The Trimmer Family

Blog Update

2010-07-31T14:39:00.000-07:00

I know that I have been really bad with updating this blog. I'm going to be better, I promise. There has just been so many things happening lately, that I honestly haven't had the time. Truth be told, I have some posts started that I never posted because uploading pictures takes awhile and I simply ran out of patience, haha. I still have the posts typed out, so I will finish them, post them and then get caught up. A few things that have been keeping us busy is Nick had his hip replacement surgery in May and just went back to work a couple of weeks ago. We are now in the process of moving, long story, and we have to be moved out by the 15th of August. Once we are moved and settled, I will get up to date on this blog and then I will continue to update it regularly. The kids start school on August 16th, so I will have more time once they go back to school as well. I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer. Oh, I did update our header picture and layout. That counts for something, right? Cole just finished another Little League Baseball season in June, so with two boys, how can I not have a picture that has to do with baseball? This is one of the many pictures we took while on vacation in California this summer. We had a blast! I will be back soon!

Flag Football

2009-10-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

Both of the boys played Flag football this year. Cole's team was the Titans and Jacob was on the Bears. It was a fun season and they both did really well. They get better every year at the sports they do.

Way to go Titans and Bears! :)

Diorama

2009-10-30T17:51:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, Jacob had a Science project where he had to make a diorama of a desert landscape and then he had to do a report about it. He did a good job. The diorama turned out really cute.

Good job Bud! :)

Newest Webelo

2009-10-29T16:25:00.000-07:00

In September Cole earned his Webelo badge. My camera battery died, so I only got one picture of Jacob and then took one of Cole when we got home. Another parent took some pictures for me, but I haven't gotten them yet. The boys also got their prize for selling Scout-a-rama tickets, that's what Jacob was up there getting. Cole got a "W" printed on his head, which is supposed to be war paint symbolizing that he's the newest Webelo. Him and another boy both earned it. Next month's pack meeting he will be getting his Arrow of Light which is the highest award you can earn as a Cub Scout. Soon, he's going to be an 11 year old Scout! Wow! Jacob is super close to getting his Wolf too. We are so proud of our boys. They do great in Scouts!

Jacob waiting to get the prize he earned and then another one taken when we got home.

Cole, one of the two newest Webelo's in Pack 977. :)

How about some MUD football?

2009-10-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

In August our Stake had their annual mud football event that is held at the U of A farms. Most of the kids just roll around in the mud instead of actually playing football. After they play for awhile, everyone rinses off and we have a BBQ. Tons of fun! It was held on a day that was a heat advisory though, so as someone who was just watching from the sidelines, it was boiling HOT and I regret not wearing something that I could get dirty so that I could get in the mud and cool off!

They were covered in mud from head to toe.

I'm thinking that doesn't look very fun, but they sure do love it! :)

Knee Surgery

2009-10-29T12:20:00.000-07:00

In August, Nick had knee surgery. He had to have his Miniscus repaired. It was outpatient surgery and it was pretty quick recovery for him but it was hard for him to get around for a few days. Here are some pictures. Sorry if they gross anyone out.

Big ole bandage for just his knee. But wait! The bandage then comes off....

They shaved the knee area, so it looked kind of funny being only half shaven, haha.

Lego Freaks....

2009-10-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

The boys are total Lego freaks. Going to Legoland only made that worse, haha. They have club time at school for the last 20 min of the day. Guess what club they joined for the first quarter...Yep, the Lego club. They got to bring their own Legos everyday from home and then they played with them and traded with other kids who were also in the same club. That was for the first 9 weeks of school. They were sad when it ended. They made a Lego village on the hockey table this summer. It's mostly cleaned up now, but it was really cool. They had an airport, hospital, all kinds of things. Here are some pictures.

Here's the Village. They really worked hard on it.

They each made a house at Lego club too. Here is Cole's from the front and then from the inside. It was awesome. It had all different kinds of rooms and it was 3 stories!

Here is Jacob's. It was also really cool. It had 3 stories as well and all different kinds of rooms too.

Back to school!

2009-09-15T09:01:00.000-07:00

I know I'm behind on posting, but things have been busy, plus Blogspot has been giving me issues and seems to be slow, making it hard for me to have patience in posting pictures. Sorry, I will do better at keeping things up to date faster.

The boys started school on August 10th. We decided to give a new charter school that came to town a try. It's a Sequoia School and they have 26 other schools around the valley. There have been so many issues with the Charter School that they were at for 2 years, so we thought maybe the experience behind this new one would be a good thing. Well so far it's been awesome! They are so happy there. Eventhough the previous school now has a brand new super nice building, and some of their friends are still going there, they really do love this new school so much better. Some of the teachers and some of their friends made the switch, so they do have good friends in their classes.

Cole started 5th grade and he has the same teacher that he had for 3rd and 4th grade. We love her. Jacob is in 3rd grade now and he has the same teacher that he had for 1st grade. She's awesome too. They got lucky to get teachers that they are already familiar with. I can't believe how grown up they are. Makes me sad a bit. :( Here are some pictures from the 1st day.

Cole- 5th grade, Jacob- 3rd grade. Cole's back pack has glow strips on it I guess, lol.

They were so excited to start school. I think they were starting to get a little bored around here. :) I have to add that I really wanted to take the camera to school and get pictures of them there, but Cole didn't want to have any part in that. He said it would be embarrassing and to please not do that mom. Serious? Fine, I didn't and I was kind of bummed about it but oh well. I was going to do it for just Jacob, but he didn't really want me to either. Geez, they are growing up too fast!

California Vacation Week 2....Lots of Pics

2009-09-06T23:58:00.001-07:00

The 2nd week that we were in California it was just us at my mom and dad's. My sister and her kids left and the boys were sad. We still had fun though going to the beach some more and even more Legoland. We also went and walked around Downtown Disney and we went to the Oceanside Harbor which always has lots of action going on, and we went back to the La Jolla Cove where we swam out to some islands and saw lots of fish and other sea creatures. We celebrated my dad's 72nd birthday while we were there and also my parents 51st wedding anniversary. Here are some pictures of the 2nd week of fun.

We went to Legoland a couple more times that week. The boys never tire of that place. I on the other hand, did get tired. Lots of walking. Seeing the big smiles on their faces though while we are there makes it all worth it!

They saw Spongebob and a policeman...

Super Mario and some pirates...

Then they both did some thinking...

Rode on some airplanes...

Hung out with a fireman and his dog...

And then rode in a police helicopter...

They got to build a robot using computers and then we watched a 4D Lego movie....

They built some Bioncles and then took a Safari Jeep ride.

We of course went back to the beach a few more times as well.

They played some paddleball and captured some sand crabs...

They did some surfing...

And some wiping out.....

They did some body surfing too...

And some boogie boarding...

Then they buried my feet! :)

We visited Oceanside Harbor where they were actually getting along great!

Then back to Legoland just to do the water area one day. I was glad I could sit from a far and watch this. They wore their suits and got SOAKED!

That big bucket fills up with water and then tips over when it's full and dumps water on everyone. This is what was getting them the most wet. They stood under it on purpose!

Look how wet they are!

To dry off we did the mini golf there at Legoland. That was a cute course with Lego animals throughout it. Here we got sprayed with water by a skunk, lol.

No this isn't Legoland. This is the Lego store at downtown Disney. We went there for a day and had lots of fun.

Jacob as a pirate and my two GOOFY boys...

We ate lunch there at the Rainforest Cafe! That place is 3 stories and so cool!

Real life-like animals throughout Rainforest Cafe.

And a really cool fish tank inside.

Out front of the Disneyland hotel and then in the lobby shaking Mickey's hand, haha.

We went to the La Jolla cove one day and the boys explored the caves there.

Inside the caves.

Outside the caves, hanging out.

Then we swam out to these rocks. I wish we had a snorkel set with us. We saw some cool fish. The water was so clear! The swim was a pretty easy one.

Here's the rocks we swam too.

This squirrel was at the cove and was so friendly. The boys held food out to him and he came up and took it from them with his paws and then went and ate it and kept coming back for more.

LAST day at Legoland. We only went for a few hours and just did a few more rides and watched the fireworks. They had to stop at pose with King Tut and a camel....

Then they sat in a King's Throne...

And drove a car.

This is them playing on their grandparents computer. This was our last night there and they are actually getting along again. We had SO much fun. It was hard to come home. Especially since I knew the house would be a mess from the flood.

California Vacation Week 1.... Lots of Pics

2009-08-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

Finally, I'm back and able to post pictures. The computer is hooked back up in the den and it's almost put back together in here. Just a few more things to do before it's done. I can now download pictures and update this blog.

In July the boys and I went to California for two weeks. We stayed with my mom and dad and had a great time. The first week we were there my sister and her kids were still there also. The kids had a great time together. We did lots of fun things like Legoland and surfing and hanging out on the beach. Here are some pictures from the first week.

The boys with 2 cousins enjoying the view from the back porch.

My view from the hammock, and then Jacob and I enjoying the hammock.

My parents bought the boys a new "used" surfboard and Cole was thrilled to pieces. He loves to surf so to have his own was the best thing ever. Here he is posing with it.

Beach fun with cousins...

Digging lots of holes and building things. Cole says he could hear the ocean in this hole he dug, haha. He stuck his head in as far as he could to hear it. :)

Cole got tired of digging holes, so he was relaxing on his towel.

We had a bonfire on the beach with cousins and friends one night. That is what the above 2 pictures are of. They are roasting hot dogs and chilling by the bonfire. :)

Now onto Legoland....

Day 1 at Legoland. I bought 3 month passes from Costco cause they were actually cheaper than a one day pass and this way we could go several times. The boys love it there.

The force is strong with these 2.... ;)

Indiana Jones!

Driving some cars, haha.

This sleeping man made out of Legos reminded us of grandpa (my dad). He falls asleep so easily and so we thought it would be fun to have a picture with "grandpa", hahaha.

Posing with some pirates and they loved that they could stop and play with Legos.

The Bionicle ride that I was more than happy to NOT have to go on. I cannot do spinning rides anymore! They make me sick. They are old enough to ride it all by themselves now and so that's what they did!

Some cool Bionicles!

Now onto the Sea Life Aquarium....

Last year Legoland opened up a Sea Life Aquarium. It's such a kid friendly aquarium. The kids loved it. Our passes got us in unlimited times for no additional charge. They have things made out of Legos placed throughout. Here are some pictures. We couldn't use a flash around the fish so some pictures are a little dark. They went down this slide that was right at the entrance.

Jacob is pointing to an Octopus and Cole is sitting next to a huge Lobster.

They had these cool bubble things throughout the Aquarium. The kids loved them. It felt like they were really in the water with the fish. :)

They loved that they could build Legos here even. The picture on the left they are building a Lego sand castle and on the right Jacob is looking at the Angel fish. Oops, I forgot to turn my flash off that time.

The lost city of Atlantis....

The picture on the right Cole is looking at a pregnant Sea Horse. They were SO cute.

Another bubble thing. Looks like Nemo is swimming right by them.....

The last day that their cousins were there, we went to the La Jolla cove. We went down to the beach where the Sea Lions are and took some pictures with them. We also got yelled at by the environmentalists that were at the top of the stairs, and when we went back up, I yelled right back. We weren't breaking any laws by being there, but they said we were scaring the Sea Lions. Um, yeah right. They didn't swim away and most just kept right on sleeping. Here are some pictures.

They were so cute and some even looked like they were posing for us, especially this one on the left! I love the cute little white one that is closest to the water in the one on the right.

Here are all the kids. You can definitely tell that Jacob and Sadie are related! What are those faces about, hahahaha. Silly kids!

More Legoland....

We took the "cruise" around miniland and made a stop off in Paris....

Then onto Vegas and New York.....

Then onto Washington DC where we saw the inaguartion....

This is the end of our first week of vacation. Week 2 will be posted soon. Lots more to post, including back to school photos!

Blog Update...

2009-08-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update. I know I haven't blogged in awhile, and I promise I will soon. The kids and I were in California for two weeks and just got home this past Monday night. We had a GREAT time! The weather was so great while we were there. We went to the beach and did some surfing, and we went to Legoland and had a great time. Unfortunately while we were gone our downstairs flooded. Nick was home but at work all day and when he came home the downstairs was covered in water. Now since being home the carpet in the front room has been removed, the baseboards replaced and they have repainted. The new carpet will be here soon, which means we will be able to put everything back together hopefully by next week. My computer isn't hooked up and I only have access to Nick's laptop, so once I get my computer back and I can download some pictures, I will update this with vacation photos and even photos from the flood. The house is a mess right now and I can't even stand going downstairs. The kids start school on Monday so we are busy getting ready for that now as well. So much to do, busy, busy! I plan on putting the house back together while they are gone to school. That's it for now, I will update again soon I hope! :)

Off to see....WICKED!!

2009-07-16T16:51:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to go see the musical WICKED at the Tempe Gammage. Karen, Morgan, Kate and their friend Jamie all came with me. We went to the 2pm showing and braved the heat and I'm so glad we did. It was soooo incredibly fabulous! I really wish I could go see it again. If you haven't seen it yet, you need to go when the chance comes along. I loved, loved, LOVED it!

Here's a picture of the curtain. We're waiting for it to start. This is the only picture I got because they don't allow picture taking during it and well it was just too hot after at 5pm to take pictures outside.

Cole took this one of me when I got home. I don't like this picture, but it's the only one he would take, haha. I really did love the play even though I'm not smiling here, LOL.

After being in a nice, cool building for 3 hours, this is what we walked out too. The temperature gage in my friends car read 120 degrees, I kid you not. So yuck, but so worth being out in to see Wicked! After eating dinner and driving home to Maricopa, the temp was down to 110. UGH!

Summer Fun...So far

2009-06-28T20:15:00.001-07:00

Already this summer has been a busy one, but we've been having lots of fun! I've been really busy in the mornings teaching swim lessons, so we've only had the afternoons to have some real fun. We've gone to movies, gone swimming, had friends over, and had an end of season baseball swim party here at our house. Here are some other things that we've been up too.

Here is what I've been doing every day until noon, swim lessons. It's been fun, but after 3 hours of being in the sun, it tires me out! The kids are so cute though. :)

A friend of Nick's gave him some tickets to a DBacks game, so he took Cole. This was actually before school was out, but it was during the final week of school so I guess that qualifies as summertime. They were handing out these Tony Pena masks to everyone, so Nick took Cole's picture with it, haha.

Someone brought these giant cookies to the Twins end of season baseball party. Aren't they cool? The party was a swim party here at our house and these cookies had all of the kids names on them. The boys loved them. Sadly, these are the only pictures I got of the party. I kept forgetting to snap photos of all the kids. People were being pushed in the pool too so I was kind of scared to take the camera outside. I didn't want it to be thrown in the pool by mistake. Someone got thrown in and his cell phone was in his pocket, OOPS! ;) It was a lot of fun!

Here is a picture of the boys climbing a tree at their grandparents house one Sunday afternoon. Loads of fun!

We made a trip to Amazing Jake's the other night and sadly I left my camera in the car. It's a really cool place with tons of stuff to do there. They have an all you can eat buffet that is massive and then they have all kinds of fun things to do there like Laser Tag, Go Karts, Bumper Cars, Bowling, Mini Golf, a Mini Rollercoaster, and lots of video games. We won a gift card to there and had some coupons, so we went for family night and had a great time.

More summer fun photos to come soon! We leave for California on the 18th of July, so I will have lots of fun pictures to post. We plan on going to Legoland and of course the beach! I will update our trip while we're there! :)

Cub Scout Day Camp

2009-06-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

This past Thurs-Sat was Cub Scout day camp. Oh what fun it is! This year we have both boys attending also, which means that Nick and I both went for two days, one day with Cole and one day with Jacob. The Webelos are separated from the Wolves/Bears, so they weren't together at all during the 3 days. They always have so much fun and come home SO dirty! They get to shoot BB guns, archery, swimming, crafts, outdoor games like kickball, soccer and an obstacle course, learning to tie different knots, and water balloon fights. The Webelos got to work on and completed their Scientist pin too. They left the house everyday at 1pm and got home at 11pm. They were SO tired! After two days of attending, I was SO tired as well! Good times! :)

The top picture Cole is leaving Archery and the bottom one he is getting ready for Arts and Crafts.

The top picture the Webelos are painting their den flag and in the bottom one they are with their completed "ship" that they all helped paint.

The top picture Jacob is at our den site and the bottom one he is leaving Archery.

The top picture the Bears and Wolves are getting ready to head out to some activity and the bottom one Jacob is getting ready for Arts and Crafts.

The boys passed off so many requirements. I am amazed at all the things they passed off in only 3 days! The theme this year was Pirates, in case you couldn't tell, haha, and that is right up both their alley's, especially Jacob's. ;) They were exhausted by the third day, but they are ready to do it again next year. Too bad Cole is done, although he can go back next year as a den chief. I'm loving how much fun Cub Scouts is for them! :)

Schooool's Out for Summer!

2009-06-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

The last day of school was on Tuesday. To say the boys were excited is an understatement! They were thrilled! I was too! Everyone they know has already been out for a couple of weeks. Now there is no more homework, schedules or waking up early for a few months! :) After school they were both a little sad cause they said they will miss their friends. No worries though, they will still see friends over the summer. Cole was also a little sad about not having his teacher anymore too. He loves Mrs. Berry. He had her last year and she enjoyed her class so much that she moved up a grade and took most of the kids with her. She is so awesome. Her class is so well behaved and she also knows how to mix fun in with learning. I hope that Jacob will have her in a couple of years. She is the best and after 2 years, she will be missed!

This picture of Jacob makes him look annoyed, but really he is super excited. He was at his party here and he had food in his mouth, so he wouldn't smile, haha.

Cole got a medal for being on the Honor Roll and receiving all A's all year. Way to go Bud! He was also voted by the kids in his class as the Best Overall Athlete and the Fastest Runner. That sounds about right! :)

Schoooooool's Out for Summer! Schooooooool's Out Forever! Ha!

We are looking forward to a great summer! Enjoy everyone! :)

Don't You Just Love Science?

2009-05-31T23:27:00.000-07:00

Cole had a major science project due this past week. His first individual one ever. He spent a lot of time looking for an experiment and then even more time putting everything together and making the poster for it.

Here he is testing it out to make sure it will work.

Here he is with his completed poster. He wanted a pretty basic one, but then he discovered the kids that had the really creative posters helped them to get further along in the competition. He learned a lot though and had a great time putting it all together even if he didn't win the top 3. Way to go Cole! That was a lot of hard work! :)

Young Love....

2009-05-23T00:09:00.000-07:00

Jacob came home the other day full of excitement. He said he received a love letter from his "girlfriend", and that I needed to read it. This is our conversation:

Jacob: "I got a love letter today, read it, it's the best thing ever".

Me: "Oh really? How do you know it's a love letter"?

Jacob: "Because she signed it Love"!

Me: "Okay, well you can't get love letters already, you're only 8"!

Jacob: ~rolls eyes~, "Yes I can mom, I love her and she loves me. We have a lot in common too".

Me: Hahahaha! I then read the letter and tell him that I thought it was really sweet.

Jacob: "I know it is, I told you it was".

He's in 2nd grade! Isn't that a little early? This made me laugh the rest of the night. This love story doesn't have a happy ending though. This little girl is moving to Peoria soon and he is really sad! Poor Jacob! I'm sure he will be just fine, because he has also told me that there are some other girls at school who like him, LOL. Man, he is going to be a little heartbreaker one day I'm afraid. This is only the beginning too, it's only going to get worse as he gets older, haha. ;)

Here is a picture of the letter. He will probably get mad if he knows I put it on here, but what he doesn't know won't hurt him, haha. Besides as a mother, I get to show off things like this. ;)

Awwww, so sweet! She means that he is good at skipping rocks. :)

We have a Walmart!

2009-05-23T00:03:00.000-07:00

Well Maricopa is now officially on the map! We have a brand new Walmart in town now and it's absolute HEAVEN! I will no longer have to drive 30min for everyday things. I hate going into town and so when I have to, I make sure I have a long list of things so that I don't have to go back for awhile. Now with Walmart up the road, I don't have to do that. If I forget something, I can go back the next day and get it. In fact, the store opened up on Wednesday and I have been there once a day, everyday since then, haha. It's such a nice, clean store. I hope it stays that way. The grand opening on Wednesday was a big deal. The high school band was there complete with cheerleaders. The 1st graders from our school sang a patriotic song too. It was quite the big deal. I was one of the first people to walk through the doors and I was the first one to touch the cart that I used. Awesome! :)

Our newest Bobcat!

2009-05-22T23:59:00.000-07:00

Tuesday evening at Pack meeting Jacob received his Bobcat. He was so excited and proud of himself. There was a gentleman there from 1st ward that did a presentation for all of the boys that were receiving their Bobcats. He had a Native American outfit on and everything. It was very cool. Cole also received several Webelo pins. Great job boys! We are so proud of you two! :)

This is before we left for Pack meeting. So cute in their shirts. (I'm not sure why it's not letting me center these pictures. It's upsetting me a bit and it's the reason it's taken me awhile to get it posted. This post will look different.)

Here is Cole getting his numerous pins. :)

Here is the gentleman that came dressed up and ready to pass out the awards to the new Bobcats. :)

All of the new Bobcats and their moms/parents.

Here's me giving Jacob his Bobcat pin.

Jacob and I trying to pay attention to what was being said, haha.

Cole took this picture of the two of us when we got home. He takes pretty good pictures I think! :)

Way to go boys! You sure make us proud and we sure love you! :)

Fathers and Sons...

2009-05-21T18:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was our wards yearly Fathers and Sons campout. What this means to me? Well, a quiet house overnight, a good night's sleep with no snoring and no kids climbing into my bed and a chance to do something "girly" for myself. What this means to the boys and Nick? A night sleeping under the stars, sitting by a campfire and getting nice and dirty which boys love to do! What more can you ask for? I had a delightful time I must say. I went and got a massage, went shopping, and treated myself to some frozen yogurt. I came home and had a nice, quiet house and the bed all to myself. I had a great night's sleep! Here are some pictures of what the boys were up to.

Fun things to explore....I really think that Jacob is trying hard to blow a bubble with his gum in all of these pictures. His gum is sticking out of his mouth in all of them, haha.

Good thing they took their nerf guns in case they had to shoot at any wild animals or snakes, hahaha. :)

Beautiful Arizona sunset.

This must be their beds. I was told that the boys slept in the back of the Durango and Nick slept on an air mattress under the stars. :)

A healthy breakfast of donuts and chocolate milk, hehe.

I guess they had some pancakes and bacon for breakfast too.

Cole being goofy.

Looks like they had a great time and while they were gone, I had a great and QUIET evening, hahaha. I was glad to see them come home though. After awhile a quiet house starts to be a little bit too quiet! :)

More Baseball Pics!

2009-05-21T01:17:00.001-07:00

One of the assistant coaches from Cole's baseball team took pictures from the field during one of the games. He got some nice shots.

Nice stance!

Here he is being catcher! I bet it's hot with all that gear on that he has to wear!

Now here he is pitching! Also a nice stance!

And another one of him pitching. I love his form!

The whole team. Nick is coach.

The whole team again. Cole is in the Catchers gear.

Last one.

The season is ending soon. There is one more game left and then the tournament. I've enjoyed watching him play this year. He has improved and has been so fun to watch. It will be weird to not have anymore games to go too, but I'm also looking forward to having a break! We will have the summer off so that we can have some fun! It's been a great season! Yay Twins! :)

Jacob's Field Trip

2009-05-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

I was picked to go on Jacob's Field trip as a chaperone the other day. We rode the bus to the good ole Mesa Southwest Museum to see the dinosaurs and the other fun things they have there. After the Museum, we went to a park to eat lunch. The kids in my group were really well behaved and were pretty funny. I had more girls than boys too, haha.

Here's my group of kids outside the museum. We're just waiting til they let us go inside.

Here is Jacob by one of the dinosaurs. I have NO idea what this face that he's making is for, HA!

Here they all are by the dinosaur display.

This was a dinosaur fossil and of course my child is the one who has to try and climb on it. He climbs on everything! :)

Here is Jacob with his buddy Noah. They were the only two boys in the group.

The kids were watching the dinosaur display become "flooded". The waterfall started rolling in and thunder and lightening was all around.

I'm not sure what this animal is, but this is at the entrance of the "poop" display. Yes, you read that right. They have a room that talks about different animal poop and what to watch out for. Sick! Who needs to know that? Not my favorite display that's for sure, but the kids sure thought it was funny, hahaha.

Here he is checking out the LIVE alligator that was in the same area as all the poop talk. The alligators name is Elvis, haha.

The jail! This was my chance to lock them in there and run away, haha, totally kidding of course! :)

Panning for gold. He found a few pieces. Too bad it's not real, we could really use real gold right now. ;)

Part of the new Mars exhibit.

More info about Mars.

This is a scale and it reflects how much you would weigh on Mars. Jacob would only weigh 25 pounds on Mars! Now that is the kind of scale I need. One that takes pounds OFF of you! Awesome! :)

Riding the bus on the way to the park for lunch.

Climbing a tree at the park. Again, he's always the climber of the group, haha.

Riding the bus back home. He was starting to get bored! He sat on the floor and was pouting cause he was just so ready to be done! Me too! I was really ready for the day to be over at this point, haha!

We really did have a great time! :)

Mother's Day!

2009-05-11T23:18:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I had a really great Mother's Day. The weekend was already off to a pretty great start cause of the Baptism. Nick took work off on Sunday and everyone let me sleep in. It was great! When I got up, Nick got breakfast for the kids and even made me eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast. So good! I got some great homemade gifts from the kids that are so cute. After church Nick made lunch for the boys and then I opened his gift. I got a beautiful windchime for the backyard and a gift certificate for a pedicure, manicure and a 10min arm massage. I know, very nice, right? I also got some beautiful flowers. Nick also made dinner that night and did all the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. It was a great day and I have a very sweet family!

Here is me and the boys with the beautiful windchime that they got me.

Here are the pretty flowers and a better view of the windchime. :)

I hope all of you Mother's out there had a great day as well!

Happy Mother's Day! :)

Jacob's Baptism

2009-05-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Jacob's baptism. This was a pretty hard day for me! I can't believe that my baby is officially baptized! I have no more children left to get baptized. That is such a weird feeling. Cole gave the talk on Baptism and did a wonderful job! He really gave such a great talk. Everyone did really well that day. The day turned out fabulous and Jacob was still talking about it even after everyone went home. We had friends and family come and then after it was over we all went back to our house and had lunch and a FUN swimming party! It was so nice to spend the day with the people that we love the most and to celebrate such a sacred and cherished occasion.

Here is the handsome little guy getting ready for everything to start!

Here he is with his daddy.

Here he is ready to go. He was feeling a little nervous right here. I love that he's in all white. He told me he looks like an angel! Hahaha. :)

Both of my handsome sons with their handsome daddy.

Our little family. :)

Me and my little guy.

The boys with their older cousin Chas. Love the suspenders Chas! :)

Here's the whole Sorenson clan, minus a few that were either at work, out of town or sleeping in the car (grandpa)!

So since Grandpa was too tired to come take a picture with us, we took the picture over to him. We posed by the car so he'd be in it. Hahaha! Grandpa is funny! :)

Here are MOST of the studly men in the family. Two were at work, one lives in CA, one is on a mission and well grandpa was in the car still. Don't ya love the flexing and the faces? :)

Here's the cake that we had at the party. Jacob insisted on having a cake with a tetherball on it. That seems to be his favorite thing lately. I think they actually did a really good job. It turned out great! :)

Opening presents after he swam for a bit. He got a journal among other things.

He also got some nice new scriptures with his name on them. He was thrilled to have his own with his name. :)

Thanks everyone for coming! It was a great day and Jacob LOVED it! :)

Spirit Week!

2009-05-03T22:29:00.000-07:00

Last week at the kids school they had spirit week all week long. They were able to wear different things according to the theme for the day, which meant NO UNIFORMS all week long. YAY!

Monday was Pajama day. Yes they really wore their PJ's that day. I forgot to take pictures on this day, unfortunately! :(

Tuesday was Twin day which means that they were supposed to dress up the same as someone else at school so they both wore their Twins baseball shirts. Cole is on the Twins team and has a couple of extra shirts from previous years, so he even loaned them out to other boys. Jacob has his that has his last name on it that he wore. All together there were about 8 other boys wearing Twins shirts. I also forgot to take pictures on this day. :(

Wednesday was Hawaiian Shirt day. Hang loose dude!

Thursday was career day. They got to dress up as what they want to be when they grow up. Cole dressed up as a baseball player and Jacob dressed up as a football player.

Friday was favorite sports team day. They both dressed up as Dbacks players. Yes Cole is wearing the same shirt two days in a row. He loves baseball and the Dbacks, so that's what he wanted to do. He smelled like a little, stinky boy, so I made him wear deodorant that day, haha. Little boy is growing up! :)

X-MEN Premiere! (Lots of pictures)

2009-04-29T11:51:00.001-07:00

Monday night was the WORLD premiere of the X-MEN Wolverine movie that comes out this Friday. The premiere was held right here in Tempe, AZ. Well my friend Tracy is Hugh Jackman's BIGGEST fan so she for sure wanted to go and I figured why not? It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, so off we went. There were some people that had waited in line overnight just to get an up close spot at the premiere. We found out that Hugh himself called up the Paradise Bakery that is right there around 9am and ordered bagels, muffins, and juice for everyone that was there early in the morning waiting. After we heard that we were bummed that we didn't get there a little sooner, haha. We got there around 2pm and actually had a really good view of all the actors. If we would have pushed through just a little bit more, we would have been close enough to get an autograph or to even touch him. Oh yeah! The people that had tickets to see the movie that night with the actors, were actually allowed to walk on the red carpet with the stars and get pictures with them. The lucky ducks! We were wishing we had tickets! Here are some up close pictures of the day for people to drool over, haha.

They had these posters up everywhere.

This is as close as I was able to get to Hugh. There was security all around and we weren't quite close enough to touch the real stars.

Tracy and I waiting so patiently for the actors to arrive. Hugh arrived on a motorcycle! It was so cool.

He was really so nice to all of the fans that were there. :)

Someone gave him a shirt to sign. Lucky people that got autographs!

Wow, he's HOT! :)

Signing an autograph and then holding the mic from a TV crew out for the crowd to scream into. So much energy from the crowd, it was awesome.

We could tell that he was really genuinely excited to be there.

See how close we were! I had to take one of his backside too! ;)

He's signing autographs and talking to the news people.

Ryan Reynolds plays Deadpool in the movie and he is also another Hottie! ;)

Of course I had to get one of his backside too, LOL. He was super nice to the fans also.

Shaking hands with the crowd. Again, we were almost close enough to touch him!

Liev Schreiber plays Sabretooth in the movie.

Taylor Kitsch plays Gambit.

Lynn Collins plays Kayla in the movie.

Lynn Collins and Taylor Kitsch.

We had a blast and it was an experience that I will never forget! Who knows when another premiere will ever come to AZ again?! Thanks Tracy for going with me! Enjoy the pictures everyone, hehehe. ;)

Salsa Festival!

2009-04-28T23:34:00.000-07:00

Every year our City of Maricopa puts on an awesome Salsa Festival! People come out and prepare their famous salsa's and everyone gets to sample them and then vote for their favorite. They have a fun kids area there, as well as some vendors that sell items or enter people into a drawing to win free things. Oh, and let's not forget the yummy food vendors! Snow cones, cotton candy, barbeque, hot dogs, ice cream and my favorite, Fry Bread! They passed out bags of chips so you have something to sample the salsa with too. So I had some delicious salsas, a snow cone and Fry Bread! Mmm, it doesn't get much better than that! It's all free too except for the food that you want to eat. Well the salsa samples are free too of course. Here are some pictures from the kids area where the games and bouncy house things were.

Cole is just coming down a slide that is part of a bouncy house thing. When are they going to be too old for these things? The lines are long and then they only get 5 min to jump around. There were a lot of different ones there and I let them pick one to do. Good thing it had a slide or they might have been super bored.

Jacob is actually pausing for a picture on the bouncy house.

Now here he is coming down the slide.

They played this hammer game where you have to hit it and ring the bell. I guess the hammer was heavy they said. They did great though!

Here is Jacob with his wicked spider face painting! He was thrilled with it. Did I mention that all of this stuff was FREE? LOVE it! :)

Our Newest Scout!

2009-04-22T23:21:00.000-07:00

Jacob went to his first Pack meeting as an official Wolf! He was so cute and had so much fun. I can't believe how big and grown up this kid is getting. Cole had a game that night so him and Nick didn't make it to pack meeting, which bummed me out a little cause I wanted to get a picture of my two scouts together in their uniforms. Oh well, next month I will. We had a good time and he was sure loving life being a scout now. He got to lead everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance. That made his night! They welcomed him into Scouts and everyone did a cheer for him. He was eating it up! Oh boy, here we go. Starting scouts all over again, fun, fun! We are now going to start working on his Bobcat!

Isn't he the cutest Wolf EVER? :)

Here he is with some of the other Wolves. They are welcoming him into the den.

They did a fun relay that night and after the scouts raced against the parents, the scouts teamed up with the younger kids that were there and helped them out. It was so cute! :)

Yay Jacob, the newest Wolf in the Pack!

I heart Golden Spoon!

2009-04-21T12:56:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have never been to Golden Spoon, you need to go! It's yummy NON-FAT Yogurt that tastes so GOOD! My parents have one near their home in California, so we spent several days there last summer when we were visiting. Other than that, I have only heard of them being located in Gilbert and Mesa. So, imagine my excitement when I found a location not far from our home. It's on Queen Creek and Alma School. Now that I know that, we will be going there whenever we get a chance I'm sure. The boys love it. They have no idea that it's non-fat. They think it's ice cream. Cole and I went shopping Friday night and went there after and then when Jacob heard that we went there without him, he had to make sure that he could go the next day. So him and I headed there on Saturday. You don't have to twist my arm to go twice. :) These pictures were taken with my phone so they aren't a great quality.

Doesn't he make it look so good?

YUM!

We LOVE Golden Spoon! :)

What's in your wallet?

2009-04-18T22:31:00.000-07:00

When we were out to dinner on Jacob's birthday with my parents, my dad took his wallet out to pay for his meal. His wallet is really fat and full of stuff. We were calling it the George Costanza wallet. He has everything in there. Nick started laughing about it cause he couldn't believe that he actually carries that around with him in his back pocket. Well he actually carries it around in his front pocket. He thought that was worse! Nick hates carrying a wallet at all and really tries to keep it as flat as possible. We took a picture of it for fun.

Here is my dad's wallet, fully loaded. Hahaha!

Now here it is next to Nick's. We were calling them the rich man's wallet and the poor man's wallet. Oh my goodness, so funny! Boppy (grandpa) was a good sport about it.

So, what's in your wallet? :)

Happy Easter!

2009-04-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

Easter was a lot of fun. Nick was able to get the day off work, so we were happy about that. On Friday we dyed eggs after school. We went with a Star Wars theme this year of course, and they turned out really cute. Pretty cool actually. On Easter, the bunny paid us a visit and hid their Easter baskets really well. It took some time for the boys to find them. Sneaky bunny, hehe. ;)

Here they are working on the eggs.

Here are some of their finished eggs. They came complete with Star Wars stickers and everything.

I made this one. It's a spaceship. Yeah, I know pretty cool, haha.

The older they get the funner dying eggs is. There is not as much mess and they really do get pretty creative with it.

Easter morning right when they woke up. They were anxious to get started in finding their baskets and eggs.

They found them! Harder places this year too. I guess they are just getting too good so the bunny felt the need to make it harder on them. They sure had fun though. :)

Here they are with their loot. They each got a DS game, some candy and a book. Jacob also got a Bakugan and Cole got some Legos. They even got money that was hidden in some of the eggs. After church we went out to my parents for Easter dinner. We had a great day and enjoyed spending it with family. I love that my kids still believe in the Easter bunny. I know they won't for much longer, so for now it's great, cause it keeps them younger to me. One day I'll be sad cause they won't have that "innocence" anymore. I'm enjoying it while it lasts! :)

Hope everyone had a great Easter! I love this time of year cause it helps me to reflect on the Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ! I'm thankful for the atonement and for my forever family! :)

Jacob's Birthday Fun!

2009-04-13T13:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Jacob's 8th birthday and we had a good time celebrating as a family. This year was just a family party, since last year he had a big friends party. He picked what he wanted us to all do that day. Next month he will be baptized and so that is when he will have a big family party to celebrate that. We went miniature golfing in the afternoon. I was a little worried cause it had rained the night before, but luckily it only sprinkled a bit while we were there. After golfing, we went out to dinner to Texas Roadhouse and we met my parents there. Jacob calls that restaurant the "saddle place" cause they sit you on a saddle and sing happy birthday to you. So funny! He wanted to wait until Sunday to blow out candles, cause we were going to go out to my parents for Easter and so he wanted to do it with all of the cousins. He got loads of birthday money, so I took him shopping on Monday so that he could spend it all. Yep, he had a great birthday this year and now we are excited for his baptism next month! Wow, I can't believe he's going to be baptized so soon. I really want to freeze time for awhile!

Here he is right when he woke up that day. He was SO excited that it was his big day!

We had to hurry up and open presents before we went anywhere or did anything.

I don't think I've ever seen tissue paper flying out of the gift bag that fast! :)

He got a Bakugan Battle Arena and some other Bakugan's to go with it. I have NO idea how the Bakugan's work, but he sure loves them.

He also got a new Razor since his is broken. I still haven't seen him ride the new one. He has been WAY to busy with all of the Bakugan stuff.

Look at those golfing stances. :)

Lookin' good birthday boy!

Here are some at the restaurant. This kid is always being goofy in pictures. I couldn't resist capturing him doing something funny.

Here is Jacob and Nick and Jacob and Cole. Yep, goofy face as usual.

Cole was trying to entertain us all at the restaurant cause he was gettin' bored. He was singing and making music with his silverware. Ha! :)

This was the best part of the night for him. He was so excited to sit on that saddle and have happy birthday sung to him. Yeehaw!

Here is his cake that we had the next day out at my parents house. Okay, I really need to explain this cake. I made Easter cookies a couple of days earlier to give to people and the frosting was pink. I had quite a bit leftover, but Jacob didn't want pink frosting on his cake. We played around with the different food colors and this is the color that he chose. He said that it's Hulk green. The writing, well I ran out of blue so I had to finish in Orange. He really didn't care what his cake looked like. We were just having a family party so it didn't need to be fancy. As long as it tasted good, which it sure did! YUM! Next month when he gets baptized, I will order one and make sure it looks a lot better. I am NOT a cake decorator by any means, haha. ;)

I used those fun Sparkler candles and they were kind of hard to blow out. :)

Having some fun on my parents trampoline. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY! WE LOVE YOU! :)

My Baby Turns 8!

2009-04-11T11:34:00.001-07:00

Oh man, as I sit here typing this post I'm thinking where has the time gone? My baby can't be 8! PLEASE tell me that's not true! This is a bittersweet day for me. I'm sad cause he's getting so grown up and he's my BABY, but I'm also happy cause he's 8 and will be getting baptized next month. He's also in Scouts now, which really makes him seem even more grown up. I just never thought that we would be done having kids after only two. I always thought that I'd be blessed with at least 4 kids. That was our plan any way. Obviously, the Lord has different plans in mind. I still feel like I'm supposed to have one more, but we'll see how that works out. I have come to terms with it all, and I do feel really blessed to have the two wonderful children that I have. I couldn't ask for two better kids. They aren't supposed to grow up so fast though. Anyone have some ideas on how to "freeze" time so that I can squeeze a few more years out of them? Here are some super cute pictures of Jacob that I thought I'd share since he's the birthday boy today. He is so excited to be 8, and it's because of this excitement that I'm putting on a happy face. Otherwise, I'd be spending the day in bed having a pity party and being sad about my kids growing up! I will post some current pictures of his big day later after we finish celebrating!

Here's his picture that was taken in the hospital. He was a chubby little thing.

He is 3 months old in both of these pictures. The one on the left was when we went to California that summer and we went to Legoland. Look at those cheeks! It's one of my favorite pictures of him. He is also 3 months old in the one on the right. It's his first studio picture. The kid is all Sorenson! :)

These two were taken on his birthday last year. The one on the left was taken when he first woke up in the morning and in the one on the right, he is enjoying his birthday cake and ice cream.

Happy Birthday Jacob! We love you! :)

Spring has sprung!

2009-03-31T16:12:00.000-07:00

Here it is the last day of March and it's looking and feeling like Spring! I love it! Summer is just around the corner and we're excited! We have about 2 months of school left. Summertime is going to be HOT, so I'm enjoying this beautiful weather that we are having now. Can't wait for swim season though. The pool is warming up! :)

I found some old pictures that were taken at spring time that I wanted to share.

Cole is 15 months old in this picture. It's taken at the Temple grounds and it's one of my favorites of him. :) Pretty flowers in the background.

This was taken at Easter time at our old house. Jacob was 2 years old and Cole was 4. I love the smile on Cole's face here. So cute!

Then of course one with the Easter Bunny. Jacob was 3 years old here and he's looking pretty brave! :)

These are the pretty flower fields near my parents home in CA. We took this picture when we were there last year at spring break. Love it!

Here is Nick and the boys in front of the flower fields also taken last spring break.

Happy Spring everyone! Enjoy the beauty! :)

Pinewood Derby...Year 3!

2009-03-30T08:17:00.001-07:00

Saturday was our ward's Pinewood Derby. Fun was had by all! Cole got first place in the Webelos den and 4th place overall! Way to go Cole! This is his last year to be in the derby, so he was happy that he did so good. Jacob also made a car for fun. His first official year will be next year since he still has two more weeks before he turns 8! Here are some pictures.

Here he is showing off his cool car!

Jacob had to get in on the action too. :)

He is waiting for the race to start. He got a license with his picture on it, cute! :)

Waiting for his car at the finish line. He was racing against two of his buddies here.

He looks pretty pleased with himself as he hangs out with two of his good friends. :)

Here he is getting his award and showing his car off to everyone.

Jacob's turn to race his car and against Cole's too!

There were some pretty cool cars there. Cole and Jacob's cars are on the far left two lanes:)

Nick is being funny. This is a car that looks like a popsicle so he is pretending to eat it. It even had popsicle sticks glued to it! Cute idea! There were quite a few creative cars there! :)

Cole is showing off his certificate. His car got Sportiest Looking car. :) My cute boys. Cole won't be a cub scout for much longer and Jacob will be one in less than 2 weeks! Time flies!

Way to go boys!

Let's Play Ball!

2009-03-28T12:10:00.001-07:00

Baseball season is upon us! Opening day for Little League was last Saturday. Cole is on the Twins team again and so far they are doing pretty good. They've been practicing for over a month now, so he's glad to finally be playing in games. He's pitching again this year, and he's also catching. Poor kid was catcher for the entire game on Tuesday and he was so tired after! Nick is also coaching again, so it's a busy baseball season once again for us. I forgot my camera on Saturday, so my friend Lynda took some pictures of him for me and she has an awesome camera so they turned out really good. Thanks Lynda! I couldn't choose which pictures I liked best, so I put them all on here!

Here is the Twins team on the field during opening ceremonies.

Look at the form on this kid!

Way to go Cole! :)

Nice batting stance bud!

Well done #10! It was a great game and the Twins won! :) Yeah, I'm a little proud, can you tell?

A New Kind of Cereal...

2009-03-27T07:32:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago Cole finished up his latest book report and project. This thing was the DEBIL! I'm tellin' ya it took a lot of time, but in the end it turned out really well. He was quite proud of it. He had to create a cereal based off the title of a book he read. He went with something easy, Harry Potter, and really did a good job. He had to prepare a 2 minute commercial to go with it also.

The ingredients were listed on the side and that was where he had to write the main characters, on the other side was the plot, on the top was the title and author of the book, and on the back, an activity, he did a word search that took FOREVER! It was a cute idea though. He brought home an awesome grade for it too! :) Yay Cole! So now who wants some Sorcerer's Stones Strawberry Flavored Oat Cereal? Sounds good, doesn't it? ;)

Swimming with no water?

2009-03-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

Last week we had to drain our pool. Apparently, with salt water pools, you have to drain them every two years. The sun makes more salt and so eventually the self chlorinator will stop working because of too much salt, which means that we have to manually add the other chemicals. Well our pool is basically maintenance free and this is not something that Nick wanted to do, especially since I teach lessons and the pool gets used a lot. This is not something they warn you about when you buy a salt water pool either. So while the boys were at school, Nick rented a pump and drained it all into the sewer clean out. When they got home from school it was done so they were able to go into the pool while it was being filled back up. They had loads of fun in there climbing around. Now the pool is filled up again and soon it will be warm and ready for the summer! Yay, can't wait for swim season just around the corner. :)

The pool does go to 6.5 feet, so they had quite a climb up to that step. They weren't even standing in the deepest part either. :)

Seriously? Already?

2009-03-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

I know there are some of you out there who think that I am just completely and totally obsessed with Twilight and that I am the biggest Twilight fan. Well that is true to a point. However, I'm not an obsessed enough fan to put a countdown to the New Moon movie on my blog yet. That's right, I actually found an even BIGGER fan out there who is already counting down to New Moon which by the way doesn't come out until November! I won't have that on my blog until at least October. ;) Here is the proof that it is really out there, ALREADY! Geez, now I want to see it and I have so long to wait. Why do they do that to the poor fans? By the way, as of today there are apparently 246 days left. That's a lot! :( And yes, they have started filming it already.

They even have movie posters already! So, here is a little eye candy for you Edward fans. Nice! ;)

You're Welcome! :)

p.s. The Twilight movie comes out on DVD this Saturday! Make sure you get your copy. ;)

Witch Mountain at the Drive-in

2009-03-16T23:17:00.001-07:00

Friday was the day that the new movie Race to Witch Mountain came out, so we decided to try something different and take the kids to the drive-in to watch it. Nick and I haven't been to the drive-in theater in years and the boys have never been. It was a beautiful night for a drive in and we had such a good time. We even saw some of our friends there that had the same great idea as us. I forgot my camera, but we made a bed in the Durango and the boys were super comfy there. The movie theater hasn't changed much since we were there last time which was about 15 years ago! Witch Mountain gets two thumbs up from us! So good! :)

More Spring Break Fun!

2009-03-15T21:47:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday we went camping as a family up North to Canyon Creek. It was beautiful, but um, FREEZING! It even started snowing when we first got there and then again as we were packing up to leave. That wasn't a very good night's sleep, to say the least. There was snow nearby all over the ground. I'm not much of a camper, but since I'm outnumbered in this house 3 to 1, I was out voted. We were the only ones at the entire campsite. Probably cause no one is as crazy as we are to sleep in a tent in that kind of weather! :) We did have a good time though. The sun came out in the morning and we were able to enjoy the area and the view. The boys played golf and shot the BB gun. Good times!

Cole and Nick have been into playing chess lately, so they brought the chess set and set it up near the fire so they could stay warm while playing. Jacob is doing his usual thing, finding something to climb on. :)

Night time by the fire. We were playing some fun games and telling stories.

This is on our hike. Not sure what is with the Clone Trooper guns. Maybe they thought that they would shoot a wild animal that scared them, hahaha. Even Nick was getting in on that. ;)

Here is Canyon Creek. We had to drive across it with our car. It's built to do that, but it was a little freaky I thought. I kept having visions of the creek carrying our car away, LOL. It was so beautiful! :)

Here is Cole target shooting with the BB gun. They were having loads of fun shooting cans and other targets.

This is on the ride home. They were nice and quiet. Jacob had his iPod and some snacks and Cole had his DS. Ahh, peace! :)

This is a video that I shot of Jacob. He made up a little dance about the fire finally being out. I won't mention how they got the fire completely out, boys! ;) He was proud of himself for helping out so well so he started doing a little jig. He hammed it up even more when he saw me recording it! This kid cracks me up! :)

Swimming in March?

2009-03-14T19:40:00.001-07:00

We've had a great time this past week during our spring break. Tuesday the boys had some friends come over to play and their friends couldn't handle looking at the pool without getting in. The water is 60 degrees, but I went ahead and let them all get in, knowing that it would only last 10 minutes tops! They got in and it actually lasted for 15 minutes. :) They were cold, but they wouldn't admit it. I saw them shivering though, so yes they were a little chilly. Here are some pictures to show everyone just how cold they really were.

They were so glad to get their towels. We did have towels for Dylan and Ethan to use and they did use them, I guess I just didn't get any pictures of them with the towels. We didn't make them stand there freezing despite what the pictures show.

Cole was going to jump back in to get the kickboard that was left behind. No one else wanted to do it, but not because they were cold, yeah right!

He got it and quickly got back out. He wasn't happy that he had to get wet again after already drying off!

The sun felt good after that cold water. Crazy kids! :)

A Day at the Zoo!

2009-03-10T10:19:00.000-07:00

The boys are on Spring Break this week and Nick is on mandatory vacation all week, so we decided to head to the zoo yesterday. We haven't been there in over 2 years and they've added some things, so it was really a fun time and a great zoo day. The weather was awesome!

This statue has a special meaning for us. When Cole was on a 1st grade field trip the fingertip he's holding sliced him above his eye and there was blood everywhere. He wasn't sure if he wanted to get near this statue again, but he was brave and toughed it out. We had to take a picture of it again after all these years! :)

Jacob was so sure that he looked like a turtle. Um, I don't think so, haha.

I remember how small they used to look on these big ole tractors. Not anymore! They sure have grown since we were at the zoo last.

The Wallaby's were so cute. They were looking right at us while eating their grass.

This is a cool slide that looks like a Saguaro cactus.

This chipmunk was being pretty brave...up to a point. He ran back to the tree right after I got this picture.

Cole didn't notice the Tortoise behind them at first cause it was so still that it looked like a rock!

These little monkeys in monkey village were sure funny. This one was so close and kept climbing higher and higher, but continued to stare at us.

This little monkey is sleeping in a tree. You can see him right there on the branch sleeping. We did learn to not walk directly under them. One kid in front of us, well he got pooped on as he was walking right below one, haha. :)

These turtles, were "wrestling" the boys said. Yep...wrestling, that's what they were doing all right. ;) The boys noticed that when turtles "wrestle" they bark and sound like dogs. So, we learned something new that day, who knew? They thought that was pretty funny! The zoo is supposed to be G rated!

The above pictures are the Orangutuans. They were so entertaining. The baby one especially. She/he kept climbing and playing on that rope. It was so cute and quite hilarious! :)

Jacob posing for a picture on a boat that looked like a pirate ship, of course!

This is Stingray bay. It is the newest attraction at the zoo. The Stingrays come up so close to you and they let people pet them. Jacob was a little freaked out at first, but he got brave and once he touched one, he loved it and couldn't get enough. He said they feel soft and he loves soft things. :)

We love the Phoenix Zoo!

Caring Award!

2009-02-27T17:41:00.001-08:00

Today Jacob received the Caring award from his school. Every month each teacher chooses one boy and one girl from their class to receive a special character award. They focus on different character traits, and Jacob received one for "being a person of character by being kind, compassionate, expressing gratitude and helping others". Way to go Jacob! I'm especially proud that Jacob received the award for caring. He can sometimes be a challenge for us. He is a bit stubborn and he has a little bit of a temper. Sometimes I think we're doing everything wrong with this kid, and then he goes and gets an award that has to do with caring! Wow, guess we're doing a better job with him than I thought. His teacher told him that she likes how he always says excuse me. He is a totally different kid at home, then when he's at school. :) We are proud of you Jacob! You are such a great example to others. We love you bud!

Here he is with his certificate outside of his school. No, that isn't sunburn on his face and neck. It's a shadow that's hitting his shirt weird and reflecting off of it.

The kids had early release so he was rewarded with McDonald's for lunch and playing at the park. Since they have to wear uniforms, he put on his cool new shirt after school and wanted to show it off with his certificate, again. Isn't he cute? :)

Batting Stances

2009-02-25T11:16:00.000-08:00

Nick and Cole love to play a game where Cole imitates baseball players batting stances. He does pretty good impersonations and we finally captured it on video so everyone can see. Here is Cole doing his impressions of some pro ball players. It's pretty funny! ;)

This kid LOVES baseball!

Blue/Gold Banquet

2009-02-21T12:33:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday night was the Cub Scout Blue/Gold banquet. It was a Western theme and we had a lot of fun. Cole had to prepare and give a 2-3 minute speech on Wyatt Earp. Even though he hates speaking in front of others, he did a really good job. All of the kids were given a bandanna and a sheriff's badge to wear that night. I snapped some funny photos of the evening.

Here is Cole getting ready for the program to start.

Here is Jacob with the bandanna and sheriff's badge that they gave him. He's making a goofy face as usual and I'm not sure what look he was going for exactly in the picture on the right. Silly kid! :)

There is a family in our ward who was showing the kids how to rope a cow. They had a mechanical cow there and it was really cool. The boy is Jacob's age, and Jacob thought it was so cool that he could do that. He roped the head and then his dad roped the feet. It was pretty neat to watch that. :)

Here is Cole's speech about Wyatt Earp. He did a really good job with it. We are so proud of Cole. He is such a good example to his brother. Jacob can't wait for scouts so that he can do all the fun things that Cole gets to do. I'm sad that this is Cole's last year as a Cub Scout! He's going to be an 11 year old scout soon which means he will be going on overnites like the big kids do, boo hoo! Jacob only has 6 weeks left until he's 8 and then he'll be a Wolf! I can't believe how time is flying! :(

Valentine's Day

2009-02-21T11:59:00.001-08:00

I've had kind of a crazy week this past week, so here are some updated pictures. Last week for Valentine's Day, the Love Bug (a.k.a. mom and dad) paid a visit to our house. The boys were given a book, gift card and some candy. They had a basketball game that morning, so grandma and grandpa came over for awhile after their game. Grandma even played Wii bowling with Cole, yes that would be Nene. :) That night Nick and I went out and they got to go to a friend's house. We all had a great time!

So excited over something so small, gotta love kids! :) Grandpa is sitting down in the background.

Cole looking so sweet on such a "sweet" day. :)

Jacob also looking so sweet and excited! :) Grandpa watching from the couch.

Jacob being funny with a sucker that is shaped like lips, haha. Grandpa is now asleep on the couch. :) We love our Boppy!

Cole and Nene (grandma) bowling on the Wii. So fun! We love our Nene too!

We didn't take any pictures of Nick and I going out that night. I'm sorry we didn't. Nick got me a gift card too and also my own Webkinz! Yes, that's right, my own. Now I can play with the kids. I've been having a great time decorating my pets room (all pink and girlie of course) and playing games against the kids online. I have to have some kind of girl around here that I can dress up in pink and go shopping for cute girlie clothes with. ;)

Hope your Valentine's Day was a great one and that it was filled with lots of LOVE!

New Spring Training Facility!

2009-02-12T09:38:00.000-08:00

Our friend's company is building the new spring training complex for the Dodgers & White Sox. Darren and his son Alexander are big time baseball fanatics like Nick and Cole, so Darren took them on a tour of the almost finished facility. They had such a great time and they got to wear some cool safety attire that I think they made quite a fashion statement with. ;)

Here's Cole and Alexander. Check out their cool hats, glasses and vests. :)

The Dodgers hydrotherapy room.

Nick and Cole in the locker room.

View from Joe Torre's balcony.

Main Stadium.

Dodgers and White Sox owners' suites

On the left, the many batting cages. The right, main stadium.

Darren and Alexander in the team dugout.

Nick on the dugout phone making a call to the bullpen. Think anyone answered? :)

Thanks Darren! They had a great time! They told me how awesome it is, and now I can't wait until it's done so we can all go to a game. :)

New Addiction...

2009-02-07T14:17:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I know that my post count was down in January and here it is already the 7th of February and this is only my 3rd post of this month. Truth be told, there hasn't been many exciting things going on lately. If I'm going to be completely honest though, I have a new addiction that seems to be taking up a lot of my time and is kind of a big time waster...Facebook! I have been having so much fun with it. I have found all sorts of old friends and even relatives that I haven't seen in a long time. I even made a lunch date with my girlfriends from high school, who I hadn't seen in about 15 years! I have found old college friends and old roommates too. If you haven't created an account yet, you should! What are you all waiting for? Get on Facebook and request to be my friend. We can chat and keep in touch that way. Oh and if you have teenagers who are on there, then it's a great way to keep tabs on them. ;) I must warn you though that when you do join, your house will be a little messier, you will go to bed a little later and your blog will most likely suffer. If you're against Facebook, then I promise to be better at blogging this month to keep you all updated that way.

http://www.facebook.com/

Naked Spiderman!

2009-02-06T17:48:00.002-08:00

Jacob loves to climb on EVERYTHING! Every time we go somewhere, he finds something, anything to climb on. The other night as he was getting in the shower, he decided to scale the wall in the hallway. He was nekked, cause he was supposed to be getting in the shower. I wasn't going to post this picture, but I have to admit, I think it's kind of funny when I embarrass the kids, hehe. I blurred out his private parts and then I got his permission to post it. Jacob is NOT a shy kid.

His head is touching the ceiling! Yep, this kid sure does make us proud! ;)

What's in your pocket?

2009-02-04T09:56:00.001-08:00

So the other day I washed the kids clothes. As I take them out of the dryer all sorts of goodies got left behind. I found money, a nerf gun bullet, a toothpick, a club card, and even a couple of rocks (they are rocks, not pieces of poo). Don't ya just love little boys? I guess I should clean pockets out first, but I just expect them to do that, yeah right. As far as the money goes, it's mine as payment for washing their dirty clothes. :) Have you all looked in your kids pockets lately? No telling what you'll find! :) Here's a picture of all the treasure I found, just from one day!

On another note, the big Superbowl game was this past Sunday. The Cardinals didn't win, but they played a great game. I have nothing exciting to blog about it. Nick had to work but came home before the game started. We barbecued and stayed home to watch it. I had the camera ready and waiting to video anything exciting in case they won. They didn't and so the mood in the house was a somber one. There is always next year and we will once again be rooting for the Cardinals!

Monster Jam '09!

2009-01-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

Saturday night Nick and the boys were invited to go with some friends of ours to the Monster Jam truck show. They've never been before, and they're instant fans now. I'm not sure why they've never gone before? They even had a pit pass where they were able to walk down into the pit and get up close to the trucks. Nick forgot the camera so he took a couple with his phone, and then I borrowed a couple from Natalie's blog. :) Thanks Roos family for the invite! They thought it ROCKED!

Nick wanted me to go, but none of the other mom's were going and it didn't really sound like something I'd enjoy. So, the other mom's and I went out for pedicures and dinner. That was WAY more fun! Thanks ladies!

Look how small they look next to that HUGE truck! They were right next to it. Wow!

Here's the famous Grave Digger truck. Ginourmous!

Here's a view from their seats. Their favorite part was a car that jumped through an exploding school bus. Wow, guess I missed out! ;)

Between the pit party and the show starting, they went to go get dinner. They talked about going to Peter Piper Pizza. Well they decided to go to Cooperstown. That is the restaurant owned by Alice Cooper! Interesting choice indeed! It was a little strange in there they said! I bet!

Monster Jam '09 was a success and I'm sure they will go again next year! :)

History was made!

2009-01-26T15:09:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late with this post, but it seems that I haven't been posting as much this month for some reason. Last week history was made, twice!

First, the Cardinals won the play-offs and they are heading to the Superbowl! Yay! It's the 1st time in 61 years, so it's a pretty BIG deal, especially at our house! Nick is a HUGE Cardinals fan. Being from Arizona he likes to support our local teams, even when they would continually lose. He is VERY happy that they FINALLY won! Too bad the Superbowl was here last year instead of this year. That would have been cool to have it be here, but I wonder how much those tickets would have cost? Hmmm? You know we will be watching it at our house and Nick is even going to take the day off of work so he won't miss it! Go Cardinals! :)

Then two days later was the Presidential Inauguration. Our new President was sworn into office. Yes, I would have preferred to have Mitt Romney in there or even John McCain, but what am I gonna do? To think about the fact that this country actually elected a black President, just shows how far we've come. That was unheard of 50 years ago and it makes me proud to be an American! I hope it works out and I hope he does a good job. He's done a couple of things already that has me worrying, but who knows, maybe he is just what this country needs. This is me being positive and supporting him. I could be like all of those Bush haters and boo him, but that wouldn't make me a very good American, would it? Let's give our new President our support and our prayers! If you're an Obama fan, please don't flame me. :)

While you're at it, pray for the Cardinals too! A win for them would simply be, well words can't describe the reaction that my husband would make if they won. I'll be sure to have the video camera on hand so in case they win I can get it all on tape. I'm sure it will be a reaction that is blog worthy. Yep, can't wait! :)

New WeBeLo!

2009-01-23T11:29:00.000-08:00

Cole is the newest Webelo in the ward. He was official when he turned 10 in December. At Tuesday's pack meeting he received the rest of the awards that he earned while he was a bear. Also, they passed out prizes that the boys earned for selling Scoutarama tickets back in November. Jacob helped sell tickets too, so he even got a prize. Way to go boys!

Here is our big 10 year old decked out in his scout shirt with all of his cool patches!

Here he is getting his awards. I like the picture on the left cause that little girl was posing for me. She's so cute! She didn't care that I was trying to get Cole, she just wanted her picture taken! Hahaha! :)

He was so proud and so excited that he got a super cool pocket knife as his prize for selling tickets. He also earned two more belt loops and two more arrow points. Way to go Cole! :)

Jacob was thrilled that he actually received something and he's not even an official scout yet. He got a pocket sized multi tool that's similar to a pocket knife as his prize. Way to go Jacob! :)

Random Picture

I found this picture on the camera when I was uploading pictures onto the computer. I think Nick took it. It's a Star Wars character getting Indiana Jones! Hahaha! I guess that means that aliens would win a fight against Indi. So funny! Gotta love little boys!

Go Celtics!

2009-01-18T23:16:00.000-08:00

Basketball season has started and this year the boys are on the same team! I love it when that happens and every so often it works out. Cole is thrilled to have his best friend, Alexander on the team and Jacob has his good friend Dylan on the team. Cole is a really good player and has improved quite a bit since last year. Him and Alexander make more baskets than anyone else too. Jacob has also improved since last year.

They won their first game and then they lost their second one, but they still have a few more to go! Here are some pictures! They aren't the best shots so I will take better ones at Saturday's game.

Here is Jacob warming up. He looks a bit confused, haha.

Here is Cole on defense!

So proud of you two! :)

Cream Cheese Chicken Recipe

2009-01-18T23:14:00.000-08:00

I've been slacking in posting new recipes. Truth be told, I haven't made anything new in awhile. Just making things I've made in the past that my family likes. Tonight I decided to make something new that I found on the internet. It was REALLY good. It's a lot like the Crock pot chicken that I make, except a couple of ingredients are a little different.

Ingredients:
-1 can cream of chicken soup
-1/2 cup chicken broth
-frozen chicken pieces (4-5 breasts, or 8-9 tenderloins)
-1 packet of Italian salad dressing mix
-2 cloves minced garlic
-1 block of cream cheese (to add later)

Directions:
Put everything except for the cream cheese into the crockpot. Cook on low for 6 hours, or until the chicken is cooked through and begins to shred. Shred the chicken with two large forks, and mix in the block of cream cheese. Switch the crock to high and cook for another 30 minutes, or until the cream cheese is fully melted. Serve over fusilli pasta. So easy and so yummy! :)

Hiking anyone?

2009-01-17T15:41:00.000-08:00

Friday the kids had a half day so we decided to go to South Mountain to go hiking. It was a BEAUTIFUL, warm day! Our friend Lynda invited us to go with her so she wouldn't have to go by herself. It's a pretty easy hike and the boys did great! They kept up with no problem at all. It was 79 degrees outside and I even got quite warm while hiking! Where is all the cold weather? I'm not ready for it to be this warm yet. Isn't it still January?

Lynda and I at the top. There was still another 15min to go until the very top, but we were almost there at this point!

Nick and I at the same point.

The boys at the same part. Such a great view behind all of us!

Here are the boys at the very top. That is the lookout tower that you hike to and there are benches in there that you can sit and rest on.

Here we are headed back down the mountain, from the backside (I don't like that view), and then from the front.

Another one of us heading back down.

Cole and Jacob resting on a rock.

This cactus is almost as tall as Cole. :)

Here is Jacob standing next to a painted rock.

Another one of us coming down the mountain.

Their faces are kind of dark, but it was a cool picture of them standing by a Saguaro cactus.

We all had a GREAT time!

Get your groove on!

2009-01-12T22:23:00.001-08:00

The other day the boys were rocking out with their iPods. Cole hates being videotaped when he's dancing around cause he gets embarrassed, but I grabbed my camera any way and filmed them both. Don't mind the blanket in the way every once in awhile with Cole's. I kept hiding the camera every time he would turn to look at me. It was all a secret taping. :) Jacob doesn't care if he's taped at all. He hams it up for the camera even. They were so funny!

This one is Cole. Like I said, ignore the blanket in front of the lens every so often. :)

Now here's our ham, Jacob! He even pulled out the guitar to help him rock out! Ha! :)

What's Your Favorite?

2009-01-08T18:02:00.000-08:00

Since it's a New Year, I thought that I would ask the kids what some of their favorite things are. I do this often, but I have never documented it. Since they've gotten older, I thought that maybe things have changed with them, so here is what they have to say to some common questions.

Cole
Favorite color: Blue
Favorite pastime: Playing the Wii
When I grow up I want to be: A professional baseball player
Favorite book: Magic Tree House Books
Favorite song: Super Massive Blackhole (Twilight CD)
Favorite movie: Star Wars 3, Revenge of the Sith
Favorite thing I got for Christmas? Star Wars Legos
Favorite shirt: Brandon Webb Diamondbacks Shirt
Best Friends: Alexander and Dylan S.
Favorite subject at school: Math (he is a freak when it comes to math, no joke, really good!)
What do you like most about yourself? I'm good at sports
Favorite candy: Hershey Bar
Favorite food: Barbeque Chicken
What's the best thing about 4th grade: My teacher and friends

Jacob
Favorite color: Blue
Favorite pastime: Playing the Wii
When I grow up I want to be: A police officer
Favorite book: Spiderwick Chronicles
Favorite song: Super Massive Blackhole (Twilight CD)
Favorite movie: Star Wars 5, Empire Strikes Back
Favorite thing I got for Christmas? Star Wars Clone Wars Helmet
Favorite shirt: Pirates of the Carribbean
Best Friends: Dylan T, Derek R, Ethan, and Noah
Favorite subject at school: Language Arts (wow, he sounds like me, I liked this too!)
What do you like most about yourself? I'm funny
Favorite candy: Twix
Favorite food: Chicken Farfalle and Goulash
What's the best thing about 2nd grade: Get to play with friends

Things I learned from these lists today:
1. My boys LOVE Star Wars!
2. They both LOVE chocolate!
3. They like the same song (no I didn't influence them in that choice at all)
4. Cole loves baseball, A LOT! Jacob doesn't like sports near as much
5. They are different to when it comes to school. Jacob doesn't care for math at all, like me!
6. They are similar in ways, but also quite different.
7. I discovered I was right, some of their favorites have changed, especially since Christmas!

I did not coerce my boys into any of these answers. They came up with them on their own. I know that their love of chocolate comes from me though and they also like the Twilight CD, well because honestly, I play it in the car quite a bit. :)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T14:28:00.000-08:00

On New Years Eve we had Cole's friend birthday/New Years Eve slumber party. What fun we had! He invited 3 close friends, and we all had a really good time. They played their favorite Star Wars battle game complete with Lightsabers and nerf Clone guns. They chased each other around outside with Lightsabers and had a great time. We had pizza for dinner and then when it got dark we went outside and sat around the fire pit making smores. I guess that was the camp ground where they could go for a break as they continued playing their Star Wars battle game, haha.

Then they played Legos inside and took turns on the Wii. Alexander is awesome on the Wii and beat everyone at bowling until Dylan played against him and wound up beating him. Dylan was the champ at Wii bowling. I think they bruised Nick's ego a bit cause he told them they aren't allowed to play the Wii with him anymore when they come over again. He's joking of course, but he didn't seem to take it well when the boys beat him. I thought it was quite funny! :) I wish I would have taken pictures of them playing the Wii, but I was having too much fun watching them! :)

We had a cool Star Wars cake and ate that and opened up presents at about 9pm. Dylan fell asleep around 10pm only to be woken up by Mason before Midnight so that he could ring in the New Year with everyone. They went outside at Midnight and made tons of noise. I had horns and noise makers for them and those confetti party poppers. Finally they all fell asleep around 12:30am. Ahh, finally it was quiet! ;)

The next morning I made pancakes and eggs for everyone and they continued their fun Star Wars battle game outside in their jammies. They didn't even sleep that late. They were up around 8:30am. What? I thought they'd sleep in after staying up so late the night before.

Here's the 4 of them playing their Star Wars game. They all took turns wearing the helmet. In this picture, Mason is the one wearing it.

Here they are watching and helping Cole open his presents.

Check out that cake! A lady in my ward made it. It's the volcano scene with Anakin and Obi Wan from the Star Wars 3 movie. It had lava and white chocolate mountains even. It wound up being a little bigger than she had planned, but it was so cool! The boys were a bit excited I think. :)

Here is our Birthday Jedi! :) I can't believe my little boy is 10! Where has the time gone? We love you Cole! :)

Cole turns 10!

2008-12-30T22:49:00.000-08:00

Sunday was Cole's birthday. Saturday night he got to pick what he wanted to go do as a family. He chose Bowling. Okay, I'm a good sport, so I participated, but understand one thing, I am NOT a bowler. Never have been and probably never will be. We had a lot of fun though! Final scores, Nick-107, Me-88, Cole-86 and Jacob-77, and that was with the bumpers up. Yes, you read that right. My 10 year old son only scored 2 points less than me. I'm not a bowler, remember. After bowling we headed to Red Robin for dinner. Again, Cole's choice. He picked that place cause they go all out on the singing when it's your birthday. So, when it was time to sing to him, they sang LOUD! Wow, not kidding! Cole gets embarrassed quite easily and his face turned about 5 shades of red. He loved it though and we had such a good time.

Here are the three of them in their stylin' bowling shoes. Don't you love those shoes? :)

They would get down on their knees to watch the ball go down the lane. I guess they had a better view of it that way. :)

Jacob was a bit excited cause he got a spare. :)

Birthday boy!

Here is Nick and Cole at Red Robin. Okay, I think I know who Jacob takes after when he makes those funny faces. ;)

Here is Jacob and I at Red Robin. I think I posed with the wrong kid, haha.

Here is the birthday kid enjoying his ice cream that they gave him when they sang Happy Birthday.

After dinner we went to the Temple to see the Christmas lights. Every year they outdo themselves by adding more lights. It's awesome to see! We've been trying to go for a couple of weeks, but we had rain and then Jacob was sick so finally we had a chance after Christmas to go. We love the Nativity displays from all over the world that they have there inside the visitors center. I did get pictures, but they don't show the true beauty of it at all.

Here are the boys at the Temple in front of the Christmas tree outside the visitors center. It was COLD!

Here is Jacob in front of the big nativity display outside. It's hard to tell what it is, but it really is beautiful!

Then here is Jacob making another goofy face in front of the Joseph and Mary on the donkey.

Here are the 3 boys in front of the 3 wise men crossing on the front lawn.

On Sunday they sang to him in Primary, and again, the red face showed up. I made his favorite meal for dinner and we opened presents. He is really into Legos right now, so he got some Legos for his birthday and some rollerblades. Now him and Jacob can go rollerblading together. On Monday his grandma took him shopping for his birthday to let him pick out exactly what he wanted. They went, yep you guessed it, to the Lego Store in the Chandler mall where he picked out another Star Wars Lego set. I swear that kid is starting up a collection of Star Wars Legos. He has a ton! He's fast at putting them together too.

Here he is right after waking up on Sunday. He still looks a bit tired.

Here is Cole in all his glory opening up presents. He made sure to read the cards before opening any presents. :)

He was excited to get rollerblades, especially since Jacob got some for Christmas. In the picture on the right I caught him making a weird face, but really he was excited that he got Star Wars Legos. :)

He got some Indiana Jones Legos too and apparently they were ones that he really wanted, so he stood up and started doing a little dance from excitement, haha. I wish I would have recorded it. He was hilarious! :)

We took family pictures on Sunday right after church cause I wanted a good picture of us dressed up since Jacob was sick the Sunday before. I don't like my legs in the picture at all. They look weird. These were taken using the self timer on the camera, so I had no way of knowing how they looked before snapping the picture. In the 2nd picture Jacob was mad and so he is crying, but trying to smile at the same time. They didn't turn out as good as I'd hoped. We need someone to take some good family pictures of us!

Here are the two boys. Jacob was still mad so this is the best smile I could get out of him. :)

New Years Eve is his friend party. We are having a birthday/New Years Eve slumber party. He has invited 3 close friends. That is all I can handle, haha. It will be his first slumber party and he is VERY excited about it. I imagine a lot of Wii playing will be going on and other fun boy activities. I will post more about it when it's over.

Santa Claus came to town!

2008-12-30T22:33:00.001-08:00

We've had a busy week, obviously, and so I haven't had time to post since the big guy came to visit. So much has happened! Let's start with Christmas Eve. This was actually a pretty mellow day. We didn't have much going on, so we decided to do what we do every year and go see a movie. First we had to visit Urgent Care for Jacob. He had a bad cough that had started on Sunday and it wasn't getting better so I went to see if they could give him something to help. After a visit and a few prescriptions, we were off. We thought we'd go see Four Christmases. Um, BIG mistake! Don't take kids to see that movie. Yes it looks funny, but it's not for kids, we walked out and instead went and saw the Tale of Desperaux. The boys liked the movie, but Nick and I, not so much. Then we went home to enjoy our Christmas Eve dinner, pizza! YUM! We ate and watched the Luke 2 DVD and then read a couple of stories. It's nice to take time to talk about the true meaning of Christmas. Then the boys got to open up one present, like always on Christmas Eve, they got new jammies! Star Wars ones that even light up. Yes, I did good this year and I was told so, haha!

This is on Christmas Eve. They were getting ready to open their present.

Here they are posing with their new jammies on. Jacob was pretty excited about them! :)

Here is Nick on Christmas Eve. He wanted to open this present from me so bad. It was killing him to not know what it was. He really thought it was an empty box. I fooled him good. I made him wait until Christmas to open it. He was trying hard though to make it "pop" open by throwing it around. It wound up being two Suns tickets for the game this coming Friday. One for him and one for Cole. A birthday present for Cole. Neither of them had any idea and they were so excited! HAHA! An empty box...like I'd do that, hmmm or would I? ;)

Christmas day was so FUN! We spent the morning opening and playing with presents. They got some nice gifts from Santa this year, lucky dogs. Our big family gift was a Wii, and that has been the funnest present! I LOVE it! We got lots of fun games with it and we have really enjoyed playing that all weekend. It is the reason I'm so delayed on updating this blog. I've been addicted to Guitar Hero, haha. We even got a Wii Fit with it, and I LOVE that! It's awesome. I tried it out and I'm excited to get going on a work out program with it. Once the boys are back in school I will be using that regularly. I also got the book, The Host, and I'm excited to sit down and read that, also when the boys go back to school. I got a sweet back massager too. It's a Shiatsu one with heat that I sit in a chair and can use anytime I want. Nick also got a new iPod and he has had fun playing with that new toy. Cole got a new bike and Jacob got rollerblades. Jacob has been practicing riding those around the house and is now pretty good on them. He can ride around the block on them and he doesn't even fall down. They also got a few Star Wars toys and Legos. Star Wars and Legos are pretty popular at our house. :)

Here's a video of them when they first walked into the room. All the presents were under the tree except for the bike and rollerblades. They just stood there for a minute looking at them. Cole kept thinking I was going to snap a picture, so he stood there smiling at me until I told him that I wasn't taking a picture. They were so funny. :)

Here they are with their loot on Christmas morning.

Here they are getting ready to open the box with the Wii in it. Santa put all the Wii stuff together in one big box and wrapped it up. Inside the box everything was also wrapped individually so it looked like a big box of presents! They had a lot of fun with that. Cole even yelled out at one point that he loves Santa!

Here is video of them opening the box with the Wii in it. You can hear what they are saying. Nick was getting in on it by helping them open everything and being excited too. I was cracking up! Listen and you can hear Cole yell out how he loves Santa! :)

Here they are going through their stockings. Santa brought them candy, books, a Star Wars DS game, Legos and even a watch in their stocking this year. Good, now they won't be late coming home when they are out riding their bikes. :)

Here are my little Clone Troopers, haha. Nick and I got them the helmets and Santa brought them the guns to go with it. Aren't they funny?

Here they are trying out Guitar Hero. That game is so addicting!

That afternoon we headed to Mesa to my parents house. We always have a mexican food potluck, so yummy! We have a gift exchange with the cousins and that was a lot of fun. It gets wild sometimes, but we all love it. The kids have a blast! Loads of fun with family, good food, good times, GREAT Christmas!

Here they are with their cousins getting ready for their gift exchange with each other.

They each got an electronic lightsaber from Grandma and Grandpa. That was the best ending to a day filled with some other awesome Star Wars toys!

Thanks everyone for a great Christmas! Happy New Year!

Early Christmas!

2008-12-23T22:37:00.001-08:00

On Saturday, Nick's dad and stepmom came to visit us from Tucson. We opened up presents from them and that made the boys day! Christmas came a bit early for us, and that's never a bad thing! :)

Here they are showing off their goods. They got giftcards so now they can go buy anything they want the next time we are in town! They were sooo excited! Yippee! :)

Here they are with their Papa and grandma Esther. Thanks guys for coming to visit us! :)

My New Hairdo!

2008-12-23T22:30:00.001-08:00

Wednesday I got a new look! I LOVE it! I get my haircut from a lady here in Maricopa who owns her own salon. She has been bugging me to let her color my hair. I haven't had my hair colored since Cole was a baby, so I decided to go ahead and let her do it. I had a 20% off coupon, so that was a great motivator. Well she recommended for me to do 2 colors. She is Asian, so it comes out sounding like 2 cala! She says it over and over, 2 cala, 2 cala. It's kind of funny. :) She highlighted it with quite a bit of blonde and just a little bit of red. She also cut it again and I really like the way it turned out.

What do you all think?

Christmas Concert!

2008-12-21T18:25:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night was the boys school Christmas concert. Depite the rain, mud, tons of people, mud, rain, did I mention mud, they did a really good job! They each sang two songs by grade and then they sang two songs with the whole school. They were kind of hard to see at times, so I won't bore you all with the videos that I took, but I did get some pictures at least. I'm just a bit annoyed at the amount of mud that was tracked in my car from that night!

Here is Jacob with his friends from class.

Here is Cole with his good buddy Dylan!

Here is the last song that they sang all together as a school. Luckily Jacob was in front. Cole was 2 heads behind him also in a Santa hat. You can see him if you look close.

Letters from Santa!

2008-12-21T18:08:00.000-08:00

The other day the boys received a letter from Santa in the mail. This made their day, no, their week! They were so excited! The letter said that Santa can't wait to come visit their house on Christmas Eve. It came complete with Magic Reindeer food and some stickers. Yes, a letter really came in the mail, no I didn't put it in there. :)

Okay, so I actually order them a letter every year from here. It costs me $5 a letter and then the looks on their faces when they read them...priceless! That is a secret though...shh!

Santa's Sleigh!

2008-12-17T08:44:00.000-08:00

Monday night for family night we finally got around to putting together the gingerbread Santa sleigh kit that I bought awhile back. The sleigh is one that we haven't done before, and we had a lot of fun. We do a gingerbread creation every year. It's sort of become a tradition. Here is the final outcome. Why must my youngest child always make goofy faces when I take a picture?

Christmas Time Happenings!

2008-12-14T14:54:00.000-08:00

Christmas is fast approaching and with that comes all the fun activities. Thursday night we took the kids to Rawhide hoping to see Santa. Well Santa must have been busy somewhere else that night cause he wasn't there. Apparently he is only there on the weekends. Well that would have been nice to know before hand, but we still had a good time. There is so much to do at Rawhide. The boys went on a burro ride and they even rode the mechanical bull.

Friday was half day at school, so right after the boys were out of school, we headed to the mall for lunch and to see the movie Bolt. That was a really cute movie. Well of course we had to make a stop to see Santa. Luckily he was there and they finally got to rattle off to him what they want for Christmas. We made them limit it to telling him only the top 3 things that they want. After all, there was a line of kids behind us and they have sent their letters to him already, so we are pretty sure Santa knows what to bring to this house. ;) He was such a cute Santa and we all agreed that he was the REAL Santa! We did some Christmas shopping after and actually finished!

Saturday night was our Ward Christmas party, Luau style. I made a trip to Savers a few days before and bought us all Hawaiian shirts. We had a Hawaiian singer that was singing Christmas songs while we ate and then some ward members participated in Karaoke and a talent show after dinner. It was really a lot of fun. Of course Santa made his appearance towards the end so this time all 4 of us got in the picture with him, Hawaiian shirts and all! Jacob asked me after if he was one of Santa's helpers and I asked him why? He told me that his beard looked fake so there was no way he could be the real one. Haha, very observant indeed. I told him that yes I believe he is a helper cause Santa needs lots of those this time of year. Cole is the older child, but has yet to ask me anything like that. I'm so glad, because I really want him to have that belief for awhile longer.

This coming Tuesday is their music concert for school. They have been busy practicing Christmas songs during music time at school, and I'm excited to hear the final outcome. Cole kept debating last night about whether or not he should get up on stage to do some Karaoke, but he chickened out and decided not to. No big surprise there, he hates getting up in front of others.

I look forward to this time of year, despite how busy it is. We always have so many fun things going on. The boys last day of school is this Friday and they have a party in their classes that day. Nick's last day of work is this coming Wednesday. He will have a total of 17 days off for the holidays. He can't wait, and neither can we! We want to go see the Temple lights, the zoo lights and whatever other lights that we will have time for. We want to go to Tucson to see Nick's dad, and we want to take a trip to the snow to go sledding. Then of course there is Cole's 10th birthday on December 28th. We have agreed to let him have his first slumber party and he has agreed to limit the number of guests to 3 boys. I'm not brave enough for more than that. ;) That is going to be held on New Years Eve, so I have concluded that Christmas break really isn't going to be a break afterall. There is a lot going on, but I'm looking forward to spending time with family! It's going to be a fun one! Can't wait for Christmas!

Pictures from Rawhide:

Here's the boys on an old carriage.

Here they are on the burro rides. Cole looks a little hesitant as he gets ready to take Bert for a ride. Jacob gets to ride Blue. That would have been Jacob's middle name if I would have let Nick use it, but I didn't like that name. Appropriate that Jacob is the one that rode him, haha.

Cole looks a bit happier to be riding him once they got going.

This is where Santa was supposed to be, but he wasn't there that night. Nick decided to take his place. After all he is "St. Nick". HAHA!

Here is Cole on the Mechanical Bull. They bug us everytime we go to Rawhide to ride on it, so we thought we'd let them try it out. They have to wear that helmet so it was hard to see the looks on their face.

Now it's Jacob's turn. He wore his cowboy hat, boots and gun so he could look like a real cowboy of course!

Pictures from the mall:

Here they are telling Santa at the mall on Friday, what they want for Christmas. He was such a cute Santa! He listened to them and was so patient. He was the real one for sure! ;)

Here is a video of them talking to Santa. He discovered that they sure love Star Wars!

Pictures from the Christmas Luau.

The picture on the left is Jacob being goofy with his Lei that he got. I'm not sure what he was trying to do exactly, silly kid. Nick and Cole posing for a picture on the right.

Here is our family photo with Santa. We concluded that this guy was actually a helper to the "real" Santa. This is the only Christmas family picture that we had time to take this year, so this is what people will be getting when I get around to sending out Christmas cards. Don't you love the Hawaiian shirts that I found at Savers? They will be saved for the next Luau we get invited too. :)

I'm thankful for this time of year because I can reflect on the birth of our Savior and the sacrifices that he made for all of us! Merry Christmas everyone! :)

Good Holiday Recipes!

2008-12-10T09:32:00.000-08:00

Last night was my turn to host Bunco. I thought I'd post the recipes that I made for dinner that night, cause they are good ones to use this time of year.

The main course was Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice soup and I used bread bowls this time! Yum! I actually posted that recipe already here. I found the bread bowls at Bashas too.

I made a Cranberry salad also and for dessert I made Chocolate Mint Brownies! Yummo, those were good! So here are those two recipes. All are great things to serve this time of year. Enjoy!

Cranberry Salad

1 bag whole cranberries
1 regular sized bag mini marshmallows
1/2 cup sugar
1 pint whipping cream
1 apple
4 cups grapes (You can slice them in half to make them easier to eat)
1/2 cup pecans (Optional. I don't use cause I don't like them)

Grind up the cranberries in a food processor or blender. Mix in sugar (can use less or more if you want) and marshmallows. Refrigerate overnight. Mix in grapes, one apple chopped into bite-sized pieces, and pecans. Whip up the whipping cream and mix it in (do not need to sweeten the cream, the marshmallows and sugar sweeten the salad). Instead of the grapes and pecans, I put in one large can of pineapple chunks.

Chocolate Mint Brownies

Bottom layer:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (16-ounce) can chocolate syrup

Mint layer:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 drops green food coloring

Glaze:
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. To prepare bottom layer, lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and salt; stir with a whisk. Combine granulated sugar, 1/4 cup melted butter, 2 tablespoons water, vanilla, eggs, and chocolate syrup in a medium bowl; stir until smooth. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture, stirring until blended. BATTER WILL BE VERY THIN! Pour batter into a 13 x 9–inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 23 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out almost clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

3. To prepare mint layer, combine powdered sugar, 1/4 cup melted butter, and next 3 ingredients (through food coloring) in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer until smooth. Spread mint mixture over cooled cake. (You can substitute vanilla extract for the mint extract if you want the non-mint version.)

4. To prepare the glaze, combine the chocolate chips and 3 tablespoons butter in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at HIGH 1 minute or until melted, stirring after 30 seconds. Let stand 2 minutes. Spread chocolate mixture evenly over top. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. They taste better chilled. Cut into 20 pieces.

This was the first time I made these brownies, and they really were so good! I think I will make them on Christmas. They have changed my life for the better. Okay, not really, but close! :) I have no pictures either, sorry. Happy Holidays everyone!

Thanksgiving Recipes!

2008-12-08T22:00:00.001-08:00

I forgot to post these earlier, so here goes. I made a tossed salad and two desserts for Thanksgiving. I made a Banana Cream pie and Strawberry Whipped Sensation. Both were new things that I've never made before, but they both turned out really good.

Strawberry Whipped Sensation

Makes: 12 servings

4 cups fresh strawberries, divided
1 can (14 oz.) EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed, divided
8 OREO Cookies, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. butter, melted

LINE 9x5-inch loaf pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Mash 2 cups of the strawberries in large bowl. Add condensed milk, juice and 2 cups of the whipped topping; mix well. Pour into prepared pan.
MIX chopped cookies and butter. Spoon over whipped topping mixture. Cover with ends of foil and gently press cookie mixture into whipped topping mixture. Freeze 6 hours or until firm.
INVERT dessert onto serving plate when ready to serve; remove pan and foil. Spread remaining whipped topping onto top and sides of dessert. Slice remaining 2 cups strawberries; arrange over dessert. Store leftovers in freezer.

Layered Banana Cream Pie

Makes: 8 servings

3 oz. cream cheese

3/4 cup powdered sugar

6 oz. cool whip

2-3 sliced bananas

6 oz. package instant banana pudding

1 1/2 cups milk

1 prepared pie shell

Directions: Mix together cream cheese, powdered sugar, and cool whip. Spread mixture over the bottom of the pie shell (layer 1). Top with sliced bananas (layer 2). Mix together pudding and milk. Spread over bananas (layer 3). Cover and refrigerate until top layer is set. So easy!

Preparation Time: 20 minutes to make, more to chill.

Soccer Star!

2008-12-07T00:04:00.000-08:00

Cole is almost done with Soccer and I finally remembered to take my camera to the game on Saturday. Go Red Bulls! Here are some shots of our soccer star in action! He is number 5!

Maybe the next David Beckham? Without all the tattoos of course! Haha. ;)

Cole has the best smile! I LOVE it! :)

Cole loves every sport and he's good at all of them too! I love watching him play every one. We are so proud of him! He's so dang cute and he's getting so big! I can't believe he's going to be 10 in 3 weeks! Love you Cole! :)