Sycamore Creek

We finally had another family outing this memorial day weekend. We decided to head on out to Sycamore Creek to just play for a few hours. Neil and I had great hopes of being out on the road by 8AM, but of course we slept in and didn't leave until about 10:30AM. It was a fun journey out there, the first road down Ellsworth we were stopped short by a road block. All roads leading the tthe lake had been shut down becasue of an accident. Neil is getting mad at this point... it's a detour now. So we head out to Power because the road worker said it should be open... nope, onto the freeway that doesn't apparently have exits at Gilbert or Satpely, not until Country Club are we able to exit. Fun, family fun trip! Neil is fuming, he wants to turn around and go home. I sweetly remind him of the conference talk from last session about how we need to keep a sense of humor and laugh when we feel like doing otherwise. I am a very good wife. So finally we hit the real road out there, Bush Highway is also closed of course, but luckily we are able to find a way there anyway. The bumpy road was not so fun for a girl in her 37th week of pregnancy, but we got down to the very small creek finally! Yea!!

The kids played. We caught 5 half formed tadpoles that Neil nicely let them bring home. Neil and the kids built a little waterway from the creek to another patch of water. Mommy deciced to sit down in the creek to cool off a little and had to wait for Daddy to help her up, which he took his time to do of course! I must have looked like a black beached whale just sitting there all by myself wating for help getting up. I could have gotten up myself of course, but the creek bed was rocky and it would hurt my knees, so I just waited. So after a long road there, it was worht it. We really did have fun despite the setbacks and we were all really glad we went. I took some cute pictures of the kids with Neil's phone because I didn't bring the actual camera, but we're having trouble downloading them. They were all so excited about their tad poles. trav couldn't stop grinning when I caught his, of course he let it go in the waterway they were building (twice), but then Neil caught him a really big one and we were able to bring it home! So in our fish tank they sit, smelling up my kitchen with the lovely creek water we thought would keep them alive longest. I'm getting rid of them tonight! They will find a nice home in a little canal somewhere out here in QC. So, family fun trips are worth it, despite the setbacks along the way. We're thinking of heading to Roosevelt next weekend... we'll see!

Birthday's Past

We've had a few birthdays in the family these past few months and I haven't done much about it.

Travis turned 2 on January 14th. I'm so glad little kids don't realize whats going on because I had just sprained my ankle at the time and I wasn't moving much even with the crutches. My mom and dad did bring him over a cake and we sang to him. Sadly I still haven't bought him a present. Good thing he doesn't care!

Mally turned 7 on Feb. 18th. It was a Wednesday, so early release and no time to do much before the after school kids got to the house. So I took her out the Monday before on Pres. Day. We decided we are only having birthday parties every other year, so this year I took Mal to the mall and we got her ears pierced. it was really exciting for us! I had told her a couple of years ago that it was up to her to tell me when she was ready to do it and she told me thats what she wanted for her present this year! I remember getting my ears pierced when I was 5 and thats why I don't pirece my baby's ears. it was just a fun experience and I want my girls to be able to have that memory too. She did an awesome job and just flinched on the first ear, but the 2nd was so easy and she did great! As part of her present she got to pick out a few more pairs to have when the first came out. It was pretty exciting! Then on Saturday I let her have the neighbors come over for cake and ice cream. Overall i don't think she even missed having an actual party.

Then there's me... I turned 29 on Feb. 24th. We haven't really done anything yet. The weekends are so crazy around here we haven't gotten to it, but Neil did get me some perfume for my birthday. Eventually we'll go out too I think...

The BEST place for the kids...

Notice the progression....





The best part was that the dog was on the outside the whole time and people were driving by and I could hear them laughing as they went by.

A tag from awhile ago.

Well as most of you have figured out by now, I rarely check or update my blog, which means I rarely check other people's blogs too. I have apparently been tagged by Leslie to list 7 things about myself that people might not know. So sorry Leslie it has taken me so long to check your blog, but I'm gonna do this one just for you!

1. I'm VERY opinionated. I keep it hidden pretty well if I don't know people well,but that doesn't mean I don't have fighting words when they say something I don't agree with. People who do know me well... you already know this because we've probably had discussions and maybe have even disagreed!

2. I'm scared to garden! I know very weird. I really want to, but I'm afraid I will somehow mess it up and then have wasted money on it. Probably has something to do with being broke.

3. I love big trucks/ suv's with meat on their tires, and absolutely despise mimivans. I think they are a disgrace to mankind! I don't care that they have better gas mileage, they still look horrendous! No offense!

4. I can't decorate my house. I'm afraid I'll do something and then totally hate it. Stupid because of course I have hardly anything done or up in my house and I absolutely hate that!

5. I love the light! If there are blinds closed during the day it drives me crazy and I feel like I'm in a cave. I keep my house lit up at night too until bedtime because I love light and don't like dreary, dark corners.

6. I want to be a camping family. We don't have much time available to do things like that with Neil's school schedule, but I am absolutely determined that this be the year we start to be a more adventurous family.

7. I love being outside by myself. It doesn't matter if it's day or night just as long as the weather is nice, although I don't mind the rain. It just gives me a chance to breathe and get a grip, especially after a tough day. Just being out there alone is so revitalizing.


Okay, I get to tag people now...
Jenny
Kasey
Brenda
Maelynn
Jill

I won't be offended if you don't do it. I probably won't even look for about a month!

koelle expansion

I guess it's time to publish the news... number 4 is on it's way and will make an appearance around the end of June. I'm about 18 weeks along right now, and no we don't know what we are having, and no we're not finding out. It's our own Koelle tradition and we LOVE it! I'm secretly (or not so much) hoping for a girl. everyone in our ward has just had boys and we tend to run in cycles so I'm hoping this means I will get a girl!

So thats my big news, I'm super busy lately and between the pregnancy, watching kids, homeschooling , and most recently my sprained ankle, blogging just comes last on the list as usual. I hope everyone is well and had a great Christmas!

More of what we've been up to...

Last Saturday we participated in the MS Walk down at the Phoenix Zoo. A lady in our ward has MS and so we decided to go do the walk with them. We had a lot of fun. It was a really good experience, one we hope to make a family tradition yearly. For some reason I didn't get very many pictures of Garrett. He was there though, I promise.




The Williams Gilbert phoenix Airport, or something like that! It was an open house down at the Gateway airport. It was nice and hot, we tried to take some family pictures but the sun was so bright they didn't exactly catch us looking our best! It was a lot of fun for the kids, I think they enjoyed the huge bouncy slide the most though, Neil had travis and the camera at the time, taking pictures of the airplanes taking off.

What We've Been Up To.

src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMsPVFGHxxf3sW61c-mpdimbh7d33LuwfzEl0rWMUbl9PVkMFtNWb6vCdZJUhNhIna_yVIALxO7eyg4CfZw6kNxj2M-wula4HYi5InW9k6QXyuCN6oRMsvLEW4PD7nypQjvpVmGvb-b7p7/s400/P9120039.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267179436969925682" />Mud, Mud, Mud, and more MUD!!! We've been swimming in it lately! Sorry, for some reason this picture is posting as a link. Who knows why!
A project on rockets for homeschool. Garrett really enjoyed making his out of a water bottle.
A Daddy horse.
The baby who lived in a shoe box.
Marie Antoinette and King Louie
Visiting Aite in our Halloween costumes.
Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. I made the costumes, aren't they great!!
And Robin Hood, he's so handsome!
So there's a few, I'm going to upload some more, they just take forever! Anyone have a quick way to upload pictures on the blog?