milan, italy

We are so excited to announce that Jesse's little brother, Brett, just received his mission call on Thursday. He is going to Milan, Italy and reports on September 3, 2008. We know that he is going to be a fabulous missionary and are so proud of his decision to serve an LDS mission. Thanks for always being a good example to the kids!!

stickers

Maddie sure loves to decorate herself with about anything....bandaids, markers, and today stickers! She was so proud of herself for arranging them all the way down her leg and then insisted that I take a picture of her "beautiful flowers," even though she is a stinker and WOULD NOT smile. Too bad those "beautiful flowers" ended up permanently attached to my kitchen floor!

graduation woes

I remember when I graduated a few years back, it was filled with lots of fun memories. One of those included marching into the football stadium and looking up to see all the people sweating in the bleachers, but still there to support you on this momentuous occasion. Then afterwards I spent the next little while hugging friends and laughing about the end of all our fun times on campus. Finally comes the family time where you get to hug each other and share in the happy celebration and then take the infamous graduation pictures.

For my little brother, Ben, who graduated on Thursday night, he will definitely not have the same memories as me. His graduation was filled with anticipation as to how the ceremony would unfold with a water drenched football stadium, marching into the auditorium with ONLY students sitting there, and finally his older sister and her family ditching out before he could even head over to Hawk Hall and begin the long search of finding family in order to take the must have graudation photos. Thursday was one of those once in a million happenings when Arizona somehow managed to receive buckets of rain not only in May, but on graduation night of all days! We ended up sitting in a random classroom and watched a televised graduation ceremony and then spent the next few hours watching Maddie run up and down the stairs without tiring. Finally we heard Ben's name and watched him walk across the stand to receive his diploma. We cheered and then happily headed to the car to head back home. Probably the saddest part about this whole affair is that we don't have ONE picture of the family on graduation. The only ones I could manage to scrounge up were from Baccalaureate (sp?) on Sunday afternoon. So happy graduation Ben...we are so proud and excited for you to move on to a new stage of your life (even if we are wimps and couldn't deal with our kids long enough to find you after graduation ended :)My dad and brother, BEN
Maddie giving the sweetest ever hug to her Uncle. Of course she added a "Happy Birthday Uncle Ben" to go along with her hug....she always thinks that every celebration must be someone's birthday!!

Happy Birthday Jesse

I just wanted to wish my sweetheart a Happy 29th Birthday! Enjoy it while it lasts honey...because it is your last birthday in your 20's! :)

I am seriously so grateful for my sweet husband, I couldn't imagine spending my life with anyone else. I originally started this post out with the idea that I would find some pictures from when he was a boy...but a few hours later I couldn't seem to find those pictures anywhere. These will have to do for now... This was taken the summer we were dating. Jesse is wearing an ice pack after dislocating his shoulder in my parents swimming pool. He even managed a tiny smile for the camera, despite the pain he was in.
One of my favorites taken with Maddie the summer before her first birthday.
Taken when Jesse and I went to Nauvoo, Illinois.
I hope you had a great birthday.....

Just another weekend/Monday

We have had such a busy, but fun time together the past few days or so....

On Saturday we were able to go to Big Surf for my father-in-laws work party. Maddie kept asking me if it was Saturday for almost all of last week. Jesse played in a sand volleyball tournament at the party, and my father-in-law took Robby the whole time and played with him. We have decided that Robby is his little buddy! Our good friends, the Albrights, were there as well with their two cute kids. Maddie followed Lexi around like a little puppy dog and they had so much fun playing in the kiddie pool together. They would hold hands while we walked from place to place. Maddie also really liked the slides; she kept insisting on going down "one more time" even though she was shivering from being so cold. I came all prepared with my camera in tow, only to realize that I forgot to put our SD card back into the camera :(

Mother's day is always a special time for me to take a stroll down memory lane and remember some of the special times with my own sweet mother. She is such a great friend to me and never gets tired of my endless phone calls for advice, pep talks, cooking tips, decorating advice, you name it. It is rare for me not to talk to her at least once a day! I have so many fond memories of my mom always willing to try new things with us. When I was a kid we would flip through the summer recreation program booklet and she was game to try anything that we thought looked like fun.

This year we had our own sort of excitement at our house, that I am sure we will never forget. Robby has hit a VERY active stage of life and always seems to be getting into everything. While Jesse was cooking breakfast, he managed to pull the electric skillet down off the counter onto his poor little hand. Three hours later we were bandaged up and back home from the hospital, finally ready to enjoy that delicious breakfast, compliments of my sweetie!

We also enjoyed visiting both of our families on Sunday. Maddie is always game for going to Grandma and Grandpa's house when she knows her sweet cousin, Kaylin, will be there to play. And she also loves to visit Nona and Papa's house to feed the horses, pick and eat apples and of course be spoiled by her Aunt Abby!

Monday I was able to go to lunch with Ralae and Julie, two friends from high school, that I haven't seen in a long time. It was so fun to catch up on old times and to meet their sweet little boys. Maddie joined me on this lunch date and she especially enjoyed stealing my soda whenever I wasn't looking and running circles around our table :) Thanks for the fun times girls...we need to get together again soon!

After we got home, Maddie kept telling me that it was time to go to the park. So after dinner, we decided to load up the wagon and walk down to our park at the end of our street. From the grins on their faces they obviously enjoyed our time in the sand. It was such a beautiful late afternoon that I have to admit I kicked my feet up on the park bench and just relaxed for awhile. To top it all off...we had an icecream truck pull onto our street right before baths and of course we couldn't resist. What could be more perfect at the end of the day, then to eat popsicles and ice cream bars on the front porch of your house?!

Robby is obsessed with going down the slide at the moment. He will do it over and over without seeming to tire!

Maddie loves to dig in the sand at the park and make "cakes" for mommy. She also really enjoys making sand angels with her body (similar to a snow angel)--only I am not sure I enjoy it so much when I am trying to get all the sand out of her hair afterwards :)

My handsome little dude with his poor burned hand in a bandage.

makeup

Maddie has taken a recent liking to my make up. She received this fun little purple necklace from her friends birthday party. After a few days she learned that it also opens and has purple chapstick inside. She now calls it her make up and likes to paint her chin with the make up. She will then walk into the bathroom and tell me how pretty she looks with the "poopers" on her face.

Just a cute picture of my little girl. This is her goofy little smile when I am trying to get her attention and she is trying to ignore me (such as when she wants to watch tv and mom wants to get a cute picture of her)

our little organizer

Maddie plays so uniquely. Instead of actually playing with toys in the normal sense, she will spend hours arranging her toys in all different ways. Today she pulled out our container of fake food and sat and arranged them in a semi-circle in front of her. She does the same thing with CD cases, books, her small princess figurines, you name it. My older sister, Loriann, used to also play this way. I remember her making long lists of students when we would "play" school, and she always seemed to be organizing something. Unfortunately Robby doesn't understand this sort of play. He is always right there destroying her perfect little arrangements.

swim lessons

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...