Do you ever wake up and think "I need to move furniture today"? It happens to me all the time! Most of the time I can put it off or distract myself, but this week I woke up thinking about it every day!

So, we moved furniture. The hardest part was moving the television cables, but thanks to my amazing hubby it worked! (And we only have a few holes in the wall... that we hid very well with furniture.)

This is the former home of our entertainment center.

We moved it near the fireplace.

I was worried it would be too crowded, but it is actually nice. Cozy.

We now have a GIANT play room. I hope the pool table will get more use now that it has a home that is bigger.


Maura thought it was a blast! She was very *cough* helpful.


She is a hider. I've gotten a kick out her climbing into things lately.


She doesn't even mind when the door is shut. Most of the time she closes it herself.


Then she will sit with the door closed for quite a long time.

It reminded me of Garrett when he was about 3 years old he went through a hiding phase. One day we were at the mall and without us seeing him he climbed into a rack of clothes and stayed there. He was quiet for a long time as we frantically searched the store calling his name and saying "Garrett, where are you?". He never answered and stayed quiet the entire time. Finally we heard him cough and found him in the rack of clothing. It scared me to death. For days after we practiced a new game: When we played hide and seek, we taught him to respond to the call "Garrett, where are you?" with "Here I am." Much better game-fewer heart attacks for mom.

We need to teach Maura to talk so she will answer us when we call.

Anyway, furniture is moved and I love it! Well, at least until I wake up feeling the need to move furniture again.

Boys and Girls

...are so different!

Dallin, for instance, is a doer! He loves to be out kicking a ball, throwing rocks, and climbing trees. So when we had a snow activity scheduled for the Young Men and Young Women organization in our Ward, I knew it would be right up his alley. He had a blast and kept up with the older boys (ages 12-18) quite well!

(Yes, he's the one pretending to massacre the snowman.)



Maura, although I would say she is a busy kid, isn't like Dallin or Garrett when they were little. She just learned to make car noises, but doesn't play with them very long and she doesn't really know how to throw a ball! Shocking!

But, she loves to find small things for her fingers to do. 'Helping' clean out cupboards is one of her favorites.


I caught her pulling things off the shelf and before I grabbed them and cleaned it up I stopped to watch what she was doing (Adam, you should be so proud of me).

She found a honey bear and twisted off the lid,


Opened and closed the hinged cap,


then put it back on again!


Luckily the honey was sealed shut and I didn't have a gigantic sticky mess to clean up. I'm so glad she didn't try to take off the lid of the other honey jar or the syrup!

It's so fun to see the difference in personalities. Dallin and Garrett never sat still long enough to figure out how to unscrew the lid of something. Maura isn't really interested in guns, cars or throwing things.

I can't wait to see what comes next!

President's Day...take two!

Our friends from Utah decided they needed to see the Phoenix Zoo before they headed back to the land of the cold and the snow. We were happy to join them! The kids played hooky from school and the weather cooperated. It was a great day.

Maura really enjoyed watching the animals. The only problem was that they were in cages and she couldn't touch them. I had to resort to buckling her in her stroller so she wouldn't try to climb the fences.



Ooooo, sheep! So exciting.

She finally got to pet the goats and was thrilled. The goats, not so much.


These poor baboons were really bored I guess, they were sitting right against the windows and didn't even flinch when we came close.


We were caught in a peacock traffic jam while we were there. Everyone on the sidewalk stopped and watched as the peacocks crossed the road.


This is a sculpture of an ostrich named Big D!


"Aaaaah, attack of the nose picker baby!" says Dallin.


Again with the posing.


I've been trying to get a picture of the Mookster when she chews her food. She does this side-chewing thing. I finally got one and had to post it.


We had a really great day at the zoo. Thanks friends for letting us tag along with you!

Hieroglyphic trail

On President's day we discovered a new place to hike! One of Dallin's reading teachers at school gave him a map to a fun place to hike. There was no school and we had some friends in town to explore with us so we decided to try it out.

We took our friends the Woolf's and the Montgomery's But left Maura and Sofia with a babysitter.


For most of the hike, this is what our view was like. Beautiful mountains, lush desert (if a desert can be lush, this was), and Dallin waaaaay out in front of everyone.

Next time I will have to bring along a book that helps us know the names of the plants we saw in the desert. We saw so many beautiful ones and didn't know their names.



Every chance he got Dallin would climb anything he could find. He would race ahead, climb a small mountain next to the trail, then as we hiked around the mountain he would run down the other side and meet us.

He loves to pose for the camera. It cracks me up.


We reached the top and found some fun hieroglyphics to decipher.


We dared Dallin to slide down the waterfall, then Annika (the sensible one) talked him out of it.


The Woolf girls are so much fun to have come with us. They are super helpful and good sports. We almost convinced Britt to slide down the waterfall, then Annika talked HER out of it. Sheesh!

Contrary to what this picture looks like, I didn't feel like we were crowded. We met quite a few people on the trail and when we got to the top there was a group of retirees hanging out. We met some friendly and courteous people and really enjoyed ourselves.


I tried to throw Dallin in, but he resisted.


Again with the posing.


It was an awesome hike! It was about two miles in and two miles out. It wasn't a steep climb, but quite rocky. We had a couple of people trip and fall, but minimal blood (good thing Leslie remembered band aids). Anytime someone wants to go, we're up for it again!

The Man I Love.

At least once a year I get to embarrass Adam by telling the entire world (okay, the 12 random people who read this blog) why I love Adam. Here goes (sorry honey):

He is such a stylish guy. He likes to look good (read cool) and has a good sense of fashion. I really love to go shopping with him when I need clothes. He's super good at picking out things that look good and he even brings different sizes and waits outside the dressing room to see how they fit! (I will loan him out for a small fee).



He's such a handsome guy. I love his pretty (read manly and dashing) eyes. A million years ago when we first met I fell in love with his eyes and haven't gotten over it.

I love his determination. When he sets a goal to do something, like run a half-marathon, he works hard to achieve it. He gets up early, plans, and makes sacrifices to make it happen. He did the same thing when he was finishing his master's degree. He would spend time with us in the evening, tuck us all into bed, then spend hours finishing his homework.

He is a hard worker. He doesn't like yard work, but he does it to make our home look good and because I want him to. I love him for that! xoxo


Whoops! How did that get in there....well, now that it is I can say he has an exceptional um, well, you know.

He is a terrific dad and a great example of service and a worthy Priesthood holder. Dallin loves to do anything Adam is doing: home teaching, go to the dump, work on his motorcycle, play x-box, watch movies, play catch in the yard...

Contrary to popular belief, I am glad Adam is a gadget guy. I like that he knows how to make things work and he helps me when I get stuck.


He likes to learn and we do a lot of fun projects together. We've learned about electricity, dry wall, wall paper, paint, plumbing, tile, and most exciting-Chainsaws!


He is always thinking of his family. One time he brought home an owl pellet to dissect with the boys. They worked really hard to get all the bones and glue them in place on another paper. The boys thought that was the coolest thing ever!

Even though he really doesn't like the cold, he still takes me to Star Valley to visit my family. Then he lets me coerce him into bundling up and going outside to PLAY in the snow. THEN, he lets me push him down in it. I love that he's a middle child.

I love that he is a good daddy. Dallin loves him, Garrett adored him and Maura lights up every time he comes home. I love to see her the minute Adam walks in the door. Her eyes get really big, she stands up on her toes and runs to have him pick her up.


He is a great leader of our family. He reminds us to pray together, he gets us up in the morning to read scriptures together, he takes us to church and is a good example to us.


He is just the best husband and Father I could ever ask for. I love you, Adam!

Triplets...

...are very very exciting! Yesterday I had so much fun! We had some friends over for the day and Maura and I had a blast! The most exciting part was when we had to go get Mitchell from school. We had to be creative...

and it worked out rather well! Boe was really good at helping, and the little ones played well together (except for a small incident with scary puppets, but overall it was great!).


Jack, Maura, and Rylie are all about 2 weeks apart. Boe just turned 3 and is quite the helper.

When the rest of the kids got home from school we did homework, then decorated some cookies.

I love it when kids come over and we can do fun projects. These kids were so helpful and fun to have around.


Most of the frosting even got onto the cookies.


Maura helped by eating them.


I think she overdosed on sugar. Yup, just like her momma.


It was a super fun day. We will have to do it again soon!