A week of Sunshine

This last week was Spring break for us. We were lucky enough to go to Arizona. Dan had to interview and take a test for the school he is hoping to get into in the Fall so he needed to go and Olivia and I decided to tag along. (Ryleigh, Spencer & Ethan stayed with my mom. ) It was so FUN! The weather was amazing! It was in the 80's everyday, and not a cloud in the BLUE sky. This picture was actually taken on our first morning - right outside our window! AAHH, it was fantastic! Of course today we are home (although it doesn't feel like home) and the kids are out at a Little League Clinic freezing their booties off in 45* weather - oh and did I mention their is NOTHING blue about the sky here....

An Unexpected Visitor

The kids and I were leisurely enjoying our Sunday afternoon when we got a knock at the door. Much to our surprise it was HANK! We were so excited to see him. His new owner, Larry, was in the area and thought they would stop in to see us. I think he was pretty excited to see us too. He was licking our faces and being very lovey. He is such a sweet dog. We sure do miss him but we know that he couldn't be with a better new owner! We love you hank!

Pine Wood Derby

This morning was the Pine Wood Derby. We had so much fun watch the dads - ahem, I mean scouts race their cars. We started off the morning a little rough - mainly because we didn't know what time the race started until 9:00 this morning when we called and they said 10:00am! So we rushed to get everything together but Dan noticed that Spencer was missing a nail for one of his wheels (okay, so the car wasn't totally put together yet!) so after destroying the house looking for this nail, which was never to be found, we rushed over to the church hoping that they would have some that we could use - they did. So Dan, and Spencer, added weights & wheels as the race was starting.

These are ALL the cub scouts in our ward. They are all pretty cute boys.

Spencer's first race was not so great. He lost... in fact, he lost his first 3 races. On the third race one of his weights fell off so Dan, and Spencer had to do a little pit-stop repair work.

But after that pit - he was on fire! He won the last 9!!!

Ethan and Olivia were trying their hardest to enjoy the sidelines.

In the end not only did he take home the "Golden Wedge" award, but he also took home 4th place! Which means he will be competing at district next month. We will keep you posted on that!

We were having fun

Our first 10 days of March were packed with excitement! March is such a great month - not only is it my birth month but so many great things happen in March - for instance: Baseball, spring, baseball... okay, so you get the idea. I just love this month! Here is a little catch-up of what we have been up too:

My baby brother Chad celebrated his 16th birthday with us! As a tradition we get to pick out our birthday dinner and dessert. Chad picked out Chinese food. We had Kung Pao chicken, potstickers, wontons, pork fried rice, sticky rice & white rice. It was quite the spread - then for dessert we had mint Oreo dessert. yyyyuuuummmmm Oh, and now that Chad is 16 he thinks that he is a tough guy. He told my dad - "I can probably take you now dad - your an old man!" Dan tried explaining to Chad that no matter how old your dad gets you can never "take him" he will ALWAYS be tougher. Chad didn't believe Dan and this is the result:

Chad got taken.

Spencer is a Cub Scout now and coming up on Saturday is the Pine Wood Derby. I don't know who is more excited Dan or Spencer (or my dad). They were out in my parents garage making it nice and purdy. Dan has been researching models of pinewood derby cars and which one has the highest potential for 1st place!

He got that car so smooth! I was really impressed that he was that patient. I will show you all the finished product this weekend after the race!

My brother Tyler is finally starting to warm up to the family. He has been living with my parents since December and has really been kind of a grouch. Finally we told him to shape up and start being nice, and he has - for the most part.

Look Livy is even starting to like him now. She used to cry whenever he would look at her.

We have so much fun together - I am so happy that my parents are moving to Arizona too! I can't even imagine living far away from them again. How did we do it for so long?

Olivia is our little Carb-o-holic. If there were Carbohydrate addiction anonymous we would take her. She is OBSESSIVE, and I am not kidding. She will find ANY cracker, cake, cookie, bread - ANY CARB you have within her grasp and she will open it and devour it. As shown here with the pancake MIX!

oooh oooh! We paid off our black car! So exciting! Here is Dan reading over the title. Nice!

Noelle is really attached to Olivia, we took Noelle with us over to my parents and this is where she rode the whole time! So cute! oh what is that on the window you ask? rain. weird. i .know.

Ryleigh in her little tween-ness is loving the gossip magazines all the sudden. Here she is reading People about the scum-bag jerk of a Bachelor. rrrg

Ethan continues to make us laugh with his quirky little personality. Dan is constantly commenting on how much he reminds him of Cory, Dan's brother. He likes to run through the picture frame when I am taking a picture and see what happens. Here he is.

Dad's are the best!