Diamond Backs Fan Fest & The Science Center

This past weekend we went to the Diamond Backs Fan Fest and then walked over to the AZ Science Center. It was such a great day and all free. Yay!!! We love FREE!!!

Who knew Mickey Mouse would waiting for us at the ballpark.
Look at the amount of people! This was at the beginning of the fan fest. There were a lot more people when we left.
The kids and Baxter. Too cute!

There were a couple of slides and toys for the kids to play on. Here they are sliding down the sharks mouth.
If you look closely at Katie's right hand ring finger you will see that she is wearing a world series championship ring. It was so heavy! Ken Kendrick (something like that) was signing autographs and letting people try on the ring for fun.

Here comes Katie!
As we were walking from the ball park to the Science Center we stopped at the Rosson house. Someday I am going to take a tour of the inside. Anyway, we made Valentines cards and had free cup cakes to celebrate Arizona's birthday.

Kellen built a lovely house.

Katie built an awesome tower.

I think Kellen is conducting electricity here.

We got to play a large piano. I felt like we were in the movie BIG for just a minute. Tom played a beautiful rendition of Chop Sticks. I tried to play heart and soul but the kids kept interrupting my song.

Katie's hair for Valentines Day. She wanted at least four hearts in her hair. Well, here ya go, four hearts!
One night Katie and Kellen slept in a box. Here they are enjoying breakfast in the box.

The box. They are in there sleeping. Looks comfy, right?!

We recently went to the zoo and I forgot to put them on the blog. Oops! Oh, how do you like the double pictures? I will take one off at some point. I am too lazy to mess with it right now. It is not erasing easily right now. Go figure.

Can you see the elephant?

Kellen is practicing his cow milking skills.

Our friend Tallie came to the zoo with us. We all had a great time.

This is Katie's old piano teacher. Katie played The Stallion during her recital. She rocked it!

No post would be complete without cousin Brielle. Here is one of her newborn shots. She looks so peaceful and happy. Too bad we kept messing with her and waking her up.

Harry Potter Wanna-be

The other day Kellen scratched his head a couple of times at preschool. Apparently he did this on purpose so that he could have a scar like Harry Potter. After telling him not to do that anymore his sister drew a scar on his face with lipstick. I wish it would've stopped there... Kellen thought it would be fun to jump on the couch with his new scar. Well, the new lipstick scar connected with the new pillow I just sewed and left a lovely mark. Why do I try to have nice things in the house? I love Kellen's little personality but not the lipstick marks he leaves upon the new couch pillow.

Girl Scout Cookie Thief

The other night we finally tracked down a girl scout and bought some thin mints. Thin mints in our family are like gold and highly sought after! We wait all year long to eat these delicious morsels! That night we decided to let the kids watch a show in our bed. Tom left later that night to attend band practice. During commercial Katie asked, "Hey guys, have you heard me chewing during the show?" Kellen and I both responded "No." Then Katie told us how she had been lying next to us the whole time eating cookies. This is what she said, "Well guys, I brought in a sleeve of thin mint cookies and have been eating them this whole time." My response, "WHAT!" I could not believe that my honest, sweet little girl had been eating our delicious cookies this whole time without offering some to us. We had a very brief chat about being honest. Then we all ate another cookie and continued watching the show. Now Katie is lovingly known as the Girl Scout Cookie Thief!

Praying for eggs

As of late (I hardly use that phrase, I kinda like it), my mom's chickens have not laid any eggs. She said it might have something to do with the change in weather. Truly, hard to say what is causing the lack of egg laying in the coop. Oh, and the coop by the way was masterfully built by yours truly, Scott, and my mom. Anyway, moving on...Kellen and my mom went out on Friday to see if the chickens had laid any eggs. They weren't surprised that not one egg was waiting in the coop. Kellen then said this "Grandma, we need to pray for the chickens to lay eggs!" I love that my little children have such unshakable faith! They always pray for things, knowing full well that Heavenly Father will answer them, and sure enough their prays are usually answered. So guess what we have been praying for lately?? Yep, you guessed it, eggs from grandma's chickens.

Learning...

Today has been a great day. I spent the morning with Kellen and then took him to his friend's house to ride bikes. As always, I stayed for a while talking to his friend's mom, Liz. I was doing all this while the car was running...sorry, Tom! Anyway, lately Katie has been having a real hard time with math and reading comprehension. She is in third grade and come to find out she has been asking friends for help in math for about a year now. Poor thing! She never mentioned that she needed extra help. We assumed she was doing just fine. I digress...while she is really good at reading, in fact ahead of her grade level, she has a hard time understanding what she just read. After talking with her teacher, I just put in a request to have her tested with the school for a learning disability. I know my little Katie is smart but she is having a hard time showing her geniusnses (is that a word? who cares!) in these two areas. Even with these obstacles Katie is such a sweet heart and is always positive. Just a little plug for my sweet K, I will teach her concepts from my anatomy class that for some is hard to understand YET she can teach it to me the next day. She can also listen to music, figure it out on the piano, memorize it, and play it forever more. She has an amazing ear!

Okay, back to my original story....my friend Liz was telling me about her children (3 out of 5) that suffer from some of the same problems. She also gave me great advice on how to help Katie find help to retrain her brain to learn in a different way. The reason I post this is because I am always amazed at how all the time our prayers are answered. Little Katie prays that she will have an easier time in school and I pray that she can handle this problem. Then out of nowhere, I am given help and can then help Katie feel better about her situation. Once the school has finished testing her, we will move on to help her retrain her super smart brain. I am not the greatest writer so getting out what I am trying to say is so hard. However, I am grateful that our prayers are answered all the time, even while dropping off my Kel at his friend's house. Our Heavenly Father is always watching over us, especially His sweet young children.

Good bye 2011, HELLO 2012!!

2011 has been an interesting year. For some reason it was the year of spending money. We had to pay for a new car, fix a transmission, pay for other car fixes, stuff around the house, the death of our sweet little doggy, other medical issues, and other little doodads. Needless to say, when 2011 was coming to a close we were not super sad. We are truly optimistic about 2012. For some reason, we feel that 2012 is going to be a great year. So far, so good. So here is to a brand new year, filled with fun, optimism, laughter, and less money going out, more money coming in!!! YAY!!!

Funny Pics

Sadly, my camera is not working like it used to :( I have only two shots from the many shots I have taken in the past week...sad!

Kellen goes out on the trampoline everyday. He is an awesome jumper and makes up some super fun games to play!

Here is what Brielle will look like when she grows hair! Gorgeous! For now she can just borrow some hair from cousin Katie.