March

Here’s life in March via instagram.

For the sake of remembering . . . starting at the top like you’re reading a book . . .

1 – Aunt Aurelia and her family came to Vegas to celebrate her 61st birthday.  It was great to see everyone!

2 – One of many play dates at our house: Abby, Madeline & Nate.

3 – Nate’s dramatic trip to the dentist.  He typically is so good and we can get our teeth cleaned at the same time but he freaked out this time that I wasn’t in the room with him.  Good to know.

4 – A record of our first-ever happy trip to the grocery store.  The boys were quite the charmers!

5 – St. Patricks Breakfast at The Cracked Egg.

6 – Love matching jammies.

7 – Nate’s first soccer practice of the season.  He’s on the Cougars this year.  We lucked out with a fabulous group of people on the team!

8 – We tried a pineapple ginger flank steak recipe with coconut rice.

9 – Went on a date to eat at The Pasta Shop.  Delicious.

10 – Ryan holds the door open for me almost every time we go through the garage door!  He’s quite the gentleman.

11 – Nate asked for salad for breakfast so I gave it Metro leftovers.

12 – Nate & Daisy enjoying an afternoon on the porch drinking their jamba juice.

13 – St. Patricks party at school.

14 – Nate conned me in to In.n.Out after soccer practice one night.

15 – Every time I cook with cilantro, Nate wants a piece to smell.  He walks around smelling it for a LONG time!

16 – Tuesdays are our longer days with Nate taking him to school and then to Hip Hop.  Ryan was done with the car. :)

17 – Everyone in the car had sunglasses on and Ryan wanted a pair.  Luckily we had safety goggles in the car – that seemed to work for him!

18 – Ryan loves to “ride” a big boy bike.

19 – Ryan was way too quiet – I was expecting to find a total disaster but he was quietly reading books at the top of the stairs.

20 – We typically have to wake Ryan up from his naps on Sundays.  He’s a cute little sleeper.

21 – Some friends of ours showed us a great new park around the corner.

22 – The boys love to wash each other’s backs in the bathtub.  Good thing – because they are super stinky at the end of the day!

23 – Nate ended the month testing positive for the flu.  He then passed it to the rest of us.  Well – Wes is still illness free but I’m sure he’s the next victim.  It’s been miserable.

24 – St. Patricks Day morning.  The leprechaun filled their pots with gold and left Lucky Charms!

Trek to the Temple 2012

As a primary presidency, we’ve been talking about and slowly planning our first annual Trek to the Temple and it finally happened last weekend! 

One of the things going on in Primary this year is “One in a Million.”  There are officially over a million primary children around the world!  We learned about some primary children in Madagascar that saved their money with their family and had quite a journey just to go to the temple.  We started a temple jar where the kids can bring in their spare change [or break their piggy bank like one sweet boy did and donate over $30 of his own money] so we can donate the money at the end of the year to the Temple Patron Fund that helps families around the world get to the temple for the first time.

So after all of this, we knew we had to take Senior Primary on a Trek to the Temple to give them a little piece of what it’s like for families to have to walk a long way to get there.   We walked a little over 3.5 miles – including one large hill – and made it to the temple where sweet Sister Ballard took the kids in to the atrium area and talked to them about the temple.

It really was a great activity.  The kids really enjoyed it and it was a really special thing for them to be there and to be able to touch the temple.

Can’t wait for Temple Trek 2013. 

Have I mentioned how much I love my calling as primary secretary?  It really is the best calling ever.  We have the best primary kids and I get to serve with these fabulous ladies who make me laugh, smile & make me want to be a better person every time I’m with them!

touch-a-truck

Once a year, there is an event called Touch a Truck in the Orleans parking lot.  Basically it’s a huge parking lot filled with every kind of truck, tractor, car, motorcycle you can think of and the kids get to climb in and pretend.  It’s a fun morning.

When we first walked up – the first words Ryan said as he lit up with excitement was “hot dog car”.  Yep, the wiener mobile was there.  As we were walking in a helicopter landed in the parking lot!

All of the “town heroes” were super friendly and nice – Nate thought it was really neat to talk to a fireman, policeman, etc. 

in the kitchen.

For a long while, I was dreaming of a white kitchen table and fun, colored chairs.  It’s always been a favorite look of mine.  And luckily with the internet and now, Pinterest . . . it’s pretty easy to find ideas.

However, with two little boys in my house I am not in the business of purchasing expensive furniture.   Luckily I found a great white round table from Ikea about a year ago [it’s surprisingly holding up quite well!]  And then came the search for kitchen chairs.   There were plenty of kitchen chairs that I loved that weren’t in my price range but after months of checking Craigs List, I gave up.  But then a few months later I decided to try Craigs List again and wa la!  I instantly found kitchen chairs for CHEAP.  And I bought them. 

I’m super indecisive so determining the chair paint color took way longer than it should have.  I found pictures of just about every chair color imaginable but kept coming back to these:

And so, I went for it.  I bought Wes the spray paint [Home Depot Paprika] and after we both sanded the heck out of the chairs, he painted them for me!   And I have to say, it makes a world of difference in my kitchen/family room area. It needed a little pop of color.  Now I’m dreaming of white kitchen cabinets & hardwood type floors – I’m pretty sure I’ll be dreaming for a long time . . .

Nate did it.

He’s a bike riding machine!  Wes took him out in the street this afternoon and in a matter of minutes he was off and riding.

He’s still a little hesitant at the start and finish . . . doesn’t like the fact that his feet don’t touch the floor . . . but he’d doing fabulous.  He rides up and down our street – turning all around – and is loving it.  He fell twice but got right back on the bike! 

Aunt Sam made sure to give him some good advice: If you get scared and think you’re going to fall – just ride on to the grass and fall over.  Apparently that’s what worked for her. :)

life in pictures.

As you can see, still learning instagram.  But having an i.phone sure makes taking pictures a whole lot easier!