Baptismal Days

On July 11, Jess was baptized and confirmed. The week before we attended a baptism of the son of our friends that is about her age. They came to hers the next weekend. In addition we had friends from up to 7 hours drive in for the event. It was very special for her. The spirit was strong although I was emotional regardless. I'm very proud of Jess and her decision to be baptized. She reports that it was "the best day ever!" I'm sure she won't forget it.

Summer Time

Two weeks without a nanny. Phew. We've survived, but we miss Brianne. She's where she needs to be though so we support her.
Meanwhile - I'm full time mom again for the time being. It's nice having Jhonny around for a long weekend. We got the kids a wading pool yesterday and got it home with the help of a neighbor and their truck. I didn't want one that would "pop". The kids are enjoying it. Lily has decided it's her "special" day and she gets whatever she wants. Not true, but it's nice that what she wants and what we've given her are one in the same.
We saw Karate Kid yesterday. Two thumbs up. Different with hints of the original storyline. Jaden Smith is a lot like his dad. Kind of fun to watch a minnie Will.
Jessica's baptism is in three weeks. We're looking forward to it. I hope it will be nice for her. She's growing up so fast.
And so is Gavin. I can't believe my little boy is two. He is so sweet and cute. I love his language and the new words he comes up with every day. He loves to say, "Here you go," and "It's stuck" and "thanks!" and "I want that."
I'm gaining a couple of kids this week for some friends and losing one for a few days to Grandma's house.
Tomorrow is father's day. So I've got my work cut out. Back to making more. . .well that's a surprise.

Jhonny brought home a puppy and other Spring Updates

Spring Break in Dallas

Lily's hero!

Fastest wagon in the west!

Pretty in pink!

Farmer Lily (Children's Museum)

Paleontologist Gavin

Buddy, the newest member of the family

Lily's Easter Egg Hunt at Discovery Days

(Here she is dressed in her birthday outfit she picked out from Kohl's that she couldn't wait to wear.)

Lily and Savannah comparing their finds

With my crazy schedule I rarely get to blog anymore. However to keep the journal for posterity alive in cyberspace somewhere here's the latest happenings since our snow day.

I finished up three homebound students and subbed at the high school and intermediate school. I picked up another homebound student last week and it looks like I'll get one more before the year is out. I'm still looking for a "real" job next year. I had a good panel interview in Houston to keep my options open. It was so nice to be wanted. Makes trying to stay here even tougher. Rockdale better call first or I will have an extremely hard time turning down an offer. Not to mention my parents aren't exactly voting for our extension in Rockdale.

Over Spring Break we made our postponed trip up north to visit our friends. The kids had fun playing, Jhonny had fun watching Back to the Future, and I enjoyed relaxing and visiting with our friends. We also made it to the Children's Museum and exhausted ourselves there. Thanks so much to our wonderful hosts for putting us up!

Jessica is getting ready for her baptism in July. July 11th to be exact for anyone who wants to drop in for that. Maybe you should call so I can give more details.

Lily is getting ready to turn 4 next week. Lily has been planning her party since Christmas and it's finally upon us. It should be fine if we can afford her wishes since as you probably guessed from the title above - Jhonny brought home a dog.

It was "free" and he fell in love at first sight. I've tried to reason with the poor guy about our finances and inability to provide this work and sport dog with all it's needs - to no avail. He won't let me place Buddy anywhere else. He's playing oblivious to the recent dog bite I sustained in January (still have that scar). Oh no. He's part of the family now. Maybe when we are making more money my heart strings will lighten up.

Anyway - we had to outfit the thing with a few essentials to avoid destruction of the backyard that added up until wow - Lily's birthday money was gone. We told her she got the dog for her birthday. She said she still needed presents. After some thinking, Jhonny sacrificed his Kohl's gift card for her. I took her with me to Houston on Wednesday and she had a good time shopping. Of course she wouldn't let me wrap up her outfits and has already gotten plenty of use out of them in the past few days. Happy Birthday my sweetheart.

Gavin is finally starting to talk. Phew! I was getting a little worried. He's copying everything we say - okay it's a little mumbled and abbreviated, but at least I can almost make out words. "Puppy! Outside! Cereal! Breakfast! Juice! I want that! Dora! Backpack! Uh oh, Yeah!"

Easter is upon us. This is Lily's favorite holiday. Maybe cuz she associates it with her birthday. We went to eat at Chick-filé on Wednesday for her birthday. There was an Easter sign hanging over the register. She was sure it said, "Happy Birthday Lily!" well "Happy Easter" is close enough, right? Thursday Lily had her Easter egg hunt at school. She was an expert and grabbed up 34 eggs. We had to redistribute the wealth and cut back to her favorite 12 eggs to be fair. Yesterday we invited some friends over to hunt eggs and play. They had so much fun!

We've got conference planned for the rest of the weekend. April will fly by just like the rest of the semester has already. We're looking forward to visiting Houston next weekend, the temple the next weekend and the branch campout towards the end of this month. Then it's just one more month and school will be out. I really hope Jhonny gets to teach summer school otherwise. . .well I don't want to think about that.

Snow Day!

Just to show the disparity- Sunday it was 80, today it's 30 and we've had 4 hours of snow flurries coming down and sticking! Wierd!!

Daddy Daughter Dates

Jessica attended the Father Daughter Dance in town last night. She wanted her dad all to herself, so to make it up to Lily, she got her own special date with Dad tonight. They went to her favorite place - McDonalds of course! Both girls got to do their hair, makeup and paint their nails. Dad gave them flowers and treated them like little princesses. They both had a wonderful time.

Jessica had a romantic candlelight dinner for two before heading off to the dance. The highlight for Jessica was getting to show off her dad to her friends from school who were there with their fathers. For Lily it was playing on the playground at McDonalds. Both ended their date with rootbeer floats at home. What a treat!

Jessica's Date

Lily's Date

History Repeats Itself

1976

2010

Playing Catch Up i.e. Christmas and 2010

So much has happened in so little time. Here are some precious moments with my little ones.
Grandma bought the girls new Christmas dresses. They looked fabulous. Jessica sang "Would I Know My Savior" by Sally Deford with her dad and I in the Christmas program. She had a solo part and did an exceptional job! I was so proud.

The kids watch Brianne open her gift before she left for Washington with her family for the Holiday break.

Santa didn't disappoint on Christmas morning. Lily is all ready to put on her new clothes for school. Jessica was happy to get the Secret Garden on CD and Gavin was just happy about all the new boy toys.

Jessica is gaining a testimony and preparing for baptism this year. We finished the Book of Mormon just before we rang in the New Year! and she decided to follow Moroni's promise (on her own!). She was excited to tell me she got an answer. For Christmas, uncle Jake surprised Jess with a PS2 system. She was thoroughly surprised and has been enjoying her games ever since. She especially likes to play with a partner.

Lily got into Discovery Days in January. Here's a picture of her on her first day. She kept giving me a profile because she wanted me to get her pretending that she was talking to her teacher. I finally convinced her to face me! She's loving it by the way. Tomorrow is her PJ day. She's also looking forward to Pizza Hut field trip next week.

We loved watching Lily and Jessica during their parent visitation week at dance lessons. Lily is always the entertainer. She was very cute in her "I want a hippopotumus for Christmas" dance.

As Lily has been going through her terrible 3's stage, I've not been quite so humored with her Lilyisms, but I need to catch up with them a little. Just in case you don't get my Lily, you have to know she always needs someone in her corner. For a long time it has been "Grandma". Whenever she was in trouble or feeling less than loved, she insisted that she wanted to go to Grandma's house. She still loves Grandma and LOVES to visit her. But now that she is in Primary, she has learned that Heavenly Father is her daddy and he loves her even more than mommy. So now whenever she is upset with me she says, "I want to go back to Heavenly Father. He's my daddy!"

Yesterday, during a mild meltdown she added, "Don't you know I never wanted to leave him in the first place?" After trying not to read too much into her speech, I helped convince her that she could pray to Heavenly Father any time and he can hear her.

Lily: "How can he hear me? I can't even see him!"

After convincing her to just try it, she did. We let him know she was not having a good day and needed some help to get happy again. Later as we were getting shoes on for school, she said, "Thank you, Heavenly Father!" I asked what she was thanking him for and she said, "For making me happy again!" Gotta love that girl. For now, she's decided to stay with me for a while longer.

Gavin got a radio flyer for Christmas. How exciting!

I look at this little guy and my heart fills up with joy. I just love his sweet happy smile. His daddy wears a similarly charming one. I think it was the thing that started everything. . .

Today I took Gavin to Dell Children's Hospital to see a Hemoglobin specialist. I really have not been worried that anything is wrong - but wanted to solve the mystery about why he keeps showing up anemic on the blood tests when he's taking an iron supplement and when tested the iron levels were in a normal range. The tests today showed up fine, but they're running more just to be sure. We'll find out next week. My boy was so sweet. First he was hungry and went after the crackers in the diaper bag making a huge mess all over the floor because he only cared to eat the peanut butter off of the insides. Then after trying to change his diaper, he toddled off to the patient and family kitchen for some more snacks and was excited about the milk cartons there. I of course was quietly observing the other children in there either waiting for a chemo treatment, going through a treatment or finishing up one. I felt a little obtrusive being in that sanctuary considering the fact that I don't think he's got anything wrong with him, but feeling the weight of anxiety for parents in there who are watching their little ones go through chemo thinking what if it were us? Emotions from that were hard to explain.

After downing some milk it was time for his labwork to get started. He was a trooper and didn't flinch while they drew his blood from his tiny arm. I held him and thought I might faint, but he didn't cry or move at all. The nurses couldn't believe how good he was for them. I was especially impressed with how warm and inviting all the staff were there. Even though my child wasn't critical or anything, I could feel the love radiating from them and how genuine, accepting and accomodating they were. If only all doctors and nurses could make you feel like that. I was glad to know there is a place like that with people like that for those who are going through much more difficult times than we were today.

This week, I've been impressed with how grateful I am for my children and how much I love them. Each one is so unique and special. I love them for completely different reasons. Each one is so like me and yet each one is SOO different from each other. How ironic is that? I just hope they know that for different yet equal reasons, I am proud of each of them and love them so much.