Graduates

Emily and Allison had their graduations from 6th grade and kindergarten. Emily had a fabulous year she recieved the Presidential Academic Award and also an award from the Rotary club for Citizenship. We are so proud of her. She will be going to seventh grade in a few weeks and we are not excited for that. Allison made it through kindergarten and was able to "graduate". Thank goodness. Most of us are excited for her to go to first grade and be at school all day. Jillo however is not excited about her bestfriend leaving her.

we made it

where did this baby go?

how is it possible that she is two?

it is a small miracle that we survived the last 6 months.

1st day of school

That's right folks, first day of school for us was July 6th.

I'd like to say that there were no tears shed, but I'd be lying.

It was Allison's first day of Kindergarten. She has Mrs. Thompson.

Allie was a champ. She was so excited to go to school. She could hardly wait until 11:30.

Jillian thinks that she is big enough to be at school.

Everything that Allie did, she had to do also.

Since we moved, the kids all go to a brand new school.

It is so clean and nice.

Emily is in the 6th grade. Thomas is in 2nd grade.

Allie is in Kindergarten.

Jillian gets to stay home with mommy!

So long summer. We enjoyed the three weeks we had with you.

4th of July

We had such a wonderful weekend celebrating this great country we live in. We celebrated the actual 4th at grandma's house with the Borgquists and Morans. It was so fun to see everyone. We missed Aunt DeAnn, but loved seeing Erika.

grandma and kimmie playing water balloon toss
baby andrew
the chunkiest, cutest little guy
(plus he has red hair)

jillo catching a ride with zach

daddy and tom flinging a balloon

our daddo and tito

Our neighborhood does a 4th of July block party every year. I guess because people had plans on the Fourth some of the neighbors got together for a 3rd of July party. The kids got to decorate their bikes and have a little bike parade. It was really cute.

emily and thomas

thomas thought he was a little too cool

for the bike parade

(and there aren't any boys his age)

daddy and jillo

(jillo has two ear infections and pnemonia in this picture)

allie and taylor

week in review

thomas in "baseball ready" positioncoach chris making an important call
jillo in the sand

poor baby

we have survived another week with only minor injury. (or shall i say grandma and grandpa and their house survived.) jillian took a spill on the sports court and is now sporting a terrible scab on her nose. the bad part is she is a picker and can't stand the thing on her nose. hopefully she doesn't scar.

thomas had his last baseball game yesterday. he had a great season with the d backs. chris was able to help coach. it was fun seeing him out there with all of the kids. thomas' coach was an awesome guy. he had so much enthusiasm, especially for a coach pitch team.

we are counting down the days until our big move. getting very excited. we have visited our new ward twice and are amazed at the amount of kids there. i think that there are more kids in their primary than we had members in our ward.

new house

i was able to upload a few pictures prior to the picasa episode. fortunately they are of our new house. escrow should close in the next couple of weeks. it is a brand spankin new house. we will be the first to ever live in it. i will post some before and afters of the house. basically all we have to do is move in. the walls are all white, so we are going to throw on some paint and personalize it a bit. it is an awesome house with a great yard. we are very excited and can't wait to move in.

you've got to be kidding me...

i just spent the last 30 minutes uploading some 672 pictures off of my camera card. pictures of everything that has happened this spring. easter, houses, kids singing in school, playing soccer, a trip to the river. jillian with various liquids in her hair. messes with eggs. somehow they are now all gone. i am crying. real tears. darn you picasa. darn you.

spring has sprung

Allison is 5 a week late

last saturday allie turned 5. she wanted to have a princess tea party. everything was planned and set up ready to go and the birthday girl got sick. she had a headache and a fever and fell asleep before her party and did not want to get up. it was the saddest day ever. for a month she would ask how many sleeps until her party. lucky for us the Tylenol kicked in and she had a blast with her friends. good thing we had emily here to entertain them. i told the moms the wrong time to pick up, so had we had 5 four and five year olds for an extra 1 1/2. good times. by the end of the party allie was beat. lucky for thomas and me we ended up getting allie's illness and all three of us were out of commission for the whole week. i am not exaggerating when i say i have never been so sick in my entire life. today is the first day that i feel half way normal.

a funny story about the birthday. when one of the moms called to say that her daughter was coming to the party she said a christmas tea party how fun. i thought that she said christmas not princess, but didn't know if it was my phone. sure enough her husband comes with the little girl to the party. she is dressed in her christmas dress. her dad says after about 20 minutes, this is a princess party, not christmas. right. they had even wrapped the present in christmas paper. the poor little girl wanted to wear her cinderella dress and her mom kept telling her no, it wasn't a princess party. then she shows up and sees all of the princesses.

today i love

being at home with my little ones.

fresh baked bread and homeade raspberry jam.

being smothered with kisses by a 16 month old.

reading and listening to stories by an almost 5 year old.

watching jillian try to be one of the big girls, slow down baby.

looking at the green, green hills and clear blue sky after all of the rain.

listening to the chatter of allie and lily as they play on the computer.

having a healthy, strong body that allows me to care for my family.

all my many, many blessings.

jillian's second tooth finally came in. not the typical bottom tooth.

she sprouted a top tooth instead.

well we're movin' on up

to the eastside. we've finally got our piece of the pie. well, not really, we've just run out of room.
eight years ago we happened upon an open house and found this little gem. eight years ago we had one two year old. this house seemed like a mansion. now eight years, three kids and a dog later, we have filled it to capacity. we aren't in a huge hurry to leave, but if you know anyone that is looking to buy in a fabulous area, great schools and great ward, let us know. (remember, with the new stimulus plan you could somehow figure out how to get the house for free!!!)

Tag

Brooke tagged me. Because it is easy and doesn't require much thinking I will do it.

Here are the rules:

1. go to your my document/my pictures

2. go to your sixth file

3. go to your sixth picture

4. blog about it

5. tag six people

This picture took place just last week. We were making frosting to decorate sugar cookies with Lily and Jane. Allie loves to help me cook and is always asking for a beater. Jillian knows a good thing when she sees it, so now she is up on the counter waiting her turn for the beater, spoon, or bowl. Kids catch on quick! (btw, the cookies turned out great and our valentine's craft was even better.)

I tag Megan, Kimmie, Jennie, Erin, Violet and Stephanie.

this one's for you, grandma koral

diet coke and choc. chip cookies

looks like its time for a new shirt

Happy New Year

Christmas came and went. We had an awesome time in Wyoming with all of the family and grandma and grandpa. The kids loved the snow. For some reason I didn't take any pictures. I did take some video though. A quick update of the past month and a half:

Emily has had the never ending soccer season. She has been on an awesome team for a few seasons now. They recently got invited to play in the Commissioner's Cup and made it through the finals all the way to the championship game! Unfortunately, they lost to a really good team from Orange. Everyone was impressed with her team, and their second place medals are great. They didn't have any substitute players and were playing against teams with up to 4 subs. They played their hearts out.

Thomas finally lost one of his little nubby top teeth. He grinds his teeth and has basically ground his baby teeth down to nothing.

Allie started ballet again. She is so excited because her cousin and best friend (that's what she calls her) Lily is in her class. They are so cute together.

Thomas lost a tooth and Jillian finally found one.

15 1/2 months old and we finally have our first tooth. Just one. Don't want to rush things. Jillian has turned into a climber. She moves chairs, benches, anything to get to what she wants. Nothing is safe. She used to love to dance on the table but now has moved on to bigger and better things like the island.

catch up

thomas turned 7 last sunday. i felt kinda of bad because i didn't have his birthday all planned out and then we had the fire and had to leave for a few days. when they finally went back to school, there were only a few days left in the week and we were going to have his party on friday.
what to do, what to do? well, get a ton of legos and throw them on a tarp at the park. most awesome party ever. the boys loved just building and really didn't want to do any of the contest we had planned. i made the most amazing lego cake, but didn't get any pictures. trust me, it was perfect!!! (right)

thomas and zachary racing cars

(note the cast on zachary's arm. he tripped over his

shoelace and broke it.)

the boys and lily playing legos

janie and jill pounding cake

brooke and her ghetto wrapping paper. even jane is embarrassed.

just kidding brooke, we know you had a horrible week.

help me

Going Home

The evacuations were finally lifted last night. We decided to wait until this morning to head home. Our house is fine, along with Chris' parents, Jon and Teresa Conk, Scott and Dawn Conk, and Matt and Brooke Flake. Unfortunately as many of you have heard, Chris' Aunt Dori and Uncle Chuck lost their home. It is probably the saddest thing that has ever happened. If any of you have ever had the honor to meet these two outstanding people, you have been blessed. They are the two most generous, loving, caring people you could ever meet. Chuck is bishop in his ward. Even though he knew his house was burning he was still reaching out trying to contact people and make sure everyone was safe. He was up at 5:30 yesterday morning carrying on with his duties. What a faithful servant. Please keep them in your prayers. Thank you for your calls and concern. We are totally fine. We had plenty of time to grab some things from our house and from Chris' parents house. It is funny how little material things mean to you when it comes down to it. I am so thankful for my family and my especially my husband. I am so thankful for our gospel. I love the way that everyone pulled together. Calling and making sure that everyone was okay and had a place to stay. Thank you to Steve and Carol for opening up their beautiful ( and very dangerous home for a grabby one year old) to us. Thank you Gloria for the groceries. You don't know how much your hospitality meant to this shaken little family. Please remember the Flake Family in you prayers.

YL Update

As many of you have heard we had a monster firestorm yesterday. We are still under manditory evacuations. As far as we know our house is okay, along with Bill and Sue, Matt and Brooke, Jon and Teresa, and Dawn and Scott. We will let you know if anything changes. Right now we are staying in Dana Point. Brooke is suppose to be on her way with her kids and hopefully Dori. Keep us in your prayers.

FIRE

Just updating from our evacuation point. We are still under manditory evacuation. Our house is okay as far as we know. Guess we will enjoy the beautiful weather at the beach. Too bad we didn't think to grab our swimsuits.

Happy Birthday Kellyn

sorry about the red eyes, they bring out the roses in your shirt

Today is my sister Kellyn's birthday.

13 things I love about her (13 because her birthday is the 13th)

1- She is the best Aunt in the world.

2- One of the only people I know that would be suckered into buying a Princess Jellyfish. (still a favorite.)

3-Shares my love of Mountain Hair. Knows the danger of high humidity.

4-Appreciates the power of a Jerry Lee Lewis ring. She never tries to abuse that power.

5- Gives the best presents.(princess jellyfish)

6-She is very kind and compassionate, a lover not a fighter.

7-She can pack for a week vacation in a backpack. (never checks her luggage)

8-She is very adventurous.

9- She is very talented musician. She can play about any instrument.

10- She loves honey.

11-(thinks) She is a dog whisperer. (has the scars to prove it)

12-She offers you a choice for a baby present of either 1-something practical like shoes or 2- something awesome like an astrological chart. (always go for the chart)
13- She is my sister and I LOVE HER.

Happy Birthday Kel-Tone.