Lucky

We are so LUCKY to have this man as our father and husband!

LUCKY, because he loves his children so much!

LUCKY, because he loves to spend time with his family.

LUCKY, because he reads Harry Potter to his kids.

LUCKY, because he brings home flowers to his wife and girls.

LUCKY, because he does fun projects with the kids.

LUCKY, because he plays games with us.

For Father's Day, the kids made him oodles of homemade cards and gave them their gift that they made in Primary which were picture magnets of themselves.

I bought him a tool chest so he could organize all of his tools. I also took him out and he got some new clothes-which he desperately needed! Check out his cute pants!

I made pizza for him for dinner. I had to buy it because, he is the pizza maker in the house and I didn't want him to have to make it.

I did make a yummy dessert for him which combined two of his favorite things-oreos and brownies. Check out my other blog for the recipe.

Zoey told him that she wanted to dance with him. She loves to dance!

We love you Ben and feel LUCKY that you are OURS!

I had to include these last pictures of Ben's new discovery. . .

Grilled Pizza!

We found out tonight that you can grill a pizza and it is much quicker than baking it in the oven. It was also very delicious! Leave it to Ben to discover this!

"Baby, baby, baby oohh!"

Ben came home from work one day and told me that he had tickets to a Justin Bieber concert. CJ tried to hold her excitement to a minimum because her Justin Bieber status this whole year was, "He's not cool, but I like his music."

I, being the Mom, and all knowing knew that that meant,"I secretly really like him but because all of my friends don't like him, I have to do the same, or I will look uncool."

CJ got to invite 2 other friends who like her, had the same Justin Bieber status.

Hannah and her family were coming to visit us and were coming in the same day as the concert. Ben asked her anyways if she was interested in going.

She, unlike, 6th graders, fully admitted that she liked Justin Bieber and was excited to go!

As we waited in line, the girls noticed other girls who had matching purple(Justin's favorite color) t-shirts that they had made. They were bummed that they didn't think about doing something like that. So they got out a ball point pen and wrote on their faces how much they liked him.

The concert was a benefit one and was held in a smaller outdoor ampitheatre. The tickets we got were in the middle section about the 2nd section back. The best seats I have ever had at a concert. This is a view from where we sat.

Before the concert, they had complimentary food like wraps and sliders. We had hunted around town before we arrived for a food place and regretted just eating when we saw all the food!

They had the FXD dancers who I thought would perform some awesome dance number, but ended up each showcasing some of their moves.

When we sat down, there were complimentary Justin Bieber t-shirts on our seats for us! Could this be any sweeter?

The girls by now, including CJ were so excited they couldn't stand waiting another minute for Justin. I guess they had Bieber Fever! One of CJ's friend kept asking me every minute what time it was.

Finally, Justin came on the stage.

My first impression?

"He's so little and tiny."

And then I heard his voice, "What a little boy!", I thought.

I did tell Hannah halfway through the concert, that 20 years ago, I would have been all over this! He's like what New Kids on the Block were to me.

Before many of his numbers, he would introduce it by talking to the audience and cleverly putting the title of his next number in his sentences like this. . .

"So the other day, I was playing soccer and tore my hip flexor, so tonight, I'm only going to be giving 90%. I really want to give 100% because when you smile. . ."

He paused, and no one said anything.

He said it again, "When you smile. . ." The crowd, caught on and said, "I smile"!

Then he sang the song, "You smile, I smile".

Okay, this next one is my favorite.

He comes out saying, "How many of you ladies are single?"

Loud screams emerge out of the crowd.

Then he goes on, "How many of you ever get lonely?"

The crowd screams louder.

"Well tonight. . .there's gonna be one less lonely girl."

He sings, "One less lonely girl" and they bring out a girl from the audience and sit her in a chair as Justin gives her roses and touches her face as he sings to her.

The girls in the crowd scream again each time he touches her face and the girl in the chair is shaking like crazy.

CJ and her friends were beaming all night and dancing and screaming like they were true Justin Bieber fans their whole life!

After the concert, Jenna, CJ's friend says, "I can't believe I wasted all of those years not liking Justin Bieber!"

I think it is safe to say that they are all "Bieb"lievers once again!

Thanks Jenna for sharing the pictures. They only allowed point and shoot cameras. No SLRs allowed. Boo hoo!

So CJ had a birthday and I am so late getting this post out. I took her to the mall and she got to go to her favorite stores and pick clothes out. She was in heaven!

We celebrated with the family and I made her a funfetti cake, which she requested. As we were ready to sing "Happy Birthday" to her, the phone rang and it was her grandma. It was perfect timing and we put her and everyone else who was at her house on speaker as we sang to her. Check her face out. She was so excited!

I also made her babysitting business cards to hand out to potential customers and signed her up for a babysitting course which she will get CPR certified. She's way excited for that one!

CJ now gets to go to Young Womens too! On her birthday, which was on a Sunday this year, the Beehives came to Primary to kidnap CJ and take her to Young Womens. The Primary sang to her and then she was gone.

The next week, Hannah and Kendall were in town and so Hannah and Ben went into Young Womens to spotlight CJ and introduce her to everyone. In sacrament, they acknowledged her for completing her Faith in God requirements and the Bishop had her recite 2 Articles of Faith in front of the congregation.

I missed it all! I had told a friend that I would take herand her family the airport (they were moving) a few weeks ago. Little did I know, I would miss so many neat things for CJ!

In other news about CJ, she received an award for having a 3.1 GPA all semesters! That may not seem significant to some, but to us, it is amazing! CJ struggles with keeping focused on her work, finishing things she started, doing her best. . . It's been like pulling teeth over the past 5 years doing homework with her from the time she gets home until the time she goes to bed.

Just recently, CJ has been doing her homework on her own, and asking for help when she needs it. She doesn't complain about reading and just does it. I couldn't be prouder of her and her individual accomplishments!

I can't believe CJ is 12! It is amazing how time flies and how quick your kids grow. CJ is a beautiful girl inside and out and I am so happy I get to be her Mom.

Definitions

When I think of a "cherry picker", I always think of this:

cherry picker-"In sports, someone who prefers to take only easy shots. Mildly disparaging.

A common example comes from basketball, in which a "cherry picker" is a person who favors short shots, but especially a person who sits in the back court by the basket waiting for an outlet pass on a change of possession, enabling them to score easily before any defenders can reach them." (Urban Dictionary)

The kids and I along with some friends and became "cherry pickers" for the day. Not the above cherry pickers, but this kind:

cherry picker-"Someone who pays money to pick cherries off a tree that they do not own. They have to practice self control and only PICK and not EAT the cherries." (according to me)

We went to Brentwood to with some friends on a furlough day. Such a funny word, furlough. Sounds like a type of fabric that is furry. This is what it is really:

furlough-"Employee furloughs are mandatory time off work with no pay. Used as an alternative to a layoff, employee furloughs can occur in both public and private sector organizations when revenue or projected revenue fails to match expenses" (About.com)

We also went strawberry picking. I had to whisk Zoey away at one point because she couldn't help but eat every one she touched. You can't blame her, look at these babies!

They were the most delicious strawberries I had ever tasted. When you put one in your mouth, it's just melts with the yummiest juices.

After, our child labor-"the regular, full time employment of children under a legally defined age. . ." (yourdictionary.com) activities, we went for a swim at our friend's parents' house.

What a fun-"musing, entertaining, or enjoyable" (wikipedia.com) day!

Adult Prom

Last night Ben and I attended, what I call, our "Adult Prom". We dress up, we go to a party, and we are kid-less for one night! I look forward to this night every year.

The kids were watching inside as we took pictures. Do I have the cutest piglets or what??

This is the first picture we took. What a dork Ben! I had idea what he was doing!

We had a blast as always. I had fun coming up with my outfit. I found it month's ago at Target on clearance for 19.95. What a steal I thought!

Then it rang up at the cash register for 13.98! What an even better deal, I thought! This must be my lucky day!

I bought my shoes on clearance for 9.99 and then made some fabric flowers to match the extra fabric I had to sewn in the chest area.

The jewelery were the most expensive pieces, but were way fun to buy!

Can't wait for next year! It's always more fun when we get to see a screening of the movie that Ben has worked on. I personally think, movies that include Ben's work, are more supreme!

I have to add this last one. All of the employees at Ben's work got to put their names in the new sidewalk that they were building. Pretty cool!

Preschool Graduation and School Projects

Xander graduated from preschool the other day. I'm still deciding if preschool graduation is more for the child or the parent. I for one, love having an occasion where I can adore and celebrate my child.

This is Xander and Manny. Xander has talked about Manny all year. One thing I didn't know was that Manny could tackle Xander in a heartbeat. Are they really the same age?

Xander is very excited to go to Kindergarten next school year. He's all ready to go! He's had his Kindergarten shots, which he talks about and tells others often. And, we have already gone to his preassessment, which he aced. Smart kid!

CJ's has had a ton of projects at school. It seems like all year long there has been a project she has been working on. This one, is extra credit. I'm so happy she did it because, Ben was so thrilled to do it with her. She had to make an ancient egypt artifact.

Guess what she chose?

Equipped with little golden artifacts inside.

Mia had a project to create an animals from materials that she had at home. I loved watching her mind work. She knew exactly how she was going to create it and had it all planned out.

Summer break is only days away. I hope I don't break out with a bad case of KHAS (Kids Home All Summer) disfunction.

This is the Shed that Ben Built. . .

These are the pieces.

This is Ben, who bought the pieces.

These are the friends, who helped Ben, who bought the pieces.

This is the box the pieces came in and a kid of one of our friends, who helped Ben, who bought the pieces.

This is the wall that goes to the shed, that came in the box the pieces came in and a kid of one of our friends, who helped Ben, who bought the pieces.

These are all the walls, the wall that goes to the shed, that came in the box the pieces came in and a kid of one of our friends, who helped Ben, who bought the pieces.

This is the door. That attaches to the walls, the walls that go to the shed, that came in the box the pieces came in and a kid of one of our friends, who helped Ben, who bought the pieces.

This is the shed that Ben built, that has a door that attaches to walls, the walls that go to the shed that came in the box the pieces came in and a kid of one of our friends, who helped Ben who bought the pieces.

It was so nice to have friends come and help us put it together. The missionaries even showed up which was great! Thanks for everyone who helped!

Here are some other projects we have been working on.

ROCK LANDSCAPE

The girls, their friend and I tackled the side of the house while Ben was at work. We finished more than half. I told the girls they were so strong and bought them slurpees for payment.

PLANTER BOXES

Ben made the planter boxes and we filled them(this was after finishing the rock landscaping) with some yummy topsoil. We'll we hope the plants think it's yummy. Afterwards, Ben and I wanted to pass out.

This was the marathon day where I did fifty million things. I woke up early to grocery shop, ran a 5K, bought a bike, went to yard sales, finished putting the rocks in, conducted the music at a baptism, filled the planter boxes with topsoil, and went to a birthday party!

Many of our plants died from our old yucky soil and so we planted some new ones.

GRASS

I give all props to Ben being able to grow grass. This has been the longest project ever and it is still not done.

We began in October of last year. I dug most of the trenches by hand, because we wanted to use the pipes from the old system, that did not work. We also wanted to check to see if there were any leaks in the pipes.

Ben put the sprinkler system in and had the faith that grass would grow from seed.

I had my doubts. But you can see here, that yes indeed, grass can grow from seed.

It's not perfect and there are still holes everywhere that we are trying to patch. Also a big chunk by the kids play area, we had to kill with Roundup because they were all weeds. We are going to rototiller the area and start from scratch.

Yard work is hard work but making improvements in your yard also brings a sense of satisfaction and happiness. We still have a ton more to do, but we are proud of what we have done so far!