April re-cap

I missed a bunch of stuff from April - Conference, Easter Pageant, Beatles Rockband, another "jam session", my birthday.....to name a few.

Easter Pageant: that was eventful....I have never been and so we decided to brave the crowds and protesters to attend. Erin drove down early, I waited for all the kids to finish school and come with 6 kids. She had to sit there from 3pm on and wait for all of us to show up - started at 7:30ish. I thought I may have gone crazy before we got there, but we survived the 45 minute drive and I'm only slightly deaf from the noise level in the van. It was a beautiful time, we sat 3rd row center in the chairs - thanks to Erin! Live animals, great music - the kids enjoyed it and asked lots of questions.

Erin and Ally

Abbs, me, Lukie, Lea

Jeff and I

Conference weekend was another adventure. Jeff was sick, Abbey was cranky and sentenced to solitary in her crib and the other two colored while we pretended to get something out of conference. It's a good thing we can read it in the Ensign.

coloring

coloring conference packets

 sad little Abbey - not coloring anymore

 sickly Jeff - slept the day away

Beatles Rockband with the Sorensens - we broke 1,000,000 points on a song!!!! It was a beautiful thing and I scored 100% on my guitar part!!! A proud moment for us. :) We've been working on this since we purchased the Beatles Rockband game last year.

 WAHOO!!! Me, Jeff, Angie, Pete (those are how we scored!)

photo by Lea: me, Jeff, Ang, Pete

"Jam" session - 25 lbs later, made 14 jars of cooked jam and 14 freezer jam jars. Plus ate a bunch of them in between. :) Finally homemade jam!!

Happy birthday to me! I'm...........31. Wow - where did the time go? Went to Red Robin and a movie with friends, then to Red Robin the next night with family to get my free dessert. :)

My girls

Jeff's girls

my boys

fun-loving friends - at the movie "the Last song" starring Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus.....

May re-cap

End of school and ABBEY TURNS 2!!

Lea and Charity on Twin Day for spirit week

ABBEY TURNS 2: lunch at the school (school's out and they offer free breakfast and lunch for all kids 18 and under.....AWESOME!), gifts, daddy came home early and fun at the park.

We love Daddy!

A new baby!

New blocks -she liked the eye-balls best......funny girl

Gotcha!

Finding shapes in the clouds and watching the airplanes

Abbs chose Spiderman (Mee-man) over the Princess plates

Happy birthday Sweet Abbey!

Last day of school - grade 1 complete!

Lea finished school on May 19th. She has had an exceptional year and has loved every moment of it, except for the 3rd day of school when she refused to go......they have being doing 2nd grade work and done so GREAT! We look forward to another great year at Vista! And by the way - I love, love, LOVE uniforms. I dread the day we ever go to a school that doesn't require uniforms.

Look how much they've grown!

Love the free breakfast before school.

1st grade class - Mrs. Noyes

Lea, Mrs. Noyes and her daughter

A trip to the new ice cream store: Scooptacular to celebrate Lea's excellent grades and hard work.

Daddy even came!

"Cookie Monster" ice cream for my cookie monster :)

It was really bright by the window - I'm not really that pale......

LOVE YOU LEA - WAY TO GO GIRL!

WWII bomb discovered in Berlin - update

 So I know you can't read this and neither can I, but a construction company found a LIVE WWII bomb buried in a playground somewhere in Berlin. One of my BYU roommates - Alyssa is a teacher in Berlin and has a friend living in the nearby apt complex to this park. They have evacuated the area until at least tomorrow. She said the German Govt believes there to be 3000!!! undetonated and buried bombs in and around Berlin......talk about scary!?

UPDATE: BERLIN - Three experts working to defuse a bomb dating back to World War II were killed when the device exploded, injuring six others, police said Wednesday.

Some 7,000 residents from around the area in the central German town of Goettingen, where the 1100-pound (500-kilogram) heavy bomb was found, were still being evacuated when it detonated late Tuesday.

Construction workers had found the 65-year-old explosive device about seven yards (meters) below the ground on an empty where the city is currently building a sport arena........................................

Unexploded bombs from Allied bombardments and World War I are found regularly in Germany. Only a few days before, another bomb was found in Goettingen and it was successfully defused.

Baseball, barrels and birthdays!

Lea finished baseball season - she had a great time. She may be back for more next season....

Connor, Max, Lea

 Lea and another trophy - carefully displayed on her bookshelf

We filled up our water barrels after rolling them around the yard to clean them out with clorox and water. They are now clean and filled with 55 gallons of water each. Clorox water was emptied down the side yard - hoping that took care of the weeds indefinitely.....we shall see.

rolling to get me as I hurry to take a picture and get out of the way!

Fairly heavy, but even Abbey could roll it once she got started.

The boys hard at work.

Lea getting a workout.

And birthdays! From April to Aug, we have a birthday a month. Jeff is the lonely sole in November, but he does get to have his birthday on Thanksgiving every so often. He enjoys the party and the day off - football, food, family, and fun....what more does he need?!

Greetings from a 6 year old boy.....

Sup? (with a head nod)

I'm the Grand Prize Winner!

Whenever we get in the car, we race to get buckled. I of course am the last one since I have to help Abbey buckle in. Today it was me, Abbey and Lucas. Lucas is SUPER competitive and "won".

"Mom, you lose."

"Lucas.......be nice."

"I'm the grand prize winner. I won the Seatbelt Trophy."

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Do you think an actual trophy would inspire my kids to buckle on their own w/o me telling them to 100 times?!

A new scripture story:

Driving Lea to school this morning (tomorrow is the last day!), she read aloud the back of a truck we were following. 

"Mom, that says Lamanites and Marbles, just like in the scriptures."

Huh? 

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Oh, Laminates and Marbles. Those things are for building houses, not the people in the Book of Mormon. Then a discussion about how 2 switched letters changes the entire subject.

A visit from the Webbs

Brady and Debbie Webb came to visit us on their way from Idaho Falls to California.......if you know your geography, you'll realize that Phoenix is not exactly "on the way". They must really miss us?! :) Brady is Jeff's friend from high school and I was introduced to them the day after Jeff and I were engaged. Boys.....they talk about everything....... We've been close ever since, but have moved in opposite directions - them to Idaho Falls and us to Phoenix. We still stay with them when we make our long journey's north. Our kids are the same ages and have a great time together. We look forward to seeing them every year and were happy to have them visit us this time around since we won't be headed to Idaho this summer.

We enjoyed Beatles Rockband, trip to the still flooded river, backyard BBQ, Lea's baseball game and just being together - we miss being so close......someday.

Jonas, Lucas, Abbey, Lea, Hannah, Eli

Strong Man competition - Brady and Jeff

the girls: Hannah, Abbey and Lea

This is what happens when you stand right behind your big sister when she winds up to throw a rock - the very first rock she threw.

Jeff the pack-horse. We took a walk to see the baby cows. Jeff and Brady threw the kids across the ditch to get to the cow side.....all but Abbey - she stayed with Debbie and I.

All 6 kids - cute aren't they!

Filling up the "hole" with rocks.....

We tried to convince them to take all 6 kids with them to California......for some reason they politely declined.

Jeff and Brady

Brady, Debbie and Jonas

Until next time! :)