Pinewood Derby

Back in October I was called to be the 2nd Counselor in the Stake Primary Presidency. This called has been such a new experience for me. I have been in presidencies as a Young Women, but never as an adult- and it's not easy! With being 2nd counselor, my duties mainly with the Cub Scouting program. Luckily, our wards take up the brunt of the work and I really am there for support and information. I went and supported the Holbrook Wards at their pinewood derby and was super glad I did.

The ladies that organized it (Tracy Reidhead and Leslie Laird) had nachos and finger foods and everyone AND the nursery had babysitters and a movie going on to make it easier for those adults that had little ones running around. They did a terrific job! They had a pretty good turn out (at least for us) and the boys seemed to have a lot of fun too. 

Like any Pinewood Derby, we had lots of boys trying to get super close to that track. The food helped with keeping them distracted though :)

 They invited the YW to also help serve food, they were good little helpers. 

 Kaleb (Kathleen and Davids son) had a car in the derby so their family was there to cheer him on. Ashley and Macy.

 Grandma and London

 Brother Laird was our officially start man. 

 Dwayne Hawk was in charge of inputting all the places into the computer. He was super happy about it.

 Kreslie Hawk (Petrified Forest Wards Primary President) helped relay the results from Sister Laird to Dwayne.

We had such a great time! It got me excited for when we will be doing that with Bentley. We got plenty of time though :)

Joey and Alli

Last December I was approached by the Band Teacher that Kyle works with, Sarah Meeks, and was asked to babysit their little boy, Joey, during the day while they were at work. Joey has been in Macy's 3rd year old and 4 year old preschool class and really is a funny little boy. With them being such good friends I figured why not. Maryanne Meeks had been watching Joey off and on since he was born and with her having a baby on the way, it was time for her to focus on her new little one. Joey started coming over and December of 2013 and in March 2014 his little sister, Alli,  came to join us. It was fun to have a newborn in the house and my girls love on her any chance they can get. Sometimes it was a little chaotic around here with 5 kids ages 5 and under, but we had fun :)

Playdoh Win, Be Mine Loss

Like most preschoolers and toddlers- these kiddos love to play with playdoh. We have a love and hate relationship -playdoh and I-. It keeps the kids busy for quite awhile, but I'm never a fan of the leftover tid bits on my kitchen floor. The good stuff can be fairly expensive too since it only takes one time of playing with it to have it mixed with another color- and my OCD just can't handle mixing colors. I'm not one to try a lot of new things with home creations, I'm a creature of habit... unless my Mom is there... but with playdoh I stepped out of my comfort zone and made some of my own. It was surprisingly easy and since I only made one color- it won't turn into one big blob of brown! 

The pink homemade playdoh was a hit and solved most of my issues (mainly the brown blob mixing of colors issue). When some one comes with with a solution to the playdoh all over the floor let me know. 

Gotta love the aftermath of a good playing session. I should add- 10 seconds after this photo was takin' I asked them to keep the playdoh on the counter and not on the mantel. That was followed by two little "whhhhyyyy??"'s... "Because you're going to accidentally knock something off and break it". They were super obedient and got the dough off. Sadly that cute "Be Mine" was amongst the casualties of cleaning it off the mantel. 

Happy Birthday Marie!

We had a very busy weekend! We rolled out of Holbrook after school on Thursday to drive down to Buckeye to stay the night with my parents. I had a dentist appointment to fix one of my front teeth Friday morning and then headed over to Mesa to start a party filled weekend. Kyle's Mom turned the big 75 on Feb 17th and we decided to throw her a party. Well, we kind of threw her two parties. The first party was on her birthday that Monday where Mike and Trish surprised her with Brent! She was so excited to have him here. The next party was that Friday in Mesa. All of Kyle's siblings were in town and they reserved a church building where we had a rockin' time. We started out with a few games- the first game was with these three lovely ladies.

 

We had to figure out who was the one that met and kissed some famous cowboy. Guess he's not that famous if I can't remember the name huh? :) I don't even remember who was the winner, bad blogger points for that.

The kids favorite part, of course, was the cake and ice cream. 

 London waited so very patiently for the piece of cake with the big pink flower.

 Ryan wanted to see how many candles he could get on 1 piece of cake, he really packed them on there!

 Theresa, Courtney, and Ashley- such pretty ladies!

 Kaleb and Kaden- these two are goof balls.

 Bentley and Cameron spent a lot of time together- she's such a fun and cute girl!

 We wrapped up the night with a few talents. Brent sang and played the piano, it was beautiful. 

 Kyle's Mom has this terribly sad puppy story that she sings to the grandkids, so they all gathered around and listened to it. 

 I think the last time all 8 kids were together was when the George Gardner Performing Arts Center was dedicated which was back in January of 2008. 6 years is a long time to not get together, but with a brother in New York and Oregon and a sister in Utah- it gets hard! We took the opportunity and got some family photos. 

Mike, Kelly, Brian, Keith, Kyle, Brent

Kym, Marie, and Kathleen

 We will go Oldest to Youngest- Brian and Marie. 

 Milah, Lyndzi, Brichelle, Micah, Kym, Marie, Holli, Rocky, Gianna, 

 Ryan, Cameron, Megan, Marie, Mike, and Trish

Kendall, Marie, Tyler, Mike, and Theresa

Brent and Marie 

 Courtney, Marie, David, Kathleen, Ashley, and Kaleb

Ava, Kelly, Karl, Lincoln, Ethan, Marie, Porter, and Kaden

 Bentley, Me, Marie, Kyle, London, and Macy

 After all the clean-up and photos we had a major dance party- how else would you end a party?!

 Bentley was really getting into the moves- it was too cute. 

We are so grateful for Marie and all she does for her kids and our family. She is a great example on living the Gospel and how to be a mother.  Our kids love going over to her house for Sunday dinners and we are grateful for the traditions she our kids have been able to have with her. Happy Birthday Marie!

Gilbert Temple Open House

We had the opportunity to join our youth and go to the Open House of the brand new Gilbert Arizona Temple. An Open House is when the general public can go through a brand new temple before it is dedication to the work of the Lord. A lot of our youth wouldn't normally have the means or opportunity to attend an Open House so their leaders and the Bishopric jumped on taking them. It was such a fun trip and I'm happy we got to tag along with our kiddos. Our Bishop, Kamron Reidhead, has a bus (random huh?!) that we all piled up in and headed down to the valley. To kill a little time and make the trip a little more fun, they decided to make and eat breakfast on our way. The bus is more a mix between a bus and a motorhome. It has a small kitchen area, some beds, and then bus seats in the front. 

They put the kitchen area to good work and made some very yummy pancakes and eggs. 

Here is Steve Miller pouring some orange juice. He is the 1st counselor in the Bishopric but should really get a job as a flight attendant. He was championship at going up and down the isles with cups full of juice and not spilling any.

It was a good 3.5 hour drive for us, but the kids kept busy chatting and playing cards.

 Denyce Hawk and Katie Willis 

Jordan Simpson and Brennan O'Hair 

The actual Temple is gorgeous. It's by far the prettiest temple I've ever been into. The attention to detail is exquisit and everything is so beautiful. From the windows to the chandelier and even the tile in the baptismal font are just beautiful. The girls were amazed at how pretty everything was and they were very excited to be able to go into the temple. The sealing rooms had light pouring into them and it was breathtaking. Arizona has two more temples in the next few years that are being built and I hope we can take our kids to more Open Houses and feel the spirit there.

Here's the whole group. Good looking bunch aren't they?

 Our kids were not being cooperative and it was super bright- but here is our family photo. It's just a more realistic picture right?

On the way back to the bus we had to walk through a huge field. What a good photo op huh?

Happy 5th Birthday!

Macy girl is 5 years old! I can't believe we have been parents for 5 years. It seems like an eternity ago and yet it feels like yesterday that we came home from the hospital with this girl. Macy has always acted older then she really was. She was an early talker (full sentences at 20 months) and has always seemed to be able to read what people are feeling and thinking. She is smart. Oh so smart. This past Parent Teacher Conference her teacher gave them a reading test and told us her results. Out of 20 questions that signal whether or not she is she ready to read she got 19. The teacher even said that was probably a fluke and it should have been 20- there are 5 sets of 4 questions that get harder as the questions go on. The question she got wrong was one of the ones at the beginning of the set, which means she should have gotten all the ones after that wrong too. She definitely came from heaven with her smarty pants because I really could be better with working with my kids with educational stuff... we spend a lot of time just playing with block, crayons, and enjoying our backyard.

She is the best big sister ever. She always has concerns about her brother and sister and always makes sure they are taken care of. London has really started to pay attention to what Bentley needs and I really think it's because Macy has taught her how to be a big sister so well. 

As special and smart as this girl is, she has been a little selfish lately. I'm sure it's normal- the natural man type of thing- but everything involved with her birthday, or anyone's birthday for that matter, has to do with what everyone else was going to get her or what she wanted. It wouldn't bother me if she didn't let it take over her world, but she really was all about herself. To combat that a little bit Kyle and I decided we were going to have a small party with only family this year. We invited over Kathleen, David, and Kaleb and Marie. She asked for a heart cake- so I delivered on that one. She loved it.

Every Sunday we have dinner at Marie's house and someone we got on the conversation of what Macy wanted for her birthday. (I'm telling you, all Macy wanted to talk about was what everyone else was going to get her). She told Kathleen she wanted soap since we didn't have any in the bathroom. So, that's what she got. Her very own soap.

 They also brought her something else... a tea set! You can never have enough tea sets.

 Grandma Carbonneau couldn't make it, but sent her a present anyway. She got a super cute fairy flash light and Applejack the Pony.

 Kyle and I got her a super cute My Little Pony Castle. The box made it look much sturdier and I spend a lot of time putting the thing back together, but the girls love that it came with Princess Cadence and her Prince Shining Armor. 

We are so glad that Macy was sent to our family. She is such a great girl and loves to learn. She always reminds us that we need to say prayers and read our scriptures. She is such a light to our family and we are glad we get to call her our own.