I heart family.

I’m lucky - I come from a great family & I married in to a great family.

I’ve talked about this before, but Wes’ extended family is just plain wonderful.  They have a bond and a love for their entire family that is just rare.  Wes & I got to spend last night with his Uncle Thayer who is in town on business and even though Wes is out of town today, Thayer and Wes’ cousin Julia came and had dinner with the boys and I and they stayed and chatted for a while tonight and it was so good to catch up. 

……….

And speaking of my family – we were able to gather as a family and with my dad’s closest friends and watch him be sworn in last night as a City Councilman.  He gave a great little welcome speech and is well under way making a difference in the City of Henderson!

The Phoenix Open

Wes spent 3 days last week in Phoeniz, Arizona with his good buddy Ryan Andrus.  Leslie and I gave them a trip to the Phoenix Open golf tournament for Christmas and they had a great time!

One day they played 36 holes of golf.  Yes, that sounds fun to them!

They spent one day at the Phoenix Open Golf Tournament.  Here’s good ol’ Phil.

And another day just hanging out and enjoying their freedom.

I’m thinking going to a golf tournament should be a yearly tradition for these two.  It’s always nice to go do something different and fun!  Glad you guys had a good time.

Wes was pretty much gone all of last week . . . the boys and I stayed busy and actually had a pretty good week!  I have great friends who stole Ryan from me for a few hours, invited us over to play, Sam kept us company on Saturday morning at Chuckee Cheese & In.and.Out, we played at the park, etc.  But we’re sure glad Dad’s home for a few days!

today, my friend Kiley asked Ryan . . .

Kiley: “Ryan, what do you want for your birthday?”

Ryan: “Cookies and treats.”

Sounds about right.

lately . . .

Here’s a little of life via the camera phone.

The last few weeks . . . the kids have been beyond excited for their “grandma days”.  They spend Wednesdays with my mom while I go work with my dad and they’ve always enjoyed these days but lately by 8am they are begging me to leave already yelling “grandma!  grandma!” .  Today when I came to get them they were on their standard 1/2 mile walk around the block.  Yes, Ryan walks/runs the 1/2 mile!  As soon as Ryan saw me walking down the street toward him he ran at me in an all-out sprint.  I sure do love that boy.

 

Nate loves this “big mickey” at grandmas.  He requested a picture today.

I’ve been trying to be better about having Nate’s friends over from our old ward.  Our preschool schedules are totally opposite but we’ve all made a better effort lately and it’s been fun!  Jake & Hadley are two of Nate’s best buddies and it’s been nice to have them in our home a little more lately.  Jake and Nate played in these costumes for 3 hours straight.  And I was Cat Woman!

This is Nate on one of our walks around the neighborhood.  He was wishing for a “racetrack like Jake.”

It was “hat day” at school this week which meant Nate got to wear his cowboy hat in to school and this awesome hat on the way out!

A few weeks ago Sam got a text from her dear friend Natalie who is teaching a hip hop dance class at the rec center.  She said she had a class full of 4 year old boys and thought Nate should come, too.  Nate said he would NOT do ballet but he’d try a little hip hop.  Aunt Sam came with us the first week and after a little coaxing and encouraging just to give it a try he absolutely loved it.  I’m pretty sure he has a crush on Miss Natalie – he invited her over to play this week!  A few girls have joined the class and it’s mostly a class teaching coordination with some hip hop moves at the end and it’s perfect.

Here’s Ryan watching his big brother.  I’m pretty sure Ryan got more exercise than Nate running up and down the halls of the rec center. 

Ryan and the potty

It’s amazing what happens when there are older siblings around!  For at least 6 months now – Ryan has been obsessed with the toilet.  Not necessarily to actually pee on the potty [although he has done that a few times] – but just to be like his big brother.

Sorry Ryan – there isn’t any potty training going on in this house for a while!  But I’m glad you think it’s fun to pee on the potty.

a pretty good saturday.

We woke up on Saturday to a bright blue sky & sunshine so we decided to spend the majority of the day outside as a family and it was great!  We had a quick breakfast around the corner at The Cracked Egg and then came back to work & play in the yard.  Our yard desperately needed our attention – there were leaves everywhere from falling off the trees and we had a ton of weeds in the backyard.  The kids had a great time helping and just playing in our fabulous 63 degree weather. 

We’ve been in our house 2 years now [which is crazy!] and we’ve never heated the hot tub.  So we decided to give it a try and it turned out to be a blast!  When Ryan woke up from his nap we all threw on our swimsuits and did a little swimming in January.  Nate jumped in like a little fish and Ryan was perfectly content standing on the step playing with a ball.

In the next few weeks Wes is doing a lot of traveling and I’m doing a little myself so it was nice to have a fun, yet productive, Saturday together!

my latest read

My parents gave this book to all of their kids this year for Christmas – 365 Thank Yous.  I just finished reading it and I really enjoyed it!  It’s about a man whose life was in the dumps.  After a moment on a mountain & a note in the mail . . . he was inspired to start writing thank you notes - 365 to be exact.  This act of acknowledging people in his life and good things in his life caused him to become grateful for the things he did have and in the end, changed everything for him.  Plus, I’m a huge fan of hand-written notes.  Receiving a piece of actual mail will always be better than an email or text!

I love book recommendations so here are a few of my other favorites off-the-top-of-my-head:

I particularly love all of Sarah Addison Allen’s books.