The Happiest place on Earth!

WE made it to Disneyland!! Our family vacation this year was in Phoenix, AZ. So I convinced Mike that 5 hours to Disneyland was probably the closest we were ever going to get. So... we drove up the night before, for one action packed, fun filled day! I didn't take many good pictures, I was having too much fun and kept forgetting to take the darn camera out! I'm posting some disneys and phoenix pictures. I didn't want to bore everyone with too many pictures, so if you're interested you can take a peek at our slideshow posted above.

It was such a fun week!! We didn't want it to end. It felt so good to get away from everything and just hang with the kids. Aside from disneyland, we didn't do much other than swim, lounge, sleep in, read and play games. That part- sooo relaxing.
The not so relaxing part... the 38 hours of driving (28hrs to and from phoenix, 10hrs to and from disneyland!) But totally worth it!! The kids actually did great, it was Mike and I that were the fussy ones :) Now Mike and I just need a little vacation from our vacation! Would we do it again?... In a heart beat.

Princess Heaven!!!

Belle is Savannah's favorite princess!! (she's mine too, I wish I had a taken a picture with her too!) She was the sweetest too, she talked to Savannah for a really long time and played with her hair. What a princess!!

Does she look like the real snow white or what?! (if snow white were real)

Jasmine...

Aurora AKA: Sleeping Beauty

Sav's second fav- Ariel. Check out her tone arms, I wish mine looked like that! I need to become a mermaid this summer :)

Honey I shrunk the audience, though from this angle, the girls are shrunken and the boys got blown up!!

Phoenix Fun


I LOVE dry heat!! 105 with zero humidity- I'd take that any day of the week vs 90 degrees with 100% humidity! Love TX but not the humidity! Dry fun.

Savannah and my favorite thing were the purple cacti that were everywhere. Zach insisted that someone spray painted them. Cacti fun.

Kiddie pool fun.

Lazy river fun.


Spitting snake fun.

Spray park fun.

In house fun.

Family dance party fun.

Sand everywhere fun.

yummy sand fun.

Josh loves turtles so much he decided to become one! Turtle fun.

Thumb fun.

Reading Maniac!!! fun.

Car fun.
Couch fun.

Pool side fun.

Some recent pictures...

Here are a couple of pictures from a photo shoot with a friend of ours in the ward. We're big fans of her work... I guess we're biased on these:) We will post more of our favs when we get them...





Her website is http://kevansphotography.blogspot.com/
I hope it's ok to post that. She's really great!

Are Wii Crazy!?!

So wii (yes, me, especially me included) have been dying to get a wii. I'm not really a video game person, but these games are sooooo fun!!! And I like to justify it by just saying that you have to move around to play these games, so no, we don't idly sit there moving our thumbs over and over. It's interactive so it's good for you :) We gave it to both boys (really a present for Mike and I in disguise) since their b-days are 1 week apart.

Here are some presents from Grammy and Grampy ! Thanks Grammy!! We were out of the dog house with Fablehaven. Josh was sure we had gotten it for him and was sorely disappointed after opening our presents. Then he opened your presents... thank you for all the cool presents!! We missed you this year and wished you were here:(

My Baby is getting BIG!!!

Josh has been so excited for cubscouts! Especially since one of his best buddies up the street is in it and his parents are the den leaders. Here he is on his first day!

The Old Settler's Ward Wolf Den Pack 452

They made magician's hats for his first activity. He had a blast!

Math pentathalon

So Josh did this really super fun pentathalon group once a week with neighborhood kids (I say super fun because I helped out with games over his age group:)- and these are pictures of the pentathalon tournament. I initially taught them the rules to the games and just got to over see them playing, but THEY were so sharp! I always forgot what the rules were and they were the ones always having to reteach me the games and rules. Thank you to Samir and Deepa for opening your home and making this possible!

Josh and Ethan playing Ramrod- one of the hardest games at least for me, I couldn't keep up with them!Good sportsmanship guys! Check out the big boys in the background playing! You're never too old for games.

Such nice big brothers!!I was spying on them and overheard them talking about Fablehaven and Harry Potter and thought how cool that was. Then they started talking Pokemon.... it's like a different language they were speaking! Maybe they knew how to get rid of me??

Some extra pictures from Josh's party I forgot to add... After the presents, it was movie time. The boys were excited to have their root beer floats and watch Holes. It was pitch black during the movie and I wondered where Bella had gone.... she was awfully quiet for once. I thought I could see her at the end of the couch , so I decided to take this picture knowing the flash would be on. I thought I'd catch a cute picture of her curled up on the couch watching the movie with her usual thumb in her mouth, pacifying herself into slumber. Instead I caught her helping herself to one of the boy's floats. She went to town. BUSTED!!!!! Don't leave anything out if Bella's around!

Meanwhile, Savy crashed! For those of you that know Savy, she's our little constant chatter box. As fun as that is sometimes, I can't tell you what a precious sight this is to our family -
ahhh silence at last.

It's Birthday season

I'm a month behind, but better late than never. So Josh and Zach's birthdays are exactly a week apart which made for a busy week at our house. Thankfully, J is really easy going, doesn't like to make much of a fuss, and then there's Zach... he would invite the whole neighborhood for a big full blown fiesta if it were up to him. So here are some pictures of Josh on his big day at school, and at his party. Thanks Josh B, Ben and Ethan for coming! Josh had a fun day!

IT'S GREAT TO BE 8!!We went to Josh's school and served up some cake and chocolate milk. Here's the b-day boy with the 2 little helpers who passed out the goods. Thank Zach and Sav!Josh and his class. I had to show this pic to explain why it is that you've probably noticed Josh wearing this green shirt in almost every picture I post. I do do the laundry I promise, it just so happens that I always take pictures on fridays for some reason- spirit shirt day. So there you go, Josh does have other clean clothes at home, this is his friday uniform.

upon his arrival home, Josh received his first present from mom and dad... a BRAND NEW bike!
Going going !
Gone!

Next on the agenda, bowling with the boys.

So ...who won?

grub time.

Homemade Pokeball cupcakes with Pikachu in the middle-oh yeah!

present time.... huddle

We want to share with you...

I haven't posted in a while, it's been a rough 2 weeks. We wanted to let everyone know that we will not be having our fifth baby at this time. I miscarried at 11 weeks (the saturday before mother's day). It's been hard on us (especially me- with these blazing hormones). We were all so excited, especially Josh. We have been so blessed by family and friends through visits, phone calls, emails, meals, flowers, cards, service and prayers. THANK YOU! We love you all and can't thank you enough for the comfort that you have provided us.

The day before I had a feeling something was wrong, and received a blessing from Mike. After the blessing we both had the feeling of what was to come. Going into the hospital feelings of sadness were definitely there, but also a feeling of comfort in knowing that Heavenly Father had prepared us. That along with love expressed by others has been a huge blessing. I still feel sad and get teary at unexpected moments, but I know that it was not the right time. We will post some more pictures of birthdays and such in the upcoming weeks. But for now we will take rest.

Fun Times at Busy Bee Preschool.

I'm being eaten by a Boa Constrictor! Zach and Sav, with preschool friends at the Waco Zoo.

This is the only pic I took of Bella at the Zoo :(
She called every animal a doggie in her loudest voice.

Zach and his friend Quinn checking out the marine life.

Digging for fossils. I love kids- here we are at the zoo, and they spent the most amount of time digging up bones and rolling in grass. Ah- to be a kid again.

Rolling, rolling...


Kaylee- "Wow these lizards are cool! I've never seen any like these" Zach (proudly)-" I have, at my grammy's house , thousands of them actually every summer."

Sliding through the otters pool. One of the kids (thank goodness not one of mine this time) was so fascinated by the otters swimming around her that she refused to slide down half way through. After much fussing from the kids waiting their turn it took at thin mom (see told you I was happy it wasn't my child) climbing in to pull the child out. Quite a site. One kid couldn't wait his turn and tried forcing her out the hard way.
Yes- Zach is KISSING the otter through the glass. Silly kid!

Did you know...
That tortoises can live to be hundreds of years old? Zach really thought about that seeing as how his birthday was coming up, and said thoughtfully, "wow mom that's a lot of birthdays, how many presents do you think they get?"

Easter Time with Busy Bees

Many of you know this year we did a home preschool seeing as how every preschool in Round Rock was full when we moved here during the summer. So I heard about this homeschool curriculum through church friends. I've heard about other people doing this before and it sounded like fun and a good chance to do some planned, structured, one on one with Zach (along with 5 others) in preparation for kindergarten. I'm so glad we did this! It's been SOO fun getting to see Zach in his element with friends, and in a (sort of) class room setting. I've gotten to see his strengths and weaknesses, which being his mom and being with him 24/7 at home you would think I would already know all this. But somehow it's different. And it's been really fun for me and for Savannah too. My favorite part- snack time! Each time there is a child assigned to be the snack helper... the coolest job you could get. I pick the snack, and the helper and I fiddle with the snack until we can make some kind of silly face. Here's what we came up with for Easter. I know doesn't look like much of a snack, we gave them more stuff once they ate the bunny. Bunny masks!

Easter Egg hunt!

Girly Faces!

Uh oh, who left the pantry open again!?
Bella got caught red handed in the Nestle Quick chocolate mix. She was in heaven until she got caught!! When she wants something she says "Pleeeeease!" in a really loud voice. That's what she's saying as she is pointing furiously at me to give it back to her. She's pretty quiet and very quick (no pun intended) when it comes to making messes these days. We call her busy Bella these days. I keep thinking she needs a hair cut everytime I see a picture of her, but I know I just cut it like last week! (or so it seems)


Savannah- the girl of many faces!
Intense coloring project!

Little more relaxed and having fun
getting a little too relaxed.


so relaxed she started to fall asleep.