Father's Day

"The sacred title of 'father' is shared with the Almighty. ... Fatherhood is not a matter of station or wealth; it is a matter of desire, diligence and determination to see one’s family exalted in the celestial kingdom. If that prize is lost, nothing else really matters."         - President Ezra Taft Benson

Bob is an amazing father to our children!  He does more in one day than seems possible.  I am so grateful for him and I know that the kids love him so much.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Bob and the kids from the past year.

I'm also lucky enough to have a great dad myself.  My dad has always been there for me and he is a good person all around.  This is a picture of him just before he left for a mission in the Philippines.  Read more about his mission here.

 Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

Bob's Birthday

Now, to back track a little and post about Bob's birthday.

Bob doesn't really like to wait to open presents.  If we get a birthday card in the mail I make people wait until their birthday to open it.  Bob doesn't really care and just opens them when he gets them.   We usually do his birthday stuff after work at night but now that he is working at night he got to do the birthday stuff right when everyone got up.

The kids all thought it was hilarious that Scarlett wrapped her present in the styrofoam cooler we found in the house.  She got him tupperware.  They were cracking themselves up about how Bob was going to think it was a big present.

Leon got Bob a shirt to match his own.  Isn't this the cutest thing?  Tucker got one for Christmas, so now all the boys have matching superman shirts.

After presents we had cherry pie and ice cream at Bob's request.  Candles melt in the pie so we stick them into the ice cream.  We've learned from years past.

After hanging out a bit we headed out for pizza.  It was really windy and stormy that day, probably one of the worst since we've been here.  Not bad for most of the country, but for San Diego it was stormy.

This pizza was huge, you can't tell in the picture but it was 28" across.  It fed our family of 6 for more than one meal.

Bob didn't really want me to post this next picture but I thought it was cute.  All the kids were trying to touch their tongues to their noses like Bob, Scarlett was the closest.  I can't do it at all.

Happy Birthday Bob!

Taylor Guitar Factory Tour

Today is Bob's birthday, so I thought it fitting to post about one thing he loves, guitars. Bob is such a great husband and dad he spends all his time working or doing things with me and the kids he rarely gets free time.  But when he does, he usually takes the time to play the guitar.  While looking up things to do in the area I saw that Taylor guitar, which just happens to be the manufacture of Bob's guitar, has free daily tours.

The tour was 90 minutes long and took us step by step through the factory and showed us how they make guitars.  As you can imagine the kids got bored quickly but they did a great job.

There were probably about 30 people taking the tour and five of them were kids, including our four.

Here is a picture of the tour guide.  He said it was his first time giving the tour and he did a really good job.   He was telling us about everything the entire time.  He must have practiced a lot.

Here's a good shot of one of the main factory areas.

Leon was the only one who started getting difficult.

After the tour we walked around the store part and Bob checked out the guitars.

I love Bob and I think it is great that his hobbies are guitar, biking, and weight lifting.  Out of all the things out there that can really waste time I think these are some fantastic things to be interested in.

Hot Air Balloon Ride

For our ninth anniversary Bob and I went on a hot air balloon ride!  I've always wanted to go so it was very sweet of Bob to remember and get us the tickets.  We had to be in Woodenville at six am so my sister watched the kids all night for us and we slept in a hotel.  Even that was a treat because we have never been in a hotel together without kids since our honeymoon.  Thanks, Talitha.

We met the group at a McDonalds where they were letting off regular balloons into the air to judge where our starting point should be.  After they figured that out we headed to a field where they filled up the balloon.  It was so huge up close!  I had no idea how really gigantic they are.

We took a sunrise ride and the balloon was filling up just as the sun came over the horizon.

I was the last person on because I was trying to get pictures while everyone else was loading up.  There were eight people and the balloon operator.

We were pretty packed in.  But the basket was separated on the inside so we weren't bumping into each other.

I wasn't sure how cold it would be because six in the morning can be pretty cold but they said we might want to wear a hat because of the heat from the fire.  My jacket seemed just about right.  I had a hat but didn't end up wearing it.  The fire was warm but not to bad.

I took so many great pictures I couldn't fit them into one post.  Look back tomorrow for the rest!

Murder Mystery Dinner

I've done a couple at home murder mystery dinners and they are always so much fun that Bob and I wanted to go out to a more official one.  We headed over to Seattle to go to the Murder Mystery Company's show at the Old Spaghetti factory and had a killer time!

The theme was 1920's Noir She Didn't and I was able to borrow clothes from a friend.  My kids loved the dress and my make up.  They all kept saying that I was beautiful.  Bob bought the hat and wore suspenders even though he didn't have them up in the first picture.  I was worried about finding a sitter because we had to go all the way to Seattle and knew we would be gone for a long time but another friend volunteered to do that for us.  I have the best friends!

We almost didn't make it onto the ferry but luckily when they said "Only one more car" we were the next in line.  I was stressed about it and needed to calm down a bit.  Once we got there everything was great.

There were actors who facilitated the show and where the main characters at the same time.  Each table also got  at least one character assigned to the group.  I got to be Misty and had a binder with info about her.

Above you can see them pulling out the first murder victim.

Later in the show Bob even got held up at gunpoint, which was hilarious.

I had to do some talking into the microphone and "acting" like my character in front of everyone.  People who know me know that if you put me in front of a big group of people (I would guess there was 40ish there) I kind of freeze up.  I am also not that great at being funny and ad-libbing.  I was pretty embarrassed about it, but the actors were really good at helping me out and leading me to say the right things.  It was pretty easy even for someone like me who isn't good at that sort of thing.  Bob would have been great but I don't think he would have been a convincing Misty.  Some of the characters from the other tables were pretty good.

We got our pictures taken there and they gave them to us in a little booklet.

The dinner was delicious and it was nice that the waiters just brought it out to us and we didn't have to worry about it at all. The Old Spaghetti Factory was the perfect setting .

Afterwards we had time to ride the Seattle Wheel before hoping on the ferry.

I've wanted to go to one of these dinner parties for a long time and it was neat to check another thing off the bucket list.  Everything was well thought out and very put together.  The company who put on the show also does private parties and I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a fun night out.

Father's Day

I love holidays and Father's day is such an important one!  Being a parent now I can better understand how much dads do for their families.  And Bob especially is like a machine.  He gets up before 5am so he can get home early to be with the family.  But he doesn't just get home and lay on the couch, he starts making dinner or doing random projects that need to get done.  He really doesn't stop until the kids are in bed at about 8 every night.  Often times he is even trying to cheer me up because I get grumpy from my long days with the kids.

I am also very lucky to have a great dad and father-in-law who not only are great to me but are wonderful grandparents to my children.  They both like to play with the kids and are always willing to babysit and help out when we ask.

For Father's Day this year the kids and I made this video for bob.

Daddy Daughter Dance

On Saturday we headed over to my parents stake so Bob and the girls could crash their daddy daughter dance.  Our stake doesn't do one so when I heard that they were putting one on we headed down.  The girls were so excited and talked about it for at least a week.

We wanted to make it extra special so we tried a little harder on their hair and I put make up on them.  They kept saying that they look like moms.  It was cute.

Of course I had to take tons of pictures.  The girls didn't really want to and Bob was like, "just wait until you are older and going to a dance, then you really won't want mom taking all these pictures."

I love the pretty cherry blossom tree my parents have in their front yard.

I think my girls both look beautiful!

Bob took the girls out to Olive Garden.  They had a long wait, but he said they had fun.  The waitress was extra nice to them and the girls thought it was neat they got to go out with just dad.

After that they headed over to the dance.  Unfortunately I got the times wrong so they missed most of it :(  They had time for a few dances, to get pictures and a snack then it ended.  The last two songs of the dance were from Frozen so the girls loved that.

When they got home the girls were so excited they told me all about it.  Penelope really wanted to tell me about this dress she saw that she just looooved.  She said, "it had no straps or sleeves, not a one, and it was sooooooo beautiful."  I don't know what we are going to do when she gets older.

I didn't get any pictures but while they were gone we had a mother son night.  Tucker wanted pizza and pop so we went to the store and got all kinds of snacks.  It was nice to get spend some quality time with Tucker.  We went back to my moms and ate while we watched the Lego movie.  It was a fun night for everyone!