Home Sweet Home

So I know this post is looong overdue, but I'm really far behind and wanted to get these pictures on the blog so they will make it into my annual scrapbook. I'm so glad my sister-in-law, Marisa, is always on the ball bringing her camera and snapping such great shots of everyone! On Easter my Aunt Margie organized a cousins get together at a nearby park. We had a great dinner and then water guns were provided for all the grandkids to be able to have a little fun. Could Adaira crowd her cousin Connor a little more while she impatiently waits her turn at the drinking fountain? It was slightly chilly for Ms. Daisy and we had forgotten to throw her blanket in her car seat with her, so she was wrapped in Brighton's sweater... I think David is trying to launch his boy Emerson... My Dad decided to get in on the fun too! Cousin Paige (Dean's oldest) is such an amazing young woman (almost, she turns 12 this summer). Pretty much perfect at everything, inc...

Surprise! I decided on Valentine's Day of this year that I was going to throw Justin a surprise birthday party this year. He has thrown me a few good ones and has had such thoughtful surprises for me on Valentine's Day for the past 5 years, so I really wanted to get him back (in a good way!). I planned a surprise party well in advance and was so nervous that he was going to find out! I realized just how much useless information I give Justin during the day when I found myself wanting to tell him the most random of things about the party, and then catching and stopping myself because it was a surprise. A few months ahead of time I planned the decoy by asking Frances to come upstairs and ask Justin and I if she could hold a big Easter Egg hunt and party in our backyard for all of her daycare families. That way we could account for all the cars in front of the house as well as the decorations ahead of time (brilliant, right?). We were due to get irrigation the night before the ...

No BOYS allowed! Adaira had her 6th birthday on April 5th and that same day after school we had a birthday party for her. I had asked Adaira a few months prior what she thought she'd like to do for her birthday, and she said she wanted to have a PINK party. That sounded super easy to me so I told her it was a deal. I shopped a few Valentin's clearance deals and basically grabbed anything cute and pink I could find in the weeks leading up to her birthday. Adaira is a total social bug and has so many friends that we really had to limit who she could invite since I told her we could only invite 10 girls. We used plastic pink table clothes to drape along the barrel train and took all the girls on the "birthday" train at the start of the party. I found these little pink hats in the dollar section at Target and had one for every girl to wear (Turns out they were a little too small!). The pink table clothes were held to the barrels with clothes pins and didn't end up h...

 Last Ditch Effort to Catch Some Snow Two weekends ago we were right smack in the middle of Spring Break and a huge snowstorm brought well over a foot of snow to various parts of the state including Show Low. I really wanted to take the kids up, not only to play in the snow, but also to give us something special to do over the break so we (translate: I ) weren't just counting down the days until school started again. I put an open invitation out on Facebook to any of my other Mom friends to see if they would like to take a trip up without husbands (it was a Wednesday to Friday trip, March 28-30). At first nobody obliged and I wasn't going to go, but at the last minute a friend (Emrie) from the ward took me up on that offer. She has four kids under six, so with my four and her four we had our hands full! It was a lot of work for us, but it is certainly rewarding to sacrifice some comfort to see our kids have a fun time (plus I'm sure they stayed way busier at the cabin than ...