Is there an end to all this madness?

OK, ranting time! I'm trying to pack up a couple boxes a day, and it seems like I'm drowning in STUFF! How on earth did we accumulate this much stuff in 5 1/2 years of living in this house?? I'd have a yard sale, but I KNOW I don't have the energy to pull it off. I'd sort it all for Goodwill, but in the rush to get packed I find myself just throwing things into boxes according to how it's already organized (or not). So anyone who would like to help, please drop on by! We have to finish getting this house packed up in a little over 1 week. I'm sure it will happen, but it sure is discouraging to try to do all this myself!

Happy Baptism, Keira!

Tomorrow at 1:00pm, Keira will be baptized by her Daddy and will be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. We're so proud of her, and she's so excited to get to be baptized! There will be a special program with talks and music. We plan on having a little family lunch afterwards (I'm making a white coconut cake with flowers). And Sunday, she'll be confirmed in a special blessing by priesthood power, and recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Keira will be baptized the same day as her friend, Claire. The two girls and mommies got together with our good friend Natalie earlier this week for a photo shoot. Don't the pictures look beautiful? Thank you Natalie & Thank you Yellow Rose Nursery for making this possible!!

Happy Birthday Keira!

For Keira's birthday we threw an action packed, low-stress backyard campout for about 10 kids. We started out with a BBQ hot dog dinner with corn on the cob, salad, and chips. The kids played and played until dark!
After dinner we had a timed watermelon eating contest (thanks Brooke for the idea!) with two kids at a time going head-to-head. The Anderson sisters competed, as did the Esqueda sisters, everyone got a chance. Janai was the winner with 56 seconds! (Not including Keira's daddy, who wolfed down his watermelon in 16 seconds flat)







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Here Keira is blowing out her candles & opening presents! (get the eating action shot in the background haha!)




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We also roasted marshmallows for Smores, and had a game of flashlight tag and 6-7 games of nightime outdoor hiding-go-seek. (Sorry, no pictures of the kids running around in the dark!) A bunch of girls also banded up in the sunroom with keira's new Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus CD's, dancing and singing away! The boys banded up together playing cars & trucks in the boys train table (good for older boys, who knew?)
Finally it was bedtime! All of us cozied up in the tent & told stories until we were too tired to keep our eyes open. I swear, within 30 seconds of the end of my last story, most of the girls were OUT like lights.







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So the girls got to sleep around 11:30, and surprise surprise! Two of them were up before dawn playing in the sunroom. We all got up pretty early & had an early-morning PJ party where I did all the girls nails, makeup, and painted color streaks & glitter in their hair.





I think they all had a blast, thank you parents for bringing the kids & thank you to the Wilsons for joining us for dinner and helping with all the kids!

Back to School - Keira in 2nd and Keanu in Preschool!

can you tell Kalani really wanted to be a preschooler bad??? And for Keira's first day, we worked hard to put together a very grown-up outfit for her & we ended up getting there too early. But she's enjoying school & making friends!