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Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Our family dynamic is a-changing

It's been awhile and I don't want to lose my blog from inactivity so I'm going to try to keep posting occasionally.  So here we are:

Stephen came home for a whopping 12 days over the summer. He went to Kentucky for ROTC in June/July. After heading back to school to finish out the summer water polo he got to come home for a quick 12 day visit before heading out with Bill for their Alaska trip. This was supposed to be his high school graduation trip but they'd never been able to pull it off until now. When the trip was over, he had to fly straight back to school to report in for polo again. In a few short weeks, he'll be beginning his third year of college. It's hard to believe but there he is.













Nikki has reported in to University of Redlands. Ali and I went last night to watch her first scrimmage. It was really fun to watch her play again and the team did well. Nikki made the most of her summer of her senior year. She was rarely home and did lots of fun things with her friends. She moved into her dorm with all of the girls from soccer. The other sports teams would move in over the following four days. So she had a nice, big dorm building with all of the CA's and one other teammate to herself the first day. Once football got there, things weren't so quiet. But she doesn't mind. She's getting to meet tons of new people and working her butt off training. Over Labor Day weekend her roommate from OR will be arriving. I think Nikki is looking forward to that! She's left her walls blank waiting until she and Elizabeth can decorate together. Ali has done okay with Nikki leaving. It helps that they have social media to stay in contact. They tweet & FaceTime each other pretty often. Ali is hoping Nikki will invite her out for a sleepover soon. We'll see!


Nikki went skydiving the weekend after turning 18!


Got to go to Hawaii while Stephen was in Kentucky.


Had a fun going away party before Nikki headed off to Redlands.


Now onto the next chapter...

And then there was Ali! She is now an only child and not too thrilled about it. She was distraught about the idea of Nikki leaving. We agreed to get her a dog to help alleviate that loneliness. So we've added Cooper to our family. He's an adorable Australian Shepard mix we found at the Rancho shelter. He's about a year old and is awesome. But back to Ali. She has started her Sophomore year of high school at St. Lucy's. It's been two weeks, which sucks since she had to start so much earlier than the other two. She had a fun filled summer herself. We went to Hawaii at the beginning of summer. Then she was home for a brief time before heading to camp. She got to spend 12 days being herself and having a fabulous time!







The rest of the summer flew by with her spending as much time with her big brother and sister as possible. Then back to school she went:


So here we are. People say to enjoy the kids because time flies. And when they're little you see it, but boy it takes on a new meaning once they hit high school. I'm loving watching our little kiddos turn into wonderful adults! 




Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Random Questions

I saw this as a post on Facebook, but wanted to preserve the answers longer than I'd see them on my Facebook wall.  I'd like to ask these questions of Stephen too.  Maybe I'll get the chance sometime and I'll update.  But for now, here are the girls answers:

Nikki, age 17

1. What is something mom always says to you?  
You should join Crossfit.
2. What makes mom happy?
When we pick up our stuff.
3. What makes mom sad?
When we're sad.
4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Pretty much anything.
5. What was your mom like as a child?
Cute as a little kid & wild as a teenager.
6. How old is your mom?
43
7. How tall is your mom?
5'7"
8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Crossfit/Vacation
9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Watch Criminal Minds
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
A cooking show.
11. What is your mom really good at?
Managing things.
12. What is your mom not very good at?
Singing
13. What does your mom do for a job?
Homemaker
14.What is your mom's favorite food?
Ahi
15.What makes you proud of your mom?
Being our mom.
16. If your mom were a character, who would she be?
Belle
17. What do you and your mom do together?
Eat
18. How are you and your mom the same?
We like all of the same things; clothes, food, everything.
19. How are you and your mom different?
Mom is neater.
20. How do you know your mom loves you?
She shows it and says it.
21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
He's a good dad.
22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Hawaii
23. How old was your Mom when you were born?
25


And Ali's answers at age 14:

1. What is something mom always says to you?  
You need to get good grades.
2. What makes mom happy?
Me...then ok her children.
3. What makes mom sad?
When her children are sad.
4. How does your mom make you laugh?
She's weird
5. What was your mom like as a child?
Small-played soccer
6. How old is your mom?
43
7. How tall is your mom?
5'7 1/2"
8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Crossfit
9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Crossfit
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Something to do with health.
11. What is your mom really good at?
Crossfit
12. What is your mom not very good at?
Picking out her clothes without my help.
13. What does your mom do for a job?
Mom
14.What is your mom's favorite food?
Chocolate Souffle from Roy's
15.What makes you proud of your mom?
Crossfit
16. If your mom were a character, who would she be?
I have no idea~can we skip that one.
17. What do you and your mom do together?
Watch TV/Shopping
18. How are you and your mom the same?
We both care about our presentation.
19. How are you and your mom different?
We don't look alike.
20. How do you know your mom loves you?
You ask what's wrong when I'm upset.
21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
You balance each other out.
22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Hawaii/Beach
23. How old was your Mom when you were born?
29


These were fun to ask and see what the girls came up with.  It'd be interesting to see how their answers changed if I'd asked when they were younger.  They know me pretty well at this point.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Nikki's Senior Photo

Oh my gosh, what a fun day!  Nikki wanted to do her senior pics down at the beach.  It was a challenge to find a date that worked for both Michelle (our photographer) and us.  But we did it & headed down to Balboa to meet her for Nikki's photos.  She didn't disappoint!  She's been there before so she had some favorite locations she wanted to hit.  But then we just wandered around and as she'd see something interesting, we'd stop and take some shots.  I had a really hard time picking my favorite one.  There were so many that I loved!  I'll just try to narrow it down as much as I can :)




















I love all of them & had a great time following along watching Michelle in action!

Easter 2015

Since I haven't been on my blog in ages and the last post was Easter 2014, I figured I'd just jump ahead a year.

Stephen had Friday off of school for Good Friday (love Catholic schools!). We asked him to come home for the weekend and invited Caleigh to join him.  They were free, so they flew down on Thursday and back to school Sunday evening. Unfortunately Bill & I had concert tickets booked for Kenny Chesney in Vegas for Friday evening. So we picked them up at the airport, went out to dinner and then headed to Vegas.

Concert was great, glad we went. But we missed getting to spend some time with Stephen and Caleigh.

Anyway Easter morning we had the traditional crepes.  I made some eggs, bacon & crepes with strawberries.  Breakfast was yummy and it was so nice to have our whole little family together!





Afterwards, the kids all headed out back for their Easter egg hunt. Nobody knew the eggs were filled with cash and they were still excited to go hunt for them! I love the enthusiasm! They all had a certain number of eggs to find. It took awhile but everyone found theirs. As a side note I found another egg a week later so I'm not sure where the extra one came from!






Later in the afternoon we headed to Chuck & Joanne's for Easter dinner.  They did a cute carrot pull instead of an egg hunt this year.  Their garden was overflowing with carrots so the kids each pulled one.  There were prizes for various categories such as: longest, shortest, ugliest, etc.  It was a fun way to get her carrots harvested!  As always it was a nice day.  We enjoyed visiting with family and getting to sit and talk with everyone.








The visit definitely didn't seem long enough but I was thankful for a chance to visit with Stephen and Caleigh.  Happy Easter 2015!