Splish Splash!

The pool is up and the sun is out!  The kids could not wait to get in the pool!

Having a ball...

Our local bowling alley offered a Kids Bowl Free program for the summer.  You register your kids and they can bowl 2 free games everyday during the summer!  How could we go wrong with that offer?  We decided to take our first outing while the local kiddos were still in school.  We were the only ones bowling for a while. It was a blast!

Go D-backs!

We decided to take a quick road trip to go and visit Aunt Rachel in Denver and watch the Diamondbacks play the Rockies.  We had a great time watching baseball and eating junk food!

You are my Sunshine

This little girl is a ray of sunshine.  She gets so excited over the smallest things and I love that about her.  I found this art easel at a garage sale for $5.  It has provided hours of entertainment already.  She sings as she draws and colors.  It's so sweet.  We just purchased her first set of paints as well and will be trying those out in the next day or two!

Family Night: Super Hero Style

For Family Night this week, we planned Super Hero Night.  We made a Superman and Captain America pizza, ate on Batman plates, drank out of an assortment of Super Hero cups, got Batman tattoos, wore Super Hero attire and watched The Incredibles. We can run with a theme! By far, one of our favorite family nights!!!

Getting our tattoos

Mother's Day

I can remember since I was little that I could not wait to become a mom.  I love that I get to stay at home and invest in the lives of my kids everyday.  I can't wait to see what their futures hold.

For Mother's Day, we went and had a picnic near the river and then walked alongside the river.  It was a beautiful day...not too hot and no wind (rare this time of year in NM).  We had a great day!

More news from the soccer field

We had a big weekend in soccer!  Maylee Grace scored 3 goals and Payton scored 3 goals.  He was awarded a medal for being an unselfish player.  He was quite proud of it.

Take me out to the ball game.....

For Camden's birthday, we took he and two of his friends to the afternoon Isotopes game.  They had a great time.  We had a hot dog lunch and even splurged for a funnel cake for the boys to share.  It was a fun day!

John Michael, T.J. and Camden

Cinco de Mayo!

We have a week of celebrations at our house this week.  It started with our anniversary.  Then, we got to celebrate my birthday and Camden's birthday and then, Mother's Day in a few days.  It's a busy week at our house!  On my birthday, we enjoyed having my parents in town and got to have lunch at Genghis Grill (my pick).  In the evening, we celebrated as a family at Chill Zone Yogurt.

15 YEARS!

On May 1, we celebrated 15 years of marriage at the Melting Pot.  It was a great day and we enjoyed  a night out!  I'm not sure how we are already to 15 years.  It seems like just yesterday I was trying to get all my school done and all the wedding preparations in place.  God has been so good to us.  We realized long ago that making our marriage work meant dying to ourselves everyday.  We are more in love today than ever.  We can't wait to celebrate 50 years together!

More Soccer Pictures

Payton and Maylee Grace are doing great playing soccer.  This weekend, Maylee Grace had 1 goal and Payton had 2 goals!  Payton plays some pretty amazing defense.  He's got the idea of defense down.  He moves much faster on the field and I've had a hard time getting any good action shots of him.

Daddy helped coach Payton's team this week.  He did a great job and Payton loved that his dad was the coach.

White Sands, NM!

Matt had a trip he needed to take for work, so we all decided to tag along and make a little vacation out of it.  We stayed in the mountains of beautiful Ruidoso, NM.  When we arrived on Tuesday night, there were several deer right beside the parking lot.  I couldn't believe how close they were letting us get to them.  Maylee Grace wanted to walk right up and touch them.  Then, on Wednesday morning, we woke up to snow covering the ground.  We traveled down to the White Sands National Monument to spend a few hours playing the sand dunes.  It was so beautiful and serine.  The kids had a blast playing in and sledding down the dunes. 

They look like wee little ants!

We visited a Pistachio farm which also happened to have the World's Biggest Pistachio!!  They had over 12,000 trees.  It was a pretty fun stop with lots of pistachio samples!

Today in Sports

The kids did great this week in soccer!  Maylee Grace scored 4 goals for her team.....and.....1 goal for the other team!  She was also awarded the Excellence in Sportmanship medal.  She was quite proud of herself!

Payton scored his first soccer goal this week!  He was super excited.  In the second half of the game, he so graciously volunteered (after being asked) to play for the other team because they didn't have enough players.  It worked out great, because then all the kids got to be on the field!

A snapshot of one of MG's goal

Maylee Grace proudly showing off her medal

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

On Friday, we decided (very last minute) to go out to the afternoon Isotopes game.  It was a beautiful afternoon and we had such a great time.  We bought some cheap tickets and sat in the grass to watch the game.  What a fun afternoon!

Balloon Museum

We headed out to the Balloon Museum this week to for their story time and free admission day.  We had never been before and learned lots of new things about hot air balloons.  The boys especially enjoyed the part of the museum that had gliders.  Camden was intrigued by the way the gliders flew. 

Resurrection Day

Maylee Grace and her sweet new friend Kate from church.  Their birthdays are only a few days apart! They love to be together.

Maylee Grace's 2nd goal of the day!

Please excuse my loud cheering!  :)