Zion's for Spring Break

 

Over the kids spring break we headed up to St. George. 

Kevin had earned some days off from clinic(dental school where they start working on patients) so he even got to come with us.  The kids were amazed by this!  "What? Dad gets to come?...yippee!"  The kids are used to us going to St. George without him.

 Kevin deserved it, he has been working really hard this year.  Our 3rd year in dental school has been awesome!  It has been just like when he was working at IBM, a real 8 to 6 schedule, love it!  The only thing that is different is he comes home for lunch, which he was never able do when we lived in Colorado, and he can earn time off by being the top producer for his whole dental class.  Which means he see lots of patients and get lots of experience. 

Way to go Kev!

 

While we were in St. George we decided to take the kids to Zion's...I love that place and have always wanted to take the kids.  So we made a day of it and went with my sisters and their families.

We had tons of fun!

Some of the hikes we did, I hadn't done since I was young.

It was a great day!

 

All the cousins!

 

 

 

 

 

Ashton turns 4

 

All I can say is...

Where does the time go!

 

 

We had a pirate theme party.

I have to say it was the most mellow birthday party I have ever thrown:)

 

We only invited a few kids. They all worked so hard on decorating  their spy glasses and swords.  Kev and I almost couldn't pull them away for the treasure hunt. 

It was a perfect party for Ashton!

 

 

Christmas 2012

I love Christmas time!

 

We celebrated with old traditions, trying new things, and had one big Christmas surprise!

 

Ginger Bread Houses...

We love making and of course eating these every year!

 

 

Trying something new...

Izzy and I stringing popcorn. She is the only one I could talk into doing this with me;)

We had fun and the tree looked great, but not going to do it again.  I had 2 of my kids think they could eat the stringed popcorn off the tree.  (Cole and Ashton)

It's too hard of work to string that stuff, to have someone come along and sneak a snack:) 

 

 

Big Surprise!

My mom and dad came down to spend Christmas eve and Christmas with us!

 

We were beyond excited and so very glad they came:)

 

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving was up at my parents ranch in Enterprise.

The kids just love it up there! 

We are all able to just relax, cozy up to the fire, and spend time together!

Oh yes... and ride the horses!

 

 

We took the scenic route home to Arizona and stopped to take a look at the old Navajo Bridge.

 

It was a great place to stop and enjoy the beautiful surroundings and see the Colorado River!

 

I just love the Colorado!

Halloween 2012

 

We love to carve pumpkins!

These pumpkins were just any old pumpkins though, these came from Grandpa J's garden just for this purpose!  The kids loved it and made some great jack-0-lanterns!

 

 

 

 



All dressed up and ready to go get CANDY!

 

Cole just had to be Gandalf  from Lord of the Rings this year.  He and his friend had been reading the Hobbit at the time, which helped give them the idea that Cole would be Gandalf and his best friend would be Frodo Baggins.  It was a perfect match and a huge hit!

Cole got to go out trick-or-treating with just he and his friend. Cole said everyone thought they had the best costumes of the night!

Ethan's Birthday...8 is Great!

 

Ethan turned 8 back in September!

I am thankful everyday that I was blessed with this wonderful boy.  He has the sweetest spirit and brings me such joy!

 

His request for his cake this year got me all excited! 

 He wanted the American flag! 

 

I don't know if it was all the election stuff Kev and I were watching on TV at the time.  That he wears red, white, and blue to school everyday. Or that in school he recites the anthem and the preamble every morning.  But he had the patriotic bug:)

 

He wanted the flag on his cake.  I had a different idea, I hid it inside so he thought I forgot about the flag idea...I like to tease this kid:) 

He was so surprised when he got his slice.

His baptism...

 



 

Thankful to all those who were able to come and support Ethan on his special day!