Kid date

Mike and I went on a much needed date. It seems that our monthly date isn't enough with all our million of kids. So Grandma Sue and Peppy came over to babysit Lily and Ducati. (Thank you so much)

We first went to Bountiful Temple. I really needed a spiritual uplifting. Being a mom has it's draining moments.  But it was such a great feeling. I absolutely love doing proxy sealings. It feels like we renew our vows each time. But we left smiling and recharged.

Then we came home to change into some more date friendly clothes and so I can nurse Ducati. It was kind of like intermission. But Grandma sue understood. Next we went to Boondocks. Crazy feeling going there without kids. But way more fun.

Mike placed 4th in the Go-Kart raceways. Then we played some video games. We had so many people looking at us play these kid games without kids. But we didn't care...we were having too much fun. After our gaming time we picked out some prizes. At this moment our parent voices spoke up and told us to get some prizes for the kids. So we did.....

But Mike got these awesome rattlesnake singing magnets for himself.

You throw them in the air and they make a crazy sound like....rattlesnakes.

Anyways after our date we headed home and watched a movie, Extraordinary Measures, with Grandma Sue. Lily loved Peppy from a distance. And Ducati survived not being attached to my hip. Yeah!

No one is looking

This is what Lily does when she wakes up before us... I couldn't help but laugh when Mike showed me his findings. Silly Lily!

More Please

Ducati has started to eat baby food. It is so entertaining to watch her try new foods. But with her curiosity comes one down fall. She always leans in to get a bite of whatever you are eating. Here she is eating her first elota.....

Cute huh?

Bonding Time

Mike and I are trying something new. Separate kid bonding time. We do so many things as a family but we want each one of our kids to feel special so we are trying this out. So Mike and Mason went to see the new Iron-Man 2 movie for their boy bonding time.

 (that's OK....Hailey and I are going to see the new Twilight movie next month)

But the girls and I had a spa afternoon with fruit smoothies and painting each others nails....

Never let a 4 year old paint our nails. But it was fun to just have girl time. ( Ducati- left, Lily-top, Hailey- right, Angie-bottom)

Pool Party

Our friend,Sarah, and her family got a backyard pool so we were invited to splash around. So we were there very fast. Mike had to do homework....smarty pants

 but Mason and Hailey were just fine playing around in the water....

Lily watched Big Eric (Sarah's husband) scoop clean the pool so she followed his example....

But Ducati and I were alittle skid-ish since the water was COLD...

she was out within 5 seconds and back in her car seat.....

but she later got some courage and tried to ride Griffin... it was fun to watch

but towards the end we BBQ ed some hot dogs and sat in the sun and enjoyed some pre-summer time fun.

Beautiful Disaster

We love Lily. She holds a special place in our hearts. But she is now 18 months and is getting into everything.  We took Grandma Sue out to dinner for Mother's day and I ended up spending half our meal time in the lobby. As you can see on Mike's facial expression that he was throwing in the towel. So from now on if the restaurant doesn't give crayons to the kids or have a playland we're staying home.

Baptism

Today Mason got baptised. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. For a while he didn't want to be but on his 8th birthday he told Mike and I that he wants to be baptised. We were excited! But he had to wait 3 months to finally set a date. In kid time it seemed forever. But we knew he was ready since he was willing to wait for so long. So when today finally came he was so excited. Mike was excited as well to be the one doing it.

Since we only had a weeks notice his attendance was cut to only a few people. Steve and Julia and their kids came, my parents, Grandma Sue, Melisa, Sarah and her son Eric, Mason's other dad and grandma, and a few people from our ward who helped us out since we were short handed.

I was speechless when Mason entered the font. He had a huge smile. I could tell Mike was a little nervous on what to say but he still did a great job. A few special moments stick out in my mind. While Mason was entering the water all the kids went to sit my the glass. Afterwards they returned to their seats in silence.....except Hailey. She says " Wow that was awesome" in such a calm tone that everyone laughed. When Mason come out all dressed he hugged everyone. I mean everyone.....it took a few minutes but it was so sweet. And when Julia spoke about being confirmed. Mike and I were overwhelmed with the spirit that we couldn't help but shed a few tears. It was a wonderful feeling.

After the confirmation Mason took a few photos and it was back to our house. He wanted to have a donut party. Since the attendance was pretty small Mike and I dished out the money and brought some Krispie Kreme's.  The kids jumped on the trampoline.

Us grown ups chatted for a while. Mike and I gave Mason a few gifts. A CTR glow in the dark ring, a CTR tie clip, and a few "Who is your hero?" posters. (If you don't know what these are- it's photo of scripture heroes made into super hero photos. They are wicked awesome looking) After everyone left with a few donuts in hand I let Ducati have one. Wow!!!- is all I can say.

Best day of her life (so far).

But in all honesty I was not excepting this day. I wasn't expecting that Mason would want to be a member of the true church. With his autism I thought he might not really understand what it all means to be baptised and to follow the commandments. But Heavenly Father works in wonderful mysterious ways. Mason knows more about the church than I do. He can recall stories that I have to look up and re-read. He has such a strong testimony that I get inspired by him.

(PS when we gave Mason a small set of scriptures, he looked at them and said " How do they work?" He loves to watch the Living Scripture movies so I explained that all the stories in the movies are in this book. He said "Oh.....but where's the pictures?" I smiled and said to him that I would teach him :-))

Fireballs

Mason is on a soccer team called the Fireballs. He's not a big fan of the name but he will survive. We've only been to a few games since the weather hasn't been very good. We can only stand the rain and cold for so long. But here we are cheerig him on in this first game .

He's actually pretty good at soccer. So far his team is 3 wins to 2 loses. But it's all in good fun so it's no big deal.

(he's #8)

But Mason is really enjoying himself. So go Fireballs!!!

Mothers' Day

Sorry for the delay in blogging. It takes some time to post when I have 4 kids wanting my attention. So I am sneaking away to update our latest news.

On Mother's Day this year Mike was very nice to me. He got me a few special gifts that I have been wanting for a while. A new camera. I have been searching for this camera since Thanksgiving.

See the photo on the front. There's a feature that allows you to see yourself if you take a self portrait. This is my favorite feature on this camera!

Mike also made me a new apron with the phrase "Good Cooker" written on it. Mason always tells me that I'm a good cooker. It was sweet. 

But  in all honesty Motherhood is a hard postition to hold. Some women chose not to try out and some call it quits. But being a mom can be very demanding and challenging. At times I want to pull my hair out but then I remember to take a breath and count.....

1......

 

2.......

3.............

4....................

It usually helps me relax and calm down. And remember what my sister-in-law, Chrissy, wrote on facebook. I traded eyeliner for dark circles, salon hair cuts for ponytails, long showers for 10 minute ones with the door open, late nights for early mornings, designer purses for diaper bags....and I agree with her 100%. I love being a mom. But flowers always sweeten the deal.....

Happy Mother's Day

PYP

I want to share with you one of my favorite shopping websites. This site shows all the greatest shopping deals so you can "Pinch Your Pennies".....get it :-)

Anyways..from this site I learned about Baskin Robbins 31 cent scoop deal. So we headed down to our local BR and look what we seen...

We had to wait maybe 5 minutes. That's ok...it gave us time to look at the menu.

We all got ice cream for $3.33 (with tax)

Even Ducati got her own scoop of mint chocolate chip.....

As you can see Ducati has Lily's genes....I wasn't scooping fast enough for her.

Anyways I hope everyone checks out this website and passes it along. Have fun finding great deals!

http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/

Great Job!

I just want to share that Mike got promoted at work. I know what you're thinking...he just started the new job??? I know.....but my man is great at his job so his managers are moving him up 2 departments. He still works in the warehouse but is in a new area. But usually it takes people around 2 years to get in this area but it took Mike 1 month. Good thing Mike doesn't charge for his awesomness.