Happy Birthday Princess Tawny

Tawny turned 5 a few weeks ago and had an awesome birthday! She wanted to have a Pedis by Pool with everything pink. So that's exactly what we did. Pink banners, pink cake, pink favors, pink everything.

Her cake had pink fondant ruffles with zebra stripes in the inside. She really really loved her cake. She stood looking at it forever before her party started. It was well worth the time it took me to do it.

 The girls all got pedicures from Amber and my mom. There was definitely a lot of pink and sparkles over here too.

All of her friends know her so well. She loved every single thing she got.

For the party favors Tawny and I made little pink purses. Tawny picked out the fabric and helped me sew them. We filled them with tiaras, ring pops, and other candy jewelry. All the girls really seemed to like them.
Maddie got to swim for the first time after Tawny's party. She didn't cry, but didn't seem super impressed either.

 Even Brayden wanted to get in on the princess fun!

The next day was Tawny's actual birthday and we did all the family presents then. She mostly got things for school; clothes, shoes, backpack and lunchbox. Of course, most of those were pink, and all of them sparkled. She also got a princess necklace from Grandma Hebdon that she really loves.

 The kids finished out the night by giving Papa lots of love and attention. Doesn't it look like he's having fun?

I can't believe Tawny is already 5. She is such a responsible and caring little girl. She is able to find joy in everything and wants everyone else to be happy too. Some favorite memories:

• Brayden and her were playing the color game in the pool when Brayden exclaimed "Tawny, sparkle is NOT a color". Maybe not, but it is to her.
• She still says a few words wrong, like pacifier. She says "fa-ci-pier" instead
• She loves making lunch for her and Ethan.
• She paints her own fingernails and toenails. And yes, it looks about how you would expect. But she is so proud of herself that I don't have the heart to fix it.
• She loves church. every single thing about it.

Happy Birthday Princess. We love you!

Home Again

While we had so much fun with all our travelling, it was so good to be home. The day after we got home we went to Rosita's with my parents. Ethan was so excited to see his grandma.

We tried a few new things for lunch. This was probably the biggest success. We made octopus using hot dogs and spaghetti. The kids thought these were awesome and request them on a daily basis.

 Ethan has taken a liking to Maddie's rocker. Whenever he's disappeared this is where I find him.

We pretty much swim every single day and the kids love it. Ethan has even started cleaning the pool for me. He's so helpful!

Back to Flagstaff Again

The drive from New Mexico was way to far for me to do alone so we stopped in Flagstaff again for a few days. Tawny really enjoyed cleaning Grandma Wanda's house. She washed the table, the cupboards, the stove and finished up with helping Grandma do the dishes. It was so cute!

Since it was the kids favorite thing, we went back to the train station. It's amazing how much they loved watching the trains go by. I didn't even have to ask for these smiles. They were just so excited!

Maddie was very concerned with the noise the whole time, but didn't cry at all.

Thank you Grandma Wanda for letting us visit and spend so much time with you. They kids really loved it and are still talking about all the fun things we did. They ask every day or two when we are going back. I'm not sure I can handle the traveling alone again any time soon! They were mostly very good, but we had a few incidents. The worst was on the way home from Flagstaff. I stopped on an on ramp to feed Maddie between  Phoenix and Blythe. Well, it was hot and she was so tired of being in the car that she didn't really want to cooperate. While I was changing her diaper Tawny says she has to pee urgently. I couldn't leave Maddie so I told Tawny to just pee on the side of the road by herself (she usually needs help when there isn't a toilet, so I already know this is going to end badly). As she is getting out of the car Brayden decides to push her. He pushed her so hard that she flew a few feet from the car. The biggest problem is that there was a pretty steep incline by the side of this on ramp and Tawny tumbled all the way down it into the bushes at the bottom. She still has to pee so ends up needing a change of clothes. Maddie is screaming because I had to abandon her on the floorboard of the car (which wasn't clean at all) to go help Tawny up the embankment. As I get to the top I hear Ethan screaming because he had tore the bottom off his Styrofoam cup that still had a good amount of Icee in it.  Luckily we were already on our way home when this happened or I might have cut the trip short!

New Mexico

After spending a few days in Flagstaff we drove to see Tawny (my best friend) in New Mexico. Her husband is in the Air Force and deployed in Afghanistan and she is pregnant for the first time. Talke about a lot to deal with at once! It was so great to see her and get to spend so much unrushed time together. That hasn't happened in years! We stayed up way too late every night talking. I'm pretty sure my kids had fun too. She got a slip 'n slide that they loved and played on for hours.

 Ethan was much more interested in eating Swedish Fish at first (I dont' blame him him), but eventually he warmed up to the slide and loved every second. They also loved blowing bubbles in the bakyard.



One day we took them to a local zoo and I was surprised at how entertaining it was. She lives in a pretty small town, but the zoo turned out to be pretty awesome. It was way bigger than I expected it to be and I was definitely ready to be done by the time we got to the end.

Just a cute pic of Brayden and Ethan cuddling on the couch. They do this all the time and I finally got a picture of it.

Flagstaff Part 1

Me and the kids took a trip up to see Grandma Wanda in Flagstaff. The weather so nice and we had so much fun with her. We went to a lot of different parks, which the kids loved, especially Ethan.

 Maddie wasn't quite as impressed, but was still really good. She turned two months old while we were there (she's two months in this photo).

 We tried to have a picnic one day at the park, but we got rained out. Luckily, they had a covered picnic area. It rained nearly every day we were there.

 Grandma Wanda took Tawny for a pedicure and manicure for her birthday. Tawny thought it was so awesome and didn't stop smiling the entire time. She picked bright blue with white flowers.

 We also played a lot of games. Grandma taught the kids how to play mexican train. They had a great time, especially Brayden.

 There's a train station right in the middle of Flagstaff and over 60 trains go through there every day. So we sat and watched a few trains go through. Ethan was a little unsure at first because of the noise, but quickly got over that fear.

 Another day we took the kids to Bearizona, a drive through wildlife park. It was awesome because we got to see the animals up close, even better because my animals were contained inside the car. Our favorite animals were the bison and the bears. They also had a zoo you could walk through at the end. I tried to get a picture of the kids by the bear statue, but Ethan would not have anything to do with it. Even as I'm typing he's point at the bear and saying "no, no, no". silly boy!