Memorial Day weekend slideshows

I ate and ate and............lost weight?

We went up to the mountains to my grandparent's cabin for Memorial Day weekend and as usual there was tons of good food! And even though I was continually snacking and stuffing my face I am delighted to say I actually lost another pound and have now lost all my pregnancy weight!! I have to admit I did do some exercise videos a couple times with my sisters while there, so that helped ;) I have reached my first weight loss goal, now just 5 lbs to go for my 2nd goal. Yay!

I was instructed to take a lot of pictures of my Memorial Day vacation for Curtis so I will be posting a lot of pictures very soon. (Hopefully I can get to it tomorrow but we'll see)

Who needs dress up clothes?

Ok, I had to get one more blog in before I go out of town for the Memorial Day weekend. This will be my first vacation without Curtis. We're going to Donnelly and luckily my sister Tamara and her daughter are riding with me and the kids so I won't be alone.

Anyway, this is what my kids were doing Sunday afternoon.

Who needs to buy dress up clothes when you can just wear mommy's clothes!

Even Garrett likes Edward, LOL. Go "Team Edward"!

They are both wearing two of my shirts.

My two little monkeys were having fun standing on their heads before bed Sunday night. They would stand on their heads like this and then flip over, get up and do it again. Jack and I had a good time watching them.

Jack's first swim, Nikki's last game, and more...

We had a very busy weekend and I was so exhausted Saturday night that I wasn't sure I would have the energy to go to church today at 9 am, but I made it. First of all, on Friday night we went swimming at the Rec Center and then I had 4 of my nieces spend the night. We had an early start Saturday morning with Nikki's soccer game at 9:20am. We then went over to the high school where my niece Rebecca found out she made the drill team. Yay Becca! Then we went down the road to find a spot to watch Parade America. Then I dropped off two of the girls at their home and took the younger two with me back to my house where we ate lunch and then loaded back up to go to Nikki's 2nd soccer game of the day, final soccer game of the year. Poor Nikki was tired too and didn't try very hard in either game today. She even sat down a couple times. I think we've decided that soccer is not for her. It was fun while it lasted but we won't be doing this next year. After dropping off the other two girls I went home and tried to relax the rest of the day and ended up watching two Harry Potter movies. Thank goodness I got in bed by 10:30 and Jack let me sleep all night so we were able to get up and go to church. But as usual, we were a few minutes late. I first wake up thinking I have a lot of time and I feel like we won't be late and the next thing I know, I'm out of time. Oh, and right before we leave (as usual) I have to change Garrett's diaper. Then right after we got to church, Jack's diaper needed to be changed. I ended up missing the sacrament because I didn't want to wait to change Jack because he usually leaks. No leaks today though. I think it made a difference in changing him from size 2 to size 3 diapers a couple days ago. He's already 16 pounds! Anyway, there are lots of pictures today, enjoy!

Nikki LOVES her soccer trophy and medal. Had I known this was all she wanted we could've just bought her a trophy instead of signing her up for soccer, LOL.

Her team had an ice cream party and before her 2nd game she got her face painted.

Everyone also got a soccer shirt.

Garrett stuffing his face at the parade.

Jack and his cousin Rachel at the parade.

They had an astro jump thing that Nikki and Garrett had fun on.

Nikki and teammate Collin running for the ball.

Jack in the pool for the first time. He loved it! Ok, well he didn't complain. He was just relaxed the whole time. His cousins are the ones in the photo. We had a big group there; all of Jeanie's girls (my nieces), Stillman and Michelle and kids, Tamara and Chris and Katie.

Nikki's helping Grandma water her garden Monday afternoon. She loves to plant things so I better get moving on getting some more flowers and stuff for our yard so she can help me.

Tree hugger!

Jack started to bite his lower lip this month. I love the look on his face.

My Mother's Day

Yesterday the kids and myself and my friend Whitney went to the store to get a snack for Nicole's soccer team who had a game at 2. Nicole kept seeing lots of flowers and things that you would get for Mother's Day gifts. I never said anything about them but she saw all these flowers and it reminded her that it was Mother's Day soon and she really wanted to get me something. So I told her I would get some cash and she could come back later with someone else to get me something so it would be a surprise. So my friend Whitney said she would do it and here's what Nikki picked out for me all by herself. I love them! They are so beautiful!

And the card says "We don't need much to be happy..." "Just a whole lot of each other!" "Have a great Mother's Day." and it plays a song when you open it. I think she did a wonderful job making my Mother's Day special.

Today in primary Nikki drew a picture of the flowers she had given me for Mother's Day.

And this is what I got from Garrett. They did this in nursery. It says:

Happy Mother's day

Sometimes you get discouraged,

Because I am so small,

And always leaving fingerprints,

On furniture and walls.

But everyday I'm growing,

I'll be grown up one day.

And all those fingerprints,

Will surely fade away.

So here's a final handprint,

Just so you'll recall.

How little my hands were

When I was very small

Growing

Nikki is growing so fast. She just graduated from preschool on Tuesday. This preschool was one that all the mothers of the kids took turns teaching class once a week at each other's houses. It was a lot of fun! Total number of graduates was 5 but one had to miss it because his mommy had a baby the day before. We wish all of them could've been together. I love the graduation caps that one of the mother's made. I'll post a little video on our Youtube bar later of them accepting their awards (at the time there were only 3 of them there). Anyway, a couple of weeks ago we got her all registered for Kindergarten. I can't believe I have a kid old enough to start school already!

And two weeks ago we had our grass seed planted so that I might have a yard again. Thought you might want to see what it's looking like so far, especially Curtis. I took these on Tues so the grass has grown just a little bit more since then.

Mother's Day surprise

So earlier this week Curtis's sister, Shauna, calls me up and asks me if I can help her get some plants from a lady in her mom's ward on Saturday morning (yesterday). She said her daughter could watch my kids so that I could do that. The only thing I had going on yesterday was Nikki's soccer game at 9am. So I said sure. It would feel good to help my sister in law. Friday night Shauna calls again to finalize plans and says that the time changed a little for the lady who was expecting us to come get the plants and so she'd come by to get me at 11am and that she was going to take me to lunch too. I just figured lunch was to say thank you for helping her.

Nikki ends up spending the night with her cousin Alex so I only have the boys to get ready for the game. And lucky for me Jack slept in till past 8am again, so I got to sleep. I figured I was going to get muddy and dirty since it was raining so I wore clothes that I wouldn't mind getting dirty in and didn't worry about showering yet. I threw my hair up in a pony tail under my ballcap. So 11am rolls around and Shauna shows up with her daughter who's going to watch Garrett and Jack for me. We went to Olive Garden for lunch where we both enjoyed the soup and salad and breadsticks. Then we headed over to the lady's house. Last night I had bought some new garden gloves and so I brought those with me.

We get to the house and after the lady opens the door, Shauna says to her while looking toward me "she doesn't know why she's here". I say "What? What am I here for?". Shauna says "She thinks she's here to help me get plants". So I'm thinking "what's going on here?". Shauna says lets go show her the plants. So I follow them downstairs and into a small room where there's two couches, a fireplace, soft music playing, and a bed in the middle of the room. Then Shauna hands me a card and I open it to read. It's from my WONDERFUL husband Curtis, who has surprised me with an hour long professional massage. He gave me a very nice Mother's Day card and a nice long letter. Wow, was I ever surprised. Here I am thinking I'm going to go get dirty and the next thing I know I'm laying down on my tummy getting totally relaxed. I just kept thinking what a wonderful husband I have and how much I appreciate the thought and effort that went into doing this special Mother's Day gift for me. I miss you and love you so much Curtis!!!! Thank you!