My Girls

My beautiful ladies :)

Don't tell Mike!

O.K. Don't tell Mike, but I get what he says about it's not really important WHERE you go together as a family, but it's just the experience of being together. We took the girls to Great Wolf Lodge this weekend. And don't get me wrong, it was surely fun. But really, what made it so fun? Hanging out as a family and going on an adventure together, Mike and I getting good talk time in the car, the girls jumping on the beds together, all being freaked out at the "Howling Tornado" water slide.... I can see, though, that we can have just as much fun going up to the Card cabin together - swimming in the lake, going to the pool, skits around the campfire, and playing board games on all the those rainy days! Really, the real enjoyment isn't where we were at - it's just that we were together, all getting along, and having fun!
That being said, there is still something about the adventure of going somewhere you haven't gone before. Very first thing we did when we walked into the water park was head for the steepest, scariest ride. Ally DID NOT want to go on the Howling Tornado. After we climbed like six flights of stairs to get up to the slide, we stood in line, freaked out and scared. Mike tried to reassure the girls that it wasn't going to be that bad. Too bad they've been reading since they were four and Ally promptly read the sign to us that went something like this: WARNING! This is a high adventure ride with steep drop offs, fast moving water, and IT WILL SCARE THE PANTS OFF YOU! DO NOT go on this ride if you don't like thrills.

so much for reassuring anyone. Luckily we were all committed to go (too many stairs to climb back down!) and all started giggling hysterically as Mike laughingly said, "Ally! Don't read that!" Mike and Ally went down first. I went down next with the twins. Not only was it fast, it was dark! The twins were screaming (or was that me?) And then to top it off it totally drops off like 40 feet! Me, being slightly heavier than the twins put together, was on the downward slide of this and I felt like they were going to flip over me! Then the slide spits you out into this big funnel shaped part of the slide where you are flung up the sides a few times before continuing down more dark tunnel. The looks on their faces when we came off the drop off and were being flung on the sides of the funnel were ones of terror! "I don't like this!" yelled Katie. Liz obviously felt the same way. As a Mom, I wanted to rescue my kids, but could do absolutely nothing and felt the very same way! Then we went speeding down the rest of the slide (which was nothing compared to the beginning of the ride) and shot out into the pool at the end. And all of a sudden everyone was smiling and saying, "That was fun!" We're all crazy. I still thought it was a bit too much. But even Ally liked it, which surprised me!
They did this magical quest adventure in the hotel. They went around following clues and doing quests and at the end slayed a dragon. Except we ran out of time and didn't actually slay the dragon (he killed us three times!) but instead went to watch "How to Train you Dragon". It was the first movie any of us have seen in the theater in 3-D. We all LOVED the movie and I thought the 3-D was amazing. We thought it was ironic that we tried, unsuccessfully, to slay our dragon, but instead learned how to train it.
It was a great time together. I love our family!
And I take it back, I think it partly so fun because of the adventure of where we went - scary water slides, magical quests, and 3-D movies! So we do need to go to Disneyland after all!

It's Complicated

Well, I know it shouldn't be complicated, but it is. Those Family Home Evening charts, you know the ones will the assignments on who is going give the lesson, prayers, lead the music, and make the dessert for FHE. They are complicated and just never worked for our family! To start out with, they would usually have an "extra" spot that we didn't have anyone to fill. But mostly, we wouldn't remember to move the little "flower" or "heart" to the next little spot, so the next week (or weeks later if we had forgotten to use it at all) we wouldn't know if we actually had moved it, or we had forgotten, or maybe Katie had moved it because she wanted to choose the Activity this time... it always ended up a bit of an argument and with just, well, confusion. So for the past year we have been skipping the little FHE charts and Mom just does the lesson, whoever wants to help makes the dessert, and we assign everything else as we go. But it's a new day and I have a new plan. No moving pieces on my chart - just names in boxes for each Monday of the month. It's simple. It's uncomplicated. Life is complicated enough.

Day 1 - went great and everyone completed their assignments. Ally gave us a lesson on "feeding His sheep" from the friend. Katie made Brownies (mostly) by herself, and we would've played hide-n-sheep in our house (we have many great hiding places!) if we hadn't had two visitors during the lesson and ended at 8:30p.m. without an activity. (With promises to play soon!)

I'll let you know how the rest of the month goes and if it stays as uncomplicated as I hope it will!

Spring Cleaning

I started by cleaning off my "hot spots" or spots where "stuff" gathers. Project #1: Butler's Pantry.
Here is before:


And after:


Can everyone say "Ahhhh,......" how much more calming to look at the clean counter! I still needed to have some important "to-do" papers on the counter, but I put them in folders and labeled them. I even hung up my little mother/daughter wall plaque that had been propped up on the counter. Mike needs to hang up our under the counter radio too.

Tomorrow: The pantry!

A Runaway!

Katie came to me as I was making dinner and informed me she was running away. She kissed me goodbye and told me she would be home in time for dinner. I said O.K., and that dinner would be in ten minutes. (I figured she couldn't get too far in that time.) She three purses and something wrapped in a baby blanket. She left. A few minutes later she came back inside and said that she would wait for a drier day to run away, that there was no where dry to set down her things.
I don't think she was mad about anything, just going on an adventure. Although maybe it did start when she didn't get to sit where she wanted to sit in the car...
Later, I looked to see what she packed. Here is what I found:

Her wooden name sign wrapped in a baby blanket, a little pillow, 3 undies and socks, 1 undershirt, 1 pair of pants, 3 books, some blank paper, a tiny doll, some jewelry, chap-stick, and my favorites: two soccer medals and her snow globe :) Today, three days later, it's pretty dry outside and her bags are still packed, but I think she has forgotten about running away!

Easter Party at Jeff & Janet's new house

Ella and Lily on the trampoline

Easter baskets on your heads!

Avery

Nana and Chloe

A.J.


Katie and Liz making a run for it!

Makayla

Katie, Liz, Avery, Ella

Jacob, Dylan, Ella, Lilly, Avery, and Liz


Connor

Liz helping Lilly collect eggs

Ella "It's an egg!"

Katie and Ally

Makayla

Pizza Time!

Spring Break Coast Trip

Katie

The girls and Nana are climbing on the rocks, it made me nervous!

A beautiful day at Cannon beach, with a lighthouse in the background between two of the big rocks.

Go Dylan!

Heather, Ally, Liz and Katie - gray and cold but they are still in the water!

Happy 9th Birthday Katie and Liz - Spa Party!

Spa Party - facials

Liz and Paige at the Foot Soak station


Hair Salon! Alyssa, Kirstin and Jen

It's Spa Party time! Happy 9th Birthday!

The cake Emily helped me make

Red Robin

Happy Birthday to you!

And You!

What the girls are up to...

Ally is getting so good at the flute!

Ally at her 2nd band concert. She looks so grown up!

Ally on the horse she is learning to ride - Auroa

Ally with her teacher Liz

Katie and Liz practicing their Tae Kwon Do before class starts

Ally, Liz, Katie and Cassidy at the Japanese Gardens

Ally, Liz, Katie and Cassidy at the Japanese Gardens

Family Picture Time!

The Cards and the Nygrens

The sleepover!

The Robrecht kids pyramid

The Robrecht Family

The ENTIRE Robrecht Family

January thru March

January –
The Big Move… we are into our new house! Thanks to a lot of help from ward members and family, the old house has fresh paint, ultra cleaned and plumbing leak fixed to get it all ready for the renters. They moved in on February 1^st. They are really nice people with one son at home that is a senior.

Our new home is like heaven to us. The first night we were here I looked at Mike and said, I feel like we are staying in a really nice hotel. I just love so many things about it! I love that whenever anything isn’t working correctly, I just call the builder.

Our second week at church I was called to teach the 3 year olds in Primary (the Sunbeams). They are a handful, exhausting, but also so cute. I love them!

February

The Big Party. Having the Robrecht family reunion at our new house was great fun. How lucky are our kids that they get to have so many cousins that they get to hang out with? I feel so blessed that our family picture turned out so well. I can’t believe we caught everyone smiling with their eyes open. Mike was rewarded from work with a Nikon D5000 digital SLR camera that arrived the day before the party. What great timing to catch some memories in the making. I love the pictures it takes and can’t believe the difference, just on auto setting, between the SLR and a point and shoot. Yes, it’s big, but it’s worth lugging around. I enjoyed playing games, going to the park with the kids, and all going to church together. The Chinese Gardens were beautiful (went with Dan, Becca, and Mom) and then a few weeks later I took the girls (and Cassidy - who is basically one of my girls too) to a free day at the Japanese Gardens.

By February we were settled enough to start the twins on Tae Kwon Do and Ally on horseback riding lessons. I have also started to take voice lessons, trying to learn to sing Alto. The girls’ piano teacher teaches me for just $10 a lesson. It’s actually somewhat discouraging. Maybe I’m too old to learn something new? I can sing it at home when it’s just me singing and plunking out the top hand of the hymns, but at church it’s so hard to hear when everyone else is singing. ***sigh*** maybe I should just leave the singing to my girls. But I think I’ll try it for at least a year and see if I can make some progress.

We really enjoyed having Janet and her kids stay with us for almost two weeks. It was a bummer for them because they had to move out due to the mold in their rental house, but we had lots of fun together. We had a little “fireworks” party in the garage, the kids played lots of Wii games and “boys against girls”, and we celebrated Makayla’s birthday. We were so happy to have the extra room to welcome them in. I corrupted Janet by having her watch “The Bachelor” with me - it was the last two episodes. She was a good example to me (I even ironed some of Mike’s shirts the next week, after she ironed Jeff’s shirts. I mean, she’s in the process of moving, in-between homes, and yet she is still ironing his shirts! I have trouble ironing Mike’s shirts on a good week!) I also followed her example and decorated the downstairs after Katie and Liz went to bed for their birthday, like she does for her kids, and did for Makayla while they were staying here. We enjoyed some good late night talks and making meals together. Janet is amazing and just gives so much to those around her! We really miss them staying with us!

We celebrated Katie and Liz's birthday at Red Robin, and then a few days later they had a Spa Party with 12 of their school friends and some of their cousins. We set up spa stations for foot soak, hair salon, toes and nails, and making body glitter & bath salts. Then we all did peel off facial makes complete with cucumber of the eyes. It was a huge success.

I was sick for almost two weeks with a cold turned into sinus infection, ear infections, and two cold sores. Ick. To top it off, once I was better I had some sort of allergic reaction to something… maybe Augmenton (antibiotic) and Acyclovir (antiviral) combined that gave me a sunburn like rash all over my face. Sigh… this moral world we live in…

The big break – spring break! We enjoyed a fun trip to the beach with Jeff & Janet at the condo they stay at in Cannon Beach. The first two days were cold and windy, but the last two days were perfect. Nana and the girls played on the beach for probably 4 hours, climbing the rocks and playing in the ocean. We built big sand castles and dug deep holes and buried people in the sand. I love being away from home and playing games and watching movies and snuggling with my girls. It was also fun to come back home again to our new house J. Liz got tonsillitis the last day we were there.

Congrats to Jeff and Janet on their new house! We enjoyed a great birthday/Easter/House warming party this Saturday. Thanks for having us all over.

Today Mike was called as the Gospel Doctrine teacher and I got an additional calling as the Young Women ward camp leader. I am excited to get to go to camp with Ally and we both will get to know and serve more people in our new ward.