Sea World San Antonio

Cali and her pal Shamu:-)

So, I think people got a good laugh at us at the Shamu show.  We sat in the soke zone and every single one of us wore a poncho!  LOL  And yes, we all stayed MOSTLY dry.

MUSCLES!!!

SO, blogger is a little different.  And I do not know why it will not load this picture correctly....so just turn your head side ways!  This is the San Antonio Temple.  Beautiful!!!

I don't know if you can see the stain glass window....Most of the windows on this temple have these beautiful windows.  Reminds me of the sacred grove, although I don't think that is what they are.  ?? 

One of our favorite shows.

The end of a long day and still some smiles!!! 

Cali needs to go to Disney Land!  She loved Sesame street!!!

shopping IS fun

Gone are the days of car carts for us. Those things drive me nuts! My kids would constantly get in and out of it; Even the kind with the TV didn't entertain. But these little beauties are wonderful. Makes them feel all grown up to push a cart and pick groceries off the shelf. The things that make kids feel grown up:-) The other day, Cali put my slippers on and then insisted I give her my cell phone so she could "be like mommy". Uhg! LOL

Ahhh!

It has been soooo long since I have posted anything, that it literally took me 15 minutes to even remember how to log on to our blog!!!!! Wow!

The above picture was taken at "the library park", as my kids call it. We walked down to the jogging trail down by the river (that is the murky brown that makes such a lovely back drop for this cute picture of my sweeties) and the kids threw rocks in the river. They could have done it all day long. I remember throwing rocks in the lake when I was a kid. It was fun to see how far we could throw the rock. It was neat to watch the rock plop into the water and then watch the ripples flow out. I remember trying to skip rocks. I was never really good at it. Such simple entertainment! Next time we go to the river, or the lake, I will have to remember to teach my kids about skipping rocks. :-)

Our Vacation 2011

We had a really great trip out to Utah this summer! It was A LOT of driving, but so worth it. The weather was so nice and it was so great to get to spend time with family at the Egnew reunion! And then to spend time in B town with my fam! One of the high lights for me was getting to go to the temple and have Nichole and Sergio be there!!!!
The kids had a blast with all of their cousins and really did not want to come home. I wish I was better about having a camera near by....there are so many things I didn't get pics of that I wish I had. I was just enjoying myself to much, no time for a camera.
We went to a dinosaur park in Ogden that was so fun for the kids. They enjoyed panning for gold and digging for "pretty rocks". We had a really fun country store at the reunion. I purchased some fun items like night gowns for the girls and home made suckers and knitted hot pads and jewelry, baby doll with crochet ward robe, and lots of other little things. We were treated to an amazing fire work display in Logan and were lucky enough to get to see Black Hawk perform. Cali was afraid of the "boom boom's" and kept her head covered with her blanket pretty much the whole time. The other two kids fell asleep during the grand finale.
We had a blast at a little water park in northern Utah. My kids could live in a pool, so that was perfect for them.
We were able to visit family we haven't seen in quite a while, but unfortunatly were not able to make it to see all of our friends we would have liked. Maybe next time.
We were so happy to welcome the newest Tingey into the family. We are happy for Chris and Becca and Will that there sweet little girl made it into the world safe and sound.
We visited my grandfather and were glad to see him recovering from a broken rib. He always treats us to pizza or something. It was fun to hear stories from the past I had never heard before.
We went to B town and just took it easy. I was grateful to finally get to go pay my respects to my dear Uncle Kent who passed away the begining of the year. It was so strangenot to see him, for him not to pop in at Gran's and Grampa's to visit and tell a funny story. He will continue to be greatly missed!!!
I loved seeing most all of my sisters. I met my newest nephew and got to hold and cuddle with him. He is a sweet boy. I pray for his mama and him that they will be happy.
My sweet Auntie Jenny took family pics for us and I am really excited to see how they all turned out!
My goodness there is so much and I know I am forgetting things so I will have to come back and add to this eventually.
Mostly I am so happy we were able to see our family, even though it was for a short time. I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking......

We were Cassie's first clients in the new salon!!!

Pictures below are from the divisional swim meet. It was soooo HOT that day! We are so proud of Wes! He placed first in back stroke in the 6 and under age group and qualified for All Stars, which, sadly, we were unable to attend. He improved his time in all of his events! We are so happy for him and are excited for next year!!!

So, I am trying to be more consistent in my parenting. I need to me more consistent in many areas of teaching and discipline, but more urgently at this moment is consistency in potty training Cali. I think I have found something that is working......as long as I let her wear her swim suit all day, she uses the potty! I told her if she wets or poops in the swim suit, she looses it for the day! This girl LOVES TO SWIM and loves her swimming suits. So, thus far, we have only had one day last week that she lost the privilege of wearing her suit all day. Pretty good, eh? Now, lets just cross fingers and maybe by the end of summer, it will be a good habit she will have developed!!

Time Out For Women

I was able to get together with some wonderful ladies from church this past weekend and take a little road trip to San Antonio for Time Out For Women. It was a much needed weekend and I am so grateful I was able to go.

I had never been to San Antonio and let me just say, I am itching to go back! I kept thinking how fun it would be to go take my kids. There is so much to see and it is really beautiful!

We stayed on the River Walk at the Marriott, which was wonderful to be so close to the conference center! We were able to park in the parking garage at the Marriott and then just walk everywhere we needed to go.

It goes with out saying, but I will say it anyway, THE CONFERENCE WAS WONDERFUL!! The speakers made us laugh and made us cry. The music was fun and uplifting. I felt inspired as a woman and encouraged in my current stage of life. And at times was taken back and felt like a high school girl again, young and carefree and fun:-) Honestly, by the time I got home, I felt like I had been on a wonderful roller coaster ride of emotions! For the sake of time that I do not have at the moment, I just want to share a few things that sum up what I got out of the conference. I could delve in and write forever on all of my thoughts and feelings. And would if time allowed for it.

1. I learned from Sister Sherri Dew that life is never ideal for anybody, but SO WHAT!!!! Get over it and GO FORWARD keeping your eye on your eternal goals!! Don't allow yourself to be distracted. Look up and move forward and be aware of what and who you are being influenced by and how and who you are influencing others.

2. I learned from Amanda Dickson that as women our friends make us good lookin'! That it is part of keeping myself healthy and happy to reach out and have friends, be a friend. And also that I need to be a friend to myself!

3. I learned from Emily Watts the importance of traditions and the importance of catching people doing good (especially my children). I learned that it is important to develop "thick skin" and work not to be offended.

4. I learned from John Hilton, once again, the importance of looking up, looking forward to our Heavenly Father.

5. I learned from Matt Baldwin that I can pray to know what I am capable of becoming. For some reason I had never thought to pray about that before. I was reminded of the importance of trying to see all perspectives. I learned about conforming and that there are really only two basic things I need to conform to; True principles and my behaviors to my belief's. I also learned I need to get a grip on my expectations of myself.

6. From Kristine Belcher, It was confirmed to me something I have always thought; It is not that the Lord only gives us trials we can bare and he won't give us any more than that. He lets life happen and WE MUST LEARN TO DRAW STRENGTH FROM JESUS CHRIST to make it through. Sometimes, life gets very hard and we feel like we just can not do it. And it is true! We alone can not do it. But if we choose the help that is there from a loving Savior, we can.

7. Music is awesome and I enjoyed Jericho Road and Dallyn Vail Bayles immensely!!

Like I said before, there is so much more I could say about this conference. The challenge was to think about who we want to become and to choose one thing we can work on becoming. At this point, I keep feeling like my one thing to become, is FREE. That probably makes no sense to anybody but me. But, it is what it is. :-)

And now, off to the laundry! :0) And happy to do so!!!

HAPPY EASTER!!

We had a fun Easter weekend. The weather was nice and it was fun to spend time as a family and with friends.

Easter Sunday, the kids wake up to Easter eggs hidden all over the house. It is fun for them and I enjoy seeing their smiles. This year I took a picture of Christ coming out out the tomb and cut it into puzzle pieces and put it in an egg. Cali found it. After the kids found all the eggs, we took that picture and glued the pieces down to a separate piece of paper and talked about that Easter Sunday so long ago when Christ was resurrected. I had this thought come to me Saturday night, that for next year, I am going to come up with a little letter or poem from the Easter Bunny to put in the kids baskets. I love the tradition of the Easter bunny; but I don't love how he has taken the spot light on that special day. So, if I can come up with a letter to the kids from the bunny, talking about how sweet it is to celebrate the life of our Saviour, maybe it would leave an impression on them??? Maybe not. I am thinking something along the lines of the bunny leaving sweets to help remind us of the sweetness of the resurrection? I am not sure yet how to put it together....but I have a year to figure it out.:-)

My beautiful family:-)

Our garden is coming along...basil doing awesome! Cherry tomatoes doing very well. Not so sure how everything else is going to turn out.

We made dutch oven potatoes and roasted hot dogs with the kids Saturday night. Soooo yummy:-)

We had a really fun neighborhood easter egg hunt with pancake breakfast.

Cali drinking her daily smoothie. Aubrey didn't want hers, so Cali snatched it.

Wesley roasting hot dogs. He is so silly!!

The Easter Bunny came to the neighborhood hunt, and I had to bribe Aubrey to sit on his lap for a picture. Cali would have none of it.

And a little random pic...

Lots of good weather means lots of fun bike rides! Cali loves it. Aubrey is learning to ride a bike with out training wheels . She is pretty determined. If Cali were taller, she would probably be riding as well. She wants to do everything the big kids do.