Happy Birthday Kirk!

Today Kirk turned...well, let's just say he's a year older. Anyone brave enough to guess how OLD he is now? :-) When I got up this morning he was gone and I figured he was at the gym, but come to find out he was at the church building helping out in the cleaning. What a guy! He then got in his beloved workout at the gym. Then we headed over to his parents house who only live about 20 minutes from here to meet up with his brother and family for lunch. We had a really nice day visiting and eating. Kirk and his brother took the kids over to hit balls at the local range. Justin has been going with Kirk for a few years now and his form has improved a great deal. Avery just started this past year and really enjoys herself. We may have to explain the difference of baseball and golf again. Ha. It was very HOT today (around low or mid 90's), but they still had a great time. We headed home after they got back and the kids cooled off in the backyard blow-up pool. It was a very nice day. Happy birthday Kirk!

Creative Hat

Imagine my amusement when I picked up Avery from preschool and she and about 8 other children walked out in similar hats. She said she had a really fun time making this and I know how proud she is of it because yesterday on our way home after school she was trying to explain the flowers on it and how they made them. She told me how much I will love it and she was right!

SPRING IS HERE!

It must be spring because I got in the mood to garden. I'm not a huge gardener, but I do get the itch every Spring. This year I was determined to plant tomatoes. So, today Avery and I got started only to get held up by the incredibly hard dirt that I couldn't dig in. Yes, I'm weak. I admit it. Kirk to the rescue. We needed his muscles bad. What took me 1/2 hour to do took him only 5 minutes to finish. I was surprised at how much Avery enjoyed herself. She really got into it. Now we get to feed it and watch (and hopefully eat) the fruits of our labor.

Getting started. The finished project.

Family Get-together

Saturday was our yearly "Spring Fling" with all my cousins, aunts and uncles on my mom's side that live in California. This year it was hosted by my cousin Ken and his wife that live in Yucaipa. Kirk couldn't make it this year because he had a weekend class to attend to prepare him to take his electrical license test soon. It was a very fun day, although a hot one, playing badmitten and visiting with my wonderful family. I feel so lucky to have such a loving group of family around me. I prepared a lesson for my young women that I teach at church a couple of weeks ago that was on the blessings of extended family. I know, first hand, what a blessing it is to have extended members of my family that keep in touch. We get together every Christmas season too. Usually at that time we are lucky to have more family from Utah join us as well. I have wonderful cousins that I love dearly and am grateful my children are growing up knowing them too and hope that this tradition of these great get-togethers will continue even after Kirk and I are gone. Here are some fun moments of our day. I was pretty busy chasing Devin around making sure he wasn't going to tear their house apart, so I wasn't able to get a whole lot of pictures, but at least I got a couple.


I had to put this bottom one in of just my kids. I took it as we were walking out the door to leave. Devin hates having to pose for pictures, but at least he sat and let me do it.