Arizona part 2

My Aunt invited everyone over, and it was fun to see all my cousins, aunts and uncles who were able to make it.

the 3 pregos

My cousins...me, sharri, ashley, brooke, nikki, jessica, amy and heather

We were able to go and see my grandpa's grave while we were there.  He died last christmas and we were on our way to London the day of his funeral so I never got to see it.

Arizona

We got the chance to drive down to Arizona last week and had so much fun in the sun.  The kids couldn't get enough of all the parks, and we even got to go swimming.

Playing with cousins! Reagan, Clay, Lauren and Zac

fun sliding! Zac loved to pile the sand at the bottom of the slide and go right through.

My cousin Landon is a Fireman so he gave us a personal tour of his fire department.  We really got the VIP treatment.  Thanks a ton Landon! The kids had a blast...even Reagan!

They let us put on the head gear and were able to talk to eachother

through them.  It was pretty neat.

Zac and Reagan trying to lift the Jaws of Life, needless to say

the jaws weighed more than the kids.

Reagan hadn't really gotten into much at the firehouse, but when she saw zac squirting water from the

brush fire truck she thought she'd try.  On her first and only attempt, she got squirted

and came running back to me.  We all thought it was pretty funny though.

Zac, mom and I went on a hike up to some petroglyphs
(thanks dad for watching reagan)  There has been a lot of

rain in the dessert this year so we got a cool picture of a cactus in full bloom.

We finally made it! I swear it was about a mile and half up to them. Zac

was quite the tropper though.

taking a break

We also got to go to my grandpa's farm. We found a ton of indian pottery, but unfortunatley didn't take any pictures of all the fun the kids had gathering it up. There is a ton of it on my grandparents farm, and it's fun to look at.

Oh my two in one day!  I couldn't resist.

I am the first to admit my children watch WAY too much TV in the winter.  I'm fine with the snow until it gets hard and icy, then i'm DONE!  But today I am glad to say (atleast after school) was different.  Zac wanted to play the Wii and Reagan wanted Dora.  We can split screen our TV and so I usually let them both have their way....BUT not today.

I decided that the TV was going to be off for the rest of the night.  Then the inevitable happened...they played and made HUGE messes...but it's okay because they had fun and no matter what they get out it can be cleaned up.

This is only half the mess...they had puzzles and coloring books on the table in front of the TV

And it's good for them to play together like this, they really learn a lot from each other.  Zac leanrs patients and Reagan learns how to share. 

I can't wait until we can go outside and play and get wet and just enjoy.

What we've been up to

Painting nails

Making Volcanoes

Trying our hand at sushi

Looks pretty good

Meeting up with good friends...

It was a busy February and we had tons of fun!

Yesterday...

we found out Zac isn't allowed to say crap at school! Who knew!?!

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Zac goes skiing

We signed Zac up for skiing lessons this year. He is having so much fun learning how to ski, and  I love that at the end of them he is exhausted!

Still learning to stop at the bottom so the teacher catches him!

I wish they had these when I was in ski school - it's like a great big treadmill that takes them back up the hill!

Reagan came along for moral support.  ie: dad had to work

LEGO

I came out to find Zac had made this with his legos:

...and he did it all by himself!

the deer

The kids are loving watching the deer in our yard.  They (the deer not my children) sleep back there too. 

The main attraction is the little 4x6 and there is another little 2 point behind the fence, you can kind of see his antlers.

Oh Santa

Last Friday Zac had a Christmas party at his school.  When he first got to school they had Santa Claus sitting in a chair for all the kids to go and sit on his lap and get a picture.  I was helping that day with the party, and when I came back the teacher informed me that Zac had said the present the teachers gave all the kids was for babies and he was not taking it home.  I was so embarrassed, I told the teacher sorry, and that he was taking it home.  He then told me he was giving it to Reagan, which he did and she LOVED it.

Then when we were leaving he informed me that it really wasn't Santa and it was just some "old guy" dressed up as Santa.  I tried to convince him otherwise, but he told me his beard wasn't even really attatched to his face and so on.  So I had to give in and tell him that since Santa is so busy he sometimes sends helpers in his place.  This has seemed to convince him for now. 

But, we are having Santa come to our family Christmas party tomorrow night and I told Zac he was coming, but he is not convinced that it really will be him.  He told me it will just be another old guy pretending to be Santa.  I can't believe I had to tell my 5 year old that he can't tell the other kids it's not Santa and to just play along or the other kids may feel sad that it isn't him. 

I am finding it to be a lot of work to keep him believing in Santa Claus.  I asked him if he believes and he said he did, but boy he sure has a lot of questions.  He asks how the reindeer fly, how the sleigh holds so much weight without "sinking".  He told me Santa wasn't bringing him video games because he can't make things like that.  Santa's too fat to go down chimneys. Wow, I don't think I was this smart when I was his age. 

But for now he remains convinced and I am happy that he is.  There is just something about kids believing in Santa that makes Christmas so magical.

Temple Lights

the makings

Love Christmas!

This year in addition to our yearly gingerbread house...

we decided to add the tradition of making suckers.  The kids lost interest after the first batch, but Jeff and I kept it going.  They turned out great, and are surprisingly easy!

baby it's cold outside!

Only 10 degrees out, but they still know how to have fun...