It's all good . . .

Our Piano Girl

The last Saturday before school got out, Lily had her spring piano recital.  It is amazing to me to see how far she has come over the past 4 years of taking lessons.  I still remember her first recital, when she was only five years old.  Where does the time go? (I think I have been saying that a lot lately.)

When we got to the recital, I realized that I was so concerned about getting Lily ready and getting there on time, that I completely forgot my camera!  Luckily, Kevin had his phone to take video, and my friend Linnea was awesome and snapped a few pictures for me.

For the recital, she played a piece called "Malaguena," and she did a beautiful job.  Not only that, but she volunteered to go as the very first person on the program - she never gets nervous :). 

We are so proud of our sweet girl and her amazing talent :).  It turned out wonderfully.  And hey, in the next recital, Derek will be playing in it as well, since he starts lessons in June :).

Last Day of School!

I can't believe that summer is already upon us, and that Friday was the last day of school.  I am so excited for all we have planned this summer, but it is also freaking me out that Lily will be a 4th grader and Derek will be in 1st grade.  Insane.  They grow up too fast!

In honor of the last day, we tried to come up with the perfect teacher gifts.  I scoured Pintrest for great ideas, and although I found many wonderful ones, I ended up just coming up with my own.  You see, I helped a lot in Derek's class this year, and knew exactly what his teacher, Mrs. Cole, wanted/needed - a new stapler.  Hers was awful, and so I bought her a fancy new one, and tried to think of something clever for the card - this was the best I could come up with :).

Lily, on the other hand, knew just what her teacher loved most - chocolate :).  Lily told me that, "Mrs. Fisher loves chocolate, because it gives her patience."  That sparked an idea, and soon we were putting together "Magic Patience Pills" for the gift.  I took a pop top pill bottle, had a friend teach me to modge-podge the label on, and filled it with M&Ms.  We even put a refill into the gift bag for when she ran out.  My favorite part of the gift was the label I made that had a warning at the bottom to "always exceed reccomended dosage." :)

 
I sent them off to school, and then 30 minutes later, Kevin and I were back for Derek's kindergarten Promotion and program.  They started off by singing all their favorite songs from class.  Derek said his favorite was the "Pink" song, and listening to it, I could see why.  It was pretty fun and had great actions :).

Then they each took a turn saying what they want to be when they grow up before getting their "diploma."  Derek wants to be a doctor :).  And he was so cute shaking his Mrs. Cole's hand - first with the wrong hand, and then with the right.

He looks so grown up!   And he had such a wonderful year and a wonderful teacher.

His teacher surprised me with a gift to thank me for being the Head Room Mother this year.  It was a lot of fun, and I loved being in the classroom every week.  (And I wish I had taken my jacket off - I look terrible in this picture.  Oh well.)

Then we took Derek home for an hour, before we all headed back to the school for Lily's end of the year party.  They had tons of food and those kids ate, and ate, and ate.  It was hilarious to watch.  We also loved Lily's teacher, Mrs. Fisher, this year, and were sad to say goodbye to her.

We took Lily home early, since I was not going back to the school a 4th time that day.  At first she was sad to leave early, and then when Kevin told her he would play Legend of Zelda, she was just fine.  They played for almost 4 hours as their end of school celebration, and Derek was always grabbing his sword and shield to fight the bad guys while Kevin fought them on screen.  So funny.

That night, I grilled steaks as a special treat, and then we had cheesecake for dessert while watching "American Ninja Warrior."  It was the perfect way to end the school year.

PS. The kids first day of summer was pretty busy.  We got up and Lily and Derek helped me clean the house - vacuuming, dusting, sweeping, mopping, and cleaning the bathrooms and their bedrooms and closets.  They worked so hard and were amazing helpers.  So that night, we took them to Olive Garden for a special dinner to celebrate their good grades and hard work all school year :).

That Derek

Derek never fails to make us smile, or just plain laugh out loud.  He is sweet and funny, and so much his own person.  Like the fact that he has to wear his boots with everything - even shorts.  (Just like his dad did as a boy, which is pretty funny.)

I love watching him play with his Legos as he creates things and plays pretend, or play his video games as he gets so excited that he jumps up and down the whole time he plays, just like Tigger. 

I also love how, no matter the weather, he will grab a sword and shield, head to the back yard and fight the bad guys.  Sometimes the shield stays inside if it is "too windy", but he goes out there anyway.  And he will stay out there for an hour, sword fighting invisible bad guys the whole time.  It is awesome.

The other day, when I was getting all of Lily's favorite things from her, he decided that he wanted to make a list of his favorites too (even though we just did that 5 months ago for his birthday).  It was funny to see what had already changed :).

Derek's Favorites:

Color: Red

Season: Summer

Food: Pasta and Pizza and Cheese

Dessert: Ice-cream

TV Show: Little Einsteins

Movie: Star Wars

Subject: Art

Song: I Am a Child of God

Thing to Do in Free Time: Play Legos

Video Game: Legos Star Wars

Game: Monopoly Jr

Book: Over There (this really great book about a daddy being deployed my friend gave us when Kevin left on his deployment)

Sport: T-ball

Thing to Wear: Star Wars shirt, shorts, and boots or sandals

Job: Clean his room

Place to Vacation: Disney World

Place to Visit: Grandma Valerie's House

Place to Be: His room

Thing to Do with Dad: Play Video Games

Thing to Do with Mom: Play games

Thing to Do with Lily: Watch a Show

Most Looking Forward to in the Future: Go to College (Not sure if this is true, as he had just heard Lily say this answer.)

Wants to Be when He Grows Up: Doctor

Celebrating Lily!

Lily had been counting down the days to her birthday for weeks, and so we tried to make it extra special.  The best part was that her dad was home to celebrate with us, which we didn't think would happen since he was going to be gone until July.

As a special treat, Kevin went to the donut shop nearby and bought birthday donuts for her breakfast.  She was so excited!!

At school, she got to bring a small treat and a book for their classroom.  She said she had a wonderful day.  After school, she had piano lessons, but came home to a call from Kevin's parents.  She was so happy to talk to them, and they even got on face-time so she could talk face to face.  And she opened her present from them, which meant they got to see how extremely happy she was to get a microscope :).

For her birthday dinner, we had ribs, corn on the cob, and roasted rosemary red potatoes.  She picked out the entire menu :).  And for her cake, we splurged and got a Coldstone ice-cream cake.  It was delicious - choclate cake, cake batter ice-cream with cookie dough and chocolate ganache!!

Then it was time for the rest of her presents.  Lily got books, books, and more books - and she was extremely happy about all of them, especially since we gave her the entire set of 39 Clues books :).  She also got an Angry Birds t-shirt, and an adorable apron my friend Angela sewed for me.  (It is just the right size for her, since she is too big for kid aprons, and too small for adult aprons.)

She was so happy, and really felt like she had had a fantastic birthday.  And we sure loved watching her get excited about everything and soak it all up.  We sure do love that girl of ours!

Nine

How is my baby girl nine?  Time goes by way too fast, and it just seems unbelievable that she is now as old as my fourth graders were when she was born.  I wouldn't trade any of these past nine years, it just seems that she is growing up too fast.

She is such a sweet and unique little girl.  She sees the world in a new and exciting way, is fascinated by science, and has one of the most vivid imaginations I have ever come across. She even wants to be a scientist when she grows up.

She is bright and quick to learn and remember.  She is friendly and generous.  She is fun to be around and always makes us laugh.

And she can be stubborn and sassy, and even surly when she wants to be :).  And she really hates it when I tell her she is being surly, even if it is the perfect word to describe her behavior.

She has a strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  And she gives wonderful hugs.

The other day, I asked her about a few of her favorite things, and here are her answers . . .

Color: green

Season: Spring

Food: German Pancakes, Pizza Rolls, and Ribs

Dessert: Carmel

Song: Apples (her own composition)

TV Show: Jake and the Neverland Pirates

Movie: "Tangled" and "The Muppets"

Subject: Science

Scripture Story: Birth of Jesus

Thing to Wear: causal clothes, like sweats or shorts with a t-shirt

Favorite Job: Get dressed in the morning (not sure that this counts as a job)

Thing to Do in Freetime: Read

Video Game: any Legend of Zelda game

Book: any book (she is about as decisive as me)

Game: Playing pretend

Sport: swimming

Place to Vacation: the beach (she did spend the first 7 years of her life near an ocean)

Place to Visit: Family in Idaho

Place to Be: a library

Thing to do with Dad: play games

Thing to do with Mom: read

Thing to do with Derek: Play pretend

Thing most Looking Forward to in the Future: Going to College to study science

Going to the Castle

A while back, I bought a Groupon for the Miramount Castle in Manitou Springs (about 40 minutes from where we live on the opposite side of town).  I had been wanting to go there, and with my mom coming to visit, I thought it was the perfect opportunity.  Sadly, when my mom was here, her knees made it impossible to do anything, especially touring a castle with tons of stairs.

Well, because that didn't work out, I took my friend, Natalie, instead.  Her baby, James, even got to come along - he is such a cutie!

It was a fantastic day!  We started with breakfast at a cute little French bistro in downtown Colorado Springs called La Baguette.  I had the most divine croissant breakfast sandwich and the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted.  And we both got a pastry to-go - who can resist a REAL chocolate croissant?

After breakfast, we went to the castle, and we had a great time touring it.  Manitou Springs is tucked into the mountains, and it was such a gorgeous location.  We couldn't get over how they built it onto the side of the hill so every room had a fantastic view.

I also really loved all the stained glass windows.

And no castle is complete without a suit of armor, right?

The amazing this about this castle, was that it was built by a priest and his wealthy French mother, and they only lived there about 10 years.  The rest of the time it served as an asylum run by nuns, and then an apartment house.  Thank goodness it was restored.

We also really loved the flower garden.  It was so beautiful, and I can never resist taking more flower pictures :).

It was such a fun day, and I am so grateful to have such an amazing friend :).

A Busy and Wonderful Week

This past week or so has been jam packed with things - mostly good things, but it was still pretty busy.  It is a combination of getting to have Kevin back, and the fact that we are in the last few weeks of school.  Some of the highlights are:

New Toys

Kevin has a fun new Macbook, which he has been LOVING.  He even managed to find an orange case for it the internet, since they were sold out at both the Apple store in Colorado Springs and Denver.

And it is a good thing he has this new toy, because we have had to use it to watch all our TV shows from while Kevin was away.  I had them all on our DVR, but somehow when we sat down to watch the first show, Kevin accidentally deleted EVERYTHING off our DVR.  We couldn't stop laughing, because it was so funny, and yet not. 

Luckily, he is amazing, because not only did he figure out all the shows we needed to watch, but he worked out an awesome system on his new toy to watch them on our TV and use his iPad as a remote :).

Swimming Lessons

Both Lily and Derek are in swimming lessons right now, and I am still blown away at how amazing they are doing.  It was so much fun to take Kevin to their lessons so he could see it too :).  (Wish these were better pictures, but they were taken with Kevin's phone.)

Bubbly Ears

I don't know if you would call this a highlight, but I thought it was pretty funny.  Once or twice a year, we do "bubbly ears" to the kids by putting a little peroxide in their ears and letting it bubble and eat all the nasty wax build up.   (Kevin's dad once had his doctor say this was fine, as long as you didn't do it too often.)  Well, Derek was taking his turn, and Kevin decided he wanted to get in on the fun.  I love this picture!

A Visit from the Drapers

Kevin's best friend Rob and his family were heading home to Oklahoma from a visit in Utah, and decided to stop in for a couple days.  We were so happy to have them!  Too bad that our 70-80 degree weather decided to disappear while they were here.  At one point, it even snowed giant fluffy flakes.  Lily and Ellie had to go out in it.

Lily loved having the little ones around, as they have a 2 year old, Rosie, and a pretty new baby, Clara. 

We stayed up late every night (well, we, meaning the adults) playing games and talking.  The kids had a blast together.  And I took advantage of a break in the cold to go over to the Broadmoor to take their family portraits.

We had such a wonderful time with them!!

Mother's Day

On Mother's Day morning, before the Drapers headed home, Kevin and Rob made Angela and I a special Mother's Day breakfast.  Kevin made his amazing cinnamon rolls, and Rob made bacon and eggs.  It was perfect.

The kids also gave me cute homemade cards, and Lily gave me an awesome coupon book.  Earlier in the week, I got a surprise at my door with an Edible Arrangement from my mother-in-law.  It was delicious and a very fun early Mother's Day present :).  (And I love the orange watering can - I think I might plant something in it for my kitchen window.)

Last Track Meet

On Monday, the kids had their last track meet of the season.  It was supposed to be last week, but it was stormy that whole day, and so it had been postponed.  Both kids did awesome.  Derek ran the 400 m and got a time of 2:24.  He especially loved his medal :).

Lily also did well, running the 800m in 4:27.  I was so glad their daddy was there to see a race, and so were they :).

And so yes, it has been a pretty busy week.  This next week is just as crazy, but it should be just as good :).

The Best Anniversary Gift Ever

Eleven years ago, I married the love of my life in the Salt Lake Temple for time and all eternity.  It was a wonderful day, but it was an even better beginning to what has been an amazing life together.  A few weeks ago when I was at my nieces wedding at that same place, it really made me think about how grateful I am for my wonderful husband.

He was deployed at the time, and I thought that there was no way on earth that he would ever get home in time for our anniversary.  Well, miracles do happen, and he returned three days before our anniversary, and so instead of us spending it apart, we got to spend the entire day together.

With the help of some amazing friends (thank you Tami and Lisa!!), Kevin and I spent the day and night in Denver.  We started with a session at the Denver Temple, which was wonderful.  Then it was off to a yummy lunch at the White Chocolate Grill - and even though it was called that, we had no white chocolate on our steaks :).  (Check out the wall of bottles behind Kevin.)

After lunch, we changed and Kevin was on the hunt for a new driver.  During his deployment, we had set aside money for it and he had researched which ones he thought would be best.  Then he tested out different drivers for over an hour.  I played games on my iPod - wish I had brought my book, but hey, I think it had been a year since I last played games on there - he he!  All of it paid off, because he found the perfect new driver.  (We all went to the driving range the next day so he could try it out for real, and he was still very happy with it, so I call that success.)

Then we headed to downtown Denver to check into our hotel.  It was the Denver Sheraton, and was right on the 16th Street Mall, which was awesome.  And they upgraded us to the club level for our anniversary, which not only meant we had yummy hourderves and a great breakfast the next morning, but we had a fantastic view, since we were on the 21st floor.

After a small dinner, we wandered down the 16th Street Mall, which is really cool, if you ever come to Denver.  We even found a gelato shop and indulged in some deliciousness.  Yum!  Then we caught the free bus most of the way to the Pepsi Center where the Denver Nuggets play.  You see, as an amazing and once in a lifetime gift, the Lakers just happened to be playing the Nuggets in the first round of the NBA playoffs!  And on our anniversary they were playing in Denver!  And last minute we were able to get awesom seats.  Talk about awesome!

And luckily, we weren't the only people there wearing Lakers shirts - sort of like how it was when we used to watch them play the Jazz.  We were only 14 rows up and behind the Nuggets bench, which gave us an amazing view - especially when the weird guys in front of us were actually sitting down :).

I love watching them come out and warm up.  It is one of my favorite things.

And of course, because it was a playoff game, there was lots of extra random stuff going on, and we even got a free Denver rally towel.  Ha ha!  Oh, and we had so much fun making fun of the Nuggets' dancers.  Fun times.

The game was fun to watch, although sadly, we lost.  Oh well.  It is still awesome to watch Kobe work his magic in person.  It wasn't his fault the rest of his team couldn't make a shot.

Kevin was especially entertained by the crazy halftime show - Wolfgang Biantzia, Master of the Rings.  So funny, especially because of how into it the audience was.  Yes, highly entertaining.

The game was really fun, and we even made it on the jumbotron once, and even though it wasn't the kissing cam, I still had to plant one on Kevin.  It was our anniversary, after all :).  And I thought it was pretty awesome how our anniversary kept flashing on all their monitors.  Once I even caught it with the Lakers logo :).

After the game, we made our way back to our hotel, and were so grateful we had a place to stay, and weren't trying to drive home in all that traffic and mess. 

It was an amazing anniversary, and made even better because we were actually together to celebrate.  I am so thankful for my amazing husband and these past eleven years.  I look forward to an eternity with him :).

HE'S HOME!!

Last week, I got a message from Kevin saying that he would probably be coming home this week, a whole two months early from his deployment.  It almost seemed too good to be true.  He would make it home in time to be there for so many things - our anniversary, Lily's birthday, and countless school things for the kids.

Although things with his travel got a little tricky, and he almost got stuck partway home, everything came together, and on Tuesday night, I picked up Lily from an activity at the church, and told Lily and Derek that we had to run an errand before we came home.  I hadn't even told them their dad was coming home - there were too many ways he could have been delayed - and so they were clueless.

Lily just sat there peppering me with questions, "Why are you so dressed up?  Why are we so far from home?  Why are we pulling up to the airport?"  When we pulled up to the airport, she looked at me and said, "Is it Daddy?  I'll bet we are here to get Daddy!!"  Then Derek was all excited too, even though I hadn't told them for sure yet.

When we went in, his plane was about 20 minutes early, and so as we walked past the down escalator on our way to the up escalator, I saw him coming.  I stopped in my tracks and let out a little cry, I was so happy and surprised to see him standing there.  Soon, there were hugs all around.

After the kids, it was my turn.  I had a hard time letting go of him, it was such a relief to have him back after the past four months.  We even found somebody to take our picture :).

Once we got his stuff, we hurried out to the car, all of us anxious to get to be home and together as a family.  I did have to stop and take one more picture though :).

Once we got home, he unpacked special surprises for the kids, and some fun new magnets for my collection.  And then Kevin settled down with the kids and got to read them their bedtime story, which was the perfect.  Derek kept touching Kevin, like he was making sure that he wouldn't disappear :).

We are so happy to be together again as a family, and so happy to have Kevin home safe and sound.  And I am so grateful for the prayers on behalf of all of us, the help, the support and the friendship that got us through the past four months.  Thank you all!

Playing with my Mom

After the wedding, I was lucky enough to get to take my mom home with me for a week.  It was so wonderful to have her company for the week, and the kids just loved having her read with them or play games.  In the afternoon when I would leave to go pick up Lily, Derek usually pulled out a game to play with grandma, and they had a blast.

Our plans during the week did have to change quite a bit however, because my poor mother's knees were causing her so much pain, she could barely walk.  Because of that, it ended up being a week of "forced relaxation" for her.  She couldn't really go anywhere, and so she "had" to sit and do things that she loves, but never has time for.  It was almost a blessing in disguise. 

We had a wonderful time together, talking, watching movies, and working on things side by side in the dining room.  One day, I even got her a massage from a wonderful masseuse I have been using while Kevin is away.

And she did get to get out to watch Lily and Derek at their swim lessons and track meet, which was awesome.  She even played with the kids all day on Saturday, while I went to Denver with some friends to see "Wicked."  It was such a blessing to have her visit, and I am so lucky to have such a wonderful mother.