Little Nerds

Last Friday was "Nerd Day" at my kids' elementary school.  They wanted to really dress up and be TOTAL NERDS!!!  Spencer even wrote a note the night before to remind him to act "nerdy!"  Ha Ha!

 I love Hailey's pants pulled up around her belly and the pens in Spencer's pocket with the long black socks.  So funny!!!!

This is Hailey's trademark dance but it looks especially funny when they do it as NERDS!!

 When I walked the kids to the bus stop, I noticed that there weren't any other fifth grade boys who dressed up.  Emily Gillette (also in 5th grade, dressed up, but none of the boys)  But that didn't seem to bother Spencer.  He is so good that way to just go with the flow and do what HE wants to do.  (I love that about him!)  When he got to school there were plenty of other kids who dressed up and they both said they were glad they came as nerds!! 

 I love these two little people SO much!

A Birding We Will Go!

Our little Hailey has recently become OBSESSED with birds.  She loves them so much!  There are pictures of birds all over her room and stuffed animal birds literally in every corner.  So, for her birthday, Tom found a great book on Birds of Arizona.  We have gone out "birding" (it's not called birdwatching!) twice now, and actually it's a lot of fun!  

 We went to the Riparian Preserve here in Gilbert and found several species of birds.  Hailey and Spencer were identifying them right and left!

 This one looks like he is skating on top of the water!

 I don't remember all the names of these birds - but Hailey could tell ya!

I am always fascinated at how a bird builds its nest.  Nobody tells it to do that---it just knows.  What a miracle!

 The mommy and daddy duck were settled in for a nice afternoon nap in the mud!!

After Christmas Fun!

The day after Christmas we packed up and headed to Utah to be with Tom's mother, Mary.  She has been very ill and we wanted to be able to help her recover from a recent surgery she had.  It was so fun for our family to be there with her!  I just wanted to help out in any way we could so we made some fun dinners for her, cleaned her home, and helped her with doctor appointments. 

 I had to model this darling scarf Mary gave me for Christmas.  It is super cute!!

On Saturday morning, the kids and I drove to Idaho to see their cousins who had just moved to Idaho Falls.  They were so glad to see family and we were super happy to see their new home and play in the snow!!!

 Here is darling McKenna!

 Kissing Kelsey!

 Sydne Jade - sporting her totally cute new hair cut!

 My mom and dad even went sledding which I think, is pretty cool for being in their 70's!  I want to do that when I am a grandma!

 Hailey couldn't get enough of the snow!

 Spencer always seems to sled the farthest!

It just made me so happy to see them in a beautiful house and everyone doing well!

I love how Hailey is laying on Rylie's back watching a movie.  Soooo cute!

 This is Sydne's seminary building near Hillcrest High School.

 This was the view out of her front door on New Year's Eve.  Yikes!

 Look at cute Keegan's face!

 This photo says it all . . .

My mom and dad spent two weeks with Melanie's family. It was so nice for them to be there and support Melanie, especially now that she lives so far away.  I loved being able to see them too!

I think this is such a pretty front door entry!

This is their huge basement.  The girls were practicing dance for Sydne's high school dance team.

One thing Arizona homes do not have is great storage like Utah and Idaho homes with basements do.  This storage room is absolutely huge and goes around to the right of the photo for another 5-6 feet.  I would love storage like this!

Here is their beautiful dining room where we played games after dinner.

Stairs to their basement.

Rylie's room :)

On New Year's Eve, we packed our car and got ready to head back to Utah to meet Tom.  There was a big snow storm that morning and my parents were really nervous about me driving.  So, my dad and Tim were kind enough to give me a blessing.  It had been such a long time since I had a blessing from my dad and it brought tears to my eyes listening to his voice.  What a treasured memory that will be for me. 

 We made it safely back to Pleasant Grove and found that it actually was snowing more here than it was on the drive from Idaho!  The kids had fun catching snowflakes on their tongues!  ha ha

 On our drive back home to Arizona, I asked  Tom how it went taking care of his mother for the few days I was in Idaho.  He kept saying, "It was such an honor to be there for her."  He had such a great perspective about the whole weekend.  They watched movies together, he made her breakfast every morning, helped her in and out of the shower, and even got her to tell some fun family stories that he recorded in his journal.  Those are precious memories for Tom that will last him a lifetime as well.

 For some reason, the drive home seemed unusually long.  We were all really sick of the car by the time we got home!!

Since we drove home on New Year's Day, we still had Wed-Sun to relax before school started again.  It was nice to have that time to get some of Christmas put away and get organized for "reality" to hit again!  ha ha