First Race!

 Dyan is apart of the running club at school, it promotes excercise. As part of the program they get to go to a few different races. The day after we moved into our house he had his first race. He loved it and ran the whole thing...2.5 miles. I was really disappointed that I didn't get to go and see him run but Mark was a great cheerleader for him. :)

New Friends...

We found out the week before we moved into our new house that our backyard neighbor is a little boy that is in Cadence's preschool class and that he has a older brother the same age as Dylan. How wonderful. Our fence is a short chain link fence so the kids just hop over back and forth and play...it is so great. They play really well together. Lots of sports have been played lately :).

 (Cadence, Dylan and new friend John)

 (Isabelle and new friend Will)

 We have a wonderful large pecan tree in our backyard. Isabelle has really enjoyed collecting and eating them. I love the exploration that happens in our yard. :) Picture above is Dylan knocking down the pecans that are ready.

The chickens also made the move thanks to my father in law. He worked hard on making my "chicken shack" made out of old doors that I found or was given. It's a little hodge podge but it works great and the chickens are happy. :)

We Moved!

I have so much blog catching up to do, I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted!

We moved about 3 weeks ago. We randomly came across our new house for rent while going to yard sales. We drove by and both saw the huge barn workshop in the back and said...that would be so great for us to have for my furniture business (that we are wanting to expand). So come to find out the landlord lives right next door and could show us the house right then. At first I said there is no way a family of 5 can live in 1200 square feet...but we are doing it and surprisingly it doesn't feel that small. :) We LOVE the neighborhood it is in, the workshop is 900 square feet of amazingness and great working space and the backyard is massive and I love all the time the kids are playing outside and having a great time!

We will see where the future brings us but for now I am very thankful to have found our new home!

Double Parties!

It's been a few weekends but we had Dylan and Cadence's birthday parties. Two different parties going on at the same time (won't be doing that again :)). It was a lot of work but it was worth it for all the fun the kids had. Dylan had a Ninjago party...I'm going to do a separate blog post with all the birthday themed stuff I did. And Cadence had a princess tea party.

 We rented a huge slide this year and the kids had a great time on it. I have to admit it was a bit stressful at times for me with all the boys jumping huge and then sliding down...thankfully no one got hurt!

 (even Mark enjoyed going down :))

 

 Inside Cadence had her lunch with all her friends on glass plates with tea cups filled with sprite & flavored ice cubes.

 Outside the boys enjoyed their lunch on the picnic table and were able to make as big of mess as they wanted!

The girls had some pampering time.

Painting of nails, braiding hair and adding a Tangled hair clip. :)

I made cookie bowls with ice cream for Cadence's birthday treat.

Then outside to the boys where I had set up a "Ninja Training Course" (complete with Ninja headbands with their names on them) where they were timed as they had to do different obstacles. Dylan's friend Ian was the winner with the low time of 17 seconds!

They also had a balance beam sword "water noodle" fight. The one to stay on the board while fighting was the winner. :)

Our yard was full of kids and friends!

Dylan's birthday treat was rice crispy "sushi" rolls. They were filled with fruit by the foot and Swedish fish. :)

The last of the goodies with fresh snow cones. It was a great party. The kids had a wonderful time and I'm thankful for such wonderful and generous family and friends.

Tempe Bike Ride

We went for another bike ride at Tempe Town Lake last week. It was so great to be outside.

We were able to get a bunch of fun pictures. :)

Love this one!

Viva Las Vegas

Mark and I were able to take a little get away this weekend thanks to the Grandparents watching the kids. We headed to Vegas, on the way I wanted to stop at a random "hole in the wall" type restaurant to experience something fun along the way...we ended up at this log cabin in Wickenburg...and it was so delicious! It was a great stop :).

Huge portions and we ordered the half size...Mark is holding his belly not because it hurts but because it is so full :)

We stayed at the MGM and this was our view of the strip from our room.

Spent most of the days by the pool reading and relaxing. The weather was great, not too hot or cold.

We did a lot of walking.

Watched the water show at the Bellagio (multiple times).

And the best part for me was seeing Mystere by Cirque Du Soleil. It was amazing!! My mouth was hanging open the whole time at awe of the performance. Really incredible, hope to see another show someday.

Thankful to have the time with Mark!