Jenks Lake hike

Eric had the weekend off so we decided to do a family hike.  Online Eric found a hike in the San Bernardino mountains that was only about 2 miles long and had a lake at the end. So we headed up the mountain.  It was much colder then I expected, we actually walked past a couple of little patches of snow still on the ground. 

Ruby and Lucy loved all the different types of moss and collected samples of all of them. 

Ruby was finding lots of little rocks to add to her rock collection at home. She kept dropping then in the hood of her sweatshirt.

The funniest part of the hike was when we finally made it up to the lake there were several people fishing and a parking lot right next to the lake.  Haley looked at the parking lot and said "You mean we could have just DRIVEN up here... why did you made us hike it?" She was a little bugged.

The girls and Eric ventured out onto a fallen tree in the middle of the lake. I was sure someone was going to fall in the freezing water, but Eric and Ruby came back completely dry.  Haley and Lucy both had one soggy shoe and pant leg. They were trying to pass each other and had a little complication.

Towards the end of the hike Ruby had found so many beautiful rocks her arms were full.  It looked like we were punishing her filling her arms with big rocks and making her climb a mountain, but she refused to put any down and carried them all the way to the car. 

After the hike we went to A&W at the bottom of the mountain and got root beer floats. With all the complaining we heard on the hike, when Lucy was drinking her float she said "This is the best day ever!". 

Modesty

Child #1

I took Haley to the Mall to look for an Easter dress that she will wear (an impossible task).  I found a very simple blue top and a cool blue water colored skirt- Perfect I thought!  Haley said she Loved them. Score!  

When Haley tried them on in the dressing room she said she felt uncomfortable in the skirt because it was too short.  I told her it that skirts get shorter for Summer because it gets hotter, and that the skirt touched her knee. She said "I just feel so immodest".  No Easter dress yet.

Child #2

I was sitting in the office (computer at the end of the hall) when Ruby said "Hey Mom, turn around and We'll give you a fashion show. The 1st outfit was a small scarf that she had turned into a dress, followed by a topless outfit with high heeled boots. Here is one of the outfits that I took a photo of after I grabbed my camera.

 

Child #3 

There are no photos of Lucy because none of her outfits covered enough of her for me to feel comfortable posting a photo of them.

How have all three girls come from the same home?

Say WHAT?

4/3/09

"Was that YOUR fault?" The 1st thing Haley said after the tires stopped screeching and we hit a car turning left in front of us. 

At dinner... "Mom, were you really mad you crashed your car?" Lucy

"Not really, accidents happen" Me

"Ya, only people with Nice, CLEAN cars get mad when they crash". Ruby

***FYI- We are all fine. My car has minimal damage and I had the right of way, so it was not my fault.

3/31/09

"Whenever I talk it's exciting, but as soon as I stop I could take a nap." Ruby

"So talking makes you tired?" Me

"No, I just get tired of me talking." Ruby

3/27/09

"TRINITY JEWEL GET OVER HERE NOW!!!" A Mom 3 isles over in Target calling her poor child with an unfortunate name. 

3/26/09

"Haley did you finish crocheting the scarf you sold?" Eric

"No she choose to read a book the whole way to and from Disneyland instead" Me (Yes I was bugged, since she was a way late in delivering it)

" I was reading a CHURCH BOOK!!! You should be happy I wasn't reading a gangster book and saying "YO YO Mama!" Haley

2nd week of Spring break

On Tuesday we wento to Disneyland and California Adventure with our friends.

Ruby had her friend Sara
Haley had her friend Brandon
I had my friend Melissa
And Lucy... she just walked around looking good
We did lots of pin trading
Got soaking wet
Ruby looked as stylish as possible, and we all had a great time!
Of course Disneyland never gets old (for some) so we headed back on Thursday with my friend Nicole.
Ruby's friend Ellie
Lucy's friend Perry.  Nicole took all the kids on Splash mountain while I took Lucy, Perry and Asher on the Winnie the Pooh ride THREE TIMES in a row. 

Asher was terrified of me and had no idea where his Mom went, so I had to resort to drastic measures to gain his affection.  A sucker was all it took to buy his friendship, but Nicole had a heart attack when she saw him eating it.  Apparently he has never had a sucker before and she was not very thrilled. Sorry Nicole!

Ellie talked Ruby into going on Big Thunder Mountain, and Ruby LOVED it!

We went on the new and improved It's a Small World. My girls loved looking for the Disney princesses in all the scenes. 
And of course we ended the day with cotton candy.  

On Friday we saw Monsters Vs. Aliens with our friends the Sharpes.  After 25 pounds of popcorn and 300 ounces of root beer, all 7 kids had a great time and loved the movie.

Spring break report

Driving up North through the central valley was amazing! We passed huge fields of purple flowers, fields of yellow blooming flowers and several orchards of trees still in bloom.  The sky was clear and brilliant blue with huge white fluffy clouds (something that no longer exists in so. California).  

When we got to my Sister's area they had trees in bloom all over the place. I don't know what kind of trees they are but there were trees with white flowers and trees with pink flowers lining the streets and all over the park. Just beautiful.  When I mentioned to my Sister how beautiful it was she said "Ya it's allergy season". I guess after you have lived around around there for so long it starts to loose its magic. 

The cousins got to spend lots of quality time together. 

Quality time= Watching movies in Ali's bed, playing dress up....

Playing American Idol in the garage with a DJ Jacob blasting music and using a large flashlight as the spotlight in the dark...

Jumping on the trampoline...

Eating lots of it's-its (I love these things and you can only buy them in the bay area)...

Lots of playing at the park that has super cool play equipment...

The line between dress up clothes and regular daytime clothes was lost at some point in the trip.  I did not even realize they were still in dress up clothes until I noticed people staring and smiling.

I was amazed and Ali and Lucy's keen understanding of themselves, they both choose the ice cream flavor that represented them the best... Wild and Reckless!

Haley and Weston played lots of video games and basket ball. 

 Unfortunately near the end of the trip Haley got a migraine. It knocked her out for one day and then she had a hang over the following day.  She has not had a migraine in over 4 years but this was bad. 

I would have to say the worst part of the trip was Haley throwing up all over the wood floors in the hallway and it literally splashing up the walls and everywhere... EVERYWHERE.  I cleaned up all the rags from the throw up in the side yard (away from where the kids play) with the hose and dumped the dirty water in a bush.  The next day their dog came in wet and smelled like day old throw up, ohhh so sick.  I gave her a bath and picked out all the upchucked pieces of cheese from the In-n-out Haley had eaten. I can't imagine it getting any sicker then that.

 *Note to self-  throw up remains should be disposed of in the front yard.

Ryan the only teenager in the house... just tolerating all the kids and looking good!

I ran to a couple of thrift stores in the area to look for wool and found this super cute desk for Ruby for $15.  It needs to be sanded and painted but she is so excited to have a desk she wants it as is for now.  

The thrift stores had a great selection of wool. I guess more people wear wool up there because it is so much colder. Down where we live it's just to hot for wool so it's really hard to find in our thrift stores. Check out some of the cool wools I found, the photo really does not do them justice. So exciting!

Spring break

My kids are on Spring break (modified traditional schedule) so I drove up to my Sisters house to watch all the kids while she and her husband go on a work trip. Just me with 7 kids... should be fun.

While I am gone you can check out my life as a hooker here, and see what I have been working on.

Ms. Snail

I have been called many things in my life. Channel, Cha-Tiff, Gringa, some I won't repeat.... but I never, ever, ever thought I would be known as Ms. Snail.  I can't stand snails.

Every Thursday when I walk into Lucy's class to read with the kids they get all excited and in unison yell out "Hi Ms. Snail".  The kids seriously think this is my name, and Lucy thinks it's hilarious.

You may ask why (or you may not really care).  About 12 years ago I was the teacher for the Nursery kids (18 Mo- 3 year olds) at our church.  They would try to say Ms. Chanel but it always sounded like Ms. Snail.  I mentioned this to my kids when we were discussing how it's hard to pronounce some sounds when you are young. Lucy loves calling me Ms. Snail, and loves telling everyone that is my name. 

Lucky me!

Grandma Bonnie is in town...

The girls were very excited for Grandma to come to town.  They know she brings candy, lots of candy, and gives it out freely.  My Mom has done several scrapbooks for each of her 7 grandkids.  She brought 2 big finished scrapbooks with Ruby's photos, so the girls loved looking through all the photos.

Grandma took us to Ruby Tuesday. Ruby was so excited because Ruby is her name, their logo is red(her favorite color) and her birthday this year was on Tuesday.

She made this "fashion" arrangement in honor of Ruby using a purse cookie jar as the vase.

I hope it doesn't make my Mom mad if I air her dirty little secret...

My Mom carries more pills and oils then anyone I have ever seen. She is a walking pharmacy. So of course when my Sister Tiffany found a little pill container at the Coach store, she knew it would be perfect for my Mom's birthday.  While we were out to lunch Tiff gave her the gift and my Mom said "Oh this is cute, but it's a little small" then my Mom proceeded to pull out a her Dooney & Bourke make up bag that was filled with a several pill storage systems. 

 ...To think that Eric has to force me to take Ibuprofen when I have a head ache?

Ruby's baptism

Before we left for Ruby's baptism, Grandma Bonnie gave her a really nice set of her own scriptures (red/burgundy her favorite color) with her name printed on the front.  This is a tradition that my Mom has done for all her grandkids and I think it's great.

We got to the church 20 min before the baptism was supposed to start and we were the only ones there except for Brother G. that was filling up the baptismal font.

Ruby was so nervous and excited.  

Ruby and Dad. 

Ruby waiting for everyone to arrive.

Three of Ruby's friends were getting baptized the same day. I never got a photo of the four of them together because 5 minutes before it started I got a call from Eric in the changing room that he did not have the white suit he needed to Baptize Ruby.  So I raced home at an illegal speed repenting as I excelerated and got back a few minutes after the program had started.  

Although the day was a little crazy for me, Ruby had a great day and was excited to see so many friends and relatives there to support her.

Edit***

My friend Jackie (and Mom of Carley) emailed me photos that she took of all four of the kids together.  Thanks Jackie!

(Ruby, Macie, Carley & Ethan)

Do you love that all the girls had matching dresses? 

Costco had white Easter dresses for $15 and of course you can't beat that.  I would have never have thought I could purchase a baptism dress in a shopping cart with toilet paper and toothpaste.