Thank you, Thank you, Thank you my FRIENDS!

While I was in West Virginia all my friends helped me out with my kids! I couldn't have gone away to help Kim without them! Thank you everyone for helping me!!!! My kids never even missed me! Wednesday they went to Amy Lopez's house. She took them to our Relief Society pool group and so they got to see all the friends from our ward. So I owe a thank you to all my different friends from our ward who helped out with them there. That night Luke got to go to the movie Iron Man with Carver and his dad John for Carver's 6th birthday. And then he got to SLEEPOVER! Originally Matt was going to be out of town and so all 3 kids were going to stay over night at Amy's. But then Matt's travel plans changed and so he was in town. Luke and Carver were bummed because that meant Luke didn't need to sleep over at his house. But then we let him since it was Carver's birthday.

Here's Gavin and Amy's baby Cooper just "bummin" around at the pool! :)

Best buddies with similar interests :)

Amy had her hands full, THANKS AMY!

Emma, Luke, and the birthday boy Carver! (And also Emma's future husband, she is sure she is going to be Emma Lopez someday!)

Then I had my friend Amy Hillis set up to take the kids on Thursday but Matt ended up taking the day off! What a great dad! Then Friday my friend Ashley Lisonbee came over and stayed with the kids until I got home at noon. Oh and my friend Rachel Mann picked me up from the airport!!!! What amazing friends I have to all pitch in and help me out! I am so grateful! Amy Hillis came over on Friday morning before I got home and took Emma to her house for a "makeover". Emma came home that afternoon with make up on, nails done, and hair curled! Her three little girls, Abby age 8, Maddie age 7, and Annie age 3 (maybe she's 4), were the beauticians :) Amy's blog is hilarious how she describes the afternoon! :) Here are the pictures she sent me...

After the makeovers they got to watch a princess movie in Amy's bed! What a fun day! Emma was pampered to say the least! :)

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU MY FRIENDS!

West Virginia move....

Well Kim and Morgan and their family are off to do their first sets of rotations for medical school and so they have to move to Parkersburg, WV from Lewisburg, WV where they have been for the last 2 years. They are sad to leave the cute little town of Lewisburg but are excited for their next adventure. I knew the packing would be a lot of work, especially with 2 young kids and I knew Morgan had to study for his boards that he takes next week and I couldn't handle the thought of my little sister taking it all upon herself to do all the labor :) So I flew up there on Wed. to Roanoke, VA and then we drove near Charlotte, NC where we met up with Anna and her kids who had picked up my mom and my niece Brynlie! They were also coming to help with the packing festivities! After a short lunch with Anna and the kids then we were off for the road trip to Lewisburg, WV. Thursday morning I got up and went on the most beautiful run on a trail right next to a river. Talk about gorgeous...I almost forgot I was running and my run went quick. Then we came back to Kim's and hit the floor running on the packing. We packed most of her kitchen (which is the hardest part in my opinion), a couple of closets, most of her decorations, and a bunch of books, DVDs and videos. We probably had 50 boxes stacked up in her dining room! That night we took a quick break and went to get ice cream with one of Kim's good friends Marci. We stopped by Morgan's school and took him some ice cream too. It's fun to see his school and where he spends all of his time. We were all beat when we got home and after visiting, laughing, and reminiscing we all hit the sack. It was a short trip and Kim had to take me to the airport this morning...I was sad to leave. It was especially weird to be on an airplane by myself without any children to stop from kicking the seat in front of them, or worrying about spills, yelling, crying and entertaining. I actually read a book! I missed my family tremendously but was grateful to have the opportunity to go and help out my sis! Thank goodness my mom brought my niece Brynlie because we would not have been able to accomplish all that we did without her babysitting Savannah and Maggie. Savannah wouldn't let Brynlie leave her side. At one point my mom stuck her head into Savannah's room and said "Savannah can we borrow Brynlie for a minute to help us pack?" to which Savannah replied "No we are playing sisters" and she shut the door as if to say "and there will not be anymore discussion about it!" :) THANKS BRYNLIE!!!! You are a life saver! Good luck with the move Kim and Morgan!

Lunch with the family, what a weird feeling not to have my kids with me!!!!

Brynlie the lifesaver at work! :)

At one point Savannah buried Brynlie when she was pretending to be her doctor...I hope this isn't one remedy that her father will practice :)

I love ya Brynlie!

First I would like to mention that this picture was taken at 6:00 am this morning....what I would like you to notice is ALL the boxes behind us! What work!

We started a GARDEN!!!!

We had a very fun Family Home Evening tonight! We started our garden! We planted cucumbers, green onions, carrots, lettuce, and beans! We've been wanting to do it for a while and Saturday Matt tore out some ugly bushes that we had along the back wall and today I went to Lowe's and got the Black Kow and tonight the family went to work. I was very impressed with Luke on Saturday. He stayed out and helped Matt tear out the bushes and bag all the clippings. He was quite the hard worker. Tonight the kids tried to help but mostly got in the way :) But it was good for them to be out there to help a little because it got them excited and I know Matt will have them out there weeding and working on it. Matt hurried home from work and started right away so we would have as much sunlight as possible. As you can see from the pictures we ran out of sunlight and the last few seeds were planted in the dark. Fun, fun, fun...I can't wait to see how our little family garden does :) I love the feel of summer when you are out in the yard and the kids are running around and getting dirty and you don't have to worry about getting them to bed in a hurry so they can get up for school. Saturday was so nice, I cleaned the house all day and did the things I have been neglecting for so long, and Matt worked out in the yard all day. I think the new paint job on the house has really motivated us to keep things looking nice. Then we barbecued hamburgers on the grill on Saturday and had "corn on the hog" as Luke called it :) Awe the joys of summer!

Gavin's Little Surgery...

Emma took this picture of Gavin just before he went in...he was trying to say "cheese" :)

Today we took Gavin in to get tubes put in his ears. I was relieved when they told me his operation was going to be at 7:30 a.m. because he was not supposed to eat after midnight the night before. I knew he would be very upset in the morning if he didn't get his bottle and breakfast so I thought it would work great having his surgery first thing. WELL we got there at 7:30 a.m. and waited in the waiting room until 11:30 a.m. We took many walks and saw all the fun things the Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital had. But the kids were hungry and antsy. Finally they took us to a room and Gavin put on the cute little hospital gown. It was so cute to see the little open back gown on little Gavers. Then we waited in that room for an hour! Gavin got so tired that he fell asleep when I was rocking him. Finally at 12:30 they came to take him in for his surgery. They gave him some medication to make him tired and happy so that when they took him he didn't make a big scene. He was very mad every time they would take his blood pressure or hook him up to any kind of monitors. But by the time they took him he was kind of loopy and didn't mind. He just kissed me and off he went. The whole surgery took all of 10 minutes. While he was in there I took the kids to grab a bite to eat and by the time we were done they were calling me to come up for him. He woke up hungry and mad. They let me give him a bottle of juice and he downed it! Then when he finished he kept pointing to the empty bottle and crying "mama". They said they didn't want him to have more in case he threw it up. But he was screaming. So they got him a popsicle and he just held it in his hands and cried. When I would try to take it away he would freak out even more. So they finally gave in and gave him another bottle. :) Thank goodness! The kids took a few more minutes at the fun pirate ship the hospital has outside and then we finally got home by 3:00 pm. Both Luke and Emma fell asleep on the way home and I put Gavin down for a nap too and I even got a nap!!!!!! That NEVER happens but we were all so exhausted that we crashed from 3:00 to 5:00 pm!! So the 10 minute surgery took us all day! The doctor said Gavin's ear was brutally infected. It just confirmed to me that we really did need the tubes. Gavin has had consistent fluid and ear infections since November! So the poor baby....hopefully this will take care of everything and he will have clear ears again.

Is this not the cutest thing to see the hospital gown on his little body :)

Medicine is kickin in!

Thank goodness for all the fun things they had around the hospital to keep the kids entertained.

Last Day of School...Party, Party, Party!!!

What a day! Today was Luke's last day of school and they had water day. I wasn't going to help at first because I knew all my friends would be doing last day of school stuff and I knew it would be hard to find someone to watch Gavin and Emma. But then Luke asked if I was going to be there...I didn't think he cared if I was there or not, but he wanted me there!!!! It's always nice to feel needed and loved. So I called my babysitter who watches the kids while I am at dance...thank goodness she just graduated and is free during the days. So I got to help out at Luke's school. It was such a fun active day for them. They had about 10 different stations. They had:

1. Fishing out of a little play pool
2. Run through the sprinklers
3. Bubbles
4. Hula hoop obstacle course
5. Sponge squeeze
6. Run with a cup over your head
7. Beach ball toss/dribble
8. Sidewalk chalk
9. Sand castle/digging
10. Shaving cream

Some how I lucked out and I got to stand in the shade and hand out treats and drinks. That was nice considering the high was 94 degrees today!!! It also gave me the flexibility to run around and take pictures of Luke at most of his different stations. Somehow I still managed to embarrass myself :) I was standing there talking to an older gentleman and I simply asked "Which child is your grandchild?" to which he replied "Actually my DAUGHTER is Taylor"!!!!!! OOOOOPS!!!!! I guess I can't tease Matt anymore about all the times he has asked a woman if she is pregnant when she is not :) I wanted to crawl under a rock...instead I had to face him all day because his station was right smack next to mine! :) Live and learn, live and learn! :)

Jurnie, Luke, Sydnee, and Lauren

Noah, Luke and Austin

Alexis, Jonathon, Jayla, Lauren, Jurnie, Luke, Benjamin, Tyler, and Sydnee

Luke, Benjamin, and Tyler

Luke's masterpiece!

The shaving cream was my favorite station to see those cute kids having so much fun and getting so messy!

After school we brought our neighbors, Nicholas and Brooke, home with us so they wouldn't have to go to extended day. We went to our friend's pool. Who knew just going to the pool would be such an adventure!? While we were all sitting there talking a little raccoon came up and was getting food that was dropped on the concrete. Then the little stinker got even gutsier and came and was looking on our cooler and was heading for the table that we had all our snacks on. I was worried that the kids would get hurt by him so we were constantly trying to scare him away. And then the next adventure came at the end, there were a few dark clouds in the sky and we were just starting to say we better pack it up before it starts to storm and then BOOM! DOWN came the rain! It was pouring and we had to pack it up quick and make a run for the cars! Gavin was laughing his head off feeling all the rain soaking him! He was such a funny kid in the pool. He didn't want to sit in his inner tube yet he didn't want me to hold him. He just wanted to swim right out of my hands. He would stand on the stairs and then jump to me and go under water and then pop up laughing! I am so sad I didn't even get any pictures of him! Mostly because I constantly had him in my hands so he wouldn't jump in the pool himself. Anyway it was a great last day of school! It was a non-stop party. In fact after the pool Nicholas and Brooke were still over and Carver came over and played too. In fact it is almost 9:00 pm and he and Luke are still downstairs playing!

Some kids from church: (in the back) Maddie Hillis, Justine Lyons, Abby Hillis, and Brooke Hanus; (middle) Christopher Lyons, Sam Martinez, Luke, Emma; (in front) Nicholas

Emma and Brooke wore their twinner swim suits!

Carver, Luke and Nicholas in the kiddie pool!

The little stinker raccoon that was crashing our party!

Goodbye Kindergarten!

Luke has loved Kindergarten and I am sad to see it end! :) I have loved his teacher and all the cute and creative things that she has done for the kids. You can tell she loves them and loves to teach. Here are a few of the end of the school year things that she has sent home that I think are priceless!

I don't know if you can read it, it says "Here's a picture you can treasure. Teaching you has been a pleasure! The year now ends and we must part. Always know you' are in my heart! Love, Mrs. Balasis"

Lukes last day of school is tomorrow. They are going to have water day, which I'm sure I will have more posts and pictures about. What a great year! Thanks Mrs. Balasis!

Gavin...17 months old going on 17 years :)

Gavin thinks he owns the place around here. He thinks he is allowed to play with anything and everything! Tonight I walked into the room to see him typing away at Matt's computer! He really looked like he knew what he was doing :)

BUSTED!

He thinks he is so funny!

I walked into the family room to see all three kids in one chair watching t.v. There is another chair exactly like this one right next to it but they all like to be together :) I love the way Gavin is looking up at Emma like he is so funny!