Girl's Weekend

This last weekend I went up to St. George with some friends to have a girl's weekend.

Laughs at the Pizza Factory. Late night swim. Early morning. Running in Snow Canyon Park. Getting lost in Colorado City. Merry Wives Cafe. A bumby ride. Tubing down the Virgin River. FUN!!!!! Shopping. Stalking a cute baby. Get ready. More shopping. Cupcakes at The Sweet Tooth Fairy. Dinner in the car. "Grease" at Tuachan. Late night. Talking and Laughing. Another early morning to go home. But soooo much FUN!!!!

Alex's Party

We celebrated Alex's birthday on Thursday with family, pizza, swimming, and ice cream sundaes.

Alex totally made out with lots of Transformer and Captain America toys. He was in heaven! He wanted to have a swim party, but didn't actually go swimming until he opened his presents. He sat outside and waited oh-so-patiently while everybody finished eating. Really he looked like he was being tortured.

For his real birthday Alex requested cinnamon rolls and fried eggs for breakfast. Nice combo, I know!! For lunch we met our friends at Burger King and then we were off to the school to meet his teacher. I headed out of town that evening and Dad got him his favorite, Wing Street for dinner.

Hope you had a great day buddy! We love you!!

365- Week 34

One more week until school is back in. It seems each week we are getting a little more lazy!

08/20/11

I LOVE how Chloe's baby is her life! If she could, Chloe would take her baby everywhere with her. Here they are just after they woke up, watching cartoons together.

08/21/11

My caged animal!

08/22/11

Aubrey has discovered the piano and loves to play it anytime she can. Which means all the time because it does not have a cover!

08/23/11

We went shopping for Alex's birthday and he got to pick out whatever he wanted. I just let him put whatever he wanted in the cart. And he picked all Transformers.

08/24/11

Nick helping Aubrey while we were at Mt. Charleston. I LOVE how good he is to her and I really LOVE how much she loves her big brother!

08/25/11

Katie and Aubrey at Alex's birthday party. I didn't go swimming so Aunt Katie was nice and took Aubrey in.

08/26/11

Chloe took this picture on my phone while we were driving to St. George. She said she wanted to follow the rainbow to find the pot of gold!

Happy Birthday Alex!

Sometimes it seems like you should be older than 6 because I feel like you have always been in our family. But other times I wonder where the time has gone. Can my little Panda really be 6 years old??! When I ask you what your name is I want you to say, "PANDA!". And when I ask you what Pandas eat I want you to say, "chicken!!" just like you used to!

You are such a smart boy and I know that you will be able to succeed at anything that you want to. You are just like your dad in so many ways and that is one of them. If there is something that you want you are determined to get it! You are such a handsome and happy guy and I love that little smile. You are such a tender hearted soul, you can't stand for anyone to be mad at you .

I love you Alexander James and am so happy that you are a part of our family!!

Happy 6th Birthday!!

Mt. Charleston

Yesterday we escaped the heat for the afternoon by heading up to Mt. Charleston with our friends. The plan was to have a picnic lunch, but things didn't exactly go as planned. First the picnic site that we went to last year was closed for the season. Not a big deal, we found a nice shady area that was pretty level for the babies just off of a hiking trail. We spread out our blankets and started to eat and all of a sudden there were bees EVERYWHERE! We had to pack everything back up and move down a ways. Just as we start to eat again the bees were back, they were following us. It was the craziest thing! They were everywhere! On our food, in our bags, on us, the kids were scared. So we decided to drive down the mountain to the lodge and just eat in our car. After we ate we let the kids play in the grass. Not really the mountain experience we were hoping for, but still fun. Pretty much like a park without the playground, but it was about 20-30 degrees cooler, so that was nice.

All of our kiddos! They have pretty much grown up together.

[Power Wheels and Pictures]

The kids spent all morning outside on their power wheels. The chargers had been missing since we moved, but we finally found them. So almost a year later they got to drive their cars. They were in heaven!! If you are wondering why Alex is cruising in the pink Mustang it is because he is a nice brother. Chloe's legs are too long for her car now. Why do they have to keep growing!!??
And then we spent the afternoon at Melissa's house so she could try to get some pictures of the babies together. Aubrey not only has 2 cousins on my side of the family, but she has 2 on Chris' side also! Getting a 14, 9, and 8 month old to cooperate was pretty much impossible!

365- Week 33

Our summer days have definitely gotten lazy! I think this is the week that I started not feeling it anymore. Tired of doing everything! Not ready for the kids to be back at school, but done having to entertain them all day!

08/13/11

We went to Cici's for dinner and on the way home we saw this beautiful sunset. I made Chris pull over so I could take a picture!

08/14/11

Nick and Aubrey were laying on the floor in the living room watching cartoons. As soon as I came in with my camera Aubrey had to get up and run away.

08/15/11

Jenny let the kids play dress up with all he costumes. Surprisingly Alex and Cooper didn't mind all the girl costumes. Actually not so surprised about Cooper, but Alex for sure!

08/16/11

We went swimming with our friends from Desert View at the Lewis' home. Alex was mad at me because he didn't want to go swimming and I had him put his swimsuit on just in case. He was so happy when we got there! They have an awesome backyard and I had to make him leave!!

08/17/11

Jenny came over for dinner and while it was in the oven she sat with Nick and started teaching him and herself how to play the piano.

08/18/11

We put a cookie on Ben's forehead "Minute to Win It"style- It was hilarious!!!! He almost got it into his mouth.

08/19/11

Aubrey loves to be at the pool. Not in the pool, just at the pool!

"Field Trip Friday"- Lied Discover Museum

Last Friday we picked up Ben and Hailey and headed to the Discovery Museum. It was kind of hard having the big age range between the kids. Nick and Ben didn't exactly want to do the same things as Aubrey, but until they are 13 they have to all stay with me. I think that Aubrey would have stayed at the first little fishing station all day if I would have let her. She loved it there! I am glad we went because there was so many new things from the last time we had been there.

"Field Trip Friday"- Bounce U

This last Friday we went to Bounce U with Jordan, Amber, Mavrik, Makaylin, Juli, Ben, Hailey, Will, and Lucy. The kids had fun and it was nice to sit and talk with Juli and Amber!

365- Week 32

08/06/11

Date night. We went to dinner at Hash House a Go Go. We had a nice view next to the window.

08/07/11

Aubrey, Alex, and Cooper ready for church.

08/08/11

Jordan and Amber got into town Monday morning so we went over to my mom's to swim with them.

08/09/11

Clearly Aubrey slept really good! I love how happy she is when she wakes up!

08/10/11

We finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so we went over to the library to get the movie. And you have to have popcorn when watching a movie!

08/11/11

My Aubrey girl!

08/12/11

Friday morning Chloe and I made some strawberry jam.

Station 65

We didn't get to go on a field trip last Friday (bad morning!) but we did get to go on Saturday Morning. We went to the fire station right down the street from our house. We had a tour of the station, learned some fun stuff and then the very nice firemen let us shoot the fire hose.

I wish I would have got a picture of the crew because they were so awesome with the kids. Great guys! Nick said this is the best field trip we have gone on so far, he absolutely loved it!!

365- Week 31

07/30/11

Baby girl just hanging out while we got ready to go to Chloe's dance recital.

07/31/11

We went over to Jeremy and Juli's for dinner to celebrate Juli's birthday. We don't go over there too often so the kids loved playing there. Cooper and Alex ask me daily when they can go play again!!

08/01/11

We picked up Ben, Hailey, and Will and took them to lunch at McDonald's with us.

08/02/11

We spent the entire afternoon in the pool with Amber, Everett, and Jordyn. Aubrey had a nap and the kids plated so well together. It was actually nice for Amber and I!!

08/03/11

I can't remember where the girls were, but I remember that I took this picture because the boys were playing so well together.

08/04/11

Alex and I are taking a reading workshop at UNLV. I am really enjoying the one on one time we get to have each week. This particular week I got to be Mama Bear in front of the class while they acted out one of the stories they read.

08/05/11

Chloe's hair was getting pretty long and it was driving me crazy! Jenny came over and gave her nice trim, cutting about 4 inches off. It looks so much healthier now!! She also gave all 3 boys a much needed haircut. I think that was the longest my boy's hair has ever been, but they all look so handsome now!!

Showcase 2011

Our little movie star!

Last Saturday was Chloe's recital. She performed a tap number to The Best of Both Worlds.

It was fun to watch her dance because man, that girl has some spunk!

Great job, Chloe, you did AWESOME in Showcase 2011!!

Chloe with her dance teacher. She LOVES her!!

Chloe had lots of family there to cheer her on!

Katie, Josh, Amber, Grandma Karen, and Granny were there too, I just didn't get a picture.

Just wanted to make a note that Chris was pretty sick this day. He does LOVE Chloe and was happy to watch her dance because you SOOO can't tell by his face!!