The girls before their talent show. They looked so great.

 Macie at her last t-ball game...

Someone left a walker out by my front lawn all day yesterday. What a strange thing to misplace. It was gone this morning.

Chloe's birthday was 2 days ago. She had her specific plans and wishes. And none of them were too outlandish, so I did my best. She makes birthdays easy. She tells me exactly what she wants. It takes all the guess work out. I guess she has already figured out that if you don't want to be disappointed on your birthday, you have to take matters into your own hands. These were her requests:

1. decorations (she told me she had a dream that she had woken up to find our house decorated for her birthday and she really hoped that could come true)

2. hair in braids with bows at the bottom.

3. A surprise birthday dress to wear to school.

4. cupcakes for her class with a few extra for people not in her class.

5, gum

6. McDonalds for dinner.

7. chocolate cake that I made for Dad's birthday. 

8. A pink tablet, which we let her pick out instead of having a friend birthday party.

9. Nails professionally done so they would be "perfect."

And I did a pretty bang up job. I did all of those things. And I also took her to get her free cupcake cookie at Sweet Tooth Fairy. 

And I was really proud of myself because I took a page out of "Frozen Fever" and put string all over my house with notes attached leading to her birthday dress. She thought it was amazing. She said she had the best birthday ever and felt really special all day. 

And yes, we went to McDonalds for dinner. My Dad and sisters joined us. I asked her if she wanted to go to Peter Piper Pizza instead and she "no, that will cost you too much money, we can just go to McDonalds." Isn't she just the best?

 Aunt Liz gave her a lunchbox and water bottle.

 And as always, I made a really ugly cake. I had to stick large sticks in it so the top layer wouldn't slide off. The cake made up for it in taste though. Man it was good.

 Chloe is such a joy to parent. She really is a better person than I am.

After some really painful swim lessons, Oscar has finally rediscovered his love for swimming. He brings me all his swim gear and begs me to take him. He also has turned into quite the rascal the past week. I am hoping it is just lack of sleep or something. He likes to pour his milk out anywhere and everywhere, and he likes climbing and dumping and smearing. But alas, I am thinking this behavior is probably here to stay. He is also obsessed with the dumb race car game on my phone. So I am going to have to make sure this kid stays away from video games because I don't want to turn him into a gamer. I have to make sure he has plenty of opportunities to play outside and run around to keep his mind off of stealing my phone.

Chloe and her "perfect" nails.

 she had little flowers glued to her thumbs.

 Oscar is doing so much better at his swim lessons.

 Chloe with her birthday candy and new dresses.

 Some more of Chloe's Mother's Day poems...

 This is what Macie turns my house into everyday. I am not even sure what she is setting up. But it is very methodical in her mind, She did tell me that she turned the crib into bunk beds,

 And Oscar likes to try and fit into their Doll's car.

 I found Macie's cat with a nasty dirty sock wrapped around it's tail. She told me she put on cast on it's tail. I guess she got hurt.

 Chloe wrote me the most beautiful poem. It made me cry,

 More cards from art masterpiece students. This kid^^^ Owwn is a piano prodigy. His note really cracked me up. He speaks like a 30 year old.

Lots of things to catch up from the last month. We had an anniversary. 11 years. We went to eat at Pita Jungle and then Don being the unselfish husband that he is, took me to the mall to go shopping. I didn't end up getting anything because:

 But it was sure nice of Don to try. After we went shopping we went to Joe's and got some Ice cream. We live wildly.

Then a few days later I had a birthday. You have to take birthdays into your hands if you don't want to feel sorry for yourself by the end of the day, (Chloe has already learned this lesson, more on that later). So I made plans for myself. And it ended up being a fantastic day. I hired a babysitter so I could go out to brunch with Katie. My goal was to get all the free crap I could. We first started at Joe's Farm Grill, where we enjoyed the most amazing picnic weather and my facvvorite BBQ pizza. Then we headed to the San Tan Mall where I redeemed my Loft gift card with a necklace that I still paid 20 bucks for (not a win), got a free gelato with "candles" at Frost (win!), my free mascara at Ulta, free drink at one of those soda places which I gave to Katie, a free cupcake cookie at "The Sweet Tooth Fairy" (win!!!! How did I not know of this glorious bakery sooner?),we tried to get free ice cream at Dairy Queen and some other place I don't even care enough to remember, and they turned us away (Rude!), and finally a free donut at Krispy Kreme. And then my friend Britney brought over another box of Sweet Tooth Fairy cupcakes and we gorged ourselves on those. My kids loved my birthday. Oh, I forgot to mention...in the morning I woke up and Chloe had decorated the house for me. there was a sign by my door that said "Happy Birthday! Put on the birthday ribbon!"  And she had placed birthday banners around the house and cut out the numbers "35" and taped them to the wall. That was my favorite decoration. And also my least favorite. seeing the number made me feel old. Chloe is so funny. She told me later that day she was so tired because she had woken herself up at midnight so she could surprise me with the decorations. Macie made one of her amazing cards. And Oscar...he pooped his pants and squirted his milk on the floor. And Don...well I already buy myself presents all through the month of April so I feel it is a win-win situation. He thinks it is not a win-win situation. Anyway. My kids were so excited for my birthday so I wanted to make sure I spent the rest of the day with them. We took them to Joe's BBQ for more free birthday food. The kids thought it was great because there was a lawn in the back to play and run. And Don was being exceptionally funny and mildly cranky, strangely enough, I find Don the funniest when he is mildly cranky. When we got back home, I was greeted by Emily and her family, and steffanie, and my other friend Emily and it was like a mini party in my living room. So it ended up being a really fun day. And then the next day Rachelle and I met up in Scottsdale and we went shopping and to Oreganos.

And then on Friday, Chloe had her talent show.



Olivia, Chloe, and her friend Madison sang "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" from Frozen. They were so cute. They came up with it all on their own, I just played the piano. I am so glad Chloe still wants to sing Disney songs and not Beyonce. My Dad and sisters came and Emily too, and after we went to eat at "Sweet Tomatoes."Chloe and Olivia wanted their make up and hair to be just right, and I did my best to appease their desires. I need to bump up my hair skills. I am just proud of myself that I can french braid.

The following weekend we have been looking forward to for months. Our nephew Tyler got married. Which meant Lyla and Troy traveled down from Utah for the weekend. The weekend flew by much too quickly. They arrived Friday afternoon. That afternoon I spent preparing Sundried tomato pasta salad for 100 + people. And that evening was the family dinner at Julie's house. Chloe arrived a little late because she had a swim meet. I missed it, but Don said she came in 1st or 2nd (can't remember) out of all her age group in Freestyle. She is also in a competition with Loma to see who can run a mile the fastest. Currently Chloe has the best time at 7:55. Which is totally amazing to me. she beats me. Easily.

The next day was filled. The girls had their Piano recital. I was only able to see Macie because I had to head to the Temple for the wedding. But I saw the video of Chloe performing the song she wrote (they all write a song for the recital) and she played it perfectly.

My Dad brought the kids to the Temple after the ceremony. The marriage was beautiful and I really enjoyed the words from the Sealer. He talked about needing to go through misery together to really experience the fullness of joy in a marriage. Don whispered to me that we have a lot of joy coming our way. Ha!

After the ceremony we ate lunch at Julie's house and rested a bit. Then we came back home, the girls went swimming, although the water was chilly, it was a very nice and cool weekend. And then back for the reception.

Oscar slept through most of it,

The girls danced through all of it.

The girls anxiously waiting for their turn to dance again....

I went out and danced with them. Unfortunately Chloe is already embarrassed of my dance moves. The DJ was um...interesting. The girls were dancing and were basically the only ones on the floor, and he came over to Chloe and started dancing with her, Keep in my mind this man is probably in his 60s or 70s, and spent a lot of the time dancing by himself while eating tortilla chips. Out of nowhere I see my daughter's unmentionables up in the air as she was unknowingly turned upside down in a complete circle. As soon as her feet touched the dance floor, she booked herself to the nearest rock to crawl under.  And poor Chloe complained that her chest hurt for the rest of the evening and into the next day. George told me he would pay me handsomely if the DJ did the same thing with me. and I would have taken him up on the bribe had I not thought my large underthings up in the air for the whole party to see, might frighten and disturb some guests. And this is why one must always carry a pair of extra leggings in their purse.

When Oscar finally woke up, he enjoyed getting to hold a sparkler. He looks like a little cabana boy. I can't even handle his cuteness in this shirt.

The girls had the time of their life dancing.
The next day was Mother's Day. Don and Greg cleaned up our absolutely disgusting house in the morning and made us french toast. Chloe made me some awesome crafts at school.

I love the "traffic" mom. I think she meant terrific. And the "early in morning" part. That's a lie. I hate getting up early in the morning,

Also, I found this notebook Chloe keeps. She writes down her ideas for celebrating different holidays. It's so awesome.

Also, I got some thank you letters from the kid's I taught Art Masterpiece too. I had to record some of my favorite.  I love them all so much I don't want to throw them away.

This kid said he drew an egg with feet on the back...

I think this is me? Ha!

This was the note Cloe left me by my door on my birthday.

Chloe gave me a homemade purse filled with coupons. My friend told me that Macie told the whole primary that they had given me tickets to Disneyland for Mother's Day. And my friend really thought we were going to Disneyland. I am not sure where to redeem these tickets.

I also have a coupon to go to Paradise.

After church the girls had prepared a restaurant out on my patio. It was called "Jewels." This was the surprise that Macie and Chloe had been preparing for the past month. I happened upon their plans and they wrote down menu items like "strawberry souffle." We ordered the yogurt with bananas and water. I love those girls.
And then Greg and Kirsten had to head back to Utah. That afternoon we went back over to Julie's house and ate wedding leftover and watched them open their wedding gifts. The whole weekend went by much too fast. It was nice that Rey and Mary came to church with us on Mother's Day too. I had a whole row of adults to help me with the kids.

A couple weeks ago we got home from church and Oscar disappeared. I started getting really worried when I couldn't find him and I heard no responses with me calling out his name. Finally I checked the linen closet, and there he was. Cute little guy put himself to sleep. And he had a long nap in there. Maybe I should try it.

He is loving Nursery now and I love getting his scribble scrabbles back.

I love finding these little things Chloe makes ^^^^

In other news, we painted our back wall. Our backyard is a huge eye sore. The painted wall looks infinitely better. (No after picture yet) One of these days the backyard will be beautiful. And then we will move.

Macie's t-ball season ended yesterday. We have really enjoyed watching her at the games. she is afraid of the ball. Yesterday the ball came towards her. She turned around and ducked. A girl after my own heart. 

And I absolutely love this picture of her. what a doll. She liked the snacks after the games the best and getting her trophy last night.