Palm Springs

My older sister and her family have a time share in Palm Springs where they go for spring break every year. So all the sisters met up with them for a few days to hang out by the pool. Palm Springs is a favorite vacation spot for all of my siblings because we use to visit my grandparents there when we were younger.

Kate loved her glasses! Classic Davis shooting us with water.

Davis and his cousins, Zach and Derek, spent hours in this pool dumping water on each other.

Kate and Hayley sharing food by the pool (mostly Hayley sharing her food with Kate)!

Madelaine, Alexis, Kate and Davis enjoying date shakes at Shields. We use to come here and get date shakes with our grandparents pretty much every day when we would visit.

Hayley, Davis, Zach, Derek and Kate just hanging out by one of the many fountains at the Marriot.

Good News

The WREB is over!! Mark just has to wait about 3 weeks to get the results but I have no doubt that he passed. No more worrying and stressing over this obnoxious exam!

Miniature Golfing

We enjoyed playing a little miniature golf during Spring Break!!

Davis and dad

Davis and Jackson running up and down on their favorite hole!!

Kate, Davis and Jackson doing a little riding after golf!

Reading to Kate

The other day I caught Kate sitting on Davis' lap and he was reading to her. These two get along so well, I love watching them play together!

Happy Birthday Davis

I can't believe Davis is 4! Davis and I share back to back birthdays (mine on March 1st and his on March 2nd), so for the last 4 years we have celebrated our birthdays together. The Saturday before Davis' birthday he had an ARMY party with his friends. The kids had so much fun!! They each had dog tags with their names engraved on them (thanks to my brother-n-law) and a whistle. They started out by doing a little "physical training" (running in and out of cones and jumping through hula hoops), and having a water gun fight. They ate lots of cake, loved hitting an army tank pinata and had fun watching Davis open his presents.

Water Guns

(I love having a boy, they are soooo much fun)

"1,2,3...GO ARMY"

We spent the day of my birthday at Disneyland with friends and really had so much fun!!

Small World
(Jackson, Gordon, Davis, Ava, Jacob)

Mark made wooden guns over Christmas break for Davis, they are darling. (Kate was walking around the other day with her purse on her arm and I noticed that inside it she had two bracelets, her Minnie Mouse cell phone and one of the small black guns. Remember never to mess with Kate... she packs heat)!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Dancing Raisins

So my good friend Michelle is always doing science projects with her little boy Jackson (who is one of Davis' good friends) and I got this idea from her. You add baking soda to water, add raisins and watch them fall to the bottom, then add vinegar and watch the raisins dance (rise and fall). It was really easy and fun to watch Davis get so into it! Thanks Michelle for the idea and inspiration to do weekly science projects with Davis!

Movie Night

A few of our favorite friends, Ava and Elsa, came over one night to watch Lion King. I popped popcorn for the kids and when I put the bowl on the ground Kate literally charged her way through the circle and plopped right down in front of the bowl!

As you can see Kate thoroughly enjoyed the popcorn...

Christmas Morning

We spent Christmas in Idaho this year with my family and had a great time! My entire family was there except my brother and his family who live in New York. We had fun shopping, spending time with cousins and playing out in the snow. At one point Davis did mention to me however that he doesn't like the cold...hmm. I told him he better get use to it because we have some cold winters ahead of us in Nebraska!! Santa brought Davis a marble toy.

Santa brought Kate instruments that she loves.

Christmas Morning Stockings

Although I love Christmas Eve pajamas, I have to say that stockings are my absolute favorite tradition at Christmas. With every new grandchild, my mom and dad get a Christmas stocking for them with their name embroidered on it. It is kind of fun that every cousin in our family has virtually the same stocking (there are a few patterns to choose from). Cousin Hayley's, Kate's, Davis' and my stocking Christmas morning...

Christmas Eve

Davis in his new Christmas jammies! One of my favorite Christmas traditions is opening new pajamas on Christmas Eve!!

Barkworks

So I have to tell you that there is a dog store at one of the malls that we go to called Barkworks. Kate absolutely loves the store and if we walk by it at all, it is a must that we stop and look at the dogs because Kate goes ballistic if we don't. So the last time we went to the store I unstrapped Kate from the stroller and let her out. I have never seen her run faster than she did to get to the dogs...

...just before she kissed the glass trying to kiss the pup that was behind it...

...laughing and talking with the dogs...

...climbing the glass trying to get in!

Thanksgiving

Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures of us spending time in Mesa for Thanksgiving with Mark's family. The few I did take are of Davis making freshly, squeezed orange juice with his grandma and playing in the backyard with his cousins Ben and Will.

Music Makers

We went to Music Makers this last Monday and Kate had a great time! She especially loves the sticks.

Halloween

This year Davis went as a pirate (he loves Captain Hook from Peter Pan) and Kate went as a fairy! You will notice that in all of these pictures Davis is eating a different piece of candy. When Mark and I rummaged through his candy last night after he went to bed, every single wrapper was sticky. I swear he ate half of the loot before he made it home last night. He had such a great time that after our friends left and Mark took Kate home, Davis and I continued knocking on doors. I knew he was tired and thirsty but he didn't want to stop. He kept telling me "just one more door"!

Mark, Kate, Bennett, Marc, Davis and Jackson! We went trick or treating with some friends of ours and it was a lot of fun watching the boys knock on doors. My friend Michelle made her boys costumes and they were darling. Jackson wanted to be a hamburger and his little brother Bennett was a hot dog!

There was a couple who decorated their hallway with spider webs, spiders, dark lights and a creepy guys head that moved up and down and the kids thought it was great, especially Kate! She kept raising her arms and pointing at him saying "oh oh oh oh". I especially love this picture because from behind Kate looks like Nacho Libre with her "stretchy pants". Gotta love the chub!