Thursday, April 21, 2011

Spring time is here!

The weather is getting so nice and we are loving it! Here's a super-fast update on what we've been doing:

For FHE this week we decorated egg-shaped cookies from my fave Lofthouse Cookie recipe, so yummy! The kids loved mixing the colors into the frosting! And you can just imagine all the piles of sprinkles they had on top of them.





Meanwhile Ryan is getting SO big, still the happiest kid around, and he loves hanging out in the pantry. He is such a monkey, I keep finding him stuck after climbing up all sorts of places :) I had to take the ladder off of Alaura's bunk-bed because he figured out how to climb that. He's not walking yet, but will stand and take a couple steps if we make him.







We went out exploring another part of AZ this last month, dragging Roy and Stefani along with us and their two cute kiddos. We drove through Jerome (without anyone getting too car sick) to Cottonwood where we visited Dead Horse Ranch State Park. It was alright, maybe not on our must-come-back-to list, but still fun. After hiking we got the most amazing BBQ at Hog Wild BBQ, and I'd say that was totally worth the trip!



At the kids school they had spirit week and the kids totally got into it. Superhero day wasn't Ben's things, but the girls took their spin on it being princesses. The other days were Twin day, Mix and Match day, Crazy Hair Day, and of course, PJ day.

































Ben had his pinewood derby... :( didn't win any races but had fun, next year we hear the key is to really smooth out those pins on the wheels, we'll be running for 1st!







Samantha had her 6th birthday... the cake requests are always exciting, but since it's going to be eaten in a matter of minutes I refuse to get complicated... so we resort to a quick-draw method. This time she wanted a ballerina. She also got a small bike with training wheels. I broke down and went for a 12" wheeled one so she could fit it. I have hope that we'll get her riding without the trainers come summer.


We had to say farewell to our Phoenix friends this last month, Beau and Chris both got heli jobs up in Alaska and are moving on in their careers. I'm sure we'll see many more friends go for the same reasons. Most pilots use flight instruction as a step-stool rather than a career destination like us, but we're so excited for them and will miss them and our fondue nights a lot.



We braved the thousands of people and the hour long line to make it into Luke Days Airshow in Glendale. Ben (dad) got to fly a heli down the day before and stay there for the weekend and we wanted to join him. It was SO much fun. I would definitely do it again :)




Anabelle has now turned 3. She has so much personality and is usually really sweet. Ben (dad) and I took her shopping for her birthday gift and it was so cute to see what she picked out. Her favorite was the Pinkalicious unicorn from the kids book series. I think it's supposed to be called Goldilicious, but she liked Pinkalicious better.