Santa Train

The kids and I had a wonderful Saturday despite the crazy, cold weather. We drove out to Carson City in the a.m. to catch the Santa Train at the Nevada State Railroad Museum.

Afterward we had lunch and did some shopping in Carson City.

That evening Shay and I went to his work Christmas party. The food was so good, but the best part was winning a $50 gift card to Cabelas from the raffle. Shay and I left the party when the dancing started to go listen to some live music at the Terrace Lounge and do some dancing of our own. It was the perfect date night.

The babysitter, Carissa, had some fun planned for the kids while we were away. They all decorated gingerbread (graham cracker) houses!

Fleeting Days

My baby started preschool yesterday. My baby. Oh bless my mama heart, and bless this sweet girl as she progresses through life.

Fall Bucket List

As the days getter shorter, my motivation to do anything, like even leave the house, goes away. I found a list of things to do during the Autumn and tweaked it to fit our family, in hopes that it will get us doing something fun. It has 75 things on it and I plan to see how many we can do. Anyone else love checking off lists? It's my thing.

Anyway, visiting a chocolate factory was on the list. I can find motivation for that! My family and I visited the Chocolate Nugget Candy Factory. Walking into a candy store makes me so happy! The piles of freshly made cotton candy made me smile. (It's my favorite!) We bought delicious sweets and enjoyed eating them on the beautiful sunny day.

P.S. It's not Fall yet, but I've got to get an early start. My bucket list contains 75 activities!

Crazy Hair, They Don't Care

The kids had crazy hair day at school today.

Whoa, he's looking grown up!

Cayben, Embrie, Sofia, & Thomas (The Besties)

Santa Rosa

We've loved spending the weekend with family in Santa Rosa. Heather's backyard is beautiful, and it has frogs. Bonus!

Boston Cream Pie for breakfast is perfection

Grumpy Morning Selfies

Berkeley Grad

My niece, Jorie, graduated from UC Berkeley! What an accomplishment! My family and I traveled to the Bay area for the weekend to attend her commencement and to celebrate her graduation.

On Friday we traveled to San Ramon to check into our hotel and meet up with family.

On Saturday morning we made the short drive to Berkeley to attend Jorie's commencement. Shay and my kids stayed back at the hotel and spent the day swimming. The commencement was great. The speeches were really good, especially the key note speech from Facebook's COO, Sheryl Sandberg.

At the hotel, ready to swim

Cotton candy at commencement!? Heck Yeah!!!

The Graduate

I'm so proud of my Jorie Bug! 

My parents!

This picnic table was too much! I had to get some of this action!

The view from Jorie's apartment window

A hotel near Jorie's house.

On Sunday, Heather hosted a dinner at her house to celebrate her smarty-pants daughter.

Monday called us back home. We can't wait to head back to Santa Rosa next month for another wonderful celebration!

Sleep

Someone got sent to time-out on the stairs, but what she really needed was sent to bed. There is almost always a reason for acting-out kids, and in this case it was just a tired toddler. 

Grateful Mother

School doesn't come easily to all. Some struggle with academics. Some personalities don't necessarily mesh well and thrive in the social setting that is public school. I wasn't sure public school would be the right fit for my boy, but felt compelled to send him anyway.

Cayben has faced many, many hardships in school this year but he perseveres. He works so hard. I admire him immensely.

This week I attended the 3rd-grade awards assembly. In addition to earning A/B Honor Roll and the Learning Leopard awards, Cayben was awarded as Student of the Month for Honesty! (Student of the Month is awarded to only one student per class per month.) I'm proud, but I'm mostly grateful. I'm grateful for Cayben's hard work. I'm grateful for his strong will. I'm grateful for his curious mind. I'm grateful that when knocked down he'll get up again and try again. I'm grateful for his many strengths.

I'm also grateful that he was blessed with an amazing teacher that sees those strengths, that sees the good in my boy, that believes in him, that pushes him toward achieving his potential, and that has earned the respect and admiration of Cayben (which is not an easy thing to do). She is an answer to my many, many prayers. They say it takes a village to raise a child. I'm glad Ms. Johnson is in my village. She has done incredible things for my child.

And I'm grateful!

Jump

Embrie was invited to a friend's birthday party at an indoor trampoline park.

I couldn't get a non-blurry picture of my kid. This place is just so bouncy!

It was such a fun party. I can't wait to take the rest of my family here!

Conference Camping

It's General Conference weekend, which means we got to listen to the prophet and leaders of the church from the comfort of our homes... or from the comfort of the forest!

We camped and enjoyed the amazing messages.

Saturday Night Chow

Roasting Peeps

What's camping without a jam session? 

Good morning!

Breakfast, morning snuggles, & Shay's makeshift amplifier

In between sessions hike

You can't have family time without a little fighting.

Happy campers

My heart is full and my spirit is renewed! I love conference weekend. I love camping. I love my family.

Sick

I've got the fever!!!

I'm pretty sure that every year of my entire growing up life we traveled somewhere warm during spring break. My mom was prone to catching the fever this time of year, the spring fever, the sick-of-the-cold-ready-for-warm-weather fever. I apparently am just like my mom.

Unfortunately I didn't make any travel plans this spring break and the weather in Reno has been crappy. We tried to alleviate some of the symptoms of my fever by planning a two night staycation. Swimming would be sure to help right?

Our staycation included a two night stay at the Peppermill. We did enjoy their wonderfully heated pools that were nice even in a crazy, record breaking spring snow storm.

I didn't take many pictures because it was freezing out of the pool.

We also enjoyed the buffet...TWICE.

I'm ready for summer, but if it's going to snow, we're going to try and make the best of it. So on Monday we headed up to the mountain to enjoy the fresh foot of snow. Powder and people less than 60 pounds don't mix very well. It feels more like cross-country skiing than down-hill skiing. Whiny kids and a whiny mom made for a short ski day.

Grumpy Mom

I was ready to be done with Mt. Rose for the season, but gave it another shot with a different approach a couple days later. The kids happily watched a movie in the lodge while Shay and I took turns making runs. This was much better.

Now I'm just hoping for wonderfully warm weather in Reno and snow up at the mountain. Is that too much to ask for? 

Easter Sunday

Easter is such a wonderful holiday!

This Sabbath morn we had church early. 9:00 a.m. early. This meant we needed to get an early start.

This didn't prove difficult when the Easter Bunny came during the night. My kids were eager to wake and find their baskets. I forgot to take pictures, but their baskets were filled with candy, kites, and dvds.

The kids got dressed and ate breakfast. I served them eggnog in hollow chocolate bunnies. (Eggnog at Easter? Slap some pastel colors on a carton of eggnog and suddenly people feel that this delicious drink has to be a part of their Easter celebrations. These people and their crazy marketing antics!  I was happy anyway since I failed to drink any eggnog at Christmastime.)

Cayben put on the wrong church clothes. How could he forget the torturous hours we'd spent yesterday shopping for Easter outfits?

We finished getting ready and made it to church and were close to being on time! Church was nice and the kids had wonderful lessons about the Savior's resurrection.

After church I made the kids let me take pictures of them, with some difficulty of course!

While I made dinner, Shay hid eggs and let the kids go on a little egg hunt in the backyard.

On your mark. Get set. GO! 

 

Confetti Eggs

 Dinner was simple, delicious, and festive!

Shay and I followed up dinner with a forever long nap while the kids watched a new dvd. Now we're ready for a staycation!