Edwards Haps and Mishaps

I have been trying to post all these pictures on here for several days now, and I keep getting frustrated because I am getting an “error” message…I have realized that if I do shorter posts then I think I can get all the phone pictures up that I want to. You didn’t really need to know that. But I told you anyway. So you may want to start with the post below…

But here are even MORE pictures that I’ve unloaded for my phone!

Dallin got into Preston’s birthday cake last year before he had a chance to see it…so I added a few extra globs of frosting to fill in the holes!

We wanted to feel young again so we went to an outdoor concert with John Mayer and Phillip Phillips!! I’ve only watched a season or two of American Idol and i watched the Phillip Phillips season so I was pretty excited about that :) And the night was great except for the drunk girl behind us who, for the last half an hour, I couldn’t even hear the music over my own thought of what I would do the next time she stepped on one of us.

Dallin asks Preston for hugs when he gets in the car after school and it’s precious.

Tooting my own horn here…I went to my parent’s ward Chili cook off and when we were in that ward I had won two years and I didn’t want to enter into a ward that wasn’t mine…but dad insisted and woot woot…I won again! I’ve made the same chili every time! It’s a pork hominy chili recipe I found in a Cooking Light magazine from about 10 years ago! I think it’s the hominy.

Can you guess what they built?

Ada, asleep with a gram cracker in her mouth.

Ada was naughty and was sent to her room. This is what I found. She stayed in there a lot longer after that so that no one was hurt.

Halloween games at school.

Preston took it upon himself to plan dinner. Can you guess everything?

 

I like pictures. It’s no secret. I take lots with my camera..but also lots with my phone. Rarely do I put the ones from my phone onto the computer, but since my phone has become overloaded and has no more memory I’ve decided it’s time to delete some off the ol’ phone. Now I am wondering why I didn’t do this sooner and post some of them on here! The phone pictures are the funniest because I always have it handy. So here are some of the things my phone sees.

I also have a few from my old phone too…so these may go WAY back. Like maybe years…so get ready.

And I am a caption on the top kind of a person, so don’t get confused.

We woke up to our fence on fire at about 2 am right before Christmas…it started in the neighbors garbage can and then spread to their house. Luckily everyone got out and most of their belongings inside the house weren’t terribly damaged, but this was taken from inside Preston’s room and I hate to think what would have happened if we hadn’t heard a Fabreeze can explode! No one would have woken up!! So, that was an eventful night! We were evacuated until about 4:30 on a December night! I know our North Dakota friends and Iowa family think we don’t know cold, but for us California kids, we thought it was pretty chilly :)

Ada’s preschool ornament…still freaks me out to look at it.

Dallin, being his cool self.

Jamba Juice date with mom.

Checking out Folsom lake at its lowest point. We probably hiked a mile from the beach parking lot to get to the water!

Snuggling Nana.

I thought I just took you out of the bath, dried you off, and put a diaper on you…

First day of swim!!

Finding geocaches with the cousins!

Ada sharing the tape measure for show and tell.

All that bath tub and they all cram to the front still!

Our princesses :)

And for some reason this is all my blog will let me put in this post…so I will have to do another! Poor you.

 

Friday there was no school so we decided to go to the Effie Yeaw Nature center. In the end, we had a good time, though there were several times when I thought, “Why in the heck am I doing this?!” The nature center is a little building with some wild animals and exhibits about the animals in the surrounding area. They also have some indian huts and things for field trips outside. Then behind the center are tons of trails and the American River.

Like most of my outings, it didn’t all go as I planned it out in my head. I forgot cash to pay for parking and the nature center wouldn’t take checks or debit so I drug the kids to a golf course where I was told there would be an ATM machine. The machine was broken. I found a restaurant and I bought some fries and they gave me cash back. We drove back over to the nature center and paid for parking (after 40 minutes of running around to find money.) We watched some snakes eat mice, which was pretty cool. Dressed up like (freaky) birds, and played in a birds nest. As we left to go exploring, Ada scraped her knee and was moaning and groaning, Preston wore his flip flops (which I advised him not to) and whined about his feet hurting and Dallin tried running 100 yards in front at all times and so at the beginning of our walk through the trails I was thinking “WHY?! Why am I even out here??” But by the end, after the kids started forgetting their ailments and we began to enjoy all the awesome things that were around us, we had a great time! And it really helped that we had some candy. I needed it. They needed it. Candy helps.

So, if you are ever thinking of going to Effie Yeaw Nature Center. Do it! And bring $5 for parking!!! And candy.

I’m sure anyone looking at this (the two…or zero people…) Know we are in a pretty bad drought out here! We have been asked by the first presidency of our LDS church to pray for rain, and have even been asked to fast. Something amazing, and honestly miraculous is that in February we were asked to fast for rain the first Sunday of the month and looking at a graph of the Folsom Lake water levels (a reservoir by our house) the levels skyrocket at the beginning of February and the beginning of March (many of us also fasted in March for rain.) To me, this is not a coincidence, it is a miracle from God. He blesses His righteous people for doing what is right and for doing His work. He really does. Since I am a big weather person and can be a total wimp (as has been mentioned before…) sometimes the rain is just so inconvenient, but this year I have grown to appreciate every little drop and consider each one a gift from God.

I made the kids stop whatever they were doing and run outside, the sun was out and there were huge drops of water falling from the sky! That combo always makes me run out and check for a rainbow…we have a lot of trees around our yard so I could kind of see one, but not really.

Also, one kind of embarrassing story…in high school I literally drove around to try and find the end of a rainbow. Not that I thought it had gold or leprechauns or anything like that but I thought you really could find it. Now I am realizing it’s the angle you are looking from that determines where the rainbow looks like it is and the rainbow changes every time you move, there isn’t a literal rainbow in one place in the sky. I’m still a little shocked that I didn’t get that…I’m sure I wasted a lot of gas.

And the pretty wisteria!

Watching Frozen with daddy.

 

Also, a few minutes ago I called everyone in for dinner but they were all preoccupied with the above scene and so I sat down to put a photo up here and a few minutes later I heard Preston in the kitchen with Ada and he initiated having a prayer on the food without any grown ups around!!! That was one of those moments where I felt like, “Okay, I’m not totally failing!!” YAY! I’m so proud!

The weather has been warming up here…I guess it’s been warmer for awhile, but now it’s actually getting kind of hot. I’m a wimp when it comes to weather, so it isn’t really hot. But I think it is. With all the warmth I’ve had an itching to get outside! I want my kids to love hiking and being outside…and they’re getting better…my outings don’t always go as planned, there is usually way more whining in real life than when I plan it out in my head but I think it is worth it. They’ll toughen up.

I was  pretty proud of them yesterday, we decided to go on a walk by the river and on the sides of the river (which has a dam on both sides, so technically this part is a lake) there are TONS of river rock. Piles and piles. One of them is a GIGANTIC pile…looks like a huge mountain, and we were walking along the bike trail and decided to veer off the trail and check out this big mountain of rocks…and then we decided to climb it. We all made it up and back down in one piece! Though Shaun decided to take Ada another way down and they were practically surfing down the rocks (I couldn’t watch) but thankfully they were okay!

Even with all the whining it was a good time! We also spent some time outside eating oranges and soaking in the sun. One memory I have of me and my dad is that we would get out the cutting board and one of those huge red mesh bags of oranges (most likely picked up from the guy in the pick up truck on a corner by our house) and we’d cut them up and eat them. Dad would keep cutting more and more oranges until we’d both decided we’d had enough. I was happy to see at least two of my children would eat oranges with me…and ask for more!

And one more thing, we got a fire pit for the back yard and Dallin keeps getting into it! Even after bathing before church…we still had to clean him up! Sneaky little stinker.

We made some campfire eclairs! Shaun just got back from a scout training where they made these.

Alright, Here are some pictures from the past few days. I thought, perhaps…and I’m not making any promises…but I’d like to document more of the day to day things in my life to remind me of all the beautiful things I have and all the small experiences I get to have with my family. With spring here, I have been noticing small things around me that I appreciate: birds chirping in the morning, the sound of a lawn mower on Saturdays along with the smell of fresh cut grass, blossoms, big puffy clouds, my kids getting along, laughing together, reading stories…so many things in life are beautiful.

I read this on the LDS church website the other day and it sums up my feelings lately and was very inspiring to me:

Near the end of his life, one father looked back on how he had spent his time on earth. An acclaimed, respected author of numerous scholarly works, he said, ‘I wish I had written one less book and taken my children fishing more often.’ Time passes quickly. Many parents say that it seems like yesterday that their children were born. Now those children are grown, perhaps with children of their own. ‘Where did the years go?’ they ask. We cannot call back time that is past, we cannot stop time that now is, and we cannot experience the future in our present state. Time is a gift, a treasure not to be put aside for the future but to be used wisely in the present.” -Thomas S. Monson October 2000

So, maybe it will be one picture a day. but hopefully I can see the little things that make life so great!

Uncle Erik came and stayed with us for a few weeks while he was working in this area and we loved it!! The kids LOOOVED waking up to seeing Uncle Erik and were so excited when he came home at night. Dallin would wake up and ask, “where Erik?” So here they are, loving Uncle Erik and sad to say good bye!

I REALLY wanted to make some garden boxes this year and have a big, pretty garden…so here is my helper. And believe me, he and Ada were really good helpers……..yeah.

And then I bought this wooden high chair off craigslist and EVERYONE wanted to sit in it and get their pictures taken. So why not?

Taking lots of photos of other people’s families leads me to want more photos of my own family! Thanks to my mom who always comes out and takes our pictures! She does a great job and is pretty patient with us all! We just went to one of our favorite parks, nowhere fancy, but I think that goes to show that a nice photo can really be taken anywhere! Some people feel like you need a really cool location, and that’s nice and all, but it isn’t really about that…it’s about the people in the picture!

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Okay. I think that was a record. I haven’t posted anything on this thing since AUGUST. I’m speechless. Embarrassed. I don’t post a lot to Facebook either…so you may not remember what we look like or know that Dallin has hair now. Preston’s missing 2 bottom teeth, Shaun has had a beard, a hideous beardless chop-stache (not sure what else to call it) and a mustache…and is now back to clean shaven…we’ve gone through countless holidays since then…Preston started 1st grade and Ada is in Preschool. Dallin talks up a storm and is the cutest turd ever…I say that because he can be so cute and then such a turd…but he’s so cute you forget about all the turdiness…unless I am trying to enjoy myself, wandering the aisles of Target and he’s trying to flop himself out of the cart and squawking “NOOOO” like a crow…then I don’t think he’s all that cute. Ada lives each day in either a leotard or a swim suit…doesn’t matter the month or the weather. And it is EVERY. DAY. I put clothes on her to take her out. We get home, the clothes are stripped and the swim suit comes back out.

I’m not even sure where to start with pictures…but I’ll just throw up a smorgasbord of the last part of the year…and I’d like to make it a pretty collage so it doesn’t seem like SO many pictures…but I don’t want to spend my whole Saturday on that so I won’t…don’t feel obligated to scroll all the way to the bottom :)

Playing at the school:

So precious when they are sleeping! Crusty face and all!

One of our Pumpkin patch trips:

Another pumpkin patch trip:

Trunk or treat:

Trick or treating:

Helping me scout out places for pictures in Old Roseville, she met a friend:

Ada’s Thanksgiving feast at school:

We hosted Thanksgiving and I was so excited to make a pretty table! I didn’t take many pictures of much else that day haha

And the Edwards family pie tradition…LOTS of pie. I seriously ate pie for weeks…twice a day.

Leotard:

Apple hill:

The only few good apples in the orchard…we went a little late in the season I guess!

Picking out our Christmas tree:

Decorating the tree (in a leotard)

Preston took these…teaching him young to take lots of pictures :)

I’m scary.

Happy birthday Nana

In December it got pretty cold here and we found lots of water that turned into ice in our backyard…the kids had fun breaking it apart.

HAIR! (it’s turned into a mullet…needs to be cut!)

Sock and sandals…yeah!

Downtown roseville, looking at lights:

Our little Snowflake!

Waiting to go on stage:

All done, she did such a good job on her first ballet recital!!

Decorating gingerbread houses with a zillion crazies:

And we trekked to Utah for Christmas and had SO much fun with all our family! Except for the stomach flu part…that wasn’t fun. But we loved the snow, loved our family, loved playing games, loved Beamer…we had a good time out there with everyone!

I’d never made an actual snowman before (sad) so I was pretty excited. I felt 10 again!

Grandma’s Swedish spark was a hit with all involved.

The beautiful temple. We went the Monday before Christmas…bad idea with all the Mormons and FHE!! I felt like I was a t a rock concert in the mosh pit. But it was still really pretty.

Jackson turned 8 and got baptized!

The whole Strazzo Fam…We took A LOT of pictures and I didn’t look close before I picked one and now I am noticing there are a lot of closed eyes…..

Christmas eve! I was wondering hwere Shaun was in all these…and oh yeah…he was throwing up :)

Precious, happy Lemma!! All the girl cousins are obsessed with the darling little girl!

Christmas morning!

Stopping in Nevada to stretch our legs…somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

Daddy’s nice facial hair:

WHEW!

THE END!

Happy 2014!

I won’t wait 4 months before the next update :)

I was at Target in the $1 section (I am there often…) and spotted these glasses…I was thinking of doing some fun pictures for Preston starting school but we ended up just having a little “photo booth” action in the backyard. Kids in glasses just crack me up for some reason! Preston wanted to use the camera and I think I trust him at this age… he did a pretty good job! It is hard to focus with the setting I have, but look at him! Such a little photographer, in focus and everything. His subject was a little out of control, but as the photographer he just rolled with it ;)

Ok, we are weird. I know this. It has been discussed before, but I am posting these anyway :)