Snow Day

We got quite the treat this morning. A storm front came through and gave us a nice blanket of snow! It wasn't supposed to snow anywhere except on the mountains, but hey, I won't argue. Makes it actually feel like winter. Of course 4 hours later it's gone and the temps are rising. Later this week it'll be in the upper 70's. So much for winter weather. But it was fun while it lasted. Seth had no desire to go out in it, but the other two had lots of fun playing in it.

Blue and Gold Banquet cake

Once again this year for the blue and gold banquet, the boys were asked to bring a cake decorated. I made the cake for Seth while he was at school and got the frosting all ready for him. When he got home he came up a design and commenced to decorate it. He did a great job. The cakes were supposed to be judged, however someone got cut happy and sliced up all the cakes before they could be judged. Awesome....oh well. It tasted good anyway.

and not to be outdone by her brother, she requested a picture with her barbie.

Presidents Day 2011

I decided that since the boys had the day out of school that we NEEDED to get out of the house and do something besides staring at each other. So I figured we could take a drive up to the Gila Valley Temple and have a picnic and play in the sports area by the stake center. I realized that it was a 2 hour drive but I figured we'd at least be out of the house and even though it's a ridiculously boring drive, it's better than the alternative. So I prepared a picnic lunch of sandwiches and cheetos for the kiddos and a large tossed spinach salad and fruit for yours truly. It turned out to be a great day and the drive wasn't so painful. Bronwyn slept the way up and the movie of choice to watch was Toy Story 3. When we got up to the temple, no surprise it was just us and the folks working on the grounds. So we set up under the ramada in the sun and ate lunch. I even brought the swing for Bronwyn so she didn't have to be stuck in her car seat the whole time. I think she was happy about that. The kids ate and then ran around and played a bit before we decided it was time to come home. It was a good day and the sunshine felt so good! I'm glad that we were able to get out and do this. Should keep small road trips like this in mind for other days off.

i think it's time he got a haircut.....

cheetos=yum!!

happy kiddos!

i love this little travel swing. i drag it all over the house and it was perfect to bring with us today!

jumping and getting out some energy!

2 months old!

So yeah, I forgot to post this yesterday. I'm behind a day. Realized this morning that I missed it yesterday. Oh well. Better late than never I guess!!

My baby girl is 2 months old now!

New things about her:
*she smiles all the time and mostly at her siblings, they walk into a room and she lights up!!
*she's ticklish
*she discovered her tongue and sticks it in and out constantly
*she "talks" and tells us all kinds of stories
*she discovered that she has feet when i sat her up for the picture. that's what she's looking at.

sort of smiling

she is very much a thumb/fist sucker. luckily she'll also take a binkie so we are hoping to nip the thumb sucking in the bud early!

Valentine's Day 2011

Our Valentine's day was nice. The boys were able to dress down for school (and anytime we can, we do!). They were able to wear jeans and either a white, red or pink shirt and since my boys don't wear pink ("mom pink is for girls!") they chose a white shirt for Seth and Keegan wore red. They enjoy those days. Paige, Bronwyn and I stayed home for the morning so Paige could have a playdate with her friend. We made sugar cookies and they had a great time frosting them. Then we headed off to get a tire fixed (again) and then to the grocery store until it was time to pick up the boys from art club at the school. I had asked them earlier in the month where they'd like to go to dinner. Anywhere except fast food, because I knew that their choice would be McDonald's if I didn't put a qualifier on it. They chose Golden Corral hands down. I was ok with that. I enjoy eating there and I know they'll eat when we go there so it's a win-win. Of course we sorely missed Dan today. Kind of crummy that he's so far away. He did send me some beautiful flowers that came with chocolate and bubble bath. Paige was so cute, she said "mommy, daddy sent us flowers!!" Sad to think that he'll miss next years too.....anyway...
I ended the night having an ear infection and spending several hours at urgent care. Fun....I am thankful for visiting teachers who are willing to put their lives on hold to come and lend a hand. She was able to come and sit with the children so I could go. SSSSOOOO thankful for that!!!
Over all is was a great day and we really enjoyed being together! I have 4 of the best valentine's ever and they know how to make their momma smile!! The only way it could have been better is if Dan were here.....but at least next year we'll be down to weeks that he has left, not months, so it'll be special as well.

i saw this really cute sleeper at Wal-mart that had My First Valentine's Day written on it. I couldn't resist getting it!

and now she's done getting her picture taken!

we love play dates!! having fun with frosting-i think in the end there was more frosting on the cookies than there was actual cookie!

dan sent me the prettiest flowers!

Talented friends!

I have some seriously talented friends!! So many have these wonderful talents that they are able to share with folks and my friend Shannon is no exception!! She's a fantastic seamstress and makes some awesome things! She recently made a bib and burpcloth set for Bronwyn. I couldn't resist getting a pic of Bronwyn wearing it! So cute! You can check out Shannon's sewing blog by clicking on the button to the right. She's also recently opened an Etsy shop. Check her out!!!


I also couldn't resist taking a picture of my girls in their matching pillowcase dresses that I made back in November at our Super Saturday. I gave them these dresses for Christmas and this was the first time they've had a chance to wear them. I love the idea of having them match and I figured now is a good time to do it while they still enjoy doing it and aren't arguing with me about it. I'm sure Paige will grow out of this pretty quickly. So I'm taking full advantage of it now!!

1 month checkup (at 7 weeks)

Yes yes yes I know...i'm a bit behind in getting her 1 month especially since she's almost 2 months old. Arg....oh well. At least it's done! Stats so far:

she's smiling
very alert
weighs in at a whopping 11.13 pounds
is 22 1/2 inches long

She's eating like a champ!! My best eater so far! She's also sleeping well. She's just recently started sleeping 5 hour stretches at night and her naps during the day are about 3 hours. It's really nice. She recognizes our voices and will turn her head when she hears us talking. I have noticed one thing that she does not share with her siblings......no dimples! All my other babies have at least 1 dimple (Seth got all 3), but alas, Bronwyn has none. At least none as of now. But my guess would be that she'll be dimpleless, just like her momma. Dan just says that makes her unique. Guess we'll see how she feels about that later!

Here are a couple of recent pictures! Enjoy!

i love all her brown hair. i just had to capture it in a picture

i took this one tonight. i put her in the swing so i could tuck in the others and when i came back she was slumped over like this. i promise i put her in the right way! haha! guess i need to start buckling her in now!

No heat

This week we've had the coldest few days in southern AZ in a LONG time. At least cold for us. And because of all the weird weather that's been going on, the gas service here that heats homes and for the most part causes stoves to work was shut off, because they ran out of gas. Yes that's right, the gas company ran out. The affected area was basically our ward boundaries. It was a big ole' mess!! So needless to say all the space heaters in town sold out VERY quickly. I really didn't want to venture out, but since we had nothing to keep everyone warm except blankets I decided to venture out to find something that would help with the cold. We ended up at Walmart and found some heated mattress pads. I bought 2 and we got a few things we could microwave and headed home. The high for the day was 11. Yeah....that's right 11 degrees. That's just not right for southern AZ. I mean if it's going to be that cold, at least give us snow for crying out loud!!
School was also canceled because there was no water. I'm guessing it's because pipes burst. There were several folks that also had that problem. So it wouldn't surprise me. We were lucky, we had lots of water, just no gas to heat it. Hot chocolate made in the microwave just isn't the same as made with boiling water from the stove, not sure why, it just isn't. So we huddled together and when it was time for bed, i put one of the pads on Paige's bed and the other one on my bed figuring that one of the kids would make his/her way in there. I got out sleeping bags and blankets. When they all made their way to bed, they slept well and warm.

I loved the one on my bed and am upset that we didn't think of getting one of these sooner! It was heavenly!! We all slept well and went through the next day (still no school) trying to find things to do. Luckily the weather was a bit warmer and we could stand to be outside. And the best part is that later that evening (Friday), our home teacher came over telling us that gas had been restored. He restarted the pilot light and made sure that all our gas appliances worked. I was doing the happy dance!!! Going 2 days without heat in the unusual cold here was NOT fun. The gas company had better have learned their lesson, no more running out of gas!!!