party time

February and March are party months at our house.  Between Superbowl, Valentine's, Sloan & Ruthie's birthdays and spring break, it's a busy, fun time.  I like it that way, keeps me from thinking about how cold it is outside!

We did have a few days of sun in February, so we made it up the High Mesa/pyramid hike one Saturday 

we were itchin to get our yard blooming, so we strolled the isles at Star Nursery

yes, that's a fanny pack

hangin with Huds, reading the Book of Mormon

dinner

 

 

2 great huggers

simple pleasures

 his pet box (this went on for an hour)

nightly family walk before bed. brr.

Superbowl 
We had the Chapman-Daytons over and Sloan had a couple friends from dental school (Playful kids + focused fans = bad combo!) so Shannon and I took the kids to the park for most of it.

Shannon cracks me up. We put a Disney on for the kids and joined the hubbies for the last quarter.

The next weekend we caught the tail end of a rather racy Valentine's party with the dental school couples - va voom!

Sloan's 35th

started with dinner at Baja Fresh with Dad & Dodie

Ruthie was being hilarious as usual

then I took Sloan out bowling and surprised him with a group of his dental school buddies there waiting for us

cheers- they got a round of O'Doul's (non-alcoholic) in his honor

i did take a sip, and it was GROSS! i don't get it.

Ruthie's 5th!

in her birthday suit. she wore it all week.

just a cupcake for her actual bday

Our sweet 94 yr old neighbor, Neva hess, is a dear friend to Ruthie and brought her some presents the next night

and then the real party begins...

it took a few days to make the pinata

which turned out to be a giant elephant head

we got maps ready for the wild animal hunt

and made binoculars for the kids to decorate

and cages for the wild creatures

and the day finally came!  we started with the decorating

 

then we played games like 'red range rover' and 'the elephant race'

 

 

then we split into boy and girl teams to find the wild animals in the didgeridoo dugouts, orangutan oasis, balloon lagoon, hippo hideout, etc. They blew a train whistle whenever they captured one

came back for pizza

and chocolate peanut butter cake

presents

and the pinata, sans nose

and that was it! a LOT of work!!  but fun to see Ruthie will all her buddies together. We had fun planning it, too. But maybe every other year?

Next morning: first game of the season on her new team, the Fire

 

hangin at Papa's, Reggie learns to scoot

 

I was just called to serve with the Young Women as assistant camp director (my 3rd calling this year). Here's New Beginnings out on the salt flats. We had a bonfire, sang, girls talked about constellations relating to the values, and they sent off paper lanterns 'Tangled' style

which seemed pretty hazardous to me  (they went flying off over Boulder City) but hey, I only the assistant camp director, so I kept my mouth shut :)

workin in the yard

Ty always shows up just in time for the heavy lifting!

game 2

Star Nursery after

nap time

the turf is finally going in!  he did it in a day. go sloan.

coming to help

all done!!

to celebrate:  we drove to Camp Pendelton to meet up with my mom, Ken, Max & friends for a day of Paint Balling

Sloan and Max - retreat!

Ruthie collecting & smashing the left over bullets

 serious action

Brett & Sloan

back at Mom's, the kids love her bin of toys

Sloan & Reg love to veg

 and we all love the bike rides

that always end up at Salt Creek Beach. Reg stood there for about 5 minutes trying to decide if he liked the sand 

not ruthie!

Oh, by the way, 

I'm Prego!

12 weeks.  Yay :)

 Luvie & Ruthie - peas in a pod

 I sure love them both

postlogue:

Pregnancy has been going fine. I'm not as nauseous as I am HUNGRY. We were surprised to get pregnant this quickly, but excited to have a buddy for Reg (girl or boy). Last week I had a near miscarriage as we were leaving town for CA, so we turned around and I layed down all evening and waited for it to get worse. But the bleeding stopped and the Dr said things were fine the next morning, but I needed to stop running and lay low for a while.  I  miss running.  But nothing like a near miscarriage to make you realize how bad you want your baby to live!

Sloan's school schedule has been TOUGH this semester - he says it's the hardest one, especially with the Boards Part 1 next month.  It's stressful, but he's keeping a balance with playing tennis here & there, keeping up on his church calling, making it home for dinner & a family bike ride most nights, so we're getting through it. (But counting down the days till it's over!)

 Ruthie has made some nice changes with turning 5... she gave up the beloved pink blanket, she gets ready on her own the mornings (well, sometimes), and seems to be a little more settled and in control of her colorful emotions. She's riding her bike very comfortably and takes good care of little Reg, even rides him around on the trike...

And Reg is too easy, too good, too loving... I don't want to gush but he's a delight. I don't know how we are so blessed to have his sweet little spirit in our family. He keeps us all smiling and laughing, even when things are hard. If you haven't had a Reggie hug lately, you need one!

so come visit.

signing off....