SpRiNg BrEaK, Part 1 -- Barneys come to town!!!

I'm flat out SAD Spring Break is over. The week was so busy {the good kind of busy} and flew by so fast.

We kicked things off by welcoming our bestest friends from optometry school, Weston & Jennie Barney and their 3 little girlies, to the great state of Arizona!! :) They stayed from Saturday until Wednesday and we loved every minute of having them here!! The coolest thing is that every time we get together, which isn't that often anymore, we can pick right up where we left off the last time. I'm glad we've remained such good friends even though the distance (600+ miles) keeps us apart.

Sunday, we attended church, enjoyed yummy chimichangas for dinner, then got down to serious business -- playing Cities & Knights of Catan. Back in the California days, we used to stay up waaaaaay late at night, playing this game at each others' apartments after the kids were asleep, using walkie-talkies as baby monitors. It was so nice when we lived just around the corner!Monday was our busy day. Weston went with Matt to work in the morning for a half day. Jennie and I hauled the kids and all our gear to meet the guys at Tempe Diablo stadium to watch the Angels take on the Dodgers, Spring training style. It was HOT and CROWDED!!! We lasted just a couple hours before packing up and heading home. Obviously my kids were wiped! Presty is sleeping even though you can't see him. ;)Matt and Weston made an ice cream run and brought back a variety to enjoy. And enjoy they did!!!That evening, we had our regular sitter over to watch all seven kiddos while us and the Barneys headed out on the town! We hit up Lucille's BBQ for some grub. There is a Lucille's nearby where we used to live in CA and as soon as we mentioned we had one too, Weston demanded we pay a visit! ;)

Some of us were a little ravenous.......while some were a little more sweet!I'm pretty sure we all rolled out of there several pounds heavier!!!

Tuesday, Jennie and I carved out some girl time for ourselves. I took her to the infamous "ribbon store" aka Ribbons & Lace. I think Jennie was in heaven!! Her overflowing basket proved it. ;) We grabbed some lunch at Costa Vida, then attempted to go get pedicures, but apparently everyone had the same idea that afternoon and we nixed that after learning it was a 40 minute wait, darn it. :/ We made a quick trip to Target instead then wound up the evening with turkey burgers on the grill, a little Guitar Hero and one final round of Cities & Knights, which I won! Woot, woot!! Weston is one tough cookie to beat!

These pictures are a straight up riot!!! LOL!

Preston got to bathe with this cute girl!! ;)

When we met 5 1/2 years ago (can't believe it's been that long ago!!!), we only had three kids between the two families. Now we have SEVEN!! We're so glad the Barneys made the trek -- 12 hours -- all the way down to see us. We had a fabulous time and can't wait for the next get together!!!!

Learning the Ropes

This morning, I got a reality check on being a mom to boys!!

Loving these ties from The Children's Place that go around the neck and have a little clip in the back. Ok, a bit obsessed. I buy up when they are in stock twice a year at Easter and Christmas. This isn't even all of them!! And some we even have x2 or x3 so the boys match!!!But now that Blake is older, the Children's Place ties are like regular men's ties. Matt has early morning meetings before church and I am left on my own to get all four kids and myself ready and out the door on time. Today I got out Blake's tie and realized that he hasn't worn that one yet, so it was untied. I had no idea how to tie a necktie, so I used the wonderful gift of modern technology and GOOGLED "how to tie a necktie." Immediately I received thousands of hits, chose a YouTube video and 5 minutes later, I had myself a pretty awesome double windsor knot going on! :) I was pretty proud of myself and Blake looked as handsome as could be!

I know there will be many, MANY more learning opportunities and experiences that come my way in the years to come. I'm learning a lot already, but there is soooooo much more that I have no idea about, I'm sure!! I mostly grew up with sisters since my brothers are much younger than I, so boys are a little uncharted territory, but I love my boys!!! ♥

Come to Lehi Days

This past weekend, I took the kids to Lehi Days, which is great yearly activity that's been running for who knows how many years?? It's sponsored by my parent's stake so we met up with my family at the rodeo grounds behind the old church building for some fun. I usually end up running into old friends from high school or the stake; it's great to see familiar faces!

Brooklyn sharing some tunes with Heston,
my LITTLE bro that's taller than me at 16 years old!!

Gav gets a piggy-back from Uncle Joshua (my youngest brother)
while waiting in line for the pony ridesBlake looks like a natural up there!Brooklyn with Bro. King

Obviously you can see the look of excitement of Gavin's face here!Holy cow!! This 'lil guy must be hungry!!
Gav was a little unsure about this calf "tasting" him. LOL!Look, this one's just my size!!No words.Cody, the middle brother, is the animal whisperer. He had two chickens sleeping on his lap and a goat at his side. Looks like it's taking a bite of his ear here!! Brooklyn cuddled this chick right to sleep!!
She wanted to bring it home and Grandpa was egging her on. Eh, no.My niece Lexi gets brave with a fuzzy chick......then it flapped her in the face!!
Thank goodness for fast shutter speeds or I'd never capture moments like this on camera!!I'm surprised Gavin actually did this!
Although that poor chick looks like he's ready to jump outta his hands!Blake was nervous. But look at that adorable face!!Little Prest, what a sweetheart!The kids cooled off with a treatGimme!!!!!!!!!Kids sitting with Grandpa while watching the goat dressingHAT!!Here we are just before heading home!

I'm hoping next year that 1) Matt can come with us (he was on a shooting activity and I'm sure he rather would've been with us after what happened that day!) and 2) the kids can participate in some of the organized events. Good times!

When Life Gives You Lemons....

SQUEEZE 'EM!!!

Literally!

Gavin was my big-boy helper and squeezed a whole bag of lemons that we got from my mom.Easy peasy lemon squeezy!!

I poured the juice into ice cube trays and froze them so we can use them for recipes in the future. What a great idea!! :)

Olympic Feasting

While the Olympics were on, I decided to keep up the fun a bit by making a few meals that might coordinate with a country competing in the winter games.

Matt made GERMAN pancakesI made FRENCH toastWe had SWEET & SOUR CHICKEN over brown rice with fresh pineapple on the sideTACO salad (Americanized Mexican?) for mommy......and the rolled TACO variety for the kiddos
shown here being devoured by a ravenous {cute} beast!CHICKEN PARMESAN on whole wheat spaghetti with CAESAR salad

Don't worry, we had plenty of AMERICAN meals mixed in there too!!☺

Grilled TURKEY BURGERSand the new and improved (it's true!!) DOMINO'S PIZZA

We had such fun watching the Olympics this winter and starting new, fun traditions with the kids to go along with it. We are for sure looking forward to the 2012 Summer Olympics in *LONDON*!