Sorry I've been MIA the past week or so! We have/are busy! I'll start at the beginning!

Last Wednesday was our last night of Awanas at church until the fall. We had a little pizza party for the kids and they got their awards for finishing books and just doing a good job. I had a proud mama moment when Ben got an award for good sportsmanship from the game director, I was very proud of my precious boy! I have LOVED helping with Awanas this past year. It's such a joy to watch/help the kids learn God's word, not just memorize it, but to help them truly understand and grasp it. They all just have the sweetest hearts.

Friday was the beginning of our Memorial Day weekend. We had planned to go camping up at Toro Peak (Santa Rosa Mountains?). We've gone up there several times and thought we knew what to expect...yeah...Well, we got up there late Friday night and by the time we got up to the campground on top of the mountain it was nice and windy and about 29 degrees...yup. We decided to sleep in the car, too windy and cold to try and set up a tent. We put the back seats down in the car and that's where me and the hubs slept and leaned the 2 front seats back and that's where the kids slept. We actually did pretty good. The kids slept through the night, David and I didn't sleep super great but that was because of the wind. The next morning we woke up to 20 degrees and a nice ice storm had transformed the mountains. It was truly beautiful! The trees and plants were covered in ice. We drove around for awhile looking at the beauty, but decided we didn't want to try camping that night, or sleeping in the car again, so we headed down to Desert Hot Springs. We found a canyon out in the middle of nowhere and just hung out, the boys shot a little, we BBQed and enjoyed the warmer weather. It was a little windy down there too so we decided to come home Saturday night. We didn't want our weekend to end Saturday night so we decided to get up Sunday morning and head out to the desert closer to home. We hung out again, cooked out and just enjoyed the not too hot weather. So, our camping didn't go quite as planned, but it was still a good weekend.

I wish I had pictures from yesterdays adventure, but none of us had a waterproof camera, next time! The yearbook club from Calvary Chapel Christian School (Ben's school and the yearbook club I helped with), we took our "fieldtrip". We decided to go to La Jolla and go on a kayaking tour, hang out around the beach, do a little shopping/browsing and just hang out. The kayaking trip was so fun! I want to do it again and take my husband. We went in two's. I was with Andrea and after we go past the waves and started rowing to catch up with the group....we flipped over....yup, we're good like that! Two guys rowed over and flipped our kayak over and then one of the tour guides came over and told me how to get back in and all that. Well, as soon as I got back in the kayak, I looked over and saw I think 3 dolphins swimming towards us! Soooo stinkin cool!! I mean, I've seen dolphins before, but not that close or in open water like that, I felt like I was swimming with them! Haha! But it was just very cool. We got to go in a cave and see a bunch of sea lions also. It was alot of fun! I would recommend it to anyone that's willing to do a little work (that rowing ain't super easy). It was fun just us girls, no kids!

So, that's been our busy past week. Tonight is date night, tomorrow is Ben's school play, Friday is a swim party and on and on until school is out next Thursday. I'm tired just thinking about it!

I don't feel like I have much to post, but just felt like posting something. We've been busy! Or at least it seems like it. Between school, regular errands and chores around the house, we have date night weekly, Awanas every week and it seems like something different happens most thursdays and/or fridays (kids come over, friends/family come over for dinner, etc.) I like staying busy, but them sometimes when I have down time I wonder where the past week went?! We've got some fun things coming up though, several birthdays, some little trips planned, fun ideas for this summer that I need to put into motion. I am looking forward to school being out for the summer, but as I told my husband today, I know I'm going to have to have things for the kids to do (regular chores, crafts, small trips and outings around town, play dates, etc.) or they will just sit around bored and most likely fight alot! Don't get me wrong, they love each other and play really well together, but when either of them gets bored, tired or hungry, it's all over! They can be sooo mean! Yikes! But, I do have some really fun ideas for them this summer, I'll post about them as we do them.

I have been exercising! I did all 3 days of the workout from my Hormone Diet book and then I added in 2 days of yoga. I had planned on doing 1 day of cardio on Friday, but Ben had a talent show and pizza party at school, so I just did a quick yoga (not as much sweat as cardio). I have to say, I'm loving the yoga. It's just soo refreshing. I love the stretching and strengthening. I do want to order a Christian version though. My eating habits have been hit and miss. I do pretty good most of the time, but others times I feel like I blow it big time. I was expecting much worse on the scale this morning, but was pleasantly surprised when I hadn't gained anything! Not good like a loss, but at least I didn't gain! I do need to get back on track with the consistently healthy eating choices, but....it may have to wait a little while. Like I said, we have several birthdays and end of school year parties and such where there will be lots of not so healthy eating that I would like to enjoy (in moderation!)

It's hot! Summer is here! 110 on the thermometer in my car a little while ago. I think it's time to go swim!

Happy Mother's Day! (a day late!) I had a wonderful and somewhat hectic day yesterday. I'm the craft teacher for the kiddies at church through June. I had them make mothers day gifts a couple weeks ago (trying to be on top of things) and it kinda backfired. It seemed that about half the kids that were actually there to make the craft a few weeks ago weren't there this week and the other half were kids that weren't there when we made them. So, my helpers and I (thank goodness for those amazing teens that stepped up and helped me!!) were running around like crazy people making more crafts, helping with the craft the kids were actually working on yesterday and everything else that comes with that many kids. We had over 60 kids (split into 3 classes) which was quite a bit more than I've had lately. I LOVE doing crafts with them, I LOVE each and every one of those kids (even the ones that I have to keep an eye on the WHOLE time!) they are just precious! But whew! I was sooo relieved when it was all over! We were fed a good lunch of carne asada by some of my mother in laws friends and then we swam and had frozen yogurt! A wonderful day all in all. I have to say, I am such a blessed Mama! Growing up, all I ever really wanted to be was a mom and wife, and God has totally answered my dreams/heart/desire. Yes, some days I just don't feel like being a Mommy (it only lasts a little while, usually just a few minutes when one of my precious loving children comes up to me and tells me they love me. I love how being a mom makes me so much more thankful for my mom! Knowing the things us kids put her through (double time, because there were 4 of us, not just 2) and I realize how incredibly blessed I am by my Mom. I love her to death!

Me and my kiddies yesterday after church...

Next up...I started this project awhile ago, had been planning on doing it for a really long time (found it on Pinterest) and finally finished it Saturday night because I wanted to wear it on Sunday. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and it's super comfy! I have the stuff to make a maxi dress as well. The only change I need to make is sewing on the sash, it kept slipping up and down and kinda drove me nuts yesterday, but that's easy enough. The tutorial I found for this dress is HERE, and here is a pic of me trying it on.

And finally, I FINALLY started working out again this morning. I knew I needed to, my body was craving it! I was so tired and sluggish, and I know it's because it wasn't getting the exercise it needed. I pretty much failed at the running thing. I never got my tire fixed on my jogging stroller (I will eventually) and now it's starting to get hot, I hate running in the heat. I decided to do the exercises found in the Hormone Diet book and add in a day of cardio on my elliptical and a day of yoga (I don't really like doing regular yoga, too much meditating on the earth and all that stuff, doesn't go with my belief that God is the maker of all and He is the one we should be meditating on and worshiping) so I did a search for a Christian yoga recently and found a couple, I just need to order one. I want to do yoga just to loosen up, get more flexible, I've just felt kinda stiff and tight lately. And besides working out, I'm just going to keep eating clean, lots of fruits and vegis, lean meats, no sugar, lots of water etc.

Time to go fold laundry and straighten up the casa!

So I have become very close with my sewing machine...so close that I am going to have to find a new chair! Gah! The chair I have in there kills! my back! But, other than that, I got to make my very first and very fun quilts! I saw a couple tutorials on Pinterest (duh!) and immediately wanted to give it a try. I have always loved quilts. I love how snuggly they are, and after several washes they are just soo soft and I just love them. And, I love how they can be personalized by colors, patterns etc. So, I decided to make quilts for my mom and my mother in law for mothers day. I started out just getting fabric for my moms, try my hand at it, see how it goes, see how it turns out, and then decide if I want to do it again. I admit it is a lot of cutting and sewing and more cutting, but they both turned out just adorable! I have to say I'm very proud of them! The tutorial that I followed (except that I changed the size of my squares) is here. And here are the pictures of my 2 quilts so far. Both of my kids are begging me to make them each one, so I see those being projects in the near future, and I will definitely have to make one just for me! :-)

This one I made for my mom...

This one is for my mother in law...

And Grammy, Ben and Abby cuddled in your quilt before we sent it off...

Time is flying! How is it May already?? That means Ben is almost done with his first year of school, summer vacation is almost here, Abby is going to turn 3! Ben is going to turn 7! Good grief! My parents always said how fast time flies when they were raising us kids, and now I know exactly what they were talking about. I love this life though, time flying craziness and all! This weekend was good though. We always get those blow up pools for the summer so the kids can swim, but I was at Wal-Mart the other day and they had a smaller framed pool set up in the kids section and i decided I wanted it! It was only $100 and plenty big that David and I could easily swim with both kids. I didn't really think it would happen/or he would go with it, but he said I could get it! We didn't want to kill a big patch of grass in the yard, but we have a side yard where the camping trailer was parked, so David played "musical trailers" as he called it, and then we had to clean up some weeds and stuff and then we set up the pool. Too cold for us to swim in that first night, but it didn't stop the kids. I did get in for a little bit yesterday and it was very nice!

Anyways, like I said the other day, I decided to take a break from the major dieting this weekend and boy did I take a break on Friday! Yikes! The rest of the weekend I did better though and wasn't too dissapointed by just a 1 lb. weight gain this morning. Back to healthy eating today, except for dinner, we're having a friend over and I'm gonna have to eat some BBQ so I don't make everyone feel bad for not eating healthy ;-)

I have something that I'm very proud of that I'm going to post, but it will have to wait until tomorrow or the next day...I'll explain later! Have a wonderful day!!

Today is just going to be a picture day. Not much going on. I finished 2 weeks of the hormone diet and lost 7 lbs. Not bad, had kinda hoped for 10, but I'll take 7. I had to take a break though. I felt like I was starving!! But that was mainly my fault. With this diet you pretty much have to cook, or prepare beforehand so you can just grab and eat, but I didn't ever do that and towards the end of the 2 weeks I just really didn't feel like cooking so I just snacked on fruit and almonds, not the most filling or satisfying things. I decided to take a break for the weekend and then start another 2 weeks on Monday. I'm going to eat healthy all day and maybe splurge on one meal a day throughout the weekend. I have to start exercising again! I was going to start running this week but my jogging stroller has a flat and I need to figure out what I need to do to fix it. So, here's some pictures for now. Have a good weekend!

Ben lost his 2nd tooth, pulled it by himself!

So, I found this idea on Pinterest, fingerpainting in a bag. I thought, perfect, no mess and should keep them busy for a bit. Wrong, my children amaze me sometimes. The started scratching them with their fingernails and made holes in the bags which of course made paint come out...that craft lasted about 10 minutes...

Me and my girl hanging out after the one time I did exercise this week...

Abby LOVES her new owl "pack pack" her Grammy sent her, it's super cute!

And, Ben was being creative after reading an article in his lego magazine. This is his version of basketball using the legos he had. I love that kid!