Week in Review..

Cute pic of Rick on the day before Thanksgiving...Ricks parents came and his sister Kristy and her family came as well...

Rick took his mom out kayaking and Ashlyn went one day and the other time they went out they took Jacob. Somehow the kids keep taking his new kayak, they really like it.

Kaylee and Haley on Haley's 16th birthday...

Jacob and Kody at Riverview park..

Playing Just Dance on Haley's birthday, these cousins have been dancing to this game since they were little kids...

Grandma loves to kayak...

Ashlyn right before she jumped in, she said it was super cold!

Jacob kayaking with Grandma...

Haley in her Bio Med class, they studied the brain and had to draw the brain onto a swim cap. Here is her class all wearing their caps. She's learning so much in this class...

Grandma and Grandpa with Mathias in the ICU, he has since been moved out of the ICU. Yay!! He is able to wear normal clothes and go outside!

Our van blew a head gasket last weekend, which meant that we needed a new engine. Luckily we found a repair guy who will do a band-aid fix on the van and hopefully it will be able to last a little while longer. Fingers crossed! We took daddy to work and home from work a lot this week, so that I could have a car during the day. We found out that Abby fell asleep everyday during the drive home. She still needs a nap, even though she refuses at home. The trick is to take a drive:)

I found this used fireplace and the kids have been loving it. Even though we've had record breaking heat it still gets pretty chilly at night and in the morning. The kids love to cozy up by the fireplace, haha!

Our sweet neighbors came and sang to Haley, You are my sunshine on her birthday and gave her real sunflowers!! So nice!!

She also received flowers from her YW president, that was so sweet too!

We went swimming one night and here is Grandma with Abby in the pool. The pool was a little bit cold, even though it's heated. I just went in the spa, they were brave!

Playing basketball on Thanksgiving at Ricks brother Robs house.

Haley had an amazing youth conference last weekend. They spent the night at an old high school and the stake put on re-enactments of Book of Mormon scenes! So awesome! They had Samuel the Lamanite on the top of the gym! They really brought the story to life! Here's the group that went from our ward, they are really good kids!

Here's Mathias outside!! Yay!! I bet it felt so good to get outside again!

Week in Review...

Ashlyn took cookies to school for her birthday on Friday and came home with this crown. She had a great day celebrating her birthday at school and Abby wanted to wear her crown that she made at preschool for a pic together.

Ashlyn had a friends party on Friday night, it was a rollerskating, pizza, games and cake party:) They all had a fun time!

Then on Saturday we celebrated her real birthday and she was so excited to open presents. She got a UV nail Lamp, gel nail polish, a sequin art kit, a ripstick and a string art kit. She is very much into arts and crafts, doing nails and playing outside with her ripstick.

These are some pics from Haley's friends that they took downtown...

I dropped off Haley and Ashlyn at piano and left Jacob at the park with Abby, they ended up going through the sprinklers, haha!

Mathias is doing good this week, except for that they found a kidney stone! Poor guy! It's too big to pass, so they have to blast it. Mathias is such a fighter, he can beat this! Prayers for Mathias!

More party pics...

She wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, a girl after my own heart!

I got help to decorate, we put streamers up and stuck balloons to the roof of the ramada. It turned out really cute.

On Saturday morning I ran 13.1 miles! It was super tough! The first 5 miles we had to run uphill against some super strong wind. It's hardly ever windy in Mesa! haha, the forces were against us, but we prevailed. It was super nice to go down hill and feel the breeze. It was hard to keep going when my body got really tired, but I just kept thinking about Mathias and how he doesn't get to decide to stop fighting. He has to keep fighting no matter what, so I decided that I would stick with it too. Mathias was a great inspiration for my run!

The piano player in primary sent me this pic, she said that they kept alternating putting their heads on each others shoulders. So cute!! Abby and Lexi, cute friends!

Ashlyn got to go to YW'S today for the first time!! Haley also celebrated her birthday that's on Tuesday, it was a big day for both of them:) I also gave a talk on gratitude and Haley played the piano, I played the flute and Jacob and Ashlyn sang with 2 of our neighbors, If the Savior Stood Beside Me. I got to talk and then walk right over and pick up my flute, it was nerve wracking but I was also glad to get it over with!