SNOW!

So I didn't know that it snowed in Texas. Yesterday morning we woke up and it was raining and very cold and about 30 minutes after the kids woke up it had started to snow! It didn't stick to the ground, but of course we ran out in our pajamas to see the snow! Then we came back in and go bundled up so we could stay outside for more than a minute. Brooke would stick her tongue out so she could eat the snowflakes. Nixon wasn't sure what to think about it. It was so pretty to watch the snow fall down. It snowed for a couple hours and Brooke was so disappointed when it was done. We are definitely desert people so any site of snow is exciting for us! Also, Brooke thought it must be Christmas since it was snowing!! I thought it was a great way to start December and the Christmas season.

I'll have to post the few pictures I took later.

Brooke's Princess Party

This week is Brooke's 5th birthday, so we decided this year we would have a party with her friends. It was a Princess party and all her friends came dressed as a princess. The girls got a little pampering session, getting some makeup put on and their nails painted. They also colored pictures of princes so we could play a game called "Kiss the Prince." When we told the girls that we were going to play that game they all said "Ewww gross!!!" One of her friends said, "boys are stinky!" It was so funny! We had a blast with all the little princesses at our house. We danced to some of Brooke's favorite princess songs, but all the girls really love one of Taylor Swift's songs and wanted to dance to that. And a party wouldn't be complete without a pinata. So Brooke got a crown pinata that was filled with lots of things perfect for little princesses. My favorite part of the pinata was watching JD dodge some of the swings the girls had! We had so much fun and were really glad that so many of Brooke's friends could come and celebrate her birthday with us!

Brooke helping me with the frosting for her Barbie cake.

The finished cake.

Brooke was so excited about her party that she'd been hounding us to decorate the house all week. So she was more than helpful when dad started decorating Saturday morning.

The "party room" before all the girls arrived.

Brooke with Shelby and Ella.

Brooke and Kaylynn

Brooke and Zara

Ella playing "Kiss the Prince". (GROSS, Ella's the one who said boys are stinky, she even said her dad was a stinky boy.)

JD dodging a swing from Kloah.

All the girls that came to the party!! Shelby, Kaylynn, Kloah, Zara, Brooke, Zoey, Ella

"Reflections of Christ"

Candice sent me this e-mail that had a link to this slide show. It is really great, I love it. I'm sure that a lot of you have heard about these pictures. I'm pretty sure they had them on display down at the Mesa visitor center at one point. Anyway, at the bottom of my blog is a link to watch the slide show of it. You'll probably want to stop the music from our blog so you can listen to the beautiful music that goes along with the slide show and then I'm pretty sure you'll be able to feel the spirit more. Thanks so much Candice for sharing it with me. I hope you all like it!!

Nixon's Birthday Celebration

I know that it's two months after Nixon's birthday, but we have had a busy couple months. We moved twice, lived with JD's boss for a month and are now getting settled into our new home. I'll have to post pictures of that later.

We had so much fun celebrating Nixon's birthday. It was different to just have our little family there and not the rest of the extended. But first birthdays are always so fun! He was so cute eating the cupcake. He didn't really know what to think at first, but then he got the gist of it. Brooke had more fun then him opening his presents, of course. We did presents first and then went on to the cake. Good plan as you can see, he LOVED his cupcake!

I had to put a lot of the messy cake pictures because that is what is the best!!

He's even willing to share!!

Bath time!! Have to get cleaned up before we can play with the toys.

Happy birthday one more time to our little man! We love you Nixon!

Happy Birthday Nixon!

A year ago today Nixon was born into our family! We were so excited to have him be a part of our family. He came late, and probably would have come even later if I hadn't been induced. Thanks to Mom who I know secretly prayed that he wouldn't be born until she got back from her trip to San Diego.


Now we've had Nixon for a year, and he has been so fun! He is one of the happiest babies I have ever seen! He loves to smile at everyone. His favorite thing to do in church is flirt with anyone, but especially if there are any girls sitting behind us. He smiles at them, then buries his head into my shoulder, then looks to see if they are still looking at him, and starts it over. He LOVES Brooke!! They play and make each other laugh all the time. If they go to bed at the same time or within a half hour of each other they can stay up for hours jabbering back and forth to each other.


Just recently he's learned a few new tricks, the biggest one of all is walking! He loves to walk. When he first started he'd laugh the entire time he was doing it. He thought it was great! He's found a toy that Brooke likes to use as her vacuum that he can push around and walk with, he is having so much fun with that!! He's also learned "five." He loves to have Brooke give him "five" in the car and sometimes we worry that she's going to break his arm cause she does it so hard, but he laughs hard every time! Now he sticks his hand out and tries to say five, but it's more like "fah." He is so cute. We've also been trying to teach him to say more in sign language instead of screaming for more food, he's finally learned it, but it looks more like he's calling for a timeout.


Well, I guess as you can see, we love Nixon! He is always on the go. He is a little boy through and through, teasing his sister already, pulling her hair, loving to explore and be rough with Dad! We are so glad to have him! We love him so much!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIXON!!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there, but especially to JD!!


You are the best dad any little boy or little girl could ask for! He loves to play with Brooke and Nixon and they always want to be with him! When he comes home from a trip the kids only want to spend time with him! I don't really exist anymore. JD does a great job taking care of his family, making sure that we are provided for. When there's a big storm an we get scared he's there to make us feel safe! He helps the kids up the stairs, especially when Brooke's "knees hurt," and she just can't walk anymore. We have the best daddy who plays with us, reads to us, teaches us, and most of all loves us!


JD is not with us to celebrate Father's Day, he's on a trip in Boston! We miss him a lot, and wanted him to know that we are thinking of him, missing him, and loving him!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

A Day at the Zoo

We've had a lot going on at our house for the past little while so I haven't been very good about posting. But a few weeks ago we spent the day at the Dallas Zoo with some friends. We had a lot of fun! Brooke loved seeing all the animals and running around with her friends and Nixon wasn't as interested in the animals, but he loves to be outside, so it was a good day for him!

We didn't see all the animals, it was just too much to go see in one day, but we got to see the tiger, the elephant, some giraffes, a ton of different monkeys, penguins, a white crocodile or alligator, I don't know the difference, other wild cats like a bobcat, an Asian fishing cat, ant eaters, and a lot more that I can't remember.

I felt bad for the elephant and giraffes because their exhibits were so small and had very little grass and no trees! I guess I'm just use to the Phoenix zoo.

It was cool how close we could be to see the animals though. Brooke thought this was a gorilla!

When we first got there we were waiting for some friends to get there as well, so they had a playground that Brooke loved to run around and play on. Then while we were still waiting we went to the petting zoo. Brooke didn't want to touch any of the animals, but she wanted to ride the ponies, which were put away, but at certain times of the day they are out and the kids can ride them. She loved looking at the donkeys, sheep, roosters, bunnies and guinea pigs, but don't ask her to touch them. Her friend Zara loves animals!! All sorts of animals and wants to hold them all the time and tried to get Brooke to at least pet one of the bunnies, but Brooke wouldn't have it. I don't think she likes to touch an animal unless it's a dog or cat!

This is in front of the otters. Brooke and Ella.


This was in front of the penguin exhibit. Brooke, Zara, Shelby.

Brooke's favorite was the penguins, she couldn't wait until we went to see them. And at the end of the day, the three older girls got to go for a ride on the carousel! It was a fun, but very long day!

Brooke's Dance Recital

One day at church I found out that a woman in our ward taught dance, so I signed Brooke up for that and she has LOVED it!! The first weekend in April, Brooke had a dance recital and did a great job! It was so fun to go watch her dance and see what she had learned.


This is Brooke in her dance costume on our way out the door. She was pretty excited, but a little nervous!


Brooke's class did a partner dance, which her teacher told me is sort of hard to do, especially with them being so young, but I think they did pretty good. And it was so fun and cute to watch!

Brooke did such a great job and we were so proud of her that she was able to get up in front of everybody and not be scared. She actually even did the dance with a couple girls in the ward at the primary talent show the next weekend!

Funny Kids

It seems everyday that my kids do something that I don't expect them to do. Sometimes it can be something so sweet and other times not such a good thing. Sunday Brooke got her big foam puzzle pieces out put them together so she could play hopscotch. Yesterday we hadn't put them away yet, so she dumped all the pieces out and made the box that we keep them in her little bed. To me it doesn't seem to be the most comfortable place, but she loved it.

Nixon is all over the place now and usually is gone out of sight if I have stopped watching him for even two seconds. He doesn't let anything get in his way. We have a chair that sits on the floor and he climbs and crawls right over it, even though getting down is usually done in a tumbling fashion. He loves his new independence. The other day I couldn't find him. He had crawled under his saucer and was trying to navigate his way off it, once again resulting in a tumble! I'm probably a mean mom, but I think it is so cute and fun to watch him try to figure all this "new stuff" out.

Trip to San Antonio and Arizona

In February we took a trip to Arizona to visit family, but before we left for Mesa we met up with JD in San Antonio so he could drive over with us. I wasn't expecting on driving down to San Antonio until Saturday, but we left Friday, so that left all day Saturday for me and the kids to spend time out and about in San Antonio. So we decided to go to the Riverwalk they have in downtown San Antonio. It was so fun and really pretty!


When we were there we took a ride on one of these boats so we could see the entire riverwalk area. It was a great way to see it all without having to walk it all. But we did walk a lot!!

Brooke really liked the boat ride, but it was a little long for her. It lasted for a little over 30 minutes. There were plenty of times that I had to push the stroller and give Brooke a piggyback ride. But I did find out that there were many nice people there that offered to help me many times. Nixon loved it because he loves to be outside and that's where we were all day!

After a full day out we got in the car that night when JD was done with work and drove with his company to the Phoenix area. It was a long day!

Brooke passed out in the car when we were almost to Grandma's!

We had so much fun in Arizona! Sunday evening after we got there we went down to the park with a bunch of cousins to feed the ducks. We had so much fun playing and seeing cousins! Brooke helped Noah and Keith mow the lawn. We also got to see some of the Fraughton cousins although we didn't get to spend as much time with them as we would have liked! We loved being able to come and see everyone! We miss and love you all!

A funny conversation

On Thursday JD had a church basketball game, so we all went to watch it. Afterwards, we went to McDonalds to get something to eat. While we were eating Brooke told us how much she missed Bella, for those of you who don't know who Bella is, she's Keith and Jessie's dog. We told her that maybe we should bring her home with us next time we go to Arizona, or that one day we would get a dog like Bella. And Brooke said, "Yeah, we have Nixon, but he's not a pet."

Nixon's crawling!

I'm not sure if I'm suppose to be excited or not, because my job just became more difficult! It's been a couple of weeks that Nixon has been doing his army man crawl and getting on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth, but now he is officially crawling! He's been doing that for a few days now. I have to keep my eye on him all the time or he is gone! He loves to follow Brooke everywhere so goes. This morning she went into her room to play with all her Barbie stuff and I told her she needed to close the door so that Nixon wouldn't come in and eat all her little pieces. He still followed her and cried once he got to the door! It'll be a very new experience for Brooke, and I think a little frustrating for her as well.

Our First Ice Storm

OK, so this post is mostly just for Becca because before we moved we were talking about ice storms and Becca didn't know what they were exactly, so I took the best pictures I could, but it was 19 degrees outside when I did and I was cold and the wind was blowing so I didn't take to many.

This first picture is from our balcony, and it's all the ice on the ground. I know it looks like snow, but it's not and it's super slippery.

These are the bottom steps of the stairs up to our apartment. They got iced over and Brooke had to hold my hand when she went down stairs or she would slip and fall. The rails were covered in ice too!

See the icicles hanging off the bush? That's how it was on all the trees and street signs. It's really pretty in the trees when the sun shines on it.

Just more ice. It was all over the sidewalk and street. It only melted after it warmed up and the sun was shining on it. If it was in the shade, it stayed there all day. And at night everything refroze if there was still water on it.

The car covered in ice.

Do you like the icicles hanging from our car? It's sort of weird to see.

And this is from my bedroom window. The rain froze to the screen like that. Funny, huh?

Anyway, for the most part that's what it was. Ice just blankets everything. And we stay inside. It depended on which school you went to, but some were closed for two days and some only for one. And the day after the ice storm there was so much fog that I couldn't see the water tower that's right next to our apartments. Luckily no one lost their power. Sometimes the ice gets so thick and heavy on the power lines that it knocks peoples power out, and then it gets really cold inside too. Anyway, so now you know what an ice storm is Becca.

We love and miss you guys, and the warmth. So enjoy the nicer weather for me!