Snow Day at the Phoenix Zoo

My mom, dad and two nephews, Emerson and Tanner are finally here to visit!! We have been waiting and are soo excited that they have arrived!! We have been going nonstop pretty much since they got here last weds. Yesterday Marty and I took all of the kids to snow day at the zoo for a few hours. It was dang hot (!), but the kids got to play in the snow some and go down the water slides so that did help with cooling off! We also got to watch the animals play in the snow. It a fun day! We all pretty much crashed when we got home though, we were all so tired!! I'm not putting all of the zoo pictures on here--seeing how my camera TOTALLY SUCKS!! A lot of my pictures lately are coming out totally fuzzy and just not too clear so I'll try and pick out the best ones.






Rissa tested out the snow! She didn't care to really touch it, but loved being out there with all of the big kids!...by the way- she is walking now!!--more to follow on that later.


Here's TT, AKA King of the mountain!


Jacob LOVED playing in the snow. He wanted to bring some home and put it in our freezer but I had to sadly inform him that it would never make it home! I think he did confiscate one, but as you can only imagine, it was water and then practically evaporated in, like two seconds!!


These are some of the targets the kids threw at. Emer hit quite a few!! Good job!!


Brant had fun throwing snowballs through the targets...he was really good at it too!



Brant caught himself a bullfrog!





Our snow cone break was a refreshing part of the afternoon!












Brant stuck in a petrified tree...


TT stuck in a petrified tree...


Emer stuck in a petrified tree...Jacob didn't want to get stuck in this petrified tree.


This is in Monkey Village. If you look you can see that cutesy monkey hanging onto the tree. If my camera were clearer you'd see that that little booger is sticking his tongue out at us!


..still sticking his tongue out at us - We loved him! Brant wanted to stick him in his pocket and take him home...he's alot like me--I always wanted a monkey when I was growing up.



SUPer Emer!! Brave...head first!





Marty and Rissa in Africa. There are two baby zebra's that were fun to watch.

Hey ya'll-take a look at this!!!

I'm am taking just a quick minute to post some exciting news: My niece, Nikole, has just started her very own family blog!! Nikole is super creative and so much fun! I'm excited for her and just wanted to let everyone know that you can see how well she's doing if you click on my Blake & Kristina link. Please go check it out and leave a little comment to let her know how great she's doing!! Thanks ya'll.

My posts aren't as good as Kathee's...

Ok people! So I just spent time reading Kathee's meaningful, heartfelt, beautiful recent posts on her blog....Ummmmm. I'm so touched that I don't really know what to say! The only thing I can think of is that..."Man, my posts really suck compared to hers"!! So after many moments of thought, I've decided that from this day forward, I will not just throw a bunch of pictures on my blog---I will not just to put them there to say 'I added another post'. I am going to write more. And not only write, but try and write about things of more importance. Maybe then, I too, will have a meaningful, heartfelt, beautiful blog like Kathee! You're amazing Kath, and dog-on-it, people like you!!

4th of July!!

We had a great 4th! The Christensens, David & Noel and Kierstin and her kids came over for a BBQ-swim party! We ate LOTS of good food, swam and went to watch the fireworks show. It was the perfect 4th until the Monsoon storms started brewin! We took our blankets and chairs to our usual "spot" for the fireworks show and instead of watching a fireworks show, we watched a lightening show (which was pretty cool at times)! The fireworks were cancelled, we decided, after goofing around for an hour or so! So I guess we should've checked the news first, b/c the storms were already starting-we just didn't think about it! Reguardless, it was nice to just all hang out together in the breezy night air! It never rained but the wind was blowing pretty steady and throughout the night sand storms blew in and out (our pool told us that the next morning!). oh- and just incase anyone's wondering, Jacob was with us enjoying the day, he just refused to be in any pictures! The only things missing were my mom and dad, who are usually here visiting during the 4th. They will soon be arriving, so we have that to look forward to!

"Putty Face"

Brant & Tyler have been spending the last half hour making "putty faces" of us online....so here are some of their creations.


Brant did one of my brother, uncle John (& he also did one of Uncle Blake but didn't email that one to me to download--he did email it to Blake though with lots of laughs!)


Tyler chose to distort my face!! Ha hahahahaha!! Funny guys!! We all really did laugh alot...it was alot of fun!



.....Ok, ok! I just couldn't resist! I got on Putty Face and had to just see what I could do to Brant & Tyler's beautiful, smiley faces!! So Here Brant & Tyler--




Love, MOM
PS-I have the link below (putty face) for anyone who likes this type of entertainment!!

Princess Pictures are back!!

These are a few of the pictures taken at the Prince/Princess Party! When the orders all came in, of coarse, I had to take a peek at them all! All of the babies pictures turned out awesome!! Thanks Amy for doing such a great job...and being so patient with the 8 little ones!! Anyone interested in booking an appointment with Amy go to her link on my blog list below -Bits of Life Photography

...KIDS will be KIDS!...

We really are enjoying the summer! We keep busy with friends, swimming, & baseball most of the time but, this is how the kids have been caught entertaining themselves when mom isn't looking:

Jacob has made yet another one of his famous sandwich's: peanut butter, hot dog, cheese, mayo, jelly, ketchup, potatoe chip sandwich!! Yummy!


HOLY CRAP! THAT'S A HUGE BOOGER!! These are the kind that make you jump out of your skin while your heart skips a beat! It's when they're just 'free floatin' like this-ya know,'out in the open', that you kinda freak out! You're frantically looking around for tissue or something other than yourself, to wipe it on! (Well, that is, unless you're a psyco mom like me who makes the kid wear it until mom can snap a picture of it for the family blog!)-And don't you just love it when the baby realizes it's there (crossing her eyes b/c it's so big she can see it on the end of her nose!) and then finally grabs it and plays with that for entertainment!!



I couldn't find Brant one late afternoon until I walked by this box that the kids had been playing with earlier. All of our kids have always been good sleepers... SO....IS BRANT REALLY SLEEPING?

Let the Taste Testing Begin!!

OK- so this year we started a new Father's Day Tradition-Ice Cream Taste Testing!! I bought ten different flavors of the creamy, fattening stuff and covered each container with construction paper. I numbered each container, put a spoon in each one and handed out a piece of paper with 1-10 on it to each 'participant'. We had THE MOST FUN! We all loved sitting together at the table, eating all of the different ice creams! The only thing I did feel bad about is that I didn't get plain vanilla for Jacob! Marty loves Dulce and Brant loves anything with Chocolate or chips or cookie dough-he's our ice cream freak! Jacob tried most of the flavors but he was looking for the vanilla. thankfully we did have a little bit (in a carton in the frig).



Chocolate, banana split, choco chip cookie dough, choco chip mint, cherry swirl, dulce de leche, malt ball explosion (I was very excited about this one b/c I LOVE MALT BALLS--little disappointing b/c the choco i.c. taste a little like coffee)and a few others were the flavors, there were ten all together.



Marty found his favorite pretty fast!!-Dulce de leche!


Brant and Marty were on a MISSION!! They "mint" business!


Jacob was so excited! He kept saying, "What?!! We can just eat all of the ice cream? -Whatever we want?! Yah hoo!"


Rissa was getting really mad that I just gave her a bite here and there, so I finally just handed her a spoon and carton!...she didn't mind that too much!


-Some flavors tasted better than others!!


In the end it was Brant who took first place...with Marty, Jacob and Rissa trailing so closely behind!! I didn't compete but I sure enjoyed the tasting part of it, too!!


Brant's room door will now be adorned with the "Ice Cream Champion" award for ONE YEAR (until next father' day)!! He also won $5.00 in coins ($1 in pennies, $1 in nickles, in dimes, ..quarters and one dollar bill). Good job Brant!!