Fahter's Day 2009

Oh, how we Love our DAD!

I am very lucky to NOT have married one of those guys. That gets home from work expects dinner on the table, and then as soon as they are done eating are of to sit in front of the TV for a couple of hours before retiring to bed.

So, what does Paul do when he gets home from work. Some days dinner is ready and on the table while other days he helps me finish things up and sometimes he even makes the dinner all together. He is wonderful to sit and talk to the kids about their day while we eat, and then he rinses, drys, and puts the dishes away while I wash. This is something we have done together from the very beginning. The thing I love the very most is that it is our time to talk to each other about our day. Once things are cleaned up it is not uncommon to find Paul reading, or playing some kind of pretend with Connor. He is great at taking time to read stories with the kids after helping to get pajamas on and brush teeth. I can not say that we have both been really happy when the kids finally could all get dressed without much assistants. Paul is very good at taking care of the evening things while I have attended meetings or rehearsals, and has been such a great support to make it possible for me to be involved in things that I really enjoy.

I really appreciate Father's Day. It give me a chance to reflect on all the many things I really appreciate from my husband. With that said I am happy to say,

"I MADE A GOOD CHOICE!"For breakfast we made Dad crepes' with strawberries and coolwhip. We all enjoyed a tasty breakfast together.

As for gifts we got Dad a baseball mitt, a football, a couple of shirts and a bunch of hugs and kisses. Paul has been very supportive through out the year as I have been involved in a few different plays. I thought it might be fun for Paul to know how much I want him to be able to be involved in things that he enjoys.

Ten Year Reunion

There are many people that don't really care much for reunions and things. However, I am the type of person that LOVES them. So you can imagine my disappointment when I found out that not only my ten year reunion, and Paul's twelve year reunion (They didn't have a ten year so someone decided to go a head and plan a late reunion.) are scheduled on the same day, and it just so happen that the musical I am participating in has its closing night on the same day too. I love to see people that I haven't seen for a long time and hear the fun little details of how life is going. And it looks like I will NOT be attending. I guess I can be happy to know that my life has moved on and I am not just sitting around waiting for the next High School activity.

I am happy for face book. Paul went a head and added me to his, so I have been able to find out where some old friends from high school are. I am really not very good at keep in touch with people, but I do enjoy hearing about how life has turned out for each of us in the last ten years since we've been out of High school. I think it is a bit amusing how no matter how old you are it's commone to look at people younger and think I hope I was never that dorky, but in all reality we probably were.

Connor's New thing!

Connor is the kind of boy that gets a bit obsessed with things. He is really into the computer but that comes and goes as he discovers new things. For a while it was playing on webkinz. Then he discovered if he types things into the computer such as spider man he can find it on the computer. He spent a couple of days pulling DVDs off the shelf and typing the titles into the computer to see if he could find anything. I figured this was an excilent learning tool.

Lately his new thing has been playing an old Mario game on the Nintendo Wii. I told Connor that in a couple of minutes he needed to get stop playing Nintendo and come help clean up. He asked me what Nintendo was. I explained to him that he was playing Nintendo. He then told me that he was playing thw Wii. I mentioned that Nintendo was just another name for it, and then replied, "oh, is that how you say it in Spanish?" NO, that is English.

It has been a little strange to me raising kids. They sure make you feel old fast. We have been trying to explain to Hannah how a land line phone works. We showed her the plug and explained that it only works if you pay for it, but we decided to just pay for our cell phones. How easy it is to move along with modern technology and not really pay much attention to how much things are changing around us until you have an individual who has never experienced life any different than how it is right NOW. I suppose in many ways we are all like little children. All we know is what we know until someone teaches us something different.

Oh, how our children open our eyes and teach us!

Summer Time Fun!

Ashby Family Date Night

Hosted by Mom and Dad Ashby

They were very creative. The theme was Lego My Eggo. We had Eggo waffles for dinner, and then for the activity. We each pulled a number from a bowl. The number went with a bag of random Lego pieces. I think we had about fifteen minutes to work as a couple and decide what we wanted to build. At that point we got to go in the special room and take any extra pieces we may need. One thing that we discovered about each other is that neither of us are very good at putting Lego pieces together. We came up with some "Game theme" and were happy that we had something to show in the end. Mike and Becka put together a car lot they had cars, and tires and I think even a jet available.

It was obvious that Adam actually new what he was doing.

Becky and Joe made a really good ship with pirates and headless men.

For some reason I don't have a picture of Ed and Lois, but they did a really fun time travel machine. It was fun to get together with one another and do some of those fun silly things that we only did when we were dating and only had to think about having FUN together.

Baseball Fun
to attend his work baseball game. It was fun to go and watch him play. It is very common for Paul to attend all kinds of activities for me. It was nice to be able to do the same for him. I am not sure who was more impressed me or him. He played great. He hit the ball every time, and he even got a guy out.

Ward Camp Out
We were a bit worried about the rain, but lucky for us we didn't get rained on at all. They turn out might have been a bit better if it hadn't been raining all week, but I must say that we have great people that work hard to make any event a lot fun and worth attending.

The kids were great helpers when asked. They were unhappy to have to put down all the caterpillars they had collected, but I think they found more than what they had originally had when they went out looking again.

My Little Campers!

Smore's (The very BEST part about camping!)

I let Bonnie try to roast her very first marshmallow. It didn't go very well. She dropped it right into the ashes. This pictures is of her second attempt to roast her marshmallow.

A bit messy, but totally worth it.

Lucky for me we had other ward members around. Now that we finally have all the kids potty trained I only brought a small bag of wipes to get cleaned up with. I learned very quickly that if you have kids you need wipes and a LOT of them!

The kids love sleeping in their sleeping bags.

I can not say that we had a good nights sleep, but we did get some sleep, and for the most part we were not crabby in the morning.

Connor always needs picked on just a little bit!
The kids had a good time hiking around and playing together.

I can NOT say that camping is my most favorite thing, but it sure is fun to spend time with my family.

My Little Sister Graduated!

We supported our young women and purchased her a cookbook. My sister loves to cook, and now that she may be on her own it may be nice to have a bit of a variety.


My Mother thought it would be nice to all get together and go out to dinner to celebrate Breanna's graduation. Honestly I don't know the last time we all went out to eat at a restaurant, and after going I felt like we should have had a etiquette dinner before going out in public. I am not sure what I expected having a group of 35 people many of them being children. I really didn't anticipate my 21 year old sister trying to get a spoon to balance on her chin, but I guess they were having fun! My kids had a good time being out with their uncles, aunts, and cousins. I was happy to be able to support my sister.

Lagoon

Bonnie first ride!

She Hated it. She cried the entire ride and said that it was scary.

Next I took her over to the swings (the kids ride) to see if she was tall of enough. Lucky for her she was, and very Lucky for her Paul saved the day and showed up while we were waiting in line, and took her over to a different ride.

We all had a great time on the swings with out Dad and Bonnie

My sister Breanna came with us to help with the kids, so that we could go on a few big rides.

I am fine with the big rides, but these little rides for the kids that parents can go on too are great!

We spent a lot of time standing in line waiting and talking.

Bonnie was finally happy to go on some rides with the other kids. As they were excited and happy she began to talk about how fun the rides were too.

Connor has always liked this ride.

Hannah was the only brave one to go on the helicopter

Bonnie's second attempt to ride the boat. She was too scared to go all by her self, but with Hannah it was lots of fun. It sure is nice to have a big sister.

Connor didn't want to ride with a stranger, so I waited in line a second time, so that he could be the first to pick a boat. Connor got in all excited. The lady then went through and found single riders to fill all the boats. It took forever, she lost the key in the water twice, and Connor ended up having to share a boat in the end. So I have pictures of some random boy. I was happy that Connor and this little boy did a good job sharing the bell!

Hannah and Connor were great on the plan. They go up and down as you move the lever. The only problem is that the lever is in the front and the back, but really can only be controlled by one person. So Hannah explained to me that they figured out how to make it work. Connor got to say what he wanted to do up or down and Hannah got to controll the lever. Latter in the day Breanna took Connor back on this ride by him self, and she mentioned how excited he was to be the one controlling the lever. It makes me happy that my kids can work things out.

Getting started on the rides was a little bit rough, but by the end of the day Bonnie and all the kids had so much fun riding the rides. We all went on Puff at least twice. The first time I told Bonnie that the ride isn't very fast. "Look it is green like a turttle." Connor and Hannah metnioned it wasn't really a truttle it was a dragon, but I gave them the look and they stopped. By the second time in line to go on Puff when I said it was slow like a turttle Bonnie was the one to correct me "It's not a turttle Mom it is a Dragon." Bonnie and Connor went on the whale ride two last time before we left. Bonnie had her hands in the air and a big smile on her face. It is amazing how having a brother and sister by your side can help make you so brave.