what we've been up to...

Here are a few of the things we have been up to the last few weeks...

TRIP TO SNOWFLAKE

We went up to Snowflake a few weeks ago to here is Aunt Ruth and cousin Vicky give their missionary homecoming talks. We were also able to have a fun luncheon afterward in the Snowflake "social hall". We had a lot of fun up there and the kids did really well on the drive up and back!
Maddie is standing in the graveyard. Whenever we go up to Snowflake we always stop by the cemetary and visit the gravesite of his beloved Grandma & Grandpa Toronto as well as his Uncle Jed. Maddie especially liked all the flowers people had placed on the graves and even managed to find some small toy cars that were on a child's grave. Needless to say we didn't stay long! :)

ROADTRIP TO UTAH

Jesse, Robby, and I went up to Utah last weekend for my cousin's wedding in Logan. We decided to brave the drive with a 1 year old in the car this time. (this was our FIRST drive to Utah with a child- normally we always fly) We left Maddie with my mom to hang out and spend good quality "grandma" time with her! Robby was such a trooper in the car.

We left on Friday around 10am and pulled into Logan that evening a little past midnight. Other then stopping every couple hours to let our little guy get out of his seat and have a fresh diaper he stayed in that car seat for 14 hours. He was fabulous! It was so much easier than I expected it to be. Although by the time we got back home he would loudly protest each and every time I had to strap him back in the car seat.

I am LOVING this picture of my boys! This was a stop we made on the side of the road to allow Robby to walk a little. Robby has a play sword in his hand.

On Saturday, after the wedding and the luncheon, we stopped at a Chili's to watch the SUNS game. I think that the employees thought they would never get rid of us! When we hit second OT they joked with us about bringing out the dinner menus so we could order AGAIN. Jesse and I are still fuming over that loss.
Robby was sampling a tortilla chip at Chili's
We couldn't believe how much colder Utah is right now. I had to pull out Robby's "winter" clothes when I was packing to make sure I brought a jacket, long-sleeved shirts, pants, etc.

After the SUNS game on Saturday we went to dinner with one of Jesse's old mission buddies and then visited their cute house. We then stayed at our good friends, the Robinson's, house. They were so nice to let us crash at their place and they haven't the cutest kids ever! We went to church with them on Sunday and then Leta cooked a fabulous meal for us! Thanks for such a fun time! We can't wait to return the favor!

Robby loves any and all toothbrushes right now. If you hand him a toothbrush he will be instantly content...regardless of how crabby he was!
When we woke up on Monday morning to drive back home it was FREEZING! Poor Robby's teeth were chattering like crazy and so we wrapped him in about 5 layers of blankets!

I think he was a little tired of the cooler weather by our last day in Utah. I have to admit it was sure nice to welcome back the warm weather as we drove back into the valley!




BROKEN CAMERA
Robby has decided the best thing about our new home is the ability to throw things off the second story landing and watch them break into a million pieces below. He somehow managed to find our camera this week and fling it downstairs, laughing as it produced a loud smash and completely destroyed our beloved camera. He has also managed to throw another object off the landing that hit a picture and smashed the glass :( I think I am ready for this new game to end.




POTTY TRAINING
This is a word I had vowed never to mention until Maddie was much older, but here I am saying it. We have "officially" begun this adventure. It started this past Tuesday when Maddie went to her weekly playgroup, only to find out that the other three girls are now wearing "big girl" panties, instead of the usual diaper. As soon as we came home, Madison was adament about wanting to wear princess underwear and be a "big girl". So after several toys, a bag of candy, and several packages of undies at the store we began! I hate to say how well she has done because I don't want to jinx it, but she has been great. She has had one day of no accidents and today she started going into the bathroom all by herself without even telling me. Of course her favorite phrases with the potty are "candy, candy, candy" as soon as she finishes her business and I have caught her saying "get out of my bum." I sure love that girl!

a fun day with my madison

I had so much fun with Maddie yesterday. In the morning we went to see "Horton Hears a Who" at the movie theatre with my mom (Grandma). We enjoyed the usuals at a movie: popcorn, drinks, and fruit snacks. Maddie sat through almost the entire movie before getting a little stir-crazy. The movie theatre was pretty much empty so it didn't matter much when she wandered up and down our row the last little bit of the show. She was so excited to see the movie end happy with lots of singing! After the movie was finished we walked around the San Tan Village mall for a little while and she LOVED going into Claire's and trying on all the COLORFUL necklaces. We even made a pit stop in the eating area and tried out some of the cars!

Then last night we took Maddie to see Disney's "Nemo on Ice" performance. Jesse's friend was so nice to get us these tickets and it was so much fun to have their little girl, Abby, who is 2 yrs old there as well! I was a little bit nervous taking her to something in the evening where she needed to sit nicely for a long period of time. I soon learned that I had nothing to worry about.

She LOVED the performance and literally sat on my lap for the 1st hour without a single movement.
After the intermission it took just a few minutes of the performance to continue before she become mesmerized once again. She then sat on my lap for the entire second hour without fidgeting at all! The only thing that scared her a little was the fireworks near the beginning of the performance.
We were ALL a little tired by the end but it was well worth it! We have decided that we will definitely have to go to another one of these again. I have loved every stage that Madison has gone through, but I have to admit it is sooo much fun when you can start taking your kids to things and have them REALLY enjoy them!

-sorry Robby...when you get just a little bit older we will start to take you to fun things like this! In the meantime, I LOVE being a part of a babysitting group so that I can leave Robby at other houses here and there. And many thanks to my in-laws for watching him last night while we went and saw "Memo" as Maddie says :)

a few of my favorites

We LOVE Phoenix Suns NBA basketball. Jesse and I have had season tickets for the past few years & always enjoy a night of watching Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Raja Bell, Leandro Barbosa, Grant Hill, and now Shaq as well. When Madison was only a few months old she went to almost every game with us and then last year Robby came with us to a bunch of games as a newborn. We haven't really been able to go to that many games this year, but we still enjoy turning on the TV and cheering on our favorite boys!

Yet another snack that I adore for some odd reason. I love to buy the ginormous bags of this stuff from Costco and have recently gotten Maddie addicted to it as well. She will sit with me at the table and chow down on this marvelous creation! One of the few shows on TV that Jesse and I love to watch. The only problem is that every season we manage to miss a few episodes, which messes up the entire season. Plus it tends to get confusing when you go a whole week in between episodes. Every season so far, we end up waiting and buying the entire DVD season set and then spend the next few weeks watching LOST nonstop every night. After getting our "fix" of Lost, we spend the next year waiting for the next season to come out on DVD.

For those of who REALLY don't know me :), I am a passionate shopper! This is seriously one of my absolute favorite things to do. I am totally obsessed with purses. I will spend my precious free time surfing the web looking at purses that I would love to have some day. Although there are several that I really like...I would love to own this one someday! For now this is what I am sporting around instead!

I am such a sucker for little girls accessories. Whether it is bows, headbands, necklaces, bracelets, fun skirts, leggings, shoes, you name it...I want to buy it! Maddie doesn't even wear headbands anymore, but when I saw these two aDorAbLe headbands I decided I WANT them, I NEED them, I am obsessed!

I have been on many vacations over the years and I have to say one of my favorite places to catch some R&R would have to be Rocky Point. We love that you can drive only a few hours and stay in a haven like this. Plans are already in the works to find some time to head down to this little bit of paradise SOON.

I always look forward to finding a good book that I can curl up on the couch and read. "Kite Runner" is the best book I have read in a LONG time. I took my friend Kippy's advice and bought this at the bookstore a few weeks ago. I know I lost a lot of sleep while I was reading it, because I could hardly go to bed at night. I have already made plans to go back and by the next book by this author. I always love a suggestion for a good book to read (hint, hint!)

These are AMAZING! I know it is a total sugar rush, but I seriously cannot resist buying them at the store and I probably eat at least one a day. Madison is of course being trained well and always shares this yummy treat with me!

i'm in LOVE with this bedding and I am WISHING someone who has some serious money could donate $500 for my daughter's bedspread. Anyone wanting to send some money my way?! I have been looking for some kind of bedding for Maddie recently since she has been climbing out of her crib for several months. It is definitely time to move her to a big girl bed.

ONLY in Arizona

I love ARIZONA! Only in this wonderful state can you go swimming in a warm pool in March. One of our fabulous neighbors invited us over for a fun little swim the other day, and we just couldn't resist. Now whenever Madison sees a pool, she tells us "I wanna go swimming pool." Just a few more weeks and then swim lessons begin. Summer here we come...

Easter Sunday

This is such a typical Maddie face when you tell her to smile :) She is with my dear Mother. She just loves her Grandma! If you notice she has a bandaid on her knee, she is totally our rough and tumble little girl. I don't think a day goes by without another "owie" being added to the collection.

I know that I have placed lots of pictures on this post...but I want to "slurp" my blog into an album at the end of the year, so bear with me. Even though I didn't feel well on Easter we still had a phenomenal day. It was so much fun to watch how excited Madison was this year.
I had already prepared Maddie for Easter. We had some fun neighbor girls over earlier in the week who decorated eggs with us and practiced going on Easter egg hunts. I even reminded her on Saturday night that she had to go to bed because the Easter bunny was coming to bring us candy. On Easter morning she was so excited to be able to go downstairs and find all the candy! We all went downstairs together and she went crazy! Maddie started opening all the Easter eggs that the bunny had left and wanted to eat the candy out of each egg before she continued on. We finally convinced her we needed to find her basket, and lo and behold it was in the oven!

After finding her basket we then resumed our Easter egg hunt around the house. What was Robby doing this whole time? Well the only thing he wanted when we went downstairs was his sippy cup of milk. As Madison ran around eagerly finding all the candy, Robert calmly sat and drank his milk. After finishing his cup, the only thing he wanted was some breakfast. Gotta love having a hungry little boy!


After a yummy breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast and OJ that Jesse prepared, Robby was finally ready to start looking for the eggs and finding out what they were all about. This was when I started frantically grabbing eggs and emptying their contents into a plastic bag on the counter. After a few minutes of this almost all the candy was safely out of the hands of the children.

Once they realized the candy was pretty much all gone, we began to enjoy the other fun toys that the Easter Bunny left. Madison and Robert especially loved the new sand shovels and toys that they were given and have already used them multiple times at the park this week!

Maddie found some flags as well inside the little plastic golf set that Robert got.

She loves to wave them around and say "I got a flag" over and over...Robby loves to play hide and seek and chase right now. He laughs like crazy when we say "I'm going to get you" and then chase him around the house.
After church we headed straight to my parents house for a fun Easter dinner with the family. This is my daddy and Robby posed for a picture. After visiting for a little while with my family, it was off to the Toronto's for more family time. The kids had fun going on another Easter egg hunt in the front yard of their house. Afterwards Madison was nice enough to go from person to person and hand out all the candy from the eggs so everyone got some!

Playtime at Our House

We have had an interesting few weeks at the new house. We started out with our sweet little Robby getting yet another round of ear infections: the pediatrician has now said that if he gets another in the coming month or so, we will be referred to an ENT for tubes. Following that, I got really sick with the flu and a kidney infection= YIKES. I definitely have to say that it is really tough when mommy is sick. Thank goodness for a great new primary doctor, a fabulous husband that was a trouper and helped out a ton, as well as an awesome mom and in-laws that each pitched in and watched the kids for a few days. I am happy to say that we are all feeling much better! Amidst all that fun, here are some pictures spanning the last few weeks.... when you can style your little boys hair like this, I think that means it is time for another haircut
Maddie is obsessed with baskets and loves to go through my D.I. pile and pull out the baskets I am donating. She then fills them with anything she can find...if all else fails she will even put her beloved "bankies" inside.
Maddie with her friend Cassidy playing with playdough. We sure love our playgroup we have in the neighborhood. I think I like it as much as Maddie because it means I get a break for a few hours most weeks.
My silly little girl playing on the couch before bedtime
Maddie loves to play dress up and always wants me to put some of her dress up shoes on as well. Too bad they are just a bit too small!

Our New Park/House

We are so excited to have a fun park just at the end of our street. We have already gotten good use out of it; and normally go almost every day. We have loved the beautiful weather the past few weeks!

Madison & Robert were really such good sports when it came to moving. They both spent countless hours in the car while I moved things from one house to the other. They spent lots of time running around the new place during the painting, unpacking, cleaning, you name it! Maddie even took a few naps on the floor of the new house when she would finally collapse from being so tired! (note- no pics of this because when I would notice there was no camera to be found, it was rather funny though. She never would actually fall asleep like a normal person...instead she would be sitting down and you could see her head slowly bobbing as she sat indian style until finally she would fall flat on her face with her head in her lap. Even now sometimes when I check on her in bed she can be found asleep in this position).

random info on the kids

I am taking a break from all the chaos to sit down and write down a few fun things about my kids.

funny/cute phrases that Madison says right now...

Mmmm I like ice cream/locolate, it's so nummy!
I need that
Where my pocket go? (in reference to my wallet)
I can't find it
I no want nap
Shake your booty!
I want watch movie
I all icky, yucky, so gross (during meal time)
I hungry
I all done
Look mommy, I made it (talking about crafts at Ariel's)
I playing with my toys
What you doing mommy?
Where daddy go?
Don't do that
I okay (after she falls down)
I sorry (proceeds to give us a kiss)
hold you (hold me)
poopers (purple)
I ate my food in my mouth, the food is in my belly (she lifts up her shirt and will proudly show us her belly)

Songs Maddie sings...

itsy bitsy spider
little einsteins theme song
jesus wants me for a sunbeam
popcorn popping
monkey & alligator song
twinkle twinkle little star
abc song
toothbrush song
no more owies~ my original masterpiece :)

Robby's vocabulary...

mama
dadadada
I (does this while holding the phone to his ear~ hi)

some random things Robby knows how to do...

clap his hands
give slobber kisses
give me five
play peek-a-boo
pulls toys in and out of boxes
pull pacifier out so he can cough, will replace once finished :)
stand up without using an object
bobs up and down when music comes on
repeatedly push the button on our ball toy
push Madison around on her car
gurgle laughs around all animals
slide down the stairs (semi-safely :)