Our Trip to Moab

A couple of weekends ago, we took the kids out of school for a Friday and headed to Moab!!!  Our main purpose was to visit Lucas and Shellie, but it's super awesome that they live in a fun place.

 Their town home complex has a pool, so we got to go swimming a couple of times.  The boys always love swimming.

 Just being outside and enjoying nature is always good.  They have a really awesome playground by a river.

 By the rec center in Moab is a skate park.  The kids loved playing at the skate park.  It wasn't super busy like the one we have in St. George (plus, ours is kind of scary).

 We went to Hold in the Rock.  We didn't go through the house, but the kids picked the petting zoo instead.

 We went on a hike to Bowtie Arch and Corona arch.  It was a great, quick hike.

 Some crazy people were "swinging off of the arch."  Good entertainment.

Hopefully Lucas and Shellie like visitors because we have the perfect place to getaway to.  (Feeling a little guilty about not visiting them in Rock Springs enough).

Oh, and I love my Iphone.  I love the camera on it!  And I love my fun apps... Camera+, Photo Frame and Labelbox!

Eight is Great!!!

I am mailing out official invites, but thought I'd throw this up on the blog so people can plan ahead.

When did....

....this little boy....

....grow up?

Actually, it seems like he's been a big kid forever!  But 8 is such a BIG deal!  No more booster seat....Scouts... and a Baptism!  I am so excited for my big boy to be baptized.

Brenner is such a joy to our family.  He loves to read.  He loves Legos.  And He loves to play with gadgets (ipod, ipad, computer, DS, etc.)  He's super smart and loves school.  I'm starting to get a little idea of what it's going to be like to have 3 teenage boys in the house... cuz this kid can eat!!!

Happy 8th Birthday Brenner!!!

April just flew by...

Blogging is a little underrated... 

Brenner participated in the Evening of the Arts at his school.  The theme was diversity is... so he submitted his Perler Bead art.  "Perler beads are all different and unique, but if they all work together, they can create a beautiful work of art."  He won 2nd place!

The boys participated in about 4 easter egg hunts.    Unfortunately, I only took pictures of 1.

Joren and his teeth.... he had some new permanent teeth starting to come in.  He was way too scared to have me or Ryan pull them out.  For awhile, he had two rows of teeth like a shark.  Eventually he wiggled one enough to pull it out himself.  It just so happened that he had a dentist appt to get some cavities filled.  Since he has to be sedated for dental work, I had the dentist pull out the 2nd one while he was doing the dental work.

Terek had Pet Day at preschool so he got to take Mia to preschool to show his friends.

We love the Kayenta Chalk art Festival.  This year we have been spending a lot of our weekends trying to fix up Granny's house in Kanarraville.  So, we missed the festival.  We headed over Sunday after church to see all of the finished products:)  These are the kids favorites...

Terek learned how to ride his bike without training wheels!!!  We knew he could because of how awesome he is on his scooter!!!  Now he needs to work on starting and stopping better on his own.

Spring has sprung and our garden is starting to produce.  We have lettuce, radishes and our favorite... PEAS!  My boys love them and will often be found over at the garden munching on peas!

We can hope for better blogging in May, but I doubt it!  For more up to date info and pics, follow me on Facebook or Instagram.

Here is our list of things to look for in May... Moab, Brenner's b-day, father's and sons, working on Granny's house, end of school, family camping trip... busy busy days... bring it on!

Miles for Molly

This morning Red Mountain Elementary had a fundraiser/charity race for the daughter of one of the teacher's at the boys' school. Molly is Mrs. Dixon's daughter and she has William's syndrome.

The boys did a one mile tuff kids run and they did it really fast!!!
It was kind of fun to see them with actual racing numbers on:)

Superstar

Joren got to be the superstar in his class on Friday.

I made a poster for him... it could have been better, but I was seriously running out of time. I either need to get a little more organized or not put things off to the last minute... I was a little stressed trying to pull this superstar together, but I think it worked out great in the end.
I told the class a little about Joren. We read a couple of his favorite books. We played a Lego bingo game and Joren got to put the calling cards up on the ELMO in his classroom.

Then we gave the kids all an airhead as their treats! Joren also got to wear a superstar crown and all of the kids in class colored pictures for Joren.

Legoland!

What's spring break without a vacation? We asked the boys if they wanted to go to Legoland or Disneyland and they picked Legoland. So, Monday morning we headed to SoCal!

The first thing they boys wanted to do when we got to the hotel was go swimming. It's a good thing the pool was heated and had a hot tub because it was COLD in California!

After they went swimming, we headed down to the Carlbad beach. We went to dinner at Las Olas... it was a pretty yummy Mexican restaurant.
After dinner, we headed to the beach... I just wanted the boys to see the beach... not really get wet. They headed right down to the water and before we knew it, Joren was up to his waist and Terek was tumbling head over heels in the waves... After I screamed at Ryan to go get him... I took after him myself. I got my pants a little wet, but saved my poor son from being dragged out into the ocean. Our time at the beach was cut short because... California was COLD! If it was warm, he could have kept swimming in his wet clothes:)
Day 2 was spent at LEGOLAND! There were a ton of cool things built out of legos. Animals, people, buildings, etc. The rides were totally for little kids, but fun and they had a blast!
That night we headed out to Ruby's diner at the pier in Oceanside. As you can tell from Joren in the pic... it was COLD in California!
Our 2nd day at Legoland we went on some more rides and then hit the Sea Life Aquarium.
Even though it was COLD, the boys still insisted on going to the waterpark. My excuse for not getting in the water was that I wanted to take pics... it was cold:)
That night we found the local pizza joint called That Pizza Place... it was obviously the popular place in town... a lot of high school sports teams were there. Our pizza was loaded with toppings... my favorite part!
I couldn't just head home Thursday, so we took the long way and headed down to San Diego. We went to the Mormon Battalion Museum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was really cool. The kids loved panning for gold.
I couldn't get over that we couldn't go to the beach, so we headed to Mission Bay Park and went to the playground by the beach. Plus, we needed to get some energy out of our kids:) After the park, we grabbed lunch and headed on our LONG drive home!
Every single night, Joren and Terek went swimming in the hotel pool... I think it was their favorite thing. They had tons of fun. It was great to have Grandma and Grandpa go with us! We had a fun trip! Spring break is almost over and it's back to regular life! I'm thinking it's about time for a trip for just Mommy and Daddy:)

(My pics were all taken with my Iphone... I love my iphone... I used the Camera+ camera for most of the pics. It has a built in Lightbox program to edit the pics. I made my photo collages with the Photo Frame app. And, I love sharing them on Instagram)

Sledding in Kanarraville

This past weekend, we got quite a bit of snow in Kanarra. So, Ryan, the kids and I headed to Kanarra to go sledding... finally... for the first time this winter. Even though their mother forgot their coats, the boys still had tons of fun!!!

What I really should have taken pictures of was the before and after of the stove and fridge Libby and I cleaned while the boys were sledding... they were both doozies:)

Kayenta Arts Festival

I really need to catch up on my blog... But since I may never catch up, I will post what we did today... At least what we took pics of. We went to the kayenta arts festival. It was pretty cool. We love stuff that gets us out, but is close by. An artist had a metal cactus sculpture that he let the kids help him build.

Joren picked out a marble...
Brenner picked out some random curved piece.
They artist helped them pick where they wanted to put their piece. Then he welded it on.

This picture is supposed to have both of their pieces... I can't see it off hand, but they are there and the boys will remember where they are:) It will be permanently on display in Kayenta so next time we go there they can see their help in the sculpture.

Joren's B-day Pics!

Joren turned 6 on Jan. 3rd! I am in no way a professional photographer, but I like to have nice "birthday" pics. It has taken me almost a month!!! I had to go at a certain time and it was never a convenient time. So, today I bribed him with McDonald's.

Joren is our free spirit. He kind of just does what he wants. We often wonder if he can hear, but we've had his hearing tested and he can hear fine. He always tries to roam around the van... he's the last to get in his car seat. He always has to go back in the house to get something any time we leave the house.
Joren still loves perler beads and will spend hours making fun creations. He is in kindergarten and is loving school. He is learning how to read and often surprises me with the words that he knows. He loves riding his bike home from school with his friends. He loves playing ninjas and fighting with his friends.
Joren's favorite past time is torturing Terek. He is more happy if Terek is crying. At other times, they play great and have a lot of fun together.
Joren is our little snuggler. He loves to have someone to sleep with at night. He loves our new little kitty, Mia and loves to have her sleep with him.
Joren loves macaroni and cheese, cottage cheese, pizza, candy, bread and rolls. He actually isn't too picky of an eater.

We love Joren and know that our family wouldn't be complete without him!!!