Family Fun!

I was able to borrow some costumes from  Mesa High School.  My sweet friend, Leslie, is their costumer and she hooked me up.  I am so grateful! I still have tons to do, but less than I had.

Nana the nursemaid dog

Indian costumes for the chorus girls, I still have to down size them a bit for my little elementary kids, but at least I'm not starting from scratch.

Captain Hook has to be down sized a bit too, but again at least I have something to work with.

Sara and I spent two whole days prom dress shopping and after much searching and prayer, we found a wonderful dress! We then stopped at Gram and Papa's to show them and all the aunts and uncles that were up visiting from Tucson for spring break.  We finally got to meet Baby Freia!  She is such a sweet baby.

The next day we brought every one over for some cousin time.  It was not our spring break, but I let them ditch school to play since we don't see the Wrights often. The twins opted to come after school since they had tests they didn't want miss.

Peter LOVES Daniel!!! He wanted to play with him the whole evening.  He literally was hanging on him for attention.  Daniel was a good sport and loved being with him.

Daniel and Zanna picked and juiced our tangerines that were still on the tree.  It made wonderful juice!

My Daddy does an annual Daddy Daughter Date with all his daughters and Mom got to tag along this time too.  He took us to see The Duttons. The Duttons are a family of touring and recording artists that play everything from bluegrass to classical in their shows. They play a variety of instruments: violin, guitar, bass, viola, banjo, mandolin, keyboard and drums among others. The Duttons are extremely entertaining and really nice people. We spent a while talking with some of them after the show. They even took Jessi's card so they could call her to choreograph for them. It was a crazy fun evening as it usually is when the girls go out with Daddy!

I love these cuties!!!!

Soooo Much!

I still haven't gotten to meet baby Freia, but I sure do enjoy pictures of her! She looks so cute with Dandi and Emmett.

Fred started preschool. I'm sure that his Momma is loving a little quiet time with the girls. He is such an adorable rascal! 

Fred is 3 now. I love his super awesome dinosaur cake!

More baby Freia! 

Richard and I received this for our 22nd anniversary this last Saturday. She is so darling!

 Richard was gone for the week in Palm Springs for a programming/developers conference. He enjoyed the time with his coworkers and learning new things.  He stayed in an old motel that was done over to be hipster? maybe? It was unique. He sent us some pictures.

This was in the lobby or hall way.

We continued to celebrate Daniel's birthday, finally having his family birthday dinner, Hawaiian Haystacks. Sara was still at cosmetology, but we didn't want to delay it a few more days.

Some of the kids don't appreciate me taking multiple pictures of the same pose, so I have been trying to only take a couple here and there. However, this is a great example of what hurrying for pictures with get you, two not so great pictures of  Daniel's birthday dessert. He has gone sugar free like several others in our family so he had a frozen fruit salad in whipped cream and cream cheese. 

 Andrew painted his hair and face for a school spirit day. He was trying to look like Josh Dun from his favorite band Twenty-One Pilots. He looks a little bit like he's related to the Joker.

Andrew and Branden waking up from an afternoon nap before dance lessons.

The kids were all excited that we had homemade mac n cheese.  I made it while Daddy was gone on his business trip.  I made two huge pans so it lasted a couple of days.

Andrew enjoyed his first plateful and then decided to spice it up with his Ghost Pepper Mustard on the second plate. It was a little spicy!

I guess I should make it more often, both the little girls wanted a picture with it. :)

 Also, while Daddy was gone, I had a brilliant idea of how to make the garage door open and shut again without getting stuck.  We don't know how it got damaged. It was a loud sudden noise late one night, It looked like a semi hit it, but there was no sign of anyone or an vehicles around.  We think it might have been wind damage?  Anyhow, it has been a year and a half since it happened and about a year since it stopped working properly.

It's getting hotter and I didn't want to have to get into a steamy car anymore, so I called my dad, told him my idea and he and Sam figured out the details and executed it wonderfully!

BEFORE

AFTER

 

It is supported well now, braced on the inside and out, so it doesn't bend and pop, or get stuck anymore! 

I told Tim that if he wanted to ditch school the next day and clean out the garage with me he could.  Tim, my super cleaner/organizer, thought that sounded like a great idea.

Now it is all straightened up and we can park the van and car in there again.  HOORAY!!!!

Tim and I also went to the temple while he was playing hooky. It was so sweet to be there with him, just the two of us. I love my Timmy!

Sunday, Sara's friend Hannah went to church with us and then stayed after for dinner and games. Richard and I sat and relaxed in our La-Z-boy chairs and watch all of the kids play Apples to Apples so nicely.  It was wonderful!

I love all the laughs and giggles when they play together.

And yet another example of why rushing pictures doesn't always work out well.

Busy, Busy, Busy

This last week was packed with activities and busyness.

Brandon Monteer creatively asked Sara to prom. He had their seminary teacher, Jen Tanner, have her come up to the front to read something that Sara thought was part of the lesson.  As she was reading she became more confused with what it had to do with the lesson until it got to the "Will you go to prom with me?" part. Then it made sense, but she didn't know who was asking until he stood up and gave her flowers and asked her again.  She said yes. He told me that his favorite part was when her face turned as red as her hair.  So cute! They are such good friends.

Friday, after school Sara dyed KenaDee's hair a beautiful light brown and then blended it amazingly with her natural dark blonde roots.  It turned out beautifully. Unfortunately the only pictures of the event are ones that Susanna took.  Ha!

Susanna took many other "beautiful" pictures around the house.

I love this quote Sara put on the chalkboard.  Mind over mattress.  It is so easy to be tired, to sleep in, to waste time laying around when we should be up and doing good things.

I'm not sure what Susanna was trying to capture with this one.  We do love having Averi come over to play. She she is a great friend to Daniel, Laney and Susanna.

Brandon and Branden are another couple of our regulars, our bonus babies.  I love these guys!

 Friday evening, we had a Life Leadership meeting at our house. We had about 45 awesome people fill our family room as we talked about how to be wise with money and how to create our dreams and live our God given purpose.

Jonathan Mecham and Rob Robson came and spoke about Financial Fitness. It's good stuff. Rob is a millionaire, so there were a lot of starstruck kids, and some adults, around.

Rob and Tim

Rob and Sam

Branden, Alex, Rob, Daniel and Freddy

We do our best to make sure KenaDee gets plenty of love when she is here.  I think we do a pretty good job.

Alex came to spend the weekend with us again. She is a nut and fits right in.

The Averi and little girls enjoyed using Snap-chat filters on me.  SO lovely!

Richard and Susanna had some quality daddy daughter time Saturday morning.  She was crazy with him and loved every single second. 

It is SPRING!!!  I love to see my flowers coming to life.  It makes my heart so happy!!!

Sunday was Daniel's birthday. He woke up with awesome bedhead.  We had to document it. He is still super handsome, even with crazy hair.

He wanted money for his birthday to go toward somethings he is saving for, but I couldn't leave him with out any gifts.  He got 3 new pairs of fun sock, a pack of gum and a package of bacon. 

 I told him that since his birthday fell on fast Sunday (we fast combined with prayer the first Sunday of every month), I couldn't make him a big birthday breakfast and that I would make him something another morning.  He said it was fine  and that he was excited to fast on his birthday. He felt it would really make it special.  He is the sweetest!

We took some head shot for Tim's mission papers.  He turns them in a couple weeks!

Also, on fast Sundays, our church meeting is open for anyone to go up and share their testimony of Christ, prayer, scriptures, anything gospel related and up lifting. It is mostly a meeting of gratitude for all we are blessed with.  Anyhow, this last Sunday, Laney was the first to go up and share her feelings and love for Jesus.  Susanna went just after, then a bit later, Richard went up, then scattered through the rest of the meeting, Daniel, Tim, Sara, Freddy and Alex went up. They all had such wonderful testimonies of the power of prayer, reading the scriptures, sharing the gospel with friends, things they have learned in seminary and of their faith in God and His love for all of us.  It was a beautiful meeting to say the least. 

 Sunday evening, Rich, Daniel, Freddy, Andrew, Sara, Tim, Madi and Alex all went to hear Josie Solomon speak.  She suffers from severe depression and darkness.  She choose to bring joy to others since she cannot feel it herself.  She is an incredible lady and so inspiring. You can see what wonderful things she is doing despite the pain and suffering she endures at her website: http://www.the444project.com/ She has an amazing story.

Monday, Daniel and I went on a date to Red Robin for his free birthday burger.  He is a great date, such grown up conversation and lots of love and laughter.

He definitely loved his burger.