Happy Easter

We had a busy Easter weekend. Friday we had tickets to Disney on Ice. The show was in downtown Phoenix right by Jon's work so we were able to park at his building and walk over. Charlie was thrilled to see Buzz Light year and the Incredibles. Jack was a little freaked out and made sure my arm was securely draped over his body like a seat belt. Claire was cranky but luckily fell asleep in my arms for most of the show.
Charlie and Jon having a great time. Notice Charlie's stitches. I will post about that next.

Syndrome captured Mickey and Minnie and the Incredibles save the day. Our favorite character was Fro zone. He looked exactly like the character.

After Disney on Ice I took Charlie to preschool for his second Easter Egg hunt and party. Saturday morning we went to a neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. It was raining early in the morning which was weird. It hasn't rained since november. I felt bad for the Easter Egg Hunt planners. Charlie loved grabbing up eggs. Notice the boys have their pirate Halloween buckets for the Easter Egg hunt. I had already done the Easter Baskets so this was what we had.

Charlie with proud of his full bucket of eggs

After this Easter Egg Hunt Charlie went to a birthday party and then came home and we celebrated Claire's birthday. Sunday after church we had some friends over and had another egg hunt in our backyard. Here is Claire finding an egg.

Claire in her Easter dress

Jack with his basket. He had his Buzz Light year costume on for most of the day.

We had Claire's ice cream cake for dessert
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It was a great Easter Holiday.

Happy Birthday Beauty

Claire eating her chocolate cake.

I can't believe it's already been a year! It went too fast. We are so happy to have Claire. She brings so much love and sweetness into our home. Charlie absolutely adores her. He was so excited to get a baby sister. Every morning when Claire wakes up Charlie runs into her room. I let him go in first to avoid a complete breakdown on his part. Charlie will put some toys in Claire's crib and then climb in. It's so cute I hear Claire laughing and Charlie being silly. Claire is now standing and taking a few steps. She loves to growl and say Ah. Her little personality is starting to show and we think she is silly. She loves to roll around on the floor until she runs into you upon which she expects you to tickle her. We are so happy she's in our lives. Happy 1st Birthday Claire!

Car show

One of the partner's from Jon's firm was in a car show last weekend so we thought we go and check it out. It was alot of fun. Jack was so cute following Jon all over the place. He was very interested in the cars. Charlie on the other hand was being silly and was running all over the field with his little buddy.

Jon and his little shadow Jack and Claire.

My favorite car the Cobra.


Our fun group


At the end all the cars lined up and drove past us. The boys loved waving and yelling at the cars. The announcer was lame. He would introduce the cars and say things like that's a nice car. Look at that paint job. It was funny.

Angels

I just met another mom from our ward who is the president of a mom's club out here. This mom's club is awesome. They do tons of field trips each month and other fun activities weekly. So this month we did a field trip to the Tempe Diablo Stadium. The boys thought this was pretty cool. It was fun watching the boys run all over the field and play imaginary baseball. At the end they all got hats that were a little to big but the boys looked adorable.

The boys in the press box


Standing in the lockers. They loved this.


Hanging out in the bleachers trying to get a group shot.


Claire enjoying the press box



The boys were popping the bubble wrapper from the hat box. It doesn't take much to entertain a bunch of boys.

Pool Day

We went up to Luke and Lauren's pool for the day two weekends ago. It was so much fun. There was a cabana and BBQ right by the pool. It doesn't get much better than good bbq, friends and swimming. Jack loved running around the pool with a soccer ball and the occasional hot tub swim. Charlie dived in the pool and swam all over the place. Claire slept through the whole thing so I actually was able to swim and spend some time with everyone. Gotta love Arizona in March.

The boys in the hot tub. Jack's favorite spot.

Grilling by the pool. Lauren makes some good burgers!

Hanging out by the waterfalls.

Great Weekend

Jon's niece came to stay with us for the weekend. It was so much fun. The boys were so excited to see their cousin. We went to the zoo on Saturday and that evening we went out to dinner at a My Big Fat Greek Restaurant. It was really good food. Our appetizer was this Greek cheese dish that you light on fire and the server was really close to me and my hair almost lit on fire. The rest of the week we just hung out. She is so much fun to talk to and so patient with the boys. Charlie would sit in her room and play on the computer while she got ready. Charlie loved helping her put her earrings in and pretty much just followed her around. At night we ran around the yard chasing the boys. On monday we did a Costco run. It was so nice having a friend to talk to. We love you Kenz!!! Thanks for visiting us.

About ten minutes before we left to get Kenz from the airport the boys made this mess! I asked them to wash their hands and shoes since they were all sandy from the park. Obviously they got a little carried away.

Charlie's in heaven.

Looking at the monkeys.

Eating at In and Out Burger after the zoo. So nice having help. The kids just adored her.

The boys had so much fun being flown like airplanes. Jack loved to dive over Kenz. It was so funny. The boys also would ran back and forth trying to show off. They slept great that night.

Claire taking her own bath

Claire enjoying a bath all to herself.

I just thought she looked so cute all buddled up in a towel. She is the sweetest little girl and she has just found her voice. She makes the cutest girl squaks. It's so different from the boys low voices.

Almost Swim Season

The boys wanted to try on their swim gear. Charlie picked out the swimsuits. He thinks he's tough with a shark shirt on. Of course Jack has to have the same thing as Charlie.

Duh-duh

Charlie has preschool three times a week and he was throwing a fit every day right before we would leave. I even had to leave him crying while the teacher held him one day. The weird thing was when I picked him up from school he didn't want to leave because he was having so much fun. So I called my sister in law who is amazing and has lots of experience with kids being difficult and she told me to give him a special reward as an incentive to go. I asked Charlie what he wanted and he said a fish. So the deal was if Charlie went to preschool for an entire month without complaining then he could have his fish. I am proud to say he had a great month at preschool and his teacher said he participated and did great. On the way home from the fish store Jon asked Charlie what he was going to name his Beta fish . Charlie replied "Dad, I already told you last week at the zoo. His name is Duh-duh." So that was that. Silly kid. Charlie loves Duh-duh and feeds him twice a day and whenever something is going on Charlie makes sure to tell Duh-duh all about it. He even told me that when he was young, he used to eat freeze-dried blood worms just like Duh-duh. This from a kid who won't eat bread!

Our New Backyard

We just finished our backyard and we are so happy! We put in a bunch of desert plants with beautiful blossoms, two different types of trees and an orange tree that should produce fruit in 1-2 years. We extended our patio with pavers and it turned out great. The boys love riding their bikes in the backyard and rolling around in the grass.

Patio

Before

Happy Valentine's Day

Jon went to Mexico for work with our friend Luke. Luke speaks spanish and was able to haggle with some locals and the result is this gorgous boquet of flowers. The flower on top is called Birds of Paradise (Jon's favorite). I was so surprised.

My little monkey

Claire has become a little monkey. Last month she really started to crawl fast. Then she started pulling herself up and standing. Now she can crawl up all our stairs in 2 minutes. Last night as I was reading to the boys I sat in amazement as I watched Claire crawl up their bunk bed slide. Before I knew it she was on the top bunk smiling and laughing! "Oh boy" I am not ready for this. Today at the park I sat her at the bottom of this huge slide and watched as she climbed all the way up. She has also discovered how to unroll the toilet paper and get in the toilet. Try teaching two little boys to keep the toilet seat down or the bathroom door shut. It's an all day event.

Charlie's 4

I can't believe our little man is 4! He has grown up so much. He had a great birthday. We celebrated it at preschool on friday were he chose blue cupcakes served on transformer plates. The teacher gave him a birthday crown which most kids only wear for a few minutes but Charlie wore it the whole day and was so pleased. The next day we celebrated his birthday at home. I made him a transformer cake. Charlie loved it! He got a new bike for his birthday which he wasn't so sure of because he already had a small bike. After riding his new bike and seeing how much faster he goes he was really pleased.

He chose to wear his PJ's all day! I couldn't refuse. It was his birthday.

Happy New Year

We started our New Year's Eve celebration by going to the Phoenix Zoo. They had made a mound of snow and the kids were thrilled! This was the first snow they have seen this Christmas. The zoo was packed for the celebration. I had to laugh. The snow pile was tiny and it was 73 degrees out. Claire loved it but she wanted to eat the snow and this snow looked white but I was sure it was gross. After making a few snowballs the boys lost interest and off to the petting zoo we went. Jon came home earlier and we finished the night with a midnight count down at 7 for the kids and ran around the house blowing our horns and shooting off our poppers. It was great start to a New Year!


Jon and the kids

Our New Year's princess

At the end of the night we talked about our favorite things of 2008. Jon's was our house, Mine was having the sweetest baby doll Claire, Charlie's was his toys, Jack's was Fireman Sam and his firetrucks, and we said Claire's was her brothers.