Easter Extravaganza!

For the last three years, our Easter has been spent in Ohio.
And while we loved spending Easter with all of our friends there, we missed being with family.
So I was so looking forward to spending Easter with all my family this year…
and I was not disappointed!

Our Easter weekend kicked off on Saturday with some egg coloring fun!
5 dozen eggs ended up bright and beautiful!

And then it was time for the egg hunt!
Riker was off running, trying to find as many eggs as he could before his cousins got all of them!

This was the first egg hunt that Olivia has ever participated in and she did great!
She needed help spotting the eggs, but she knew that she needed to pick them up and drop them in her basket!

The fun continued with a sack race.
We needed these kids to burn off some of the energy they had from consuming so much candy!

And of course, SWIMMING!
My parent’s pool has warmed up a bit so the kids could jump right in!

Easter Sunday we woke up bright and early for our 8am church.
We’ve talked a lot with Riker about the true meaning of Easter and he knew that church was extra special on Easter Sunday!

Olivia’s dress was the prettiest thing ever and she knew just how adorable she was!

And Riker was pretty much sick of all the pictures I was taking of him…
but look at that handsome face!
How can I NOT take a million pictures of him!

It was a busy weekend and we loved every minute of it.
Holidays are always so much more special when you are surrounded by the ones you love!

Saturdays Are A Special Day

As a stay at home mom, it is easy to take Saturdays for granted.
When you spend every day of the week going to parks and story times and play groups, Saturday can quickly become just another day to play.
But after surviving the Election Season, in which my husband worked almost every single Saturday, and enduring the endless hours of Bar review, which occupied every single Saturday, I am learning just how special Saturdays can be.

There is nothing sweeter than being able to tell my children that their daddy gets to stay home and play with them all day long.
Riker is always quick to ask if we can do something special on Saturdays…usually requesting a trip to “Old McDonalds” or Jamba Juice.

TJ and I try our best to make Saturdays extra special for our kids.
Less screen time, more play time.
This past weekend, the weather was warm and we knew we wanted to be outside.
While my kids love walking down to our neighborhood park, it just didn’t seem special enough…
so we piled into the car and made a trip to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale.

Trains and carousels and climbing walls and slides galore!
There was never a dull moment and the kids were happy to run from one area of the park to the next.
Smiles were present on every face from beginning to end.

Days later, Riker still talks about the “far away park” (a 30-minute drive does make it pretty far away).
While it isn’t a park that we can play at all the time, it definitely made for a pretty special Saturday.

Keeping Cool

Arizona really only has 2 temperature settings…
Really hot and not so hot.
Sure, we have some chilly days in the winter. But people who live in actual cold places laugh at us.
Now that our “winter” is over, the thermostat is beginning its ascent.
And since my children want to spend every waking moment outside, we have to keep cool!

Riker usually wakes up in the mornings asking me to put his swimsuit on so he can splash in the water.
And Olivia eventually warmed up to it, though she still isn’t a fan of getting her face wet.

The swimming pools are still too cold to jump in, but splashing in the water in our backyard keeps us cool enough (for now!)

The best part of our water play is Olivia’s swimming suits.
Sure, Riker’s suit is super awesome and all, but Olivia’s has a tutu.
A TUTU!

And this one is pink…with a ruffle…and a flower!
I literally had to limit myself with just buying two swimming suits…little girl swim suits are adorable and I just wanted to buy them all!
(of course, a trip to Lake Powell this summer may require a few more suits…)

Happy St. Patty’s Day!

It’s Saint Patrick’s Day!
We all made sure to wear green to church today to avoid getting pinched!

I hadn’t talked to Riker about St. Patrick’s Day very much, he’s been much more interested in Easter…but he learned at preschool that if you don’t wear green, you get pinched!
Unfortunately, Riker doesn’t own any green Sunday appropriate clothing so I had to whip up a little bow tie for him to wear to church.

Of course, now that I’ve seen Riker in a bow tie I may just have to make him a dozen or so more to wear!

Stuff Riker Says

I used to call this “Conversations with a two year old”
but Riker is three now…and that’s a really long title…so I changed it.
Deal.

As we are driving to a restaurant for dinner:
”Don’t worry Mom, I have the directions on my phone. It’s a pretend phone but it has the directions on it. Go right then left, up down up down, and we’ll be at the restaurant!”

Pretty much every time we tell Riker “no” he starts to argue with us and his arguments always start with:
”Well, here’s the thing…”

Sometime Riker plays too rough with Olivia and as soon as she starts to cry he shouts “Its ok, Mom! I will calm her down!”

“I’m not cute, I’m handsome!”

“I just had a bath…now I smell like a man!”

Winter in Arizona

Winter in Arizona is pretty much the only reason people put up with summertime.
February is always the best month ever…most days the weather is in the 70s and positively gorgeous.

We love having a space of our own in the backyard.
We spent afternoons drawing masterpieces with chalk and blowing bubbles to the sky.

The warm sunshine just draws us out and we want to spend every moment possible outside.
I even caught TJ napping outside one day.

Olivia and Riker can just wander around the backyard all day.
Olivia is obsessed with rocks and just carries handfuls around with her.
Riker plays baseball and fights off the monsters that live in the bushes.
I sit in the sunshine, reading books, and apparently getting sunburned.

We were even able to go swimming at grandma’s house.
Of course, we stayed in the jacuzzi (with the heater turned on), but it was still a warm enough day to go swimming without freezing when you got out!
February is always the best month…when we lived in Ohio and it was still snowing in February, I would dream of the warm sunny days of Arizona.
It is totally worth the excessive heat in the summer to have a beautiful winter like this!

Balentimes

Riker has been talking about “Balentimes” day for several weeks now.
Any time we saw decorations or treats at the store, he made sure to point them out.
Of course, he really wanted to buy all of the Balentimes treats that we saw…but we limited ourselves to just a few!

I spent my Valentine’s Day with the two cutest little Valentines ever.
We had smoothies, made cupcakes, and played at the park.
Pretty much a perfect Valentines Day for these two!

To my Riker: I love your silly personality and your sweet soul…you might cause me all sorts of stress every day, but it quickly melts away when you hug me tight and tell me I’m your best friend.
To my LivvyBug: You are my cuddle bug and I love it! You might be a bigger trouble maker than your brother, but I love your adventurous spirit and spunk!

When TJ came home from work, the children were quickly tucked into bed so we could celebrate Valentines uninterrupted.

Our real Valentine Date will be this weekend (Benihanas!), but I still wanted to make the actual day of love special.
And nothing says “I Love You” more than a pot of cheese!

We enjoyed our fondue for two while being able to catch up on our days without two kids demanding our attention!
TJ has been crazy busy with work and studying for the bar, so it was nice to take a break for a couple hours and spent some quality time together.

To my husband: I am incredibly lucky to be your wife. I love your determination and passion…you want to give your children everything and work so hard to achieve all your goals. I love how much you love your family and I know you would do anything for us!

Happy Birthday!

Today is a very special birthday!
TJ’s grandma Dorothy is 82 today!
We absolutely love Grandma Dot and are so sad that we don’t get to see more of her.

But, she’s coming to AZ to visit in March and we are definitely looking forward to that!

Today is also TJ’s GREAT-grandma’s birthday…she’s 102!
We were able to visit her in Spokane a couple years ago, just before her 100th birthday (look at how little Riker was!)

We are wishing Happy Birthday to these two amazing women!
We are so grateful to have them in our lives and for the wonderful people that they are!

We love you!

When It Rains, Make Rainbows!

Over a year ago, I heard about the Color Run 5K and I knew I wanted to participate.
As it turned out, I was in Ohio during the AZ race and in AZ during the Ohio race!
But finally, the stars aligned and I was able to sign up for the race!

My sisters and I signed up months ago and we were so excited!
Granted, none of us “trained” for this “race” since we’d heard it is more for the fun of it than anything else, but we were still excited!
Our excitement was slightly dampened (literally) when we woke up the morning of the race to RAIN.
But we were going to have a good time, rain or shine!

And what a fun time we had!
Yes, we were cold and yes we were wet, but by golly did we have fun!
Very little running took place, mostly because the large crowds made it difficult to do much more than power walk.
Along the route were different “Color Stations” where volunteers would pelt the Color Runners with colored powder.
We all made sure to get as colorful as we could!

Definitely one of the funnest things I’ve done in a long time!
And we will be signing up again…hopefully next time it won’t be raining!

3 Years Old

Riker had a birthday!
I cannot believe I have a 3 year old…where has the time gone?!
Riker’s birthday was a fun, busy day.
When we woke up, we headed straight to Riker’s first day of soccer.
Watching those little kids run up and down the field was adorable
(and TJ gets to help coach Riker’s team so it’s doubly fun!)

That evening, we had a birthday party for Riker at Peter Piper Pizza.
It was so much easier for me than planning and prepping for a party at home, and Riker loved it!
Pizza, games, cake…what more could a 3 year old want!

Riker is at such a fun stage, but he’s also a stubborn little pill sometimes.
The best way to describe him these days is a Sour Patch Kid…
first he’s sour (does something naughty), then he’s sweet (gives me a smile and tells me that I’m his best friend).
Thanks to in idea found on Pinterest, I asked Riker 20 questions on his birthday which I plan to ask every year.
Some of his answers were obvious, others surprised me.

1. What is your favorite color?
Red

2. What is your favorite toy?
Racecars

3. What is your favorite fruit?
Strawberries

4. What is your favorite tv show?
Blues Clues

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?
PB&J sandwich.

6. What is your favorite dinner?
Enchiladas

7. What is your favorite game?
Toy Story Kinect

8. What is your favorite snack?
Yogurt

9. What is your favorite animal?
Lions

10. What is your favorite song?
Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam

11. What is your favorite book?
10 Hungry Caterpillars

12. Who is your best friend?
Eli

13. What is your favorite cereal?
Apple Jacks

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?
play Baseball

15. What is your favorite drink?
Cranberry Juice

16. What is your favorite holiday?
Halloween

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?
my red Lobster

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
French Toast

19. What is your favorite movie?
Bee Movie

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Doctor

Of course, we can’t celebrate Riker’s birthday without celebrating TJ’s too.
TJ’s birthday was the day before Riker’s and these birthday buddies were happy to share their birthday cake together!