May Mobile Moments 2013

I took over 300 pictures with my phone in May!  I guess we had a lot of fun.  Here are just a few of the best moments.
Anna loves her camera.  She was trying to take "action" shots of Nicholas.  Poor girl was getting really frustrated because Nicholas couldn't hold still in his funny action positions.

 My kids are fascinated with one fire hydrant in our neighborhood.  It has some chains on it and they have to inspect the chains any time we ride or walk by.  They have a certain way that they need to be hooked and they will always stop and fix the chains if they are not that way.

 Anna's cousin Lizzie had a skating party.  Anna was so excited to go skating.  We have never been when the rink is open to the public so I was a little worried about helping them not run all over the place.  They are use to just going where ever they want during our family parties.  Anna had a great time skating.

 Nicholas tried it for a bit.

 He had more fun just "playing" the games.

 Anna was glad that Lizzie and such a fun skating party.

Devin has been working hard to fix our sprinklers.  We went to Home Depot one Saturday and the Sprinkler isle was PACKED!  I guess he isn't the only one working on sprinklers.

 Making tents is always a popular activity on Sunday afternoons.

 I have been trying to read more.  I have a pretty picky opinion of what I read since I don't have a lot of time to read.  There is so much garbage out there in books and I am not going to spend my reading time reading junk.  Moon Over Manifest was FANTASTIC!!!  One of the best books I have read in a long time.  I would love to read it again and read it to my kids.  If I was a upper grade teacher I would be all over this book for read aloud or book groups.

 Anna was given a bag of cookies from one of our neighbors one night.  Some of the cookies "disappeared" that night, we thought she wouldn't notice.  Oh, she did! At lunch the next day she pulled out the bag and said, "WHERE DID ALL MY COOKIES GO!!!"  Busted!

 I had to take Anna and Nicholas to the doctor with me.  I was worried how they would do.  I told them if they were good we could go get donuts after.  They were so good and they loved their donut.  Don't worry, they ate these donuts over the course of several days.  They look huge but they are just normal donuts, the pictures make them look really big.

 Anna loves to run on my treadmill.

 Our cute little neighbor Radek was over one day and the kids were playing kitchen and house.  They had all the food out ready to eat dinner and he stopped them and made them say a prayer.  He even made them close there eye and fold their arms while he prayed.  It was really cute.  He would say, "BE QUIET! I am praying!"

 Nicholas loves to read books on our bath mat while I get ready in the morning.

 I cut a bunch of branches off our trees and Anna and Nicholas had tons of fun waving them around.

 We love warm weather to go for bike rides.

 Anna made a cute "Breakfast in Bed" for me at preschool for Mother's Day.  It was a darling idea!

Our ward had a Cub Scout Carnival for Pack Meeting.  I volunteered to make cotton candy.  Thanks to my dad for teaching me how to make cotton candy and all the many Saturday mornings that we spent making it at the rink.  Good to know that I can still crank out a lot of cotton candy in under an hour.

Anna and Nick are always ready for a bike ride, especially with their cool sunglasses.

I pulled out all my empty jam containers and Nicholas had a great time playing with them before I made strawberry jam.

We are pretty excited that one of the vines from my grandpa's vineyard is actually growing.  I keep hoping that the others will make it too, but at least there is one growing.  See the tinny little green leaf!

After making jam I had a few strawberries left.  I was nice and even saved them to eat with Devin when he got home from work.  Yes, that takes a lot of love.

I finally organized Nick's closet.  Nice to have all the old clothes put away and organized.

Devin had a great 33 birthday.  We made him a chocolate bundt cake.

Devin and the kids said the cake was really good.  It looked good.

They were giving out free Creamies at Costco.  It was the perfect treat on a Saturday afternoon.  Nicholas couldn't get enough of his.

Anna and Nicholas feed off of each other.  They were having fun building towers and screaming about them.

We have started planting our garden.  It was nice to get our tomatoes in.

Anna and Nicholas love reading stories.  I can't help but smile as I listen to them make up stories as they are flipping through their books.

Anna loves to color and often spends a lot of time on her toes coloring.

Anna finished her first year of preschool.  CRAZY!!!!  I loved her portfolio that her teachers put together for her.  It is the perfect collection of the year's best work.

Anna wanted to decorate a Christmas tree.  The coat rack made the perfect tree.  (Don't you love Anna's curlers for dance?)

Anna loves to watch the Kindle in the morning while we are getting ready.  She had to have her balloon and bug clock with her, funny girl.

All the seeds for the garden ready to go!

More tomatoes and peppers planted.

The kids have been really good about doing their jobs.  They love washing the mirrors because they get to stand on the counter.

And that was May!

Memorial Day 2013

Anna has decided that she wants to hike to all the letters on the mountains.  We have already hiked the "Y" so Anna wanted to hike the "G" next.  Memorial day was the perfect day to do it.  Everyone knows about the "Y" trail, but it took some digging to find out about the "G".  We weren't sure how the trail would be or how are kids would handle it, but we thought we would at least try.
Nicholas was ready to go.  He loved the whistle that Devin gave him.  Devin told it only to blow it if he couldn't see mommy or daddy anymore.  Needless to say he blew it all the time.

The trail was not the best, really narrow and very steep.  I am so impressed that Anna hiked the whole thing up and down.  Nicholas made it most of the way up and then Devin carried him the rest of the way.  This was not an easy hike and the kids did great!
The "G" is not as nice as the "Y".  You can tell that not a lot of people hike there or even really care about the condition of the "G".   We had lunch on the "G" which was tricky because it was so steep.

 You can see all the grass and weeds growing up through the white slats.

Anna did great, she loved it.  She hiked the whole thing and is already talking about hiking the "U" or the "B", though she really wants to find an "A" to hike.  :)

Nicholas was a trooper and crashed as soon as we put him in the car.

That night we went up to my Uncle David's house for the Henderson Memorial Day BBQ.  The kids had a blast swimming and really didn't want to get out of the pool.

After being so busy with dance concert and videos it was a perfect day to relax and play.

Spring Soccer 2013

Anna had a great time playing soccer during the Spring.  She was on the same team as a few boys in our ward.  She still loves to kick the ball...when no one is around.

Like every kid the treats are the best part.  I was pretty proud of the rice crispy treats rolled in sprinkles that we brought for her treat.

The weather was crazy for each of the games.  Lots of wind and really cold.  A few games were even rained out.  Nicholas was running pretty quick to the car when they called one game because of the rain and lightning.   Don't worry he never dropped his bag of Cheerios. :)

We told Anna that if she kicked a goal we would take her to get "painted ice cream."  (A Chocolate Dipped Cone at Macey's)  The last game she did it!!!!  Here is the happy girl right after.

She was thrilled to get her "painted ice cream."

Nicholas loved getting some too.

She had a great time playing soccer, though I don't think we will be playing again anytime soon.  There is a lot going on come fall and I think soccer is one of the many things we are going to let go.  I am glad that she has been able to play.  It is fun to watch these cute kids play.