Happy Spring!

Hope you are enjoying the best season of the year! We celebrated the big day with a picnic and some games with friends at Freestone Park. Jennie and Brynlee and Raelyn dropped by, but unfortunately I don't have any photographic evidence. Obviously Ella was excited for Spring to be here...
I can't wait for the picnic! However, I also just like getting my diaper changed because Mommy likes to sing to me!

Here are the worthy racers ready for the big event..
It was quite a day at the field. I believe Angie was the hopper to beat.
The wheelbarrow race gave some Spring goers a chance to reclaim their position as champion racers...
Another exciting and bitter drama of sweat, grass, and a few spills. (Actually, I usually am very PC with races, due to the fact that one of my children who will remain nameless, but his name starts with a L and ends with a AN, gets rather upset at times with losing. So I just said that if everyone was a good sport then they would all get a prize for each race. This seemed to keep spirits high, but of course never stops the kiddos from knowing who the real winner is. I'm okay with winners and losers though, just as long as we all get along!)
Ella was a beautiful onlooker and commentator and enjoyed her time with her catterpillar friend. How nice to be out together enjoying this beautiful time of year! I love Spring!

Fun in the sand.It always has to include water doesn't it?
Hope everone is enjoying this great weather while it lasts!

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Cottage Fair and Farewells

Well, Kari and Corey have moved to NC for a little while, and we sure will miss them! Luckily we had some famiy get togethers before they left! Here are some of the cousins at Bryant's blessing--it's too bad that Jenny and Trevor couldn't come to get a shot of all the cousins together--I guess we'll have to wait until the next time we're all together.

Cute Baby Bryant and his loving parents


What a great shot huh? This was dinner at our house--these two were doing some serious bonding!

Cottage Fair was fun this time--I can't believe it is already Spring Break and the school year is coming to a close yet again! Logan took me on a tour of his class and showed me all the cool stuff he can do, and it ended with him showing me his awesome skills on the monkey bars on the playground. What a stud!

Sunny's Cottage Fair was all about explorers and American history. It is always fun to see all the things they have made and the fun reports she has written.
Angie's Cottage Fair was probably the most fun for our family this time--I don't know why the pic is so fuzzy, but you get the idea. She dressed up as Clyde Tombaugh (the man who discovered Pluto) and Sunny and Logan interviewed her (Or him I guess). All the studetns had to present on a famous person from AZ and their families were supposed to take part. It was very fun and I learned a lot!

P.S. Ella has started to roll over! She does it from flat on her back all the way to her tummy. We like to put her on her back just to watch her do it--she always seems to be up for the challenge. Looks like we are venturing into a whole new level of babyhood!

P.S.S. (Or is it P.P. S.--I don't even know what it stands for!) Anyway, Ella has also made a new discovery as of late--her tongue!

Daddy's Little Diva

Calvacade!

Angie and Sunny got to participate in a really neat program this year with their piano teacher. It is called, "Calvacade" and it is twenty pianos on stage with two kids to a piano, all playing the same music! It was a really fun show to watch--we are very proud of our talented piano girls! Don't worry, Logan will start in a year or two--and of course Ella as well someday! I'm having a really hard time downloading videos these days, so you will have to take my word that their performance was fabulous!

I also lost some really cute photos on my camera this week (sniff,sniff) so here's a little "blast from the recent past" instead: Some from Valentine's day:

Uuuummm.....Let me thing about it...okay!


Angie and Sunny really wanted ringlets for the special day--they felt very "Valentiney."
These are actually a "blast from the very recent past" of Saturday at Corey and Kari's house they are sitting for a few more weeks. We went over to help out with some yardwork--these boys look like they got the better end of the deal though.
We will really miss family get togethers with Corey and Kari and Dallin and Bryant when they move! We hope they come back really soon!

Looking for a cheap thrill for your kids?

I took all the kids with my last week to the Scout Shop at the Riverview shop in Mesa (believe it or not, I'm the Cubmaster in our ward--pretty funny huh?)--that huge new shopping place by the Bass Pro Shop. Well, while we were in the Scout Shop, Logan had to go to the bathroom, and they didn't have one there. SO, I thought it might be fun to take the kids to the Bass Pro Shop to use their bathrrom and just check it out. I had actually taken Logan there once when we did a scout FIELD TRIP there. Sounds funny, but there are so many stuffed wild animals that we did a scavenger hunt looking for them. However, the girls (including Ella of course) had never gone.
Well, let me tell you, that was such a fun little jaunt together, and the kids thought that I was THE COOLEST mom just for taking them there for like, fifteen minutes to look around! They were so amazed by all the animals and the vastness of the place, the waterfall, the fish, and, oh yes, we cannot forget the glass elevator! I guess maybe we don't get out much huh? However, I think the very best part, for me at least, was the actual walking into the entrance of the place. Logan was so hilarious because he kept saying, as we were getting closer, things to prepare Angie and Sunny for what they were about to experience. He was like, "Oh yeah, this place is awesome! Get ready to see things beyond your imagination!" Then as we all walked in he just opened his hands and said, "There ya go!" just as if he was the designer and owner of the place or something! (For those that don't know, this is a GINORMOUS hunting super store with all kinds of stuffed animals in it and lots of other cool stuff to see). So, yeah, if you are in the area and have kids, just stop by for a few minutes to give them a thrill. Maybe I'll offer to take mine again sometime for a special treat after doing Saturday chores! Gosh, kids are great aren't they?
P.S. Another little fun story while we were there. We were on the way down the cool glass elevator when this older couple stepped in with us. The gentleman looked at Ella and started to talk to her. Then he asked her, "And can you smile?" to which she immediatley responded with a huge grin--right on cue! Who says babies don't undertand us?????

New Pictures

We just wanted to thank Leah Davis Photography for our wonderful new family pictures. She did a fabulous job and we had so much fun doing it--I would recommend her to anyone! So thanks Leah and any one who is interested in great family pics just let me know!

Snow Day

We had a very fun President's day going to Flagstaff for a day trip and visiting Aunt Mel and sledding. It was Ella's first trip like this and she was great--she slept the whole way there and the whole way back--and she slept cozily in her stoller the whole time we were sledding. We got her out in the snow with her adorable snowsuit (courtesy of Danny and Krisztina and fam) for a few pics, and then she was just snug as a bug in a rug the rest of the time. Also, it was a great day because we had happy kids throughout and no major injuries--yeah! Definitely worth all the packing and laundry post trip just to see these kiddos having such a grand time--snow is such a novelty to us desert folk!

Here's Aunt Mel and Ella posing in the beautiful scenery together--what lovely ladies!
Okay--we had to do one in the snow--after all, it was a SNOW SUIT! How cute is that?? Here I am having fun--I am--having fun--sledding is fun--not scary--no, it's fun--
Angie and Jack had a great time going down the BIG hill--Angie is such an adventuress--she is the child who we can get to do al the things that Dad wants to do--and Mom doesn't! The place we went to was great--they had all kinds of hills--from the very daring to the very wimpy--so even I could sled!

Freedom! Logan was hilarious--he just kept trucking along and he didn't mind the bumps at all or falling off or anything--it was all, "TOTALLY AWESOME!"
Although Sunny did do some sledding, truth be told she spent most of the day creating things in the snow. She is such an artist--even in the midst of adventure.

Here's a vidoe of Logan going down--we took a few more but they take FOREVER to download on Jack's laptop, so maybe I'll download a few more later this week on our computer.

And in ending this post, I had to figure out a sneaky way to get in these pics of Ella--so here goes--
Even though we had a fabulous time in the snow...

We were happy to come home and be in our own sweet beds!