4th of July

This year for the fourth of July we had clouds, rain and 80 degree temperatures!  It was amazing.  

Since the holiday was on a Wednesday this year, and last year we were stuck in a parking garage until midnight, we opted for weekend fireworks.  In downtown Mesa there is a Celebration of Freedom.  We went last year and the kids loved the water slides and bounce houses.  This year we went to the pool in the afternoon and then decided to just wait until the fireworks started to go.  We parked in an empty lot (with only a couple other cars) and had a great view with no crowd.  It was sweet.  We forgot our chairs and there were a lot of little thorny things getting into our flip flops so we didn't want to put the blanket down.  The back of the van worked great.  We went with our friends and the boys loved having Brooklyn hang out in our car for a while.  It was a pretty long/decent fireworks show.  The kids need more opportunites for fireworks than just the 4th.  They really love them.  Here we all our with our glow sticks.

Then on the 4th we just hung out and enjoyed the rain for most of the day.  We ate Hudson's birthday lunch at Grimaldi's and went to Grandma's house for dinner.  She set up a backyard pool and by the end the whole   backyard was a pool.  The boys loved it.

Then we ate some great food and did some firecrackers.  A nice, relaxing, fun day!

Hudson's birthday shirt doubled as his patriotic 4th of July outfit.  I figured cut off jeans went perfectly with "White Trash Christmas!"  

St. Patty's

Saturday we met some friends up in Fountain Hills to watch the fountain turn green.  We just pulled out our fireworks blanket to sit on and enjoyed the wind.  The kids are still talking about it and keep making fountain replicas at home.  

Christmas

We had a great Christmas.  Hudson enjoyed opening his presents.

 And playing with everyone else's toys.

Porter threw tantrums mostly because he didn't want to share.

He opened presents.

And showed excitement for his new trains.

Carson learned how to play with new toys.

And was our little drummer boy.

Travis made scrambled eggs with green peppers, onions, and bacon for breakfast.  We layed around the rest of the day and went to my brother, Ethan's house for dinner.  He smoked a turkey and it was delicious. Oh and Travis spent most of the day solving a rubix cube that we have had for like a year, so I hardly saw him... nice day to do that.  Oh well.  We had a very nice, very relaxing day. 

 I am so thankful for this time of year.  I love Christmas, even without the cold and snow.  I am thankful for our Savior, Jesus Christ and his birth.  I am thankful for our friends and family and I hope you all had a merry Christmas!

Happy Fourth, Yummy Cake!

We had a fun holiday weekend. Well, as much fun as you can have when it is 110 degrees outside.

Friday, we met Trisha, Brian, Logan and Jaxon at the pool in the afternoon. Somehow I didn't get any pictures. But this is Carson after a day of swim lessons and then the pool all day.
On Saturday we hung out in the house and let the kids get some good naps in. Carson woke up really cranky anyway. Then, at about 4 we went to Travis' parents house to grill out and hang out and play with the water toys and kiddie pool in the backyard. The food was all so good and we had a great time.
Trisha and I decided to make a cake that we had seen on the Conversations With a Cupcake blog.

It doesn't look too enormous here. Just a plain ol' cake covered in white frosting.
Then we added some sprinkles.

We were so excited to cut into it and see what it looked like and then taste it!

It was full of fruit inside, so we decided it was healthy. The layers are: purple/blackberries, blue/blueberries, green/lime, yellow/lemon, orange/orange and red/rasberry. And the frosting was white chocolate. It was very tasty. But I felt really sick afterwards.

Here is everyone enjoying it.

Trisha and Jaxon

Carla (Travis' mom)

Brian and Logan

Then after all of the food, we went to see the fireworks. We got there about 5 minutes before they started and we were right underneath them. Carson loved them and Porter didn't mind them at first. But they were REALLY loud because we were so close and he was really hungry anyway. This is Carson and Travis watching the show.