Ethan's Baptism

On Saturday, September 11, 2010, Ethan was baptized. It was such a great day. We are in Arizona now, so we were able to be surrounded with lots of family and friends. It really ended up being awesome.
We are so proud of Ethan for making such a great choice and we are grateful to have him in our lives.

We love you Ethan!

The food at the luncheon - it was so yummy!

Ethan on his big day! I can't believe how big and handsome he is.

Our family

With and without secret service

It is about time....

So Olivia's hair is finally to the point where it looks cute straight! For the longest time her hair was the texture of baby duck fluff. Whenever I would straighten her hair she looked like Doc from Back to the Future! But finally, she has enough hair and it is long enough to look cute. Of course, as soon as she takes a nap or we go to the park (like we are in this picture), and she sweats a Little, it springs back up again into an unruly afro. At least it looks cute for a couple of hours.

Happy Birthday to my Little Man!

Ethan is 8 years old today. I can hardly believe it. He is growing up way too fast!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

We love you!!

First day of school!

Today is the first day of school! The kids are so excited and so am I!!

Ethan is starting 3rd grade!

Spencer is now in 4th grade!

Ryleigh is in 7th grade!

It finally happened.

Olivia's First Hospital Trip

we knew it was only a matter of time.

She was standing on the top bunk of her brother's bed (and apparently they were playing a little game of "lets jump off the top bunk onto the pillows on the floor" thankfully we had no broken bones!) and the ceiling fan was going at full speed. She got a nice little gash on the back of her head.

She had a total blast in the hospital! She got a teddy bear to keep and all the attention was on her. She was in the best mood ever and she was acting like a total crazy wild woman the whole time! I was so embarrassed because she was supposed to be in pain - but NOOOO - she was having a grand ol' time.

Thankfully she was able to watch Dora and Diego on Dan's cell phone, that kept her still for a few minutes.

She came home with 5 staples!

Lunch Date

My grandma lives super close by, which is very convenient. Plus she just retired last year, which is also very convenient. Plus, she is a pretty young gramma which is AWESOME! Last week she called me up because she wanted to have party for her Great Grandkids - just for fun, and just because she can.

So she called up Nikaela (my other cousin with kids)and I and asked us if we could get together for lunch an some water activities this week. Of course we agreed! What a cute idea.

When we got there she had her back yard all set up with a Toy Story slip n' slide and an inflatable pool. Plus she was BBQing Hot dogs, made little finger sandwiches, chips, fruit salad, Cesar salad, pasta salad, Popsicles and cookies! We had enough food to feed all the potential Great Grandkids she could have!

Olivia and Bella are little foodies - they love to eat. They are actually very similar, and there is only a 10 day age difference between them, it is fun to have them so close too! Who knows their second cousins?

Ryleigh was not able to attend our shindig because she is at Girls Camp with her Young Women's group (I sent her with a camera so hopefully there will be pictures of that coming!)

Of course, as with anything the party ended with a Naked Olivia. She has a problem keeping clothes on for some reason.

Stay-cation

Last weekend we took the kids on a little local vacation. Dan's sister told us about a resort in Phoenix called the Arizona Grand Resort - the prices were not too bad so we thought it would be a great little weekend getaway with the family.

It was a total blast!

The resort has a private water park for hotel guests only that had 3 slides, a wave pool, a lazy river and a kiddie pool.

Our Suite overlooked the Oasis Water Park area of the hotel and we had a little private balcony that the kids could torture themselves with. Here we have a picture of Ethan getting his head stuck in the railing!

The second day we were there I decided to be brave and take my nice camera down to the water. I followed the kids around while they did all the various activities throughout the park. The smaller of the three slides was a twisty curly slide. It was pretty fun, but a little weak - it would have been perfect for Olivia but you have to be 48" tall to ride the slides (lame).

The larger two slides, however, were CRAZY! Apparently they are 8 stories high! At the top of the slides you can literally see the entire valley. You can see Chase field and Sun Devil Stadium - it was really a very cool view - I wish I would have gotten a picture of that!

All 3 of my older kids are little daredevils. They loved the slides and they did them over and over again. This morning I only got pictures of Ryleigh and Ethan on these slides because Spencer said he didn't like the way it made his tummy feel like butterflies were inside of it. So we stood together at the bottom of the slide and captured these awesome moments.

Of course the lazy river was always a great way to relax and cool off. The only problem was people that apparently thought it was the racing river. They would literally run around chasing each other - which would make it a little less relaxing.

The last day we were there I got smart! I went to Walgreen's and bought a cheap little $10 disposable WATERPROOF camera!

Lifesaver!!

Best invention ever!

So the rest of these are just random pictures with the waterproof camera!

Olivia waiting on the steps of the lazy river for a double tube.

Ethan, Garrett & Spencer running around like crazies!

Olivia and I floating down the lazy river

Olivia under the water!

Ryleigh & Ashley on the lazy river

About mid-day Livy got pretty tired so she took a nap - on me - in the wave pool.

Garrett & Joel (and Ethan is on the right) under the water

Ryleigh and Jayda under the water

Dan and I - can you tell which one of us burns?