Surprise Visit

My brother Josh graduated from BYU In April and my sister surprised everyone by coming out from LA for it. Actually, my dad and I knew, but it was a surprise for everyone else. So much fun!!!! My kids were so excited to see her and she was so sweet to come to Abbey's soccer game. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of Josh's graduation. I need to download them from my mom's camera. He graduated in Microbiology which is in the same college that Paul teaches in, so Paul was in his full BRIGHT red Cincinnati colors. He was sitting on the stand and texted me, "Do you think anyone would notice if I fell asleep?" To which I replied, "Maybe if you weren't the shiny bald guy in the neon getup, you could get away with it." Then Josh texted me, "Should I ask out the girl sitting next to me?" This went on for hours. Those of you who have been to a college graduation know that this is no exaggeration. So I sat there for the entirety of the ceremony texting Paul and Josh and I don't think any of the three of us heard a word of it. Nice. If this is any indication of a high school or junior high class, cell phones need to be banned. I was even annoyed at myself. Anyway, we are very proud of Josh and wish him luck in his latest endeavors. Now if we could just find him a wife......

Abbey, Asher and "Sissa"

Claire, Emma and Sissa

Nine, nine, is is possible she's really mine?

I am pretty much in denial that my little six pound baby is nine years old. She is on her last single digit year and we are already halfway through her childhood, well pretty much all the way through her childhood. From what I hear, it's just weird tween and teen years from here on out. I really have no business having a child this old. I feel completely inadequate to handle what lies ahead, but boy have we enjoyed the years we've had with her so far. We have so many wonderful(and not so wonderful) memories and look forward to making many more. Abbey is a magnificent daughter, sister and friend and we love her so much.

She wanted to go to Boondocks with a few friends and celebrate. We had so much fun! After that, she had her last soccer game of the season in Centerville.

 

Kaitlyn, Emily and Abbey in line for the go carts.

She wanted a Littlest Pet Shop birthday and this is the best I could do.

Sunday was Abbey's actual birthday. She opened her presents in the morning and then after church we had her dinner choice of spaghetti and meatballs. We later ate cake and ice cream with Grandma and Grandpa Monson, Uncles Josh and Jared and Great Grandma Bowen. We had so much fun visiting while the girls and Jared made "funny face" videos on the computer. The only miss hap was that while trying to make the "ocean" on the cake very blue, I used the really good Wilton food coloring and I think the grandmas must have had blue mouths for days. Sorry guys!

Abbey and "Felicity"

This is the best I could do for a Littlest Pet Shop cake. I had her pick out her favorite ones and made a cake with them on it.

Spring Break: Dead animals, more dead animals and even a live one

Aunt CC and cousins Catherine and Grace got back from their visit to the Philippines and we got to spend our first day of Spring Break with them. The girls had so much fun just hanging out but unfortunately Asher slept through the better part of our visit so he missed out on quality cousin time. The good thing is he is only two and wouldn't have remembered it anyway. We were sad to see them leave and look forward to seeing them again. Pittsburgh is just too far away!

During the rest of the week, we met up with friends at the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point where Asher sped through the exhibits like a racehorse and when he got to the shark at the end, I couldn't get him out of the room. He was on his "best" behavior and had many a melt down before he kept wandering off and getting lost and we had to call it a day. Fortunately the girls all had fun even if I didn't get to visit with my girlfriends as much as would have liked. I guess that's why we need to schedule a girls night instead of a play day with sixteen kids if we want to get any visiting done. Still so much fun though. I have the best friends.  We went to Cabela's on another day with a friend from Emma's preschool and her mom and sister and looked at their aquarium of live fish and several taxidermy heaven displays. The girls all loved it, but Asher was just intent on finding a mouse. When we couldn't find a mouse we told him the smallest chipmunk we could find was a mouse and he was okay with that. I have never been to Cabela's before and was very impressed. They had awesome fudge, a great cafeteria and the kids really enjoyed the target practice upstairs. 

The only thing Abbey asked to do for her break was to go visit Aunt Julia and Uncle Mike in Loa. Since we had no activities on Friday and it was Mike's early day out, Paul took the day off and we headed south and spent the day together. We had so much fun hanging out, flying kites and playing with their neighbors' baby goat.  We went to this great little ma and pa cafe and had the best pickle pie and pinto bean pie. Yes, pickles and pinto beans, not together, but in pies nonetheless. Highly recommended and definitely worth repeating.

Claire and Asher flying a kite

Emma flying her kite

Playing with "Amanda" the goat

 I decided to give Asher a trim myself and although he still gets awesome bed head, it's a bit Dorothy Hamill-ish. We'll work on it.