Life!

So awhile back I blogged about my crazy Tuesday! The fire drill, bloody nose and everything else at Rio Vista. Well today I got a call to sub P.E. at Rio Vista again, I was halfway to the school hoping that I wasn't cursed and that things would go more smoothly today, when I realized it was Tuesday again - not a good sign. However, my fears were unfounded, I had a great day! I was crowed "Hula-hoop Queen" of the third grade when I kept it going for about five minutes (longer than all the third grade girls I was up against)! It has been so long since I have hula-hooped I am surprised I could do it at all! I won two games of knock-out against four fourth grade boys, I wont tell you how many I lost! With about five kindergarten girls I jumped rope until I got all through "Soda pop, ice cream, cherry on top, who's your boyfriend, lets' find out... A, B, C..." Twice through the ABC's the third time I landed on K, so the girls said the first name they could think of - Kevin. So after today I now know that I am a queen, a winner and a have boyfriend named Kevin! My life is looking up! Spending time with kids is amazing, and with all the fun things I get to do who can really call it work? I am with Kori (her last blog)- we should all live life Makenzie's way (like a five-year-old princes).

Now for one other bit of news in my life - I got a new calling. I have been on the enrichment committee in this ward and my last ward. I was feeling pretty comfortable in my calling and really loved the board I was serving with! But Sunday morning I missed a call while in the shower - it was our ward executive secretary saying that the bishop wanted to meet with me at 8:15. Well it was already 7:40 and it takes me about half an hour to get to church, so I told him I would try but it would be tight - He just said it would be great if I could make it on time - I don't think he understood exactly what he was asking. Amazingly I made it out of the house in the next twenty minutes and was only a few minutes late (amazingly few red lights along the way), but it didn't mater because ward council was just getting out. So my bishop springs 1st counselor in the Relief Society on me! I'm not sure who the Lord is trying to test - me or my ward sisters - hopefully they will have patience! One thing I know is that Tricia, the new president will do an awesome job! I am so excited to work with her and the other girls in our presidency. I will miss Kenzie and the sisters from the last presidency, I have learned so much from them!

Colorado Visitors!

Katy and the boys flew down from Colorado for a visit! Thursday we went to the Sonoran Desert Museum. Katy and I were geared up in more ways than one to take a million pictures - the boys however, had other ideas. Jacob had just walked into the park when he started crying; "It's bright, it's bright!" Where on he grabbed his red blanket and covered his head. This didn't last long before Katy had to confiscate it, because he had run into one person and off the path, I'm sure that he was only inches from a cactus - you can't be anywhere in the desert museum without being a few inches from a cactus.
In the hummingbird aviary we caught some awesome pictures of a mother on her nest. Surprisingly for me this was one of the few pictures I took of the animals or plants. I had Jacob and Evan to entertain me, and let me tell you they are entertaining!

Jacob continued his quest for shade by trying to make a "cave" out of his stroller, the only problem was that Evan thought it great fun to pull from behind.

Plan C was to steal his mother's sunglasses, strange enough he refused to to wear his hat at this point - it took a lot of persuading which met with a lot of crying, but eventually Katy won out and Jacob wore a hat.

The one thing that Jacob was totally entertained by was the stamp book that Katy got him. At random stops along the trail stamp pads and track stamps. We got tracks of bunnies, frogs, and so much more.

We took a short break to get snacks and drinks, while Katy waited in line, I entertained the boys by taking pictures, we had a good time!

Once both boys were in the stroller and fed we moved on again - food makes us all happy! As you can see Katy is an extremely talented mother - taking pictures and holding a bottle at the same time!

What a cutie! Evan is such a happy bubbly slobber machine! Where Jacob wanted to be covered Evan tried to get out! He was always out the side pulling leaves or what ever he could.

By the end of our walk through Evan was asleep and Jacob was in Katy's arms, tired and hot.

We posed for a quick picture as we left.

Back at Katy's parents we found the boys would much rather play in the sand in the shade anyway - it doesn't take much to make kids happy!

Katy told me that when she was little here in Tucson she would sift in the sand for "sand rubies" which are garnets. We found a few in the boys sand box, but they were microscopic so we spent the rest of the afternoon in search of larger "sand rubies." We hit a few parks and a river, all of which Jacob enjoyed, but the funny thing was that the largest garnet we found was in the natural sand outside the kiddie pool sandbox at the house, which we found when we got back from our cross-Tucson search. I am going to continue looking though - Katy has me totally hooked- and when I find a good sized one it will be in the mail to Colorado! Katy and I always have such fun when we get together! Random crazy things can be a blast!

Katy's parents invited me to dinner - which was delicious and very kind of them, but I also got to spend more time with the boys.

We took a few evening pictures around the house - the sunset was really pretty! So was the cactus surrounded by flowers that Jake is posing in front of.

On Sunday Katy brought the boys over to Grandma and Grandpa's were I had my camera ready and got a ton of pictures, here are some of my favorite of Evan and Jacob.

When she got to the house Jake was still asleep - life is good for him when he can get a nap in with his red blanket and box of train cars.

While Jacob sleep we ate dinner and took some pictures of Evan with Grandma...

grandpa and Lego's!

And of course... mommy!

Once Jacob woke up - his memory surprised everyone as he headed strait for the organ and then to the jeep. Jacob in the jeep was the most hilarious thing I have ever seen. Grandma Louise started out by pushing him - but he didn't take long to learn the leavers and gas. What did take long was the constant stops that Jacob made saying, "It's broken, I need money." Then he would get out open the hood look inside and get back in the drivers seat. Sounds about like my life!

Evan enjoyed the ride from the passenger side - but the little monkey would start climbing all around and Jacob would say, "N N needs buckles." Which was completely true - but we didn't have any. As you can see from above Evan was either up, or down - where he found rocks to pop in his mouth. For some reason the boy has an affinity for rocks! He loves them! The sand he didn't worry about but a little rock goes straight to the mouth. You can see Katy trying to fish all the rocks out of the bottom of the jeep.

After about a million "repairs" we went for a walk down by the river to see if the sand there would produce the bigger "sand rubies." We were disappointed and didn't find any, however, that didn't stop Jacob from getting "down and dirty!"

A few more pictures back at the house - kisses and hugs and tears at goodbye (I'm sure that is why Evan is crying while I am holding him!) and Katy and the boys were out the door. Aunt Louise also left (she was down for just one night). It was a really fun week and I am so glad Katy came - now it is my turn to go up to Colorado!

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Back in Tucson for the rest of my spring break I celebrated St Patrick's Day with Grandma and Grandpa - Isn't it fun that there are so many things to celebrate! Grandpa has been asking for corned beef and cabbage for weeks now, and this week I hope he will get his fill - because Aunt Sue made him some on the 16th and Grandma made more on the 17th - now we have a huge bowl in the refrigerator of left-overs (or unders as Grandpa would say).

Happy Birthday Elise!

Last weekend (March 14-16) I drove home to start my Spring Break! Funny that I left a burning hot Tucson (who apparently skipped spring and thinks it is Summer) and after picking up Rosa we drove up the Rim where it snowed on us and there was snow on the ground (this state apparently has some issues with season). My plan: spend time with the family, get my taxes done at Jon's, see a fleeting glance of Dad before he headed off to the outage at Springerville not to be seen again for weeks, and of utmost importance: celebrate Elise's eleventh birthday!

Elise had a small party with a few friends, pizza, cake and ice cream - all an excellent combination. Her brothers gave her a Nerf gun as a gift - I guess they didn't think that one through! Here Tim demonstrates why Crookstons and Nerf guns aren't a good combination. Jaden takes it full force!

After the big kids left, Melissa and I played Candyland - and despite what it looks like we didn't last five minutes into the game before she started looking for something else to get into - like Kristi says she is in her terrible twos - and since she is almost three she has to live it up while she can.

Elise and I had a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's - we rented High School Musical Three and had hot chocolate and snuggled in blankets. An amazingly good combination! It was fun to be eleven again - just for a night!

We got up and had a leisurely Sunday morning, Elise even let me do her hair in an up-do for church(very sleepover appropriate) She looks so grown up - I can't believe that she is already eleven!

Poor girl didn't feel well! On her birthday! She was still a good sport and enjoyed her day as well as she could.

But never worry - by Sunday night she was feeling a little better. Celebrating her birthday just once more we had cake pancakes! One of my visiting teaching partners told me about them - you just mix up a cake mix like the box tells you and fry it up like a pancake. It was really good! We had jam and cream on it.