A visit from the Churchs'

Bret and Kelly Church and their kids came for a visit for spring break! We had a great time with them. One of our favorite things to do with a visitor is to take them to Third Street Prominade in Santa Monica. It is free (love that) and full of entertainment. It is just a couple blocks from Santa Monica pier. Their are tons of street performers and shops and food. This guy looks like a statue but if you put a dollar in his bucket he will move like a robot! I have actually seen him in a few shows on t.v. lately. These guys are my favorite. They are a group of dancers from all over. They are really good and super entertaining. At the end of their show they pull people up from the audience and Indi got picked. He was so much fun to watch and was actually pretty good!
Here they are lining up the audience participants. At the end they give the kids 1$ for helping out with the show. They are super funny. A whole section is them going around asking people for money. They will let you know if you spent enough or not.
Mommy and Dash waiting for the show to start!
Darby, Jada, and Indiana.
One of the performers doing one of his tricks!
Kel and Maverick! We loved having them come and visit. We always have tons of fun and tons of laughs with them!

L.A. Temple Family Home Evening

One night we decided to drive to the L.A. Temple for F.H.E. Just so the kids could see it. It was tons of fun even if they weren't even close to being reverent. Here they are towards the end of the trip. This picture says it all! Is Dash REALLY pulling faces? Yes, he is.
The grounds are amazing with beautiful flowers and amazing fountains. Even at night the Temple is gorgeous. The L.A. Temple is the second biggest temple in the world. Second to Salt Lake City. Salt Lake Temple has more underground footage making it the biggest. The first time B and I went to the L.A. Temple I was blown away at the enormity of the building. IT IS HUGE!
Juliet is hitching a ride with daddy. She looks so little in this picture to me! That's what I get for blogging backwards!

baby Juliet

I haven't blogged forever so now I have to play catch up before the holidays and the end of the year. SO we are going back in time! These were just some cute little pictures of Juliet in the front yard. It took her FOREVER to walk. She crawled faster than any baby I have ever seen. It didn't matter if she was on grass or cement in shorts or jeans! If we were in the front yard we had to be careful that she wouldn't crawl down the street on the sidewalk. Here she is discovering and taking apart the sprinklers! That's what happens when you are eye level with them! She would usually stop to pick a flower or a weed. It was generally to distract us so she could try to escape down the sidewalk!
"I'll just put this right back here and maybe no one will notice that I took it out!"
"Maybe I will be super cute and charming and they will drop their guards and I can make a crawl for it!" (She still tries this technique a lot.... it usually works!)

Movie in the Park with Nickelodeon

So one of the "perks" that we get for Brandon working at Nickelodeon is that they sometimes do SUPER FUN things for the family. This one is their "Movie in the Park Night"! The movie was "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". Below is the ice cream sundae section! All you can eat by the way!
The candy and Chocolate fountains with fruit. They asked that you only take 2 boxes of candy. They were the BIG boxes so the kids thought that was amazing! It was free so I thought that was amazing!
They served dinner. The line was SUPER long! BUT THE FOOD WAS AMAZING! The executives of the company cooked all the food. I love that they did that for their employees. They also had horderves (SP?) while you stood in line! THEY WERE EVEN BETTER THAN THE DINNER!
Juice boxes and soda flowed freely! ALL THE DIET COKE YOU COULD DRINK! ahhhhh....
The movie screen on the side of the building and the super long line for dinner!
The menu!
2 of the Executives! They were all having a great time! Singing and laughing and yelling fun things out!
The ice cream sundaes. The boys were just about filled to the gills!
Time to crack open the candy!
Spongebob on the side of the building!
Darby was at a birthday party so she missed out BUT they sent home a chinese box full of candy for her! We had such a great time and I love that they take care of employees and their families! I can't wait for the Halloween party this year!

F.H.E. with Max

So tonight Max was in charge of the lesson. He was very excited. As dinner was coming to an end he excused himself and went to "prepare" a little bit. A few minutes later I saw him coming down the hall with their dry erase board and he was dressed in full church clothes. (He had changed out of pajamas...our after church attire.) Brandon and I just smiled at each other. I love that he was taking his job seriously. I love that he was following an example that Brandon has set. (Brandon changes his clothes when he gives a blessing or has priesthood duties.) I love that he wants to honor a priesthood that one day he will hold.

I don't know that this is the way he will choose to teach every time it is his turn. I am just grateful that for today we saw a sweet reverent boy that wanted to honor his Father in Heaven!

(this is the same kid that has the quote of the day below!) I say it all the time, they make me laugh and cry every day!

quote of the day!

So today I hear Darby yelling at Max to "GET OUT!" As I was feeding a whiny baby apple sauce and helping Dash with homework, I looked up to see Max running out of Darby's room with his undies (and only his undies) around his ankles! "MAX! COME HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Max pulled up his britches and came into the dining room. "Why did Darby just yell at you?"

Max hung his head in shame, knowing he was busted, and said "I ran into her room with toilet paper in my butt and shook it at her." "I'm sorry mom."

I was staring at him with a stern face and tears in my eyes. Not tears of sadness but I was holding in the laughter as hard as I could. (IT IS NOT FUNNY MIND YOU!) I just did NOT expect him to say THAT! SO instead of saying anything, the tears rolled down my cheeks until I could not handle it any more and I burst.....laughing.....hard! He started to laugh and through my laughter I told him, "This is NOT funny! That is really gross! (laughing laughing peeing my pants laughing) we do NOT put toilet paper in our butts and shake it at people! (laughing laughing) You are in a lot of trouble! (laughing) I am really mad! (laughing)"

No, I am not a 10 year old boy! I should NOT think that is funny! But really, it's kind of funny! If it were someone elses kid I would think it was REALLY FUNNY and REALLY GROSS and a little CREEPY! What's the punishment for toilet paper butt shaking anyway?

At any rate I never thought I would have to have that conversation with any of my kids!

I promise!

So we are sooooo busy with getting ready to move in our cute new house and sad to leave our fun old one, kids starting school, mommy teaching and daddy working tons of overtime. I PROMISE myself (and my mom) that I will catch up my blog! I have so much to say and was so inspired by the blogs I stalked last night. Even stalked myself and missed being on our blog! SO as soon as we are in our house (wed) and I am all unpacked (by Sunday....self given dead line) I will update for a full day! I miss my friends and my blogging life! In the words of our out going gov....."I'll be back!"

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Who changed my border? I haven't? DId my hubby? Weird!

THE BIG MOVE

SO now we live in L.A. There I said it! Now it is for real. I'm gonna blog how it all came to fruition but alas, no time. Packing to go to a wedding in Utah and cleaning and laundry and so on! New computer so figuring out how to download all the photos and then BLOG my life away! I miss blogging! Soon. Pray for renters, freelance, time, energy, sleep, a safe trip to Utah and world peace! Muah.

busy life

So much is going on! I swear I have a TON to blog about and loads of pictures but I like a duck and I am calm on the top and kickin like heck under the water to stay a float. (aren't we all though?)

We are staying in Cali for sure (unless someone gives us an offer we can't refuse!) Brandon is going to work for Nickelodion on the cartoon series Kung Fu Panda and he is really excited about that. He is also working with Warner Brothers for the next couple of months too. HE is VERY busy. I just got news that the house we were hoping to rent will be ours in a couple months. That is a HUGE blessing because we will stay in the ward, B's commute will stay the same, I am still close to the gyms that I teach at, AND best of all....the kids will be in the school I was hoping for. It really is amazing and I am sooooo grateful for the kind people that are letting us move into it with out braking our bank! FOr the summer we get to stay at an apartment that our other friends are letting us move into. Another huge blessing. My friends and family have stepped in to help me with my kids so I can get things taken care of in Tx. Things have fallen into place the way we had hoped and that is just another testimony that we have made the right decision.

It was long and hard and stressful. A LOT of fasting (any more and it would be an eating disorder:) A LOT of prayer! Temple attendance and just doing what the Lord has asked us to do. With all of the work we were blessed!

I will miss Texas A TON! I loved the people and the church and the shopping and all of it! I was born and raised in Utah but I will forever be a Texan! I really love Texas.

More to come later! Pictures and fun moments of summer to come!

more ugly!

Ok! So here we are at the end of all the ugly! This is what we started out to get. A good shot of all of us but in the process we had a ton of fun and took a LOT of ugly shots too! I love these girls and am so happy I can be hideous with them!

My hubby watched ALL our kids so we could go to our favorite restaurant together. OUTBACK! I know it's not sexy but we LOVE It! We decided a restaurant would be the best place to take pictures for our phone ID's! The uglier the better! I laugh everytime one of them calls me cause this is what I get to see!
I WIN!

WE were trying to see who could get the most chins in one shot!

I win again!
Still winning on the chin front!
Why is her hand on Nat's face and why is it making her so happy!
In the end we tried to get B in on it too! It wasn't that hard!


I hope they will still be my friends after I posted such beautiful pictures of all of us! We have way too much fun together!

best friends!

When Nat and Tiff came to visit so did Darby's best friends! Hailee and Hailey! They always have the best of time together! Bennett is sharing with Juliet. I think she had a crush!
All the boys!

not pretty

so here are 2 of my very best friends! They came for a visit a few months ago and we did some UGLY photo shoots! It was so much fun and sooooo funny! I love that we can be NOT pretty together! There is a LOT more ugly to come later! As for now you may just enjoy this ! :)

The LEGO store!

We found a LEGO store a couple months ago! Can you say "HEAVEN" for my boys! All of them! Max had some birthday money from Nana and he spent it all there! $40.00! NOT in way that B would have him spend it. Max wanted quantity! B wanted HUGE sets of legos. Finally daddy had to let go and let Max shop around and buy 4 small sets instead of one huge set. It was very hard. :)They had tables set up where you could build while your brother and dad shopped!
Juliet LOVED it because she felt BIG!
This is the set Darby wants! (over $100)
This is the set daddy wants (over $300)
This is the set Max wants (under $100)
Brandon trying to talk Max into a bigger set. I think he was trying to get him to pool money with him! (Poor daddy walked out with nothing!)

To much fun! We would love to go to the amusement park LEGO LAND while we are here in LA!

faithless

So we have tons of stuff approaching in our lives and I feel like we have no control over any of it. I just have to sit back and know that we put the work into it and now I have to wait to see what the Lord has in store for us! I know that we will be ok with whatever He has in store for us because we're a pack of Jeffords and Jeffords stick together! It's hard to have faith and wait and wonder if it will be what you want it to be. What do I want it to be really? I think I would be happy either way. I think either way my kids would be happy. Of course there are pros and cons to both scenarios but that is where the faith comes in! Grrrrrrrr! I am sure glad that I was not a pioneer. I am pretty sure I would have just pulled my covered wagon over and said I AM DONE! I will just live here! Forget IT! I wonder as we start this phase of our journey if I will pull my mini van over...... I sure hope my pioneer ancestors will give me some encouragement and cheer me on my way! Can I borrow someones faith?

Happy Happy Birthday Dashel Dear!

Today is Dash's birthday! He is turning 5! I can't believe that next year he is going to kindergarten. I know we all say it as moms but it is going by so fast! I will miss him soooo much next year. He makes it so things are never boring around here! We had a spiderman birthday party for him on Saturday with a pinana! (pinata....but that is how he says it!) We will blog those pictures later! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY BIG BOY!



Things we all like about Dash:
Daddy: "I love his smile and his sense of humor. I love that he loves to cuddle!"
Darby: " I love his wonderful smile and his wonderful laugh. I love it when he is excited and wants to play and wants to make things fair and even!"
Max: "He's very nice and he likes video games and plays them with me!"
Mommy: "I love that he is quick to help and he works really hard! I love his magination and how happy he is when he makes new friends!"
Juliet: "He makes me laugh and picks up my toys!"
Callie the cat: "He keeps Juliet away from me!"