Happy Birthday Princess Kara!

This week served as a reminder just how fast time flies.  We had our standard playdate, preschool, dance, My Gym classes, etc.  Beyond that, we honored the life of a dear loved one, Brent’s Grandma, Lora McIntire who passed away last past Saturday.  Anytime a loved one passes it is very bittersweet.  While we selfishly mourn the loss of their physical presence, the knowledge we have of seeing and being with them again provides us with a great comfort and even a level of peace and happiness knowing they aren’t sick or struggling anymore.  This was no exception.  As I sat next to Brent at the funeral hearing all of the amazing things that Lora had done and accomplished throughout her life I could not help but reflect back on my own grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and aunts who have passed on.  What an elect group of women each of these have been!  To go through the trials they went through in their lives, the strength, compassion, endurance, patience, and love they had – they are all, Lora definitely included, an example to me, reminding me of the type of person I aspire to become and work towards becoming daily.  While the funeral was a solemn occasion, the family reunion of sorts before and after were joyous experiences. I am certain Lora was smiling down on everyone reconnecting, for some, after many, many years.  Brent has often boasted about the chaos and size of his family – I do give him that they are a big family (18 brothers and sisters)– one full of several branches and lots of love.  I do hope one day, he can experience the Nelson side of my family which while not a mixed family, is a large family with my grandpa having had 9 brothers and sisters – then they had kids – and then they did, which brings us to, well, me and my generation.  So big, crazy families that I am used to.  Just so much love and so many new faces and names at one time!  That’s a test for this memory challenged person!  So our week that started off routine and ended with family, Grammy, Papa, and cousin time.  The best of all, was Brent being able to reconnect with Aunts, Uncles and Cousins he hasn’t seen in way too many years and getting to meet all of them.  Family really is a blessing from our Heavenly Father, the experiences, heritage, connections, love and friendships that are shared with family the greatest of blessings. 

The big event for our week was Kara’s birthday… my baby girl is 5 years old now!  Ugh!!!!  Where has time gone!  As if it were last week I remember cuddling on the couch with Brent following a walk around our neighborhood when strangely my hip popped.  I didn’t think too much of it as my doctor appointment earlier that day indicated not much was changing with Kara and I was set to be induced one week later.  So, me being me, I made a list – what I wanted to do before the baby came, scheduling out activities each day.  Of course, my little girl had other plans and after waking up in the middle of the night thinking I had to use the bathroom I quickly realized my water broke and several hours later Kara was born.  Fast forward 5 years later and here we are.  Not a day goes by that I do not thank my Heavenly Father for Kara and how she influences my life.  For her, Kaden and Brent I want to be a better person.  Kara inspires me – she is a hard worker, whether it is at dance and memorizing a routine, her school work and learning how to write her name, start to read, her comprehension of numbers and basic math… all of it, simply impressive.  Kara loves to read and be read to, she enjoys drawing pictures – particularly of our family, hearts, and rainbows, she loves to color and to color in rainbows.  Kara enjoys dressing up and having tea parties with whomever will sit down long enough to enjoy one with her.  She likes playing games and loves to sing.  Kara enjoys saying prayers, reading scriptures, and learning the stories contained in the scriptures.  She strives to be a friend to anyone and everyone she can.  She can be shy but she really works not to be so she can be a friend to all.  Kara has been blessed with a great deal of compassion and sensitivity.  Explaining why we personally cannot feed every homeless person she sees, or clean up all the litter in the world ourselves saddens me as I see how much love she has and wants to share with everyone.  As I said above, Kara inspires me daily.  If I can be as good as Kara is – coupled with as good as my ancestors have been – I know I will be the person our Lord wants me to be.  I am ever so grateful to be the mother of Kara – to teach her, to learn from her, to share in her joys, comfort her sorrows, and to try to champion her causes.  Kara is an amazing daughter, terrific sister, and a loving friend.  I am thankful for all that she is and take such joy in watching her life progress as she grows and develops. 

This year for Kara’s birthday it was a year she could choose any restaurant for the family to go eat at for her birthday dinner.  Well, for many a month now she has been wanting to go to the beach.  I do not believe she knew what she’d do once she was at the beach, she just knew she wanted to go.  After some discussion Brent and I proposed to Kara that in lieu of a fancy birthday dinner we’d drive over to California and go to the beach for her birthday.  I think it took Kara a whole second to comprehend what was being offered to her before she gleefully chose the beach trip.  For the past few weeks she has not been concerned with turning 5 instead the emphasis for her was on the fact that on her birthday we’d go to the beach.  And that is just what we did.  After a little parental scheming, our plan to wake up super early on Wednesday, Kara’s birthday, and travel to San Diego was changed to where Brent got off work early on Tuesday and after we were all packed up we traveled over Tuesday night.  We arrived at a hotel close to 11 pm then awoke close to 7:30 where we quickly scampered around getting ourselves beach ready.  We were not sure what we were going to be in store for weather wise, what Kara and Kaden would truly think of the beach so we were prepared with several beach activities and back up plans of things to do.   As soon as we pulled up to the beach on Coronado Island Kara and Kaden immediately hit the sand and started playing.  It didn’t take long from there to see no other activities would be needed.  We slowing worked all of our beach day belongings down to the beach where we enjoyed a day of sea shell collecting, wave chasing, swimming on daddy, present opening, sand castle building, toes in the sand relaxing and overall having a wonderful time.  Each Nutt had a blast.  From our big Nutt who has ocean water flowing through his body down to Kaden who thought trying to outrun the waves to the shore was the funnest game ever and all family members in between the day was a success.  We had such fun and cannot wait to find/make the time for our family to go back.  The one lesson learned was that we need to have our sunscreen applied earlier.  Foolish me, I did not put it on everyone right away and because of that most members of the Nutt House are nursing better sunburns in varying degrees.  Poor Brent, his legs never color and I mean NEVER.  In the 6 years I’ve known him I have never seen his legs even slightly tan or even change hues of white.  For whatever reason, Wednesday was the day his legs chose to show they can change color and his white legs and the tips of his feet are still a reddish hue that is somewhat painful.  We’ll chalk that up to lessons learned!   Well, after we were all turning red and with the looming knowledge of a long drive back home ahead of us we packed up for the day mid afternoon then headed for some post-beach birthday ice cream.  After a cooling treat we traveled up to the San Diego Temple to take a quick peek and walk around the grounds.  Our Nutt-y family does not want to let any opportunities we may have to visit a temple pass us by and though it was a short trip, we are glad we saw the temple.  After a quick trip to the temple we had a magnificent sea food dinner at Blue Water Seafood Market and Grill.  Oh my wonderfulness!  Such fresh and delicious seafood!  A perfect cap to our perfect day! 

The beach day was the perfect way to spend Kara’s birthday and it provided each Nutt with a much appreciated break from reality, along with a great family bonding time with wonderful memories created. 

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture!
They were so proud of their sandcastle

We made it and everyone was so happy!

Daddy had as much fun as his little Nutts all day long!

The water was a little cold but did not bother us one bit

Thank heaven for sand toys!

LOVE

She enjoyed burying herself

Perfect view!

Going further out with daddy

Running back in

Brent had such fun introducing them to the ocean

Chasing the birds away quickly became a favorite game

Present time!

Because a princess can never have too many shoes

A tea set that is actually made to hold water!

She enjoyed running through the waves and water

Brent joining Kaden for a game of
running away from the waves

Creating sand art

So proud of her sandcastle

Post beach birthday ice cream!!!

Red, painful, sunburned legs!

Happy birthday to my sweet baby-girl, Princess Kara.  May each birthday and all the days in between be all that you deserve!  I love you forever, and ever, and always sweet Princess.

Before we jump into the adventures of our new week here are pictures from some of the other activities we participated in this past week.

Story time at the park with friends
stories, park play time and friends = good times!

Bringing out our inner artist at the Children's Museum
during a field trip for both little Nutt's
preschool groups Tuesday

Kara peddled her friends through the tricycle
 carwash over and over again

Music Time!

With Brent off work on bereavement he was able to join us for
Free Art Friday.  What a treat!

Kara quickly claimed him as her art buddy

My little artist!

Post Free Art Friday Gelato (this should totally become a thing!)

Sunday afternoon family game time - introducing the little Nutts
to Monopoly type games with "Mormon-opoly"