Chinese anyone?

Oh, yeah. In case you weren't aware, I'm a mom! So I decided I would have a picture taken this year with all my lovely children on mothers day.

Aren't they sweet?

A funny little story I'll share, because you can see the evidence here in the photo...

One day I was talking to Caden about kids at school and how sometimes they tease others. And that sometimes something may be true about someone, it can hurt their feelings if others are always bringing it up and talking about it.
He said, "yeah, like sometimes my friends at school will say that I look like I'm Chinese." I couldn't help but let out a little laugh. Then I apologized and told him he could blame me for that one. I got that all the time as a youth. IN fact I still get it. Spencer teases me all the time about my squinty little eyes!

So here we stand out in the bright sunlight of the morning and I see that possibly 3 of my 5 kids have my eyes.

Show and Tell

Fridays are Show and Tell for Paxton's Kindergarten class. She's been asking for a while now to take her violin. I finally agreed and took it up at the end of the day for her.

She played them 2 different songs and had their undivided attention. She did really well on the songs she chose to play. She has been playing now for about 10 months and is doing great.


She is taking lessons from our friends daughter, Lexi, who is 11. She is amazing with music. In addition to violin, Lexi is also learning piano and saxophone. Paxton saw her play at her brothers baptism and was mesmerized. Soon after that day she and Lexi got together and made a plan. Lexi wants to be a music teacher when she's older, so she wanted to see what it would be like to teach someone and Paxton was all to willing to be the student! It's working out well for both of them.

YeS, we had Easter.........


kids at the towns egg hunt.


I love Cal's face in this one


We also celebrated Calvin's 2nd birthday



We also hosted a stanger on her long walk home. Spencer stopped to check on her on his way home from work one day and then came home and told me about her. I joined her for the rest of her days walk.

This is Laura and she is walking home. To Michigan, from Tucson. Approx. 2000 miles. I walked 6.5 with her and then invited her to stay at our home for the evening. You can see more about her and her journey here

PWD & FHE

So we went to the Grand Daddy pinewood derby in Tempe for Caden. We met up with my Dad and Vicki there. Caden and Paxton had gone to the D-backs opening night game with them and had a blast there.

I forgot the camera, ( happens often) so no pictures. I did borrow Vic's, but I haven't requested copies of them yet.

Caden was excited and at ease as he met some new friends. He loved seeing the different styles of cars. In fact, he already knows how he wants to design his next years car!

He did well. Placed 5th out of 14 kids, but they only took the top 4 for a final race later that day. He had a great time though and was a good sport.

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ONE fine Monday afternoon, Spencer came in and suggested we head down to the river for a little FHE!

So we did some quick chopping of vegetables, crumbled some meat and wrapped up some foil dinners. Loaded up all the sweet children, some lawn chairs and took off. 15 minutes later we had our spot riverside. The kids wasted no time throwing rocks, skipping rocks, playing in the water and a little exploring.



We chased dinner with a bowl of ice cream and then the night was cut short. Someones mother forgot to pack a diaper, wipes and a bottle for the littlest babe! It was a nice evening out together.