The Importance of a Thank You Card

My girl has seen me write countless number of thank you cards for birthdays, baby showers, and really, just because. My mom taught me the importance of a thank you card at a young age and I'm grateful to her for that. It's a practice that has become less and less common now a days, I've noticed when talking with others over the years.

Afton told me this morning, 30 seconds before we were about to leave for preschool, that she needed to write her teachers a "very special note, now." I told her that we could do it after we got home in the afternoon. Clearly, it was NOT a good time to do it. Honestly, 30 seconds.

I didn't know why we were writing them notes, but she explained, "Mom, we only have a few classes left with them. They need to know that I'm thankful for them."

I teared up. I'm not going to lie. I totally got emotional. 

Got Kicked Out of Institute

My sugar had a rough week.

While sitting in institute at school, his teacher asked hesitantly, "Is anyone in here over 30?"

My sugar raised his hand, slowly because of the arthritis setting in. Just kidding.

"Well how old are you?"

He responded, "I'll be 36 in a couple days."

The teacher buried his face in his hands and then basically kicked him out of class, in the nicest way possible! He explained that he could stay for the remainder of the semester, but was no longer invited after that. WHATEVER!

My sugar is an OLD man. But he's a married OLD man, along with 85% of the other dudes, I repeat dudes, in the class. There is no one for him to creep out by being the OLD guy hitting on the young chicks in class, which we're all sure is why the institute teacher even was asking about age. It's probably an issue at other institute classes on other campuses, but not at UNLV Dental School. Come on.

None the less, he's been banished.

We love him even though he's not an eagle scout, barely graduated from seminary (Ha!), and now is NOT welcome in institute. 

And because we love him so much, we wanted to celebrate his birthday and help him feel good about getting one year older and wiser too. (Haaaaaappy birthday to you!)

The day started with NO breakfast in bed. He can thank Jocelyn for that one. (I'm not taking the blame, that's for sure. She's the one who was not sleeping through the night because of shots. Poor girl means poor mommy, too. Which in turn means poor daddy.)

But the morning wasn't all bad. His sweet girl, Afton woke up early to make him a special birthday necklace 

and bracelet. She's getting quite good. Jack showered him with hugs, kisses, and even his favorite dinosaur was given as a present. "You can have this one to keep forever!"

We played at the museum and made him some fun tissue paper cupcakes.

My sugar's friends from school took him out to Smash Burger for lunch, so that made him happy. (And all of them happy. They love that joint.)

For dinner we went to Sweet Tomatoes with my mom, brother and his family. Nice and uneventful. The evening ended with a "sibree" (Frisbee) toss. My babies love to play with their daddy!

Daddy loved his presents from all of us, and I think he had a good day. 

 Happy Birthday to my non-eagle scout, seminary graduate, worthy return missionary, and institute outcast! 

Your babies love you.

I love you.

We ALL love you!

"Pioneers Sang as They Walked and Walked and Walked"

For FHE the boy and girl wanted to talk about pioneers. I asked what they already knew about pioneers and they busted out in this song. They sang it over and over while walking and walking and walking through the house.

While they sang it over and over and over while walking and walking (Are you picking up how often and for how long this took place?) I pulled a few things out of recycling bin and kitchen to have the babies make a pioneer wagon to help them think about the struggles pioneers had as they walked and walked and walked. They finally stopped singing once I placed this stuff on the floor. (Phew, that song was driving me nuts! That's bad/insensitive to say I know. I'm very thankful for Pioneers and their endurance through challenging times. I promise.)

It was fun to watch them think through this activity. Trying to get their creative juices flowing at first was hard, but then I gave a few hints.  Afton was pretty inquisitive, but just was having a hard time with attaching the wheels so that they could roll. Jack gave up and wanted to do destroy it, but Afton talked him out of it, quickly by reminding him to “think about the pioneers." (He destroyed it later that night and made it into a sled for his scripture study buddy, Tiger Tiger and Bullseye. This meant it return back to a plain, old, recyclable, regular box.)

Our treat that night was Afton's Pioneer butter she made at church! She was so proud.

I am thankful for the bravery, strength, and faith those men, women, and children endured back then. 

It's inspiration to me to endure to the end.

Great Movie - 17 Miracles

Happy Pioneer Day everyone! 

Fun on the Fourth

We had a fun time this 4th of JULY in San Diego. A very spontaneous trip, but a fun one to say the least. It was quite crazy how busy the beach was on the 4th. Cars were parked right off the side of the freeway exits. Tents all over the grassy areas and millions of people out walking everywhere. Mission Beach was basically standing room only, so we ventured down to Ocean Beach. I was happy about that choice; Mission Beach is dirty and gross. Comb the freaking seaweed lifeguard people. Geeze.

There were so many pictures and not much explanation needed. All of us, whether alone as 1 or our whole family of  5, we had a very happy 4th of July.

Happy 1

 Searching, 

Collecting, 

Posing,

Sunbathing, 

 or Constructing, Afton had fun.

Far or

 Near,

Going out or

Coming in,

Being clean or

or absolutely DIRTY, Jack had fun!

Listening,

Smiling,

Watching,

Honoring,

and Relaxing, Jocelyn had fun on her first beach trip.

Surfing and boogie boarding, 

or taking obnoxious pictures of me, my Sugar had fun.

Not fun for me to look at.

Happy 2 of us

Ocean Beach

He is missing the fanny pack and sunglasses. 

Quite sad I didn't capture the whole ensemble.

Her first touch of ocean water!

She loved it.

Mission Beach

Jack was serious about taking care of his surf board. 

He would not let Bailey distract him, even though she tried!

Surfer dudes - Joel and my sugar

Happy 3 of us

SO proud to live in a land where these 3 will grow up free.

Just watching the waves

Jack was so worried about Jocelyn liking the water. It was cute.

Happy 4 of us

My sugar's favorite picture from the trip!

Happy 5 of us

 Happy 4th of July from the 5 of us.
Oh my goodness.

I can't believe there are 5 of us.