Children's Museum

   We have a really fun children's museum pretty close to our house. We go maybe once a year and the kids have so much fun! 

   It has different rooms like a: grocery store, vet office, bank, post office, doctors office, gym, news station. It also has a real ambulance and two police motorcycles, a dinosaur dig and climb on toys. We pack a lunch and stay for hours!

   Shelley, Katie and I decided to take the kids one Saturday while our husbands were off at the sand dunes. 

   

 She didn't love this as much as I thought but it was cute while it lasted

Pretending to be vets

This work out room was new and soooo funny to see kids "bench press"

This thing spins so fast, Lydia was on this forever!! How do kids do that?!

Having fun being rocked in the row boat

Halloween 2014

Halloween was fun this year. Everyone at an age they could enjoy it!

a couple days before the 31st we went to Lynne and Max's ward trunk or treat. 

Braden Was a skeleton

Riley was Hermione

Max was buzz light year

And Reese was an unruley black kitty

Fun at the trunk or treat...a fight between Harry and hermione...

Not all of, but a lot of the cousins!

We carved pumpkins the night before halloween. Spider man (we improved his webs after this photo) Riley's creation and Braden's scary fave pumpkin. 

The night of halloween our ward. Had a trunk or treat and chilli dinner. It was fun and we decorated our trunk with pumpkins to pass out candy!

  Afterward the Ingram's met us at our house and we trick or treated throughout our neighborhood.

Riley Braden and Max went through their first haunted house! Two different Josie's in the neighborhood set them up. I. Surprised Max liked them! Riley would not go through the second one-I don't blame her-i screamed all the way through!!

 The kids were well pleased with their candy! (So were josh and I! Ha)

Mom time

My mom has been battling some undiagnosed stomach disorder since summer started. She hates it of course and it has really changed her life. she has little to no energy, special restrictive diets have left her with so little choices she has lost tons of weight and is always hungry and in sever pain or nauseated. I hate HATE to see her this way. She normally has problems sitting down for more then two minutes because she likes to be so busy! Let alone for months. 

     My sister inlaw was SOOO generous and had an idea to cheer my mom up. She offered to watch ALL my kids for an entire day so my mom and I could have time together at glen ivy spa. I happened to have two passes to get in Id been saving from past birthdays.

   It was such a good, fun, relaxing day with my mom. We talked, napped, read our books. Lounged in pools,mineral baths and jacuzzis. And did the mud nth of course. 

   It was just what she needed. Of course it didn't cure anything but she had one relaxing day that has come to be out of the ordinary. 

    

The kids had fun at Aunt Tami's. She was so prepared and even had a Christmas craft for them to do!

I love my mom more then I could ever express and so it has been so hard to see her having such a hard time. It was such a blessing to have this day with her.  

Phoenix Arizona Temple

Shelley, katie and I have become pretty inseperable. I feel so blessed to of found "my people". We just mesh together, our kids are friends. It just fits and works. I don't know how to explain it, we have become so close and it makes me so happy to have them in my life and to be by my side as we raise our kids. 

   I really am blessed to have quite a big group of friends, also, who I know I can rely on and trust and have some really good talks and laughs with. I feel beyond grateful for that. 

  So this past month Shelley mentioned her, Jacob and the kids for tickets for the temple open house in AZ and were going to do a family mini vacay, she surprise me a few days later and said she got more tickets if we wanted to join! So thoughtful! She also gets an amazing discount at certain hotels so how could we say no?!

    She invited Katie, Russell and their kids and it was set! Shelley was awesome and planned the whole thing!

  We took off the day after halloween and meant to caravan but extra errands put Shelly and Jacob a bit behind everyone else. The trip up was uneventful which is nice. 

   We got to the hotel and had to switch rooms around but finally got that settled and swam for a little bit to let kids get some of their energy out!

   Then we dressed for the temple open house. This was BAD planning on our part. It was dinner time, kids were starving and tired. The lines were LONG. But we did it, we saw the new temple. Gorgeous. Simply beautiful. I was so happy to be able to share this experience as a family. I'm hoping Riley and Braden will really remember this and cherish the memory. 

  The kids LOVES the bus ride over to the temple. 

The next day we found a really neat park to play at for awhile before we made the drive home

There was this lady there. With a hula hoop. Dancing around with it. Ha. The kids were mesmerized and she was really nice and was teaching them moves. 

Reese looks so crazy here I had to add this picture! Not her best picture, but that face, her mother does love it!

   Overall it was a great trip and so happy it was all organized for me or I'm sure it wouldn't of happened. So glad to spend time with good friends and make some great memories.