Longest Prayer Ever

Larry went in to check on the boys one night and found Dan falling off his toddler bed like this.  (yes he has princess sheets on his bed)  I think this is either one very long prayer or a sign it's time to move him to a larger bed.  Thankfully Ben is FINALLY ready to move up to the top bunk and declared himself old enough because some of his friends are already doing it.

Spring Is Here

It's not spring until my mantle says it's spring!

I finally got around to making the mantle

 "JUST PERFECT" for the new season.

  I spruced up a jar with some paint to make the

 perfect colored vase for the flowers. 

And used Sydney's beautiful present from Mother's Day

 with the Family Rules plaque.  

Then I traced and painted our own

 family "R" to balance it out!

And it's not spring until soccer season is over

and we can finally do our traditional

6 month carpet cleaning!

Don't laugh!

With 5 kids cleaning the carpets every

6 months is a serious MUST!!

Ben Writes About Mom

Ben came home from school

with some special notes written

about Rachel.

Translation:

Why I Love My Mom, Rachel

1.  She is nice.

2.  She is cool.

3.  She sits on me.

4.  She takes me to Sweet Frog.

5.  She is a good party maker.

6.  She is a good driver.

7.  She is great.

8.  She helps me.

9.  She is awesome.

Translation:

"Brainstorm- My Mom"

My moms name is Rachel.  She is weird.

She has brown hair.  Her skin color is peach.

She play soccer when she was a teenager.

Nothing better in life then seeing yourself through

the eyes of your 6 year old!

Happy Mother's Day Grandma

When Grandma is far away you do crazy things

to make her day special.

Like asking your cousin to bring her flowers

and taking pictures and texting them to her!

My 10th Mother's Day

My mother's day was filled with love, presents, food

and family!

Daddy and the kids brought me eggs and toast in bed.

Then brought me a bucket full of goodies.

Like candles, lotion, bubbles, frame, cards, pictures, etc..

A bless Larry for taking of the kids and me all day long!

Dinner of carnitas & cole slaw with

blue bell butter pecan was to DIE FOR!

Couples Group Date

Do you remember these books?

Where you could pick how the book would go?

We are lucky to have some fun couples that love to 

different things for date nights and found

this great idea from a "couples group dating"

website called Dating Divas.

So one Saturday night 3 couples got

together to Choose Our Own Adventure!

Larry and I

Spencer and Tammy

Alfer and Camille

To start the men were handed envelopes with poems in them.

They had to solve the poem that was a clue to different

restaurants to eat at.

Then they chose "sCRUMBScious" as our dinner for the night.

Tammy handed out more slips of paper to each of us.

They told us funny things to do while we drove in the car.

Like honk and wave to a stranger.

Find a out of state license and shout at them

"welcome to TEXAS ya'll"!!

During dinner there were more slips telling us different 

experiences to share or funny things to say or do.

Larry had to do 1 verse of the hokey pokey.

I had to answer the waiter when asked if I liked

my meal..."this is the best night of my life!"

After dinner the girls were give envelopes

with poems that gave us clues to our next stop.

We choose playing "walmart bingo".

We split into 2 groups Boys vs. Girls.

And to prove that we found one of the squares

a picture had to be taken with one of the

players in it.

THE GIRLS FOUND...

Someone with sunglasses on?

CHECK! 

A person wearing camo?

CHECK 

A kid playing in the toy aisle?

CHECK

A couple flirting?

CHECK

THE BOYS FOUND....

A child playing with toys?

CHECK

A couple wearing matching shirts?

CHECK

Someone wearing overalls?

CHECK

We had such a fun night.

We were laughing so hard at all the pictures,

we ended up calling it a night

before we got in trouble!! 

The Pool Is Open

As of May 1st our community pool opened!

And with the days getting warmer

the kids were DESPERATE

to go.

I tried to tell them that the pool would

still be cool but...there was no stopping them!

Dan

Keira

Emma

Sydney

Ben

Me

Finally the kids are all old enough to wear 

the safety gear without my help!!

Quick Trip

With only these 2 cute kids at home with me during the day, we get to do some fun day trips to the zoo.  Inevitably it makes the older children in our family very irritable to learn they have missed out on the animals, but it's worth the peaceful field trip every once in a while!



Keira and Dan were very excited that on this special trip they were able to play in the stream.  In one area, just for kids, they have a stream flowing through some rocks that all the children enjoy.  It's a great way to cool off at the end of a long walk.



Keira is such a loving sister.  She has really turned into a happy, hugging, smooching girl.  She and Dan love to play together. Although I am sure soon Dan will learn that being Keira's "prince" isn't all that it's cracked up to be.  Especially since she makes him open all her doors, push her doll strollers and dress up in what ever she has laid out for him.  Maybe she's just training him to
be a great Dad!

Mini Desserts

On this lazy Sunday afternoon the kids and I found ourselves alone while Daddy attended some meetings.  It was getting close to dinner time but the prospect of making a meal for the 6 of us was more work then I wanted to exert.  The kids and I had been tempted to try these little mini pies we saw on the internet and decided this would be the perfect time to try them.

Mini Apple Pie
Peel and slice up one apple.
Cook on stove top in 1/4 cp of butter until soft
Lay out crescent roll dough.
Put one apple slice on wide end of triangle dough.
Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon.
Roll up crescent rolls and pinch corners closed
Bake according to roll directions.
(optional: after brush on melted butter and sprinkle white sugar)

The best part of this dessert is you could put anything you love for dessert inside these rolls!!

Inspired Relief Society Lesson

I was recently sent a link to this clip from youtube from a famous mormon singer and motivational speaker Hilary Weeks.  She speaks about how our positive and negative thoughts can affect us in our daily lives.  I used this clip during a lesson on Sunday during church to all the women and then spoke about the importance of letting positive things rule our thoughts and let the Lord help with those negative things that weigh us down.