Hole in the Rock

The Bakers came over yesterday morning and invited us to do something “fun”. All of the ideas we both thought of were shot down, either too expensive (the zoo) or still closed for the season (train rides through parks). We finally decided on going to Papago Park for a picnic and a little hike.

Jason and I have basically lived in AZ all our lives and he’d never been. I couldn’t believe it. So that was another reason in us going.

Funny Faces.

Jason and Kevin decided to climb all the way to the top, too look down from the whole in the top.

Muscles.

Deacon was pretty worried about Jason and Kevin climbing so high up. “Daddy, get down!” He was very anxious for him to come back down.

Thank you for a 'fun' time Bakers!

Table Re-Vamp

We bought a kitchen table, after searching everyday for months on Craigslist. I didnt necessarily love it, but figured that it was a good price, $90 for a table that expands and includes 7 chairs (apparently someone borrowed one and never returned it to the original owners, hence the odd number). Anyway, we thought it was a great deal so bought it. I figured that I could just paint or stain it to a color of our liking. I'd been thinking about how I wanted to redo it for a long time and figuring out when we'd have money for the supplies...like a year and a half long time. Finally deciding on black, to match the other furniture.

A couple of weeks ago Ace Hardware was giving away free paint! They were quart size, and I couldn't resist. So, hello, I didn't have to pay a cent to redo our table! Awesome.

I was excited to finally get started on it so started on a Monday during Deacons nap. It took about 40 minutes to do one coat on one chair. Ah! I wanted to take my time and get it done nicely. I worked on it on Monday and Tuesday. But then I got some stressful news on Wednesday...Jason informed me that his sister had wanted to a game night on Saturday, she was going to do it at her house but couldn't, so Jason offered our house.... Oh geeze.

At this point I only had 4 chairs done. And all day Saturday I was helping the YW in a ward with a project so it had to get done on Friday. Which wouldn't be a problem. Except you can not paint with a 2 year old around. So nap times are usually the only time to get anything done. I made Jason take Deacon out of the house on Thursday morning so I could work on getting more done. I finally got everything done, with the paint and one layer of sealer on Thursday night. I was going to wake up early on Friday and get the final 2 coats of sealant done. When I woke up and started to sand one of the chairs, (because you're suppose to sand between every coat of sealer) the paint was coming off! I was freaking out. I didn't want to antique it. So then I tried to sand them with an even finer grain sand paper by hand, paint was still coming off. I was so frustrated. I just decided to just go ahead and antique them, but the paint was having a hard time coming off in some spots because of the sealant. So annoying. I decided too bad, and forget it, I wasn't going to sand between any coats. It might not be as smooth but it will save time. And jason reminded me that {hopefully} we wont have this table forever. It was exhausting. But I finally got it done just in time for game night. I'm glad its done and am happy with the outcome.

So note to self next time...either buy a table you like or don't buy a table with so many bars for the backs. For crying out loud.

Ouch!

We were all working in the garden today and I was bent over shoveling, Deacon was picking up mud balls with his little shovel and throwing them at the wall. Turns out he was much closer to me than I thought and after he threw a mud ball with his little shovel he wacked me in the head.

Accidentally.

It hurt.

SO bad.

  

I tried to shake it off, but when I felt blood running down my face, I kinda freaked out. I ran the hose over my head so Jason could see the damage (hence my hair all nasty looking) Thankfully it wasn't deep, so no stitches needed!

Just a nice headache for the remainder of the day.

And my sweet Deacon repeating over and over, "I sorry mommy!"

Heather and I switch off watching each others boys on Tuesdays. She always does amazing things with them. He always comes home with the coolest things. This week they make octopuses then painted them. Of course Deacon insisted on painting them purple. I have no idea. I love these little guys. 

Thanks for pictures Heather, I stole them off your blog. :)

Personal Critic

Deacon said he wanted cookies for dinner tonight.

I said no.

But I told him we could make some together after dinner. He was okay with that compromise. He loves to help me cook and bake.

When we finished the dough, I let him have a little taste.

Well, he just helped himself.

{And not just when we finished, he attempted to put a nice little clump of butter in his mouth before it had a chance to finished being mixed in. He loves to sample anything thats being mixed in the Kitchenaid.}

I asked, "What do you think?"

He responded, "I think good!"

I love him.

Some of his recent catch phases include:

"ummmmm, a soooo good!"---he says this after about everything he eats. Its good on my self esteem. ha ha.

"yep, Sure do"

"Wicked"

Years ago I heard nothing but great things about the new Broadway musical "Wicked".

Then, when I was going to school and in the choir at BYU-H we sang, "For Good", a song from the musical and I fell in love. Of course the only times they came to AZ, Jason and I were living in Hawaii. When we found out that they were finally coming back to AZ in 2012, when Jason and I would be in town, we checked out the ticket prices, but with all the added fees decided that we just couldn't afford it.

Tressa and TJ had us for Christmas this past year and got to talking with Jason about some ideas. Jason decided that instead of them getting us a deep fryer, that he would pay the difference if they got us tickets to go see "Wicked"! I was thrilled!

The show was for March 6th at ASU-Gammage, so it was a long wait, but worth it.

It was fun to get all dressed up and go on a date with the hubby.

The show was incredible! We loved the music and the costumes. Amazing.

..{I did decide that although the balcony was great, I think that even sitting just one more level down would have been nice....But I am SO grateful we got to go!!}

The ushers were pretty strict about no pictures, so we got one as we were walking out of the theatre.

Thank you, thank you to Tressa, TJ and Jason for a wonderful Christmas present!

"Fire!"

On Sunday I had a meeting after church, so Jason took on the roll of making sure Deacon got ready and down for his nap. About an hour or so later, Jason decided to take a little nap himself.

{Yes. Our guilty pleasure is taking a nap while our little guy takes one too.}

He was resting comfortably for only a little bit when he heard,

"Fire Daddy!".... pause...

"A fire Daddy!"

Did he hear him right?? What?

"Daddy a hurt"... pause...

"A hurt Daddy"

Hesitantly, Jason decided he better go see what was going on...

{we have a little space heater for D's room, but he knew it was unplugged, so he didn't know what was happening}

And there our little guy was sitting happily in his crib, with a little grin on his face letting Jason know that Deacon knew exactly what he was up too.

Jason said that look was the look, "You sucker. I got you."

Ha ha.

He was wearing his Paul Frank shirt with a little monkey riding on a motorcycle with flames coming from the tires...

that was the "Fire".

.

So much for the afternoon nap.

Thank you Pinterest...

Thank you for sharing other peoples creative ideas that I can steal to use as my own....

I now have a necklace holder...made from a rake I got on sale at the Goodwill for $2.50.

And I replaced my white board, {that I never really wrote on, just hung things on}, with this closet door I got at the D.I. for $8.00 for the pair. It needed a little tender loving care, so I spray painted it and antiqued it and now it hangs to hold our reminders. A much better replacement I think.

The other side of the closet door was painted white and is hanging in Deacons room to hold all of his art work.

Temple Walks

With the weather still nice, we decided to enjoy a walk around the temple with the Bakers. The  chairs for the Easter pageant coming up were all set up. There were hundreds of them & the little guys loved running through all of them.We had to get them out of there before they knocked them all down.

 On the steps, making funny faces. 

Our little Cowboy.

President and stake patriarch Durrant invited the "beehive" class in YW to come to his house yesterday and he'd teach them about horses and let them have a ride.

I knew Deacon would love to see the horses, so I brought him along. After seeing the other girls have a ride (on one of their very calm & older horses, Beau) he wanted a ride too...he was a little timid at first, but then loved it.

As we were leaving and starting to drive away he yelled, "Bye Horses!"

Please excuse my loud cheerleading voice in the background of the video.

Arizona Science Center

We've gone to the Arizona Science Center a couple of times and love it every time!

Deacon was pretty excited and ran ahead. He even figured out how to open those heavy doors. By pressing the handicap button. Where does he learn these things?

Wheelchair races with Daddy.

Deacon wanted to take our picture.

You're so strong Deacon!

How much would you weigh in outer space??

Deacon Loves to watch the ball bounce through the hoops.

The Bed of Nails...Deacon didn't really care for this so much. And because he was so wiggly, Jason felt those nails. His back was all red and you could see the indentions of the nails. So if you ever go on one, stay still.

Somebody got a haircut....

Deacons has had a couple of haircuts, but never at a 'salon'. It was getting time for him to get one, sad {because I liked his long hair}, but true.

We went to one of those salons just for kids, Deacon really liked it. He did really good and sat very still the whole time. He got a sucker and got to watch T.V. and when the stylist finished she gave him this little card that he put in a slot that in return 'spat out' a little toy car. I'm pretty sure he enjoyed the whole thing. Minus the "look" he gave to the stylist when she sprayed water at his head. He was not amused. I think he would have preferred a warning.

Ha. Ha.

Honestly, I didn't like it.

But its grown on me. And, now I do.

Happy Love Day!

Valentines Day started off with making breakfast, no not heart shaped pancakes, just eggs, bacon and muffins. Which I sent to work with Jason, my own 'stud muffin'.

Deacon got a new bouncy ball from Jason and I..."You make our hearts 'bounce' "

Then Preston got to come over and play for a couple of hours. We decorated some Valentine cookies. I let them decorate one for themselves. I think about all of our sprinkles are gone. They had a great time doing that.

Then we made our loved ones a heart wreath.

Later that afternoon Jason got home from work {and since we had talked about not spending lots, but just enjoying the night as a family}, he got right to work on making a lovely picnic underneath the orange trees in the back.....He was running around collecting things from the house, the yarn balls I made for a Young Women's thing and lights from the garage...he was cute making sure everything looked just right.

Then he ran to the store and got a few things to make dinner & the other treat, was that he basically made dinner! {I helped a little bit.}

However, of course that night of all the nights, it was SOOO cold! The temperature dropped so much from the previous nights and although we had a little fire next to us and wore lots of layers, our food got cold pretty quick. But, dinner was still delicious!

We hung out outside as long as we could then made our way to go get some dessert, we decided on ice cream. I know. Even though it was freezing outside, you can never go wrong with ice cream. Especially for Deacon and I.

We had a really great Valentines Day and I loved being able to spend it with the 2 people I love the most.

Happy Birthday Preston Boy!

The Bakers threw Preston a little party & BBQ at the park for his 3rd Birthday. It was lots of fun to be with all our friends...the Bakers, the Danielsons and Jensens. And so fun for all the kids (& us adults) to get to play together.

Deacon hates going high on the swings....But when he was seeing that Hudson was lovin' it, he had to try it too. And now when we swing at the park, he asks where Hudson is and says,"Lets go high!" & "I wanna do the undergog" (underdog--he can say the D to just about any other

D-word, except Dog). Its funny that kids always look to others to see if its okay that they do it too.

Thats so sweet.

Come on Lyvi!

Happy Birthday Preston Boy!

Picnic at the Park

When Jason isn't volunteering or shadowing a doctor we're grateful he gets to spend the mornings and early afternoons with us before he goes to work. With the beautiful weather we decided to spend more time outside. We wanted to do something different besides go to the park like we often do...so we went to a different kind of park.

We packed up a lunch and headed to South Mountain Park.

The view was beautiful. And thank goodness we still had some jackets and that blanket in the car, cause it was pretty cold up on the mountain.