Cait Turns 5

I can hardly believe that Cait turned 5 in March. Time seems to just fly by! Her birthday happened to be the first day of Josh and Matt's Spring Break , and Mark had the day off..so everyone was home celebrate with her.

Her daddy went out early and picked up some of her favorite

donuts for her breakfast.

Lucky Girl! After breakfast, we packed up the crew and

went to the Phoenix Zoo.

Cait loved the animals, and the cotton candy!!!!

We had a cute cake just for Cait, then she opened presents.

She was excited about her 'My little pet shop" animals.

And her new Princess Bike!!! :)

Happy Birthday Cait. We love you.

Bananas.....

The other morning, Ryan was in the kitchen and shouted "I want this Naked!" I quickly ran into the kitchen to see him holding a banana. LOL. So I 'stripped' the banana for him. Then it broke in half and he was sad. Cait heard the commotion and decided she wanted one too. I love my little monkeys! :)

A Walk in the Rocks.....

This weekend we decided to go to Watson Lake (a local lake) and hike/walk around. It was such a beautiful morning. The water was smooth and the sky was a crisp blue. It was fun to hike up around all the Granite Dells (the huge rocks). I hadn't been hiking through the rocks before... Mark has taken Josh & Matt a few months back. What fun we had! Jessica was still with us. (She came down for a girls weekend with me! :) I'll blog about that next!)
Watson Lake

Ryan

Caitlin

Joshua

Jessica, Ryan & Mark

Matt & Ryan

Mark, Ryan, Matt, Josh & Cait

Jessica

Josh's 11th Birthday

This is my darling Josh on his 11th birthday. I know it is a goofy picture, but Josh is a fun, goofy kinda kid. He loves to joke and have fun!

This is an off year for Josh's birthday, which is supposed to mean that he didn't have a 'huge' party with a bunch of friends, cake, ice cream etc. Well, Josh managed to drag his birthday out so that he ended up having a birthweek, instead of birthday. Monday, 2 days before his birthday, we went to eat at Texas Roadhouse, his favorite restaurant, we gave him our gifts that night. Then on Wednesday his birthday, I decorated and we had 'the family party' which included yummy chocolate cupcakes and balloons. Then on Saturday he managed to talk us into having a 'small friend party', which included 2 friends and pizza. Josh had the evening scheduled. Seriously. I should have taken a picture of the 'to do' list. It was something like this...

1. open presents

2. play nerf guns

3. Eat Pizza

4. play video games

5. Ride bikes

Mark and I are total suckers! Josh ended up having a whole week of celebrating instead of just a day! He said it was better than having one big party!

We love you Joshy woodle doodle bug! Happy Birthday!

Cookies for New York

Hi y'all. Mom and Jess wanted a picture of the cookies I did for some magazine in New York. They were pitching something to Nivea. Hope it went well!! I am having to much fun to call this work! :)

Valentine Dinner....

For Valentines day, Mark and I went to dinner with Bill & Susan, and Laura & Gregg. It was really nice to sit and visit with adults for the evening!!!

I love you Mark. Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines Day

We spent Valentines Day weekend in Irvine visiting Marks family. I was hoping for warm weather with lots of green grass, lush trees and of course SUN. Well.....it was cool and rainy... With a little bit of sunshine mixed in. We still had alot of fun. Friday, the kids really wanted to go swimming. So we went, in the rain! It was cold, I had conveniently forgotten my swimsuit this trip, (It's only Feb. I am not swimsuit ready!) but the kids and Mark had theirs, so we found a heated pool and spent an hour or so splashing and diving.

Saturday it was sunny, and a little warmer. So we decided to take the kids to the beach. We are smart enough now to take extra clothes with us whenever we go to the beach. Even though it's February, and we told the kids the water would be very very cold, they wanted to 'Wade' in the water. Wade means swim, so we put their suits underneath their clothes. Good thing too!

I was worried about Ryan. He can be a loose cannon, and I really didn't want him in the water. Well, luck was with us. He was scared of the sounds of the waves crashing. So he didn't even want to come down to the water. He kept running back to the parking lot. Eventually, we distracted him by getting him to chase the birds.

Grandma and Papa Redford were watching James for the weekend, so the 3 of them came to the beach with us!

So here are the 3 brave kids venturing into the water.....

Finding lots of fun stuff to play with....

Matt is always the one who wants to be buried in the sand...

Josh was so ready to get in the freezing water. I think we must have dropped him too many times when he was a wee one. :)

After swimming for a little bit, he got out complaining that he was cold and ready to go.

Uh...we did tell him it would be cold. They just don't listen. Literally.

Caitlin is my picture girl. She kept hitting funny poses demanding that I take pictures of her.

After seeing Matt buried, Ryan decided he wanted to give it a shot.

Laura came down to the beach to see us. This was a really cute shot of her and Susan.

It was such a fun day. I love the beach. It is so relaxing to sit and listen to the waves crash onto the shore. I really didn't want to leave........but we dried the kids off and headed home.

I guess I can't really say I didn't want to leave. Mark got me a really cute little red surprise for Valentines day, and I was a little anxious to ride home with the top down.

I know, I know, I am incredibly spoiled!

Let it Snow

It has finally snowed enough to stick! This year we haven't had as much as last year. The kids have been waiting anxiously for

Snow, Snow, Snow.

It snowed a few inches yesterday and last night, enough for the schools to declare a Snow Day. Which means No School today. They are excited, not sure if I am yet! It is amazing how kids are. On a normal school day, Mark and I have to drag them out of bed to get them going. This morning, it is like they just new there was no school...Josh and Matt were both up around 6 am. I don't get it. Hmmm. Well anywho. I took some cute pictures of the kids playing outside. Bella Loves to run in the snow with the kids. It is funny to watch her tear around the yard in the snow.

So Happy Snow Day Everyone!

Matt running in the snow

Caitlin

Matt again. He loves posing for the camera!

Ryan making snowballs. So Cute!

Bella playing with her bear in the snow

The view out the front door this morning. Beautiful!

Silly things we do....

We were all being a little silly today. Cait ran around with under wear on her head.....
While the rest of us tried on a Grill that was all Bling! Mark would be so proud of our 'Sparkling Teeth!'

This Is What Girls Do When They Have A Boyfriend

Wow, it has been awhile sinced I blogged. I did not find the time during the holidays, so I have alot to catch up on!!!!! Right now I will just let you in on a startling thing Cait said the other day when her and I were in the kitchen. She looked across the table at me and struck a pose.

And then she said ......................

This is what girls do when they have a boyfriend.

Uh-Huh, do they now? It took me a few seconds to recover. Then I asked her where she learned this. She said Tom & Jerry. Apparantley the girl cat gives this look to Tom. Maybe she shouldn't be watching Tom & Jerry until she is 21 because I don't want her giving that look to any cute boys until then!!!!

HO-MAWK

I know that I am always blogging about all the funny things my kids do and say, Sorry. It makes me smile, it might make you smile too..
Yesterday Cailtin was telling me that I needed to fix Ryan's hair in a HO-MAWK. :) I love it. It is still making me laugh. Faux-Hawk, or Mohawk. I am not sure which she was going for, but it came out HOMAWK. Hee Hee

Getting Rid of the Skunks....well trying too.....

So, we still have the skunks. Mark called animal control, which turned out to be the local police department. They wouldn't come out and take care of the skunks for us, but they offered Mark a free trap so that we could catch them ourselves. OOHHHHH GOODY! Is anyone else laughing hysterically at this point? So he picked up the trap and brought it home. He then realized we needed to bait it. With what? A quick search on the internet lead us to these options....

1.CHICKEN ENTRAILS

2.CRACKNELS

3.FISH

4.FRESH INSECT LARVAE

5.BREAD CRUST COATED IN PEANUT BUTTER

WHAT THE????????? I quickly voted for bread and peanut butter. The other stuff totally grossed me out! eeccckkk. Ryan, Cait and Mark set the trap. Placed it in the yard. Then Mark covered the trap with a large beach towel. The police told him that a skunk won't spray what it can't see. Gut instinct tells me that isn't right. But I am not an expert. SOOO now the waiting begins...........

Next morning all the bread and pb were gone, the trap had not sprung. HMMMM. I think we might have skunks come spring, because if we don't catch them soon, they will hibernate in the yard. (Atleast in Over The Hedge they hibernate).

I am not concerned we haven't caught the skunks. I am more concerned about what we will do when we DO catch the skunks. We will have to catch them one at a time. And release them one at a time. Which means we will be taking atleast 4 trips to 'the wild' to let them go. In what I ask? We don't have a truck, and neither Mark or I want a live skunk in our cars. HMMM. Any suggestions?

Liberty Days Performance

Josh had his first big band performance last week. The concert was centered around "being proud to be an American". Josh and another fellow trumpeter got to perform Taps in honor of all the veterans in the audience. It was such a great night!! Josh really loves his music. It was so fun to watch him perform. We are so proud of you Josh!!

The last few days of Ryan's of adventures.....

Oh Ryan. We love you soooo.

We just can't keep up with you!!!!

I thought Ryan was out in the backyard playing with the other kids. He wasn't. I found him in the playroom with a black sharpie (his favorite drawing tool).

BUSTED!

The blue walls are now decorated with Ryan's art - So are his cheeks, and his shirt and his belly etc. I quickly removed the marker and escorted him outside to play with the other kids. :)

Ryan was in the tub. I checked on him every 2 minutes while I cleaned the kitchen. Well, I checked on him again, the curtain was closed around the tub and when I pulled it back, this is what I found..... Ryan covered his eyes-figuring I wouldn't see the mess if I couldn't see him.

BUSTED!

These items were in the basket along with 2 full rolls of toilet paper that had disentegrated in the tub water. Yuck!

See no evil.

Here we see Ryan in Josh's room with the fish tank....yes, he has dumped the tank upside down all over Josh's desk. He had a great time playing with the little orange rocks. I did not have a great time cleaning it up. It took forever!

BUSTED! Ryan has also been spinning around on the kitchen table, getting into the peanut butter jar when I wasn't looking, hiding in my closet rearranging all the shoes. I took him with me to church to set up for a Relief Society Dinner. He unset the tables as I set them. AAAHHHH!!!Where does he get the energy? I need some of it!!!!

I think Ryan should have his own reality show, and a series of Ryan adventure books. He is awesome.

Don't can butter!!!!!!

Okay, so after research and informative emails from my awesome mom, I have found out that you can't and shouldn't can butter. Sorry! I am very sad about that!!