Fun Week

So it's the 26th of January, and I have yet to get my camera down from the cupboard shelf in 2009. Luckily, my friends are much better than me at remembering to bring their cameras along on fun adventures and I have a few pictures to share from our week of fun.

Last Monday for the MLK holiday, Erika and I took our kids to the McCormick-Stillman Train Park over in Scottsdale. The kids had a great time riding the train and carousel, going through the little train museum, and just playing at the parks there.

Suzanna, Lacey and Jessica waiting in line for the train (you can sort of see the train loaded up in the background).

And Suzanna, Brendon Jarom and Jessica waiting for the carousel ride.

Then on Wednesday, Hillari invited Jonathan, Ty and I to go to the zoo with them. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the zoo was nearly empty, which made for a fabulous visit!

Sareny and Jonathan

Isaac, Sareny, Jonathan and Ty

If you look REALLY close, you can see Ty's bruised head. The poor thing fell at one of the play areas, but he was having so much fun, he didn't let his injuries keep him down!

Hillari says it's ironic that we only took pictures with the animal statues instead of the actual animals...but I think the statues pose much better!

We continued our week of fun with our weekly visit to the park on Thursday (school gets out early on Thursdays). We always have so much fun visiting with friends there!

Brendon and Suzanna kept the fun going with birthday parties for friends over the weekend. Sadly, the weekend was not as glorious for the adults, but we did get a lot of super fun yard work done.

New author to love:

Suzanne Collins

Love her writing! Love the Gregor books--just finished reading the five book series and wish there was more to read about the underworld. And I can't wait until Brendon finishes them so I can talk to him about all the books!! They're children's books, but easily captured my imagination.



I also loved her YA novel, The Hunger Games, and can't wait for the next book in that series, too. She's definitely a new favorite.

Just thought I'd share...

Victory!

Three times over this weekend!

I claim the first as Finder of the Lost Wii Remote.
It had been missing for over a week and was feared gone forever. And yeah, I did a nice victory dance for the kids when I finally found it after about an hour of deep searching. I guess Phil can claim a small part in the discovery since technically it was his idea of where to look.





Second, Phil and I were lucky enough to be given tickets to watch the Suns claim victory over the Mavs on Friday night. So fun to be there!




And third, and most surprising of all, our Cardinals actually won their second playoff game. We had fun watching the game as a family on Saturday night. Well, we watched the first half as a family. Then some of the less devoted fans (or shall we say younger fans) lost interest.





So yeah, pretty fun weekend. Too bad it's over.

Christmas Memories

We had oh so much fun together this Christmas season! Here are just a few highlights:

Acting out the Nativity scene with the Lunts outside for a new twist on a tradition that goes back to my own childhood. Brendon was the donkey, Suzanna an angel, Jonathan a wise man, and Tyler declined his position as a shepherd and settled for mom's lap instead.

Making (and eating) the traditional sugar cookies. Mom frosted a few for neighbors while the kids made their own creations.

Spending Christmas Eve with cousins being "shepherds,"

and sharing talents. Learning Christmas duets with Brendon and Suzanna this year was so much fun!

Getting everything they wanted from Santa--or at least enough of what they wanted to make them happy!

And SNOW!!! We left for Thatcher after opening gifts Christmas morning. A couple days later it snowed and the kids were in heaven.

Presents, time with family celebrating the Savior's birth, and snow...what more could we ask for to have a perfect Christmas?!?

Merry Christmas

Tagged and Turning Five

Jonathan turned five last week, and was tagged by Krystal, so I'm going to bend the tag rules a little and tell five things about Jonathan's life to celebrate his birthday.

1. Jonathan was born a week late and was 10 pounds even. He had a hard time breathing in the hospital, and I had epidural complications, so our first few days were a little rough. We were thrilled to get to come home from the hospital by Christmas, though. My mom snapped this picture right after we walked in the door, so he's only three days old, but he looks huge already! He was huge already!!

2. Jonathan turned 1 year old just before we moved out of our first home. He was such an easy going baby, and took GREAT naps! He's always been my best sleeper-he's still the only kid who doesn't come out of his room several times every night to tell me he can't sleep. Even at a year old, he always had us laughing. He's still a funny kid, and he loves that about himself. Jonathan loves to make up jokes, laugh and be silly. Can we say class-clown in the making?

3. When Jonathan was 2, he really didn't like other women. Whenever I had a friend come over, he would scream and cry, and he would avoid them the entire visit. He only liked to be around men, and it was cute to see him always tagging along after his dad, uncles and grandpas. Once, when we were at a preschool screening for Suzanna, he was playing with an older "grandpa" age man, and when the man left, Jonathan started trotting out the door after him. Guess he wasn't done playing!

4. When Jonathan turned three, he was so sick with a bad cold. I see it in his poor little eyes every time I look at that year's birthday pictures, but this one isn't so bad. Jonathan is a sweet kid, even when he's sick, and it seemed like he was always sick that winter. He started preschool at 3 1/2, and loved his time playing there. He wasn't really interested in learning much at first, but he's more "studious" this year. He's a smart kid, but he'd rather be playing than learning letters.

5. As a four-year-old, Jonathan was all about friends. He spent the last year always asking who's house he could go to, or who we could have over. And with lost of play dates came lots of opportunities to share. Jonathan can be very good at that. Whenever he gets home from a birthday party with a treat bag or has any candy at all, he gladly shares with his siblings. Before they even ask, he's offering to share and passing out candy. He's really generous with his stuff, most of the time.

We can't wait to see what Five-year-old Jonathan is going to be like!

Jonathan Turns 5!

Last week for Jonathan's birthday party, we invited his preschool class over for a Scooby Doo Christmas Mystery. An "elf" stole all the presents, and the kids had to play some games to get clues to find them.

The last clue was hidden in my pinata masterpiece. In case you can't tell (and you really can't) it's supposed to look like a Christmas ornament, but this homemade pinata did not want to cooperate at any point in the process. By the time I was done making it, I was just glad it could hold candy. Luckily kids don't care, and they all had fun hitting the thing.


We had a Scooby Doo's paw print for a cake...


and the kids all got to make their own pizza.


Jonathan had a great time, got some great gifts, and is super excited to finally be five. All day on his birthday he kept coming up to me and saying "I can't believe I'm actually five!"