She's Two!

We officially no longer have a baby in the house. Aleise Addison turned two!! Even though I hate it that my kids are all growing up so fast and I always threaten to put bricks on their heads to stop them from growing (wish it were that easy!) I am excited for her and the many adventures that await her as she continues her journey through life. I am so grateful that she is healthy and happy and beautiful and growing as she should. As you can see, my nostalgia at no longer having a baby has really kicked in. I know it is God's plan for my children to grow up and experience life and I am so grateful to be blessed to be a part of it all.

We celebrated the day with just our little family, as everyone else was out of town. So we will have a big party next weekend. As for today, we had to start the day off right with the traditional birthday breakfast of doughnuts!
Then we headed to Uncle Dale and Aunt Lila's to visit and go swimming! Jared and Jenny and Chris and Jake were there too so it was such fun to visit with everyone. I admire my Aunt Lila so much! She is so generous and hospitable and everyone loves being around her. I really want to possess those qualities that are so evident in her. Aleise loved the pool, even though she never got off the top two steps! We swam all afternoon and then had a wiener roast for dinner.
Alei kept singing happy birthday to herself over and over all day. We were there until almost 10 p.m. Nobody wanted to leave. I am so very blessed to be a mother! It is the most rewarding, most exhausting, best, worst, and most important job in the world. I am so grateful for four wonderful children and happy with my whole heart that Aleise is one of them. Happy birthday, sweetie, I love you with all my heart!

Sleeping Out

Kevin had this week off work but we didn't really have any plans to go anywhere. We've already had our vacations for the year. We mostly just worked at projects around the house. We did take the kids to Boise to go to Roaring Springs. They earned a roaring readers pass by reading 600 minutes each in school. So Kevin, Porter and Emily spent the day at the waterpark while the little ones and I went shopping. It sounds like someone got the bummer deal, huh. But they were really good and we had a lot of fun. We stayed at Papa's and got to hang out with him a little. And we took the kids to their favorite place, Barnes and Noble, to read for a couple of hours and pick out a new book to buy. We have no pictures because a waterpark is not a very good environment for a camera. But another fun thing we did this week was sleep out in the fort off of the swingset. I was a little nervous since it is ten feet in the air and has no railing on the end. In the end, Kevin and Porter are the only ones that lasted the whole night out there. The other kids ended up in the house in my bed. Who do you think got more sleep?

The Georges

I had to post another picture of all (well, almost all) the George clan. We are missing Justin and Shauna and their two kids, Megan and Nathan, who are in Arizona and David, but I am sure he is with us in spirit. That is quite a legacy Grandma and Grandpa have! I am so thankful for my wonderful family! Love you guys!!

Grandma and Grandpa Are Going Away on a Mission...

They spoke in church on Sunday and Monday morning we got to take them to the MTC! They will be serving in the Independence, Missouri mission in the visitors center there. We are so proud of them! They are being such great examples for their 20 grandchildren to follow!
They raised six missionaries (and added a couple of in-law missionaries) and now it is their turn.
These guys will be next! So thanks for the sacrifice you are making for our family and our children by serving a mission, Grandma and Grandpa. I know that we will all be blessed beyond measure.
Now goodbye for awhile ~ get out there and get busy! We love you and we expect great things!

Lemonade Stand

May 31st was the big day that Emily has been looking forward to for months now. K12, her school, has adopted a charity to support called Alex's Lemonade Stand. It is named for its founder, who was diagnosed with cancer as a four year old and decided to have a lemonade stand to raise money for the doctors to help other kids like her. She raised over $1 million before she died at age 8. So, on May 31st, K12 students across the nation held over 1800 lemonade stands to raise money to fight pediatric cancer. This mission meant even more to us as, just days before our stand, our 4month old cousin was diagnosed with brain cancer and will begin 8 months of intensive chemotherapy next week. What an awful, awful, awful word CANCER is!!!!! We spent all day Friday making and frosting cookies, building a stand, printing out flyers and getting everything ready. Saturday we set up our stand in the WalMart parking lot. Emily raised $136 to fight pediatric cancer!! Think what a remarkable difference this can make with 1800 stands across the country. I love it that my children are charitable and have such a desire and ambition to help others and to embrace a worthy cause! One girl's vision became our mission and together we made waves across the nation!! WAY TO GO, EMILY!

Garden

We have been waiting for the weather to warm up so we can get our garden in. We finally found two warm days, one for tilling and one for planting. The kids had to help Grandma drive the tractor. Now the garden is in and is getting plenty of rain, it just needs some sunshine and warmth!

Hockey

Porter has finished another season of hockey. It is the one team sport that he concedes to play and he is quite good. His team took third place this year. I am proud of him, as he has really improved his game this season and become one of the strongest players on his team. Past seasons have found him lacking in aggression and I began to wonder if he was perhaps better suited for the ice capades rather than hockey but he has gotten past that, I guess, as he spent time in the penalty box nearly every game.

This is Porter's biggest fan! Whenever we are getting ready to head out the door to a game (or to WalMart, or nearly anywhere) she begins chanting "ho-ckey, ho-ckey!" And sadly, this is how we had to dress for most games this season. Not only was it freezing cold, but the wind!!! We sat through a particularly nasty game with the wind blowing like crazy till we all had dirt in our teeth and hair and everywhere. I was so relieved to get in the car, only to come home and discover that I had left every window in my house open! I swept up, and I am not exaggerating here, a CUP of sand from my kitchen floor!! Porter got in the shower as soon as we got home and the bathroom floor turned into a mud puddle from all the dirt that had blown in! Kevin and I were up past midnight wiping down every flat surface, mopping, and vacuuming floors and furniture. It was a nightmare!

This picture is from a table in the MIDDLE of my house!