Outdoor Excursions

Before Vegas heats up and it feels like we're living in a hair dryer, we thought we'd take advantage of outdoor time!

Red Rock Canyon is beautiful. The kids love hiking there. This time we tried the Lost Creek trail with some friends. Along the trail you could see ancient Indian hieroglyphs, "fire pits" where Indians once cooked their food, a small stream that we followed all the way to a seasonal waterfall, and a large wash that still fills up when the desert floods.

And this is why it's called "Red Rock." :)


Up ahead - Willow Springs where the Lost Creek trail head is.


This is the easy part. Just moments ago, we were climbing over boulders and up steep stairs that park officials made from rocks.


Irelynn napped half of the hike.


Branson and Natalya with their little friends: Zech, Payne, and Jacob. Thank you, DeHart Family! We had a great time.

LAS VEGAS ZOO
Yesterday, we went to the Las Vegas Zoo with several friends. Though we had heard that it was a sad little zoo, we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived. We saw flamingos, an alligator, apes, ostriches, lions, huge snakes, a cougar, kangaroos and more. Aside from the caged animals, there were chickens, roosters, and peacocks running around everywhere! The kids had a fantastic time - we brought a sack lunch and spent nearly three hours there.

These tortoises weren't slow at all! The we were all shocked at how fast they moved.


A zoo official brought us a baby kangaroo and allowed the kids to pet him. They are thinking of naming the little joey, "Ozzie."

Branson and his friend Luke climbing on an elephant statue.


We got to watch the lions get their lunch. When they stretched out, they looked about 8 feet tall!

Branson acting like a monkey. It was easy for him - he has lots of practice acting like a little monkey every day!

Brian's Birthday

When Brian and I were little it was always disappointing when your birthday was on Sunday - because that was the Lord's day of rest. Well, now that we're older, we realize that Sunday is a fantastic day for birthdays! We SO enjoy having a day of rest - especially on conference weekend. Brian's birthday was both relaxing and uplifting. :)

Happy birthday, Handsome!

We started his birthday morning with blueberry muffins after sleeping in. Well, "sleeping in" at our house is anything past 7am. Natalya helped me pick a rose from our backyard for him. The kids also helped set the table and screamed, "SURPRISE!!!" when he walked downstairs.

After the first session of conference, we opened up presents. He needed a few new shirts and ties.

Then we enjoyed our gorgeous weather and took lunch outside for a picnic.

I love a scavenger hunt! Well at least it makes a present more fun to get. My clever clues led him to...


...the freezer! Where I was hiding nearly 6 dozen of his favorite cookies - peanutbutter Reeses Pieces cookies. I baked his peanutbutter cookies, and Branson's cake all day on Friday. Then I ran around the house, opening every window, and spraying air freshener everywhere just before Brian got home - so he couldn't smell the wonderful aroma of peanutbutter that had filled the whole house.

We topped off his birthday with his very favorite cake that he requests every year: double chocolate chip cake. I forgot to buy extra candles, so we improvised by using every odd candle we had! Some were sparkly, some were shaped like cars, some were letters of the alphabet - but yes, I was able to round up all 31 candles!

Brian is such a wonderful man. I am so blessed to have him as my husband! He is my very best friend. He makes me laugh. There's no one in the world I would rather spend my time with than my husband. Brian is also a terrific father. He teaches, loves, protects and provides for our sweet children. He is just perfect for me and I love him more than anything.

Happy Birthday, Branson

I can't believe I had Branson 3 years ago today. He seems like such a big kid! It's crazy how fast time flies. Branson is such a pleasure to have in our home. He is bright, funny (sometimes even sarcastic), sweet and incredibly loving. Branson allows his baby sister to pull his hair, grab at his face, and tackle him without a complaint. In fact, he thinks it's cute! He loves his family so much - and he lives to make his sisters laugh.

Branson's birthday was a success! Here's the play-by-play:

Branson's birthday began at dawn (notice the sun rising in our family room window) thanks to our littlest early-riser, Irelynn. So Brian and I picked up the house, dispersed the balloons, and assembled his Spiderman scooter all before he woke up. When he came down the stairs, the expression on his face was priceless.

And he was so excited that couldn't stop making funny faces for the camera.

Ever since we got him his first GeoTrax train set for Christmas, Branson has a new love for trains. So I made his cake into a train for his birthday this year. It took me all morning to frost and decorate it. And yes, I made everyone wait to eat it until almost the end of his party - just so that I could enjoy it a little while longer. :)

In this picture you can see that I added the cotton ball stretched into smoke coming out of the smokestack.

Branson picked out a baseball pinata. I didn't bother blindfolding him - I knew the pinata would last quite a while without it. :)

Brian held the string from the second story.

My cousin Merrill and his sweet family came over - they have 4 kids. This is Levi taking a swing; he's Natalya's age. We were planning on just a family birthday party because some of Brian's familiy thought about visiting us this weekend - but it didn't work out. Instead, we invited our nextdoor neighbor and an around-the-corner neighbor at the last minute. We were happy that they could come - we have fantastic neighbors. His little party turned out great!

When the pinata broke, it rained candy. (Well, mostly because Brian shook out the rest of the candy from upstairs.)

I was so glad my parents could come. And if you ask them, they wouldn't miss it for anything. Here is my dad cheering for the kids as they swung at the pinata.

Here's my beautiful mom. Her hip is hurting her and she's waiting for a hip-replacement surgery. But she still volunteers to watch our kids when we need her. She lives to serve.

These are our neighbors from around the corner. They have a 3 year old boy, Boston, who we love to play with. We often share dinner at one another's homes. Our other neighbor, Yara, was taking this picture. We're so blessed to have Jon and Yara as next-door neighbors - they're wonderful.

Naturally, Branson loved opening his presents. But he's not your average kid - Branson would be satisfied with just birthday balloons. He played balloon volleyball more than he played with his new toys. I love how easy-to-please he is. And he didn't expect anything - so when someone gave him a new toy, he was super excited and expressed his gratitude immediately.

Happy birthday, Toughy!

Why I Love Natalya So Much...

Natalya is such a good kid. She makes me laugh, she's helpful, she's free-spirited, she has a sincere desire to succeed, she LOVES to learn new things, and she yearns to please others.

The reason I brought this up is because she said a few things tonight that made me smile. For instance, while looking through our Pottery Barn Kids magazine, she saw cute girls having a cute tea party in a cute playroom. Her response: "Well I could make most of that with Play-Dough. And we just need some cardboard, tape, scissors, and crayons for the rest."

I wish we all had an attitude like that.

Orange Frost

Life gets busy. We feel like weeks fly by because we always have so much going on. Nearly every night of the week is filled with something. That's why we feel the need to make the best of every little minute we have together.

Last Saturday Brian brought home Orange Smoothie mix from the grocery store - when we were kids we called it "Orange Frost". So once the kids go down for the night, Brian and I take the blender to the garage (to not wake up the kids) and make Orange Frost using the mix packet, orange juice and ice cubes. That combined with an all new episode of Chuck makes it feel like a mini date. We try to have a few mini dates a week. That, to me, is quality time. :)

Branson is proud to announce that he can put on his underwear, socks, pants, shirts, and shoes all by himself! Most of the time, however, he puts them on backwards - like in the picture above.

Branson actually likes getting his hair cut.

He thinks it tickles.


Part of having "joy in the journey" is doing silly things for no particular reason. The kids were bored - we put a tent up in our living room. Carpe Diem! Unfortunately, it's still there. :)

Nana bought Irelynn a Harley Davidson diaper cover. Vrooom! Off she goes!

19 pounds and growing! She's in the 75th percentile for her height, weight, and head circumference. I love it! She's so kissable.

I love that toothless grin!

Taking a snooze in her carseat. I love her open mouth.

We took a little nature walk in Red Rock canyon with the kids. Irelynn slept the whole time (which gave me quite a backache) but the other kids had a fabulous time! Our weather has been amazing lately.

Natalya drew pictures of different plants and things she found along the way.

Branson found a hole in this joshua tree. They each searched for bugs and rocks, too.

I'm not sure you can tell from this picture, but Irelynn loves to splash while in the tub. I'm soaked. And I hadn't even bathed the other two yet. Oh the joys of motherhood!

(Thank you to Natalya for taking this picture.)

March Madness

I love that my brother-in-law, Brett, includes me in his March Madness Tourney Pick'em group. His group is composed with mostly just guy-friends. Nonetheless, he knows that I enjoy being involved in whatever interests my husband has - so every year he includes me, too. It's fun to follow-up on the teams in my bracket and banter with Brian on who's beating who. I used to pick teams to win based on rank and school names (Gonzaga is just fun to say), but this year I actually used some top 25 team ranking lists to help make my picks. Regardless of how well I do, I love how sweet my brother-in-law was to always include me in his group. Thanks, Brett! :)

Let the Madness begin!!

A Little of This, A Pinch of That...

Since our old computer has been out of commision, I'm waaay behind on blogging. I thought I'd post a few random pictures to help us catch up. And once our new computer has all our photos transfered, I'll be back in the game!

It seems that every time I take a picture lately, all they want to do is make a silly face.



Natalya and Branson have a cotton ball basket where they can earn one cotton ball for each good deed or act of service they do. After a few months, they filled their basket all the way to the top. Their reward was a one-on-one date with the parent of their choice. This is a picture of Natalya when I took her out for dessert. We got all dressed up - complete with a little makeup, fingernail polish, perfume, a princess dress, and her little puppy poodle. Branson chose to go to Peter Piper Pizza with daddy. He's been asking to go back ever since. :)

Brian rolled his ankle while playing basketball. He heard it pop and it swelled up immediatly. It got so huge, we decided to take him to the ER for X-rays. When he found out it wasn't broken, he ditched the crutches - such a manly man. But he heard that it may take longer than a break to heal. Yes, it's a month later - and it's still swollen. Needless to say, I think he's out for the rest of the bball season. :)

She is looking more and more like daddy every day! She has his eyes. Every time I look at her, I see my husband. I love it! She's a doll. And she's getting bigger by the day. She recently discovered how to drink from a straw. She scoots all over the place. I hear my kids ask her, "Where are you off to??" all the time.

Natalya just got her new ballet costume for her upcoming dance recital. She loves it! And I think she looks precious.

This is my new favorite picture.

Blogging Trouble

So I've been trying to update our blog lately without any success! I have 4 or 5 posts that I'd like to add (complete with pictures) and nearly every time I log on, I get kicked off of the internet! Sometimes I get as far as clicking "browse" to search for pictures but without fail, it kicks me off the internet. As Branson would say, that's "totally frustrating." So it looks like I'm going to get behind on my blogging- again. Ugh!!