Random Cell Phone Pictures Over The Past Year

It has been a long time since I downloaded the pictures from my phone. I didn't realize all the fun activities that have been recorded there, either with pictures I took or ones that friends have taken and sent to me.

This is cutie pie Sara at girls camp last summer.  Wow!  She has grown up a lot in the last year.  

Laney and Susanna have lots of wonderful friends in our neighborhood.  Megan and Molly frequently have fun gatherings and  invite them to join the fun!

 Sara and Tim love to help their 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Heck, set up her classroom for the new school year.  Last summer she took them out to IHOP as a thank you.  We love her too!

We helped some friends of ours move last fall.  This is Nate after we had finished up.

This is Richard and I at our favorite Thai restaurant, Thai Orchid Garden.   

This is me camping on the beach.  Ok, sleeping in the van on the beach and eating bacon that someone kindly brought to me.  

Drew found the ocean. 

These show Nate and Drew with their Native American dwellings.  Nate left his outside to dry over night and when he brought it to class he realized that had become and Native Arizonian Cricket dwelling.  It had several of them hopping around during his presentation.

Nate and Drew are enjoying their Thanksgiving treats in this one.

Nate and Drew received their Arrow of Light Awards in scouts.  This is one of their favorite leaders, Jason Jordan.

Tim and I went shopping for a white elephant gift.  He was so tired on the way home that he fell asleep with our find.

This is the van on a tow truck with the broken serpentine belt hanging.  It left me stranded for awhile.  Luckily, I have good friends that helped me pick up kids from various activities while I took care of the van. 

This is Laney at her winter dance recital.

Nate and Drew, silly, silly boys! 

These pictures are missing from my post about Josh's 16th birthday.  Proof that we went to Babbo for dinner. 

After dinner, we went to his school's winter play.  He had several friends in the play.

Josh and Matt

 Josh and Hannah

Susanna got to spray the fire hose during her preschool field trip last fall.  She had a blast!

This is Susanna's preschool class at Halloween.

This is Nate and Drew at a friend's birthday party.

Here I am with my mom and cousins, Sandy and Denise and my Aunt Judy, in Superior, Wisconsin.  It was January and 33 below zero!

This is the Gilbert Temple.  I got to see it on my way home from the airport.

Tim chose to go the Thai restaurant for his birthday dinner.

We saw Gavin's vocal recital.  He was Jack, as in Jack and the Bean Stalk, singing songs from In To the Woods.  He was awesome!

Josh and Peter found the music soothing, so they took a little nap.

Sam and Josh were inducted into National Honor Society.  This is from Sam's ceremony.

Sam and long time friends Caity and Brynna

Sam and Victor wanted to pose by the bathroom. Goofy boys! 

Gavin starred in the HMS Pinafore.  We all went to see it and LOVED it!

This shows Gavin standing front and center.

Susanna and her BFF, Megan, are ready to ride the cow train on their Farm Field Trip with preschool.

Ice Cream Sandwiches!  Yum!

This is the super cool, Mrs. Heck.  It was hippie day.  Nate and Drew had a great year with her.

What a great year it has been recorded on my cell phone!

Yard Work and Laney's Recital

 Ok, so, Sara isn't doing yard work or dancing, but I loved this picture of her so I had to sneak it in.

We have been working on finishing our front yard.  It is coming along, but slowly.

Our neighbor was over helping Susanna digging a hole for a new plant.

Laney did such a great job performing in her recital.  She looked lovely too!

  

I love her smirky smile in this last one.

The End of April

We were settling down for a family movie night when Jessi called.  She asked what we were doing and I told her we were going to watch Thoroughly Modern Millie.  She asked if she and her girls could join the party, so they came over and we had ice cream cones and enjoyed the movie.

The next day was Jessi's adult prom night for church.  She invited us to drop by to see the beautiful decorations and to dance.  She looked so pretty!

Richard and Stephanie

  

Jessi and Steph

Then, the BIG excitement of the month!  Dandi and her family moved back to AZ.  We have missed them and are delighted to have them so much closer, even if Tucson is still 2 hours away.

Jessi and Josh, so cool, but at the same time excitedly awaiting the Wright's arrival.

Sam and Jessi

Sara

And here they are!  

Goofy sister moment

Steph, Dandi, Jessi

Cadie and Steph

Josh asleep on the floor, Taylor (adopted family), Lilli, Gavin, Jessi, with Tim and Sara dancing in the background.

Sam, Dandi, Emmett

Gavin and Jessi

Aaron, Richard and silly Sara 

Sara and Tim showing us some of their new swing dance moves.

Gavin and his super cool "Doctor Who" shirt that he made.  My kiddos were all jealous! 

The sleeping Josh.  He was a bit beaten up, he had a bad fall into some rocks earlier that week.

Laura (adopted sister) and Steph

Emmett and Gavin 

 Drew and Lilli having a go at swing dancing.

We missed Ben and Nan's crew and Gram and Papa, who had other obligations.

Susanna's 5th Birthday

Susanna turned 5 yesterday.  I can't believe that my baby is 5!   On the other hand, it seems like forever ago that she was a toddler always walking around with an apple core hanging out of her mouth.  

She still eats apples all of the time, but she is reading and writing and doing chores; she is super independent and has been for a long time. 

My sister, Dandi, is super cool and always makes her kids awesome birthday cakes.  My kids saw her awesome Ninjago (Lego ninja) cake she made last week and asked why I never make them cool cakes.  I am more about taste.  I like to make something that tastes amazing and I don't really care about it being fancy.  So for Suzu, I decided to go for looks.  She loved it.  We spent the day yesterday picking out a picture of how she wanted it to look and what colors she wanted and then she sat by me while I made it.  It turned out really cute!  

Susanna wanted soup for her birthday dinner.  I let her tell me everything she wanted in it.  She helped put the chopped up veggies in the pot.  It became a beef stew.  She was so proud that she "made it out" (made up the recipe) all by herself with a little help from me.

Everyone was excited for present time!

She got everything she wanted, which at our house is unusual, but I got the Ariel doll really cheap after Christmas and the rest of her wish list was pretty inexpensive.

She LOVES "lips".  Chapstick, lipgloss, lipstick, you name it, she loves it!

She had been wanting a new coloring book that was just hers for a while.

She got up early this morning to get her room cleaned up and get ready for the day so she could watch her new Barbie movie as soon as the big kids left for school.  Boy was she motivated!

It was a great day together.  She was so happy.  At the close of the evening she snuggled her daddy and fell asleep in his arms.  It was as perfect of a birthday as it could be!