I love that story...: July 2012

7/27/12

sometimes people say the nicest things.....

My friend Kaela Wheeler moved and when she did she took pictures with some of us and then she blogged about us when she left. I stumbled upon it a little later and found what she had written about me. It was so nice and unexpected. Sometimes people say the darndest things! Thanks Kaela! I had no idea you thought that of me! I will treasure these words for a very long time and will re-read them when I feel like a bad mom. :) Thank you so much!

"Oh Suzy Jeffords - I wish more people were like Suzy! I'm never the worst over-sharer in the room if Suzy's there and I love it. She is funny and never boring AND a spiritual giant. That's a tough combination to find. I think the best thing I can say about her is that she has four kids and they are all fun, sweet, genuinely good, spiritually minded and hard working. She didn't just luck into four kids like that, she taught them how to be awesome and I think that speaks volumes about who Suzy is."

7/25/12

Daddy daughter dance

So for Activity Days we paired up with another ward for a "Daddy Daughter" Dance night and I couldn't have been happier with the results. It was a lovely evening for the girls and the dads and the dancing was well..... I wish I had taken more pictures! It was great to see the girls with their dads and I know Darby had a great time with Brandon! It was the same day as her culmination so she was all ready all dressed up! They did some fun dances and had a dance off. They had a freeze dance where when you froze if you laughed then you were tapped out. That would have been great for Brandon because he is a great face maker with no boundaries but when he made the other dad laugh it made him laugh too so he was out! It was A LOT of fun!!! They also did a time warp dance where they taught the girls how to do some of the dances from their era! Very fun!

I think it's the running man.....I'm really not sure.

Brother John Canon. Seriously. I have more respect for him now in an odd way. I'm not sure about his daughter. (she is the one walking away from him in the picture above) I love that all the dads just cut loose!

Like father like daughter or vise versa!

7/23/12

Parties over! :(

Cousin Camp is over and we are very sad at the Jefford's home. For some reason it has hit us extra hard that these 2 had to go home this time! I sure love them and sometimes secretly wish they were mine. shhhhhh don't tell! ;) As much work as it was, it was an amazing summer and they will be sorely missed. It feels empty with out them here. I sure love that line from "A League of Their Own" when Tom Hanks says to Gina Davis "Of course it's hard. It's supposed to be hard. If it were easy everybody would do it. Hard is what makes it great." I apply it to a lot of things I love. That is how I feel about this situation too! With out the hard the great wouldn't be as great! These kids are sure great!

7/15/12

Summer Fun Wall

This is our Summer Fun Wall! It is stolen from a few places! Mostly from my friend Alison. She does the sticky notes on the wall thing. I don't have the mental space or time to do a board and graphs and charts and list of what we are going to do all summer. We have a shortened summer due to LAUSD and their schedule change. We didn't want to forget some of the fun things we have been planning to do though. SO we remembered Alison's family doing something like this. I love this because when we do our activity no matter how big or small it is, we can just tear down the sticky note and in the trash it goes! The kids loved yelling out the ideas too! There is everything from camping to playing freeze tag to cub scout camp, and having a no electricity day. (Alison had a no electronics summer once! We are not quite there yet!:) We have make a bird feeder, make jam, pick berries, go to a park and give a way Popsicles, take someone dinner, have a dance party, do a flash mob, have a wii tournament, go to yogurt land, pick berries, plant our garden, go fishing, tye dye shirts, make a home made lava lamp and SO much more! This has been a ton of fun and has been working for us! It's a keeper!

(Thanks Al!)

Have a ""KRAZY KOOL" Summer!

On the last few days of school, when all the parties and fun were happening, my kids and I made these and they took them to school to give to their friends. I don't usually do this sort of thing but Pinterest and my friend Taryn and a good deal on Kool-Aid and that was all she wrote! My kids were excited to give their friends something. I'm big on not giving junk. I hate when my kids get something that I know I'm going to throw away before they get out of the van. Or if it makes it into the house I will have it in the trash in about 15 minutes. I try really hard to make sure if we do a treat that it won't end up in the trash. I hate to see my dollars in the trash. :) Who doesn't love Kool-Aid and a Krazy Straw? I LOVE me some Pinterest that is FOR sure!!!! I hope Y'all are having a KRAZY KOOL summer so far!!!!

Darby's piano recital

Darby had a piano recital last month. She sang a song and played the piano. She did amazing! I was really proud of her. We LOVE her piano/voice teacher. Brittany Gilley! After the recital, seeing what all the kids could do, it just renewed our spirits to practice better and be sure we made it to all our lessons! Darby is so talented and we are lucky to have a teacher like Miss Brittany!

7/11/12

Someones turning 40! shhhhhhhh!

This guy turns 40 tomorrow!!!! Shhhhhh don't tell anyone!!! We don't have BIG plans but even our little plans feel BIG when your turning 40! ;) I sure love him!!!! At least 40x40x40!!!!!!!

7/9/12

Lola......

We lost our Lola Lemon to the Coyotes a couple of days ago. She was a sweet snuggle bear of a cat and I am devastated that she is not with us any more. She was a free spirit and she LOVED to be outside! She never wanted to come inside and we would have to chase her down or trick her to come in at night. This night we couldn't get her to come in. We are all really sad and the only comfort we have is that maybe she is making our loved ones who have passed on as happy as she made us! I'm sure she is snuggling Papa Keith or Pouncing on his toes!

We decided to name a Snow Cone after her so that we could honor her all summer. The snow cone that is Tigers blood (because of her tiger spirit) and Vanilla mixed is the Lola Cone.

This little guy I think will miss her the most. They had a sweet little bond. But then he has a sweet little bond with all animals!

I think Callie will even miss her a bit.

Wizard of Oz Scenery.....

This is the scenery that Brandon made for Max's 3rd grade class play. The teacher and the class LOVED it! Sometimes it's GREAT to have an artist dad in your class! Max's teacher was retiring this year so we brought the scenery home. The school wasn't going to store it and because this was her last year teaching she wouldn't be doing the play again she didn't need it. Brandon worked so hard on it I didn't want it thrown out. I am sure we will find some use for it with a Road Show or another school play in the future! At any rate it turned out amazing and if anyone needs some Wizard of Oz props we have them in our garage! ;)

7/6/12

God Bless America!

It's a couple days late but Happy 4th of July! I love my freedom! Thank you to all those who have fought for it, are fighting for and will fight for it!

We celebrated with family, food and fireworks! The best kind of 4th of July you could ask for! I loved every second of it! (except for the dishes part of it!;) I hope y'all had a great 4th of July filled with all the things you love too!

I got this puppy at Joanne's the other day. You can't see but it is like a soda lid! I LOVE IT!!! I love the colors and the picture and everything about it!

7/2/12

The Duck Whisperer.....

I found this little morsel of yummy saying good bye to the ducks in his own way on Saturday afternoon. He didn't know I was watching. This boy LOVES animals. They LOVE him. This duck didn't like a lot of anyone but he liked Dash. So we call Dash "the Duck Whisperer"