Mothers Day 2010

Me and the reason I celebrate Mother's Day. Sadly this is the last year that one of these darlings sings with the primary on Mother's day. I asked if he had been practicing the words of the song and he said yep, mother I love you.

We found this cool frame at Kohl's 1/2 off plus I had two coupons, 15% off and $5.00 off, so it was $4.00. I plan to put my favorite pics of our family vacations in there.

The kids also picked up my favorite purple viola's and planted them in my flower bed. They even match Stanley who will stay in my flower bed as long as the Red Wings are in the play offs.

The kids right after planting. We had to be quick because we have been getting so much rain today. I think Jeremy was mid-sentence when I snapped this picture.

This is the tree in our back yard. I love looking at this tree in the spring. It reminds me of the song "Popcorn Popping"

Happy 15th Birthday Emily

On Friday April 23rd Emily had her state band competition in Dexter. My mom and sister drove all the way out there to attend it with us. We had decided during the day that we should just combine it with dinner and celebrate Emily's birthday which is on the 27th. Jan's fiance' Dan and his son's Logan and Danny met us at the restaurant too.

The wait staff noticed that we had presents and decided to take Emily to the front of the restaurant and have everyone sing to her. It was totally embarrassing but Emily smiled through it and didn't even get mad at her dad who had agreed to let them do this.

With her dignity gone she borrowed this hat from Logan and we headed for the car.

Emily is growing into a wonderful young woman and this year she asked for make-up, purses and shoes. These are the two purses her grammy bought her.

This is the purse aunt Jan and Dan bought her. They also bought the orange wallet and it had a gift card in it.

I got Emily these shoes and another pair that are zebra print. I also let her pick out some make-up and gave her a gift card to Claire's so she could pick out some earrings. I almost forgot I also picked up the last book in the Fablehaven series for her.

Look Mom No.....

BRACES!!! Emily waited for 18 months to get her braces off. I was very impressed on how well she did with them. She always brushed, flossed and wore those darn rubber bands with out complaint. This was a early birthday present.

This is in the car just before we went in the dentist. Can you see the excitement on her face?

OK, so getting your braces off hurts. This is just after the dentist took them off.

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful!

Rock On!

Ok, so the first picture was taken at home. This is the end of our road trip. Emily is giving her best Steven Tyler/Mick Jagger lips and I am just glad to be home with my leg up with ice on it. As Emily says "It's not a family trip until you fall." Translation= Once a year over the last 3 years I have taken a tumble and split my knee open so this get away was no different. So beg my pardon that these pictures are in reverse order I wasn't thinking clearly. Start at the bottom of this post and work your way up or just read them backwards:)

Z.Z. Tops car used in their videos.

A tribute to the Beatles, it's called Abby Road.

This one is covered with eyes cut out of magazines.

This one is purple and called Moondog.

This regular sized guitar is decorated with small pieces of Arizona Ice tea cans and Coke cans.

This one is covered in fur, faux I'm sure, the pink one had some kind of lights on it and the white one has music and words on it.

For some reason there are 4 cars suspended from the ceiling. This one is all glittery like a disco ball.

This is made out of rusted metal. At first glance I thought it was chocolate.

More over sized guitars. Remember to click on them to see all of their details.

All of these over sized guitars were decorated by various people in the community and are on display. I think they are great art work.

Once you enter the Hall of Fame you are quickly told that you can only take pictures of the exibits in the entry way. Then you have to check you camera. That's right NO PICTURES in the Hall of Fame. So this is a display in tribute to Michael Jackson.

The red fence is cool because it has flame cut outs. Click on the picture and you can see it better. The stadium in the back ground is where the Cleveland Indians play.

I took this picture on our way out when it wasn't raining. It is a really interesting building. The picture above this is the side view. I didn't realize that we would be right on Lake Erie.

This is the slippery stair that I wiped out on. Yes it was the first thing I did so all day I sucked it up and partied on in pain. My knee is swollen and I had to see security to get a big bandaid. I almost forgot to say that it was snowing when we arrived so the stairs were wet and I was soaked.

ROAD TRIP (for girls only)

So our family was supposed to go on a weekend trip to Kirtland/Cleveland Ohio. Well Jeremy got himself in a bit of trouble so Rob, aka super dad, stayed home with Jeremy so Emily and I could go. Our original plan was to go to Kirtland to see the historical church sites then go to Cleveland to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame then on to Akron for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Neither Emily or I wanted to go to the Pro Football Hall of Fame so we are taking an over-nighter and doing the other two.

On the turnpike we found Polly Pockets limo. This is Pepto pink.

This is Emily in front of the Kirtland Temple. No pictures are allowed inside so this is all we have from there.

The kind sisters who took us on our tour took this picture of me and Emily. We were so lucky to be the only ones on our tour and really felt the spirit of the Lord here. Emily is reading the D&C right now so it is cool to visit these places with her.

Just a warning, this next picture is of us goofing off in our room. We don't have a Long John Silvers by our house so when we go out of town we try to eat there. We had a real treat of extra greasy fries there (you could wring them out). At this point we were both pretty loopy so we took this silly picture. ARRRRRRRGH!

One Amazing Night

Tonight was a very awesome night. We attended a Eagle Scout Court of Honor for 5 young men at our church. What a great thing to witness. Jeremy also earned his 1st class scout badge.

This is my ribbon for the mothers pins that you receive when your son advances rank in the Scouting program. From the top on the left side are the Bobcat, Wolf, Bear, Webelos and Arrow of Light pins. On the right is the Tenderfoot, Second Class and First Class.

This is Jeremy giving me my pin. I am so proud of him.

Jeremy had to tell what the Second Class emblem stands for.

From the left are Devin, Sean, Jay, Kyle and Matt. Way to go guys!!

Winter update

So I am really behind on updates but really we didn't do much of anything in January, February or March. Here are the few things we did do.

Jeremy played basketball in January and February. His team worked very well together and only lost one game. Their coach was amazing and when they lost he said "My fault guys I called the wrong play." Such a huge difference from last years disappointment. Jeremy is the kid in the middle with his arm out.

Getting double teamed. When Jeremy stood completely upright he was taller than most of his opponents. He is now 5'4" and the doctor says that he is just getting started.

In mid March I took the kids to the bowling alley for a benefit event. Our friend Sheryl has been fighting cancer for a couple of years now and at this point only has a week or two left to live. Emily and her oldest daughter Jenny are good friends and I love that Emily is so willing to listen and support Jenny through this. Having the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation is WONDERFUL!

We were lucky to bowl in the lane next to the elementary schools teachers and principal.

Add one more thing to my list....Emily was practicing kicks in karate class on the 23rd of March and when she set her foot down she was in pain. We first thought it was a cramp but soon realized that it was much more than that. I took her to the urgent care and found out that she has a minor tear in her Achilles. She is now on crutches and can not do karate for at least a month. So, I get to pick up the slack and do her chores too plus I get to help her with every possible aspect of her life. She is getting better at doing things on her own. Hopefully April will bring better weather and more exciting things for us to do.

p.s. Emily just reminded me that her Wind Ensemble made it to State competiton. Yeah for them!!