throwback thursday–prom

I love this picture of my Mom.

She is young and beautiful and all dressed up for the prom.

I don’t like that she is standing by the scary citrus orchard…

Whenever we would go to my Grandma’s house the older kids would dare each other to go into that orchard…the orchard that held all the horrors of the world. Why would she stand by that?!?

it was a happy easter…

throwback thursday - 2009

My Bookend Babies at the library. 

all together

A couple of weeks ago Niece and her family made the trek through snowy winter weather to spend a little time with our family.

Originally they planned on coming on the 3rd of February but plans changed and they got here on the 1st of February.

It ended up being the perfect timing for an impromptu Superbowl party. It was a true house divided with fans for both teams. At some point the game was a little one-sided, and by one-sided I mean boring. It made me laugh when I looked around and realized everyone with a small screen was staring at it and ignoring the football game.

I’m not sure what made me more happy; the Seahawks winning or my sister being here.

Okay I do know…  Well, it was the first time the Seahawks had won. Ha!

We tried to get a normal sibling picture that night…and normal is just too dang hard.

As great as the Superbowl was, the real reason Niece and her family came to visit is because Elder Angle returned from his 2 year mission  in Virginia for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

It’s so great to have him home!

During that week was Big Daddy’s birthday and I got exactly ZERO pictures. Doh…

On the 7th of February Big Daddy and I went to the funeral of a dear friend of mine. She was a sweet, little lady that I served with in the library at church for a few years. She loved blingy jewelry, high heels and red lipstick. I can’t even tell you how ecstatic it made me when I saw her bright red casket!

After the funeral Big Daddy and I decided that we could use a little comfort from Pete…at Pete’s Fish and Chips. What are the chances that Niece and Kira would be there at the same time?
Great minds really do think alike!

That day also happened to be The American Heart Association “Go Red” Day.

The girlies and I always make it a point to wear red on this day.

It made it even more fun to have all 7 girlies in Red!

(sorry that your eyes are closed Roo, but at least YaYa is kind of looking at the direction of the camera in this picture)

And I loved that I was able to “Go Red” with my favorite sister!

Niece found the most awesome shirt at Target for the day. It says “I Wear My Heart On My Sleeve”

But technically her heart was tossed in the trash a few years ago so she wears someone else’s heart on her sleeve…Creepy

That night was also LaLa’s Daddy Daughter Dance at school.

Yes, it was a crazy busy couple weeks.

While Niece was here I had the “opportunity” to drive Kira’s Ford Flex (it was just easier than moving car seats). It also gave me the opportunity to confirm the fact that I’m a Chevy girl all the way.

It was fun having little ones in my house again. One of the few times Kira left the girls the Man-Child was holding YaYa while Niece went to get clean clothes for her. ZZ walked in and immediately asked him “Why you get her naked?” He was speechless…which doesn’t happen very often.

While Niece was here I found a picture of another visit from 7 years ago:

They all look a little different and Niece looks a lot shorter now.

On Sunday the 9th the whole fam-damily was together for McKay’s homecoming talk in Church.

Afterwards we got pictures of everyone.

This is almost my whole family.

We are missing 4 nephews and some of their family members.

This picture is missing just 3 nephews and it would be all my Dad’s Grandbabies (with 2 bonus great-grandbabies and we are missing a few of them too)… Crazy.

My family looks small missing my Mom and Brother. Sadness…

The 9th is also Morris and ZZ’s Twinner birthday…they are not the same age.

On Monday we celebrated ZZ’s birthday so she didn’t have to share her party with Morris. And since they came all the way to AZ it just seems right that it included a little swimming at Rowland’s house.

Even with a heated pool the fire felt much better.

ZZ blowing out her 3 candles. How is she 3 already?!?

She knew that her birthday should include Uncle Morris so she sat on his lap as she opened her presents.

On Wednesday it was time for Niece and her family to pack up and leave.

It’s always sad when these girlies leave. I miss having the toddler toys and noise around.

And I really miss having my sister around…

Good thing I already have a plane ticket to go visit her in May!

The kids miss having everyone here, but they had fun putting all the extra beds away.

As I look back through this post it’s weird who and what I didn’t get pictures of. If you look closely there are pictures of Uncle Kirk and Sergio. We are glad they came and visited too.

throwback thursday with frog and toad

This week we got to go see Hammie and the rest of the 1st graders from his school perform the play “A Year With Frog and Toad”. It is such a cute play and the kids did such a great job.

Hammie’s class were the birds and the bees.

It’s tough getting a good picture of my freakishly tall first grader because he is always on the top row of the risers.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this play.

In fact it was just a few short years ago that Einstein was in first grade and played Frog.

Some of the costumes may have changed, but the play is still just as cute as it was in 2007.

throwback thursday - 2008

I can’t believe how quickly my kidlets have grown up…

These pictures were taken in Page AZ. We had just spent Christmas in Idaho and we stayed the night at a hotel in Page on our way home.

I love how this picture captures LaLa’s personality oh so well.

throwback thursday–san diego

LaLa was completely intrigued by Penny Penguin in 2005.

It was our trip to San Diego that didn't cost a million dollars.

throwback thursday–celiac

It was 3 years ago that Einstein was diagnosed with Celiac.

It’s be an interesting partial gluten-free journey for our family, but it’s all worth it to not have a kidlet feeling sick all the time.

And now that he is healthy and growing very rarely do I see him struggle with food choices.

 

throwback thursday - eyes

Those eyes may have saved his life a number of times when he was a toddler...

and continue to do so now that he is a teenager. 

throwback thursday - kisses

I miss my babies being babies!

throwback thursday–roo

It seems like yesterday when this princess was dancing around my house…

This morning as she left for school it really struck me that she wasn’t my little princess anymore and she is growing into this beautiful young lady.

insta-friday

Here are a few random Instagram pictures from this week.

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I posted a “Throwback Thursday” picture of the kidlets from Roo’s Kindergarten Graduation.

This was only 5 years ago. I really need the growing-up process to slow down.

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I made little end-of-the-year gifts for Hammie’s class.

I joked on Instagram about me being awesome because I did this.

I am in no way awesome because I tied little cards on bubbles to give to his class.

I am awesome, just not because of this.

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I live in the desert.

I don’t think he belongs in the desert.

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I was at the Dollar Store and saw these bubbles.

One of Ham’s therapist always had these in her bag. It brought back all the memories of the challenges and the therapy and how far we have really come with this little boy.

They also reminded me of when we were trying to teach him to blow bubbles and he would touch the bubble wand with his lips and then when he would talk he would blow the most incredible bubbles from his mouth.

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This girlie…

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I was so glad to have all my babies home from school knowing that for the next 2 months they are mine.

And it’s hard to get a selfie of 6 people y’all.

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The alarms are off.

And yet I still woke up at 5am this morning.

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If you love Instagram like I love Instagram find me @embracethechaos

throwback thursday–daddy’s girlies

The girlies would watch patiently out the window waiting for Daddy to get home.

Now Roo doesn’t like to wait and will text him almost daily wanting to know when he will be home.