October 2012

1. General Conference -One of the things I love about fall is General Conference.  I feel like we really get the weekend off.  We sit on the couch for 8 hours and listen to spiritually uplifting messages.  Okay, I think I was dreaming that.  I forgot I had kids for a second there, and there are lots of little interruptions, but I still love it.  And it's still incredibly refreshing.  I loved the talks, and I look forward to rereading or re-listening to them.  We had a very nice conference weekend.

2. Applesauce - I did a little bit of cooking in October.  David brought me a large batch of Gravenstein apples from the Milk Pail Market this month.  Gravensteins are nostalgic to me because my Grandma Hinman had a gravenstein apple tree in her back yard.  When we would visit her, we would often, if not always, enjoy some of her homemade applesauce.  We'd often eat it with ice cream or cool whip, and I always thought it was the best applesauce in the world!  And it is! So with the apples David brought me, I made some applesauce and reminisced about old times.  It was wonderful.

3. Chocolate Cake - Callie likes to bake, but only on her terms. She doesn't want to follow a recipe.  She just likes me to tell her what to add and make a guess about the amounts.  But I start getting anxious about wasting food and ingredients.  So when Callie wanted to bake a cake during general conference, I tried to persuade her to follow an easy recipe.  But she resisted, and then refused.  So I basically just told her what to add and how much by reading the recipe myself, and that worked just fine for both of us.  Her cake turned out huge, but it was quite delicious.  It makes me happy to see my kids doing something, that I enjoy so much myself.

4. Cinnamon Rolls - I don't know if I've ever made cinnamon rolls in the time that David and I have been married.  Poor, poor husband!  And he's never even complained!  Well, for General Conference this year, I made cinnamon rolls, and they were awesome!!!  Good old Cooks Illustrated.  They weren't sickly sweet, but just perfectly balanced.   I think we could be on our way to a happy conference tradition.  Hurray!

3. David's Work Schedule - David has been super, super busy.  He was working on a proposal that was due in mid-October, so he would work most nights and weekends on it.  Then he had to prepare for a trip to Japan (next item on the post) and presentations to give there.  And he had a second proposal due while he was in Japan, so he's been working like a mad scientist on that one too.  We're both hoping work will slow down a bit after his Japan trip.

4. David goes to Japan - David was awarded a travel grant to do research in Japan.  There is a lab in Japan that does chemistry similar to that which David wants to do at BYU.  I think I may make him hop on over here and write about his trip.

5. The Queen of Fun! - Let it be known, I am the Queen of Fun in our family. Okay, that's probably stretching it...a lot.  But I gave it my best effort with a lot of help from the Halloween holiday.  My quest to become the Queen of Michaelis Family Fun started when I went to Utah for a weekend in June.  I thought that finally, the kids would realize how much they need me and they would cry themselves to sleep and pout all day because they missed me so much and how can life go on without Mom!!!!!  Not so much.  They had a blast with Dad!  A trip to the beach, swimming at the pool, McDonalds and pizza for dinner.  To my dismay, they were totally and completely happy! And honestly, David is the fun one.  I'm just not that much fun.  I'm pretty serious most of the time.  So, when David announced he was going to Japan, I was determined to have some fun while he was away.  So here's what we did. 

6. Lemos Farm - After we dropped David off, we went to Half Moon Bay to visit Lemos Farm. We usually pass the entrance to this little farm on the way to the beach, and I've wanted to go for a while.  So when someone in the ward shared a Groupon for the farm, I decided to buy some tickets and go.  The girls get out of school early on Thursdays, so we headed to farm for some fun.  We did a little train ride.  The girls got to feed the goats (that got top ratings from the kids). They rode ponies (actually a little boring) and went on a hay ride.  They played on the bouncy houses.  Callie followed a kitten around. And they also had a haunted house that gave Callie quite a fright.  It was just a little haunted house that probably took 2-4 minutes to walk through, but Callie wanted to go through with a small group of older kids when the haunted house was on "scary" mode.  I didn't realize how scary it was going to be!  The poor little dear came out very frightened with her heart almost pounding out of her chest!  Poor thing!  She was a bit frightened later that night, too, but now she's quite proud of herself.  The young gentlemen running the haunted house was kind enough to let the rest of us walk through with the lights on and the music off, so the rest of us had an okay haunted house experience.  We had a nice time, and fun activity number 1 was a success!

7. Fall Festival - On Friday, after the Lemos Farm trip, Monta Loma elementary school held their first Fall Festival Fundraiser after school.  Parents set up many different activities for the kids to do.  I bought the girls each 10 tickets which they used to buy a treat and play games.  They liked eating a doughnut off a string the best.  And they had glitter paintings drawn on their arms.  I think the event was a huge success.  And another fun time for this amazing super-fun Mom!  :)

8. Trunk or Treating - Next came the trunk-or-treat.  The day after the Fall Festival.  Yes, I know!  How can they handle so much fun!  Callie and Alyssa wanted to be characters from The Last Airbender cartoon series.  Callie dressed up as Aang (an airbender) and Alyssa dressed up as Kitara (a water bender).  Haven wanted to be Rapunzel and she wanted Davy to be Pascal (the chameleon). I ended up making a chameleon costume from a newborn pea-in-the-pod costume I found at Goodwill. And as usual, I was trying to get costumes put together up to the last minute and beyond.  And I rather don't like creative ventures, since mine never turn out very satisfactory in my opinion, but they kids were happy with them and looking back they weren't too bad.  Anyway, we had a fun trunk or treat at the church building, and the kids didn't go round and round over and over again this year, so they had a reasonable amount of candy.  So we had a fun Saturday, too.


9. Trick or Treating - Well, we had to take a short break from the fun, but Halloween was on Wednesday so the girls got to have a costume parade at school plus little parties.  And then we went trick or treating in the evening.  We went around the Monta Loma neighborhood with some friends and went at a bit of a slow pace.  I was amazed at how little candy the girls brought home in comparison to last year when we had a mountain of candy!  So I asked David about it, and he said that he had the girls run from house to house last year and they went super-fast!  So Daddy's still better at Halloween, but I did a decent job and they still had fun!  And this isn't worth making it's own section about, but I also took the girls to Burger King on Thursday.  Score another point for Mom!

Happy Halloween!

10. The results - Well, I asked the girls how I did at the end of the week.  They said they still missed Dad, but that I had been a pretty fun Mom.  I'll take that.  Hurray for me!  :)

11. Speedy Little Haven - I completely forgot about this until I was going through pictures.  Haven gave up training wheels.  She just wanted them off one day, and within about 10 minutes she had it down!  I couldn't believe it!  I didn't even get to help!  I pulled out the camera to take a couple of shots, and Callie gave her a few pushes to get her started, and then she was two wheeling!  She could even get herself started after several tries.  Pretty impressive Haven!  Way to go!

12.  I also found these pictures of Davy.  He is our Dirt Boy!  He just loves the stuff!    He starts speed crawling for the dirt whenever he sees it. It makes me crazy though.  I worry about what's in it with all the traffic that goes past. 

Oh, Dirt Boy!

13. And here are just a few other cute shots from the month.

Davy in the back yard.  He can already climb the ladder to the play structure.

Davy likes to push Callie around

Haven with her best friend George - and cereal boxes too!

September 2012

1. Rise and Shine 10K - The stake Relief Society and Young Women's groups sponsored a 5K/10K run, and I ran it with Julianne.  It was lots of fun.  We biked over to the race at Shoreline Park, ran the 10K, got a free t-shirt (woohoo!), biked to the pool, swam laps, and biked home.  I feel tough!  :) 

2. Joy School - Joy School has started for Haven!  Sing with me! "Oh, Boy! I've got Joy! I do, do you?" Haven loves going to Joy School. She really thrives on having friends. We've got a great little group with Haven, Ally Linde, Livia Baldwin, Cameron McPhie, and Calvin Florence.  I'm so glad she enjoys it.

3. Class Room Volunteer - I've started volunteering in the classroom again this year.  I help in Callie's class one week and Alyssa's the next.  It's nice to be able to help and the girls love that they can see me during school.

4. Haven's Birthday - Little Miss Haven turned 4!  Happy Birthday Haven! I can't believe how fast they grow up!  But Haven is actually the youngest one out of her group of friends and she's quite tall, so I think I've actually been thinking of her as four ahead of schedule.  Anyway, we had a My Little Pony party for her, since she LOVES My Little Ponies.  Unfortunately, my cake rather flopped this time.  My rainbow pony castle turned out rather shabby.  But she got to have her friends over and we played games and the cake still tasted yummy, so all in all it turned out all right.  I love Haven because she loves to have fun.  She can be a good sharer.  She likes to help me bake things.  She has a cute giggle and loves to laugh. She loves to play with her best friend George, and together they have a penchant for mischief.  :)  David loves her bright blue eyes. He loves how she gives him a hug in the morning when he's eating breakfast.  He loves how fast she goes on her bike (she's also a really fast runner). We love you Haven!  Happy Birthday!

5. Temple Babysitting - I have a totally awesome calling!  I get to arrange babysitting for the ward temple trip every three months.  It's great! It is rather hard to plan in advance though. On this round, I lost four babysitters within two days of our babysitting date, and had four families ask to leave their kids a few days prior to the trip. But it worked out just fine.  Except for Davy vomiting in the car on the way to the temple.  That was not so fine.  But I just warned the parents leaving their kids, and I believe none of the children we watched became ill later.  Anyway, the kids were great and our babysitters were wonderful. Temple Blessings! 

6. Triathalon - "Look at me! Look at me! Look at me now! It's fun to have fun, but you have to know how!" The cat in the Hat.  This was fun.  Thanks Julianne for helping me to do this.  I wasn't fast, but I did it! I swam, I biked, I ran.  And I had a great time.  I got a decent time on the swim, but couldn't figure out how to breathe and swim regularly with waves splashing in my face.  I ended up swimming with my face out of the water and back stroking part of the time.  And everyone passed me on my bike.  After the triathalon, I figured out that I should have been in an easier gear, but oh, well!  And running was fine.  I could pass people on running.  Julianne Pack, Robyn Shelton, Adeline Lambert, Lynn Mosier, and I did the triathalon, and their friendship and enthusiasm was what made it so memorable and fun.  Thank you ladies!

Getting Ready!

Adeline, Line, Me, Robyn, Julianne (who is 6 months pregnant!)

      

7. David goes to BYU - David went to BYU for a few days in at the end of September to recruit students to join his lab and work for him.  He already has one student working for him already.  He chats online with him on Thursday nights so they can discuss the research.  Does that count as working to jobs?  Chemistry here, chemistry there, chemistry everywhere!

So I haven't been super diligent on the blog, but since the summer post was huge, I think a short September post is quite acceptable.  Cheers!

Summer Summary

     Summer passed too quickly, so I think the best thing I can do is to summarize the summer in one big post.  So here we go....


1. June trip to Utah- I flew out to Utah with Davy early in June to bid farewell to my parents who were going into the MTC!  Hurray for Mom and Dad Hinman!  I'm so excited for them.  Davy and I flew out on Friday.  Grandma Michaelis picked us up from the airport and we spent the evening and night with them.  Several of David's brothers and sisters came over and it was fun to see them.  The next day, they generously let me borrow their car and we drove down to Provo.  I stayed with Pete and Tiffany and Mom and Dad stayed with them, too, so I got to have some nice time with them.  On Saturday, the entire family went bowling together at BYU.  It felt really strange to be back at BYU knowing that we'd be seeing a lot more of it in the near future.  But it was really fun to play with the family.  We all had a Jamba Juice afterwards (which I thrived on my freshman year).   The next day I got to make a fun train cake for Sam's birthday, and then Mom and Dad, Peter and Tiffany, and Patti and I went to church together.  Sunday was a family dinner, and I can't believe how much everyone's kids have grown!  It was wonderful to see the whole family.  The next day I got to help drop Mom and Dad off at the MTC.  We really did just drop them off and go with just a quick hug goodbye.  I sure love them a lot.  I know I'll miss them, but I'm so excited for them and so proud of them, too.  Davy and I headed up to Salt Lake, and Grandma Michaelis dropped us off at the airport.

Grandma Michaelis and Davy!

Parting Shot with Mom and Dad.  Sniff... Sniff...

2.  Weekend with Dad - Have I ever mentioned how amazing David is?  I have to admit that I get a little envious at how well he does with the kiddos when I'm gone!  Aren't they supposed to be devastated with out me?  Not with David around.  But unfortunately, it's September as I'm typing this.  I just asked David what they did, and he said, "What!?!  That was forever ago!  I have no idea what we did!"  Well, I know they had fun.  And I know that they went to the ward beach party and had a blast!

                           

3. Kindergarten Graduation - Alyssa graduated from Kindergarten!  It was cute and sweet and she was thrilled.  She was a wonderful kindergartener, but we'll miss seeing Ms. Francis so much next year.  Callie and Alyssa both did so well in school and I'm very proud of them!

Alyssa with Ms. Francis

This is something Callie wrote in 1st.  Talk about going to great lengths!

4. Babies, babies, babies - We found out this summer that Becky, Stephanie, and Laura are all expecting.  We are so excited and happy for their families!  I should also report that Jen was expecting, but sadly miscarried in August.  We're very sad for Jen and her family.  I think it must have been a hard experience.  But we pray for peace and hope for their family.

5. SF Zoo with the Girl Scouts - Callie's girl scout troop celebrated the end of their scouting year with a trip to the San Francisco Zoo.  Our family joined them, and we had a wonderful time.  A big thanks to Jennifer Manson who is an amazing troop leader.  Thank you for all you've done! 
 
6. Kiara's Birthday -  I've always had a hunch that Mandy Croft was totally amazing, but she proved it to me once again at Kiara's birthday party.  She made the most amazing aquarium cake ever!  She melted sugar to make class window panes.  Then she used some of the extra melted sugar to make colored starfish by making indentations in the sugar.  She also made all the finding Nemo characters as cookies on sticks so that they looked like they were floating in the tanks.  And she decorated them so well, too!  It was AMAZING! Way to go Mandy!

7. Blessing of Clothing - Sometimes I get a little worried about our budget and affording things that we need, but Heavenly Father and generous people keep blessing us!  I was getting a little worried early in the summer again, but a family in the ward decided to clean out their garage of their children's old clothing and play items.  I was able to get many useful things that were so helpful for our family.  I also haven't needed to buy boy clothing up to this point thanks to the generosity of several ward members.  Thank you so much to the Smiths, the Badgers, the Bairds, the Perry's and many more families for their kindness!

8. Independence Day - For Independence Day we went to the annual ward pancake breakfast.  David always goes and helps set up early.  This year, the kids all decorated their bikes with red, white, and blue paraphernalia and had a bike parade.  Our neighbors Vivian and Emily Lespinasse joined us, and we had a great time.  In the evening, we biked/jogged to Shoreline Park to watch the fireworks there.  We got free tickets and joined the Croft family on the grass.  They have a live symphony playing during the fireworks.  Davy and I left early though, because I wanted to just put him to bed.  Daddy and the girls had a great time though.

9. Summer Reading Plan - I tried to make my own summer reading plan, but Alyssa ruined it!  I told her that she could count chapters, so she read from the illustrated scripture book for just about the whole day.  She filled up my whole chart in one day!!  So we decided to just sign up at the library!

10. Autumn's Wedding - David's co-worker, Autumn, got married this summer and she was kind enough to invite our family.  It was a lovely and simple outdoor wedding in a redwood park.  We all had a very nice time.  It was fun to see a doe with two fawns wander close to the party.  We wish Autumn and Jacob much future happiness!

10 1/2. Camping at Yosemite with the Crofts - This is number 10 1/2 because I'm adding it in later.  I knew we did something in July, but I couldn't remember what it was!  Camping!  We went camping at Yosemite with our good friends the Crofts.  I love that they always invite us to do fun things that we probably wouldn't do if left to ourselves. So we joined them for a night of camping and a bit of touring in Yosemite National Park.  The Crofts moved to Texas in August (Boo hoo hoo!) so Matt could do graduate studies.  We already miss them!

11.  Great Grandma Great turns 100!!!  Wow!  I still can't believe it!  Way to go Grandma!  The family had a nice celebration in Utah which we couldn't attend, but we did go visit great great grandma Hales while we were in Utah.  We're glad we can still visit her a little longer.

Callie with Great Grandma Great Hales

Family Shot with Great Grandma Great. Any photo shoppers out there are welcome to edit my hair!

12. Family Vacation - Okay, this will be long.  We drove out on Saturday, July 28 and got to Grandma's House around 9 o'clock.  The girls were so excited to get there and be there that it was fairly late by the time they got to bed.  The next day we had 1:00 church.  Haven was a disaster! Not only could I not manage her in sacrament meeting, I couldn't even manage her in the building. We spent most of sacrament meeting outside.  And Alyssa fell asleep on the bench.  Poor tired girls.  But they recovered quickly enough.

We did a lot of fun things on this trip.  Early in the week we went with Emily and Clayton (and their children Austin and Ava) and Stephanie and Alex to Pineview Lake.  It was beautiful and fun!  We found a small spot to ourselves and the kids had a great time.  It was fairly warm, shallow, and clean.  David and I swam around the buoy and got in some great swim practice after which my legs felt like Jello.  We had a great time!

Next was Melanie and Zach's wedding, which was the main reason for our trip.  They were sealed in the Draper Temple and Great Grandpa Michaelis sealed them.  It was a beautiful ceremony and Melanie made a beautiful bride.  Stephanie was an angel and watched our kids during the sealing and brought them to the temple afterwards for pictures.  They had a great time admiring Melanie and following her around.  Jen was another angel and watched them during the luncheon.  We enjoyed seeing Aunts and Uncles and cousins again and catching up on news.  They had a lovely reception in the garden center Sandy.  I thought it all went smoothly and was very nice.  Grandma and Grandpa must be wedding professionals by now.  Congratulations Melanie and Zach!

We took the girls to the West Jordan swimming pool and Jen and her kids joined us there.  I like this swimming pool because it's indoors (no sunscreen or sunburns!), the water is warm, they have a water slide that Callie was finally big enough to use (she LOVED it!), and a small water playground for young kids (Alyssa loved the little slide!).  The kids loved and are eager to go back on the next Utah trip.

The summer Olympics took place in London while we were in Utah, which was fabulous.  If we hadn't been at Grandma's and Grandpa's house we would have totally missed it because we don't have television.  But they would record it during the day and we would watch it in the evenings.  It was a lot of fun to watch!  I really enjoyed seeing Michael Phelps swim from 7th place to 1st place in one pool length!  The girls enjoyed it too. 

We got to go on a little hike with Grandma and Aunt Judy.  We had been going to meet up with her master gardeners group but we were a little too late and missed it.  We did have a nice little walk in the canyon, though. 

We celebrated our anniversary while in Utah which was nice because Grandma and Grandpa Michaelis were wonderful and watched the kids for us.  We got to eat out at a restaurant by ourselves!!!  What a treat!  Happy 9th David!  I love you!


Well, this is getting way to long so let's go faster.  We went neighborhood perusing to get a feel for where we would like to live.   We had a family dinner with my family (where I found out that Christy does not have lupis like we believed she did- hurray!) and a brief picnic with Tiffany and kids.  We also went northward for a Hales family reunion and stopped in to see Great Grandma Great.   After the family reunion we had a safe, uneventful  trip home after a very eventful family vacation.

13. Alyssa's birthday - Alyssa turned 6 a few days after we got home.  We had a Rainbow Fairy Party with face painting, coloring, goblin freeze tag, and some other little games.  We also had a rainbow cake (Martha Stewart's idea perhaps?) that turned out surprisingly well.  I didn't get a photo, but it looked somewhat like this:

Not my cake, but my looked pretty close!

 Anyway, I love it when a cake turns out right.  What a great cake idea! David loves how Alyssa colors beautiful pictures and reads so well.. He loves that she is creative.  He loves that she is so polite! He loves that she makes up funny names for her friends, and that she gets so excited that she screams when she sees him.  I love that Alyssa has a sweet heart and that she wants to be good. I love that she starts drawing within minutes of waking up almost every morning.  I love that she talks to me on the way home from school. I love that she wants to do what is right and loves the scriptures.  Happy Birthday Sweetie!

14. School Starts: - The girls started school a few days after Alyssa's birthday.  We were delighted to find that Alyssa has Ms. Cummings, whom Callie had for 1st grade. And Callie has Mrs. Perez, who seems very organized and very nice.  I think they are happy to be back in school even though it is a lot of work for them.  I think they benefit from the structure and I'm glad to see them learning.

Silly...

And Sweet!

15.  Davy turned 9 months old in August - We took him in for his 9 month check up and he's in good form.  He got a bit a thrush that made for some poor nights sleep, but other than that he's doing well.  He's 30.5 inches tall (above the 97% line) and 23 lbs in weight (between 85-97%).  He really learned to crawl at Grandma's house this summer.  He did a really long stint with army crawling and was quite fast.  But at the grandparents he finally got his tummy off the ground.  He also discovered the thrill of climbing stairs.  Stairs were definitely Davy's favorite part of vacation!  He also loves to crawl around and shove fistfuls of dirt in his mouth (Arrrrgh!) and still loves to play with his sisters.  We're so glad to have a healthy, happy baby boy.

This is why my girls call Davy "Happy"

16. Callie's prayer - Callie had a neat answer to prayer that I thought I ought to write down for our family.  We'd lost a library DVD and I needed to return it before we left for vacation if I wanted to avoid two weeks worth of library fines.  So we were madly checking every nook and cranny all over the house.  I'd enlisted the girls' help and they had joined the search, when Callie remembered to pray.  So we knelt together and said a prayer, then got up and continued our search.  Within about two minutes, Callie announced that she knew where the DVD was.  She had left it in Dad's computer when they had watched it on a long car ride.  I thought that was really neat.  We believe that the Spirit can bring things to our remembrance, and I think this is a great example of it.  I'm also amazed at how quickly God will answer a child's prayer.  

17. Haven Quote -  After David dropped and shattered a jar of spaghetti, "Only grown ups can be bad examples."  And later to Mom, "Only grown ups can make messes because they can clean it up."

18. And just some favorite summer poses...

Haven Crusin'

The girls would push Davy around in this little toy shopping cart.  He patiently obliged.

Who needs toys!?!

 Here are some pictures of our family that Melanie's wedding photographer took.  It's been 3-4 years since we've had a family picture.  Hurray for new pictures!

Thanks for reading!  I hope you had a great summer, too! PS - More picture coming, but I've got to get to bed!

May 2012

1. Walk-a-thon - Monta Loma Elementary School had their annual walk-a-thon fund raiser at the end of the school year this year.  They were really organized and we earned a lot of money for the school.  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Hinman and Grandma and Grandpa Michaelis for your donations.  The girls also got a lot of exercise.  They walk around the large school field, and volunteers mark how many laps they've walked.  Callie, Alyssa, and Haven all did quite a bit of walking, but I was astounded when I looked at Alyssa's record and saw that she had walked over 80 laps!  We calculated that she probably ran 10 miles in all!  Wow!  She just kept going and going and going!  Way to go Alyssa!

2. One Hundred Fun Hundred -This year was the 100th anniversary of the founding of girls scouts and California celebrated big time with a large extravaganza.  David took Callie and Alyssa (I stayed home and yard saled with Haven and Davy- the party cost a bit too much for us all to go), and they had a great time.

Here's what Callie has to say about it: "At the 100 Fun Hundred,  we had lots of fun.  There were a bunch of games and when you would pick a ball color, you would get a prize. And there was a bungee castle that we got to jump on.  And we had ice cream for dessert but we didn't have a good dinner.  We had granola bars and a go gurt or two. We sat and watched the girls scouts singing on a screen and then we got to see fireworks and that was my 100 Fun Hundred."

Here's what Alyssa has to say about it: "This was the worst part: I got lost! And I was on the stage dancing with Hula Hoops.  There were these games where you pick out a ball and Callie got a fish and I got a pin. But then Callie got another fish later and gave it to me and then she got one more fish and gave it to Haven.  There was this ocean one and Callie said one of our grandpa's fought in the Navy.  And I got a stamp that looked like a ship.  And that was my 100 Fun Hundred."

3. Monta Loma Movie Night -The girls usually have a movie night at the school once or twice a year and this year we got to help set up.  We had fun watching "The Muppet Movie" on a big screen at the school, and the concession sales earned a few hundred dollars for the school. 

4. Mother's Day Tea -Alyssa invited me to a Mother's Day Tea Party at her Kindergarten Class. She helped make little sandwiches and we drank water rather then tea.  She had decorated some lovely pictures for me.  I also got to see her sing some songs. I think Ms. Francis throws a great party!  Thank you Alyssa and Ms. Francis!

5. Ward Camp Out - We went camping with our ward this month which the kids just love.  I don't love to camp actually.  We need an air mattress or something other than rocks to sleep on!  I also don't love trying to feed a family over a fire (which is why I'm so glad we picked up a pizza on the way down, and I'm thankful that the bishopric provided breakfast.  Hurray for no cooking!)  I don't love the smell of smoke all over everything.  But I do love an evening to relax with family and friends.  I also love that my kids love it.  And I love the Hepworth family for being so kind as to bring their large dog and allowing Callie to play with it incessantly.  And I love that my kids just don't get in trouble out doors.  Indoors I just get frustrated by all the mess, but the outdoors is a natural mess and I don't have to make many boundaries.  They just play and have a great time.  It was a fun camp out, and I appreciate the ward arranging for it. 

6. Morning Runs - I've started jogging in the morning with my neighbor and friend Julianne Pack.  Julianne tends to keep in shape and has run half-marathons and triathalons, but the sweet dear must have felt pity for me and decided to get pregnant just as we started jogging together!  She's been very persistent, and has never missed! She's made it through morning sickness and now we often go four miles on our jogs and she's still going!  She's amazing!  And I've really enjoyed our runs together.  I actually look forward to exercising with her (even at 6 am!) which is a completely new feeling for me.  I also like that Julianne's phone tracks our mileage, our speed, how many calories we've burned, and it's equivalence in bananas (chocolate would be preferable for me - how many more squares of chocolate do I get to eat?)

7. Joy School and Graduation - Haven completed her first year of Joy School this month. We both had a really great time with Joy School this year.  She did Joy School with Calvin Florence, Cameron McPhie, Allie Linde, and Livia Baldwin.  We had a great group of kids and and great group of moms.  And I think Haven's social skills have improved some as a result.  She loves having Joy School with her friends.  To celebrate the end of Joy School we had a picnic at a park, and Mary Baldwin was kind enough to make hats and graduation certificates for all the kids.  Thanks for a great year everyone!

8.Temple Babysitting - My new calling is to arrange the babysitting for the ward temple day at the temple stake center.  So our first babysitting event happened this month and it went really well.  I think we had just the right amount of sitters to kids. And I made a loose schedule with different activities and the time passed fairly quickly.  I hope it goes as well the next time around too.  I also have to add that David is a super husband.  He helped with everything!  He let me go do initiatory before we babysat.  He brought in all the toys, snacks, and supplies. He helped with all the babysitting and he helped load it all back in the car.  He is such a supportive husband!  Thanks David!

9. Davy turns 6 months - We're still having lots of fun with Davy boy!  His checkup won't be until June though, so no stats on this report (Ha! I'm backs with the stats!  He's 28.5 inches long and way 19 lbs and 10 oz.  His head is 45 cm. That translates to 90-95% on height and about 80% on weight. Granted we're three-four weeks late to the appointment, but way to go big boy!). I've taken to calling him "Davy Doodles" and I like to sing a "Davy Doodle went to town" song.  He's rolling around like crazy and still wants to have something in his mouth every minute of the day.  He's close to sitting, but not quite. And he's still smiley and fun.  His big sisters love to hold him and play with him.

10. Memorial Day Weekend -Okay, so I don't really remember much of what we did for Memorial Day weekend, except that Patti and Dave and their two sweet boys came down for the afternoon/evening which was just so nice.  We love to spend time with them.   They brought their grill and some shish-kebabs they had made and we went to the park.  They are just a blast to hang out with.

11. Sweet Moments - So, sometimes I'm a bit down on myself and I really worry about my kids turning out okay.  But every once in a while we'll have a really sweet moment, and I'll think that maybe things will come out alright.  This month was a great month and we had four sweet moments! I hesitate to share these because I don't like to toot our own family horn and I'm certainly well aware of our many faults and failings. But this is my family journal and I want to record these moments for our family. So here we go....

Sometimes the girls like to have sleep overs, meaning we let them all sleep together on the sofa bed in the playroom.  One weekend this month we let them have a sleepover, and as usual Haven was the first one up.  Later, when I heard noises in the playroom I went in to see what they were up to.  And it came to pass, that they were both reading scripture books in bed!  Hurray! I just wanted to cheer!  And it was really sweet looking, so I grabbed my camera and took a picture.

Callie had a couple other choose the right moments, too.  She totally surprised me by leading Alyssa and herself in a surprise playroom clean up without being asked.  It was wonderful to walk into a really clean room that had been a mess!  It was a great secret service and they are great little secret service agents.

Callie also told me that she was offered tea at girl scouts which she declined to drink. I was so proud of her!  She's my one that keeps asking, "Why can't we just try it?", but she chose the right and said no.  Did I mention how glad I am?  After I told her I was proud of her, I asked her how she felt.  She said, "Terrible!  I wanted to drink it!" I was rather hoping she would feel good for choosing the right, but I'm still glad she did! :) Good job Callie!

Alyssa also had a "make Mama proud" moment.  I substitute taught Haven's primary class this month, and during sharing time the Bishop came in to share a message.  He was recounting the story of Jesus' baptism.  He asked what happened after Jesus was baptized and Alyssa popped her hand up and said that a dove came down and it was the Spirit.  And the Bishop asked what happened next, and Alyssa popped her hand up again, and said that Heavenly Father spoke.  The Bishop asked what Heavenly Father said, and Alyssa quoted, "Behold, This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, In whom I have glorified my name. Hear [ye] him".  And I thought, "Wow!"  How did she learn that!?!  (I think she probably got it from the illustrated picture books).  Anyway, I was proud of her for knowing the scriptures!

Sorry for the super long post, but we had an eventful month.  Thanks for reading!

April 2012

1. Learning Circle - I joined a learning circle this month where I join a group of other mothers and we discuss a parenting article and topic.  I am excited to learn from other mothers. 

2. Xander and Karla's Birthdays - We went to a couple of Callie's friend's birthday parties over the weekend - one on Friday and one on Saturday. The first was for Xander Croft who had decided he wanted to have an egg party.  I marveled and laughed at the cupcakes Mandy managed to make!  Can you believe it?  Those are cupcakes!  Then on Saturday we had a nice time at Karla's party (friend from school).  I like that Latino parties are for whole families and that there is always lots of food.  It's a lot of work, but I think it's very nice. 

These are cupcakes!  Really!  They really are cupcakes! Mandy, you're amazing!

3. Xander's Baptism - Also on Saturday we attended Xander's baptism.  This is the first one of Callie's friends that we've seen baptized.  I thought the program was just lovely.  Mandy gave a great talk relating baptism and repentance to using soap - it has to be done often despite our best efforts to stay clean.  She then gave Xander a bottle of soap to help him remember that.  I thought it was beautiful.  Xander and Brendan and his two cousins also sang a song about repentance that I thought was beautiful.  We were happy for their family. 

4. Spring Break with the Grandfolks - Hurray!  We're so happy when the grandparents and great grandparents come!  We love it when they come visit us!  And it helps us to get out and go sight seeing.  This time around we headed to Monterrey, Pebble Beach, Santa Cruz, and Muir Woods.  I loved it and we took quite a few pictures.  Sorry if there are so many pictures included.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Michaelis and Grandma Great and Grandpa Great for coming to see us.  We loved sharing spring break with you all.

Haven and Alyssa climbing the rocks at Lover's Point

Lovely Little Lighthouse

Callie at Lover's Point

My Three Little Girlies - Spunky Alyssa!

Callie at the Beach in Monterey

I love it when they can explore a bit

All the dark patches near the water are sea lions! -Pebble Beach

The Lone Cypress at Pebble Beach

 
5. A visit from Christy and Ryan - We are so popular this month! We get a lot more visitors in California than in Wisconsin.  It helps to live only 12 hours away rather than 21!  Anyway, we spent an afternoon with Christy and Ryan and their children Ava (2) and Ezra (9mo.) at the Exploratorium (which I didn't think was worth the cost for my kids' ages, but I enjoyed the company!)  And then Chrisy and Ryan and the kiddos joined us for dinner and a little playtime before they headed to the hotel.  It was so fun to see them! (FYI - I copied these pictures from Patti's blog.  Thanks Patti!)  Two weeks later, Alyssa was asking when we could see Ava again.  And fast forward to June - I did Alyssa's hair today for church and she asked after I finished, "Does my hair looks as pretty as Aunt Christy's?" Congrats Christy! Alyssa thinks you have great hair!

 6. Mom's Birthday - 31!  Wow!  I no longer feel like a young Mom.  I completely feel like a middle aged mom.  I still feel like I have the competency of a six year old, but I do feel a bit older.  David and the girls gave me a great birthday.  The most memorable part was when David took us all on a surprise hike in Uvas Canyon.  It was beautiful.  I love nature and I love it when the girls can roam free to some extent. It was great!  Thanks for a great birthday David!

  

7. Mormon helping Hands - David and Callie were our two Helping Hands this year.  They helped paint a fence.  And I believe our impulsive little one only painted herself black once.  Thanks for serving. 
8. New Calling - I was released from my calling as nursery leader soon after little Davy was born.  So I have had a nice calling-less vacation for several months now.  But they are still going easy on me.  They called me this month to arrange babysitting for the quarterly ward temple trips. So far, so good.  I think this is a calling I will enjoy. 

9. Alyssa Sayings - Alyssa made me laugh when she said, "Mom, I just want to make life easier for you. Do you think I'm an angel?" or "Mom, I love you so much.  Do you think I should get some beads for that?" (beads lead to prizes).  She makes me chuckle.

10. Davy starts rolling around - Davy has turned into a rolly polly bug!  Hurray!  Now he rolls over the instant we put him down almost like a reflex.  He also does a lot of crunches! Go Davy Go!

11. Conversations with Haven:   "Mom, Davy can't change his diaper.  His arms are too short!"

Haven: "Mom, you're going to die."
Mom: Why?
 "You're birthday is coming and you're getting older!"
 Will you be okay if I die?
"Yes, We'll take care of ourselves?"
Who will make dinner?
"I will!"
Who will read you stories?
"Callie"
Who will take care of Davy?
"We'll give him a bottle!"
My thoughts: I'm gonna take a vacation!! And I do, too!  Skip ahead to June!