Thursday, May 29, 2008

Fun..............Logan Style!


Logan loves to play hide and seek! He is actually pretty good at hiding and staying quiet as long as he can hear you calling for him and asking, "Where is Logie?" But as soon as you stop talking for too long he'll say "Where are you Mommy?" Dead Give Away Bud! Then he usually says, "you no fine me!"








Now that we have extra cabinet space we have the perfect place for a two year old to hide, play, store sippy cups full of milk, whatever. Logan is just so bright and cheery. He says Hi to EVERYONE, this makes taking him to the store a challenge. Because if he says hi to someone in the store and they don't respond, he just says it louder and over and over again. He's just so friendly, I love that about him!

Summer Lunches & Routines

Bean and Cheese Burritos with Strawberries and Cool Whip! Delicious Baby!
This is one of our favorite lunches during the summer. The kids ask for this a lot. We use to make a picnic out of it and take it over to Aunt Susan's pool, which was right down the street, and eat and swim. Last year this was our summer day routine, of course we didn't always have this to eat, but it was a hit when we did. Even one of the neighbor kids said I made the best bean burritos ever. What a proud day that was for me, seriously I surely wrote that in my journal right! We miss having a private pool to swim at everyday. We are hoping one of the neighbors puts in a pool sometime.


Kids filling up before we venture out to the Pima pool for our first day of Swimming and Sun. The kids thanked me several time before and many times after for taking them to swim. It is so nice when kids actually appreciate things, doesn't always happen around here, but it's nice when it does.




BEAUTIFUL KIERSTEN!


CHARMING HUNTER!


LOVABLE LOGAN



Our Idea of Horses..................

So this is our idea of animals...

My dad made these for us after he saw the ones, similar to these that I rented for Logan's 2nd birthday. The kids just love them. The horses go up and down as they move forward. My dad was so creative to make the lawn mower into a bull. He is so talented and we are the beneficiaries of many thing because of it!











A barbecue wouldn't be a barbecue without horsey rides!

Logan is ACTUALLY giving Melanie a turn driving the Gator. This is a Kodak moment for those of you who know how much Logan loves these little power wheels. Once Logan turned 2 he just decided he could drive the Gator all by himself. Shockingly enough he was pretty good and we have had many people comment on how little he is to be driving and maneuvering this so well.


Best of Friends!!!






Ashley and Logan are just so cute riding the horses. It was all smiles when we got out the horses. Thanks Dad so much for all the time, effort and energy you put into making these. They will be treasured for years to come!










Memorial Day BBQ with the Smith's

The kids all enjoying a ice cream cone, after eating their dinner of course! We had the Smith's over and grilled steaks. brats and hotdogs. It was so much fun to have our own house and have friends over. It has been 10 long months of not having our own house, so we especially enjoyed the evening of food, fun and friends!



YUMMY ICE CREAM MOM! Hunter sure did like his mint chocolate chip ice cream cone. Nice red fingernail polish there Hunter! Don't ask!








Chase and Maranda enjoying their treat. Hunter just adores Chase and thinks they are best friends. Maranda and Kiersten are best friends and Kiersten can hardly wait for Maranda to move into their new house right next door.




Logan and Melanie make quite the pair. Logan always has a cheesy grin which just melts my heart. This little boy has both Justin and I right wear he wants us. He's so cute!





Ashley was so watch eating her bubble gum ice cream cone. After about half way through the cone she gave it to me and said, "I don't really like this."






Kiersten is all smiles. She is loving having friends over for a BBQ. It's all she could talk about all day, 5' o clock couldn't come fast enough for her.







Hunter's Church Outfit..............NICE BUD!

Hunter Surprised Me Sunday Morning!

So a little history...............EVERY morning Kiersten gets dressed and makes her bed before she even comes out of her room. Yes she is only 6! This is just her routine, even when woken up at 4:30 in the morning by Logan's crying, she got dressed and made her bed before coming out. (We have had a talk with her about incase of a fire in the night, that is would be OK not to make her bed or get dressed before coming out!)
Anyways, so thats some history. Sunday morning Hunter was the last one up, as usual, and this what was he was dressed in when he came out of his room. Typically he comes out in his pajamas without making his bed! He was so excited because he had dressed himself for church, just like Kiersten does everyday.
THE SHOES ARE THE FUNNIEST PART!

I asked Hunter if he thought these shoes fit. His reply, "Well they're a little tight!" We had a nice talk about how they might not be very comfortable to wear all the time at church. Seeing how he would be walking on his tippy toes the whole time! So he had a brilliant idea, he decided he wanted to give them to Logan. I love Hunter for always making us smile, even when he's not even trying to.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

The Train We All Love!

Logan's Love for Trains...........


This train set has been a great investment for sure! Logan just loves to play with it. He will play with it for hours and hates when we clean it up. He makes all the train sounds and says, "All Aboard!" so cute!


Once it started raining too hard outside the kids had to come in and play. We had Rue and Cameron over for a play date. They are so fun and Kiersten really wanted to keep Cameron, as she wants a sister so bad. We hope Cameron had fun, even though we are a little loud and roudy to say the least!


Logan just loving that mom got out the train set! He told me "tank you for tain!"


Hunter loves the train as well, but not nearly as much as Logie. Hunters favorite thing to do with the train is see how many trian cars he can pull. He is even pretty good at setting the train tracks up, which is no easy task!


Hunter Story..............

The PINKIE PROMISE that went bad!



Really, look at him and his big brown eyes. Could you discipline him?
Those of you who know Hunter, know that we could seriously publish a book about what he says and make millions. Right now the kids are really into pinkie promises, they want to pinkie promise me everything. So I had asked Hunter to "Stay Out of The Mud!" Kind of ridiculous requests for most 4 year old boys, but especially for Hunter. And of course he pinkie promised me he would stay on the asphalt. Well.....................not much later I could see that he had driven the Gator on the side of the road and gotten it stuck in mud. I watched him as he thought before he got out. As he was surrounded by MUD! He soon got out and started trying to pushing the Gator out.............then HE WAS STUCK IN THE MUD. Perfect time for Mom to walk up and ask what's going on. I asked him "Why did you get in the mud?" With as serious a face as ever he replied,"Mom it really didn't look like mud to me!" I even asked him, as he has his boots stuck in MUD............"Does it look like Mud now?" His reply was "not really mom!" Maybe the goggles interfered with his vision?

First Day of Summer Vacation!

What Rain..............it's the first day of Summer Break!

The kids weren't even bummed that we wouldn't be going to the pool, like originally planned. They were so excited to get on their rain coats and galoshes and head out to play in the puddles. I guess water is water for kids, pool or puddle it's still FUN!

I loved the reflection. Wish I would have pulled out my real camera to capture these shots. They would have turned out much better.





Hunter having a fun time playing in the puddle. Our drive way made for a really nice big puddle that the kids just loved jumping in, riding through and playing in! I love his little tongue out as he's riding his bike! He is such a character!



Logan was just so cute in his giraffe rain coat! He is such a happy boy! He is our miracle kid, and we thank our Heavenly Father on a daily basis for letting him be with us.






Kiersten loved riding her bike through the puddles. She really liked walking down the road and seeing the snake that had been ran over. She is our animal lover! Today was the first day Kiersten discovered that clouds really do move. She was so excited and fascinated by watching the storm clouds. That's something we don't get a whole lot of here in the Sunny State of Arizona!


Seriously Hunter what is the deal with the goggles? He has been wearing these for several days. He even wore them to the movies last night, when we went to see Nim's Island. I hate to tell him that if is waiting to hitch a ride he'll be there awhile. No one comes down our road.............unless they are lost!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Field Trip to the Tucson Zoo

Hunter, Gavin, Emitt, Dwane, & Kiersten



Kiersten had an end of year trip to the Tucson Zoo. So I loaded up the boys, my friend Steph and her baby, Kadie and we followed the bus to the zoo. Well.................actually we got to the zoo about 45 minutes before the bus but we won't go into details about the drive.
We all had a fun time, even though Hunter was having a Wild Child Day, as I like to call it. It was a fun trip and we made it complete by stopping at one of my favorite stores Target. Hey, can't go to Tucson without a little therapy!!!
The kids loved the train ride around the park. Especially Logan, it wasn't pretty when he had to get off!


CHOO, CHOO!!!

The Adventures of Mr. Toad







Kiersten and Hunter were in a children's play through the college earlier this month. They had a wonderful time and Penny, the Director always makes sure the kids feel good about what they're doing.
Our weeks leading up to this were crazy with backing our stuff, helping the clean up crew at our new house and finally getting moved in. So that's my excuse for not making homemade costumes. What can I say I don't sew...................not even a button on a shirt!
This year at the awards night Kiersten won the "Extra Mile Award," for always being helpful, respectful and helping others as well. We are so proud of her and Hunter! They did an awesome job along with all the cousins that were in the play with them.
I have to say Hunter was quite the cute duck. After several of the shows people told us he stole the show. Those of you who know Hunter's personality I'm sure can only imagine what he was like on a stage with his bright yellow face paint..............Hilarious!

SUPER HEROS............ to the Rescue!

Don't ya love little boys!

Super Hero's to the Rescue!
SUPER HUNTER
I found myself surrounded by two handsome super heros today. It worked well for me because these Super Heros helped clean and pick up. I told them they are welcome back anytime! These are some capes the Grandma B from Utah gave the boys last Christmas. They sure love them! I asked Hunter why the goggles, he replied, "Mom I don't want the bugs getting it my eyes when I fly!"..................................Does make sense.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Finally In Our House




Yeah........we are finally starting to feel settled into our new house. I am loving the space and the peacefully neighborhood! And of course being able to YELL at the kids again.....LOL! The kids remind me on a daily basis how much they love it as well. We still have much to do, as you can see from the pictures. But we can't complaint...............we have been living with family for 10 months, FUN STUFF!







This is a view of the Rotunda. It's a really pretty entry area. It turned out nice and I am able to display some of my work in the little niches.


















This is our gorgeous kitchen. Some major gourmet dinners will be coming out of this place! Well atleast it looks like it could??? We are loving all the cabinet space for sure. Stop by and I'll make ya something!









Our family room. We love how the stone work turned out.



















We have a desk area for the kids and I have my little office. It's working out nice because my office is located right between the kitchen and the laundry room. Yeah for me..........it makes it easier for me to keep an eye on my gourmet meals!