School Clothes Shopping...

So we surprised the kids and flew them away to San Francisco. Rob and I liked it so much when we went that we decided to take the older kids and go. They are always helping us with the little ones and are willing to do whatever we need and we appreciate that. So we took them to San Francisco to go school clothes shopping. We told them initially that we were taking them out of town to school clothes shopping. They speculated that we were going to Cabazon in California. So we got them up early and started driving. They were excited once they saw we were going to the airport. It was fun for us to do and glad that they liked it. We flew in to Oakland again because taking the Bart is an experience you must have once. We stayed at a place called Hotel Diva. It was very Chic and Modern. We had 2 rooms that shared a bathroom. Pretty cool place. We wanted to stay down at Union Square so we could take our shopping back and not have to haul it around. I absolutely LOVE the weather in San Fran....I love the cold breeze. We had a great time spending it with our olders kids. It was fun to not have to worry about the little ones.




The first day we got there we took the kids over to Alcatraz. It is always so interesting and amazing. There was an actual prisioner that had been on alcatraz named Darwin E Coon. We bought his book and had him sign it. Rob and Kailey have read it so far. I intend to...I hear his life story is amazing and that he has turned in to a great man. It is hard to imagine that Alcatraz really even existed just because it is so worn down so it was neat to see someone that actually had survived the experience.











One of the days we were there we rented a car and drove to Fairfield to the Jelly Belly Factory. That was a fun thing except for the tons of money spent on Jelly Bellys. On the way home we drove through Napa and saw all of the beautiful hills and hills of vines. It was breath taking! Then back through Sosilitos (sp) and across the Golden Gate Bridge. Amazing! Loved the fog rolling in across the bridge.





On friday Rob's brother Bill flew out to come hang out with us. We had fun walking down the warf, taking the trolley, eating yummy foods. The pictures are of us eating breakfast at the Fairmont, taking the trolley and hanging out at the warf. We went to dinner friday night at a place called the Sliding Door. It was great food!



One of our last days there we walked over to China Town with the kids. Of course they were cracking up at themselves. Bill didnt want to stay there so he left and Rob, Kyle, Kailey and I walked around. We could have walked around hours looking at everything...to bad we were short on time.

My little lady girl

So this week has been a very hard week for me. I had to put my dog Lady to sleep. We had been out of town and when I got home I knew she was really sick. She has been battling kidney disease now for over a year. I took her to the vet and they told me her kidneys werent working at all so I had to make the hardest decision in my life. I knew it was time but it didnt make it any easier for me. I found this first picture of her taken some years ago. The others are of the day I took her in. I have been completely heart broken over this. I always had dogs growing up but they either ran away or I honestly don't know what happened to them. So lady was my first dog I got as and adult. I inheirited her from a family in scottsdale that didnt want her anymore. I was happy to have her and have loved her since day one. We got her when we had our house fire and she brought me and my kids so much fun and happiness. She was so smart and very fiesty in her young years but as you can see when she got older she got gray and mellowed out quite a bit.
I decided to do a post to try and help me overcome my complete sadness. I am thankful for many memories that I had with her. She always waited for me every day and was always happy to see me. I will miss that. I am thankful to my dear friend patty who came and was with me during that awful hard day. So thank you patty you will never know how much that helped me. So now you all can look at my sweet lady girl and know a dog that was the best and one of my closest friends! I'll love and miss her always.

Fall Swap

I got invited to participate in a fall swap. I think it will be fun meeting someone new and getting excited for fall. It is my favorite time of the year. So I have created a link so that those of you who are interested in doing it can sign up. I hope that you will really consider doing it. At least go to the link and read about it for yourself and then decide.

Where has the time gone?

I was looking trying to find pictures that I wanted to post and as I was looking I came across these few that I am posting. I was shocked. I can't believe that so much time has past. The picture of kyle and my nephew lawson was just at butch and julie's wedding. That wasn't that long ago was it? Now kyle is 16 and thinks he knows everything or should I say thinks I don't know anything. Then Kailey and my niece jenna. Wow they have totally changed lately. Beautiful young women so into sports I think they have forgotten boys exist. This is really good though there will be plenty of time for that. Then the picture we took after we had Kaden with all our kids. He will be 3 at the end of this month. Looks nothing like the big baby you see here. I will have to post some pictures of him. He is my wild child. I love him too much.
I guess I am a bit more sad because this means that I am getting old. I don't want to be at all. At this point in my life I am thinking late 20's would be great and here I am closing in on 40. NOOOOO! I want my grandparents all to be back here with me and for my parents to not be aging. Life has a way of sneaking past us. I must be better at enjoying the moments!

Makenna

My little makenna just had a birthday. She is now officially 7 years old. Where has the time gone? She decided to have a friends birthday party and was a little disappointed when most of her friends were out of town doing family summer things. She was very happy to know that 2 of her best friends, spencer and allison were able to come. We ended up taking them to amazing jakes and they had tons of fun. I love watching little kids...so much fun. All in all I think her birthday was as special as she is to us.





Makenna's cute little smile after losing her two front teeth! So adorable!

The finished product!

So finally after many months of work we have finished our closet. We ended up having 15 shelves that hold a total of 330 cans. It ended up being perfect I was able to get rid of every box around the house. It all fits in the closet now. So one side as you can see if the food from the cannery and the other side is regular size cans, stuff for our 3 day supply, towels, blankets, games and my family home evening stuff. I love, love, love it! Of course I am still adding to my supply so it will start to fill other rooms again but at least this way we can see it and rotate it accordingly. We are on our way to a year supply!

from beginning to end

So I am finally getting around to posting...Yeah. I thought you would all like to see from beginning to end the new closet/pantry that we built for our food storage. The finished product wouldnt fit so I will post it after this, which mean it will really be ahead of this. I just hate trying to post things in order. It never works out for me. Anyways also wanted to say ignore the picture of the green car. I don't know how I attached it but I did and don't want to start over so it is staying.