What is up?

So this Fall I started two classes at our local city college!

i still have our two little ones at home so it has been a challenge to find baby sitting and study time. especially since one of my classes is a self paced math class. i will probably fail, yay optimism!
anyway, the other class is a basic english class, and i feel like such an idiot in it. i dont know how to write an essay and i dont even know what a thesis statement is!

why did i go back to school?!!

oh yeah, to get smert.

besides that we have had a few crazy adventures as the seasons transitioned.

Shane and I visited Shannon and Connor in Tempe!

The Coffins

a beautiful dessert sunset

We got to do a session at the Mesa Temple! so beautiful, i cant wait to see all the temples in the world! thats one of my goals.

I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Mom and I went to Portland to go to Deannas wedding! i got to fly there and stay with my big sis Kathleen♥
An attic room is sure a step up from a closet.

Saturday Market in Portland. Hanging out with Mom, Kat and Kadee

Sorry, Portland, we had to leave! You try to stay weird without me and my mom, okay?

The Portland Temple!♥ its like a castle in the woods!♥♥♥

Mike and Deanna 9/23/11

Oh and I know what youre thinking, "I thought you were in Oregon, why is it so sunny?"
Well, I took the sun from California with me for a couple of days, until Sunday when Oregon cried because we were leaving. I got a video of it.

Oh and we saw my sisters friends band at Saturday Market and i took a video of them play a song, it was fun!

Summer Fun

So many things on my to do list, but I finally cleaned the kids room. although we arent nearly done! I want to throw most of those toys and clothes away, i wish i could just throw out EVERYTHING. but well, then i would just have bored and naked children. Although, they woudnt mind the naked part as much...

I feel like we are getting mostly back to normal now and just waiting for school to start up in two weeks.

Im super nervous for that because of Nephis past social experiences in school. I think that no matter what happens we will stick it out for two more years and be done with Orange County. Although I will miss my University Park Ward and a few neighbors, I WONT miss everything else. Orange County is just not the place for me.

This summer apart from what I explained in my last post, we havent really been up to much! just trying to enjoy the days, try to keep cool, and get things done.

I am grateful that I have been able to enjoy my children a little more, im intentionally trying to slow down that part and take more mental (and real) pictures. Mostly because everyone who has older children always says they wished they enjoyed it more when they were little. I believe whole heatedly that i will be one of those regretful moms, if i don't take advantage of it now.

Some things I love about my kids are:

Nephi

might seemingly run around the place and do things with little or no regard to others, but when someone is truly in need of love or assistance he is the first one right there on top of things! He has not only noticed when i am having a bad day, but knows and does exactly what I needed to have done even if i didnt know it my self!! He will make some woman the luckiest wife on earth, some day!

EmmaLily

is the best big sister that Willow could have gotten. She love her little sister and takes such good care of her! She lost a few of best friends in the summertime moves that go on around here in student housing, but i think she realized that her sister isnt going anywhere. Built in best friend! She also has an amazing imagination and is very good at taking charge, making up games to play and making sure everyone is following the rules and having fun!

Elijah

says the funniest stuff, makes me crack up at least once a day! Hes my little observer of life, miniature comedian, tiny philosopher. I love him. I love hearing his theories of the world and people around him every day. And the questions he asks are always something new! Hes quiet, thoughtful, careful, and figures things out, he learns from his mistakes, and he loves trains!

Willow

is fun and exciting, laughs the loudest most cynical sounding laugh! love. it.
She truly is a red head inside and out! runs as fast as she can out that door the second it opens. I actually love that she likes being outside so much. I love that she is beginning to talk, that she thinks her name is the same as the color yellow. Argues against anyone that thinks she is anything other than a baby named Willow. She doesnt want to stop breastfeeding. (yes i do like that she loves to do it, i just dont like the act of breastfeeding!)



Things i love about all my kids:
They all love the beach, playing outside, the rain, lemonade stands, Popsicles, ice cream, friends, movies, skateboarding, video games and sports.
all the things that i love too!

Spring into Summer

I know that four months might SEEM like a very long time to most people, but when you have four kids who are ALL home for half that time and a hubby in grad school it goes by like a FLASH of lightening!!

This summer we (in UCI housing) lost a great number of friends to the seasonal move out. Friends who have been loved, cherished and will be missed dearly.

I don't want to make a list for fear of excluding someone! That's how many are leaving or gone already, either that or my brain left too... ANYWAY, WE LOVE YOU! COME BACK AND VISIT US OR ELSE! (ill find out where you moved and egg your house)
"just kidding"...

So this spring was pretty nuts with the planning and execution of four birthdays and a wedding, not including cakes for at least five birthdays an anniversary and a wedding!!! none of those people payed me either! lol they were immediate family though, so i guess that's fine.
Oh, and if you want to see pics of the cakes you can go to My Cake Blog.

So anyway, I planned my little sisters Wedding Reception and made her wedding cake. The pics were done by a friend of a friend of the Groom, Piscitello Photography (she did a fabulous job and I highly recommend her!) turned out BEAUTIFULLY and my sis and her new hubby were ecstatic with the whole event and that was the whole point! We had tons of help from super creative family members and there were tons of people who knew how to take orders and everything turned out GREAT!!! Heres a link to the Facebook Album I hope you can see them!

As for the Birthdays, well ill include Elijahs as well, even though his was in the winter, since I didnt post about his yet either, we had a great Thomas the Tank Engine birthday for Elijah!
Then in April, I threw EmmaLily a Faerie Tea Party! In May, Nephi had a Spongebob Luau in our backyard! At the end of May I made a huge dinner for Shane and we had a small family party on his birthday, which was awesome and such a relief! In July we had Willows 2nd Birthday at Turtle Rock Park with some friends and combined it with Sarah Kates 2nd birthday (those little cuties are only two days apart) We had another little cutie (Mona) whose birthday was right in between theirs but never got the chance to ask her mom if she wanted in on the combo birthday at the park, i could have emailed but didnt think of it until it was way too late!! Thats my brain after four pregnancies!!!
Anyway, here are a few pics from those events






















As school was ending for the summer i felt an overwhelming urge to holler "Huzzah!" and dance around the school yard, but held that in and instead decided to write with a chalk marker on the car, "Schools Out For Summer!" and "Surfs Up" and other such end of school/summer time sayings.
I have now gotten in the habit of writing things on my car, with the exception of a van gough starry night replica a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture of any of these :( If anyone has a picture of them please send them to me so I can post them!

On the Fourth of July we spent the day at Corona del Mar beach with almost the whole Family. I dont have very many pics for having been so overwhelmed, and any pictures that my younger siblings took will have involved stupid things or blurry people... cant trust them to take good pictures of anything! Aaarg i want a digital slr camera soooooooo bad... too poor, not a priority, blah blah blah... lame!


oh yeah, I also chopped off ALL my hair in the spring! That made EVERYONE at church do a double take!! people i had known for years were about to introduce themselves to me!! Hahahaha, good stuff.
here are some pictures of that

BEFORE

AFTER

I LOVE it short! Its so much easier to handle and deal with and I dont have to worry about it getting stuck or pulled or too hot! The only problem I had was a couple of little kids thought I was a dude, but that doesn't bother me enough to grow it out again.


Here is one of the lemonade stand that my kids earned a total of $150 over a period of about four days (and the only hung out for a couple hours each day) Business kids!



My Aunt Annie and Uncle Byron were in town with their kids from Utah! I was so happy to be able to see them! and here is a pic of my mom and her brothers and their spouses



We spent Pioneer day with the PV stake this year! it was super fun even though there werent many people


I almost forgot about Scout Camp!!! I was the Bear Den Leader and i was there from 8 to 3 FIVE DAYS STRAIGHT, just about went crazy!! Heres a pic of my den and my two little ones who got to go to the sibling camp, they had a blast!