Easter Weekend (or General Conference Weekend)

It's always a wonderful thing when General Conference is over Easter weekend.  The only downside, is it's also Maddie's bday weekend, and the kids still want their egg hunt.

So we hunt for eggs in between sessions.

Eric had a little too much fun hiding Aidan's eggs that the boy almost gave up looking for those last two eggs.

Miss Maddie is 7!!

I can't believe that this little cutie is 7 already! (Or that we've lived in our home for 7 year).  She has been an amazing source of energy in our family, and we love this loving little girl!

Maddie LOVES owls, they're her favorite animal.

can't go wrong with a pink, sparkly, owl.

no birthday is complete without legos.

more legos and doll clothes-great birthday!

An owl cake for our little owl lover :)

A Sweet Baby Blessing

Eric started up his new gig on Monday, and we left work early on Friday (way to set an example babe), but it was all for a good cause-little Emmett's baby blessing!!

We told the kids that we'd really only have time for one adventure in LA over the weekend.  There was a brief debate between the beach and the science center.

The science center won.

We spent Saturday (along with a billion other people-thanks to the Mexican National Futbol team playing Ecuador next door) at this amazingly awesome place.

And then it was back to Tom and Heather's for family time and baby snuggles.

After lunch on Sunday, we piled back into the car for the drive home.  Short, but totally worth it!

ps. my super sweet and thoughtful sil got a big bday cake to celebrate everyone's birthdays! (Her dad's, Giselle's, and Maddie's) I love my family!!

Time Off Work=PROJECTS!!

With Eric transitioning jobs (from Assistant Director of DCS to the Director of the MVD), he had two and a half weeks off of work.  One of those weeks was over spring break (woo hoo!!).  I put him to work getting the kitchen re-vamp well under way.

Two weeks of sanding, staining, painting, counter installations, and clean-up.  Ugh, I hate the amount of dust sanding produces!!

And don't forget the kitchen sink! 

Kayaking

With Eric off of work for two weeks, I really put him to work on the kitchen.  This was done for two fold reasons: 1-it needed to be done, and was a MASSIVE amount of work; and 2-He needed a project.  It gets all kinds of crazy when Eric is board.  Hence our buying a kayak.

So we took a break from the kitchen, sent the kids off to school, packed ourselves up with our kayak and hit the lake.  Sad note, we've only lived in AZ for 11.5 years, and in our current home for 7, and this was the first time EVER I'd been to Saguaro Lake, just 30 minutes away.

We had a great time, and spent over 2 hours paddling.  We've decided a few things: 

1-we need better PFDs, these are NOT comfy long term paddling. 

2-we need gloves, our hands will really thank us next time.

3-Eric needs a longer paddle (mine fits perfectly).

4-we need some dry bags-Eric's phone got wet and died.

5-we NEED to come back often.

On a scary note, our kayak got recalled because it can fill with water and sink.  We were lucky, no sinking for us.  But it does explain why there was so much water in the hull when we pulled out.  Back to Costco this one goes (we bought two singles instead)

Spring Break!!

Spring Break this year started off with Eric home! He had 2 1/2 weeks time off before he started his new job, so that meant I had back-up during spring break!!  We spent LOTS of time on the kitchen project-more on that later.

But we also had fun family time: like PJ night at Zoyo.

Making zipper pouches with the girls-they even helped sew!

And when the car freaked out on us and we had to cancel the canoe adventure at the lake, we tested out the canoe and life jackets in Nana's pool.

Yes, that is a 20+ foot canoe in a pool. Not quite water tight yet, but pretty close.

The pool guy did say that this was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen in a pool to date!

 Eric had a networking lunch he had to go to on Friday, so the kids and I headed to the science center for some educational fun.

We also saw this cool (in a gross way) giant moth on the back screen.

And the girls and I made some fun zipper pouches.

February Came and Went...

I'm not sure why, but for being the shortest month February is often our busiest!

1st grade had a chorus concert

Lazy Sunday afternoon games with my girls-Davin joined us a minute later

LOTS of subbing for me-not the best picture, but whatever.

Books, books, and more books. Seriously we can't keep enough books around our house.

The trampoline was THE.BEST.GIFT.EVER.

Lots of teeth, two in under a week for miss Maddie.

And two in two days for Davin-a miracle!!

For President's Day, we took a family hike to the wind caves-my first time EVER. It was lots of fun, and we went out for Zoyo afterwards :)