February 2012

February was a busy month for us!  Dad was working hard so we had to come up with some things to keep us from going crazy over missing him!  Here are a few of the fun things we did to help distract us:

This is the cute Valentine card Wyatt made for me at the gym!  He was very proud of it and with good reason, it was covered in sparkly hearts what's better than that!  I LOVE getting pictures and crafts from my boys, its so fun to see the hard work and effort they put into it and when they dedicate it to me I just can't help but be a proud mama!

Fireballs Soccer
Noah started his second season of GYSA but this time was especially fun because he was on a team where six out of the eight kids were all from our ward!  Last season he hadn't known one person on his team which he still had a blast and learned a lot but I think knowing his teammates this time really helped him to have an amazing experience!  Here are some pictures of his first game:

Noah leading the stretching:)  It was so cute to see the stretches they made up!

Pictured l to r: Noah, James, Thomas Skinner, and Isaac Eastmond

The team mascot: Wyatt Fanello
Wyatt was a permanant fixture at Noah's games, in fact I don't think he missed any! He was always routing for the team and esp. for his big brother Woah! Although he loved being there he quite enjoyed the end of the game where he would get the team treat if there were leftovers;) Being the mascot can be a lot of work!










Ashley visits AZ! 
It has been so long since I've had a sibling visit in Arizona had almost forgot how much FUN it is!  We planned Ashley's visit around our annual "busy season" Idaho trip, as we affectionately call it, so that she could fly out here and we could play for a week and then her and I, and our four boys:), could travel back to Utah together!  I can't even describe the happiness and giddiness I felt seeing her walk through the gates at the airport!  It was like being home:)  Although the weather was a bit chillier than I or her expected, we still had such a blast being together!  And the boys were no different, we went to parks every day and even spent a day at the Phoenix Zoo!  So grateful to Ashley and Hunter and Brigham for making the stressful trip here and driving back with us, it was beyond an adventure!

Playing at San Tan Village:

The boys could not get enough of looking at the little puppies in the window, esp. Wyatt and Brigham, every time the puppies moved they would squeal and run away but they didn't stay away for long!

As a reward for good behavior on the airplane, Hunter got to build his own build a bear!  This picture is so funny because if you look on the ground you can see a bunch of bear stuffing all over the floor...which normally wouldn't be very funny but its there because the lady forgot to shut off the machine so when a curious four year old, say one with Hunter's build and complexion, decided to step on the stuffing release button cotton would then start shooting out all over the store:)  It was embarrassing for Ash at the time but we laughed like crazy later!

Wyatt the Wizard! He already has the scars, just need some dark hair and a cape:)

 The Phoenix Zoo:
We had so much fun at the zoo!  It was a pretty day and we were able to see most of the animals roaming about their enclosures and if we couldn't we could just observe the four monkeys we brought from home;)

This monkey was grumpy!  While we were looking in at him, hmm I wonder why he was so grumpy, he suddenly slammed his hand on the glass right where Brigham was looking in!  We all screamed in surprise!

Originally purchased for the two littlest ones but somehow....?

Wyatt looking for the Mountain goats...

Noah and his buddy Austin Lifferth

 After a fun week in Arizona we packed up our things and headed North.  It was a crazy whirlwind pack job though because we were trying to miss a storm that was supposedly coming through Flagstaff all the way to Beaver, and we did not want to drive through that while trying to keep four boys happy for twelve hours!  We went back and forth and finally decided to leave after Noah's soccer game...that was in an hour!  It was the fastest I have ever packed and I couldn't have done it without Adam's help but we made it on the road in record time and there wasn't a cloud in the sky our whole trip!  After arriving in Utah we stayed another week there with Ashley, which made it harder to leave and come back home alone since we had practically lived together for two weeks, and played at parks, visited the Draper Aquarium, Nana and Papa, and a few other good friends along the way!

Karalee was so nice to let us come visit even though Elsie was only a couple weeks old!  We had a really good visit and it was so fun to hold that sweet little girl in my arms!  Karalee and I had Kade and Wyatt a week apart and although I was a little behind our next little ones will be close to the same age...but different genders:)

Who's driving this thing?

The boys waiting patiently for the sea otters to come out and play, they were so much fun to watch!

Noah reaches for a sting ray...

Museum of Church History and Art:
This was such a neat experience for all of us, there were so many neat things to see and experience we couldn't even enjoy them all, so we hope to visit again soon!  We spent a lot of our time in the section for young children where there were many fun activities and things for them to do, such as build a boat like Nephi, plant a garden, play different musical instruments, dress in costumes and dance to music from different cultures, and much more!

Two of God's most precious creations...but I may be bias;)

The last few days we spent in Utah we drove to Provo so that I could show the boys some of the fun memories and places that their Dad and I shared before and just after we were married!  First stop was the Glenwood Apartments where Adam and I first met...the place where our story began:)  I also showed them where we had our first date, where we lived just before we were married, Daddy's favorite hot dog stand, and few other special places to us!

This is a little sweet shoppe inside the Wilkinson Student Center where Adam would stop and drool over these giant peanut butter cups they had there:)  One day I surprised him with one and to our disappointment they weren't as good as they looked but it was fun to try them!  I had Noah take a picture of them just to reminisce:)

After picking out some cool BYU attire we headed to the next must stop which was the BYU Creamery on 9th.  It has the best ice cream ever!  Wyatt picked Strawberry, Noah the Cookies n' Cream, and I had some heavenly concoction of Marshmallow, caramel, and peanut butter...YUM!!  It was so fun taking them down memory lane with me!

Despite the loads of fun we had, we were excited to get back home to dad!  Wyatt was especially eager...as you can tell:)  I walked in and he was just sitting in his bag waiting to be packed int he car...I took a picture on my phone and sent it in a message to Adam to let him know we missed him and were ready to come home to see him!