Bike Ride, Parade and Good Food

Today was a fun and busy day. Our community was having their annual parade and I wanted to go. I thought the kids would enjoy it. I had a somewhat crazy idea to ride our bikes to the parade. Everyone else thought it would be great so our family and our neighbors all loaded up the bikes and rode about 4.5 miles to the parade. It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time.

Next we were off to Chipotle for the Cardinal pre-game celebration. They gave everyone wearing Cardinal red a free Burrito, Burrito bowl, salad, or Tacos. Again some what of a crazy idea to take my 5 children to wait it a long line but I love Chipotle and figured why not. We waited about 1 hr and 45 min. The kids did great and loved it. Our neighbors had never been before so hopefully they are now fans of their yummy food. It was a fun and busy day but I guess what else is Saturday for.

Ponytails

A few nights ago John was helping Jenna get ready for bed and did a ponytail by himself. The funny part was that Jenna told him he did better than me and he should start doing her hair all of the time.

Briauna is 18 months

A Brand New Year

The church had a production, I think on New Years Eve for the youth of the church and they now have a website called A Brand New Year. It is quite amazing. John showed it to me and I had never heard about it. It has downloads, the performance and so many more thing on it. We watched the performance and I am excited to show it to Garrett since he will be in Young Men in March. If you have youth they should see it. I enjoyed it a lot. It is neat to see how many good kids are out their that love the lord and want other to hear and feel his message. The website it http://www.abrandnewyear.lds.org/ You should check it out.

The Blanket

Up until Briauna we have never had a kid that was real attached to a stuffed animal or blanket. Briauna love this one particular blanket. She will do fine with another one but if this one is around she wants it. It is so funny to me to see her love something so much. The crazy thing is it was mine when I was a baby and it looked good until she got a hold of it. I don't think it will last past her. Fabric can only handle being washed and drug around for so long. Good thing she is the youngest.

Speech Graduate

I got a call this morning from Caleb's speech teacher that he passed him speech assessment and no longer need speech. Caleb has been in speech for 4 1/2 yrs and has really enjoyed. His therapist Ms. Thomas is wonderful and we are so grateful for all that she has done for Caleb. Congrats Caleb!!

Suckers

John and I are suckers for charity cases. We got our first dog Max because some kids were throwing rocks at him when he was a puppy so we took him. We had him for 10 yrs. Maggie our next dog was a stray and was going to be taken to the pound so we took her. They were great friends. Well last Sunday we found a little dog in our neighborhood that some kids were trying to sling shot rocks at and felt bad. We brought her home just until we found her owner. She has no tags and we have not seen signs yet. So Maggie now has a friend unless we find a sign looking for her. She is a good dog, doesn't shed and the kids love her. The kids call her Jasmine but I can't stop calling her the Little dog.

The Day Off

Yesterday John and the boys were off and I wanted it to be a day with fun. First thing we did was went on a hike with my friend up the South Mountain. I had no idea all the different trails that there are from various starting points. We started at 43rd and Estrella. It was a beautiful day to be out and the boys loved it. John and I borrowed out friends Ergo carriers so he carried Jenna and I carried Briauna. I am so out of share it is just wrong. I didn't go up the whole way, wimpy I know. One reason was because I was kinda tired and worried about my footing with Briauna on my back and two was I am not a fan of heights especially with a small path on a mountain. It was amazing how far up the hiked and how loud they were coming down. I will do it next time knowing everyone was safe and John said it was ok. After the hike we were all pretty worn out so we played with neighbors and got our Redbox movie. It was a great family activity and we will go again. I did forget my camera but there is always next time. I am grateful for my friend for showing me a new activity that our family can do together.

Caleb found a new hobbie

13 Years Together

Today John and I celebrated 13 years together. John gave me the best gift by taking the day off. We helped a lady in our ward, went up the South Mountain and went to dinner. It was a great and relaxing day. It was fun talking and remembering how it was 13 years ago. I love John with all my heart and am grateful that he picked me.

First Bike Ride

Caleb got to ride his bike to school for the first time. He got a new bike and lock for Christmas and has been asking everyday if he could ride it to school. All last week there were different reasons that they couldn't ride but this morning everything worked out. So Garrett and Caleb got to ride together. We live so close I don't get the point but for a kid I am sure it is exciting and they enjoy it.

Look what I found!

Sunday morning as we were getting ready to leave for church Garrett asked me why there was clumps of hair in the bathroom. I ran in with a sinking feeling in my stomach. There they were, two blond clumps of hair about 2 inches long. I went to Jenna and showed her and asked when she cut her hair. Of course she got mad and cried. Later John told me that she said," How did mom know? I didn't think she would see. She must of saw the hair." John told her she was right and consoled her. You can't tell that much and it could of been worse. Hopefully it won't happen again.

Bolt!

We took the kids to see Bolt a couple of weeks ago. John has a friend at work that gives him free movie tickets that his wife gets at her work. They were about to expire so we decided to hurry up and use them. The kids did great and we all enjoyed the movie. Poor John dealt with Briauna and didn't get to see much of the movie. The good thing is he got his money back. We had fun and are very grateful for his friend at work for giving us the tickets.

Easy Bake Oven

Jenna got an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas from my mom. Today I decided we should try it out. She was so excited. She got her apron on and hot pads ready. She wanted to bake some treats for her friends and neighbors. It was cute and she loved it. Here are some pictures of her first baking project a yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

Briauna and Maggie

Jenna doesn't like animals. We have had our dog for many years and that doesn't matter. Briauna on the other hand loves our dog. Maggie in way bigger than her but she does care. I took some pictures last night after the kids went to bed. I thought it was cute how she got down next to Maggie to play with her.

Crazy Kids

It is amazing what my boys can come up with when they can't play with something electronic. I am glad they have a good imagination. They used a tie down strap to entertain themselves. Jenna couldn't be left out so her and her friends had fun as well.

Christmas

I am so behind in posting so I am going to try and catch up. Christmas was a lot of fun. It came and went too fast as usual. I can remember as a kid thinking Christmas would never come and now the years just fly by. We had out traditional Pizza and wings at my parents house on Christmas Eve. The kids always get new pajamas from my mom and they were excited to see what they got. I forgot my camera so no pictures. I was nervous at how late we would be up but it wasn't too bad. My kids were very kind to us and slept in until 7:15 and then we still had to wake some up. The gifts were well liked and opened up quickly. Then off to grandmas house we went to Christmas breakfast. I love our breakfast. So much yummy food and we all go in our pajamas. We all got gifts from grandma and the kids loved them. We stayed at grandmas house until around 2pm. I had to go to work at 6pm so I needed to go home and rest. I was a great day and we all enjoyed spending time with family.