Strawberry picking

Christa heard about this you pick your own strawberries place and invited me to go with her and mom to try it out.  It was about a 45 minute drive.  We left as soon as all the kids were in school.  There were long rows and rows of strawberry plants.  We each picked 2  one gallon buckets.  The strawberries were yummy, but you could tell they weren't like the ones in the store as in they wouldn't last long before getting mushy.  Couple days tops and you would have to throw them out.  Each of us made strawberry freezer jam.  I have made 4 different types of freezer jam with different types of berries, but this strawberry jam is by far my favorite.  I made a couple loaves of bread to go with the jam.  Oh soooo yummy.  I couldn't stop eating it.  Next year I would love to either take the whole family and pick bucket loads and make lots of freezer jam.  Or I would be happy doing the same as this time since we would have more time since we don't have to be back early due to preschool. 
It also gave you a good workout since these berries are very low to the ground a lot of bending and squatting. 

A night out for everyone

The father son camp out was on the 13 and 14.  For a while there we didn't know if it was going to happen or not because it was raining and looked as though it might rain later that evening.  Luckily for them it was dry the entire time.
So while the boys were roughing it us girls had a girls night out.  We met a few other girls and their mom's at Sweet Tomato's for dinner.  Because of the crazy weather earlier that day some of the people didn't show up because their hubby's decided not to do the camp out due to the weather.  There were 4 mother's with their daughters.  After dinner, me and my girls and 2 other mother's and their girls went to All Fired Up and painted some ceramics.  Kennedy painted a little turtle and Payton painted a dish with a dog face lid.  They both turned out real cute and they had a great time.  Then we were going to get some frozen yogurt, but time was getting late and someone was dropping Connor off at our house since he wasn't going to be spending the night.
It was a fun night for all.  The girls are always a little bummed when the father son camp out comes around because they have never been camping and would love to go. 

Field Trip

On Friday, May 13 (ohhh Friday the 13th), I was able to go with Kennedy's 3rd grade class on a field trip to Fernbank the museum of Natural History.  Going in, I thought we were going to be walking around the museum.   When I got to the school and looked at the agenda, I was kind of disappointed to find out that the majority of the time was going to be spent watching an IMAX movie.  Oh well!  The bus ride was loud and crazy.  I sat next to Kennedy's teacher on the way to the museum.  Kennedy's teacher is a member of our church so we had lots to talk about.  Her stake is the same one we used to be in when we lived in Woodstock. 
When we got there and checked in we ate lunch.  Then we had a few minutes to walk around the museum with our little groups until the movie was to start.  The movie was about surfing.  I think it was on the island of Tahiti but don't really remember.  There were lots of other schools there watching as well.  When the movie was over we had time to use the restrooms and then head back on the bus. 
I enjoy going on field trips with my children and as soon as I find out about one I am probably the first parent to email the teacher volunteering.  I mean hey if I can take my 6 kids to Disney World all by myself  for the day, surely I can handle being in charge of 5 or 6 kids for a couple hours on a field trip.

Mother's Day

Mother's day was a very relaxing day.  The kids helped Jon with breakfast and during breakfast the kids presented me with all their mother's day cards and gifts they made either at school or home.  I really enjoyed them all very much.  Jon didn't have any church meeting to go to.  During the 3rd hour we got cookies delivered to us by the Elder's. 

BYU Young Ambassadors

The BYU Young Ambassadors held a performance in Atlanta on May 7th.  We decided the kids would enjoy this especially since they weren't able to go to the Southern Lights temple performance last week.  They did a great job singing and dancing.  I wish they would have performed more well know songs.  About half the songs I have never even heard of before.  The kids enjoyed the show.  We went with the Tady's and Bugee's.



It's finally open

On Monday May 3rd, the Atlanta temple opened its doors for sessions, the first time in 23 months.  My mom, sister Christa, and I made plans to go to the temple today the first day and go to the first session which was at 10 am.  We met at our church building right after Christa dropped Eliza off at preschool to carpool over to the temple.  We knew the temple would be crowded so we wanted to leave extra early so we would be sure and make it to the 10 am session.  When we arrived, they gave us a pink square of paper.  Everyone with that color was in the 10 am session if you arrived after all the pink slips were handed out you were given an orange one and had to wait an extra hour for the 11 am session.  It is a good thing we left early because it was crowded.  It was a great session and I was glad to be back in the temple.  I was sitting in the front row and was one of the first persons at the veil.  When I walked into the celestial room, I realized that I was the first person to pass through the veil.  No one else was in the room except for a temple worker.  That was kind of cool.  I am looking forward to attending often.  What a great 4 days it has been with the youth cultural event, the temple rededication, my birthday, and now the temple being opened. 

Happy Birthday To Me!!

Another year older, not sure how I feel about this.  I am glad I am out of my 20's, but now that I am over the 35 year mark I don't like it too much.  As of right now the age I would love to be forever is 33.  Easy to remember and your are not too old nor to young.  I think I am a pretty easy simple person.  I don't need a lot.  All I wanted this year for my birthday was a new pair of sunglasses, because Connor just broke mine recently and not some expensive name brand pair since they will most likely get broken again, but a nice looking pair for around $10.00.  Thanks to TJ Maxx I was able to do that.  I also wanted some summer matching running clothes.  Towards the end of last summer I spilled some bleach on my navy blue shorts I use for running.  Well I found out that bleach turns navy blue to blood red.  So the last couple months some of the days I have been running with navy blue shorts with what looks like blood stains on them.  Every time I wore them, I thought people were looking at me and wondering if I was running from a crime scene.  Since I have been running for years now and have no plans to stop, I thought it was about time to retire my stained t shirts and bleached blood shorts.  So I got 3 running shorts with matching shirts.  It makes running a little more enjoyable and I can use all the joy while running especially in the summer with all  that heat and humidity even at 7 am in the morning.
The kids talked me into going to Ihop for my birthday dinner.  I was kind of in the mood for breakfast.  It was either that or Olive Garden.  As a little birthday bonus when we got there, we found out that kids eat free every weekday night.  So we ordered 4 adult meals and got 4 free kids meals.  Jon bought me a cheesecake that we ate when we got home.  It was yummy.  I can't wait to wear my new running clothes and sunglasses.  I am ready for summer. 

Temple Rededication

The Atlanta Temple was rededicated on Sunday, May 1st.  They had 2 sessions.  Unfortunately, we didn't have tickets to go to the actual temple for the rededication so we had to watch it broadcasted from our church building.   Since you had to be at least 8 years old and baptized in our church, Talmage and Hayden couldn't attend.  My mom went to the earlier session and stayed with the 2 kids so we could attend the later session.  I am so excited for the temple to be opened again.  It has been a long 23 months.  I am sad and embarrassed to say that I only attended the temple once in Birmingham, Alabama.  One of the things I was looking forward to when all my kids were in school was to attend the temple once a week. I was hoping the temple would have been open sooner, because now there is only 4 weeks left of school.  So I guess my goal is to go every week until school gets out.  I kind of want to go the first day the temple opens on Tuesday, May 3rd, but I think it will be very crowded.  We will see.

Southern Lights Atlanta Temple Celebration

President Thomas S. Monson has invited all the youth ages 12-18 of the Atlanta Temple District, to participate in a Cultural Celebration to commemorate the dedication of the temple. This will be a once in a lifetime opportunity to come together with youth in the area and to be a part of a powerful event that our Prophet will attend.

We invite all youth of the Georgia Atlanta Temple District (14.5 stakes) to prepare with all diligence for this incredible blessing to celebrate the re-opening of the Temple.


I am so glad Brenton was a part of this one in a lifetime event.  The youth in our ward worked so hard.  All of their youth activities for 2 months was learning their dance.  Our ward was combined with the Cumorah Spanish Branch, and Milton Ward (they both meet in our building).  They all did a great job and it looked fantastic.  Since there were over 2,700 youth performing and only seating for 5,000 in the Civic Center, each family was given 1 ticket.  I was a little unhappy when I heard this.  I understand why, but I would have loved to take the whole family.  Not only would this be a once in a lifetime opportunity to perform, but also once in a lifetime to watch.  So the plan was that Jon was going to go.  A few days before the event when Jon went to pick up his ticket during youth activity night, they gave Jon an extra ticket since they had a couple extras.  I was very excited to have a ticket.  Only one problem.  Our babysitter (Brenton) along with all the other youth from our ward were all performing in the event so who was going to watch our 5 kids.  So even though I had a ticket, I was still going to stay home with the kids.  The morning of the performance my awesome brother in law, Aaron volunteered to watch our kids so I could go watch Brenton.   I was very excited to go.  Since there were no assigned seating, the line outside before the doors opened got really long.  Luckily, I had my mom who was inside helping out with the show.  She saved us some seats because her work was done when the doors opened.  Our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson spoke a few words to the youth and then youth performed.  It was an awesome event.  Brenton had a great experience and was glad he stuck it out.  Towards the end, they had a couple Saturday rehearsals as well as their activity night practice.  The day before the show they went to the Civic Center right after school got out and were there until after midnight.  You would have thought they would have gone through the whole production a few times but no only once in all that time.  They did spend a lot of time on the opening number song and closing song since the only thing about these numbers that had been practiced and memorized were the songs.
When the show was over, the look on all the youths faces was just wonderful.  They were so happy and were sad at the same time that it was over.  They had such a great time that they didn't want it to end. 

I have tried to insert the video Jon took with our video camera of our ward's performance, but it wouldn't upload.  I am so mad at myself for not taking a picture of Brenton in his costume.  Here is a photo I found online so I can at least remember what they were wearing.

I am so glad I was able to go watch both Brenton and my sister Taylor perform. All the dances were great and fun to watch.  It was such a great night.