Last Day of School!

Date: May 24th

How in the heck is another school year already over?!

This one flew by!!!

But alas here we go...

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!
and it was also spirit week!
So wild and crazy hair complemented our last day excitement!!

Last Day of School Happy Pancakes!

And then I walked with all 4 kiddos to school!

The traditional balloons and candy were waiting for the kids when they got home!
I thought they might have outgrown this
but nope Anden reminded me that morning
how he always gets balloons and candy after school.
Good thing I already had it planned! lol

I'm so proud of these cuties!
They had a phenomenal year!
They both ended the year with straight A's every quarter
and President's list all year too!
And the majority of their grades were even A+s!!
Both of their teachers raved about how amazing they were both as students
and as friends and human beings in general.
That means more to me than even their grades! :)
I'm a lucky momma to have such good kiddos!

Taylee's Dance Performance

Date: May 13th

Back in February Taylee started a Hip Hop class.

I figured since soccer would be ending in March

that this would keep her active and busy until summer.

Well the soccer season got extended through the end of April.

So she was definitely busy!!

Taylee's such a widely talented little girl!

She's awesome at sports but is a natural at dance and gymnastics too!

Makes for a tough choice on what activities we can fit into our schedule!

The recital is coming up in mid June.

But the teachers picked a couple of their favorite classes

to perform and compete in their first ever talent show.

Taylee's hip hop class was picked!

So we got a sneak peek at what the recital would have in store!

They are "hip hop robots" for their routine!

It's so cute!

Taylee's friend Xaida from soccer is also in her dance class!

They were brave together to try something new.

After all the routines they had the crowd vote for the Top 3 Performances.

Taylee's group took 3rd place!!

They were so excited as they're all newbie dancers!

What a fun little night to get a preview of all their hard work for months!

Now on to the recital!

Anden's Science Project

Date: May 17th

Anden had to do a big Science Project

for his final Science grade.

They were able to pick their own topic to test.

Well apparently his teacher sent home a packet of ideas

or they could make up their own and have her approve it.

I never saw the packet because Anden had bigger plans.

He informed me the next day,

"Mom I picked my topic!"

I replied, "Oh cool what is it?"

He smiles and says, 

"What type of fidget spinner spins the longest!"

Naively I replied,

"Oh that's a good one.  What's going to be your variables?"

He smirks and says,

"I'm not sure yet.  But this means I need you to buy me 5 more spinners.

It's for school you know."

Seriously!  Only this kid would find a legitimate way to make me buy him

yet even more of those dumb fidget spinners!!! lol

We had 2 weeks to get the project finished.

Good thing trusty Amazon Prime delivers in 2 days

so we had plenty of time to set up the experiment, perform it

then write up the report and create the tri-fold board!

Test Day:
This was a family event.
We set up the experiment in the garage.
Anden was in charge of spinners and the stop watch.
Ryan was in charge of the air compressor.
I was in charge of recording the data.
Laiklyn was in charge of destroying the test environment.
Taylee was in charge of Eastlie - which also turned into my job.

Yes I may have spent my entire Mother's Day night assembling the poster for him
and finishing his report.
But I guess that's just what Mothers do!

He was super excited the next morning when it was magically ready to go to school!

A couple days later was the actual Science Fair.

So the littles and I went to the school to tour the projects 

and see this cute kid!

(with the most popular science project...since he took the actual spinners to display/use!)

Oh and by the way we got a 100% on this project! :)

Anden Wax Museum

Date: May 19th

One of Anden's final school assignments

was his Wax Museum Project.

They got assigned a person from Arizona history

to research, write a report about and 

then dress up as that person for the Wax Museum.

Well somehow Anden managed to get assigned

Larry Fitzgerald!

I was just as excited as Anden was about that!

(since we all know an elementary project is also a parent project!!)

I took the little girls and we headed over to the school

to see Mr Larry Fitzgerald and hear his speech.

Four unsuccessful attempts of taking of pic of Anden and Laiklyn!

 Eastlie wanted her turn with her big brother too.

Then we realized she just wanted to yank his helmet and try to eat it! lol

Then the 3rd Graders got to come in and see the 4th Graders.

So Taylee got to join our wild crew!

Yes, yes and yes all 4 are mine! lol

Anden got an A on his project!

And he actually did the entire thing by himself during school hours.

I just provided the supplies!

Ahh he really is growing up! ;)

Eastlie - 6 Months

Date: Apr 21st

The time is just going by way too fast with this wee one!

She's now at the half year mark!!

SIX MONTHS OLD!

She's still just the best baby ever.
We can't get enough of her sweet little personality.
She's just nonstop huge grins all day long.

I've had all of May at home with her
and I've literally cherished every minute!
She's growing so much and learning so many new things.
She's still teething and waiting for that first dang tooth to pop through.
She's still a wiggle worm and I'm sure will be crawling away before I know it.
But for now I'm trying to keep her my baby as long as possible! :)

We love you so so so much Eastlie!!

6 Month Check Up Stats:

Weight: 17 lbs 3 oz (71st percentile)
Length: 26.5 inches (76th percentile)

  

Yes you really do...
Make Mama's Heart Full!!

Sprinkle Fun Time

Date: May 8th

Laiklyn is at such a fun stage!
She's so stinkin advanced for her age
that we basically skipped the terrible twos
and dove right into having a 4-5 year old!
She's so vivacious and full of life
and extremely opinionated! lol

The other morning there was like one somewhat sprinkle of rain.
She immediately ran inside yelling to me,
"Mommy I NEED me rain boots and brella!!"
I tried to explain to her that it was basically just the clouds sneezing
and wouldn't last long.
But nope she already had dug through the drawers and found the stuff
and was back outside twirling and singing at the top of her lungs!
I love this kid! :)

Big Changes!!

Date: May 1st

May Day!  May day!

Well folks guess what...

I QUIT MY JOB!!

Yes.

I.

Really.

Did.

It.

I'm finally a full time stay at home mommy starting May 1st!!

This was my 18th year at Honeywell!

(which obviously means I started when I was 5 years old.  No way I'm THAT old! lol)

I can't even believe how fast the time flew by!

During my employment...

I bought a house.

Built a pool.

Traveled the world.
Got my Masters Degree.

Met great friends.

Joined softball team.

Got married.

Had 2 kids.

Bought a second house.

Bought and sold multiple cars.

Bought recreational toys.
Took countless vacations.

Got divorced.

Met the love of my life.

Got remarried.

Had another 2 kids.

I'm grateful that I was able to work there so long

and the flexibility it gave me to be ME first.

I basically grew up with this company.
I had fully intended to quit once I had kids.

But then my bosses always allowed me to be a MOM first.

So I was able to continue to work also.

Yes it was hectic and stressful but I juggled both and it worked.

When the rough years hit of being a single mom,

I was so thankful that I had a solid job to financially make it through those hard times.

Then I was blessed to meet Ryan through work

and he brought a newfound love, stability and security to my life.

Which ultimately ended up bringing me 2 more daughters!

We kept up the rat race of a house with a working mom. 

I was going through the motions but no longer cared about my job.

I just wanted to be home with my babies.

My firstborn baby is 10 years old.

I only have 8 years left with him.

My final baby is already 6 months old.

And I now know too well how quickly she'll grow up also.

I wanted to soak in all the moments with my children.

I wanted to finally be a full time Wife and Mommy!

God knew this.

And "coincidentally" my job started to change

and policies started to change

which eliminated my flexibility to be a Mom first.

The cushy job and understanding management was no longer.

This forced me to actually consider other options.

Many prayers, fasting, tears and fears were logged.

Finally with Ryan's unconditional support and love,

I took the plunge.

I jumped right off the shiny corporate tower straight to the dark depths of unemployment!

And I couldn't be happier!! :)

Well I quickly learned that everything about my daily routine has changed!

Down to clothes I wear!

I traded in my pumps for my pumas,

my slacks for my sweat pants,

my blazers for my burp cloths.

I thought it would take awhile to get adjusted

with a few meltdowns, by me and the little girls

But honestly the transition has been so smooth!

I'm completely exhausted both physically and emotionally by the end of the day.

But I'm so grateful to get this 'second career' in life!

I also quickly learned there is no time for computers or blogging!

Hence why the blog has been abandoned for 6 wks!!!

Yes, that's the longest ever! 

I kind of feel like a limb is missing not to be able to have this outlet.

So slowly I'll start finding time to hop on a computer

and share my new journey!