Planting seeds

This week, Thomas and Emma planted some wheat grass seeds.

Thomas loved getting his hands dirty the most. 

They're growing splendid. :)

Our Valentine's Day 2014

Thomas had his Preschool Valentine party with his class that I was able to help out with.

As usual, his fun class had all sorts of fun craft activities. 

 I loved seeing him participate during their lessons.

They were going through shapes and colors. 

While the teacher held up a red octagon, I was surprised to hear Thomas blurt out the shape so quick.

 Frosting and eating yummy cupcakes.

 Emma was so sweet with her friends/classmates valentine cards this year. She hand wrote and personalized each class friend, all 25 of them. They took a very long time to do but she did it.

 Early Valentine's morning the kids found their little treats in their V-day bags.

 The light sabers were a huge hit with Thomas and Emma.

 Emma lost her third tooth the day before Valentine's day. Her Oma helped in pulling it out so quickly.

 Some Valentine breakfast was served. 

 Emma's Valentine lunch.

 Emma finishing up her Valentine cards before school.

 Thomas giving Daddy his Valentine card.

 And she's off to school in her Valentine necklaces, the bigger one is one that Thomas made her.

I made her heart applique on her shirt.

 These cute boys....

 We were able to get at least one decent shot of the three munchkins.

 I was also able to help in Emma's school class Valentine party.

 This picture cracks me up of Emma and her friend, Kayden.

 Rylie and Emma

Joseph and I were at the "pin the arrow on the cupid" station. :)

Oranges, slime, noodle necklaces, pajamas, wings, and more...

 Random post title, but it pretty much sums up our doings the last couple of days.

On Sunday, while I was gone at meetings all morning, Derek helped the children make glow in the dark slime. I was meaning to make some with them all week but didn't get around to it, but he took the initiative to make it with them on Sunday. What a great Daddy.

The kids still have the slime in a jar. Thomas takes it out of jar, pushing it with his little fingers. 

Daddy plays with it while it's IN the jar by pushing it and making tooting sounds. 

 Since we've been home from Arizona, we have thoroughly enjoyed our Arizona oranges and pink grapefruit. It truly is heaven on a plate.

 Here is Thomas' thank you card to his cousin Matthew who gave him a bow and arrow while we were visiting them in Arizona.

 Kids dancing to "Frozen" and "Brave." This is so typical. Emma in her dress and wings and Thomas following his sisters dance moves. Love them.

 Joseph boy has taken a liking to coloring lately. Here is Joseph coloring and Thomas making a noodle/bead necklace for big sister.

 I love this picture during our Family Home Evening last night. Though it can be difficult to keep the lesson going smoothly with kids all over the place, this lesson went pretty well. Our lesson was on the story of "Noah's ark." I love how the kids are sitting in these pictures. Thomas sitting on his cute little, chubby feet, Emma in her wings, and Joseph off to the side of course, :) playing with his toy.

 And I just noticed Thomas is in his pajamas in all these pictures. :)

Good times.

Arizona trip

 On our way to ARIZONA! 

It was time for me to take my family around my old stomping grounds in Mesa and thereabouts.
We also had some fun visits with my brother Greg and his awesome family.

On our way to Arizona, we took the Vegas route to visit Hoover Dam.  We walked across the bridge and I wanted to throw up. Heights really bite my rear end as I get older. 

But it was really cool.

They brought their magnifying glasses.

Good heaven's this made me want to throw up. "Derek, put him down." :)

Unfortunately, little Joseph boy was sick. As soon as we got in the car to take off on Saturday night, he was coughing up a storm and felt warm. 

Being in the car didn't help.

By Monday morning, we took Joseph to the Urgent care because he was sounding slight croupy. They prescribed him some medicine syrup that can help open up his air way a little better.

Poor little guy. He was such a good trooper.

Later on Monday, we went and visited some of my favorite places. We went to my elementary school, Nathan Hale Elementary in Mesa. It's been remodeled but some things still remained the same.

This was the trailer that my kindergarten class room was in. :)

This was my first grade class room :) Miss Oster was my teacher. Oh, the memories.

The drinking fountains! The original drinking fountains! I was super excited, can you tell?

Then, we made a stop at my huber house. I lived there since I was a baby until I was 7 years old. SO many awesome memories in this house.
I forgot to take a picture of the front, duh!
The owner was so sweet to let us in to come chat and take a tour. It's all been remodeled but still so fun to see! I took lots of pictures on my phone, but won't post all of them. Just a few. 

Here is mine and my sister Pam's old bedroom.

My brother Greg's bedroom. Now it's a lego room. :)

 This used to be our playroom in the basement.

 

 This was our back yard railing on our balcony. All the brick is the same. :) Greg and Mike used to jump off this railing to the trampoline and finally broke the tramp.

 This is the kitchen. Quite different now. I told Emma that when I lived in this kitchen, I lost one of my first teeth by chewing on a cheese quesadilla. :)

This was my other house on Gary Circle. We moved there when I was 7 until we moved to Utah when I was 11 years old.
 The owner was ALSO there and was kind to invite us in.

This was an old storage shed that my Grandpa Mills built and it's still standing. 

Oh how I miss him.

Our pool.

On Tuesday, we had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Gilbert, Arizona Temple. It was absolutely beautiful. 

I wasn't sure what to expect from my children during the open house but they were delightful. :)

They loved walking through it and finding the rooms that were pictured in their pamphlets. 

Look at those windows. 

Standing in line, waiting to enter.

Once again, look at those windows. They were my favorite part of the Temple.

The baptismal font was also very beautiful.  Emma said she wants to be baptized there. :)

Hanging out by the water fountains after our tour.

Go, go Joe!! Get up and walk!

And there he goes! :)

We went and visited my Grandma and Grandpa Mills old house. The new owners have remodeled  most of it :( but it was still great to go see. The emotions were flowing as we pulled up. This house is FILLED with amazing memories with my Grandparents. They are a HUGE part of my childhood and I'm forever grateful for the memories they helped make for me.

One of the renters came out and I spoke to her for a while. She told me I could come through.

The put the garage door in, but after opening it, it led right to the car port area that I think is still original. I didn't go through the old apartments back there. Grandpa's garage on the right has been turned into an apartment/storage room. This is where we'd set up tables and have Thanksgiving with all the family. There used to be a metal slide on the grass area. Then in the very, very back (I didn't go back there) is where Grandpa and I would go BB gun, target shooting.

Our last night in the hotel.

We took a different way on the way back home, through flagstaff. We went to the Meteor Crater grounds and museum in the middle of no where. It was really awesome.

Emma looking through the telescope into the crater.

Thomas in front of the huge crater.

We climbed a little further up the hill to get a higher view. Thomas wants cuddles.

Emma doing her goofy pose.

This was fun. The museum showed a video of meteor flying and hitting the earth. It felt like you were right there on the meteor. Thomas especially loved this one.

After driving through the North side of the Grand Canyon, we saw these awesome boulders that were built into huts by people.

We went into them to explore.

Joseph wasn't a fan going in the inside of the hut.

They built this house like place.

It was so beautiful on the drive back. We drove by the reservations and saw a few Trading Post stores that sold Native American jewerly and treasures. I loved seeing those because they remind me of my many road trips with my grandparents. 

What a fun trip we had. I'm sad I didn't really get any pictures of my brother and his family. The cousins were so great with our kids. Katie and Matthew were so kind to send Emma and Thomas off with a couple of their toys. Thomas got a bow and arrow (which he LOVES SO much. He even will sleep with it some times.) And Katie gave Emma a pony, carriage and doll. So sweet of them.

This is a letter that Emma wrote to her school class while driving back. 

Her and Thomas sang "Frozen" about 53 times on our trip. They sang it with all their hearts. I still can't get the songs out of my head. :)