Travel Journal Part 2

OK so this post is going to have a lot of pictures. I have a hard time deciding which ones to post so you get a bunch.

Wednesday
This day we decided to go to the Phoenix zoo. We went to the wildlife zoo which would have been enough but Abby has been waiting since last year to ride the camel. Trevor and I rode one last year when we went to visit but Abby was just barely too young. She remembered that she didn't get to and that she really wanted to so when we told her we were going to Nikki's house the first thing she said was, "And I can ride the camel." So we promised her she could. She was not going to let us forget it either so we went to both. We had a lot of fun and the kids just love the animals.

Nikki and the kids by the giraffes. (they were not as exciting as the ones we fed)

The famous camel ride! They had a blast and I was happy because I didn't have to go this year!

Trevor, Abby and Aunt Nikki enjoying their snow cones.

My three little chicks!

My first little chick (I told you he is just like a kid)!

Trevor riding the crocodile (he is obsessed with them)

Carter and Trevor in the clam shell (Abby was sleeping)

Carter the turtle

Carter driving the tractor. They had a little farm section and even though we see these animals all the time it was Carter's favorite part! He love cows and horses.

THURSDAY

This was pretty much a lazy day for us. We played outside and went on a picnic. In the evening we went to Fiddlestix for a while and then we went to a softball game. Trent is on a church team and they were kind enough to let Nick play too. So we went and watched. I just have to say that my kids are wimps. It was kind of a chilly night and we hadn't planned to go so I was not prepared with jackets. Anyway, the kids were all just whining and complaining about how cold they were. I finally ended up going to the car and getting their winter coats for them. We are the ones from Wyoming and my kids are the only ones with coats (winter coats none the less)! It was pretty funny.

FRIDAY

This was our last day in Phoenix so some of the day was spent sulking. We got up early and got ready to go to the children's art museum. (we tried to go Thursday afternoon but we got there 30 minutes before it closed so we decided to go back the next day). We went to this museum last year and I didn't get any pictures. Nick was sick last year so he didn't get to see it and I kept telling him how cute it was. I brought my camera but the batteries died after one picture and my extras were in our suitcase. Anyway, I really wanted to go back to Nick could see it and so I could get some pictures. Well, because I didn't get pictures last year, I made up for it this year. I took a lot of pictures. I just have to say that I talked it up too much. Nick was not really that impressed because I had made it sound so much better, and I do have to add that it was not as cool this year. Part of it was basically the same but the other part was completely different and pretty much stupid. Anyway, the kids had fun and here are some of our pictures.

Carter fixing me dinner

Abby washing the dishes

Trevor bringing me a plate of fruit

Carter's puppet show

Abby's puppet show

Trevor's puppet show

Carter putting the apple on the tree

Abby inside the tree house

Trevor and his pet rats! (we took this picture just for Grandma Terry)

Dad reading to Carter

Abby posing on the bug pillow (she didn't want to sit still for a story)

Trevor and Dad reading a story

The three munchkins by the painting room

After we went to the museum we decided we needed to go swimming before we left. We had planned on going to an indoor pool but found out that it wasn't open, so all week we didn't go. Anyway, we had told the kids we could go so we went to Trent's parents house. They are so kind to let us use their pool and they are always so hospitable. We went there last year too. The only trouble is it is an outdoor pool and it is still really cold this time of year. However, the kids didn't seem to mind too much. Trevor really had a ball. It took Abby a while to warm up but then she had fun too. Carter never did get used to it. I didn't either, I didn't even put my suit on because I knew I wouldn't. It was a good time and we are so glad that the Cowley's are so nice.

Trevor, Nick and Abby swimming

Carter and I did keep our feet in but that was it.

Abby and her hippo

Trevor and his Crocodile

After we went swimming we drove out to Gilbert to see our friends the Shumways. We knew them in Laramie and we miss them. It was so good to see them. We just hung out at their house and let the kids play. We wish we could have spent more time with them but it was sure good to see them for a minute. Thanks Shumways! We got back to Nikki's house late that night and we just went to bed.

SATURDAY

We left on Saturday morning about 4:30am. We wanted to get an early start so that the kids would sleep and so we could get home at a decent hour. We had a good trip home. The kids did GREAT! They were awake for a lot of it but they were so so good. They read books, colored, opened surprise packages, sang songs and ate snacks. We did borrow a dvd player from a good friend and we let them watch 2 movies on the way home. I don't think that it was necessary to have it but it did give me a nice break from trying to entertain. Thank you so much Jill! Anyway, we had such a wonderful trip. It is always nice to be home when you get home but we are ready to go back to that warm weather again! Thank you Nikki and Trent for such a wonderful time! We love you.

P.S. I forgot to mention that Carter loved Trent and it was so cute. He is such a Mama's boy but he really liked Trent and it was nice to have a break. I didn't take any pictures of the two of them but I think it was a good thing for everyone involved!

P.P.S Nick wrote down everything that he ate at the ball game so I guess I better share

5 hot dogs, 4 bags of chips, 1 box of popcorn, 1 bag of peanuts, 6 sodas and 2 waters. It makes me sick just thinking about it but he sure enjoyed it! Way to go honey!

Travel Journal Part 1

We are back from our trip to Arizona! We had so much fun. Here is our travel journal for the first part. I hope I don't leave anything out. Beware it is going to be a long one, which is why I chose to do it in parts.

FRIDAY
The kids and I went to the valley on Friday the 3rd to help my mom with a little dinner party. We decided that Nick could sleep better without us around. Nick came home from work about 2:00 and went to sleep so that he could drive through the night. He called us about 8:30 and said he was ready to go. We packed up and met him in Evanston. We didn't actually get on the road until about 10:00pm. (I just have to add that is was starting to snow pretty good as we were leaving) We made pretty good time. We were planning on a 16 hour trip but it only took 13 1/2. The kids did great. They slept most of the way.

SATURDAY
At 5 am we all got out and went to the bathroom, and then the kids went right back to sleep. We stopped again in Flagstaff for breakfast and let the kids run around and play for a while. The rest of the way we were occupied with singing songs, coloring, reading books and opening surprise packages with toys and treats. We got to Nikki's house about 10:30 (Arizona time). We watched the rest of General conference session and then went to the park. The rest of the day we just watched conference, played outside and went grocery shopping for the week.

SUNDAY
This day was mostly dedicated to watching conference (or sleeping through it). We tried to go to a park again in between sessions but the park happened to be closed for a big event so we just played outside and enjoyed the heat. We also got to hang out with my cousin Jennifer and her husband Derrell. They came over and we had dessert and just talked. It was really good to see them. Ryan, Jessica, Talan and Camryn also came over. It is always fun to get together with family!

MONDAY
Nikki had to work all day on Monday so we decided to hook up with my Jessica and her kids and go to the wildlife zoo. We had a lot of fun at the zoo. The highlight was probably feeding the giraffes.

Carter, Trevor and Abby at the petting zoo. Carter loved the animals until he got too close, then he was not too impressed.

Trevor and Abby loved the animals. I couldn't get them to come out.

Trevor, Carter, Talan and Abby outside the petting zoo.

This is Carter feeding the giraffes. They all loved this a lot!

The kids before going into the zoo. They don't look that excited in the picture, but they were!

After the zoo we were all pretty exhausted so we went to Ryan and Jessica's house and just hung out. We ended up just staying there most of the evening. We had a really good time and it was so good to hang out with Jessica again. We used to live by them in Laramie and we got to be really good friends and we miss them a lot. While we were at Taylor's house Jerry Hanson and his son came over because they were looking at houses in Arizona. We knew them when we lived in Star Valley so it was crazy to see them in Arizona.

TUESDAY
This was the hottest day while we were there. I think it was about 95. We spent most of the morning dying Easter eggs. In the afternoon we had an Easter egg hunt in the park. Nikki is a nanny for a little girl named Drew, so her and her mom came and joined us for the hunt. The kids had a lot of fun looking for eggs. We found out the hard way that Easter egg hunts are different in Arizona than Wyoming. We bought chocolate - oops it melted really fast.

Trevor and Abby looking for eggs

Carter found one!

Drew, Trevor, Abby, Carter and Nick showing off their goodies!

The rest of our day was pretty lazy. Nick and Trent (Nikki's husband) went to a Diamondbacks game. They sat in an all you can eat section and they ate enough for an army, but they really enjoyed it. Nick caught a ball at batting practice and he had to sleep with the ball that night. I have always said he is my first child! He was pretty excited and had a really good time. While they were at the game we went out and got ice cream and then went to the mall. We had a lot of fun looking at the pet store and the rain forest cafe.

The three amigos at the rain forest cafe.

Nikki with the kids by the frog at the cafe.

I think that I will call that good for today. I will post about the rest of the week tomorrow.

Arizona countdown!

Okay, so I am terrible at being consistent with my blogging, but sometimes we are just more exciting than others. We have been fighting colds and just go, go, go so I guess that is our reason for not blogging. Anyway, We are counting down the days until we make the long trip to Arizona again! We are leaving on April 3rd so we only have 10 more days. Yeah, we are so excited. The kids have a countdown calendar on the fridge and anytime they walk by it they count the days, it is pretty cute. Our little family will be leaving on Friday and we get to stay for a whole week. We will for sure have some pictures and stories to tell when we get back so be prepared!

P.S. For all of those who don't know by now. We are expecting our fourth child! He/She should be here the first part of July. We are tentatively looking at the 10th. We are not finding out what we are having so that should be fun. We are really excited and Trevor and Abby can not wait!

Update time again

SLEDDING
Awhile back we were visiting my parents and we were trying to find things to entertain us. We decided that it was the perfect day for sledding, if we could find enough snow. Well we happened to find enough snow so we went sledding for the first time this winter. The kids really had a blast. We thought that we were going to end up just pulling them around but they actually went down the hill pretty good.



Carter Sleeping
The other day we were having lunch and I left the room for a minute to say good-bye to Nick. I came back and this is what I found...


Carter sleeping in his pizza!
Brooke's Wedding
Nick's littlest sister was married on Feb. 6th. It was a really special day. For some reason we don't have very many pictures. Hopefully we can talk Nick's mom into duplicating hers. Anyway it was a great day and we are so happy and excited to Brooke. Here are two of the pictures we did get.

Last but not least, our candy house...
We have been cooped up inside because we have had colds and it is really cold outside so we have been looking for things to do. Well we made some dog houses out of boxes a couple of weeks ago and the kids absolutely loved them and played in them non-stop. The only downfall was that they couldn't stand up in them and Carter would get pretty frustrated. So I decided that bigger would be better. We decided to make a gingerbread house. The kids had so much fun decorating it with the paper candy. They call it the candy house and they love it even more than the dog houses. They can all fit in it at the same time and they have a blast!

BIG BROTHER

Trevor is a great big brother. The other day I asked Abby to go turn off a light, however, she couldn't reach. So Trevor ran over and said, "Oh Abby, it looks to me like you could use your big brother!" It was so cute. Well to make the story even better; I thought Abby would throw a fit because she didn't get to turn the light off. I was wrong; she replied, "Oh yeah that's right, you are my big brother so go ahead." It was such a fun thing to observe.

A couple of hours later Abby was trying to get her shirt on and was having some trouble. She started to walk away and Trevor noticed that her shirt was way up in the back. He ran over to her and said, "wo hold on girly, you need some help." He proceeded to fix her shirt for her and then went about his business. I love my children and I recognize that I am so blessed!

My trip to Phoenix!

On January 4th I was able to take a road trip with my little sisters Nikki and Amber. Nikki and her husband drove from Phoenix for Christmas. Trent (her husband) had to be back to work before her so she sent him home on an airplane and Amber and I volunteered to accompany her on her long trip home. We left Sunday morning and drove all day. I have to admit I was dreading that part but it was actually a lot of fun (traveling without kids is so easy)! We were able to spend the next three days together and having so much fun. We did so many things like, hiking, shopping, playing volleyball, riding the NEW light rail, seeing downtown, miniature golf, shopping some more, painting our own pottery and much more. We really had such a good time together. It was really fun to just be able to play and have fun and not worry about my kiddos (thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law). I didn't get very good pictures because we used Nikki's and Amber's mostly. They have better cameras. Anyway, here are some of the pictures I got.

Nikki and Amber and a cute little restaurant called Mimi's. (yes we ate outside, it was great)!

Amber and I on the light rail.

Me. Amber and Nikki on the Mill Ave. bridge.

The three amigos at a little park on Mill

Me and Nikki doing dance, dance! (I was so lousy)

Amber is a very serious biker!

The three of us miniature golfing

Amber and I climbing the palm trees (it is a lot harder than it looks)

Amber and Nikki at hole in the rock (where we hiked to)

One of our stops along the way to Phoenix. You can't tell but there is a huge dam behind us.

We had to leave on the 7th. We really were not ready to leave, other than the fact I was dying to see my husband and kids. We had so much fun. I can't wait to go back, in fact Nick and I and the kids are going to be making the trip soon! We did it last year and we are ready to do it again so look out Phoenix, here we come!

Update time!

No we have not dropped off the earth we have just been really busy and have not been home much at all. I will try to update you on what we have been doing. There are a lot of pictures so I hope you enjoy. This post will just be the month of December.

TREVOR'S 4th BIRTHDAY

Trevor turned 4 on December 9th. It is hard to believe that he is 4. We had a real easy going day. We served him breakfast in bed and then he opened his presents. Later we went to story time and that evening we had a little party with Nick's parents and my parents. The rest of the day was occupied with Trevor playing with his toys and sharing his toys with his siblings. He is such a good little boy. All day long I heard things like, "mom, how did you know this is what I wanted, thank you so much, I love my cars!" He got all of the characters off the movie "cars" and he plays with them non stop!

Trevor concentrating really hard while decorating cupcakes for preschool!

I put Trevor's cars in old Disney movie cases and he was so confused until Dad helped him look inside.

Here are his presents that he loves so much!

getting ready to blow out the candles

this is Trevor's T-Rex face. He got some dinosaurs from Grandpa and Grandma and he loves to pretend to be dinosaurs.

Christmas

I know I am the only one in the world that has not posted anything about Christmas but like I said we have hardly been home and I didn't bring my cord to download pictures anywhere else. So anyway, we had a great Christmas and the kids were spoiled.

Carter thought it was fun to be Abby's baby!

the three musketeers checking out their stockings (so we don't really have stockings so we made some at midnight!

Paige, Abby, Trevor and Parker enjoying a little Kung Fu panda

Trevor got an umbrella from Abby

And Abby got an umbrella from Trevor (they were probably the favorite present)

Trevor with his remote control wheel loader

The kids checking out the new race track

Carter and his new vacuum

Abigail being a great mom and taking care of her baby!

We had a great month. We were here and there and everywhere. We have birthdays galore in December so that is always crazy (it doesn't help that they are all within days of each other either). I was in charge of our big ward party, and Christmas shopping always seems to consume my thoughts. Sorry it took us so long to document a little about our crazy lives but they say the best things in life are worth waiting for!