Never Thought We Would Be One Of THOSE kind of People!

I have always thought it was funny when people talked about their dog like it was a real part of the family and almost one of their kids.  I'm not trying to be rude, I just find it comical.  I mean c'mon, it's just a dumb dog or cat!

We grew up with animals.  We had dogs and rabbits.   I never really got attached though.  I hardly remember their names.  Maybe Scruffy and Lady are the only ones I remember.

Our kids have bugged us for years to get a dog.  Especially Abbie.  We kept saying "no".  I know, MEAN PARENTS....right?  We just saw no reason for one.  They are stinky, they shed, they bark, chew up everything, piddle on the floor when they get excited,  a BIG inconvenience when you go on vacation and have to find someone to take them, etc.     Anyway, I think you get my point.

Well, this year Abbie was tough on us.  She ONLY wanted a dog for her Birthday.  We said "then you're not getting a present, cuz we aren't getting a dog. "  And that was that.  She continued begging and pleading. She promised to pick up poop, walk the dog, and even to help pay for it.

LLOONNGG story short, her birthday came and went and we didn't find a dog.  BUT we  started to soften our hearts and felt  like we should get a dog.  The week after her birthday I went out to San Jose to do hair.  My in laws owned this cute little Shih-tzu named Maggie.  Isn't she cute?  They have had her for a couple of years.  We have always really liked her.  She is not trouble at ALL.  She is a rescue dog.  She was a breeder....and must just be SO WORN  OUT!  I would be worn out if all I did was be pregnant and have babies!!!!

Anyway,  Bob and Linda are on a mission in San Jose, but are gone for 10-12 hours a day and Maggie was so lonely!  I half jokingly told them that I should bring Maggie home and watch her for a year and a half and then they could have her back.   Linda said she was wanting to give her to one of her kids, but thought David didn't want a dog.

I had to buy an airplane ticket $75 and a pet holder with mesh so she could breathe and brought her home on the plane with me.

I LOVE MAGGIE!  I can't believe I love her so much!  She is such a CHILL kind of dog.  Others say she is boring and doesn't play, but I LOVE her!  She sleeps alot, likes the back of the couch.  She is a little cuddly dog and I love having her on my lap!  I have had so many clients offer to take her if I don't want her because she is so cute and so well behaved.  She is PERFECT for us!  Love you Maggie Mae!!!!

She complete the family.  Ü

Always time for SISTER TIME!!

I  LOVE my sisters!  I wish I lived closer to them!  They are truly some of my best friends!  Ü  Amber is a gem.  She is 4 years younger than me, but I feel sometimes that she is older than me just cuz she's so wise.  Amber works for Jet Blue Airlines and gets to fly places for pretty cheap...so on her way to pick up Brook's girls in Florida, she stopped by for a couple of days to see us!  We talked and talked and talked some more!  It's hard trying to catch up on all that lost time!   While here, aunt Amber spoiled us.  She took us out to dinner, and then took me to the movies.  Actually, in the short day and a half she was here, we saw 2 movies.  AND we even went to the temple!  We really tried to cram a lot into the little time she was here.  And I loved every minute of it!

Amber lives in Utah, which is just far enough away that we only get to see each other a couple of times a year if we are lucky.   These moments are precious to me.  I love when my family comes to visit!  Hope you come back really soon Amber!  Love you!

4 Families + 2 Boats = A GREAT Time!!!

We have had such a great time living here in Arizona. So many fun families that seem like our own family sometimes. The Lunt and Wilstead families invited us and the Turners to go on an exciting adventure to Roosevelt Lake. (Which is about 2 hours or so away from home.) It was such a fun day. Since there were 2 boats and one of them was a "party" boat, we were able to accommodate more people.... Ü We set up a little camp over in a cove. We had a couple of tables, a grill, etc. so we could stay the whole day. Funny thing was we didn't realize we were set up in the "Sheriff's cove" Haha....that was funny. They told us they have never had anyone try to set up a day camp kind of thing, but they let us stay. (after they looked at Jason's drivers license) apparently they came and talked to him while we were out wake boarding and stuff.

The Lunts have quite the set up. Jon's work is putting in sound systems, alarms, cameras, etc...into million dollar homes. Check out the sound system on his boat! Mercy. Charis is one of the most Christlike loving people I know. She is my Enrichment Leader in our ward. We work really well together. They have Rylan and Brooke. (They left Brooke at home with gma and gpa). Rylan was a good sport.

The Wilsteads are such a fun family. Casey is a total joker! He is also Eli's Sunday School teacher. We loved his boat. We loaded up lots of people and all of our stuff....dropped it off, and then pulled tubes and stuff behind for the kids to have fun. I loved sitting on his boat....we fit lots of us on there and would go out to where Jon had the kids wake boarding. That way we could all be together, instead of the 8 or 9 people going off by themselves. Also, just to show what a small world it is, Vanessa's sister married a guy I knew from Ricks College. Actually, his name is Jared Dotson. He marred one of my roommates....they ended up divorcing and then he married Vanessa's sister. Kinda cool.

The Turner family are really like FAMILY to us. We just love them! We love to do things with them! They are so much fun to be with. I especially have a soft spot for Talan. He is such a cutie pie!! Shelly and Vanessa had fun getting whipped around on the tube. It was funny to watch. And Jason did really well wake boarding. Hopefully we can do this again sometime!!

Mason found his new "favorite sport!" He tried wake boarding for his first time. It took him a couple of tries to get it, but once he did, he just LOVED it! It's so fun to have experiences like these! I wish we could provide this kind of stuff for our kids, but it's nice that we have friends that will invite us. We stayed until it was completely dark before we headed home. Talk about going for the WHOLE DAY!!! The kids went to the Lunt's to clean the boat and didn't get home until 12:30am.

Apparently I didn't get any pictures of Eli wake boarding. We do have video of it. He actually got up the first time he tried. He had a little harder time staying up, but he would get right up. Sometimes I was on a different boat and David had the cameras. So sorry to Eli for not having pictures of you wake boarding. He seemed to have fun riding in the boat, listening to the awesome tunes and tubing. He got tossed like a booger. We were just laughing watching him and Crew holding on for dear life!

Abbie had fun riding in whatever boat she was in. The party boat doesn't go quite as fast, so when it wasn't challenging for her to keep in the tube, she would stand up and try to act like she was surfing or something. Then Casey would stop really quick and she would totally fall. We laughed watching her be a little ham out there. Then she tubed behind Jon's boat and we laughed watching her and Cali try to hold on for dear life!

Apparently I didn't get a picture of David Wake boarding either. There was a time that I was over on the beach helping to cook hot dogs and getting kids lunch and stuff, but I know he did well. David is athletic and makes everything look EASY! He is definitely the kids idol. You wouldn't know he is 39....he acts like one of the kids still. We totally enjoyed being as a family and being together. Thanks again Lunt and Wilstead families! We had a blast!

Abbie's 9 Already? WOW!!

Happy Birthday Abbie Claire!  We decided this year we wouldn't do parties.  I already discussed that in the post about Mason's birthday.  I think I forgot to post the present Mason ended up getting.  He got a big automatic air soft gun.  We say on the years that they don't have a party that we will get them a bigger present.  Anyway, one of Abbie's friends had her birthday party on Abbie's birthday, so here she is all glammed up from Ella's party.

Isn't this funny?  The girl who wasn't supposed to have a party, somehow managed to have her 2 best friends bring her presents.....which she was SOOO happy about!  Thanks Ashely and Kirsten, you make her feel so good!

SO after we sent the friends home, we asked Abbie where she would like to go for her birthday.  The boys were at a friend's party....so it was just David, Abbie and Me.  She thought for a minute, and then said, "Actually, I just want to go be with my friends, so never mind...I just won't have a birthday dinner...."  What are we?  CHOPPED LIVER?  hahaha....we felt kind of bad that she would rather be with her friends than us!  We totally wanted to be with her, so realized we would need to compromise.....

Obviously, this wasn't David's idea of fun.  Look what a good sport he is.  He was sitting in a chair feeling really awkward wanting to be with Abbie for her birthday.  What a great dad!

Well, I guess I didn't catch the nicest face from Abbie here, but they were ALL so excited when I said we were going to take Abbie and her friends to get a pedicure for her birthday.  They just ate it up!  It was really cute to watch them.  Special little chairs for the girls with the little shes shaped tubs for their feet to be washed.  They had little bottles of water and a mini tv to watch a movie.  Talk about spoiled!  To be fair, the only present that Abbie wanted was a DOG!  I really didn't think we would be able to come through for her.  We looked for a dog, but they were either too expensive or didn't seem like the right kind of dog for our family.

THese girls really seem like our own daughters sometimes.  They are at each other's houses all the time.  They really are Best Friends!  We love Kirsten and Ashley so much!  They said that was the funnest birthday ever!  That was Ashely's first time getting a pedicure.  She LOVED it!!!

Happy 9th Birthday Abbie Claire!  We love you!

Here are 9 things we LOVE about Abbie

1.  She is very organized and a great cleaner

2.  She is a great dancer and has so much fun making up dances with her friends

3.  She has a love for animals.  She especially loves DOGS!

4.  She is an athlete.  She played football, and baseball.  Her coach talked about what drive she has!

5.  She's a GREAT babysitter.  She was really helpful with our friend's son Rylan. 

6.  She's really pretty.  People have always remarked about her looks

7.  She is a little apprehensive to try things, but once she figures out she can do it, SHE LOVES IT!

8.  She is smart.  She does well in school.  She is in a school that is accelerated and can keep up well

9.  She's a leader.  She has LOTS of good ideas and know how she wants things to be.  If we can channel this the right way, she will go far in life!!!

HAPPY 9TH Birthday Abbie!!!!  

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us in April. They also brought our cousin Ayden. It's always good to see them! Mom works at a library, so she is limited in when she can come down. They came for their Spring Break and we feel blessed that they chose to come see us! We tried to take them a few places while they were here. One place we haven't taken them to is the Gold Mine up by The Superstition Mountains. It's called the Goldfield Goldmine....( I think it's a ghost town. ) Anyway, here we are all excited to go see some stuff.... The kids immediately found this big rock. I think they were excited to be there, especially since we checked them out of school early to go have a little family bonder. Grandma and Grandpa Jefferies were great sports! They seemed to enjoy our time there! Too bad Spring Break hit when our kids were in school. Ayden was a good sport and would find stuff to do while they were at school. That's why we checked the kids out 1/2 way through the school day so they could all hang out. I will say Ayden is a pill when it comes to getting his picture taken. He doesn't love it. In fact, when he sees a camera pointing in his direction, he'll turn his head or put his hands over his face! Grandma bought everyone a homemade waffle cone with yummy ice cream in them! The whole place smelled so good with those cones baking, so we HAD to each get one! Thanks Grandma! Grandma and Grandpa also got the kids one souvenir from there. The one Eli chose was a pocket knife. Look how cute he is. He fell asleep with it right by him! We have always been a game playing family. It's fun that the kids are old enough to play the bigger games now. Time always flies when you're having fun! Ü David had the grand idea to go Ice Blocking! Once that was mentioned the kids were ALL OVER IT! It sounded like so much fun! Unfortunately, there was a sign that said "NO ICE BLOCKING". We didn't know that before we bought the ice blocks. AND that was the first thing that Ayden was excited about doing! So we told the kids to do it anyway. Isn't that terrible? We try to teach the kids to be obedient, and then we tell them to ignore the sign. I guess we thought it was a harmless thing to do and what else were we supposed to do with these big blocks of ice? Do I smell RATIONALIZATION? hahaha.... The kids even said "Mom! What would Jesus do?" Mercy, I guess that's where the scripture comes from that says "And a child shall lead them!" I'm sure this will come back to bite me in the bum someday....but I just wanted to be a good hostess and help our cousin have fun! As you can see, they didn't feel bad for too long. They had a lot of fun! And I had so much fun watching! I sat and just LAUGHED so much! It's funny watching them trying to balance their little bums on these ice blocks. Eli didn't do too much. I think he still felt a little bad. A lot of the time he was watching some football games going on down on the fields, but he HAD to try since he saw how much fun everyone was having. I just love the ages of my kids right now! They are SO fun! I enjoy being with them and love watching their personalities develop and seeing them grow into great kids! I love them! I LOVE having my parents and Ayden come to visit. IT's so important to keep those family ties strong! I love that we created some fun memories together! You are welcome back anytime! Can't wait until you come again! Love you guys!

Abbie and Kirsten. Best Friends Forever!

These 2 girls are REALLY an interesting pair to watch....and listen to for that matter. They are best friends, and LOVE to be together. Since they are both "only daughters"...I think they are both used to being the PRINCESS of the home. So, every once in a while, there is a big Flare up and we all get to help referee the dispute. When they are apart, they miss each other and say how bored they are...and then when they are together, they are both wanting to be in charge.

Most of the time though, they have a LOT of fun. There is actually one other friend (Ashley) who is their other best friend. She is gone half of the week to her dad's house. We captured a night of high fashion here. Abbie and Kirsten got the costumes down and put together the most peculiar outfits.

I love that theses girls are creative and play. Kids these days are really into being "entertained"..... we did so much make believe when we were growing up. I love it when they just have fun doing something together without any electronics at all. You never know, one of these girls could be a high fashion designer one day. Ü

Spring Training...

I am a person that has to be shown anything "NEW"...especially when it comes to computer kind of stuff. I'm once again falling REALLY behind on my blogging....so I"m trying to see if I can get this figured out again. Ü Our cousins are HUGE San Francisco Giants Fans. In April lots of teams come here to Arizona for Spring Training. So, this year, Brittany, her dad Tom and friend Katie came and watched a few games. I have to admit, I have never been a huge baseball fan, but watching them be so excited made me think it would actually be fun to go one year. Maybe next year.

We enjoyed their company while they stayed at our house. Abbie is totally taken with Tom. IT's cute how much she follows him around. He was a good sport. Tom and Bob (my father in law) are brothers. So, I guess that would make Tom Abbie's great Uncle? I don't know....they were cute together.

I appreciate Brittany so much. She is so good about keeping family bonds strong. I can get lazy about it sometimes. It definitely takes effort to keep cousins seeing each other. Hopefully they will start to make it a tradition and come down for Spring Training every year. Just bring Ryan next year! I'm sure he would LOVE it! Since he pitches for his team at home! Love you guys!