Hello Kitty and Me...

One day I saw this shirt at Target on sale for $4.99.  I thought, "it's cute, funky and cheap, something new to wear to church and if I get tired of it, it was only a few bucks."
 

And then I actually did wear it church when my husband leaned over and whispered into my ear, "did you know you have Hello Kitty all over your shirt?"
 

What? And as I looked down, I thought, "ooohhhh, yeees, Hello Kitty is all over me...nice.  This is us below saying, "ooohhhh."
 

And then I thought, "why do they sell Hello Kitty clothing in the ladies section?" 
 

After this we started cracking up.  Because it is just SO FUNNY that I had no idea that Hello Kitty was in fact all over me!!!!!!
 

 

 

 

Wow, it was really funny...
 

Of course in the end, since my daughters love Hello Kitty so much, they love that I have a shirt with Hello Kitty all over it, a Sunday shirt no less....
 

 

 

 So the next time I go to wear my Hello Kitty shirt.. 

It'll just be Hello Kitty and me.
 

2013 Goals...

Every year come January we sit down and map out our individual goals for the year.  This year was no different, but I was impressed with my two oldest children, Kalen and Gwyneth when they came to our "goals meeting" with their journals and a goal or two in each category that we've come up with as a family.  They weren't prompted, they just knew we'd be doing family goals and thought it important enough to think about it on their own and be ready for our meeting. I could go on, but really, this just wasn't my life at all growing up.  I'm so thankful for their determination and to be a family that is involved with each other.

My kids aren't geniuses; I of course think they are brilliant at times., but I'm their mom, so ...and they have their areas of talent.  If anything though, they are motivated and are always willing to try harder.  I admire it so much.  And I think that no matter the level of their "smarts" their willingness to try hard, and achieve their goals will take them far.  But, mostly they will be happy with who they are. 

Tonight, we met again to go over our goals making sure we are on track.  The five areas we set goals for are:
Mind, School, Spiritual, Service, and Physical

Kalen:
Mind-Learn to play by piano five hymns every three months.  By the end of the year he will know thirty one.  He knows how to play eleven as of now. 

School-Complete Study Island program to prepare for the Star Test on top of his regular studies and blog twice a week.

Spiritual-Working on the "Duty to God" award for young men's and attending the Temple every other month.

Service-Play piano for local folks "home," Carlton Plaza.  They are going to let the kids play piano once a month, it's right down the street.

Physical-Achieve three "J.O." times (Junior Olympics) in the "50 Breast," "50 Free" and the "100 free."  He has one J.O. time now, but it's a process to actually get to the Olympic Juniors meet.  He has to go to another meet just for J.O. times and beat the times again at that meet. 

Gwyneth:
Mind-Learning to Crochet.  She does service for an older lady, Sister Call,  and her husband a few Wednesdays a month with her friend Lily.  Sister call is teaching Gwyneth to Crochet.  She's catching on.  She can make hair ties.

School-Gwyneth wants to be done with her work by lunch time.

Spiritual-She's reading the Book of Mormon with a chart to keep her on track and she's memorizing the last few Articles of Faith.  She has 1-9 memorized.

Service-Her piano teacher is helping her learn a couple of hymns on the side so she can play at the beginning of Primary for prelude. 

Physical-Rotate running with mom.

Reece:
Mind-Learning to play chess.  Kirk leaves "chess problems" on the ipad each day before work that Reece has to solve.  Reece beat his dad legitimately today, twice.  He's also going to start journaling on Sundays.  We have had the two oldest do this too, so it becomes habit.

School-Learning to type with "Typing Instructor; Typer Island."  The other two learned to type with this and it's the best program.  He's also completing the Study Island math and language curriculum to prepare for the Star Test, on top of his regular school work.

Spiritual-Working on "Faith in God," for Scouts.  He will be preparing Family Home Evening and things like this.

Service-Playing piano for Carlton Plaza.

Physical-Rotating runs with mom and five pull ups.  He can do two now.

Georgia:
She's finishing Kindergarten and wants to read the Book of Mormon Stories through again. And she's the most service oriented person in this household, so I'm just hoping she keeps that up... :)

Kirk:
Mind- Read a family novel about Joseph Smith and finish Dracula (Dracula for himself, of course).

Spiritual-Pray in the morning with family.

Service-Cleans the Master Bedroom bathroom.  He's been doing it and it's so awesome.  Now I don't clean any bathrooms!  Kalen and Gwyneth have been doing the other two for a while now.

Physical-He just started P90X and he's trying to drink less soda, his vice in life.  :)

Shauna:
Mind-I'm learning to sew.  I am!!!  My dad had my sewing machine tuned and fixed.  I have an appointment. with a friend from church to start lessons.  To measure this goal I want to have a blanket/quilt that I made with my own two hands for my bed. 

Spiritual- Reading "Jesus the Christ" and the "Miracle of Forgiveness."  It's time I've read these.  Especially, since they are said to be two of the greatest books ever written.  I think I can manage two books this year.  We'll see.

Service-To be a better Visiting Teacher.  I remember the days when I was so tuned in and such a great Visiting Teacher.  Gone are those days with seven kids and homeschool.  I need to be better.  I love my fellow sisters so much. 

Physical-To rotate in other recipes for my lunch other than salad and yams.  It's all I eat for lunch and I need to switch it up.  I have no problems eating various breakfasts and dinners, why not lunch?

Here it is.  Set in stone.  We'll refer back in June, as usual to see our progress. 

Happy Birthday Summer Ann!!!!!

Summer is our youngest daughter, she is number six and she just turned two.  I had this grand vision of doing a photo shoot with these balloons, but she ripped them right off of her wrist, tightly knotted and everything, about five minutes after we got to the park.  This gives a glimpse into her personality.
 

 

Summer was born our smallest baby at 6lbs 4oz.  This is significantly smaller than our other babies.  But, guess what?  She has a seriously BIG personality, so whatever she lacked, she's made up just fine.


She began talking at about sixteen months.  She loooooves to say "Thank You Mommy," and she loves to say Georgie, which she is referring to her sister Georgia.   

She loooooves the swing...
 

 

Loves it....
 

 

 

 

And loves it some more.
 

On the home font Summer cracks everybody up.  Mostly she hangs out with Shane and Georgia.  It's interesting to see the dynamics in a large family.  She is part of the second bunch of kids for sure.
 

Our children's favorite place is our bed.  They come in every morning and cuddle with us.  And wrestle, and jump and get wild on the bed too....
 

I love having Summer in our family.  She is hard work, bless her heart, she is for sure the busiest child I've ever had.   But, she has so much to say, to do it makes for an adventure everyday.
 

Some cute things about Summer:

-When I open the fridge she immediately pulls out the Tabasco sauce and says, "Ooowieeeee."  (she says this because one day she tried to open the bottle and I said, "no Summer, that's owies.")

-She loves to sing I am a child of God

-She loves babies.  She comes to me all day long and wants me to wrap her babies the way I swaddle her baby brother, William...

-She looooooves William.  Sometimes too much, but that's life I guess, sorry Will.

-She has a collection of faces.  She's super funny and she mimics everything.

-The other day she said, "Georgia, gim me choc it, I need it."  Translated, "Georgia, give me chocolate."  Yeah, we all need it Summer... :)

-She looks like my mom when my mom was little.
 

 

 

 

Summer's favorite foods are Avocado, any vegetables, fruits and cheese.  She's not a big meat eater and she recently discovered chocolate.
 

Here is the crew.  Early one morning they were just laying together in my bed.  I sometimes can't believe my life.  How did we have all of these sweet children?  I feel so blessed to have them and when I see them together like this, I want to take a zillion pictures so I will never forget these sweet moments.

It is so different having a two year old that is number six, verses a two year old as a first or second child.  It's so much more enjoyable to be honest.  This morning Kirk had meetings at church and I walked down stairs to start getting lunch ready and Summer came walking in all dressed for church.  Tights, shoes, cardigan over her dress and all.  Guess who dressed her?   Georgia.  Bless that child, she is going to be the best mom and she loves Summer so much.  I have so much help and I always let them know how much I appreciate their effort to serve me, their loving mother.

Being a mother is hard.  It's full of second guesses, character adjustments on our parts, mishaps, and worries.  But, it's worth the effort, the hard work, the teaching the guiding and the LEARNING.  Boy, have I learned so much about myself, what I'm capable of, what I need help with.  I thank God every day for his guidance to raise good, healthy and happy children.

So, with Summer being my sixth baby, I can relax a little more.  I love her so much.  She adds so much flare, and fun to our family.   And she loves me too.  She is attached to my hip, which I don't mind because soon she won't be.  She'll get big, and those days will be a memory.  Today, what I love most is Summer.
 

http://klippel.blogspot.com/2012/10/what-i-love-most_4539.html

Magic

During Christmas break, Gwyneth put on a magic show for Family Home Evening with her best friend Lily and her brothers, sister and cousin Kaitlyn.  I have to admit when she said she was going to do this, I pictured us sitting there watching them get silly do everything but magic.  Buuuut, sometimes I forget that I have big kids that are AWESOME!!!

Gwyneth had it all planned out, with the younger children as volunteers and her assistants Lily and Reece.  They were prepared, costumed and.....magical. 


  

Georgia is being hypnotized....
 

 

 

 

To start the string had no knot and Wa-La!  A knot appeared as he clapped his hands together!
 

 

My sister in law, their Aunt Kerri got them a magic kit for Christmas.  I'm always impressed with my kids when they actually put something like this to good use and have great fun with it.

Since they did magic for family home evening, I followed their show up with a spiritual lesson about how the atonement of Jesus Christ is like magic...I thought this was very appropriate.... :)

The fort in the city...

A few days after Christmas we all went to the city (San Francisco) and while we were there we spent a couple of hours at Fort Point.  This place is a real live fort built during the Civil War.  We've taken the kids here before but they never tire of this place.  It is the ultimate place for kids to play tag, hide and seek and explore.  There is only one way in and it's also the way out...like I said, a real live fort.

I got some great pictures, enjoy!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This fort is located directly under the South side of the Golden Gate Bridge.
 

 

 

Can you see us?
 

That long strip is the bridge itself.
 

Creepy, but fun.
 

I took endless pictures.  It is a great place for getting creative with your camera.
 

 

 

 

I'm not sure you can ever have enough pictures of the most beautiful bridge in the world.  Can you?  I have so many, and I really like this one as of late.
 

After the fort we went to North Beach where one of our favorite restaurants is...The Stinking Rose.  Why is it called this?  Because every dish is layered with extra GARLIC!!!  It's so good.  To start they bring you whole cloves of garlic braised and roasted in butter with this great bread.  The table also has a cilantro, garlic, parsley spread to put on anything you so desire.  My sister in law and I shared the baby back ribs and they were the best we'd ever had.  So goooood.
 

That line of cars below is waiting to go down the windiest street in the world... Lombard.  We went down it after dinner when it was quiet.  We let the kids jump out of the car, literally, and run down it.  Fun times.

The Trans America Building and Coit Tower.  

BONUS!  When we were on top of the fort, my sister in law noticed these two.  He took his sweetheart here to propose!!!  So romantic and cold.  That ring is straight from Tiffany's can you see the box?  

It was another great time had in the city.  I love it.  I love visiting.  San Francisco has such a great vibe.  My dad use to take me to the city a lot.  He would take me to art galleries, nice restaurants and the like.  And every time we drove out of the city he would turn the radio to the Jazz station.  I would always love hearing the Jazz and looking back to see the lights get farther and farther as the Jazz played in the background.  Of course I tell my kids this and do the same for them.  They also love the city.  It's magical.