Taylor Rae...I mean Elsa...

I'm starting to worry about Taylor's obsessive habits. We were a little late on the frozen bandwagon. I mean we saw it in the theater on Thanksgiving day, and loved it. But she never really talked about it much after that. THEN Easter came. My mom sent her the frozen soundtrack and we have seriously listened to it NON stop since then. April 20th. We also now have the movie, and many many accessories. I am constantly having to clip a blanket around her neck so she can be Elsa. She loves Elsa. This obsession is reminiscent of Tucker and the movie Cars. ALL. DAY. LONG. FROZEN!

I posted this picture to Instagram and it cut off the top words part, and said something like, 'We've been obsessed with something around here and I'll give you one hint'. And for the most part, people knew who this guy was. But I love Kathryn's comment, 'Is that Paul Bunyon?' Totally made me LOL!

Also, I have this really old book that I got in an old bookstore in the Old City of Jerusalem. I've had it on our book shelf with all of our other big fancy looking books. I just think it looks cool. I can't read it, it's half in Hebrew and half in German. Randomly Taylor one day had it in her hands and I asked her why she had that book and she told me that it was the book that the King found in his bookshelf that had the map to where the rock trolls were. I didn't even remember that part of the movie until we got the movie and started watching it again, but she walked around with my old Hebrew book from Jerusalem for days!

Love this frozen girl of mine!

May birthdays...

I have such awesome friends. And somehow most of us have May Birthday's! :) OK, that's not true. But two of my very good friends have May birthday's and SO do their spouses! Is that crazy? Meg's is the 4th, her husband, Wes's is the 10th. Emily's is the 10th, her husband, Kirt's is the 17th and mine is the 20th! So there was a lot of celebrating in May. And I didn't mind it one bit! :) Twigs for lunch on Meg's birthday. With Tara, Whitney & Abbey:

Not pictured are : Lunch at Thai Kitchen (the best!!!) for Emily's birthday, and dinner at Fire Artisan Pizza (the best new pizza place!) for Kirt's birthday. 

Also, my friend from the branch, Rosa's, birthday is on the 18th, so me and the sisters made her a cake. Because she is scared to death of worms, naturally, we made her a dirt covered brownie with gummy worms all over it! :)

PS...I love Hna. Rosado and Hna. Taylor, too! :)

It was so funny, our glass is the kind that you can't see through. So people can't see into our house. I always think it's so funny when I'm standing right there and the kids are trying so hard to see in. Hna. Rosado was tapping on the door, and they were trying so hard to see us! :) It was funny!

And surprising her with her cake:

The worms didn't freak her out as much as we had hoped! :) Probably because they weren't real! :) Rosa loves her some Jax! :) Can't say that I blame her!

Finally it was time to celebrate me! :) ha ha, jk! But I did wake up to a nice delicious treat! :) That Ben really knows what I like. A Candy bar boquet, AND a dark chocolate mint cake. Perfection. Cake for breakfast. Since he is long gone before I am even close to being awake, he left it for me.

{I think someone else was impressed, too!}

Also, funny story. Ben found this beauty at a garage sale with Kirt one day. I had no idea. It was kind of a joke, but kind of a fun weird thing that he thought would be cool in our backyard, just for fun. Well, Emily happened to be driving by our house, and wanted to get it out of her car. So, she stopped by to drop it off. I must have been in the shower or something because I didn't hear the doorbell. So, she just left it on the door step, facing the door. So, another friend came to pick up Taylor, and when I opened the door, this guy was staring at me. I was dying. I didn't know what to think at first. I didn't know if it was a birthday present from someone, or a joke!!!?? It was pretty funny. He has been on our front door step ever since, and while I like him, and I can appreciate him as a fun, different, unique conversation starter for our backyard, I feel like I have to explain it to everyone who comes over who may not 'get it'. I kind of think he goes with our house, too a little bit. 

Anyway, that afternoon, we had some lunch and cupcakes at the park with friends. We have a fun park group going on right now, and I'll be sad when older kids are in school and it has to change. Dori, Danna, Hannah, Marianne & Angie and I. Dori, Marianne, Angie and I all have babies just a few weeks apart, so this boy band won't be breaking up anytime, but it's always sad to see the older kids go off to school. I can still remember when my friend Danna's son, Tate started kindergarten, I was sad to see him go, and now I see him at Sunrise as a big 5th grader, president of the student body!!! I did bring myself a cake to this park date. I knew that if that dark chocolate mint cake stayed at my house, I would eat the whole thing, so I brought it. But also Danna brought me cupcakes, so we had quite the sugary feast! :) The kids were in heaven! It was a beautiful day and I was happy to spend the afternoon with friends.

Then that night my friends surprised me and took me to dinner at twigs. I was just planning on a low key dinner at home with the family. I have awesome friends! Tara, Meg, Emily and Tammy and I.

Weekly appointments...

Now that soccer and basketball are over for Tucker, we have only two other weekly appointments to remember each week. 

This girl started gymnastics. Maybe I've already mentioned that. Here are a few pictures from said gymnastics:

The girl loves it and it is totally her thing. I really hope she stays with it. I feel like her body is perfect for it. She is so buff!

I absolutely love watching her every week. Not only does she seem to really enjoy it, but she has no fear! She gets right up on the beam or the bars to flip around them, and some of the other kids are a little bit scared. Her coach always is telling me how well she is doing. And she just goes for everything, she tries and tries until she gets it most of the time. I love that about her!

Our other weekly appointment is when Ilene comes to visit Jackson for some Physical Therapy time. He seems to be happy to see her whenever she comes. He enjoys playing with her and doing the therapy. Sometimes towards the end of the session, he is tired of her moving him and putting him in all these uncomfortable positions. :) 

Ilene is so nice and easy going. She totally works him and loves on him and it has been SO SO SO very helpful to him. I am amazed at how much progress he's made in the past few months. 

A few weeks ago he started standing like this, like a champ. Now he's on to bigger and better things. Not quite crawling yet, but so very close. The main difference is his motivation to move and bend those legs. Before he had absolutely no desire to move, and now he seems to want to go everywhere! :) 

I love it! I can't wait for him to be mobile. But, I'm sure that after he is, I will be wishing he wasn't! :)

Last Preschool of the year...

The end of pre-school was a little bittersweet for me. I was so sad that it was ending because Taylor just loved it so much. I was a bit glad not to have to worry about teaching it anymore. Not that it was hard. It was actually SO much better than I thought it would be. I actually enjoyed planning the lessons and the crafts and activities when they were at our house. It was difficult with a baby sometimes, but we managed. And we survived! :) I am going to miss these kiddo's!

Ollie just might be one of my favorite little boys ever! 

And this Tucker man sure is a sweetheart!

Our theme for the last week at our house was planting and gardening and growing. It was fun! I'm not much of a green thumb and I'm sure one of the other mom's would have been much more suited to teach it. But I found these cute little mini green houses in the dollar section at Target and was so pumped! They were perfect and the kids just loved them. We had half cilantro and half basil.

Then for a treat, I made them those little mud pudding treats. Complete with a gummy worm coming out of the 'dirt'! :)

Of course, we had to get out and enjoy nature with this being our theme for the week. We even brought out Gomer to play with us for a while. The kids all love Gomer!

And no back yard romp is complete without a little jumping. I'm just so glad we can get out of the house and enjoy the outdoors now! Hallelujah for Spring and Summer!

Ollie was just a little obsesed with this rock. I'm pretty sure it's one that my kids picked up somewhere and brought to our backyard because it was nice and polished, but Ollie found it and it was his precious. I told him he could keep it and take it home! :)

Little monkey:

I bought an extra green house for Tucker and he planted his when he got home from school that night. The kids have been checking on them every day, and have been so excited about the progress of our little plants:

Watching them grow:

And getting distracted by her own reflection:

My friend Danna had the last week of preschool at her house. So she put on a little graduation/party for them. They even made summer bucket lists in the shape of a Sun, and when we complete one of the items on the bucket list, we can color in one of the Ray's. So cute! I love this little pre school graduate of mine! And I'm excited for her to head to Teacher Barbara next year!!! woo-hoo!

Mothers day weekend & Grandma's visit...

My mom initially came in to town for my birthday, even though it was the week before my birthday. Then once she got here, we realized it was mothers day weekend. I think that that was her plan all along so that we could spoil her. :)

She actually got here on Thursday to meet Allen for breakfast before he flew out. He came in for the day and one of the perks of living in Spokane is that we get the grandparent visits when they come in town to see everyone else! :)

After breakfast with Allen, he headed to the airport, and we stopped by Tuckers class to eat lunch with him. He was so happy!

Ben took Tucker camping on Friday night, so we were able to have a girls night (plus Jackson). This girl sure loves her grandma. And I sure love this girl! :)

And grandma got in some Jackson time. I am seriously afraid that I'll come home one day and she'll have stolen him! I can't seem to sneak even a snuggle on Jackson every time she's here!

Jackson practicing his yoga:

As much as I made fun of Jackson being in Physical Therapy, it has helped so very much! The boy is starting to move and stand and actually be motivated to go places! I'm excited for this enthusiasm! :)

Having grandma here to practice his skills helps, too! :)

For mothers day this year, I decided to make these little wooden blocks of old pictures for my mom & Kathryn & mother in law. For my mom, I found a cute picture of her when she was a baby and her mom, a picture of all four of us kids when we were small, and of course, I had to do one of my own kids! :)

For Kathryn (you can see in the background) I did one of her mother, one of her three boys when they were small, and one of her grandson. All photos stolen from facebook! And then I did this one of my three kids for my mother in law also. I didn't have any old photos of her and her mom, so I was only able to do one for her. But it was so fun. I love being crafty, and it was so cheap and easy. I think I want to make myself some

So, the Saturday before mothers day, I totally threw out my back! Doing laundry of all things.  I could barely walk, and when I did walk, I was hunched over. I didn't even get to go to Tucker's last soccer game. I had gotten all the stuff to make my mom Cafe Rio for dinner that day, and ingredients for Italian Sodas because I found Chocolate Syrup, not the Hershey's sauce, but like actual flavored syrup in Chocolate, that my mom loves for Italian Sodas, so that was part of her mothers day gift as well. I was able to make the Cafe Rio, and the Italian Sodas, but then had to rest it out the rest of the day. We didn't go to church, and I just kind of hung out on the couch most of the afternoon. But it was still a fun day with my mom and kiddos! 

Here we are with our Italian Sodas taken with my crappy camera phone! We did head out that morning to get the sacrament program to the branch president so he could make copies for the meeting. I know my mom loves me because she walked into that church building full of people in their best Sunday dress and she was in her sweats with a head full of bed head still to give that program to him for me. Now that's love! :)

I was spoiled by lots of beautiful flowers. A bouquet from my mom, from Ben, and some small bouquets from the kids. I love this time of year when the flowers start to come out, and I get some beautiful bouquets from the kids.

Since we had grandma at our house, we had the benefit of skyping with all the cousins. Kenzie and Taylor had a long distance 'Let it go' Dance party! Both girls are obsessed and REALLY good dancers! :)

Not only did I miss out of my wonderful Cafe Rio dinner, but just about the time they all sat down to eat it, I jumped up off the couch to hurl in the bathroom!!! It was gross! So, I also missed out of my delicious Ice cream cake they had gotten me! Boo!!! So this is how I looked most of Mother's day. Needless to say there were no annual mothers day photos taken that day! :)

I sure am grateful for these little's who made me a mama! :)

The next day was much better. I felt fine, and my back was better, so we got in a good picture:

We also met up at Rancho Viejo with the Schlerf's. It was so fun to be back at Rancho with them. It is fun to be anywhere with them, but Rancho holds a special place for us! :) Good times catching up and eating yummy food! 

And just like that, she was gone!!! I'm so glad she got to be here for mother's day though. I sure am lucky to have her as an example of love and kindness. She may not have taught me how to be domestic, but she did teach me how to love and treat people. And I'm so grateful for that.

Cinco de mayo...

Cinco de Mayo in the Spanish branch had to be a par-tay! Just kidding. Actually, most Mexicans don't celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Lots of people believe that it's Mexico's Independence day, but that is in September. Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of the Battle of Puebla. Puebla is a state in Mexico and it celebrates a defeat over invaders back int he 1800's for the freedom of that particular area. So, the people of the state of Puebla celebrate, but that's about it! :) But still, we had to have a fiesta.

The Elders Quorom was in charge, which means that Ben and Jared Wiberg  put on the whole thing. Which also means that there was zero decor, but some delicious food and a serious game of kick ball. It was a fun evening.

{Sonia, Hna. Taylor, Hna. Rosado, Jared Wiberg, Ben, Lucas Peterson, Melissa Peterson, Jackson & Jenny}

{Hno. Cabrera, Hno. LaCasse, Juan, Hno. Martinez y Hna. Martinez}

{Elder Magana, Ben & Jared Wiberg}

{Lacey, Merial & Karinna}

{Ellory Peterson (my future daughter in law), Zoe Wiberg & Kyla Lopez}

{Just some dudes}

{Me, Hna. Martinez & Hna. LaCasse}

Big boy enjoying his favorite food, Guacamole:

Oh Odalis, my crazy lady friend...

Intense game of kick ball:

And, of course, no branch party would be complete without a pinata:

Cute Kadmiel:

I love our branch!

Since Cinco de Mayo was actually on a Monday, I believe, our party was actually the Saturday before. We had to stay true to tradition and go to Rancho Viejo on the actual day, and as usual it was a party! Taylor & John had fun coloring together:

So cute! :)

Tucker Soccer...

Spring soccer came and went. I think I'm the only mom who enjoys the sports seasons of my kids. All my friends were so happy when soccer season was over, but I love it! I do only have one child, so I'm not too over scheduled yet, but I do love me some good sporting events. (Even if they are 1st graders!) :) I love that Tucker loves sports and has friends on his teams and enjoys playing. I want him to continue with it as long as he can! :)

His coach is awesome. He is the uncle of one of the kids, Beau, on the team. Actually, Beau's dad and uncle co-coach and they are both great! We got really lucky, I'm really hoping that this team sticks together!

We loved going to all of the games every Saturday. It's easy when you only have one child in sports, and we are definitely enjoying that!

Dylan, Canon, Beau, Ezra, Tucker, Jack & Johnny after one of the games when they got really cool soccer cookies with their names on them. Unfortunately that black and purple frosting is still smeared on parts of my van! :) These boys are all so cute!

The boy definitely has a heart for soccer, and I'm excited to see him continue to grow...