Gila Valley Temple

What an amazing experience we had today!! We went with my parents to the open house of the Gila Valley Temple. I had wanted to go, but just didn't seem to find a weekend that worked into our schedule. Finally, I decided to go without Bryan, during the week. I just didn't want to miss this amazing opportunity!!

We left late morning and drove the couple of hours it took to get there. We ate some lunch at McDonalds and let the kids run around for a bit. After the long drive, they needed it. They were going to have to be quiet during the tour of the temple, so we wanted them to be ready. After lunch, we headed to the temple.

It was amazing to watch my little boys enter the temple and immediately recognize the spirit that they felt there. They were quiet and walked slowly as they showed us from room to room. Then, as we left the building, Matthew said,"Mom, that place made me feel good!" It was so sweet and made the whole trip worthwhile!

The boys and I... All of us...

My parents...

It was so fun to travel together and be together!! We need to go on trips with them more often.

Trip to Cold Stone

Dalin loves Cold Stone and we just don't get down there very often. Today, he found some coupons we had gotten last week and begged to get some ice cream. Since school is out for the holiday break and it was family night, after all, we made a trip.

They had this cute little table for the twins. They thought it was pretty cool!
We stopped and picked up Dalin's buddy, James, who was thrilled to be invited!
I left with some very happy boys!!

Homemade Go-Cart from Daddy

Last year, we were at the park, when a teenage boy drove up on a go-kart. Dalin was so impressed and was bound and determined that day that one day, he would have a go-kart, too. It was pretty amazing and he was pretty excited to go home and tell Bryan all about it.

Well, here we are one year later driving around the neighborhood in our very own go-kart. Is my husband amazing, or what?? And my kids are super lucky to have him as their daddy. The plans for this were ordered online, but it was built from scratch by Bryan. Pretty cool!



The go-kart is really too powerful and too big for the twins, it was designed for Dalin. However, the twins are happy still, since they have inherited Dalin's quad.
I see many more days in this park watching the boys drive all around with big smiles on their faces.

The Bunny is in Big Trouble

Our sweet bunny has been such an easy pet. He's quiet and cuddly and doesn't make much of a mess either. We all love him!!

But today, that sweet, little bunny got himself in big trouble! He loves to eat the petunias that I recently planted in the backyard. I've been feeding him more often, so he isn't hungry, but it isn't really helping. He just loves the flowers!! Today, he dug up most of the flowers after snacking on them all afternoon. Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, he chewed through all of the drip lines in the flower bed, too.

Bryan got home to find water spraying everywhere!! He was not happy and called me to say that the bunny was in trouble!!!

So, we had to create a solution! I had to replant the few flowers that were left and we had to cage in the flower bed. Now, he can't get the the actual plants or drip lines. And hopefully, the flowers will grow through the chicken wire. Keep your fingers crossed this works, so that Bryan doesn't feed us "bunny stew" in the very near future.

Geocaching with the Boys

We officially have a new hobby! My boys are loving to go geocaching, which is a fancy way of treasure hunting. You use GPS coordinates to locate "treasures" hidden everywhere, all around you, in deserts, parking lots, and store fronts. It really is fun to look and look and then finally find the treasure.

Some are hidden in little plastic vials. Some are in plastic jugs or magnetized to fences. They are everywhere and clues are listed online to help you out along your way. There are only two times that we didn't find the treasure, but I'm sure that there will be others. The coolest one we ever found is pictured below. We happened to be with his buddy, Carson, that day. This one was hidden in a concrete box with a sneaky key to get in. It was amazing!!



This one was pretty cool, too, hidden in a stick.
Even the twins love it! But what's not to love about tromping through the desert when you are a three-year-old boy.
This is one of the treasures we didn't find. It was so disappointing!
But Dalin did find an egg, that's got to count for something, right??

Halloween 2010

Halloween was so much fun this year! It all started with the parties we had in preschool. I dressed up, too, along with the kids. All I had were kitty cat hears and a tail, but the kids loved it. When they pulled on my tail, I hissed at them, which was soooo much fun for them. We stayed in our costumes all through class and had lots of fun. We made these spiders hats.

And then ate pumpkin cookies.

Here is Micah, the bat...

And Dalin the scary, skateboarding dude...

(He couldn't wear his mask to the trunk or treat party, so we spiked and painted his hair.)

And Matthew as Buzz Lightyear...

I tried and tried to convince Micah to be Woody, so their costumes matched. He wanted nothing to do with that. "No, Mom, I'm being a bat!" He never wavered from that, so Buzz and the bat it was.

These Halloween shirts glowed in the dark. They were fun!!

Here is Dalin with his buddies at Trunk or Treat.

We love carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns. Not a lot of people still do this, but for us, it's a tradition. Dalin loves it!! And truth be told, Bryan does, too.

Matthew and Micah were finally old enough to understand trick or treating. They thought, of course, that it was great!! They loved going from house to house and rummaging through their buckets full of candy.

Here's Dalin's scary mask. This is the first year we let him be something scary, so he really enjoyed it. He loved scaring all of the little kiddos in the neighborhood.

Here's my popcorn eating bat...

Buzz sure loved the candy.

My boys loved the fire in the jack-o-lanterns...

Preschool Field Trip to the Zoo

Today we ventured on our first field trip with our preschool. It was a simple one at the Phoenix Zoo, but oh, so much fun! My boys loved having all of their friends with them.

Matthew and Jasmine checking out the snakes.
Hanging out with the frogs.
Checking out the prairie dogs. Isn't this an adorable picture?

Either they needed a foot massage or these were the only seats around. Lol!
Micah milking a cow.
Matthew on the carousel. I paid for the carousel ride as the teacher, since we didn't have to pay to get in. So many of my families have memberships that we were able to get in as guests and siblings. It was awesome!
This is another great picture. How funny!
Micah on an ostrich. Funny picture.
Matthew really got into the photo shoot with the animals today. That shows just how happy he was.
What a sweet smile.
My little pearl...
Look at Matthew's smile. He loves horses!!

The boys were crazy about these maps. They look so grown up!

What a fun day and a perfect field trip! Everything went off without a hitch. I love my job!!