Beaming with Pride

My older sister, Melanie, just graduated from the University of Idaho with her Bachelors of Science degree. Since this was such a huge moment for her I wanted to be there to support her and cheer her on when she accepted her diploma. So, with my kids, I drove up to Idaho Falls to watch her on Thursday night. My parents made the trip too.
Her degree is in Psychology. I'm assuming this is because she wanted to take after me. :0) Sure, she got her bachelor's and I'm only getting my associate's degree in a couple of months...but it was my idea first! :0) I told her that she would have to move by me in a couple of years so that we could open up a family counseling practice together. Stumpf and Burnham....or better yet....Burnham and Stumpf. :0) Good stuff.

Even though she is my BIG sister, I felt like a proud mommy watching her walk the stage to get her diploma. She has worked so hard on this and is such a great example for me as I try to get through my classes.

{Have you ever tried to take a picture that has seven children in it at 9:30 at night? Yeah....good luck with getting all eyes on the camera!}

Family Tree

Part of Landon's homework assignment a few weeks ago was for him to fill in a preprinted form of his family tree. As with most "normal" families....there was a spot for him, his parents and both sets of grandparents. Poor kid was so lost on how to fill it out. He wanted to know which people he should CHOOSE to put in the preprinted lines on the tree. :0( I had to explain to him that not every family fits into the "normal" category and that we would just have to add some lines of our own to make his tree nice and full. He was so proud and excited when we were done filling it in with all of the names. He couldn't wait to take it to school to show his teacher how many people he had in his "UNIQUE" family tree. :0)
What I didn't know was that the homework was the outline for their art project at school. I saw this in his backpack yesterday and had so much fun looking at it. Apparently each child had to draw faces on the circles and put them on their "real" family tree made of construction paper.

See...there's Landon in the middle. To the left is the Robinson/Burnham side of the family and to the right is the Holtman/Zeyer side of the family. I think he did a fabulous job. What was funny for me to look at, however, was the faces that he drew for each person.....
Here is Landon. He drew his hair poking up in the back. It must have been a bad hair day for him. Here is Jaysen and me. At first I thought he drew Jaysen with an angry face, but Landon assured me that it was a sad face, not an angry face. When I asked him why he drew Jaysen as sad he just laughed. I guess he just thought it would be funny. I am loving how sweet and nice he drew my picture. Don't I look angelic? :0)Here are Jeff and Shirlaine along with Grandma Zeyer. Apparently Grandpa Zeyer didn't make it through the bus ride home. His head is missing from the tree and all that is left is his label. :0) I was rather humored that Landon would make sure to get Jeff's "soul patch" in on his head.

Here are Grandma and Grandpa Holtman. When I asked him what was up with the angry eyes on Ronald he told me that sometimes he just gets mad. :0) {I think we all do} But, it's great that Landon drew a fluff of hair for him.

Here's Nana and Papa. Landon was so tickled with his drawing of Papa. It was the first face he pointed out to me and he was laughing so hard. "Did you see how I drew Papa's hair?"

Grandma and Grandpa Burnham fared the best overall. Perry grew a head full of hair overnight apparently....and look how happy he is about it. :0)

Here is Mackenzee. Doesn't she look so sad? Why is she sad? Because she is always naughty and has to go to time out. That's what Landon said. If you've been around here lately you would have noticed that she has tended to have a perma-pout on her face. Such a drama queen!

And here is baby brother Brayden. I think he looks kind of scared, don't you?

Anyway, I was glad to see that Landon understood that his family tree just had a few more branches than some of the others in his classroom and that it didn't mean that he had to choose which ones to add to his tree. Sometimes we just have to get a bigger tree. :0)

Thanks Landon

Landon brought me these flowers when he came home on Sunday night. They are my Mother's Day present from him. He even made me a homemade card with a butterfly drawing on the front and a poem on the inside.
"Roses are red, Violets are Blue,
Sugar is sweet, and so are you.
Roses are red, Violets are Blue,
You are my mom and I love you."
Such a sweet little boy I have! Thanks so much Landon!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fuh-un

I finished getting my outfit for 80s girls night together this last weekend. I must say I am super excited to take it out on the road.....to the bowling alley. :0) I have been planning this outfit for over a month now and I think I have done a fabulous job of getting in touch with my inner Cyndi Lauper. I'll post more pictures after girls night next week.....this picture is minus the hair and makeup that will be necessary to "complete" my look. :0)

taking it when we can get it

The weather changes have been driving me crazy. It's 70 degrees outside one day, and then all of a sudden we're back to wearing coats. I need the sun to stay. There's something about a sunny day that just makes me FEEL better. You know? So, when the clouds broke on Saturday afternoon, we decided to take advantage of the glimpse of blue sky and get outside. We, meaning Mackenzee and I anyway.....Jaysen may have had to be dragged out to the car and forced into going along for the ride. :0) Amazingly enough, he did end up enjoying himself once we were out amongst "nature".
We drove down the canyon towards Centennial Park and stopped off at this waterfall. After watching from the sidelines for a bit, we decided to jump the cement barricade and climb down to the area behind the waterfall.

Because it had rained SO MUCH that day I was worried about the path being too slippery for Mackenzee or even Jaysen holding Mackenzee. So, I went down first to check it out. See that pink dot? That's me. :0) And my muscles. :0)

Here's the up close picture just in case you were wanting to see my magnificence a little better. :0) OK....so being out and climbing around gave me a bit of a natural high. Nothing wrong with that. See the waterfall behind me? I was getting more than just a little bit wet standing there.

Kenzee wanted to get close to the water too, so Jaysen took her over. She didn't want to get down though.....there was mud. :0) She was very proud that she "walked" underneath a waterfall though. She bragged about it to Landon when he got home the next day. I promised him I'd take him back over there so he could do it too.

I'm itching to go out with the kids and Jaysen and do more stuff like this. I used to hike all the time in my "pre-children" era and I really miss it. Now, if the weather would just WORK WITH ME I could really get back in touch with my young and sassy self. :0)

Centennial Park

This is the southwest side of the Snake River Canyon at Centennial Park. The scenery was just gorgeous and the storm broke just long enough for us to enjoy the afternoon. I love the bright green that pops out when spring comes.

Looking up......

Olivia....again