Mom, you should blog this

You might think the Las Vegas heat killed us and that's why I'm not blogging.  Actually, that's not it.  The truth is we have just had so much fun that I am ridiculously behind and have no interest in catching up.  I'm not patient enough to upload all the photos to fill in the gap between now and the last post.  But, I will give you a brief post about the last few days and maybe (read: probably not) I will fill in the gap later.  And the reason I am finally back is funny to me.  After I took a picture of Madi in her dress (you'll see in a second) she said, "Mom, you should blog this!" "Blog what, Madi?" "Blog my dress because it is so beautiful and special to me!" So, here you have it...

Today:
On most Wednesdays we go to our wonderful friend Jan's house.  Today was one of those days and it was particularly exciting because today was a finishing day.  Jan is an incredibly talented (and extremely patient!) woman that we met through church.  Every Wednesday she opens her home to all the women of the ward to join her in crafting and sewing.  Recently she was working on Princess dresses for her granddaughters and Madi got a little jealous.  She has previously never cared about princesses (my fault for lack of exposure) but just this last week the concept clicked and she has been dying for her very own princess dress.  Today was the day.  I cut it out last Wednesday and then have been sewing this week and finished it today (Okay, really Jan finished it because she did the last step- the zipper). Madi insisted on wearing it home over her clothes even in the 100 degree weather.  Here is Madi in her new Purple Princess dress... (don't look too closely, its for dressup.)
Oh, and it might be her Halloween costume too, so don't think less of me for showing it off twice.

Yesterday:
 I've been wondering lately if the pool water is still warm enough for swimming so last night after dinner we headed to the pool to find out.  It was a little on the chilly side,  but Madi still got right in and Shayne wasn't far behind her.

 

Monday:

No pictures here and this tidbit is more for the locals (if there are any locals that read my blog :o)

Monday we headed out for a bike ride and rode from our apartment to the Pitman Wash (we got on at Green Valley and Windmill) and the rode to the Arroyo Grande Sports complex and park. (*JILL... I found a way to come see you!! Call me!)  It was such a fun ride and the kids were awesome in the trailer!  I haven't been enjoying biking around here because every street seems so busy, it is hard to get anywhere, and it is really tough to squeeze by the bus stops that are every 100 yards on all the streets near us.  But, if we take the wash trail we only have to endure 4.6 miles on roads like that and we get access to 10 miles of trail (roundtrip).  We road between 8 and 9 miles and I LOVED it!  I've missed being on a bike.  Oh, and for the locals, that is a really fun park too.  They have the fun big slides like at the Mission Hills park and it doesn't seem as dirty as a lot of the local parks seem.

Overall the kids and I have had a not very productive, but pretty fun week.  And all the while poor Kevin is killing himself studying Nephrology (I don't know if that is even how you spell it, but Kevin could certainly tell you).  Kevin is super stressed and studying extra long hours.  He is amazing because even after a tough day of studying with minimal breaks he always comes home and is thrilled to see us and a ball of energy for the kids.  We are so lucky.  (Sorry, I had a little Ilovemyhusbandblog moment... so unlike me.)  Kevin's schedule doesn't vary much, he studies hard all day everyday and tries to make it home for dinner and then often studies again after his hour with the family.  We're trying to squeeze extra fun in on the days he is off to keep him sane, but his weeks feel pretty long.

Since I probably won't post back (at least not now) here are a couple pictures from last weekend... These are my shout out to an awesome Dad who is incredibly committed to all the things that matter most.

Monday the 12th Kevin didn't have school because he aced his Friday test so we went to the park and splash pad where he was a big kid with the kids...just like they like him

Shayne went with Kevin and Madi came from behind to help when he "got stuck" in the tube slide :o)

I'm no photographer, but this was a cool moment.  And sorry to Kevin for not doing it justice.  He was launching this big boy but I always caught the pictures at the wrong moment.

 

Thanks for reading the blog even though we go on such long breaks! (and then I post such long posts.)  

Rest assured, we are still alive.

Maybe my plan wasn't quite as good as I thought it was.
Now, not only are you NOT getting updates, but it is public everytime I am behind on the family scrapbook.

Well, I don't have a new plan yet.
But I do have a couple of kids that Kevin and I really like.
Here they are.

That's all for today, just thought I would let you see them :o)

Mega Post

I give up (for now) on getting all the pictures for past months so I went ahead threw together a couple pages for you to see. Hopefully we will get pictures to represent the entire months later, but for now here are some snacks to tide you over.
(and yes, I do realize I am still 2 months behind... okay, I'll throw in a couple pictures from the last couple months too.)

 

Late April we headed to Utah for these beautiful people's wedding.  Shayne was NOT on his best behavior but it made for a pretty comical moment.

And it was Easter weekend.  (Yeah, how hard do you try to get Easter pictures? I must not have tried hard enough...)

 

 Shayne worshiped a few eggs. (maybe next year we'll work on "the meaning of Easter". maybe.)

 And shortly after we got back we celebrated Kevin's birthday.

 And then skip ahead to last weekend Papa and Tutu came to town to celebrate Madi and Shayne's birthday with us.

 It was going to be pool party so I got theme-y on the cakes but we had a cool week so the pool was too cold, so we switched to the park (but the cakes stayed themey)

 And then we went to the Hoover Dam with Papa and Tutu. It's amazing! Well, if I hadn't watched the history video I might not have been amazed, but when informed by the video it is truly incredible!

 

Oops, that's not the dam, but that's the cool new bridge that provides the best view of the dam.

 

That's the dam, from the mentioned view.

 And this is the fine result of a birthday photo shoot.  They were sooo excited to have pictures taken! Okay, I have an individual of Madi that is cute so it was all worthwhile, but if I ever want a cute one of them together I think I might have to hire someone (oh, and get shayne when he isn't cutting molars.) I still think they're cute.

To all of you who hate marathon posts, sorry.  Hope you are all well.

I do love these two

 

This just makes me happy.  We don't have many pictures of them together because they are wiggly and not fans of posing. But here are two stinking cute kids sitting in the same place and little-big guy happens to be snuggling little miss.  This is nothing out of the ordinary, but catching it on camera is rare. Just thought I would share.

It's been a long time, so here's a long post

So I have discovered the challenge of my new posting plan... I always wait for pictures from other people or sources so that I can have a complete page for the month to put it in my book, but clearly sometimes the wait is long.  I am so sick of seeing that same page, so here is a long summary. (and hopefully one day I will have the completed pages.) *Sorry, I've spent too much time on the computer, I'm not going to proof it or format it... don't judge :o)

And it's REALLY long... I don't blame you for just looking at pictures.

I'm waiting on most of the February pictures, but February was great! We went to Washington for Brian and Megan's wedding and had a blast spending time with the whole Skeen family. 

When we got back to town our friends, the Johnson's, came to town to visit us! We had a great time hanging out at home and towing the kids around for a few outings.

March 19th we celebrated my birthday with participation in a 5k

 and dinner at Red Robin.

 March 25th-28th Kevin had an extra long weekend so we tried to make the most of it.  Friday we went to Red Rock to go hiking but when we got there is we terribly cold and windy.  We decided to just drive the loop and enjoy scenery.  While driving we thought we ought to brave the weather for one short hike and I'm so glad we did.

 The hike was short and easy but the kids loved it.  We hiked to a little waterfall and there were huge sandstone rocks and sand that Madi liked playing in/on.

Monday we went to the Bellagio to see the new spring display, and again it didn't disappoint.  The flowers were beautiful and we loved seeing the butterfly garden.

Now it is April and Shayne has is really discovering himself and his many personalities.  He is such a character and goes from happy singing baby to maniac in moments (or between pictures).

 Madi loves to help and this is what I found the other day when I finished my phone call and came back to the kitchen.  He started crying because Cheerios weren't cutting it so Madi got some food out of the fridge and a spoon and started feeding Shayne.  (She lost interest after a couple spoonfuls, but still, she's great!)

 Shayne is also trying to be a big "helper".

 And we're attempting to grow some veggies.  This is Madi telling the tomato plant to grow as big as a beanstalk. (If I remembered to water it that would be more likely.  When you see this you can choose to be impressed that I am trying to grow something and you don't need to notice that it is looking mighty thirsty.)

 Zuchinni is showing signs of life....Aren't green tomatoes cute?

Tiny buds on the bell pepper.  I've heard growing anything is kind of a joke here and certainly not cost effective, but for some reason Madi was passionate about wanting to grow something.  Sounded like fun to me, so we'll see how it goes.








One last update and you'll be caught up... the Johnsons are here again (we know we're lucky!) and we just got back from Chuck E. Cheese.  Their son gets awesome potty training rewards like going places, so the kids and I got to go along too.  Madi was in heaven. 

This is great! When I only post every few months it sounds like we are really busy, fun people. :o) We actually have been much busier than usual, but we like the slow life too. 

Anyway, life is good.  We are having fun and enjoying each other.  The kids are growing too fast but we are loving the different stages (well, most of them) and just enjoying watching them learn and interact.  We feel tremendously blessed.