Easter

We had a great Easter this year.  We were lucky and had family come into town.  My brother Matt and his wife Eleisha came with their two boys, and we had a great time with them.  They hadn't been to the Easter pageant before, so they came out and we were able to go.  It was great, as usual, and we enjoyed spending time on the temple grounds.  We also did lots of fun things, including going to Makuto's Island, visiting the zoo, hunting for eggs in the dark, and playing in the backyard.  We were so glad they could come visit.  We love visitors, and don't get them enough!

After church on Sunday we went in the backyard for our annual Easter family picture.  Kyle was not in the mood, and we finally convinced him to look at the camera, even though he would not take his head off my shoulder.  Oh well.

I think this is the sweetest picture of Tyler with Kelsey.  He is such a great big brother to her.  He loves to play with her and make her laugh.  
This one turned out great, too.  I know Jessica and Kelsey will treasure this picture when they are adults.  I love the pictures of me with my siblings when we were younger.  Having two wonderful sisters myself, I know how special sisters are!  I'm thankful my girls have each other!
Another fun sibling picture.  I think Ashley was playing with a beach ball, and we didn't get many pictures of her with her siblings.  Next time......

We also spent some time coloring Easter eggs.  The kids made some pretty colorful ones, and we enjoyed eating deviled eggs for the rest of the week.  :)

Tyler's face cracks me up in this one.  What a goof ball.  Tyler loves to make people laugh.....
Zac and Kyle LOVED playing together all weekend.  It's fun having cousins the same age.
Kayden loved being pulled around in the wagon.  It got a little tiring, so Kyle was kind enough to help out!
And we thought it was pretty fun that we found this in our backyard on Easter morning.  My sister-in-law Eleisha said "Oh look, there is the Easter bunny in the backyard" and of course I thought she was joking.  Then as the kids started gathering around the window, I said "You're joking, right?"  And sure enough, she wasn't joking.  The rabbit was hanging out in the backyard.  The kids thought this was the coolest thing, and put out some carrots and lettuce for it.  That thing hung out in our backyard all week.  Ashley and I tried to catch it for fun (really I was trying to scare it away so it would never come back) and luckily it worked.  The rabbit ran faster than I could have imagined, and scooted under the fence, and we haven't seen it since!  (I'm not a pet person.  I don't even want a stray bunny hanging out in my backyard pooping and eating my grass!)
It was a great Easter, and we are always grateful for the chance we have to reflect on the atonement, and the great gift that is in our lives!

Kelsey Turns Two!

Kelsey celebrated her 2nd birthday on the 26th of March.  She really enjoyed her day, and loved the presents.  I wasn't sure she would know what to do with the wrapped presents, but once she realized there was stuff inside, she loved it!  

She loved her princess crown, dress up shoes, and earrings.  She always grabs for my jewelery and wants to put it on, but of course she can never get my earrings on.  She thought it was very fun to have her own pair.  
Every time I told her to smile for the camera she kept giving me this cheesy grin.  It's quite difficult to get her to smile with her eyes open, unless you catch her doing it without her noticing.
Here she was in front of her cupcakes before we lit up the candle.  She was excited.
Once we lit the candle, she started getting worried.  She did not like the flame at all.  She realized it was hot and fire, and was pretty upset.  She just looked at it like get that thing away from me!  Needless to say we had to help her out with blowing it out since she wanted nothing to do with it.  Once the flame was blown out, she was happy again.  See, she's a smart girl.  She already knows not to play with fire. :)

Happy birthday Kelsey!  We love you and are so glad you're in our family.  You are such a sweet girl, and we're lucky to have you!

Tucson Trip

For spring break this year, we didn't really have any plans.  We usually go to California and this year we decided to stick around here.  I have a hard time not going ANYWHERE for the break, so I made reservations through Priceline to stay at a hotel in Tucson for a night.  We had never been there, and had a few things we wanted to do, so we decided to get away.

We stayed at the JW Marriot there in Tucson, and they had some fun hiking trails by the hotel.  We took the kids on a short hike, and it was fun to see all the cactus in all the hills.  It was really pretty.
Dave got to carry Kelsey and she loved it.  Kyle kept saying he wanted to go back to the hotel.  I should have brought a carrier for him!
We had a great time at the pool.  They had a lazy river and a water slide they even let the little ones go down.  It got a little overcast and windy while we were in the pool, but it was still fun.
The next day we headed over to Kartchner caverns and it was AWESOME.  Those caves are amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone.  The kids thought it was really cool being in a mountain, and seeing all those amazing formations.  No cameras allowed so we didn't get any pictures there.
Then we decided since we were already down that way, we'd check out Tombstone.  We'd never been there either and it was fun to see the little town, but there wasn't that much to do that didn't cost money.  We did eat lunch at this place where you could sit and watch a gun fight.  The kids thought that was kind of fun, but we did have to explain to them how the guns weren't real, never play with guns, and all that fun stuff.  Kyle hated the noise the guns made.  I told him that was good because guns are BAD!  Hopefully I scared him enough.

After the show the kids went down on the set and got a picture.  It was fun to see Tombstone once, but I'm not dying to go back there anytime soon.  

We had a great time, and I would definitely go back to Tucson and stay at this place.   I told Dave next time we'll have to come there with just us.  There was golf and a nice spa, I could have spent some good relaxation time there.  

It was nice feeling like we had a family vacation without all the drive time we usually have.  

Finally a Basketball Court!!

When we moved into our house almost 6 years ago, we were so excited to have a big backyard.  We had an area in the corner we thought would be perfect to someday put a sport court in.  We have always talked about "when we put the basketball court in" and I thought that day would never come.  We have a roll-a-way hoop we have to move in and out of the driveway since our homeowners wont let us keep it out there, and it is such a pain to move!!  So, after getting sick of rolling it, we finally put in the court about a month ago.  The kids LOVE it, and so do we!  We have already gotten tons of use out of it.  I love that the kids just can walk out the back door and shoot some hoops.  

Ashley is playing on a basketball team right now, and she seems to be the one to use it the most.  She is getting to be quite the shooter!  I'm hoping her love of the game sticks and she'll continue on in the sport, since it is my favorite!!

Anyone want to come over and play some ball????

Ragnar Relay

Wow, I'm sure behind in blogging, so I think I'll add a few posts to try and catch up.  

In February I had the opportunity to be part of the Ragnar Relay that goes from Prescott to Mesa, Arizona.  There are 12 people on a team, and you each run 3 different legs of anywhere from 3-9 miles.  It was a total of 202 miles, but don't worry, I only ran 17 and a half of them.  Let me just say that it was a total blast and something I hope to be able to do many more times.  It was tough, but so worth it!

This was our team when we met up the morning of the race.  We've been training together for a LONG time, since August, and we couldn't wait to start the race!
Here are the girls from my van.  We were the second van to go, so this was us just before we started our legs of the race.  (Notice we still look fresh, we hadn't run yet. :)
And 30 hours later, we finished the race!!  It was quite an experience, and we ended up taking first place in our division.  (Out of the all women teams!)  There were about 220 teams total, and we got 89th overall.  We were pretty proud of ourselves!!  

Thanks girls for the memories, the fun, the laughter, and I can't wait till next year!