Award Winning Girl

Stacia received two awards at school. The first one was a "Character Counts" Award for being a good example and the second was for meeting her reading goals. She was very excited and told me that the rest of the kids had been working on their reading goals since before we got here!

Good work Stacia!!!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was great this year, I love being a mom to my four beautiful kids! They made me all sorts of fun things this year, flower pots, beautiful pictures, poems, cards, and a birdhouse. What more could a mom ask for? My favorite part was that they all kept wanting to do more things for me and they could hardly hold in all their surprises. They kept wanting to tell me what they had made it was really cute. Bobby got me all of my favorite things, diet Dr. Pepper, a brownie warm delight, junior mints, and the best gift, a flight home for June 1st to be there when Amanda has her baby!! If she can wait that long :) I love my family so much!!

Bobby's parents came up for the weekend which was so much fun. The kids have a great time with their grandparents and Marie always has a lot of fun things planned for them! They do crafts and play games and enjoy their time together.

Since we don't have a garden, Marie brought us some Topsy Turvy planters. Soon we will have yummy tomatoes and strawberries!! Thanks Marie

Even though the weather wasn't ideal we took the kids to the beach and of course they had a great time. How do kids do it? they didn't seem to notice the cold at all.

This particular beach has a big pirate ship with a zip line. The kids love it and it's a good workout for me running the rope back and forth. Even Lauren took a turn but we didn't get a picture because we were too concerned with making sure she didn't fall off.

It was a fabulous weekend, and to all the awesome mothers in my life: I love you, you are amazing!! Happy Mother's Day!

I know, It's a Miracle!

So the last few years have been interesting. We have had some good trials and learned a lot. With life being crazy and me working so much I just didn't have the energy to blog. Now that we are living in California and life is getting more stable, I decided it's time to get back on the ball! I don't think I can ever catch up so I am just going to start fresh.

Easter 2011

Coloring Eggs!

On Easter morning I got my girls all beautified for church and about 5 min. after I finished Lauren she found the face paints and went to town! Luckily it wiped right off.

The kids looked so nice for church.

After Church the kids realized the Easter bunny had come. They had a blast searching for eggs.





They also got to do an Easter egg hunt at Bobby's work and the Easter bunny was there so they had a lot of fun this year!!

It's all about Stacia!

Stacia turned 8 on Feb. 8th


She couldn't decide on a theme for her party so we had Wizards of Waverly Place party favors, this is everyone putting a spell on the birthday girl :)


We had a High School Musical pinata


and an American Idol cake so I guess her theme was Musical Wizards :)


She had a lot of fun with her friends, singing, dancing, eating pizza, cake and ice cream and even giving herself a little make over.



When her friend party was over we were off to Grandma's for her family party. On the way she said it was okay if the family got her clothes because she already got a lot of fun toys from her friends, which made me laugh. She was right, she got a lot of cut clothes from the family, but she also got some toys...she's just a little spoiled:)




About a week after her birthday I took her to get her ears pierced, she was excited and very nervous. It just happened to be the Saturday before Valentine's day and the jewelry store was packed so we had to wait forever but her turn finally came. I took the before picture and her smile looks a little apprehensive which still makes me laugh.


I was surprised she smiled for this picture because this is the second ear, but when I asked her about it she said she smiled because she knew Aunt Cindy would see the pictures and she wanted her to see how brave she was. What a cute girl, and she was very brave.


She looks so grown up :(


Another very special day was soon to come. Stacia was Baptized on March 6th. She has been looking forward to her baptism for a long time and it was a really wonderful day. My mom and I had taken her shopping for her dress and all of her cute accessories, (thanks mom she loved spending the day with you!) Grandma and Grandpa Ginn flew in to be here with her, and got her a set of her very own scriptures. Bobby preformed the baptism and confirmation, it was a great day that I know she will remember forever. Thanks everyone for supporting her.





At one point Stacia said to me, "it seems like it's been all about me lately" and I told her that it's okay to have it be all about you sometimes, we are so proud of her and love her so much. I can't believe she is growing up so fast!! Time passes so quickly and I'm glad we can have these moments where we can stop and celebrate.

December '09

My Auntie Nenka came for a visit at the beginning of the month. She got really sick while she was here, but other than that she had a great visit. When she arrived she said all she wanted was to see a good snowstorm (she lives in Florida) and she definitely got her wish because it snowed and snowed the whole time she was here. We all spent a few days at the cabin and almost got snowed in, which I would actually be fine with :)


She stayed with us for the first few days of her trip and was rewarded by Lauren finding her Lancôme face cream and making good use of it. At least she has good taste, none of the cheap stuff for my girl.


My birthday is on the 16th and every year I force Bobby to take me to dinner and a movie, I say force because going to the movies is probably his least favorite activity. So we saw "The Blind Side" which we both loved and had a fun night out. This year he also got me all of my favorite treats and some beautiful earrings with my birthstone which was a total surprise. So, even though I'm in my thirties now, it was still a really great day:)


Christmas Fun!!

The kids made an awesome gingerbread House.



I love Milli's hair!


For as long as my kids can remember, we have spent Christmas with Uncle Jeff. It is always great to have him here, this year he helped the kids decorate cookies for Santa and they all had a lot of fun. Lauren cracks me up, instead of decorating the cookies she would just dip them in the frosting and eat them. I guess she thinks she needs them more than Santa does. I think they turned out great. Milli insisted on leaving chocolate milk because that is Santa's favorite and of course we can't forget Rudolph so the kids left him a carrot.


Christmas morning is always so much fun. The kids got lots of great toys and games and clothes and had a great time making a huge mess with all of it. Thank you Santa for a wonderful Christmas!! After all the craziness of opening presents we had a nice big breakfast and then headed off to Grandma Lemke's to see all the cousins and spend the day with our family.






The kids were obsessed with getting a pottery wheel. I kept telling them that Santa might not bring one because he knows how messy they are, but Stacia assured me that I was wrong and that she knew Santa wouldn't let her down. Well she was right and they were all very happy. The best part is when they were playing with it they all kept saying "this is a lot messier than it looked on TV" I just had to laugh.


Snow Fun

The kids really wanted to try out their new sleds so we piled up the snow in the back yard and they had so much fun going down that little hill.


Bobby helped the kids build a big snow woman which is something they love to do and beg to do as soon as it snows.


They made her some clothes and hair out of food coloring, isn't she pretty? She kind of looks like a big snow cone :)