The inside scoop!

Today for playgroup we went on a tour of the Cold Stone Creamery!
We got to go in the back and see where the ice cream is made and even get free samples and a treat at the end!

First we checked out the freezer! Brrr very cold!

It's way cold inside the fridge too!

They closed the door with the kids in the fridge for a few seconds!
Mara didn't seem to mind, but one kid started to cry!

Everyone wanted to feel the sweet cream in the bag before it goes into the machine and turns into ice cream.

Once the sweet cream is in the machine we had to wait until 9 red lights turned on.

Mara was the lucky kid to push the button that makes the ice-cream come out!

Everyone was able to choose one scoop of whatever kind of ice-cream and one topping.
Mara chose chocolate ice-cream and gummy bears!

"May I have one of each please?!"

One happy boy!
You would think Caleb was so happy after eating all the ice-cream...nope!
What kid doesn't like ice-cream: Caleb!
He didn't want anything to do with it!

Pizza at the Park

Saturday Nate had to work a few hours and get caught up on things...we wanted to be able to see him part of the day so we took a pizza-picnic over to his work. Across from the parking lot there is a small play ground for the kids to play on. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to enjoy the fresh air.

Look at those little monkeys climbing on the bars!

Caleb is a little pizza monster! He loves it!

Mara was too distracted by the playground to eat her lunch! She would run over and take a bite and run back and go down the slide...she did this until her lunch was gone!

This was a pretty steep slide, but Mara wasn't scared to go down!

This is my other pizza monster! He can almost eat as much pizza as his dad!

As Nate came out of his office for lunch he realized he locked his keys in the building. He decided he would just be done for the day even though he needed to keep working. So I asked him to stop at the store and pick me up some light bulbs and I would head home. He called a few minutes later and said he ran into someone from his work and was able to get into his office to finish his job! How ironic is that?!

A surprise visit!

We love having visitors! It makes it even more fun when it's a surprise visit from Mimi and Papa! We did get a heads-up before they left, and the timing worked out great. Ty was thrilled to have his grandparents cheering him on at his soccer game! Go Ty Go!

They stayed the night and Super-Papa came to rescue yet again! There is nothing my dad can't fix! He is not only Mr. Handy but Mr. Fix-it. He knows how to solve all plumbing, electrical, and any other household problem. I had a leak under my sink but instead of trying to fix it myself or calling my landlord I just put a bowl under the sink to catch the drops of water! Papa found the problem though and now---wa-lah no more drips! In our bathroom our ceiling fan continued to run. Nate did give it a shot and tried replacing the outlet--but it still ran night and day. So our solution: unplug it! I told my dad about this silly problem and he had it fixed in no time! Thanks super-papa for fixing the problems in our Dupe!

Caleb found a silly spot to take a rest: right between Papa's legs! Papa was laying on the ground and Caleb came right up and snuggled right in! Then we would say "Caleb? Where are you?" And he would pop his head up and smile and then put it right back down! Peek-a-boo Caleb! What a silly kid!

Mimi enjoyed playing with the grandkids. She did puzzles, coloring pages and played toys with the kiddos. She even watched Mara's favorite movie Cinderella with her.

Papa took Ty to the Dinosaur museum and had a great time learning about Ty's favorite dinosaurs. He couldn't believe how much Ty really knew about the gigantic prehistoric dinosaurs! Papa even bought Ty a dinosaur mask! Scary!

For Christmas Ty got this dinosaur kit that he has to dig out a fossilized stegosaurus. He works on it now-and-then but it really is hard work digging it out. While Papa was here they worked on it together and made a little more progress.

Even though it was a quick visit--it was a fun visit and we are grateful to live so close to our family and grateful for all they do for us!

Perfect Weather!

Let's here it for Spring!

YAY!!!!

We are loving this perfectly-beautiful-not-too-hot-not-too-cold-just-right-can't-get-enough- blue-skies-and-sunshine-weather!!

I took advantage this morning of three sleeping children and a gorgeous morning at 6:30 to go for a nice walk/jog.
There is just something about that time of day that is refreshing.
It was neat to watch the sun rise over the rolling hills.

Today for playgroup we met at the Dino Mine park and played with our friends.
I think this is going to be one of our favorite places to play here in Price.
It is within walking distance from The Dupe so we were able to ride bikes/walk over.

Caleb loves doing the stairs at the playground. He tried today to climb up them more like his big sister!

Mara likes to help Caleb do everything--she is his other mother! He's figured out how to go down the slide the right way all by himself now.

I think she's getting too big for these swings!!

I think he was trying to tell me something...I just don't know what it was!!

I wish I had my camera set on video for this shot--Caleb was so happy! He was kicking his feet and laughing and throwing wood chips in the air!

Just relaxing and enjoying a ride in the swing!

Caleb cracks me up! He is pure joy! He was having such a good time in the swing--all laughs and smiles!

Mara is really good at balancing and climbing on things. The nice thing about this park is they have a big kid play area and a toddler area...Mara can do all the things on the big kid part--but Caleb hasn't quite figured it out!

Looks like Mara is getting eaten by a dinosaur! They don't call this dino-park for nothing! Dinosaurs everywhere!

My favorite part of the day was playing hide-and-seek with Mara! Caleb and I hid together and Mara would come find us! Then she would hide and I would find her!

Caleb and Blythe jumping up and down!

Mara on the tire swing with her friends Cecilia, Julia, and Ada! They kept saying 'higher higher'! What this picture doesn't show was after the girls got off Caleb and I tried going for a swing--but it twirled around and around so much it made us dizzy! Then I couldn't get off because I was trying to hold Caleb and not drop him on the ground, so I put him down and he was so dizzy from going around and around that he fell and then he got up and the swing knocked him down again! He didn't seem to mind, he probably was wondering "What in the heck is my mom doing?" Oh it was fun!

A hiking we will go...

....a hiking we will go,
hi-ho, the derry-o

a hiking we will go!

Yesterday we went hiking with our ward. The weather was perfect and the hike was just right for little kiddos. The destination was to a waterfall. Who knew there could be a water fall in the middle of the desert?!

That is the destination! It wasn't too far and Mara walked most of the way but near the end her little lets got tired so I gave her a lift!

The kids were so excited to put their little feet in the cold water!

This little guy would have put his entire body in had we let him! Caleb kept wanting to sit down in the water but we didn't want him soaked and cold!

Ty with his buddies: Cannon and Craig

So much for keeping the kid's pants dry! Oh well! They had a fun time and were dry by the end of the hike back.

Ty was a good big brother to hold Mara's hand and keep her from slipping!

Ty's hiding under the rock! A great little place for the kids to play and wade their feet!

When we got back to where we parked the cars we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows! It was a great afternoon being with friends and enjoying new places in Price! We can't wait to explore more fun spots around here!

Days of our lives...

The days of living in the "Dupe" (our duplex) are often filled with laughter, tears, funny moments, learning new things, giggles, complaints, joys, disappointments, and just every day occurrences...

I thought I'd share just a few highlights from the past couple weeks of some of these moments from our life:

Ty

Ty's soccer season has started and it is a blast watching Ty play soccer. He is such a hustler! He loves playing goalie (just like his mom) and isn't afraid to jump right in front of someone coming towards him to grab the ball and take it away. He's learned to stand right in front of the opposing goalie when it's a goal kick and block the kick and return it for a goal! Last game he scored six goals and finally his coach said "Ty go play goalie--let the other kids play too!" He's a pretty athletic kid, but we learned this week that he doesn't like PE in school. We haven't figured out why except he said "I just like sports, not PE!"

While doing homework with Nate one night Ty was working on the letter Y. He was asked to write three words that begin with the letter and then draw a picture to go along with it. As he worked he said to Nate, "Daddy, do you know that if my name started with a Y my name would be 'yt' (pronounced yut)...Nate started to laugh and said "That's right, your name would be yt"....and he has been called 'yt' ever since!

We were driving down the road one day and Ty said to me "Mama, remember when you were in the hospital with Caleb and Mimi came and stayed with us." I said "Yes, I remember. Why?" He then asked, "Well, when you were little did Mimi ever come over and stay with you." I had to keep myself from laughing but said, "Ty don't you remember Mimi is my mom and lived with me every day!" After thinking about it for a minute Ty said, "Oh, ya! I forgot!"

Ty has been a really lovey boy lately. He often will come up to me and say "Mama, I've got something for you." "What is it?" I ask. Then he wraps his arms around me for a tight hug and gives me a big kiss! One night he said to me "I love you mama more than the stars, space, and universe!" What a great kid! I love him too!

Mara

Mara has been practicing writing her name, she is doing fantastic in her speech class, and every day she does at least three puzzles! Boy we will be happy to get all our toys back!

I was doing a little song and dance one day during lunch to Caleb and Mara that went something like this, "I love you Caleb, I love you Mara" before I could finish Mara jumped right in and started singing "I love you Erica, I love you Erica!" (It's kind of weird hearing your name come from your child's mouth for some reason!)

While on our trip the kids enjoyed watching a few movies while driving in the car. One of the movies was Madagascar 2. If you've ever seen this movie you might be familiar with Alex the Lion who does a funny thing with his hand and making funny faces. Mara picked up on this pretty quick and she does it quite often. Her facial expressions are hilarious:

Caleb

Thank goodness the weather has been so wonderful these past few days...Caleb LOVES playing outside! And I am so grateful for a fenced backyard! Caleb has the best time running around outside and pointing at the neighbors dogs and watching for birds. He is so content outside!
The other thing Caleb loves is helping me wash the dishes! He stands up on the booster seat right next to me and loves playing in the water. He especially loves getting the soap bubbles on his hands! Caleb learns something new every day! This week he learned how to fold his arms for prayer! Talk about cute! He has also learned to sign 'please'.

Friends!

We have had some really great time with friends this week...old friends and new friends! We were able to see some really great friends from Pennsylvania who came into town last week and we drove up to Provo and met them for dinner. It was so awesome to see the Forsythes! Oh how we miss them! It made us wish to go back to PA for a visit and see the rest of our branch family and friends there!

We've also had a few families from our ward over for dinner. Who knew 17 people could all fit in the dupe for dinner! We actually went outside and ate a picnic and played soccer out back. It was a lot of fun to socialize and we are very blessed to be surrounded by such great people and friends here.

Easter Festivities!

What do Easter eggs and Easter bunnies have to do with the true meaning of Easter? Nothing! But they sure are fun and it's part of the tradition! We drove from Page, Arizona to Tooele, Utah straight with only a couple stops! Boy was it good to be out of the car and home with Mimi and Papa to celebrate Easter. Sunday we had a relaxing day of listening to conference and after that we colored Easter eggs.

Trying to hold Caleb back, he wanted to be in on the action!

It was super fun to have Kate and Anna doing eggs with us this year.

This is a perfect way for Caleb to participate!

Mara loved it!

She even tried smelling the Easter egg...which you can probably guess what happened to her face! Yup it turned purple!

Mara liked putting the stickers on her eggs the best.

We enjoyed a fabulously delicious home cooked meal with the whole fam! Ty looks pretty silly with Mimi's glasses on!

The Easter bunny even found us at Mimi & Papa's house! The kids were pretty excited to each find an Easter basket filled with candy!

And let the search begin....48 eggs hidden around the house! Papa wouldn't let us go home until we found every single one! And we did! Caleb thought it was so funny to find eggs around the house. He picked up this yellow one and dropped it on the ground. Then he did it again!

He thought that was pretty hilarious! He loved all the Easter candy too!