Sunrise Weekend Trip

We took a long weekend trip up to Pinetop/Sunrise. It was such a great trip and I was really proud of the kids and how well they did...it is so much easier with them getting older!!

Mark and Dylan rode the mountain all day long, from 10-3:30! Mark said Dylan did great but was tired and cold when they stopped. I think next year we may try for him to learn snow boarding because he is great on the ski's now.
On the top of the mountain.

The girls and me found some snow to play in out of the way of all the skiers. Cadence loved it and was rolling all around, Isabelle on the other hand did not enjoy herself very much. She sat down for a bit in it but other than that wasn't too excited to be in snow. :)

They are so cute all bundled up!

Snow angels

When we were good and cold we headed into the lodge and played a few games of Uno, even Isabelle played this time (with a little help of course). We all had lunch together and then the boys were off again. The girls and me headed to the car where we all took some good naps.

We normally have to get a suite hotel room so that Mark and I don't have to go to bed at 7:00 when the kids do, but there weren't any decently priced in Pinetop so we just got a regular room and to our surprise it worked out really great. We are thankful to know that a regular room will work now that the kids are older. Dylan and Cadence shared a bed and as you can see from the above picture that Cadence obviously didn't stay to her side of the bed! :) Dylan never woke up...he must have been really really tired to not wake up to a foot in your face!

It was such a fun trip and are thankful that we were able to spend some time away together.

Donut Dessert!

We had donuts for dessert one night this last week (really, Mark was craving them so it was a excuse to go there :)). There is a newer donut shop called Bosa donuts that is very close to our house...I'm not a huge donut fan but these donuts are soooo good!
We let Dylan eat 3! And he would have kept going if we didn't make him stop!


Cadence really only likes the frosting and sprinkles :)

And Isabelle enjoyed every bite of hers. :)

Randomness

These are just a mix of some pictures that I wanted to keep a memory of for when I print my book at the end of the year. :)

Isabelle had fallen asleep one morning while watching a show. She was so cute how she got herself settled in on the sofa.
Sister love.

Daddy love.

Dylan and Cadence had built a pillow fort on my bed one morning. Cadence asked if I would please leave it up and she would still take her nap in my bed. I agreed and when I went in my room to check on her this is how I found her. Settled in under the pillow fort. :)

Dylan's note

Last Sunday at church Dylan had pulled out my notepad and was writing some stuff during the singing time. I put it away without looking but later in the week had to pull it out to write something down. A huge smile was on my face the whole time I read it...so precious.

Here is what he wrote:

I luve my geranpairins.

First, my gerapa, he plays ckekars with me and it is exciting. Seckent, my Gerama. My gerama taycks us to mooves. Last, is my Gerampa and we fownd gold.

Geran pairins are asam.

(needs some work with spelling, but so cute!)

Date Night

I'm a bit behind on blogging...it has been a busier week than normal.

Last weekend the kids stayed overnight at Mark's mom's house so we could have a date night. We started the evening off with a hike at Camelback Mountain.

It was a beautiful sunset as we got to the top!
I don't get to hike very much and I was feeling it...this is how I felt once I finally arrived at top :). Thankful to be sitting down!


The sun went down quickly as we started our way down. Mark was able to capture this really great picture of the sunset with the city lights.

I really appreciate having these moments with Mark.

Closet Reading Nook

I saw the idea online to make a closet into a reading nook. Since we really only use Dylan's closet for storage I thought it would be a great idea for his room...and he also needs some motivation to read (it's not his favorite). :)

Here is the before picture of the closet.
And after...
I painted, made some curtains out of fabric I had (and made the rod out of spray painted pvc pipe...cost about $1.50), put fabric on shelf because of contact paper that was previously put on shelf and then painted over and it was impossible to remove. I fastened the fabric with push pins to front of shelf. And bought a chair from Craigslist.

It is a great little space and it doubles as a really cool fort area! Dylan enjoys the area and I even caught him reading by himself...and that never happens!!

Reclaimed wood projects

Last week or so bulk trash pick up was in our neighborhood...and anyone who knows me well knows I love to pick up stuff on the side of the road. :) I didn't find too much this time but I was inspired to make a bunch of decorative things with some reclaimed salvaged wood that was found in front of one of my neighbors houses. :)

The top is just a wood trim piece that I spray painted black and hot glued some clothes pins to (one for each kid) and then tied glass vases with some ribbon. Super simple and so cute. I like that each kid has their own drawn picture below their pictures. :)

And the hooks (from Ikea) I had for the kids' backpacks were a bit small, so once again just took a piece of wood and screwed holes in it and added some dresser knobs and the hooks that I already had.
I made these tree pieces (the trunk is each kids arm and hand) awhile ago and I had them in some black frames without glass (it is canvas with mod podge all over) but never really like the way it looked. So, since I love my pallet project I did so much I decided just to put some pallet wood together vertical as the backdrop. I love it so much!

And the last piece of wood was from what I think was a portion of a old drop leaf table, it had these really great old rusty hinges so I just took them off and reattached to the front for extra flair and again drilled holes and attached 2 drawer handles. Pulled a piece of fabric across and clipped some clothes pins on to hold the art!

Simple projects, FREE and I love that it adds more character to our house! :)

Friends at Park

A few times a month we will head to the park after school with some of Dylan's friends. This time his twin friends Ian & Alex decided that they would bury Dylan in the sand and of course Dylan was more than happy to get buried. :)

Item on bucket list checked off

13+ years ago Mark and I wrote items down on a napkin of things we would like to do within our lifetime. One of Mark's was running a marathon and he was able to check it off yesterday! I am so proud of his hard work and discipline!!

He ran without stopping and his finish time was 4:44...that's a whole lot of running!
The kids and I met him a few different spots. I had the kids make signs. This picture is at mile 20.5 (near Israel & Kati's house). Some friends also came out to cheer him on. It was a lot of fun to encourage the runners as they went by.


We felt a little guilty having the kids eating donuts in front of everyone as they ran by...but the kids enjoyed it. :)

Then the kids lined up and held out their hands for high 5's. It was so fun to see the runners make their way over for the 5's!

Mark kept running and the kids followed along side in the grass for just a bit. :)

This is Mark's co-worker Mike. He has been a huge inspiration and encouragement for Mark. He has run several marathons and Mark call's him "coach". He came out just to watch & cheer Mark on along the race at 4 different spots! What a great friend!

And Mark's good friend Nole came to town from Oregon just to run the race. He and Mark were able to start together and find one another at the end. Nole finished about 20 minutes before Mark. Way to go NOLE!!

It was such a fun day.

Mark is sore but doing good. He says he wants to do it again!






This is a video of his last bit to the finish line!

Rainbow Ninja's

I love it when the kids make up "routines" and are creative in the way they play!

Eskimo Tree

I read a Bible story and have a prayer time with the kids every morning (well, at least I try to do it every morning :)). This mornings story was about Zaccheus wanting to see Jesus so at the end we sang the song,

"Zaccheus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in the sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see..."

A little bit later I heard Dylan singing as he was putting his shoes on, "...He climbed up in the Eskimo tree for the Lord he wanted to see."

This morning started off very early and has been rough with cranky kids, was thankful to have something to smile about. :)

Picnic Dinner

The kids and I met up with Mark for dinner last night at Tempe Town Lake during the small break he has between work and school.

I love the way this picture turned out.

Painting Cement

Our back patio area has always bothered me since we moved into our house 2 1/2 years ago...but since we just rent I've always just let it be. We really enjoy being outside and spend a lot of time out there so I finally decided to buy a can of cement paint and clean it up some. It still has all the cracks but at least now it looks clean and even. :)

All I did was a 2 times of pressure washing, some scraping with a metal blade and then painted. Not hard at all. I know it won't last that long but for now it looks great!

Building Forts

Woke up Saturday morning to this fort that Dylan built at our kitchen table.

Complete will air mattress and every single pillow they could find in the house. :)

Celebrating Maggie's 5th Birthday

We celebrated Maggie's 5th birthday yesterday at Stuffington Bear Company. The kids had such a fun time!

It started with a talk about how the teddy bear originated (Teddy Roosevelt saved a baby bear). How cute are all the girls :)


And then the we got a tour of the factory where they make all the bears


Then they got to pick out their own bear. Stuff it, sew it up and clean it off. This is Dylan giving it a "bath".

They were all excited and so cute!

Next came gift opening. Why is so hard for kids to sit and watch...I think they are just as happy to see what is in the package as the person opening it!

And the grand finale was the Strawberry Shortcake cake.

Happy Birthday Maggie!!