We are loving summer here so I am a little behind on posting. Here is a picture that melts my heart! Hopefully I will get posting soon!

My lilac tree was in full bloom last week.

I love the way lilacs smell. It is a smell I remember from my childhood. We had a huge lilac tree in our yard in Idaho.  

Adam had the great idea of cutting some and bringing them in the house!

Our neighbors let us cut some of theirs so I had a beautiful bouquet of dark and light purple!

My house smelled soooo good all week!!!
 
  

We came home from CA to a wonderful surprise! It had been such a long day! Driving home is the hardest because there is nothing to look forward to. We pulled up into the driveway at 10:30 pm and notice our lawn looked different! I jumped out of the van to inspect! I was blown away!!!!

Someone pulled all our weeds and filled it in with sod (just like I wanted!!!) and made a small beautiful flower bed.

They planted all those little flowers!

My new view from the front porch! Beautiful!!!!

They put a rock walk way and planted flowers and bushes in the front flower bed.

They planted more bushes and flowers in another empty flower bed I had! They mowed the entire back and side yards which were out of control!! They also planted my garden! It looks better than I could have ever done!

At first I thought it had to be my sister Marci, her husband Kenny and my brother Jordan and his wife Michelle, but when I talked to Marci she said they helped but it wasn't their idea. She said some friends from church did it for us! I felt so loved! I am so grateful to wonderful friends who care about us! I am thankful for their service. I have amazing, generous friends and family! Thank you all so much!!! Every time I come home or go outside I am filled with love!

When we were in CA we took a trip to a lighthouse. We were there on the best weekend because the lighthouse is only open on the third Saturday on the month. My Mom is great about finding fun things like this to do! We walked half a mile to get there and back. The kids walked along the rocks most of the time! I took my nieces Gabi and Mariyah. My brothers Jeff and Joe and sister in law Sujin went with us! 

Tori has to do things all by herself so she walked a good portion of the way there. She has a very determined walked!

Uncle Jeff is the best for shoulder rides and holding hands!

Zoe loved the sounds of all the seals that were playing around the lighthouse!

The kids who were 6 and older got go to the top of the lighthouse.  

Yes, Zoe smiled like this on purpose!

Joe is a wealth of knowledge! His always has fun facts to share with the kids! 

The gang out front!
 

The kids got hooked up with shirts, coloring books, visors, and key chains!

Tori really had a good time! She also thinks the sand tastes great!

We had a good time and got some good exercise! If you live is Ventura County you should totally check it out! Did I mention it was free! Here is the website if you are interested, Point Hueneme Lighthouse!
 

Today was Zoe and Ammon's last day of school.They are happy but of course they will miss all their friends! Ammon said the thing he will miss the most is his teacher!! Isn't that just so sweet!

She loves Ammon and will miss him tons! She thinks he is just the perfect student! He is always so helpful and always does his work!! He only had his card changed twice this whole year!!! Boy I am glad he is nice for someone:)!

Zoe loves her teacher too and is so sad to have to get a new one next year!

Zoe's teacher said Zoe was always such a big helper and so much fun!! She said the school year would not have been the same without Zoe!!

Once again I am so grateful for good teachers who love my kids!! I am also very very excited to get to sleep in!!!

Kalixta and Britain graduated from Kindergarten today. They are so excited to be 1st graders and start school again on Tuesday! Ha ha! (They think summer break should only last five days!) They have had a great year and have learned so very much! I am so grateful for wonderful teachers who make school fun!!

Kalixta had a first year teacher. She was so cute and bubbly and always ready with a hug for Kalixta!

Britain's teacher has 14 children and 22 grandchildren and can't be fooled at all!! She has seen it all! She was the perfect teacher for Britain!

Britain's teacher gave her an award for being the Best Helper! 

Britain's teacher gave each child a balloon with their name on it and what she thinks would be a good career for them. Britain's said….

Vet! 

My First Graders!!

I am so very proud of my sweet, smart, loving girls!!

The girls had a little program today too. Kalixta did a great job in her part.

My kids love to swim! If we are ever near a pool I try to find time to get them in!!

This is as far as Ariana will get in the water!

Water Babies!!

Tori got in with Nik for a little while, but spent the rest of the time like this!

Nik is such a good sport to haul all the kids around the pool!

It is great to just hang out at the Basuas and let the kids run wild with their cousins while the adults play games and chat. There is a perfect number of cousins for the kids to play with and lots of fun things to do!

Britain loves her cousin Cami! 

Zoe learned how to roll lumpia from her Auntie Diane! Usually Zoe is hanging with Mariyah but they would not let me take their picture!

Kalixta was sick for a whole day. I don't know why at least one person has to be sick when we travel!

This is my adorable nephew Rhea. He finally let me take this picture because I bribed him with a marshmallow! Hee Hee! Ariana and Rhea played really well together, but would not take a picture together for me!

And my other super cute nephew, Marqus!! He is Tori's playmate!

Ammon hangs out with Gabi. She is just two months younger than him so they always have a good time and get into lots of mischief!
 

Tori found she could crawl into the dog's house.

When Kalixta was feeling better she fell in love with Grandma's hat!

Tori liked it too!
 

Ariana loves rocking!

The best toy was the hula hoops. Kalixta was impressing us all with her hula hooping skills so everyone had to join in, including Tori! She would hold the hula hoop in front of her and shake her hips. It was so funny to watch. Of course when I had the camera out she wouldn't do it as well but you can see her do it here for a second! Feel free to turn down the volume I am a little loud! Sorry!

Tori is watching me do this post so I showed her the video and she laughs through the whole thing. When it is over she says "Please! Please! Please!" so I will show it to her again! Funny girl!

Sorry for the lack of posts! I have plenty to post but I have been BUSY! It seems that May is the busiest month of the whole year. Here is just a sample of the last two days. I made meatballs and spaghetti for the youth of our ward. That is about 70 kids, so 3 meatballs apiece equals 210 meatballs! Yeah! I got Adam and the boys packed up for the Father and Sons Camp out tonight. I often wonder why I had seven kids right now I am wondering why I only had two boys!! Anyways, packing including planning and buying the food for the breakfast Adam is in charge of in the morning, six gallons of milk, 15 dozen eggs, and five pounds of cheese is just the start! I also went to Zoe's play she did at school and two baseball games! That is all of top of the unpacking I am still doing and all the regular stuff that happens daily! Busy, busy, busy but that is my life and I do love it!! 

On to the birthday post! Nikolas celebrated his birthday while we were in CA. He turned the big 1-3!! Amazing I know!!!! I can't believe I have a teenager!! The kids keep saying things like "Nik is not a kid anymore!" and "Nik is a teenager!" with so much love and awe that I had to either laugh or cry!! My favorite quote comes from Britain who said that now Nik was a teenager he, "had to go to college!" Whoa! 

Through the weekend he ended up with four cakes! What a way to celebrate a big birthday! One cake was at my in laws house! Nik and my Mother-in-law share the same birthday! This is all the cousins! It is quite a crew!!

Nik had a cake at my parent's house too!

My Mom made Nik a new quilt for his bed, BYU of course! She did an amazing job!!

Thank you Vanna!!

When he got home we celebrated with root bear floats and more presents!

We had the kids all give Nik a kiss as they give him his present! 

Nik did NOT want Ammon kissing him!!
 

Ammon still trying to kiss Nik while he was distracted! Zoe tossed her present to Nik and stayed far away! 

Nik got a hand-me-down iPhone to use as an iPod. He has been wanting one for a while and was saving his money to buy one so he was ecstatic to get one even though he didn't show it!!

He also got lots of cash, two new wii games and a new set of golf clubs! The boy is set!!

Happy Birthday Nik!!!

We just got back from CA! We left Wednesday afternoon and got back last night! We went down because Adam's Mom celebrated her 60th birthday and had a great big party!! She looked beautiful and young! I am grateful to have her in my life! 

Isn't she beautiful?! That cute little boy is my nephew! He is a doll too!

I love this picture of Mom and Dad dancing! 

Cute little Tori girl!

Britain and Kalixta had a great time running around and dancing!

Britain dancing with her cousin Alex!

Ariana dancing with her Grandpa!! Love it!

Ammon being Ammon! He loves to make faces at the camera!
 

This is a classic Tori pout because she can't sit on my lap.

Because my lap was full of a tired Ariana and a cute Gabi-girl!

We had a great time!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

I love you so much!!!!