Abby

Abby and Mrs. Ormonde

My big girl finished kindergarten a couple of weeks ago.  I can't believe how fast the school year passed.  She is such a smart girl and is a great student.  The last weeks of school were a lot of fun.  She had a party, a kindergarten concert and a field trip to the zoo. 

Abby is also a great helper around the house.  She is so sweet with her brothers.  She is always willing to play with them so I can get something done around the house. 

Abby also has very funny things to say.  I am now passing the computer to Dean so he can tell the story. . .

We went to the lake on Monday with Maclynn and Gill and the kids were having a great time playing in the water.  Abby let me know that she needed to go to the bathroom so we pulled the boat over to shore so I could take her to the restrooms.  When we were getting off the boat some other people on shore let us know that they had found and killed a rattlesnake earlier that day.  This scared Abby and as we walked to the restrooms she asked if it was the same kind of snake that didn't have arms, while she asked she waved her arms in front of her like short little T-Rex arms.

Apparently the snakes scared her so she went to the bathroom quickly and we got back on the boat.  About 30 minutes later she complained that her stomach was hurting and I asked her if she needed to got to the bathroom again.  She said she did need to go to the bathroom again and now she would have to go back to "rattlesnake island" so she could go to the bathroom.

(Thanks Dean)

Anyway, we are enjoying the summer.  We did swim lessons and Abby did pretty well.  She now loves to swim underwater.  We also have season passes to the water park and she loves going there.  I don't know what recessive Mexican gene I have passed to Abby and Grant but they are super tan and we still have several weeks of summer to go.

Elder Ortiz

Typical picture Chris and Mom

Chris sampling the food before the open house

Waiting for the delayed flight

Wednesday, June 9th, Elder Ortiz reported to the MTC to begin his mission.  He will be serving in Spokane, WA speaking Spanish.

From receiving the mission call to saying goodbye at the airport, it has been a fun, scary, miraculous, emotional experience. 

We will miss him but we are so proud of him. 

Kitchen

A while back our kitchen and most of our house flooded.  So, we needed to do some repairs.  We decided that since while our kitchen was already going to be torn apart we would do some additional work.   

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

We are so happy with the changes.  Our contractor (Ryan Budge from our ward) got everything done quickly and just the way we wanted. 

Family Pictures

Several weeks ago we had some family pictures taken.  Stephanie Ryan also took these pictures.  She was great with the kids.  These are just a few.  

I am going to brag just a little. . . I have dang cute kids.  I know I am a little biased

Mother's Day

I would have to say this Mother's Day was the best.  Dean took care of the kids so that I could sleep in until almost nine.  For breakfast I got one of my favorites, fresh from the oven cinnamon rolls. 

My family attended our ward to see Abby sing with the primary.  After church Dean barbecued some yummy hamburgers for my whole family.

That evening we went to visit Dean's family.  Dean was so great letting me have a break.  Any time the baby would crawl to me crying he would come over and pick him up. 

I also got a sweet sewing machine.  I am so excited to use it.  I already made a skirt for my sister and hope to improve my sewing skills. 

I also want to acknowledge my mom.  She is a strong woman.  Her life has never been easy but she always did what she needed to do to take care of her family.  She always put her children first.  She sacrificed a lot for us.  I am grateful that she was brave enough to make hard choices that have helped our family to a happier place.  I love you Mom! 

This year for Mother's Day we took some family pictures for my mom.  Here are a couple of them. 

Stephanie Ryan was our photographer.  She did a great job.

  

I had to learn it the hard way

Sunday I left my camera at my sisters house.  That evening she was attempting to look at the pictures and somehow all of the pictures on the camera were deleted. 

I had not uploaded the pictures onto my computer.  I lost all of my pictures  since the beginning of the year. 

My sister felt awful.  I should have been clearing them from my camera on a regular basis and then saving them onto our external hard drive or a disc or my online storage. 

I can't imagine what it would have been like to lose all of my pictures.  (It was only four months of pictures) 

Luckily I have somewhat kept up on my blogging so I have some pictures. 

So now I feel like crap because I should have been saving my pictures and my sister feels like crap because she accidentally lost the pictures. 

I have learned a lesson.  Backup, backup, backup. 

Abby's 6th Birthday

This year for Abby's 6th birthday we had a fairy themed party for her.  The party included a "Fancy Fairy Beauty Shop," cupcake decorating, wand making, a pinata, and lunch.  Abby had the best time doing girly things with her friends. 

At the end of the party we gave her the gift we ordered online.  She had been asking for a doll house for a while and I think she was pretty happy with it. 

(Due to an unfortunate accident these are the only pictures I have from the party.)