Week in Review...

This week was so nice outside that we were able to get out and go to the park! The kids loved getting outside and seeing the ducks and playing on the playground.

I found this little dresser at Savers for 6.99 and painted it! Turned out cute!

We had Jacobs Blue and Gold Banquet and Rick got an award for being the Cub Master for a long time. They gave him a really tall stick with some beads on the top.

Rick and I went on a Valentines Date, we went bowling and got KFC. Rick did really well, he got three strikes in a row and every frame had either a strike or a spare except for 3 frames! He got a score of 181! He was on fire!

The balls even had my name on them!

Ashlyn was invited over to our neighbor Emilie's house for a Valentines Cookie making party. They made lots of cute cookies and had fun throwing flour in the air in her backyard.

Haley caught this picture of me holding and kissing Abby...

Cute!

On Saturday Rick took the girls on a Daddy/Daughter Stake hike! Abby was so excited to go! She had lots of fun!

Ashlyn had a "float" parade, where they had to make a float about a certain county in the state. She put a big mountain on top with cactus trees and lots of facts and pictures. Rick was able to go and watch her in her float parade.

Ashlyn's teacher is a super cute Korean girl. She lives with her parents and is very close to them. She has been the sweetest teacher and everyone just loves her. She came to Ashlyn's orchestra concert and gave all of her students roses, she's very thoughtful. She told the kids that most 4th grade classes don't have a Valentines Party but that she wanted to have one! Her father passed away on Tuesday and Ashlyn has been so sad for her because she knew how close she was with her parents. Her substitute teacher was so sweet and had all of the kids make cards for her and they made paper lanterns to hang from the ceiling for when she gets back. I thought that was the sweetest thing they could do for her!

One thing that I forgot to document is that Haley tried out for JHFO, which is the Junior High Honors Orchestra in Mesa. A few hours after trying out she got an email that she had made it in! She's so excited!! She wasn't even going to try out because last year she didn't make it in and she thought for sure that she wouldn't make it. She will be having practices at her future high school with her future high school orchestra teacher! She will play at the Mesa Arts Center in April. We are excited for her and proud of her accomplishments!
Here's a cute pic that Jacob took of Abby...

 Grandma and Grandpa spoiled us by sending a huge Hershey kiss!! So sweet!! The kids were so excited!!

 Ashlyn gave her heart pillow to Abby for Valentines Day because she knew how much she loved it!

 And I got roses and chocolates from my sweetheart! Happy Valentine's Day!

Week in Review...

Last Sunday Ashlyn and Jacob were playing with blocks for quiet time and they were so excited to show off their masterpieces. Ashlyn made a heart and Jacob made a castle. So cute!

They took these pictures of each other!

On Wednesday I had activity days and we made these cute fleece pillows! Abby has stolen Ashlyns as her own!

We also had New Beginnings on Wednesday night and it was sad for me because a lot of my Activity day girls will be moving up to YW this year. They did a survivor theme and it was really cute.

On Friday night I was invited to a Galentine's Party just for girls. It was at a girls parents house, with a big backyard. She decorated it so cute, we had dinner, dessert, drinks and games. It was a fun night out.

Throughout the week I was able to dig for an hour or so almost everyday when I could. I made some pretty good progress! This is the right side of our yard, with two big dirt mounds.

I was able to dig all of this out, this is about 4 feet of hill!

Here is our huge dirt mound on the side of the yard...

My three dirt collectors! Rick went out and bought me a wheelbarrow! Must be true love:) Yes, I've done all of the digging by myself. Rick started school and so all of his spare time goes to school and spending time with family, although he has helped out with capping the sprinklers. This has been such a fun project for me, it really relieves my stress and is helping me to tone up my muscles! Two benefits!

This is the left side of the yard.

The long stretch down the left side...

The long stretch down the right side....

Haley is registering for High School, so we are trying to figure out her schedule over the next 4 years. It's been very stressful trying to figure out how to fit all of the required classes in, plus release time seminary, plus her classes that she wants, ie orchestra and BioMed and Drivers Ed! She will have a very long school day and probably have to do an online class every summer and once during the year, but we think we have it figured out! Crossing our fingers! On Thursday night, the high school hosted a Freshman Preview night where they could explore all of the clubs and classes. I'm so excited for her to go to this high school, I was very impressed with the principal and the whole atmosphere. I hope that she has a great time, just like I did!

Week in Review..

This week at daycare we did play dough and played at the park! It was such beautiful weather, not too cold and just right:) It felt wonderful being able to get out of the house during the day! I also started watching a little 3 month old baby boy a few weeks ago and so I get lots of snuggling time:)

Abby's favorite thing to do at the park is to play in the sand, she loves to just scoop sand with a shovel into a bucket.

We have embarked on a major project for the backyard. We have a sloping hill in the backyard that takes up about 6-8 feet of our backyard. Our backyard is pretty small so we've always dreamed about cutting back the hill, putting in a retaining wall and leveling out the ground so that we have more usable space. That way we can use the dirt behind the retaining wall as a garden, and use the rest of the backyard for fun stuff and room to play. So, I've started digging back the hill. It's quite the process and we have ended up with a lot of dirt! We have been advised to keep most of the dirt because we will need to back fill once our wall is up....but the problem is that we are running out of room to store all of the dirt. This is an example of the retaining wall that we are going to build...the bottom of the pic used to be part of the hill...that's how far I've had to dig! We are digging away about 4-5 feet of hill! These pics were taken on Monday....

Our ever growing mound of dirt...

These pics were taken this morning after yesterdays work...On this side of the yard we are digging up the grass because we wanted to put a fire pit in over here where we can all sit around it, but then yesterday Rick was saying that it would be perfect to put the pool in the summer because then it wouldn't kill our grass. So we may still be figuring things out....

It's hard to tell from the shade, but we were able to cut back the hill quite a lot this week. We made lots of progress. Rick calls me a workhorse, I just find it stress relieving to work out in the yard. It's hard work and it just makes me happy to be working on a project. 

Our still growing dirt mound...

I'll try and take more pics when it's more sunshiny in the back yard and then you can get a better idea. We are excited to see some positive changes in the backyard, it may be awhile before we can put up the retaining wall just because of how expensive the blocks are....I'm scanning craigslist for free blocks everyday but haven't found any yet. As long as we can get it dug out and ready though, I will be happy:)

Week in Review...

This week was busy! We started off the week with having Monday off, so the kids and I headed over to their favorite Riverview park with some friends. It was a fun morning...

Meanwhile back at home we had some workers come over to put in a pathway and rock. We had spent about 2 weeks pulling out these big bushes out in front of our house, all of the curbing and all of the grass. The cactus directly in front of our front door came out about 6 months ago, I believe....so this is a before shot...

We loved the big bushes because they would shade the front window in the summer, but I didn't like the way that it blocked our house so much. So I ripped them out:)

And then this is after...I built a new garden bed under the big front window and planted some flowers there and we also planted an aloe pant, an ice plant and a native Arizona flowering plant. Hopefully we can keep them alive, everyone loves the new pathway!

It's hard to see the pathway because it blends right in with the rock, which is pretty cool. You can see it close up, we also got new solar shades for our front windows so that I don't have to worry about the sun in the summer. Plus I can spy on my neighbors all day long and they will never know that I'm spying on them!! hahaha!! For real though:) haha!

Here are some other family shots from our family picture session back in December...
Rick's sister Becca, husband Charles and Clark and baby #2...

Mike and Rick's sister Kristy...

Rick's brother Rob and his wife Jenny...

Kristy's family...

Rob's family...