A Morales Minute

Brian's family came to visit so that means the rest of us who are nearby get to come together to see everyone.  Lindsey, Olivia, Maybrie How cute is this!! Olivia and Lindsey laughing and talking like they're best friends.  Lori and Stuart came to dip their feet and visit. Aidan is a character. Playing all by himself but... He seems to be having a good time. And how studly does he look in his dad's sunglasses?! So cute. Love my Aidan. 

Aidan at the roller rink  I went with him for school with his class. It's not a field trip I would recommend. Too many kids falling and some I worried would break something. I felt easier when Aidan was given a cart to help aid his skating.  The pool is open and it's warm outside! That means swimming at Grandma's!! One weekend we went to Marcus and Aide's house in Yakima. Bel rented an inflatable waterslide for the kids. It was a little chili but that didn't stop them from having water fun.  Olivia said it was cold but made the plunge.  Tyler looks like he's scared going down the longest slide in the world. hahaha He looks so cute.  Aidan is not a fan of the cold. He was content to sit on the side and enjoy his lunch.  There were other games for the kids like this giant Jenga.

After deciding we weren't going to move because I love our location, ward, neighborhood and our house still works for us, we decided to just make some upgrades in the house that we wanted. Our first project was changing out the carpet and vinyl floor on the main level for wood planks and put in new taller baseboard trim.  This year we painted the ceilings Snowbound White and the walls Agreeable Gray. It makes such a bright difference! I loved it right away.  This is the kitchen with the new paint.  Then we had our kitchen cabinets painted white! Now it's a brand new space and so much brighter. I do want to change the tile backsplash. It's a little to brown for the walls. But that'll have to be a project for later down the road.  Since the bathroom downstairs had the same cabinet as the kitchen I felt it could go white also. The plan in the future is to change out the countertop for a solid stone surface and change out the backsplash as we

One of my favorite parts of Mother's Day is getting my picture taken with my babies. They've all grown so much. They look so adorable and beautiful. Tyler has now passed Aidan in height and he's darn proud of it.  Lindsey, oh my Lindsey. She's so funny and fun to be around. I'm so blessed to be her mom and I'm grateful for the relationship that we have. I hope we can always have a good relationship.  My mom! Mom and I are friends. I do understand more now that I'm a mom but we weren't really friends when I was younger. I want a different relationship with my girls than what I had with my mom. I hope the things I do and talk about with my girls will help achieve that. My mom grew up a little more old school/conservative and I want something different with my girls when I teach them things. So far I think we're doing pretty good. Lindsey and Olivia and I can have good talks and laughs. I had that with mom when I was younger but not quite t

The marimba band performed in downtown Pasco for the Cinco de Mayo celebration. With it being a program from Jaime's school he got up on stage to talk about the dual immersion program and the marimba the kids were going to play.  As usual, Olivia and Lindsey taking silly pictures with Emily.  I also went to Tyler's mother's day afternoon in his class. He made me a card, which he read out loud in Spanish to the class. He said that he loves it with I make tamales. A lot of the other moms laughed and I thought maybe they're thinking there's no way this white girl is making tamales. hahaha and they'd be right. I've never made them before but I guess heating them up for Tyler constitutes making them for him. :)

I have gotten to know Chuck and Shirley Sickles and love them so much. They have great humor and hearts of gold. When I get the chance to help them with things like a yard sale I'm all over it. I was so sad to find out they decided to move to Utah. They have some family here but a lot more in Utah. They travel there all the time and decided they wanted to move back to the old homestead that belongs to Shirley's family.  Today I went with Cheryl Yount, Kathie Baugh, and Marva Jones (sweet older ladies in our ward) to take lunch to Chuck and Shirley while their house is mostly boxed up. When Kathie asked me if I wanted to join her and the other two I was thrilled that these women considered me a friend and knew of the relationship I have with the Sickles; that they included me in this service.  Cheryl Yount is another wonderful woman I've been able to get to know in our ward. She's battling cancer in her own way, naturally, and has the most positive outlook. We