We love the train park!

Over President's Day weekend my brother and sister-in-law, Dusty and Marilyn, and their little boys, (who are the same ages as my little boys) came to town. While Tim, Hog and all the "big boys" in the family went out to shoot shotguns, we went to one of our favorite places i... The McCormick Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale. This park is so fun. We love to ride the train and the carousel and going there at Christmas when it is all lit up is one of our favorite holiday traditions. My kids favorite thing is the ghost town playground. It was a great way to spend a Saturday playing with our cousins. We are going back soon.

My nephew on the curvy slide

The swing was Cupcake's favorite part

Albert showed her skills on the zipline

Grandma with the boys.

44 Years and Still Going Strong!!

My parents were married on Valentine's Day in 1964. They have a great marriage and I am so grateful to have parents who love each other and aren't afraid to show it. (Even if their PDAs made me want to gag when I was a teenager!) My Dad has always followed the advice of President David O. McKay, "The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." And my mom has always stood by my dad even when things were difficult. The first half of their marriage had its share of separation as my dad served in the Navy and they moved many times. My mom even stood by my dad when he presented a plan to move to another state with five children, live in a tent for three months, use an outhouse, bathe at the campground down the road and cook with only a microwave so he could fulfill his dream of building a log house in the mountains of Colorado. After 44 years, 5 children and soon to be 19 grandchildren, they are happily awaiting their next phase of life with a mission call that should be coming anyday.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!! My life and the lives of our little family have been so blessed because of your love for each other. We love you!!!

Cousin Valentine's Day Party

For the fourth year in a row we hosted a Valentine's Day party for the cousins. There are 17 cousins and we are sooooo lucky that for right now, we all live close to each other. We do the same thing every year--frost heart shaped sugar cookies, exchange valentine's and decorate bags to take the valentine's home. I contemplated trying to do something a little different this year but ultimately decided to go with tradition. Our kids had so much fun helping to decorate the house and get things ready. The weather was perfect so we were able to do it outside. The kids had a great time!! Thanks to Grandma for making the cookies and our aunts for making it all so fun. We love our cousins!!!

Hog and Bert w/Tim finally deciding to do some yard work while the party was going on!

Cupcake

On the swing set.

Albert showing off her acrobatic skills.

Hog decorates his bag

Cousins having some fun!

Freezing Cold Snausage!

I absolutely LOVE this picture. I laugh everytime I look at it. Tim and the boys went to the ranch on New Years Day! It was about 20 degrees, which for us thin-blooded Arizonans, is quite cold. Snausage froze the whole time they were there and was more than a little grumpy. Tim got him to wear Uncle T's hat to warm him up and he refused to smile but also refused to take the hat off!! We love our Super Snausage!!!

Disneyland!

Our latest adventure was a quick trip to Disneyland in January with Grandpa and Uncle T and family. There were no crowds and we walked on to nearly every ride. Cupcake is noticeably absent as we left her home with Grandma and Grandpa H. We missed her lots but we stick by our family rule that you have to be 40 inches to go to Disneyland. It really is better that way. We had a blast!

These two loved being at Disneyland together!

We really did have a "blast" on Astroblasters.

Snausage ran all the way around the Dumbo ride to make sure he got to ride in "a green one"

Are we photogenic or what?!

With Grandpa by the family brick at the entrance to Disneyland.

Welcome to our blog

We are offically bloggers. It is hard for me to believe that anyone will be that interested in our little world and what we are doing, but at least one person has promised me they would read our blog. (Rachel, that would be you!) I have been contemplating entering the world of blogging for a long time and my biggest obstacle has been coming up with a name. We are just normal people who love our kids. We love watching them grow and seeing them accomplish new things. We strive to live our religion and be good people. We aren't out saving endangered species or finding cures for diseases. We don't win great awards and we aren't on TV. But I do believe that the little things we do in our life, do add up to big things, so the title of our blog comes from the words of the prophet Alma to his son Helaman, “But behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6). So, this blog will probably be filled with the small and simple things that our family does every day. Hopefully, many years from now, Tim and I can look back and see that it all added up to great things being brought to pass. Enjoy!