Raising butterflies

Tyler got a butterfly habitat for Christmas, but I think I was the most fascinated watching them grow.First we got the teeny, tiny catterpillars, that you could hardly see.

Only a week and a half later, they were big and fat!



Shortly after that, they made their cocoons.

And shortly after that, we had these bright orange butterflies! I have never seen anything grow and change so fast!

NY, NY

Last fall, Russ and I took a trip to the Big Apple for a work event. It was short, but great. We stayed at Times Square, saw Hairspray, shopped, and wandered around.

We headed to the Murrow Awards where Russ accepted an award for KTAR. Sitting near us were Katie Couric, Solidad O'brien, Tim Russert's family, Lara Logan, Bob Woodruff, etc.

Ahhh, real dessert. Why doesn't Phoenix have real desserts? It seems like we have to be in a coastal state to get this stuff.

The Met

The empty Duck Tour- it was fun, anyway. JJ was in NY for business, so he met us for half the day.

I wanted to see how the temple squeezed into NYC, and it did very well. I was disappointed the church above the temple was closed- I wanted to take a wander around. 

Tyler First Baseball Game

Train Park

Over spring break, we met Grammy at the Scottsdale Train Park for a picnic and a couple train rides.

This picture is a little blurry, but I love Camden's face at the beginning of the ride...
the next time around, he looked like this. 

While Tyler sits the carousel out, Makenna loves it. When we went to the zoo a couple days later, she could hardly look at the animals, just waiting for her next carousel ride.

a quieter day

The last couple weeks have been so crazy busy!! Today has been a light schedule, and I'm TIRED! Hence the blog catching up- an excuse to sit on my couch and still feel like I'm doing something! Here is some random stuff that deserves to be posted.

This is me on some glassy Powell waters last summer. Russ threw together one of his little videos of our trip. If you are not family or Jen H., you might be pretty bored, though. For the interested, click here.

The other day, Camden was mad that I told him he had to take a bath, so he buried his head in the closet. I couldn't get him to come out, so I just hopped in the shower. I could hear him crying the whole time, so I just stayed in my nice, hot shower. He finally stopped crying, and I got out to find him sound asleep. I covered his legs with a blanket, and he woke up like this 2 hours later (with carpet lint embedded in his face.)

Russ and I took a quick trip to LA with the Phoenix Suns. We had a great time- stayed at the Beverly Hills Wilshire on Rodeo Dr., had dinner with the Suns' owner and coach, ate well, and went to the Lakers game. Russ made a quick video of this event, too. He was trying to be discreet with his camera, so there's a lot of video of my backside- so sorry. But if you are interested, here's the link.

Can you tell we like our pool a lot? I couldn't get in this nice, toasty spa with the kids this time because I am 14 weeks pregnant!

Hanging in the suite at US Airways for High School Musical on Ice! Fun times!

Camden's hand-me-down from the next-door neighbors (who take great care of their toys!) Camden's put a LOT of miles on this already.

Wildlife Zoo and Aquarium

Over spring break, we took the kids to the Wildlife Zoo and Aquarium. We had so much fun! The kids loved it, especially the aquarium. And Camden especially loved the "Diego birds" and "Baby Jaguar."No, I don't know why Tyler sat himself in the stroller- I do know that those were terrible snowcones and they were $3 each!



My favorite thing about this picture is that behind Camden, you can see Tyler's one apprehensive finger dangling above the water.

Russ likes to put short videos together from our little pocket camera, so if you want to see more about our zoo day, you can click here for part 1, and here for part 2. It takes a minute to load, so if you don't care what's at the park or you're not my mother, you'll probably want to pass. We did get some really great pictures of the animals, and some cute footage of the kids.

All I want for Christmas...

Last Sunday, Tyler finally lost one of his top front teeth. He was getting ready for church in his usual manner- EXTREMELY SLOW. So Russ went in and ripped his pj shirt off his head, which caught on his tooth, and it was out! So then it took even longer to get him ready for church...

Monday, I forgot to take his picture, and Tues. came. We were at a friend's house on Tues., and he fell down a ramp in the backyard. Pop-out came the other front tooth! He's left with a black hole and no new teeth in sight, a slight lisp, and inability to bite into all the foods I usually put in his lunch.

April Fools Day

The morning of April 1st, we woke up with a rooster right outside our bedroom windows- crowing before 6am, just like he should.

He came with a note attached, and we knew exactly who he came from.

So to show them what we thought of that rooster, we set him and his cage out in the front yard with a new sign that said, "Bulk Trash."

(We actually just wanted some attention...)

Because this is what we really did with that rooster!

(No animals were really hurt, except for maybe this poor chicken that Russ bought from a chinese market.)

The After Christmas Christmas

Yah- that's a banana holder. Russ is always trying to mess with the kids, but I really don't know if he knew what that was at first.

Oh wait- that wasn't for Camden...
I thought we were going to Texas the day after Christmas, so we didn't ship gifts, and Russ's parents didn't ship gifts. I thought we would have a second Christmas at their place. Well, we didn't end up going to Texas. So Russ's parents sent a large package that we opened after Russ got home from work one day. It was fun to have a second Christmas! I sent their gifts late, too- I hope they got there by Valentine's Day...

New Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve,

in the backyard,

with marshmallows and Martinelli's

Temple Lights

I don't know why I haven't been into blogging lately. Maybe Facebook is too easy...

or maybe I'm just lazy.

So here goes some posts of what are now old pictures....

Trip to the temple lights-- AFTER Christmas. And we'll do it the same way next year, too.

Fun Company

Just before Christmas, our good friends, JJ and Christy, and their 4 girls came to stay with us for a couple days. The kids all piled in one room, and stayed up until the wee hours. They also set their alarm for 5am so they could get up and "talk"- I didn't know that talking was so cool at this age! I guess they couldn't get enough of each other.

I only have 4 barstools, but everyone wanted to eat breakfast together, so they just squished in!

When I went jogging early in the morning , I asked Russ to listen for the little ones. When I got back, this is how I found them- the 7 of them all squished together again. 

And this is how I found Russ.

By the end of the visit, our kids weren't so inseparable anymore. I would describe my kids as highly sleep-deprived! It's a good thing they had so much fun before they lost it.

Christmas Additions

My kids have surprised me. We've never had pets, but they are taking very good care of their new Christmas gifts--

Tyler's "Hermit"

Makenna's "Purple Butter"

My Favorite Christmas Picture

On Christmas Eve, we let the kids pick one gift to open before they went to bed. I was very happy they chose to open gifts from each other!