Day in Phoenix

For the first time ever in Jake and I's married life, we actually have to travel to get to a temple...granted 2 hours each way isn't that bad.  (before AZ we have always been within 30 mins of a temple)  But since it takes a good amount of time in the car, we try to make it a whole day event...drive up in the morning, each do out sessions, then hang out and play in Phoenix before driving back.  

 going to the temple now is something i really treasure now...it's not a "convenient" thing that i take advantage of.  now i feel like when i can get down to the temple it is really special because we have to make an extra effort to go.  i really enjoying getting there when i can.  it's also really neat watching my kids see how important it is.  they get excited to go too.  we bring them with us and switch off watching them so it really is a whole family affair.  in the past, we could leave them for just a couple hours, go real quick together and get back to pay a babysitter.  now atleast 6 hours is waaaaay too long to leave our kids.  we look forward to when the tucson temple is built and also when blaine is a little bit older so he can babysit (or do baptisms with us).  for now i enjoy the garunteed family time we get whenever we go to the temple.

 we have passes to a Science museum here in Tucson, but the super cool thing about this pass, is that we can use our pass at several other science museums all over the USA.  there happens to be a cool science museum in Phoenix and decided to go check it out!  the boys had soo much fun!

 i love how different my boys can be...Blaine is over learning and trying to figure out how pipes and drains work....Ty only cares about the cut in half toilet!  haha   Fun day!

house warming gift?!

we woke up to this little beauty today!  we have a mysterious flamingo bandit in our neighborhood!

we managed to solve the mystery....thank you ALLEN's for making us feel so welcome to the neighborhood!  xoxo

MoNSTeR TRuCKS!!!!

Jake got us tickets for a monster truck show through his work and it was AWESOME!!!!  i used to love monster trucks as a kid, so this was so fun for me.  Blaine and Jake really enjoyed it too!  ty did for the first hour or so, but it was SUPER loud.  being indoors didn't help!

 Ty had his fingers in his ears the whole time!!

 it was getting louder as the night went on, so we decided to buy these super expensive ear muffs to help with the sound, but it didn't seem to work.  he was still crying and clinging to me until i finally took him outside.  he had just as much fun outside, playing with his new ear muffs.  he says he wants to go again next year, so we will see and maybe try again.  either way, it was awesome to see those big trucks!!

weekend with the Allen kids

we decided to see what it would be like to have 6 kids and watched our friend's the Allen's kids for the weekend!  it was actually a blast!  i don't know who had more fun...the kids or ME!  

 we made yummy cookies

 and stayed up way too late playing games, painting nails, just dance, and of course a midnight run to mcdonalds for shakes!!  i stayed with the girls at their house, and the boys stayed back at our house.

 then in the morning we all got back together for an EPIC battle of capture the flag.  we built forts and came up with strategies to get the flags.  girls vs. boys naturally

and what would a weekend be without ms sydney teaching us all a dance!  she has some sweet moves, so i'm glad she taught us some too!  such a fun weekend!!

Climbing again

i am seriously LOVING rock climbing!  i have so much fun everytime i go.  this time we brought some friends along.  Allen's, Batemans and us

 Carli and i racing to the top...well, not really.  just climbing next to each other!

 and sarah giving it a shot....come on sarah...go...go..

almost!  haha!  at least we got to go out and eat afterwards...make it all worth it!  :)

adventures in home owning #3

HOME IMPROVEMENTS!!!  

we have been having fun making little improvements to our new home.  it's a lot of work and we have A LOT more work ahead, but it's kind of fun sine it is OUR house!!

 my biggest project has been the tile....can i just say right now...I HATE TILE!!! which is kind of a bummer since over half of our house is tile!  as you can tell from the picture, i really don't think this floor had EVER been cleaned!  NASTY!!! but with a lot of hard work and many bottles of bleach soft scrub, we are getting clean.  i'm about half way done with the whole house and have already put 10+ hours into it.  blah

 Jake built us a little desk/work space.  the previous owner left those drawers, and cabinets in the garage, so with a little repairing and reconstructing, we were able to make them useful.  way to go babe!

this last picture is one of my favorites....i came home from a Relief Society activity and jake was up sawing the ceiling...he looked at me and all he said was "Because i CAN!"  haha...it was for good though, he put in a very nice surround sound system!  he's got to get the important things done first of course!