Who's Graduating?

Yep, Lauren just graduated from preschool and Steve & I just graduated from paying preschool bills. Lauren came walking in holding her cheeks and pulling her eyes down. She was trying so hard not to have the biggest grin on her face. It was cute

This was a pretty impressive preschool graduation. The Caps & Gowns were adorable.

Lauren recieving her diploma

Little Saints Preschool Class of '09

Lauren and her good friend Ella

We were watching a cute slide show of all the kids throughout the year. The kids loved it.

Looking at this picture kind of gave me a glimpse of the way future, like maybe 14 years from now, with Lauren wearing a little bit bigger cap & gown. Oh My Gosh!!!

They sang a few songs they had prepared for us. And my friend Marci, who records everything, uploaded this and I stole it from her blog. But Lauren is the the 3rd one in on the bottom row.

The First Song from Marci Freeman on Vimeo.

I made Ms. Nikki a special sign for her Fabulous Froggy Classroom, Lauren gave her a froggy puppet and it brought Ms. Nikki to tears. This was her first year and she said she doesn't know if she can handle this job with all the good-byes. She was great!

Lauren and her proud Daddy at home after the big event.

Friday Night Wheelbarrow

The girls were at our neighbors house for a fun movie night.
This is how the rest of us had our Friday Night Fun!

Two, then Three, then Me!

Talk about trusting your kids.

I should have known they would let go.I had my chance to get them back, but being the nice mom that I am....

THE Preschool

I have absolutely loved the "Little Saints" Preschool at Grace Christian Church that Lauren has attended this year. And I adore her teacher, Ms. Nikki and Lauren loves her. All her classmates in the Froggy Class have been so fun to get to know and she has learned so much. It has been a wonderful experience for all of us. I have no complaints whatsoever and would recommend this preschool to everyone.

However, do you remember Lauren's Preschool Class Picture post? I tried to get a cute picture of her before she went to school for her class picture after I curled her hair and we picked out her cute little school dress outfit. She was just acting her cute little silly self. Well, I don't mind that the preschool didn't have a professional photographer come and take the picture ,

BUT someone could have done better than this. Lauren was even standing still and they couldn't get a picture of her, everyone has red eyes, the students are not standing in even rows and the color is even weird. Lauren even asked, "Where's Me?"


Here are just some other cute preschool pics of little miss Lauren!

Ms. Nikki's Frog Class

Ms. Nikki, Katie, Matthew, Sophia, Lauren, Ryan, Carson, Ella & Abby

{sorry, just a little venting, I do appreciate the gift and the CD we recieved of pictures throughout the year}

We need some REAL dirt!

Lauren was trying real hard to make a mud pie or mud soup or mud pizza out of the sand and top soil that washed up onto our patio from the nice rainstorm we had.

Little Saints Splash Day

Lauren had her splash day at preschool today. They played with ice and salt for some ice sculpturing, they ran through the beach ball sprinkler, they played in a pool of ice and had a water bucket relay. It was just a great time for all the kids to run wild in the water.

"Lauren, smile for a picture."

Ice Sculpturing

Lauren is a little confused as to what she is suppose to be doing with ice and salt.

She is trying real hard to get as close as she can to the beach ball sprinkler without getting wet.

Her class all trying to get into the pool of ice.

The water bucket relay.

Lauren and her friend Abi, who also did Joy School together.

Right as I took this picture all the girls fell backwards out of the pool, oops!
Another fun day at Preschool!

My Mother's Day Finds

First, my beautiful children found me and showered me with some lovely homemade gifts and cards. Matthew & Rachel made these flower vases at school and succeeded in keeping them hidden from me until today. I knew Matthew's was hidden in his closet but I have no idea where Rachel kept hers. Rachel also spent a lot of time on the computer typing me a sweet message to put in her card. Steve and Ethan prepared Breaded Stuffed Chicken Breast w/feta cheese, spinach and Italian Bacon, YUM YUM and pasta salad, bread and Brownies with frosting. He always goes all out on my Mother's Day Dinner. I don't know if he is really trying to please me or himself, since I never cook such involved meals. But for whatever reason, it is always yummy!!!

Second, I was cleaning out my closet the other day and I came across quite a few things. But thought this one to be extra special since Mother's Day was coming up and it was from my oldest.

M akes my day swell.

O n time to everything.

T alks about stuff with me.

H elps we a lot.

E than is her son.

R ich in Spirit.

Happy Mother's Day

Love,

Ethan

Third, I found this on Kathy and Marci's blog and had to be a copycat. And I thought it was appropriate for MY day.

AND I also want to wish all the Special Mom's in my life a Happy Mother's Day!

What is something mom always says to you?

E: "Quit it"

M: "Don't Hit"

R: "Rach"

L: "Be Nice"

What makes mom happy?

E: I want to think of something funny....When I do my chores.

M: Kissing Dad

R: When we clean

L: Hugs & Kisses

What makes mom sad?

E: When I found your keys, you were happy sad. (Long story, but it was an answer to our prayers)

M: Getting in trouble

R: When we be disrespectful

L: Calling bad words.

How does your mom make you laugh? 

E: She tickles me.

M: Singing

R: By saying funny things.

L: Be funny.

What was your mom like as a child? 

E: I don't know...you had a dog and a bunch of animals.

M: a girl

R: Harder, because back then you didn't have electricity.

L: Ella. {This is a little girl that Lauren goes to church, school and plays with}

How old is your mom?

E: 38

M: 50 lol

R: 36 or 37

L: Really old.

How tall is your mom?

E: 5.9

M: 6 feet

R: 8 Feet

L: 17 lbs.

What is her favorite thing to watch on TV?E: Extreme Makeover

M: Cooking shows

R: American Idol

L: American Idol

What does your mom do when you're not around?

E: Makes Cakes

M: Shop

R: Play with Lauren

L: Clean up the house.

If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

E: Being the best cake decorator

M: Cooking

R: Cakes

L: For being nice.

What is your mom really good at?

E: You are very good at grossing us out by kissing Dad.

M: Talking

R: I wish I could say the splits... cleaning

L: Making cakes & Fixing stuff.

What is your mom not very good at?

E: Figuring our 5th grade questions

M: Changing diapers lol

R: Doing the splits now.

L: Messing up.

What does your mom do for her job?

E: Making cakes, cleaning house and being a mom

M: It's your job to shop. (Matthew hates to shop)

R: Bake

L: Makes cakes.

What is your mom's favorite food?

E: BBQ Pizza

M: TWIX

R: Okay, wait, wait, wait a second....CHOCOLATE!

L: Food that my froggy likes. (She fed her Webkinz Frog Asparagus}

What makes you proud of your mom?

E: That you are blogging this. lol

M: She earns money.

R: That you can make really good cakes and you can clean up really fast.

L: Giving me hugs & kisses.

If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

E: Tweety Bird

M: Sponge Bob Square Pants. lol

R: Paula Abdul

L: Melissa. I like you to be Dora.

What do you and your mom do together?

E: make dinner and breakfast

M: Talk

R: We clean together.

L: Give Hugs & Kisses.

How are you and your mom the same?

E: We both have blue eyes and we both like animals.

M: We're related.

R: We both have blue eyes and freckles.

L: Paint same toenails and fingernails.

How are you and your mom different?

E: You are a girl and I am a boy.

M: She's a girl.

R: You have grey hair. lol

L: Different clothes on.

How do you know your mom loves you?

E: You take us camping.

M: She buys stuff for us and cares for us.

R: Because you do stuff for us.

L: Because she is the mom and because she is the boss.

What does your mom like most about your dad?

E: His "fix-ability."

M: He's your husband.

R: That he is funny.

L: Giving kisses on the lips and hugs.

Where is your mom's favorite place to go?

E: Home

M: Chili's

R: Church

L: Target

cute little PICTURE

Lauren had her class pictures today at preschool and since I actually curled her hair and tried to make it look cute and since she was in her cute little school dress, I thought I would TRY and take a cute little picture of her.

Muffins with Mom

Lauren informed me that she didn't like muffins and wanted donuts like she had with Dad. However, she ate three blueberry muffins. This was my Mother's Day treat from my last little cute preschooler. {I just made my last preschool payment} We had some yummy muffins, a special devotional about Mom's and Lauren gave me the sweetest hand print flower. It said,

"A piece of me I give to you. I painted this flower to say "I Love you."
The heart is you. The hand is me. To show we are friends-The best there can be.
I hope you will save it and look back someday at the flower we shared on your special day.


We also had a special teacher appreciation moment for Ms. Nikki. She truly is the best preschool teacher ever. Lauren will miss her and I'm sure she'll never forget her.

Happy 14th Wedding Anniversary!

This is a little late. But of course I have to do my own anniversary post.

This is dedicated to the one I love.....To my best friend, the man of my dreams, the one who cares for me and loves me for me. Thank you sweetie for 14 wonderful years. Thank you for taking such good care of me and our four sweet children. Thank you for your great example of righteousness. Thank you for being so patient. Thank you for just being the intelligent, good-looking, wonderful husband that you are.

This is to 14+ more years.

US THEN

US NOW

US IN THE FUTURE {one of the very few times I was ever able to get Steve to dress up}

Since this post is late, I get to tell about our 14th anniversary day. We were able to go to the temple and do some sealings. {Thank you Laurie for watching Lauren for us so we could go} As we were walking in and I was getting my temple recommend out of my bag, I found my all time favorite watch that Steve gave me two Christmases ago that had been missing, well, since about the last time we went to the temple, another blessing for attending the temple. AND the sealer helped make it a an even more special day for us. It was great, however, (funny story) after I got ready to leave the temple and was in the restroom, my new found watch managed to fall off of my wrist and right into the toilet. I have never reached my hand so fast into a toilet before in my life. I saved my watch. And am hoping that the temple toilets just might be the cleanest toilets.

We finished our date at Steve's favorite place to eat, Freebirds, our favorite place to go after we go to the temple.

Wordless Wednesday

Okay, my Wordless Wednesday's are never Wordless. I just can't post a picture without telling about it and I can't ever post anything without a picture.

I got strawberries for .87 lb. I thought that was a steal. I wasn't sure what I was going to do but I bought 15 lbs. Looking back I should have bought a lot more. I ended up making freezer jam for the first time. AND my family loves it.

Lately, I have been trying to get creative with my cake blog photography and I have been taking pictures of my freezer meals for our freezer swap blog. Thus the photo shoot with my Strawberry Jam. I made about 10 jars, but the freezer jars weren't as photogenic as these were by our strawberry garden bed.