Chloe is 16!!!!!

Wow! I cannot believe Chloe is 16! It was a good day!
She is not a fan of cake, so we had the traditional (?) Rice Crispy Treat Birthday Cake.

We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner

They embarrassed her sufficiently by having her sit on the saddle and have the whole restaurant yell, " Yee...Haw..."

Random pics

Seeing as I keep claiming we have been so busy, I thought I'd better offer a little evidence.










Darby and Sadie playing the wild-flowers with Grandma Nene.










My parents, brother and sisters all together.











Memorial Day at Red Cliffs

And then it was June!

Whew! The last few weeks have been BUSY! The last 2 weeks of school were exhausting! There was some kind of program or concert almost every day.








May 16th was Darby & Sadie's end of year dance review. This year the review also featured a "Special Guest" performance from about 30 of the Mom's of Pizazz dancers (Brenda & myself included.) Sadie won the "Spark-Plug Award" for the dancer in her age group with the most energy and enthusiasm. (Which was pretty awesome, because earlier in the week she had been diagnosed with mono. - Yes, the kissing disease.)









Last weekend all 8 of us went to Arizona and had a fantastic fishing trip with Dave & Amy's family, Rich & Catherine's family and Papa Max. (But, like total lame sauce, I forgot my camera.) So, subsequently the only pictures I have are on my pathetic camera phone. Everyone in the family caught a fish or two (or ten.) We found a fabulous little fishing hole in Tonto creek and pulled out 32 fish on Friday between everyone there. We went back to the same spot on Saturday after getting only a couple of fish at the lake, and managed enough fish for a great fish fry Saturday night. It is so nice to spend time together as family. It is great to get to know each other better and let the kids have a chance to be kids!
Dave & Amy were great hosts and good sports for letting us all invade their home. Thanks guys!

This week begins the mass exodus for the kids visiting other families. Grant, Hayley & Zack leave Friday to go stay with their Mom and Next week Sadie will head to Salt Lake for a couple of weeks with her Dad. During the month of July, all of the kids will be gone at one time and Ryan & I will be empty nesters.

Okay...Okay... I have to catch up sometime!

Life has been and continues to be crazy busy, but I have to give in and at least post some pics. Otherwise you all might think we are holed in our house waiting for 2012. (Ryan's prediction for the end of the world.)
We have had soccer, dance, Salt Lake road-trip, honestly, the list goes on and on... But here is a little of what we've been up to.

Today was "Mom's & Muffins" at the Elementary school. The kids and I went to school at 8:00 and ate muffins and chocolate milk, and just had a generally good time.

2 weeks ago we went up to Salt Lake for my nephew's 'Talk before his Mission.'

Darby & Hayley singing in the school choir.

Soccer Girls







These are some snapshots of Easter morning.
(I HATE Easter grass, so of course the kids pulled it out and rolled around in it.)

I seriously CANNOT believe it is April!

I honestly have no idea where the time goes...
Okay, I know that we all have the same amount of hours in a day, days in a week and so on...
But, what I cannot put my mind around is the fact that days, weeks, even months go by and I am crazy busy, but accomplish nothing!
And when I say I accomplish nothing, I know that isn't quite correct, but sometimes it definitely feels that way.
Our last month or so has consisted of the kids going all different directions for Spring Break. (Which basically required Ryan and I going all different directions to deliver to or retrieve them from their various Spring Break destinations.) Our weekends have been filled with 3 soccer games a Saturday, dance competitions and many other diversions.
We have only 6 more weekends before everyone will start disbursing for Summer visits with their other families. As exhausting as it all seems now, the house will soon quiet down and we will wonder what happened to the busy days.
One of my older brother says, "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans." So I try to enjoy life, and I will let the other plans take care of themselves for awhile.
Gotta run!

Ryan - Happy (St. Paddy's) Birthday

Yesterday, March 17th, was Ryan's Birthday!
All of the kids were gone, so for the most part, it was a little quieter and more kicked back than we're used to.
Both Ryan and I had to work, so the day went pretty much as usual. (Other than he had to drive to work with about 100 balloons in his car, a birthday banner behind his head and most of the windows in the Tahoe painted with birthday messages compliments of Chloe and Mariah.)
In the evening, we met Mike & Brenda (who happened to be celebrating their 31st Wedding Anniversary) and my Parents at Red Lobster for dinner. Then we spent awhile looking at the freaks in the bookstore, before going home and opening cards and presents with just the two of us.

I thought it was a really nice day, hopefully Ryan enjoyed it too! It is a lot of fun, having all of our 'Firsts' together.

Even Crazier than Usual

This past couple of weeks have been even busier than normal, (which is hard to believe.)
With the coming of Spring comes soccer season. the last 2 weeks have consisted of 2 soccer practices a week for Hayley, Darby, Zack and Sadie. Saturday, March 7th were the first games of the season, thankfully both Hayley and Darby play on the same team, so that limits our games to 3 a Saturday instead of 4.
Also, during the last 2 weeks, Darby & Sadie have had the normal Dance rehearsals, plus 2 performances and Dance company pictures.
Grant also started full-blown scouting now that he is 12, and both Grant and Chloe had most of last week home from school with bronchitis.
On Saturday, Grandma Nene came to visit for a week.
Everyone in the house (except me, thankfully) is still coughing to some degree or another. Ryan is starting to get MUCH better, but the Doctor said the cough could linger up to a month after he finished the anti-biotic.
Whew! I'm tired!
That's the low-down on the home-front!