Surprise times two

My tricky husband was up to a lot of no good this week. He planned two surprise parties, that's right two. The first surprise party was with my preschool kiddos and their parents it was the decoy party and boy did he have me. He had emailed the families and arranged for the parents and kids to have a little cupcake and cookie celebration for my 40th. I was quite surprised. No makeup that day for school, not really looking my best 😌. It was all a decoy the real surprise came on Friday night. All day Benjamin and I hung out did basically nothing. We had a relaxing day and then Bella came home from school and we went out with Olivia, Adrianna and Nana to go prom dress shopping. Little did I know Benjamin was racing around and getting things ready for a surprise party. We got back from shopping to a house full of people saying "we've been expecting you." My wonderful husband was busy all week preparing for this crazy double surprise. What a guy he makes 40 look sooo good. So glad I have spent 20 of my 40 with you ♥️♥️♥️!!

My love

Didn't take pictures but at least  we got these 😁

Goodbye 30"s

The day is here, the time is now, the 30's have left the building. I feel like my twenties were about finding love and starting a family, changing diapers, building career, enrolling kids in school and trying out school, physically its a lot of work. The thirties have been about being there to help kids emotionally and to help develop kids work ethic and their vision for their future. Its about finding my own goals and dreams and developing s plan on what i need to do to get there. To me its about caring less about who's right and focusing on being kind. Its about appreciating the body I have been given and focus on being strong.  This is a big decade to recap.  (30) bought some land and moved out to the beautiful dessert in Mescal Az. Lived in a travel trailer, an army tent with Scott and Suzie's family. No electricity, no running water all for a dream house that never got built.  (31)  Moved to a double wide mansion in Mescal. Had my last kiddo Adrianna. The hardest delivery of them all, she flat lined twice and needed to stay in the NICU for 10 roller coaster days. (32) Our dog Luke lost his eye sight and an anonymous donner paid for his treatment!! What the what! (33) Moved back to Tucson. Started Kokopelli Kids Preschool (34) Sold the land out in Mescal at a loss. (35) Fifteen years of marriage!! Celebrated in Canada! (36)The year of the radical, knocked out an insane amount of debt from the dream has house bust.  Became foster parents (sorta) to a great teenage boy. Got the most surprising/ generous gift we have ever gotten.  Paid the debt in full to the bank!  (37)  My last child goes to kindergarten, tear. (38) Easter morning we get the news that we are going to be able to buy a dream house! (39)  We have Chinese foreign exchange students live with us for the entire school year. We (Benjamin) built a preschool! We start goat farming.

What a decade!! It's amazing what one decade can bring. Ten years ago yesterday I started this blog. What a journey. I'm so thankful for the ride. In the next ten years all my kids will be adults, why does time fly for adult and us so slow for kids?

Lindsey and I at about 7 :)

March 8th Bella's 17th birthday!

Bella turned 17, what a great number that is! Last year before she becomes an adult, sigh. Where has the time gone Bella?! What a terrific woman you are. Strong, fiercely independent, crusader for the little guy,  artistic and kind. Bella life guards, mock trials, teen courts, lends her elegant dresses to any one who needs a nice dress. One more year of high school, one more year at home and then on to exciting things! Love you Boo Bear our family Jule!

March 3rd Howe Attorney team storms the court! And a doctor in the house.

What a long title..
At the beginning of the year Bella and Olivia joined the mock trial club. They have been practicing for months on a fictional case. The club culminated in a big event downtown at the city courthouse. Teams from all over the city came to try this case. They each took different turns being the attorney and being witnesses and being expert testimony witnesses. Bella was lucky enough to try her case three times. Olivia only got one time to do the mock trial, luckily Olivia's one time she was the attorney. At the end of the day both girls were awarded best attorney from their opposing counsel. Bella also got voted best witness testimony. Benjamin I went to watch, it was great fun seeing are opinionated, confident, fast thinking daughters do an amazing job!

Holman would like to be a surgeon someday so he looked up online ways to practice. He decided he would take a laundry pod a knife and some straws and see if he could cut the straws without puncturing the laundry pod. So funny and then he sewed it back together. What an awesome dude.

February 22nd and 23rd Rodeo Break, Ski trip, Stake conference

For rodeo break we went to go ski with the Whettens at Sun Bowl in Flagstaff Arizona. It was everybody's first time including Benjamin. They all took ski lessons and after the first day they were all pros. I had gone skiing the year before with Sherry whetten for my first time and I didn't accomplish near as much as the family did with their first time although I did have a lot of fun :-) Parkin went off ski lifts that I didn't think were possible but because he did it everybody else got courage to try them too. Soon we were all doing crazy hard ski runs at least crazy hard to us. Anna enjoyed drinking hot chocolate in the lodge with the Whettens daughter Sydney. The two Whetten Brothers and our family stayed at a very nice big house it was great to combine meals and save money and hangout and talk it was a rodeo win, all the kids want to repeat it for next year.

 Bella was hauling down a slope and took a nasty fall, they bandaged her up like a civil war soldier.

 (Before the eye injury) Sherry Whetten posing with her look a like daughter wearing matching shirts.

 I had preschool on Tuesday and Wednesday. Nana got a broken wrist ( thanks to a preschool injury 😩) and was getting a cast so Bella and Anna helped out. We left for our ski trip on Wednesday afternoon.

Bella was asked to speak at Stake conference, she did an an amazing job. She talked about keeping yourself unspotted from the world. She wove in elements from her biology class as examples of keeping yourself unspotted. Poor girl delivered this talk with a big black eye from her ski injury but she looked fantastic and got a new outfit to celebrate.

The week of February 4th 2018

The most feminine thing I've ever made. My Valentines wreath :) 

Parkin and cousin Franklin at the Tucson Mall cheering Anna on for her Lion dance performance.

Bella, Liv and Holman enjoying our balcony seating for the Chinese performance.

Anna singing in Mandarin. Blond girl on the back row fourth one in.

The Lion Dancers in the costumes. Second lion in form the right side.

Ron's sister Lorna passed away a couple of days before her 85th birthday. She was birthday buddies with Benjamin and Endowment buddies with me. She was a lovely woman (a truly attractive lady). She was smart, funny a real caring soul. She was the realtor for our first house. Her funeral was beautiful. Ron conducted and was delightful. All ten siblings were there. Thi is from my camera, I know there are better pictures out there.

We swapped out a ceiling fan for a chandelier because we desperately needed more lighting in our living room. Look how precarious this is... Grateful Mr. Benjamin is so handy and brave.

February 1st Benjamin's 41st birthday!

Isn't he a handsome beast! 41 years young. He is insightful, fun, devoted, kind, athletic and adventurous. He really tries to get this homebody going and usually does a very good job getting me to try something new :) he takes great pleasure in getting me to laugh and lucky for me he does it often. I love his positive support of me and how he is always in my corner. I hope to always be in his. For his birthday he wanted to take the family out for pizza. Since his birthday fell on a Thursday which already is our weekly pizza night, it worked out perfectly.  He also wanted each of the kids to have an Italian soda because they are so darn good! I bought him a present which I still can't find, he thinks I am making it up but I think I just hid it so well! Might be time to buy a new gift! I just love this man and like it says in your ring  My love forever and a day. XOXO

What else happened this week...

Olivia going through her closet this is all the woman's scarves.

 Parkin's last derby. His goal...to make a car that finishes but that does not win. He does not want to go onto the next round of racing.  Goals.

 Anna bought this swan that she named "Pen" apparently that is the name of a female swan because they use to make writing quills out of the female's feathers. Learning every day.

 I love teaching "city folk" how to milk goats. Mostly because I would have loved to do this as a kid. my friend's son thought it was really weird, but his face says FUN!