Happy Birthday Sarah!

May Day, May Day--Annoucing Sarah's 12th Birthday Today...WOW has it already been 12 years since my first born first appeared. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful daughter, she is sooo loving and kind. I'm proud of the young woman that she has become, speaking of that, she is sooo excited to go into YW's.

Here's the top 12 Reasons I LOVE Sarah:

12. She plays the piano very beautifully, (she just got the music to Bella's Lullaby!!)

11. She is awesome in school and every teacher has always enjoyed having her in class.

10. She is kind-hearted.

9. She still thinks boys are gross. (for now)

8. I am in debt to her for always helping me babysit the kids.

7. She inspires me to be a better mother. (I'm really trying)

6. She truly cares for her friends.

5. She LOVES her sisters and brother, even though I think they get on her nerves sometimes.

4. She is a daddy's girl and Fred has a special place in his heart just for her.

3. I LOVE that she was the first-born and has tolerated Fred and I as parents for having her be the guinea pig for our parenting. (I think she's holding up pretty well)
2. She loves to do spur of the moment activities like me. (we don't plan very well at this house)

1. I am HONORED to have her for a daughter and I wouldn't change anything about her!!!

I LOVE YOU SARAH!!! Happy 12th Birthday!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Sarah:
Looking forward to the Future

Princess in Training



Sarah Nicole Reese, May 1, 1997

April 20

Wow- what a day so many things have occured on this day, some good and some bad. First, let's reflect on the month, April the flower is a Sweet Pea, and the gem is a Diamond. (I know specifically because of this I chose this month to be born) It's the National Frozen Food-Weight Loss-Humor-Child Abuse-Month (whatever that means) and I'm a Taurus. April 20 has had some famous people born on this date, and I'm not talking about myself. HA HA King Henry IV, Adolf Hitler (NOT SO GOOD), Jessica Lange and Joey Lawrence(WOOO)are among some of the few they you may be familiar with. TODAY I'm 34, not an exciting number, but a number worth mentioning. Today was non-eventful, Sydney stayed home sick, had a chemistry test (got turned into a Take-home test, best present EVER!) Sean got sick at school, and Fred came home sick from work. I did laundry, homework, Statistics test and now I'm blogging. I think as you mature (who wants to use the word old) you reflect on where the time has gone and how much you appreciate all you have. I appreciated all of the shout-out's on FB and my family for calling. I feel very privileged to have the family and friends that I have and I appreciate your kind words to me as I embark on the 34th year of my life!!!

PS- I had Sydney take a picture of me, so I could see how MATURE I look!!! (I had my hair done to cover up the gray UGH!!)

Happy Birthday Baby!!!

This morning Sean woke up and said, "Today I'm a big kid!" He sure is, today Sean turned 4. He has been saying all week that he is 4 and not 3 anymore, but today it's official. I guess my reasons list won't be very long so here goes:

The 4 things I love about Sean:

1. He makes me SMILE :)

2. He loves me unconditionally. (He can be in trouble and then come up and hug my leg and say I love you, MOM!) AHHH!

3. He is such a boy. (Now this might not be a big thing, but living in a house full of girls he definitely has the boy thing figured out)

4. He truly loves his sister's. (He may be the little brother, but I can see that he will stick up for his sister's)

I LOVE YOU SEAN!

PS. This is how Sean usually dresses, in his underwear!(again another boy thing)

SURPRISE!!!

Was the word Fred heard Sat. night! I wanted to do something BIG for Fred's big 4-0, so I planned Surprise party for him. He told me that he didn't really want to do anything for his birthday so of course, I planned family pictures on that day and then we had dinner from Pig in a Poke! (Some celebration right!) So I started to devise my plan and let him think that we didn't care about this HUGE age landmark--so I told him his mother was going to come up and watch the kids while we went out to dinner! Everything went off without a hitch barely and he was completely surprised. Check out the video (kind've dark), but we had a great time with family and friends! Afterwards, he was so grateful that we really did care about His "Special" day and he was especially appreciative of the Black Balloons!


Hiding behind the Landing waiting for Fred!


Fred's SURPRISE!


Mick and Megan, Sarah and Nancy


When you get OLD you need EXTRA fiber, glasses, and Adult diapers!


Let's just say the Cupcakes and Chocolate Fountain were a HIT!

I just wanted to let Fred know that I LOVE him and I appreciate everything that he has done for our family! I didn't make a list of the 40 reasons why I LOVE Fred, (that would be a LONG list) but He knows that I respect him, he's an AWESOME daddy and I love to watch him with the kids, and I love that he LOVES me and I LOVE him unconditionally! Happy Birthday Babe!

6 Things I Love about Sydney

Today I would like to wish my Sydney a very, very Happy Birthday! Today Sydney is 6 years old and I just wanted to honor her today on her 'Special Day'. Now I have to be honest here for a minute because lately this child has pushed every button that I own. I didn't know there was a "Ferocious Five stage, but this child definitely has IT. I love her very much, but woo I hope Six is a lot better.

So here goes!

6. I love that she doesn't suck her thumb at school. (may not seem like a big thing, but IT is!)

5. I love that she is kind to her friends.

4. I love that she is kind to her brother and sisters. (Most of the time)

3. I love her SMILE and her generosity(just recently she cut off all her hair and we are going to send it Locks of Love)

2. I love that she makes sure to give us lots of hugs and kisses before she goes to bed. (Now I don't know if this a stalling tactic, but Fred and I sure do appreciate it)

1. And the #1 reason why I love Sydney, is because she's Sydney!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

This is Helen Lucille Olsen Wright and today she turns 91 years young. She is an amazing women, she still goes to water aerobics, volunteers at the hospital and plays with her Bridge group weekly. I can only hope that I can still be going like that when I'm her age. I love that my children have been able to meet most of their great-grandparents, it's amazing having all four generations together.

Yesterday, we drove down to Mesa and had a big BBQ with my extended family of Aunts, Uncles and cousins and their kids. We had a great time and I love seeing and catching up with them. The kids had a great time swimming, we are almost out of swim season here in Flagstaff, but I don't know if one even started! The food was great and my Grandma was so excited to have so many people there to celebrate HER!

I love you Grams!

9 Reasons Why I LOVE Sophie

Happy Birthday Sophie!

Today is Sophie's 9th Birthday and I wanted to dedicate this blog to Sophie to let her know how much I love her:

9. She is loving and kind to her friends.

8. She is loving and kind to her sisters and brother. (OK Most of the time!)

7. She is smart.

6. She is very artistic and draws the most interesting pictures. Some of them make me laugh so much I've almost wet my pets.

5. I love that she has blonde hair and blue eyes and that sets her apart and makes her her own person.

4. She organizes anything wonderfully, she has organized my shoes, my pantry, books, toys. You give her a task to organize and she gets it done.

3. She doesn't give up. She gives all she can when it comes to a project she's working on, sports and activities.

2. I love it when people come up to me and tell me how great Sophie is and how glad they are to know her.

AND THE NUMBER 1 REASON WHY I LOVE SOPHIE IS--

She's Mine (I'm so LUCKY to have a beautiful, wonderful, loving, creative daughter that it blows me away!)

Sophie had a great day, we drove down to my Mom's house in good ol' Camp Verde and had her favorite dinner, lasagna and then we had cupcakes and ice cream. She woke us up at 6:00 AM this morning to open her presents, but I told her she was going to have to wait another hour so that everyone could wake up. So enjoy the pictures of her fun gifts.

I do have to let you know about something Sydney said to me today. Friday I had my hair done and Becky(stylist's name) blew it out for me. So we're driving down to my mom's and Sydney is talking and tells me she likes my straight hair better than my curly hair. So I told her that Heavenly Father gave me my curly hair, and she then responded, "I'm glad he's not my Father!" I guess you all know what our next FHE will be about. Kids say the darnest things!