Planning For The Future...

Jaco is pretty sure he wants to be a "sanitation engineer" when he grows up. This kid has me chasing the garbage truck all over the neighborhood. I am pretty sure our garbage man thinks I have a crush on him the way we run out and stare him down. I keep thinking this is a phase that will pass...meanwhile a year later the garbage fascination has only gotten worse. Jake likes to sort the garbage and knows which can to put it in. He had words this morning with our sweet neighbor Joe who puts our garbage cans away for us. "Don't take our gargage! I want to do it." Thanks Jake. Now our garbage cans will sit out all day until your Dad gets home.
Jake has also decided that this is the car our family needs. He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES the Ford Flex. Specifically, a red Ford Flex. Every time we pass one on the road he yells "Mom, car. I want that car!". Awesome. He has asked me to follow the Flex's around too, but I have to draw the line somewhere.

Jake's "Stairs to Heaven"

So this morning Jake decided he wants to play sidewalk chalk...which I hate doing out front because, well, Jake makes bad choices about running into the street. AND the cars RACE down my street as we are on the main drag of our neighborhood.

But, I give in. Jake busily spends FOREVER (like half an hour, which is FOREVER in the attention span of the Jake-ster). When I ask him what he has made he says "stairs.".

Where do your stairs go? "To Heaven."

Melt my heart.


P.S. This post is worth an update of my playlist songlist! Turn your speakers on!

Love. That. Smile.

Jake comes home from school wearing one of these hats almost every week. He loves the hats. He is proud of the hats. I had to document.

P.S. Can you stop growing up so fast. I can't believe you are going to be in kindergarten next year!

Wicked-ly Fabulous!

One of the things I am most thankful for is some great friends. What a great evening with many good memories! Luv Ya Girlys!

Zaner's Ragnar Del Sol

Zane's Ragnar team...and some of our besties...Jenny, Jenny, Becca, Shannon, and Chris.


Pretty funny. The "kills" documented on the mini van. "Kills" for non-runners such as I are the people you pass whilst running. So, Jenny R. pick's up Zach from school one day and she is explaining this to his little 6 year old brain. Zachary proceeds to tell her she should clean it off before a cop sees it. THEN, he tells me a few days later that he hoped a cop didn't see Jenny's van cuz it says the word "KILLS" on it. Love him!

Look at all your "KILLS". You guys did awesome! Just glad the kills are not people that Zane ran over!

Some of my girlies that Zane ran with.

The team was electrify-ing!

Zane had a great time! Thanks for putting up with my hubby, friends!

Project week!

I really hate blogger sometimes. Why does this picture copy sideways everytime? I thought I would be tricky and put it sideways and blogger would flip it back the right way, but NOOO. It will only copy it like this. ARRRRGHH!

I am back. No promises to be regularly updating this. My life is spinning out of control in the busy-ness category.

There are mixed feelings about project week. It was a lot of work. It was spendy getting supplies for the projects. We worked hard. I was happy to work hard thinking maybe this would help Olivia along. Maybe a great grade would help pad her grade for a test she did not-so-great on. She is struggling with the pace of this intense school. AFTER the project was turned in there was rumor that the projects were not for grades. They were just so the kids would learn for the sake of the "love of learning". HUMMM. The only problem is I may not have spent a week on them if it was "for the love"!

My kids were very proud of their projects and did both feel quite accomplished. That makes a parent feel proud. That (maybe) made it all worth it!

Special thanks to our good friends the Updike family who came to see Olivia's project on project night. It made her feel so special to have you guys there!

La Loma Daughters Sang as they Walked, and Walked and Walked ....and Walked

Olivia and her youth group completed a 22 mile walk to the site where they are going to build the Phoenix temple. Her youth group took their inspiration from the story of John Rowe Moyle, a pioneer and master of stonework who came West with the earliest handcart companies in 1846. He settled in Alpine, Utah, which was nearly 22 miles away from downtown Salt Lake City. He was called to be a stone mason on the Salt Lake Temple. In order to fulfill his calling and to be to work by 8:00 in the morning, every Monday Brother Moyle would wake up at 2 a.m. and begin his long walk over the hill and through the valley to the temple of the Lord. Like Brother Moyle, who carved the words "Holiness to the Lord" on the Salt Lake Temple, these young women also wanted to keep their focus on being worthy to attend the temple by doing a similar walk. They had trained as a Young Women group and individuallyand leaders during the HOT Phoenix months. For Mutual activities, they walked and talked about the temple. They followed a training schedule which if they were diligent would prepare them for the 22-mile walk.

I will admit I had some reservations about my daughter walking 22 miles in early Oct. Early Oct is still HOT in Phoenix. Heavenly Father blessed these girls with beautiful weather that day.

I knew this walk would be challenging. Olivia was a trooper. I had SEVERAL of her leaders tell me Olivia kept up great and NEVER had a SINGLE word of complaint.

Love Her.