Fun Getaways

This weekend we had the chance to do TWO getaways! On Thursday we drove to San Diego to spend time with Rachel (my cousin) and her boyfriend Mike. They live in KY and were in town visiting Mike's parents. San Diego is about a 2.5 hour drive and so it is a perfect place to meet!

It was WONDERFUL seeing Rachel and meeting Mike. We went to Coronado Island and played on the beach before a nice dinner. The kids were not too impressed with the beach due to the temperature (high of 75...COLD for us Yumans! and the water was even COLDER!) We loved the beach and could have stayed all day if the kids had been up for it. Maybe next time. I can't wait to see Rachel again and hopefully it won't be nearly as long between visits!

On Friday morning we drove to Tucson (3.5 hours) for a family weekend at the JW Marriott resort. We have been here before and the kids love it more every time we go. The water slide, lazy river, and splash fountains were a big hit this weekend (especially with the heat...104!) On Friday they let us go down the water slide with the kids in our laps, which our kids preferred. On Saturday they told us the kids had to go by themselves. EK became and little apprehensive and thought that might not be so great. On Sunday we were able to go down with the kids again and so we had to do it over and over! We all had a blast and really enjoyed getting away for a weekend.

The most fun getaway is coming up! In celebration of Abbey and I turning thirty...if you don't say it too loud then it won't really happen...right? , Matt and Warren are taking us to Los Cabos for an all inclusive vacation! We are all SO EXCITED! I am beyond excited that I get to spend my birthday with Abbey! While thinking about the trip I began reminiscing and decided to post a few pictures! Enjoy

Abbey always had to be the bride and I always had to be the groom!

(You know you had matching leg warmers and scrunchies also!)



Wow! 30 years goes by quick (The most recent picture with both of us...we will have some great ones from Los Cabos)!

Memorial Day Party and Cowboy Boots!

This weekend we were so excited to host a Memorial Day Party for our friends and family. We had a cookout with swimming. Fun was had by all! We loved the opportunity to thank all those that have served and currently are serving in the armed forces. Thank You! (Mason thanks you for the reason to have cake and ice cream!)

Tonight we had cowboy casserole for dinner and so we decided to put our cowboy boots on to get in the spirit! The kids went swimming before dinner and so I fortunately was able to get them out of their wet swimsuits and back into clothes for dinner!

Emma Kate doesn't need help putting her boots on. She thinks all her shoes should point outward instead of inward. Very independent!

Birthday Parties

The past few weekends have been fun filled with birthday parties! I love birthdays and especially parties. The kids have SO MUCH FUN and that makes me want to have a party every weekend. I haven't been too great about taking pictures at these parties and so I am going to "borrow" them from my friend's websites. Here are some fun pictures of our party animals! (sorry about the links and formatting, can't figure out how to fix it)

These are pictures from Kaitlyn and Owen's 1st birthday party. The theme was the very hungry Caterpillar. It was precious and everyone had a great time.

Birthday Girl Kaitlyn

Birthday Boy Owen

Party Favors (bug nets with treats inside) Mason poolside

The Three Musketeers (Michael, Emma Kate, and Bryan)

They are all three with birthdays in May, March, and January (respectively)

The following weekend was Mikey's birthday and he had a Thomas the train party. It was a lot of fun and the kids didn't want to go home.

Birthday BoyBouncy Bus with WaterSlide
Emma Kate coming down the waterslide
My favorite picture of the day! What joy on her face!Mason and his typical expression and messy shirt!

Happy Easter?! and trip to meet Boyd Carroll

Did I just write Happy Easter in May? I was looking and realized I haven't put up any pictures from Easter or from anything since EK's birthday. So, here is a quick rundown of what has been going on. We went to the Carroll's to visit with Boyd! Yay! We had a great visit and he is PRECIOUS and such a sweet baby! While we were in the southeast EK went to visit with Gigi and Smackers all by herself and Mason stayed in Shreveport with me. It was nice only having one child for a week but I sure missed my energetic EK! We took LOTS of pictures of all the kids and Baxter turned 2! We celebrated his birthday with a train party. We had lots of fun spending time with Abbey, Warren and the boys, but we sure did miss our Daddy. We were happy to get back and get settled into life here again. Since we have been back we have been SWIMMING! The kids love having a pool in the backyard and I am trying to relax (only a little) about having it so close! Mason has a new best friend...his life jacket. It has already kept him afloat on more than one occasion. I have heard that with boys, your role as a parent is to keep them alive. I believe every ounce of that statement. It feels like on certain days that he is trying to injury himself in every possible way! I don't want you to think that he is not a sweet child because he is. He just loves life and want to attack life with a lot of gusto!


Matt has been busy with work and getting ready to hike the grand canyon (rim to rim). We are loving having the grandparents down the street and hope they still love their decision once it starts to really warm up. I am going to close with some pictures and letting you know that I am posting new videos on our eachday site (on the right of the blog). There is a precious one of EK singing "Amazing Grace" and "This little light of mine" . Check them out!


P.S. Since I wrote this post we went to the ER with Mason for stitches because of his "zeal for life!" Boys are so much fun!

We took over 500 pictures (Abbey and Warren have a great, fast camera..only took about 20 minutes ) and this was one of about 5 that all the kids are in, looking, and reasonably happy!

Most of the pictures have more of this look to them! ( I will say that it was before 8 am...Central time which was 6 am my kids time...the morning after we got there!)

This picture was taken the afternoon we arrived. Notice: I am still carrying a backpack vs a diaper bag; Emma Kate has on Mason's shorts and no socks. Her wardrobe was quite different when we started in AZ that morning (cute dress and shirt). On the drive to Phoenix she got carsick twice. sorry Daddy Steve. She then proceeded to get airplane sick on the approach into Dallas (with still one more flight to go). At this point I had used all of our extra clothes and so we had to resort to wearing Mason's! We also ran out of wipes and so thankfully she was asleep on our landing into Louisiana. Our private pediatrician wrote us a prescription medication of motion sickness for the return trip!




Emma Kate holding Boyd. She could have held him for hours! He is so precious!


Easter Egg hunting. We don't have very many great pictures because Gran Gran and Daddy Steve had "adult" eggs with cash inside. We were too busy looking for the moolah!

Ela and Emma Kate hunting eggs

Mason (pre haircut!)

Sorry I haven't updated with pictures from the birthday party. We have been busy with lots of fun birthday parties, park visits and fun times down at Gran Gran and Daddy Steve. Most recently we have been busy getting ready for our trip to Louisiana. We leave on Tuesday (we are flying this time) and will get to stay for a little over a week. Yay! I am so excited to meet Boyd and get to spend some time with Abbey, Baxter and Warren. We will also be there for Baxter's 2nd birthday which is just icing on the cake. The picture below is what Emma Kate looked like when I told her we were flying on the airplane without Daddy (yup...me and both kids on the plane, please pray for my sanity and the patience of the people around us!)

I have been trying to pack and get organized so that I can feel like I have control over what is going to happen. Yeah right. We all know that God is the only one who can keep my kids still, sweet and quiet on the planes (Prayer to God: Please let my kids become perfect or please let me not care!)

On a more fun note I am going to post a few pictures from Emma Kate's party. With a three year old they actually care about things like party themes, colors, etc. So, when it came to birthday ideas it was ALL pink and ALL princess. Which turned out great for us (except we had to throw in a little knight/medieval theme for all the boy party attendants)! We had the party at lunch and it worked perfectly that it was during LeAnn and Ela's spring break and so they were able to come to the party! We had lunch, sang happy birthday (which Emma Kate sang to herself, check the videos on the eachday account on the right), and opened presents. She had a BLAST! For days after she kept asking "are we going to have another princess party today?" My response "Not today...it is going to take me another 365 days to work on your next princess cake!" Which leads me to the cake. I made a princess cake which in actuality is not that difficult. It probably wouldn't have taken me so long if Sleeping Beauty Barbie wasn't so tall! I had to make three cakes in order for her skirt to be tall enough (and she was still bent at the waist!) I ended up using a homemade marshmallow fondant recipe and it turned out pretty well. I will plan on using it again. I did learn from some of my mistakes. 1. Unless you keep your house at 62 degrees (impossible in Yuma) you have to decorate your cakes in the fridge...with the door open. I wish I had a picture of this and the incessant beeping of the refrigerator telling me to "SHUT THE DOOR!!!!!" 2. Make way more than you think you will need because you will need it. always. 3. Don't put too much fondant down the disposal...it will clog! (1:00 am night before party, sink backup, yay!) These are just a few lessons that I hope I am able to put to use on the next cake I attempt (it is a good thing that my kids birthdays are far enough apart that I will forget all the negatives and want to do it all over again!)

Sorry I don't have more pictures. I was too busy enjoying the fun! I will hopefully post pictures of ME HOLDING BOYD! Yay!!!!! Almost midnight....goodnight!

Pictures

I wanted to write a little post to tell you all what we have been doing. We have had some lovely weather here and so we have been outside as much as possible. We have been staying busy with playgroup and lunchgroup, as well as getting some great playtime with Gran Gran and Daddy Steve. We all love being down at their house and letting the kids play in the backyard. Recently the kids have been allowed to "help" pick the tomatoes. While Emma Kate does great and understands the difference between a green tomato and a red tomato, Mason does not. He thinks they are balls grown for his throwing enjoyment! A lot of Daddy Steve's vegetables will be coming up soon and so the kids will really enjoy getting to help him with his garden.

Our recent family activities have been taking professional family pictures (our friend Chris, brother to good friend Ali, is a professional photographer and was in town from Washington) and going to the Yuma Airshow. I have posted most of the pictures from the photo shoot on our eachday site (the box is on the right hand side of the blog) as there were too many good ones to pick just a few. I am so excited to have these pictures since this is our first time to have professional pictures since our wedding! The Yuma airshow was a lot of fun although Mason enjoyed it 100 times more than Emma Kate and I. He took in every ounce of the planes and the experience and didn't blink. Emma Kate preferred to ride in the stroller and eat her snack. I plan to get some pictures up here or on the eachday site soon of our future aviator and princess. Speaking of princess, mine is turning THREE on Tuesday! Can you believe it! I can't! She is beyond excited and has not stopped asking me "is it my birthday?", as if her birthday comes and goes every 5 minutes! We are having a princess party and if I can pull
it off, a princess cake. I will be sure to post pictures.

I think I will go for now as I have typed this whole post on my phone since matt is on the computer. Sorry for the typos! Pictures soon... I promise (although I want to keep Henry Boyd at the top of my blog forever!)

Henry Boyd Carroll

I am so excited to write a post about my new nephew! He is preciously perfect in every way (I haven't seen him in person yet, but I just know he is perfect). God blessed Abbey and Warren on Wednesday night with Boyd and they are adjusting well. I am SO EXCITED about getting to meet him sometime soon (hopefully April) and give big hugs to big brother Baxter! Hope your weekend is as joyful as mine!