::Off to Elfrida::

We went down to Elfrida this weekend to visit Kevin's parents.  Kevin and his dad took the girls up to The Granets right after we got there on Friday.  They were so excited to ride in the back of Grandpa's truck like big kids!

Just hangin' out back at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

The kids LOVE the swings!

And they had a great time checking out Grandpa's garden.

Barrett especially liked the can of water he found...and then so did the girls!

Yesterday morning, Kevin and I went shooting with his dad.  I have to admit...I quite enjoy the power of having a gun in my hands!  And I am a pretty good marksman, if I do say so myself! :-)

 We, of course, cannot go to Grandma and Grandpa's without riding horses.  Their neighbors are so kind to let us do so each and every time we go! And the kids love it.  This time was especially exciting because the white horse had had a baby since the last time we visited and so the girls were THRILLED to see the foal.

Decorating cookies with Grandma...I won't even try to guess how many cookies were consumed during this process!!  But we all had fun, and that's what matters!

I had to put all 4 of these pictures...it just makes me laugh to see the evidence of how difficult it is to get all kids looking at the camera and smiling at the camera at the same time.  Pretty much impossible in our family!!

My hottie Mister with our handsome Bubba!

I sure love these men of mine!

I caught this tender moment where Grandpa was reading Payton a story!  I'm so glad my kids are close with both sets of Grandparents and that they look forward to each time they get to see them!

Thanks Dale & Marial for a fun visit!

Crazy Girls

After a fun day in the pool yesterday, with hair all secured in pigtails, and then subsequently drying again before bath time....the girls thought they had "CRAZY HAIR" when I pulled all of the elastics out and shook their hair up a bit!  As you can see...there is never a shortage of drama in our house!

Love. These. Girls.

Memorial Day 2012

It's officially SUMMER!!!

(okay, so living in Arizona means summer weather really started 2 months ago, but still...)

We kicked off the actual summer season with a pool party and BBQ at Kevin's brother, Duane's house.  The kids love going to swim with their cousins!

And they LOVE the water slide!

Even Barrett enjoyed it!  Not surprising though as he's a bit of a crazy, want-to-do-everything-his-big-sister's-do kind of kid!

Payton is totally a daredevil!

My handsome boys!

And this is what a long day of fun in the sun will do to you!! :-)

Happy Memorial Day!

Lesson Learned

I will NOT add in the extra 10 Rhodes rolls that were left in the package after the 18 that the recipe called for were put in the pan...JUST because I can't leave only 10, that would be a waste!  Hahahahaha...good thing it still tasted heavenly!!

..::A New Venture::..

We are opening a new office of Aeris Family Dental this summer!  Kevin's office will be only TWO miles from our house and we are sooooo excited!  Here it is in the beginning phases of construction.  We'll try to take pictures along the way and keep y'all updated on this exciting and scary new venture of ours!!

Girls' Night

Had a fun night out tonight with a bunch of the women in our ward.  Some of these wonderful ladies are moving away this summer and so we wanted to get together one last time with them before they move on to new adventures!  Thanks Winnie for planning it!

Soccer Season...

...has come to an end.  And Alexa had a great time!  Here are the team and individual pictures we purchased.  That's Alexa's cute little buddy Logan who grabbed her hand for the picture!  Foreshadowing something???....hmmmmm, we might have to keep an eye on these two!!! :-)

{Preschool Graduation}

It's official...Alexa is READY for kindergarten!!!

Today was her preschool graduation from Lord of Grace Preschool.  Her teacher this past year was Ms. Kris and Alexa loved her.  They sang some songs, got their graduation necklace and then we had a little lunch afterwards.

Here is Alexa with her new best friend, Jessie.  She would talk about her all the time and said they always played together at school.  She was so excited to find out that Jessie will be going to the same Elementary School as her too.  In her words, "What would I do if I never got to see Jessie again??"  Cute!

Alexa made lots of new friends this past year and has really enjoyed going to school.  It's going to be a loooong summer until Kindergarten begins as she is extremely excited to be moving forward!!

(Notice Logan???!!!  He's makin' the moves on Alexa again!!) :-)

What a Mess!

This kid seriously knows how to make messes!

But he's so darn adorable when he does it, how can I get mad at him???!!!

~Payton is THREE~

Our sweet and sassy Payton turned THREE today!!

***

We started out the day with presents from family.  Then we got ready for church.

Here's our beautiful birthday girl all ready for church!

After church, we had some friends and family come over for a little birthday party.  The kids had a picnic in the backyard (Alexa is SUCH a supportive sister of the birthday girl!!). 

Then the birthday girl was spoiled with even more presents!!  We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who love our kids!!

Payton has been requesting and "Ariel Birthday" for a very long time! And after spending hours and hours on a Spongebob cake for Alexa's birthday, I swore I would never do another one of these Wilton type cakes.  But how can you refuse that sweet face??  And actually, after having taken those cake decorating classes last year, I knew how to do it more efficiently so it all worked out for the best.  And she LOVED her cake...that's what matters!

What can I say about our spunky 3 year old???

*She has personality oozing out of her!!

*This past year she graduated from her crib to a big girl bed (June 2011) AND started sharing a room with Alexa!  We had a "big girl party" to celebrate all that and make it fun!!  Thankfully both girls transitioned relatively well!

*She made her first trip to the Grand Canyon (July 2011) and still randomly brings up the fact that she fell on the bus while getting off at one of the stops there!

*She had a playgroup last fall with two of her friends, Allison and Maggie.  We'll have to look into doing something like that again this fall.

*She got to go to her first UofA basketball game with her daddy (December 2011) and thoroughly enjoyed it.  She even made it through the entire game!!!  :-)

*She graduated from diapers to BIG GIRL undies (January 2012) and we were all soooo excited!!  We had attempted to potty train last October but it didn't go so well so I put it off for a couple more months and it was totally worth it!

*She loves her brother and sister, but also loves to torment them!

*She instigates things ALL the time!

*She can be super sensitive sometimes...usually crying if someone else is in trouble.

*She loves anything princess related.

*She prefers pretty dresses over wearing anything else.  We even had two "bubble" (polka dot) dresses that she would alternate wearing over and over until they finally got too small!

*She knows how to push buttons and get her siblings or parents riled up!! :-)

*She can be sweet as pie when she wants to be!

*She loves, and I mean LOVES, to sing.  I think she would sing her way through life, if possible!  And she's actually quite a good little singer...might have to look into voice lessons in a couple years!!

***

Her 3 year old stats:

33 lbs (75th percentile)

38 " (75th percentile)

***

Life would be so boring without our Payton!  We sure are glad she was sent to our family!  She keeps us on our toes and we wouldn't want it any other way!

Happy Birthday Payton Jae!

Pump It Up

It was our sweet little neighbor, McKenna's, birthday a couple days ago...and she invited the girls to her party at Pump It Up.  To say they were beyond excited is an understatement!!  I just realized though that we didn't get any pictures with the birthday girl! :(

Thanks McKenna for inviting them though, they had so sooooo much fun!

{Fabulous Friends}

You know that kind of friend, the kind that comes along only a few times in a lifetime, that kind of friend that you just totally connect with, the kind you can talk to about anything and they listen when they need to and offer advice when necessary, the kind of friend that you can be 100% yourself around, the kind you can be completely goofy with....yeah, I've got a couple of those friends.  Waveney is one of them!  And she came to visit me this week!!! :-)

***

The first day she was here, I took her to the Desert Museum...a must for out of town visitors, especially ones from Kentucky where the desert is such a stark contrast from what Waveney is used to!  The girls enjoyed digging...

Wave enjoyed all the different types of cacti! 

We also enjoyed some YUMMY food at Mi Nidito (another must for out of town visitors), followed by shopping and more shopping and topped off with a slice of cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory...but we forgot to take pictures of any of that!  Woops!

***

Yesterday, our good friend, Erin, whom we both knew in KY (and now lives in Mesa), came down to visit for the afternoon.  It was fun to see her and her cute kiddos!  Thanks Erin for making the drive!

See what I mean about being goofy??  It just comes natural, I guess!  But seriously, I had such a great with one of my bestest friends.  Her time here came to an end all too quickly. :(

But we're already planning a girls' weekend for in the Fall!

Thanks Wave for being such a wonderful friend and for coming to visit me!  I sure hope you got the rest and relaxation that you truly deserved!

~Birthday Surprise~

I have been planning Kevin's surprise for his B.I.G. 30th Birthday since last July, ever since we went to the Grand Canyon with my parents.  We happened to see the helicopters taking off on tours and thought "now that would be the way to see the Grand Canyon...without kids, of course"!!!  And so the plans were set in motion!  It was sooooo hard keeping it all a secret, but I did it!! 

So I booked Kevin off of work on last Friday, I had called his front desk lady WAY back in December, I think.  And I just kept waiting for the day that he would ask me why he wasn't scheduled to work that day.  But that day never came...and the closer it got to this last weekend, the more nervous I got that he knew what I had planned!!  I even arranged to have his parents come stay for the weekend and planned for them to show up Thursday afternoon, then Kevin would get home from work and I'd have his bags packed and we'd head out the door. 

Well, Kevin got off work a little early on Thursday and so he got home about 10 minutes before his parents were set to arrive.  I hadn't told the girls anything until Thursday after Kevin had gone to work because I knew they would spoil the surprise if they knew in advance.  So when he walked in the door, they were so excited that mommy and daddy were going somewhere and I told him to go upstairs and make sure what I'd packed would do for two days.  Then Alexa yelled, "yeah, you're going to Flagstaff".  He said once he heard that, that he hoped it meant the helicopter tour but he still didn't know for sure!

Once we were on the road, I told him all the details and he was completely surprised.  He said he'd known since about February that he was booked off from work and figured it had something to do with his birthday, so it was best not to ask questions! 

We got to Flagstaff late Thursday night, so our first thing on the agenda on Friday was to have lunch at Salsa Brava, a Mexican joint featured on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives.  These were our meals and they did NOT disappoint!

Then we headed to the Grand Canyon.  We got there right at the same time as a HUGE tour group from France.  Thankfully though, we ended up with only one other couple on our helicopter so we weren't cramped and it was perfect!  Here we are waiting for our tour to start!  Soooo excited!

Our fellow tour companions took our picture....almost on our way!!

ON the helicopter now!!

And I'm rockin' that headset!! :-)

Coming over the edge of the Grand Canyon!  This is most definitely THE way to see the Grand Canyon!  The views were breathtaking!!

Our friendly tour companions took another picture of us during the tour. 

More breathtaking views!

I just had to take a picture of the guy on our tour....we were matchy-matchy that day.  He was wearing a hot pink top and capris!!  It's like it was meant to be that we were on the same tour!! :-)

Man, I was sad when the tour was over but it was soooo completely worth it!

That night, after getting back to Flagstaff, we headed to Oregano's for dinner.  And we couldn't pass up the free dessert for Kevin's birthday!  Yum!!

Then we headed back to the hotel for a dip in the hot tub!  It was the perfect night for it...still kind of chilly up in the mountains but the sky was clear so the stars were beautiful and it was so relaxing just the two of us!

What a wonderful little getaway we had!  I'm so glad I was able to surprise Kevin.  I'm so grateful for all he does for our little family and I wanted to spoil him on his 30th!!

Yesterday, on his actual birthday, we had cake and ice cream with the kiddos!

Happy Birthday Babe!  I hope it was the best yet!  Sure love you tons and tons!