Peaceful Arizona

I love nights like this. Hope you all can enjoy a little peaceful nights where ever you are.

Random Photos

One day before we went out, we let Haylee take some pictures. Here is Trent, Nana, Logan, Me, and Laycee.

We had to get one picture of Haylee so I took a picture of Nana with the kids... one she will long remember when we move back away :(
I never get pictured with just the boys so here is the boys and I.
Sometimes its fun to just take random pictures so one day when we look back, we can all reminice how different times were then.

Momo and Logan

Whenever Logan plays ball, he has to fight to keep the ball from momo. Luckily, this particular day, they were playing together.

I love seeing him smile.
Playing ball is still Logan's very favorite pastime. When he has a ball in his hand, you can see the true happiness on his face. I can't wait until he is old enough to start playing sports.

Chamber of Commerce Award

Back in April, Haylee was selected from her school to receive an award from our cities Chamber of Commerce. Our city covers 3 school districts, so they were honoring 3 children from each elementary school in the district. Haylee was one of the one's selected from her school.

She works so hard and has been through so much this year with the move and adjustment and Dave being gone. We were so proud of her.
The award was for academic achievement and character excellence.

This was a night of great honor for her and we are so proud of her!

NAU

Kevin is finishing his two years at Mesa Community College and on his way to bigger and better things is the woodsy part of Arizona. He is off to Flagstaff for Northern Arizona University. Him and mom went to visit the college a few months ago, and this is what they brought back...

Not the children, just the clothes.
Trent really liked all the lifting and holding, I think it made him feel strong.

We are wishing Kevin good luck as he heads off next month!

Pulling Teeth

Its official, Haylee has finally lost her first tooth! It has been a long road and she has been waiting to lose a tooth. Yes she lost it 2 days before turning 8! When we went to the dentist in April, the dentist told her that it wouldn't be too long, and sure enough, she pulled it at the dinner table. Hope you enjoy!

Laycee wanted to pull her teeth too!

Now we can't wait for Trent to lose his first tooth! This is exciting for us

Just wanna have f-un

We have been so blessed this year with beautiful weather, until June hit. It was unseasonably cool here so we spent many days at the park just a few houses up. Mom's neighborhood has really good parks, so this was great. The kids were a little pouty this day, so we ran to target first and got icees, made a picnic lunch and took Jenga to the park to play. Forgive some of the pictures, Haylee was designated photographer, but we had fun rolling down the hill, doing summersaults and just being kids.

Laycee

New Skill:

What's your name?

I think its so fun she has correlated that she has a first and last name now! I love it!

Happy Birthday, Haylee Girl

6/11/2002 @3:30 pm

We welcomed our first daughter when I was 19 and had no clue how to parent a fussy, demanding baby. But she has grown into the most beautiful girl. She loves to help out and be creative.

She recently had a horrible bout with lice... I am talking months of trying to comb it out... so we chopped off those beautiful locks that she gets from Dave.

Its a perfect hair cut for her and so low maintenance.

She is so smart and willing to learn. She has always loved reading and continues to love reading as a child.

And I love Haylee most of all because she is so much like me.

The other day I said, Haylee you so special because you are our only blue eye'd baby.

She said, why mom?
I responded... because Heavenly Father knew I needed at least one of my children to be like me. (Most of the others more ressemble Dave in looks and personalities).

She had a priceless smile and just said, I love you.

She is a time nazi like me. She has anxiety about not knowing the plan like me. She is willing to help when needed like me. She gets lonely when no one is around like me. Most of these are things I hate about myself, but I love that I have one child like me. She is a special little girl and I am so thankful for her!

Happy 8th Birthday, Haylee Girl!

Its Sale Time

Well, what do you do when strawberries and hamburger go on sale?

Stock up of course!

I have learned to freeze it all in roughly lb packages and flat so it thaws faster and takes up less space in the freezer.

And there were WAY too many strawberries so we tried freezer jam.

And what do we do with it? Give it way every chance we get since we have so much.

It was a fun homemaker weekend making jam and packaging hamburger. You would think we learned our lessons but I guess not... we just ended up picking 45 lbs of peaches this past weekend!

Swim Lessons

Near the beginning of April, Laycee and Logan started swim lessons. They just finished at the end of May, when the kids got out of school. It was good to expose them to the pool, but when they started going everyday of the week, I think it got to be too much.

She loved jumping in here, but by the end, she was screaming before they even put the float on.
Smiles and pleasant as always.

They were patiently waiting their turn.

Laycee loves swimming, but she hates swimming in class. She learned a lot about floating and blowing bubbles in the water, but she was aweful for class. Logan was usually pretty good, but the boy has no meat on his bones, so he was always freezing. I think it was good exposure for both of them since we spend a lot of days in the water here in AZ (or we will soon). I have to admit though, even though it was fun, I am so glad it is over. Laycee's constant screaming during class was too much for me, and her poor teacher.

Easter

Create your own free scrapbooking design

Yes I am a slacker and I am just getting around to posting about Easter. But, I have to post it eventually! We had a great easter weekend, Chad and Terrilee (our friends from Italy) stopped in to visit and we went to the Easter Pageant at the temple. We did a few egg experiements and we went to two easter egg hunts. The kids really enjoyed it!