Dragon Party

Joshua's friend, Josh, turned 3 and had an awesome Dragon Party. Holly did such a fantastic job with swords and shields for the kids to paint, a Dragon egg hunt, pin the tail on the dragon, and a fantastic Dragon cake.

You couldn't hardly pull Joshua out of the playhouse in their backyard. He loved that thing! If ever he decides to run away, I will know where he went.

Joshua and Josh

Morgan thought that painting her sword was the coolest thing ever. We let her go until she decided it would be more fun to just stick her fingers in the paint.



Here is the awesome cake Holly made. The wings and fire are fruit roll-ups. I just can't get over how adorable it was.


Thanks for inviting us, we had a great time!

What a week part 1 . . .

We have been super accident prone around here this last week.
Last Thursday: Ryan fell down the stairs while carrying a big long table for my recipe exchange. Nothing too serious, but ouch!
Friday: Joshua shut his fingers in the bathroom door and I burned myself pulling enchiladas out of the oven.
Saturday: Morgan fell down and bonked her head on the tile leaving a bruise
Sunday: Morgan took a header and landed on a Thomas whistle. Ouchie again!

On to the recipe exchange. We had a mexican fiesta at my house and 30 people came! That's 9 adults and 21 kids. Oh, wow. Insanity.

Aww... cute babies playing. (Robby and Gavin)



We had cookies for the kids to decorate. It was a good way to keep them occupied for a few minutes.


Joshua stayed outside decorating cookies for at least an hour. After all the other kids finished Cason and Joshua just hung outside by the cookies.

Poor Morgan. She spent the whole time in her high chair or trying to escape through all the open doors. You can a little of the aftermath on the rug. Nothing a little vacuuming won't fix.
Keep on eye out on the recipe blog to see the yummy recipes that everyone brought. Delish!

Discovery Channel Moment

We went to the zoo today with April and Mason and had a total blast. Joshua and Mason were so cute together. Joshua would follow Mason wherever he went and kept saying, "Come on Mason." It was so precious. They were even holding hands part of the time.
I love these pictures because it has their cute little shadows too.



Mason found a photo booth, so Joshua was more than happy to play in the booth too.




Here's one of Morgan. Poor girl got ignored in her stroller a lot. She didn't mind too much though.



Lest I forget that the zoo is supposed to be an educational place, the Galapagos Tortoise's gave us an interesting education indeed. Once you get past the giggle factor, it was pretty crazy because the Mommy turtle was walking all around the exhibit with that big old dude on her back. You may not be able to tell from this picture, but he is way bigger than her.


I would have to say this is one of the more successful trips I have taken to the zoo. Everyone had a good time and there were no meltdowns!
Mason is such a sweetheart and his Mom is pretty awesome too! I definitely want to get together with them again soon.

Fly, little bloggers fly!

Wednesday night was the blogging class and 3 people came. Yay! Two of those ladies set up their blogs and got underway. I think they are hooked because they have added tons of pictures and links and things to their blogs.

Time just flew by so fast and it was 9pm before we knew it. I really wish we had been able to get through more things, but I'm so happy they got a good start.
There may have to be more sessions or I really want to set up some one-on-one time. That way depending on people's skill level we can do different things.

Of course, I created a blog for the Blog class. For now it has some basic info and loads of links. I think I will continue to update it though with new and interesting things as I find them.
The blogging blog is http://SoMtnBlogging.blogspot.com

Here are my two newest blogging buddies:
Brenda
Rejli

Oh and for my Father-in-law's info, that makes 3 active blogs for me and I'm not done yet. :)

Everybody Blogs!

I've come to the realization that everybody blogs. It is insane. I will be adding a link section for people I grew up with. In my parents ward there was a group of about 7 of us that grew up in the same primary/sunday school class since we were very small. There were also people either the year older or younger than us that we were friends with too. Most of them keep in touch better with each other than I do, but turns out most everyone has a blog.
Tina Huber (blog forthcoming)
Jeff Mousser
Kevin Johnston
Nicole {Ganem} Schneider (Has a blog, but it is private. If anyone knows her contact info, I'd love to get in touch with her to say Hi)
Amanda {Romney} Anderson
Alison Johnston
Amanda {Painter} Westover

I would not be surprised if there were even more that I just haven't found yet. We are all growed up. A little sad but very exciting all at the same time.

Wading Party

Last Friday we were invited to a swim/splash party by Holly. It was lots of fun. We went last year but this year I took a few pictures. {Click on the link to hear more about last year's trip out there}
I snapped off about 8 pictures in 2 minutes before I dropped my camera in the water. {ominous music} I sort of wish it was completely fried, because I really want a new camera. However it is back in working order after some drying time. Everytime I change batteries or the memory card I have to reset the date. I'm guessing there is some battery inside the camera that usually holds that information. Hopefully I can find it and replace it. I did have the strange urge to take a picture of everything when the camera was out of commission drying. It made me strangely anxious not to have a working camera. I'm pretty sure I'm a big weirdo.

Thanks for the invite Holly! Like I said last year, if I get invited again, I'll be there if at all possible. So fun!

Here are a few of the pictures
1. Here's a good shot of the whole fountain.

2. Morgan and Tiffany. {Tiffany and Capper came too!} We couldn't get Morgan to look anywhere but at the little fountain. She was mesmerized.

3. The boys. Joshua, Josh, and Capper. Another little boy Eric came a little later but my camera was already wet by then.

The only other thing to make note of is that swim diapers don't absorb pool water, which means they also don't absorb pee. Capper had a leak before we got in the pool. Morgan peed on my leg while we were eating lunch. I probably should have changed her into a regular diaper when I decided the water was too cold. Oh well, you live and learn.

Happy Birthday Joshua!

I can't believe it but my little baby is two years old! We had a birthday party for him at Playtopia on Saturday and it was a lot of fun. We had soup, bread bowls, chalupa, and hot chocolate. It wasn't terribly cold, but it was a bit windy and definitely cloudy. A lot of family ended up being out of town or sick, but we had a really good time with everyone that did come.
Here are some pictures from the weekend and a few shots of him playing with his new digital camera.

Birthday Celebration Week!

My Birthday was technically Friday, October 5, but it seems like I've been celebrating all week. Last Sunday was a joint b-day party at the in-laws. Tuesday was a joint party for Ryan and I at my Parents house. MMmmmmmmm, prime rib is delicious.

On Friday I treated myself to McDonald's breakfast. Fancy, I know. Friday night we went to the Elder's Quorum Barbecue. I have to admit I wasn't super excited when I found out it conflicted with my birthday and plans to go out for a nice child-free dinner. I did get my "I Support the Priesthood" button for the day though.

Today I get my child-free meal at Texas Roadhouse. We go there about once a year and I always get so excited for it. It is not usually as good as I hyped it up in my head to be, but it definitely is pretty tasty. Thank goodness for our Tivo, so if we aren't in front of the tv for one of the sessions of conference we can watch it later today or tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone that made me feel special on my birthday, it was nice. I felt very loved. I got three different bouquet of flowers. Neato!


Weather report for today: AWESOME!! The high is 82. Yahoo!

Couch climber & Party time!

Joshua has never been much of a climber to this point, which we have been pretty grateful for. However last night he finally climbed onto the couch all by himself. The best part of it was seeing his total sense of accomplishment. You could tell he was so pleased with himself. Those sort of moments are really the best part of being a parent.

------Party Time--------
Today we were invited to a Pool Party in Mesa. The Mother-in-law of one of the sweetest gals in my ward offered to throw a party for her grandson and his friends. The home was a little bit far away, but it was just gorgeous. Joshua and I both had a great time. Not too many folks were able to make it, which is a total shame. It was definitely one of the largest and most beautiful homes I have ever been to, that is for sure.
I ended up getting there before everyone else including the guest of honor. The host still had her hair in curlers, but it was okay. She told me I could take Joshua into the casita in the backyard where they had some toys. Well I was thinking that the casita was going to be a small pool house type thing, but I was way off. The casita was a house in it's own right and bigger than my house at 2,200 sq ft. Holy cannoli. They built this house in the back so they would have additional room for children/grandchildren to be able to play in.
They had built a fountain for the children to play in, which was a cross between a fountain and a wading pool. That was definitely Joshua's favorite part of the yard. They also had a swimming pool and jacuzzi. I'm really bummed that I left the camera at home because it would have been some great pictures.
One of the other ladies there made the comment that if she ever got invited back to the house, she would most definitely be coming. I'm with her, it was such a fun time and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Welcome Pratt Alexander Gibson!

My dearest friend Monica just had her baby boy. The name will mostly like be Pratt Alexander Gibson. The birth process was quite an adventure, but everyone is healthy and happy.
Congrats!
We love and miss you in AZ!