My Amanda

This was Amanda's last year of Preschool, she has enjoyed the Hawks nest but is sooo excited to finally be going to Kindergarten or as she puts it "Ms. Diaz's class at Mountain View Montessori" She has grown up so much this last year and I am soo very glad that we had her wait until this year to start school. I have loved having the extra time with her.

Her personality is so kind and loving sometimes to a fault. If there is ever a conflict over who gets to go first, sit next to mom, play with a toy etc. She will always be the first to sacrifice so that someone else can be happy. I love having her around and will be so sad to see her go off to Kindergarten this year. She will be gone from 8:30 in the morning until 2:45 and I will miss her dearly during that time. I will miss her hugs especially and her cheerful attitude. She is one of my babies and I don't want to let her go.

She also has a spunky and funny side. She loves to make us laugh and will do silly little moves and dances when she thinks no one else is looking. This year she was quite the ham at the end of the year performance at Preschool and I was amazed as I watched to realize that my little baby is growing up way to quickly right before my eyes.

I feel like the time has just slipped through my fingers like sand. I can't seem to slow it down and I am afraid of missing something. Am I teaching her all she needs to know, am I inspiring confidence and Independence so that she will be successful this year without me.

It was really fun to have Elizabeth join her for the last 1/2 a year of Preschool. Amanda was the perfect role model and took extra care to watch out for and play with her sister. It was fun for me to know that my other baby was safe with her big sister and that they would stick together. The teachers said they never left each others side. I am happy that they are best friends and hope Elizabeth survives for the next two years while she is the only one at home.


I love this little girl of mine and am proud to be her mommy! She is my angel and I have a feeling she will be an angel to many as she seeks to help, love and serve those around her. I am sure she will be a great friend to the kids at school and I hope they will be as kind to her as I am sure she will be to them.

Before she goes to school we decided to do a special date with each of the kids and since she is always so giving and goes last at everything Steve and I decided that this time she goes first. She is so tickled that she is going first and that she gets to decide what we are going to do. Naturally she wants to do something we will all enjoy. So she her dad and I will be going to McDonald's and then maybe a movie (she's not sure on the actual activity yet) I hope she enjoys the one on one time as much as I will.

I love you Amanda!!!!

Time flies!

Wow time flies when you are stressed to the max. So what you may ask has the Lang family been up to these past 7 yes I said 7 months.

Amanda turned 5 in October Katrina turned 7 Steve turned 36 and Stacie turned ** in November. That being said we went to Disney land for all but my Birthday as we had passes and they gave us gift cards for our birthdays. The girls spent their $62 gift cards in about 10 minutes and then we spent the remainder of the days having fun running from ride to ride. On Steves b-day we left the kids at home and had a birthday date to disney land and went to dinner at the blue bayou resteraunt. It was loads of fun and I think it was more fun watching him spend his money than the girls. He literally took hours and ended up building himself his own light sabor. :) My baby sister McKensi got married and Allison came for a Thanksgiving visit which entailed two trips to Utah that month. We loved every minute of it but it kept us super busy.

We purchased a new home and moved in December with the help of family and made a suprise visit to St George to suprise both Steve and my families on Christmas eve. The new house is a blessing in disguise and came very unexpectadly. We love the new found space we have and I especially love that there is room for everyone to spread out and have a little space to do so. We have lots of work to do on the house as it was a bank owned property but bit by bit it is becoming home.

January left us feeling a bit unsetteled and we spent most of our free time trying to finish up the move and clean up the old house. Allison turned 12 and entered young womens, and yes it makes me feel old to have a 12 year old. My baby Elizabeth turned 3 at the end of the month and we celebrated by going to chucky cheese for the evening.

Febuary brought my youngest starting preschool and I found myself with several hours 3 days a week without children. I am suprised however that in the weeks that have followed I have not found any more time. I still do the same things errands, shopping, dr appts, the only difference is that I do not have the company of little ones to keep me entertained as I do the mundane things of life. I do not look forward to the day that they are all in school and I have every day to myself, maybe we will have to look into foster care at that point or I can get a job at the school as a teachers aid. I guess only time will tell :)

March we were able to have Allison come and visit and we once agin went to Disney Land. Ali does not get to go as much as the rest of us for the obviouse reason that she lives in Oklahoma and when she does come it is the busier times of the year and who wants to spend our entire vacation waiting in line? This year our passes were not blocked and some good friends of ours came with us. They made the trip so much more enjoyable, thanks Carol and Kerri for coming with us :) Ali flew home and then Steve and Katrina started their spring break. We went to Utah for a couple of days to see Steves grandfather who's health is not great. We came back and spent the rest of the vacation on the yard. We stained most of the fence, pulled out all the dead plants and planted 2 peach, 2 apple and 1 pear tree. We also planted 2 grape plants and about 100 strawberries (thanks Ali for helping get those planted and for your help in starting to stain the fence)
April is now upon us and we like everyone else celebrated Easter. We had the Easter Bunny come a day early so Saturday could be about the candy and Sunday could be about the Savior. We made ressurection cookies which helped the kids better understand the Saviors roll in all of this as we read passages from the scriptures to understand the days leading up to the crucifiction and ressurection. I loved listening to conference as we had people in and out of our home joining us for various sessions. Life in the mission field sure is different, no watching conference in your pjs when you have strangers coming into your home to listen to the words of a prophet. On Easter Sunday I also learned that a dear friend of mine had passed away. I made plans to attend the funeral and was touched by the spirit as I watched all of her family and friends (including myself) struggle with the loss. I was touched by the love of her husband for their 5 young children as he made the decision to stay home and be a dad for a while.

I think that about wraps it up for now, I will try to post some pictures as time permits ;)

Borrowman Reunion

So in my efforts to catch up here is a post about one of the reunions we went to this summer.

Every year for the 4th of July weekend the Borrowman clan gets together for a reunion. We have gone to the lake, and stayed locally, however this year was especially fun. As a family we have/are purchasing a piece of property up in the mountains near Zions National Park.
It really is beautiful up there and we had a blast. You can see both the girls around the campfire, which by the way we finished while we were up there. You can see the thin path of rocks around the campfire, well while we were there we went out and collected enough rocks to finish the paving. It looks fabulous!!!

This is Janae who is afraid of heights while the rest of us looked over the edge of a beautiful canyon. I admit the drop would kill you but how do you not CAREFULLY look at it. Janae we love you for worrying so much about us :)

Here is one of the reasons she was having a heart attack. Yep people were getting right up to the edge for this spectacular view. (the children were not allowed this close, so don't worry too much!)

Another on of our favorite pastimes was riding the 4 wheeler and the range rover. The rover was great for getting lots of the kids going at once, and they really never wanted to get off.

We also loved the food, the movie on the side of the trailer as well as the time together it really was beautiful!

Well it has been a while since I posted so look for several in the days to come. One of the more exciting things that happened at the beginning of our summer was that Katrina decided to learn to ride her bike without training wheels. She was quite nervouse to say the least but you could hear her whispering under her breath. "I can do it, I am not going to quit, and if I just keep practacing".

It took her 2 days of 20 minute practices (that is all dads back could handle) and she was riding on her own. It was funny to watch her as she realized she was doing it by herself she would hit the brakes. I mean really hit the brakes leaving little white skid marks all over the street. She finally found her stride and she is a great rider. She now go on family bike rides and she leads the way:)

Amanda had her semi graduation ceremony from pre school yesterday. She will be going back for one more year before kindergarten but they have the graduation for all regardless. Here she is pleased as punch after receiving her certificate.


These other pictures are of her doing some fun dances. They dressed them up in poodle skirts and taught them a few moves.

Twisting

Look at me. It was funny how many of the pictures I caught her checking out the boys on the guitars. She is growing up so fast.... anyone know how to slow down the process and keep them cute and little forever :) ?

Make sure you check out Allison's Promotion in the post before this one!

5th Grade Promotion

Its that time of year when all the kids start getting out of school for the summer. This year Allison finished elementary school and had her 5th grade promotion. Next year she will start middle school, I cant believe how fast she is growing up.

Steve flew to Oklahoma to celebrate with Allison. It was really sweet for them to get to spend some time together. Steve showed up at Allison's front door about 7:30 am on the day of her promotion and took her out to breakfast before heading over to the promotion ceremony.

After the ceremony he was able to volunteer at the local YMCA as Ali and the rest of her class were able to play. Later that night they went to dinner with her mom and step dad and did a movie at her house. The next morning they spent playing before Dad had to go. They had a ball, congratulations Ali we love you and are so proud of you.

Disney Land

Last week Steve's parents came to town so Steve took the day off, and we pulled Katrina out of school for the day and went to Disneyland. We haven't been for about a year and a half so it was fun to watch the girls relive the magic. It was especially fun to see Elizabeth react to it for the first time.

She was so cute on Dumbo as she figured out that she could move us up and down all by herself. After every ride she would put her hands over her face and cry because she didn't want to leave. It was cute to see and even cuter to see her light back up when we found something new. I can just imagine how much fun she will have when we go in the off season and don't have to wait in long lines at every ride.

We don't usually spend a lot of time in toon town, but this time we did and the girls had a blast with all the pretend play that didn't require waiting in a line :) Here they are as they try to get out of toon jail.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Lang for such a fun day!!!