Christmas Day 2014

Christmas morning, the magically mornings of memories! Isaac was up first, excitedly calling Keila to say that Santa had arrived. We followed slowly and had a bit of time to snuggle everyone for a some good morning loves. Eli was a hoot, he sensed the excitement and giggled his infectious laugh while he played peekaboo with the blanket. I think he refected joyous feeling we were all having that morning.

The excitement upped another level after we finished a 'decent' breakfast. Isaac was ready to jump out of his skin!

Eli was a little overstimulated with all the noise. Nothing that a little snuggling won't fix though.

Stockings came first. This year Santa was uber generous with giving Isaac Pokemon cards, sixty of them - Santa can't pass up a deal when they're usually fifty cents a piece. He has definately secured at least another year of belief from this skeptical boy of mine.

Everyone always gets a beanie baby from a old collection Kent had.

sweets for Mama and Baba.

Pokemon obsession taking control!

Keila was so excited to open her present, it was the largest one under the tree. She began tearing the wrapping breathlessly saying, "It's a ... it's a ...huh???" I suppose a food dehydrator wasn't exactly what a 5yr old wants! Afraid her excitement would quickly turn to tears, we reassured her that her gift was inside. She was pleased to find it was a jewelry tree with rings, braclets and necklaces to her heart's content.

We no longer need to worry about losing rock identification books from the library as Isaac has his own.

Keila's homemade gift to us.

Eli spent most of the time playing with Kent's shoes and took some coaxing to open his own presents. He enjoyed ripping the paper more than anything but once the excitement wore down, he loved each of his gifts.

Leora took a nap through most of it but once everyone else was entertained with their gifts she got to open hers and enjoy a little attention.

The rest of the day was spent in content play, a visit to the park as well as a short visit with friends. It was a day full of love.

How grateful we are for this joyous day of our Saviors birth, for family, home and friends. merry Christmas to you all!

Finished with a Bang!

The swim season ended a bang! The swim party had otter pops, juice, donuts and tons of fun.

Keila having her first otter pop! The coaches had fun too, they stretch out a swim cap so much that they could fit 3 kids in at once, let alone a coach!

They played hard enough to burn off most of the sugar, than heavens for me!

The awards ceremony was later that evening everyone was presented a certificate and a personal message.

It was a great season but I must admit I'm need of a few days away from a pool!

Swim Championships Preliminaries

We attended our very first swim championships preliminaries tonight with Isaac. We only signed up our kids for the swim team to help keep them busy during the summer heat as well as build their confidence in something they are not naturally inclined to do. It also helps us as parents to feel comfortable with our kids in the water when we have little ones like Eli who obviously are dependent on us there. It was a huge surprise to us when we learned Isaac qualified for the swim championship preliminaries and he felt the thrill of being part of a greater team. Swim meets are taxing as is with the younger two so Kent and I opted for a sitter and then we took Isaac out for a special night.

Swimming for warm ups

I realized mid-day I was rather nervous for him and for us since we had only ever swum at the Bellair pool. There was a lot to figure out with going Arrowhead country club to compete so we went early to do the warm ups. I was bummed out to find in the hustle and bustle i'd fotgotten the camera, thank heavens for phones! Afterwards we took him to Costco for some dinner and down time. He was jittery and couldn't explain how he was hungry and sick all at once but he got better as we distracted him.

He did great, his best time ever with the backstroke: 38.12 seconds for 25 meters. Over the weekend we worked on his arms brushing close to his ears and keeping a rhythm with them despite the fatigue and I could see the practice paid off. He was so tired though and had troubles getting out of the pool once he finished. We were just so proud of him. While he was disappointed he didn't make the finals, he did express a sense of pride in helping out is team. We just love this little barracuda!

My Little Barracudas

It's the summer and time once again for swim team with the Bellair Barracudas! Isaac has had the chance to show what age, discipline and maturity can do for his growing abilities. He's much more focused this year and we have seen him improved by leaps and bounds. He has improved his times in each and every swim meet with the exception of one. he was much more serious about his stroke class as well and surpised us with his butterfly swim at one of the meets. His arms were clear out of the water and he had a rhythm to his body motion that had me do a double take to make sure I was cheering the right kid. We are so proud of him and his hard work. We've just learned to our surprise that he qualifies to swim for the championships in the backstroke. We're so excited for him!

We also enrolled Keila this year. She was always such a fishy girl from the start and we thought she'd take to it right away. Unfortunately we underestimated the how much pressure she felt in the set up of swimming down a lane and had many battles over just going to practices. We reached a truce of sorts, I needed her to be able to swim an appreciable distance for me to feel safe with her in the water. (Planning for the next summer when I will have another baby in addition to Eli to worry about). So she agreed to swim practices without fighting as long as she had time for fun swimming and didn't need to do the meets. What she can't see during practices is how strong and able she is to swim the whole 25m. She's always the last to start and pauses along the way and yet she is one of the first to finish. Her coaches say she is a natural and has the motion of butterfly down and just needs to work on her arms. But the key is that she doesn't feel ready and it seems that no matter what we say to her, she doesn't have the confidence to make the go. For a time I would push it, but then I realized I just needed to respect her choice and realize that she is still just four years old and that confidence will come with age and maturity. In reality she amazes me already with how strong she's become and I never had her ability or courage at her age. It's funny how as a parent we see how much they can do and push for them to see it to. Sometimes it just takes encouragement and some nudging but other time, like in this case, she needs her space to decide for herself. I looked back on old posts, especially when it came to potty training. It is always the first major battle of wills with my kids and sure enough, she just needed to make that choice herself. I supplied the tools and taught her the skills and when she was ready, she owned it and made the choice. I needed to be patient and allow her that agency. I have a feeling this is a lesson I need to remember because I sure there will be many more of these moments in the future.

Keila won't let me take pictures of her swimming (yes, it was that much a point of contention) but she had fun with my phone camera at the meets and caught these few.

Eli giving loves to a family friend of ours, one of his favorite playmates while we wait for Isaac and keila to finish swim practice. The next shot is our traditional treat at ll the swim meets!

I think this might be the kid favorite part of swim meets!

A New Love Baby!

So today was our annual super Saturday. It's a huge craft activity day we do at our church and I swear we have some of e most talented ladies on earth running it! All the crafts are only for the cost of materials and these gals donate their time and talents to create new things for us annual as well as prep the materials for our orders. I love that I can set aside time from kids and housework to creat, beautify and enjoy the companionship of other wonderful women!

This year they asked me to teach a Chinese basic Chinese cooking class. Thankfully the fundraising I'd been doing a few weeks back prepped me for it and desipte my anxiety all went fairly well.


I managed to finish most of my projects and just have a few bracelets to finish up. Not bad for a days labor!


I have to say my favorite was my afternoon class with a talented artist - Dina Wakley. She introduced many of us to one of her passions, art journaling. She's amazing and I've always loved how expressive and free her work is. She's published one book on it and is working on her second as well as does classes all over the world (literally!) to help other discover this form of art. I have to be honest and say that I was worried though that her talent would find a wall with me.


For anyone who knows me well I tend to over think things a lot! My frist attempts at scrap booking we painful, not just in the finished work but all the way through the HOURS it took for me to finish a page. I was worried about balance, accents, placement, color.... The list does not end! The only thing I seem to do naturally is journal so eventually I gave up and went to blogging instead - pictures and words all contained efficiently in one place. I still love my blog and I love that my kids spend hours gazing at the memories I've tried to compile, but I miss the artistic aspect. But thanks to Dina I think I've freed the muse within!

Most of what she did was to introduce us to some different mediums and create color backgrounds on paper. There was just enough direction so you didnt stare at a blank page hopelessly but not so much to squelch your own crative jucies. It was a blast to play around with ink, paint, stencils, etc with no preconceived idea of the end product which was exactly what I needed to do. It was in the process that ideas would take on a life their own. The clors, the lines, stencils I had randomly chosen would grow and take on a tone or a feeling. Dorky as it sounds it spoke to me and listened and took a little leap. This is what I ended up with and it's a far cry from the carefully structured self I show, but I like how free it is!

This is my first attempt. Inside the figure I wrote, "don't think too much, just learn to be free. You know your true self inside!"


This one if my favorite and journaled, "Your mind and Imagination can take FLIGHT!"


So I'm thinking I found a new love .... And now I just need the time and materials to explore further! Thanks Dina for it! It was more than a class, it was an adventure with new possibilities!

Most pictures courtesy of Shannon Baker, the main organizer of the event. Check out her blog for more details.

Second Tri

Last weekend I got the chance to do some bonding with the women in my ward. Through the initiative of some of the ladies, we got together and did our own triathlon. It was great! It didn't have the intensity of something you pay out the nose for, but there was definitely the camaraderie and unity of reaching for something that would make us better. The swim was in the apartment pool and was 400 m, the bike route was planned out and people chose to do anywhere form 10-12 miles. The run was also set out and we could choose from 2-3 miles. Volunteers came in the form of friends and husbands who laid out Gatorade, water, fruit, watched bikes and time us as well as took pictures. It nice to say that I've done more than one sprint triathlon and I think I'm beginning to consider doing one annually. Nutty, huh?! ;0)




The wind that day was absolutely KILLER!!! I've been running for years here now in AZ and I never had it blow that hard. In training I've only biked about 6 miles at most, but I chose to do 12 that day ... I swear I had a black and blue imprint on my rear for several days after!




The amazing and beautiful women who organized and did the event with me! Maria Bingham, Rayna Boyak, Sarah Allred, Nikki Waite, Camille Lister, Laurie Ball, Lyndsee Norlander.

One Check Off the Bucket List!

It's done! I'm ALIVE!!!! I swam 375m in 10 minutes, biked 9.44 miles in 30 mins (with incline set at 4) but only 2.3 mile run in 20 minutes. I petered out near the end. It was rather anticlimactic with no one to run against or a physical finish line to cross, but it still felt good to accomplish it. I meeting with a bunch of girls on Tues to plan out one for the ward and now that I have a better idea of how it all works, I'm less intimidate by it and more excited to try again.


My cheering section for the swim!




While I biked and ran on the treadmill, the kiddos and Kent went to the temple that was just 2 minutes away for some fun wandering time.



My little future missionary!




I LOVE pictures where they are holding hands sweetly and walking together. How I love my little ones!