Brent and Kiley Visit

Dance Party!!!

Brent and Kiley had a conference here in AZ this fall. We had so much fun with them. The kids LOVED having their cousins all to themselves. I was a little nervous that Kayden and Ivy would throw a lot of fits because they're both three. Luckily they are both an old enough three that they just had a lot of fun playing dress up and dolls with each other. It was so cute because they would come out in their princess costumes and want the radio on for a dance party. How could we say no to a dance party?! So we totally rocked out. Of course Colby wanted in on the action so he would party in his heels and hair flowers. Who says girls get to have all the fun?!

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Glamour Shots!!

In addition to our dance parties, Kiley pulled everyone outside and did a photo shoot with the girls. Poor Kiley didn't know what she was in for, once my kids get someone taking pictures they NEVER stop posing. Needless to say they LOVED it! She even got some awesome shots of Dave SMILING in the pictures! She is truly a gifted photographer. :)

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Crazy Spooky Crafts

After a quick trip to Micheals, we helped everyone make Halloween necklaces for a quick and easy craft.

And of course you can't be this close to Halloween without decorating something with candycorns. We frosted cupcakes and decorated them with eyeballs, candycorn fangs, and licorice legs for spiders. It looked so easy in the pictures online, but our spider cupcakes just turned into scary monsters. Mostly scary because the kids all carefully licked the frosting off their fingers and each piece of candy before decorating them. When they present you with their decorated cupcake so happy and proud it's impossible not to eat it.

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Book Worms

Eva is at that fantastic age where she loves taking care of little kids. She spent hours reading to Kaedyn and playing dress up. It was awesome because it kept both of them really busy for nice big chunks of time.

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Turtle Time

One of the coolest things about living in Arizona is that we have two turtles as pets. These desert turtles just roam free in our back yard eating little bugs and grass. They are totally easy pets to have. Colby was super pumped by them. It took him a minute to be brave enough to touch the shell, but once he figured out they were real he loved hunting for them around the yard.

Bathroom Remodel

I have been getting a lot of comments about how ugly the kids/guest bathroom was so I decided to work on remodeling it. It was originally painted a light yellow with a whitewashed oak vanity. Definitely not the cutest room in the house.

To begin with, I repainted the vanity to a nice pretty black. Instead of painting it with a paint brush, my friend suggested we spray paint it. I was doubtful, but decided to go ahead with it. It was AWESOME. Because it's spray paint, I didn't have to sand or anything! I just covered the vanity and floor with plastic and threw a garbage bag over the toilet. It took about30 minutes to put two coats on the whole thing. It has held up really well and is super easy to clean. Then we added a new mirror with a nice big frame that I found at a salvage yard for $20.

I wasn't loving my towel rack, so Zach made me this cute shelf with wood we had around the house. We pulled the hooks off of an old bashed up shelf and it is perfect for hanging towels.

I found some pretty dusty purple towels and sewed a piece of ribbon in the middle for hanging from the hooks. I chose some cute ribbon with fun sayings like, "Journey, Cute as a Button, Love, Follow Your Dreams, etc. With the left over ribbon, I sewed a length of ribbon across the bottom of the towels to finish it off. I think they turned out really cute, and the ribbon helps kids and guests keep track of which towel is theirs.

I added a few small black mirrors from Ikea to finish the look and Viola! My super cute new bathroom. The kids LOVE it! Eva keeps going in and saying, "It looks SO FANCY!" I agree...now I just have to find the perfect mirror for MY bathroom and I'll make it just as beautiful...some day.

Trip to Sedona

For our Columbus Day celebration and to kick off our Fall Break, we headed north to Sedona, Arizona. We love Sedona. It's a beautiful place to get out of the city, hike around, and play in the forest.

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Pool Play Time

We usually just head down for the day and come right back. But this time we decided to get a hotel room. We had a great time in the pool. Zach and the kids spent the whole time doing crazy tricks that gave me a heart attack!

The pool was too cold for our little Arizona gal, so she spent most of the time in the hot tub with mom.

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Lucky Lizard

Zach found a little lizard floating in the pool. I thought it was dead, but once it warmed up in Zach's hands it was definitely alive. Zach is determined to keep it for his little brother Christian. I told him if I found it, I was going to throw it away. So Zach has been very careful to keep the little guy hidden away. Crazy boys!

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Tuff Stuff

The first day Zach was here, he was wondering around the house without his shirt on. One of the kids asked him why he didn't have a shirt on, and his answer was, "Cause it makes me feel tuff." Now I can't get ANYONE in the house to wear shirts because everyone is walking around feeling tough, especially Ivy!!!

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Wading Woes

We found a super cool creek to play in. It was perfect for wading and throwing rocks in. Needless to say, nobody stayed dry for very long...it was awesome!!

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Spidey Man!

Turns out Zach considers himself to be a bit of a Spiderman. The whole trip he was climbing trees and encouraging the kids to practice their Spiderman skills every chance they got.

Dave's Trip to England and France

So here are some pictures of my (Dave) trip to England and France. I went to France for a few days to visit Ryan and Liz and had a great time.

This one is of Owen and I in front of Carcassonne. We were driving past, and Ryan just mentioned it off-hand, and I begged to stop to take a picture.

This is a clearer picture of Carcassonne. It was gorgeous, and just when the sunflowers were about to bloom.

This one is with Ryan and I snorkeling in the Med. Yep, that's me in all my blazing-phosphorescent-blindingly white glory. Notice, Ryan had a wetsuit. The water was just a bit nippy.

This one is on the trail from Gavarnie, to the Cleft of Roland. It was just amazing! Unforgettable, verdant, astounding, Middle-Earthian. Of course, my wondrous fear of heights made for some white-knuckled climbing toward the middle part (end for me...Ryan ran ahead), but it was still amazing.

Just above the Cirque de Gavarnie, in the basin leading to the trail to the top.

Me, chasing waterfalls.

Ryan at the Cleft of Roland.

Cleft of Roland...border of France and Spain.

Porter's Bday/Grandpa's Funeral -- April 29th

I planned a fun birthday part for Porter for his friends after school on Friday the 29th. We were excited it was his actual bday. Then Wed morning we got the call that Dave's grandpa had passed on Tuesday night. So i spend Wed canceling the bday party, canceling subbing on Thursday, canceling my dr appt and dentist appt, canceling a weekend getaway with some girlfriends for a birthday party, doing laundry and packing. After Dave got home we headed to UT to be with family for the funeral.

So instead of doing a party w his friends on his bday we did one with family. We all got together that night and went to the bowling alley. It was awesome b/c we had the kids lane with bumpers up and the adult lane for real bowling. The kids were so pumped to rub it in that they scored higher than all the adults. The bragged about their strikes and their spares and did tons of dances of victory. It was really fun!

The funeral went really well on Sat. I was running around the church setting things up. We had taken a lot of time to prepare Porter and Eva for the funeral and talked a lot about what to expect. I went through the gym with Ivy where the viewing was and she saw the casket with Grandpa in it. She remembered him from our visit at Christmas and she was really worried about him. She asked, "Mom! What's wrong with him?" I explained that grandpa was dead and he had gone to live with heavenly father. She asked, "What happened? Did the bad guys get him?" I told her no that he was just old. She just couldn't grasp that and kept asking about the bad guys and how they got him and what they did with him. I finally got her convinced that there were no bad guys involved that Grandpa Porter was just dead. She thought about that for a while and then decided to make sure everyone knew about it. So she started walking around the halls telling everyone she saw in her loud, matter of fact, three year old voice, "My grandpa's dead! Grandpa Porter is dead!" She would grab people, look, them in the eyes when she told them. There was no way to get past the honest truth of that statement. I thought she was fine, but turns out she's been having a hard time with it. She keeps waking up with nightmares of Dave dying and just cries and cries and says, "I don't want my daddy to die. I don't want him to be a robot. I don't want the bad guys to get him." We reassure her as much as we can, but she still freaks out whenever he goes to work or leaves the house. Hopefully she'll settle down soon. I think Dave might secretly like it b/c he has gotten more snuggles and kisses from her than ever. :)

Easter Sunday -- April 24th

Sunday was Stake Conference and Easter Sunday so we did our easter egg hunt and then spent the rest of the day crashing. It was so nice to be able to sleep for a good chunk of time.

The kids' bikes were all broken and trashed by the sun so we got everyone bikes for Easter. The Easter Bunny was smart and numbered all of the eggs so we knew exactly what ones were missing. We still haven't found egg #2. The kids keep talking about it...I keep hoping the dog ate it...fingers crossed!!

Ed & Julie's Visit -- April 21st

I worked Mon, Tues, Wed and Ed and Julie came out Thursday night. We went to the Easter Pageant over at the temple that was really nice and fun. Dave and Ed wandered over to the Antis and had fun messing with their minds. For bed we put Ed and Julie in Porter's room on the queen and the Sara and Stacie in the girls rooms on the bunkbeds and then we threw everyone else out in a tent. My kids were drop dead tired and didn't appreciate it until around 5:30 when they woke up with the sun and birds. They played out there for a good couple of hours which we enjoyed sleeping a little longer. After breakfast Julie and I took the two girls and went shopping for swim suits. They are definitely the lucky rabbits foot when it comes to shopping for suits. We found a 50% off sale and everything anyone put on looked amazing! It was so much fun to shop with them!! After that we went to Porter's basketball game and then hit the pool for about 3 hours. The community pool is really fun with 3 slides, a lazy river, a spinny vortex, lap pool, 3 diving boards, and a play structure. For $1 each it was AWESOME! I felt bad it was a little breezy and chilly at 85 degrees, but the kids didn't seem to mind at all! After the pool they headed back to Julie's sister's place and Dave and I went to a concert. It was a band called "Mumford and Sons". It was an awesome concert!!!