Our Visit with Aunt Barbara, Jake and Kenna

We had such a great time with Aunt Barbara, Kenna and Jake that it was hard to see them go! But we did a lot of fun things while they were here....

We started out by going to Discovery Park...

We fed the ducks

took a photo op...

swung on the swings
and i didnt get any pictures of Eli, but my camera was running out of battery so this was the best I could do... I didn't even see the pictures after I took them. This one was ok, but...
This one is hysterical!
We went to the Rainforest Cafe






We went on a hike in the Superstition Mountains....

Here we are all squished into the car :)
The boys ready to hike!
We are off!
Priceless~
All excited at the trial head sign...
And our after picture (which was really taken before... we weren't sure if we would make it! )
Eli LOVED IT! He was wide awake the entire time. He loves to be outside and with his family!
Nothin' but Blue Skies
Taking a break.
The Hieroglyphs.
The view from the end of the trail.
Kenna got tired and Eli got hungry, so we didn't make the last leg of it. Here are the happy hikers who did!
Sam and JT were troopers... Sam walked the entire way and JT did most of it too! They were tired, but they liked it!!
The boys.
After the hike we needed some ICE CREAM! So we hit Goldfield Ghost Town for a cone. It is pretty cool there. Too bad we were all too tired to enjoy it!

Uncle Matt gets young again when he is around our nephews... here he is being "cool" with "Jakey-Dude."


Friday Morning ... Big Breakfast!

Jake and Matt cooked!


Friday night we went to San Tan Flats... it is a place with live music, food and campfires. We had a fun last night there and even met up with our friends Kelli, Alan and Owen.
The kids had the camera... :)

LOVE this pic!
The INFERNO. The boys had to burn the entire box of wood including the box! Yea, it was HOT and we smelled like smoke for 2 days! But the boys got a kick out of it... ALL the boys that is!


Thank you Aunt Barbara, Kenna and Jake for visiting us! We miss you tons already! We had soooo much fun.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

The end of the week brought the boys valentine parties. We started with JT's Preschool Valentine Party on Thursday.

The first center was sorting candy hearts. He is very serious in school, yes, I am talking about JT! He has come such a long way since the beginning of the year and has grown up so much.

Big Smiles.

The next center was passing out Valentines. As I said before, he chose Hubba Bubba valentines. He enjoyed giving them to everyone in his class....
especially his "share friend," Ella. After he handed them out, he had to make sure he had passed one to her. This is a picture of him in front of her box. Our little Casanova.
JT's friend, Owen, is in his preschool class too. This is him with his decorated cookie. He is not too impressed. :)
JT making his cookie. We actually were the volunteers to make the cookies and JT and I decided to make heart cookies on a stick. JT was very excited about it. On the way to school he even said, "Wait, Mom... do you have the cookies!?" Of course I did. However what I didn't plan on was dropping the box of cookies when we got into his class!! Yes, JT comes by his clumsiness honestly! You should have seen JT's face when he looked at all the broken cookies on the floor! So I drove home grabbed more cookies then brought Sam to school and got back to the class before his party started!! It worked out. Here is JT with his cookie.

They also played I Luv U Bingo
JT's Friend, Jordan, enjoying the cookie we made.
The final activity they played was pass the heart. JT is paying close attention. :)
The class picture. JT is sitting next to his "Share Friend" Ella.
On to Sam's party on Friday. He also sorted... but they sorted teddy grahams.
Here he is coloring while he waited to get his face painted.
Their valentine craft was valentine pencils and pencil toppers.
Enjoying the cookies, or should I say frosting. We didn't bring in the cookies for his class but we did bring in sprinkles.
This was Sam's favorite... Musical Chairs. An oldie but goodie apparently!
Sam LOVED it and he took no mercy, even if he was going against a little girl!
I brought Eli with me. Mrs. Sanguini's daughter as there with her Mom. She took a liking to Eli. She held him most of the time.
Everyone had a great time at their parties. We are still waiting for Aunt Barbara, Jake and Kenna to get here thanks to a little snow in Atlanta... but they will be here tomorrow and we are all very excited!

Star Student JT, Valentine Prep and more

Star Student JT

Here is the proud big boy before he went to school on Tuesday for his big week of being STAR STUDENT! He was very excited, and how did he get soooo big?!!

Here is his poster. He picked out the pictures and made sure they included some of his favorite things like his pocket rocket motorcycle (of course!!), Disneyland, Soccer, His brothers... he was very excited to make the poster.

Showing it off for a picture before school!

Waiting to go into his class on Tuesday. He had to hold it himself and if you look closely at his cheeks, he has a great big smile! :)

His teacher, "Aunt Bridgett" looking at his poster. Just look at his face. Priceless!

As part of star student, you bring in an estimation bag to share with the class. JT chose valentine notebooks and pencils since he is into writing and journals right now.

This is JT's valentine box for his valentine cards at school on Thursday. We got the idea in a magazine and he loved it, so we made it. He wrote his name on the heart. He said, "I know the J is backwards!"

Here is a video clip of him being interviewed by his classmates. sooo cute!

He added his own personal touch of a superhero cape on the back. We made it a heart. :)

Of course, when Sam saw it, he wanted to make one too!! SO here is Sam's even though he doesn't need to make one for school (they already made them at school)

VALENTINES! The kids had a great time picking out and addressing their valentines. Sam, the big boy, pretty much did it all himself.

Sam chose Fun Dip because he likes it!

JT writing his first ever Valentines. He was working hard! He chose Hubba Bubba because he LOVES gum! Gone are the days when you pick a card with characters you really like of make a heart with a doylee ... now it is all about the treats!

They both have their parties at the end of the week. I will post pictures of those too.

On Friday, we went to Peter Piper Pizza to celebrate Sam's football season. The team also gave Matt the picture below for coaching. He really liked it and asked, "Are you gonna blog that?" I took that as a hint... so here it is. :) It is really nice and they framed it and everything.

Here is Sam with his coaches (Daddy and Steve) with his trophy. This is his 4th trophy already! Plus he has 3 ribbons from wrestling. It starts early!!

We have been trying to be better about going to church. The boys took a notebook and crayons to church with them the last time we went. Sam listened intently then I noticed, he was taking notes! He addressed it to me (obviously he is trying to tell me something!)

It is phonetically spelled... here is what it says if you cant figure it out...

To Mom

Message, Jesus, Prophet, Present, Sharing, Son, and Mercy.

Eli is getting bigger and bigger. Everyone who sees him at school keeps telling me, "WoW, he is getting big!" He rolled over for the first, second and third time on Friday night. I have not been able to get him to do it for the camera. Here is an attempt, but he decided to talk to me instead. Still very cute, so I added it!!

He has also found his toes. He loves to grab them. When I was trying to take this picture that is all he wanted!!

SOOOOO Big!

He is in clothes 6-12 months now... and not much room left in those!

Sweetie.