. It was really a beautiful ceremony. We felt very blessed to be a part of it-- to be able to wish peace on all the countries of the Earth! I know the girls enjoyed it very much.

Of course, throughout the day there was fun happening all over the place. Great music, great organic food, great eco-friendly things for sale, and fun activities for kids in the play area. We ended up shopping from a vendor who started the fair trade labels called Jedzebel and Ecogirl. I bought the girls these gorgeous Jedzebel skirts made from recycled saris. I bought myself an Ecogirl organic cotton blouse which I love!

Another really cool thing that happened-- we bought a $1raffle ticket, and Lala pulled out a $25 certificate to Pat's Topanga Grill! We were pretty happy about that!

We really enjoyed going into Visionary which was a remodeled trailer that is a mobile eco-boutique! It was really cool!

We had lunch from organic green truck on the go--delicious food!

One of the performances was by the Topanga Belly Dancing Troupe!

Bella and Lala had to have these cute baskets-- they bought them with their own $.

The time flew by until we had to go. By the way, here is the tail of the biodiesel bus that drove us up the hill! It was super-cute!

The Circus

I know we are CRAZY, but we had been given tickets to the circus, and we really wanted to use them! We caught the 7pm show. Can you believe how crazy we are to go to the circus after a big (HOT and exhausting) festival? It was really fun, and pretty cute! I especially enjoyed the trained doggies. We loved our fez hats and kept singing "Ain't never gonna do it without the fez on!" These shots were some of the highlights of the show.

We love butterflies!!

2009-04-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

We really do! So we had to go to the Museum of Natural History to see the Butterfly Pavilion that had recently opened. We saw so many BEAUTIFUL butterflies!! (And Moths!!) We also got to see caterpillars, a chrysalis, eggs being laid, (click to see more detail!) and even some mating.

Probably the coolest thing we saw was a Monarch drinking out of some flowers!

We saw Luna Moths,

Zebra Longwings & Monarchs,

Painted Ladies & Spicebush Swallowtails,

Buckeyes & Julias!

So after seeing all the lovely butterflies, we went inside the museum. We had a great time--there was so much to see! I liked the display about chickens-- it showed the inside of a chicken and how the egg is made and then the stages of life inside the egg before it hatches. It was neat to see now that we have chicks!

We liked the museum so much, we decided to get a pass so we can return often!

I don't even know where to begin!!

2009-04-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

We barely got our computer (with it's new hard drive) back last Saturday. Because our Easter was so busy, we only re-uploaded our pictures last night. Thank goodness it's our Spring break-- I spent this entire morning organizing all the pictures. It was actually super-fun because we got the newer version of iphoto yesterday and it's awesome! Craig and I had a tutorial yesterday at the Apple store to learn how to use it. I LOVE how it keeps all my photos organized in neat little files with a picture for each cover now! It's great!! I don't seem to have a thing missing which was such a relief! And we now have something called "time machine" which automatically backs-up your pictures. I'm still not sure how it works, but I'm glad to have it! So in a way, we're in a better place than we were before our computer crashed! (Although poorer!)

So much has happened since we lost our pictures and our computer! Bella's birthday, Ceci's birthday, Easter and some gardening. I will be trying to catch up little by little, so if you're interested, keep checking back! I try to blog everything because I plan to print our blog as a scrapbook.

I've been feeling really nostalgic for my childhood lately, so I made a crazy 70's playlist that is the soundtrack to my younger days. Some of the songs are truly wonderful, and some are not so wonderful, but I put them because they have such great memories attached to them. Hope someone out there enjoys it! If not, please remember you can pause it! (Or lower the volume on your computer.) Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful day!

UPDATE: I've already added many new posts--Lala's parade, Bella's play, the big birthday party, seed planting, Bella's birthday, Ceci's birthday, and Easter stuff! If you want to see all of my new posts, you will definitely need to click on "older posts" because they don't all fit on this front page! :)

Easter Afternoon

2009-04-12T22:27:00.000-07:00

After attending beautiful church services, we came home and had a wonderful afternoon. I took a million pictures of my angels in their white dresses while they modeled for me. After lunch and an Easter movie, we had a fun egg hunt. Gosh, the girls are getting fast!! The Easter bunny was pretty creative in his (or her?) hiding this year. We had fun opening eggs together and then playing with the chickies for a while. We then had a very nice dinner and then sang some Easter songs and read the Easter scriptures together with an egg lesson I made last year. It was very nice to really focus on the meaning of Easter by singing and reading the scriptures. Then we had our dessert and sang to Ceci again for her birthday since we had not yet done so with grandma and grandpa. What a beautiful Easter day!