What a Great Day!

WARNING: VERY LONG POST WITH ALOT OF PICS!!!!! Saturday we had a great day, 2 of the kids had activities in the valley and so we headed down for an exciting afternoon. Knowing we would have a few hours in between the 2 activities we called a few friends to try to hang out, but got no response. Mom had said she had something for us and would be close to where we would be, so we made loose plans to meet up with her at some point. We started with a birthday party for a friend of Danielle, whom she met at a Rotary Club Youth Leadership camp. We dropped her off around 51 ave and Campbell, then called mom. Mom and Auntie Shelley were hanging around Glendale at a Scrapbook Convention, so we made plans to meet in downtown Glendale. While there a game of tag broke out with Danny and the other three kids. Sammy played periodically, trading between his 2 Spiderman toys and tag. I took these pics while they all played!

I love how Danny gets into playing with his kids! Here he is "hiding" from Kody who is "it". What a great man, or a nut whichever you prefer! hahahahahaaa Below I believe is one of the quick tags from Lolo so Danny can get Kody for her! The kids love to make Lolo "it" since she runs a little slower, than they can out run her and make her really mad. Danny does the "tag me in" and then comes to her rescue.

Danielle decided she was ready to go at 3:30, the party had just started at 2:00, but she didn't know anyone other than the birthday girl and when we dropped her off, we knew it was not her preferred enviroment. I like that she is able to recognize when she is uncomfortable and removes herself from the situation. When we started to get ready to leave, Kody gave Sammy a quick skateboarding lesson, since the final destination was a skate demo. When Danielle was ready a little earlier than we planned, we had about an hour to burn. We had tried to call Danny's Aunt Denise but got no answer, we decided to just drop by. Sure enough she was home along with one of the cousins, Angie. We spent about an hour visiting with them then headed to Paradise Valley for a "Come Skate with Us" evening at the park with Hobo skateboards.

For the last couple of years we have toyed with the idea of starting our own skate brand. Due to a funny family dinner the name we came up with was Hobo skateboards. Danny and Kody have come up with numerous logos and write Hobo on everything, including Dan's welding helmet for work. One of his coworkers saw it a few weeks ago and asked if Dan if he knew those people too, Danny asked who? Apparently some friends of Joe, the coworker, in Scottsdale started the same brand a few years ago for his 4 sons who all wanted to skate. Since finding this out, we found thier website and bought Kody a board for his birthday. We also became fans of thiers on FB, they posted a flyer about this event. It looked like fun and Kody wanted to go, so we come to our final stop of the day.
Sammy loves skateboarding too, he can stand on one or push it all over. Kody and Danny dressed him for the event, including putting his hat on right. Cute isn't he, a little skater in training!

I couldn't help taking all of these pics, Sammy was way too cute trying to be like Kody. Kody spent alot of time watching, weighing the other skaters. I think he was a bit intimidated, it took him quite a while to get going. We finally told him to either skate or we were leaving, so he went for it.

Sammy REALLY wanted in!

Sammy gave up trying to get into the park and decided to let Spiderman have a ride.
Lolo got bored quick, and noticed a play ground. So the girls and I literally drug Sammy, he wanted to stay and get in the way of the skaters, away to go play.

We had a great time, and left Danny to help Kody gain his confidence so he would skate. I took so many pics I could hardly pick which ones to post.

Sammy finally gave in too and had a great time, he LOVES slides! Danielle had a great time chasing him around, until her and Lolo discovered the tire swing.

Eventually I called Danny to have him come push the girls, even with my new muscles they wore me out. lol I love the action in this picture, they had a blast! They both barely fit on the swing, since it was made for little kids, but it didn't get in their way one bit.

Near the end of the evening I discovered what I thought would be a sweet picture opportunity. We called Kody over and tried to set the kids up, Sammy wanted nothing to do with this part of the playground, and Kody was upset because he felt like he was sucking, and Lolo wouldn't sit still, the camera wouldn't focus with so much movement and this is the best one out of all the many pics I tried to get. So we headed back to the skate park, since it was getting dark everyone went back over to watch Kody skate for just a little longer.

Danielle took a great pic of her and Lolo. What beautiful daughters I have!

Then tragedy struck...when we got back they were starting a final best trick contest, most of the skaters went over to watch, so we let Sammy play around the bowl. Danielle and I noticed that Lolo was not with Danny anymore and took our eyes of Sam to scan the park for her, I had just shut my phone from texting Dan, when a boy skating in the bowl fell and his board shot out and nailed Sammy right below the eye. I'm not sure who was more upset, Sammy or the boy who's board hit him. He apologized a dozen times. Danny noticed I was holding Sam and that a few people had gathered around us, so he came running, and we explained what happened It took us awhile to calm down Sammy and of course he wouldn't let us put ice on it, so Kody graciously said that we could go. We finally got Sammy calmed down with the promise of food.

It was an instant lump, even as I bent down to pick him up, as the blow knocked him over, I could see the knot already on his face. I think it almost quadrupled in size just standing there. Once we made sure it wasn't his eye and that there was probably no bone damage we worked on calming all of us down, and then of course took pics.

We then discovered that we were so close to Sardella's Pizza & Wings, YUMMY!!!!! That helped all of us destress, and feel better.

Of course when we woke up on Sunday, it had turned into a full out black eye and we have since dealt with the stares and questions that come from being with a toddler that has an ugly injury. Sammy used to tell people, "Bateboard, owie!" and point at his eye, now after telling so many people, he just points and says "Ow!" Needless to say that he will live as will I, even though I feel pretty bad for taking my eyes off of him. I know accidents happen, but still it's never nice when a little one gets hurt like this.
All in all though we had a great day, I loved seeing Mom and Shelley, and getting our March~12 months of Christmas packet. Loved playing with the kids at the park, watching Sammy and Kody skate and seeing Danny's Aunt Denise. These are the days we live for!

February

I discovered that I had hardly posted anything in the month of Feb. So here it is in a nutshell, warning there are a TON of pics in this one! Mid-month I babysat the twin babies of good friends of ours, Megan and Jesse Aurich. What a fun day. Sammy decided he needed to lay down just like the babies and play. He enjoyed this til I added some of his toys into the fun. Then he decided that Kloee and Lincoln were not as much fun to have as he thought. I decided that women who have kids within less than 2-3 years are crazy! If you can handle it good for you, but I know that I would not. The twins were fun and we had a great day, only a few stressful moments, they didn't really sleep long and wanted to be held quite a bit. But I haven't seen them in a few months and I know they were probably unsure of thier enviroment. All was going well until I tried to lay Kloee down for a nap, in the playpen in my room, and Sammy dissapeared. I then heard her cry and discovered that Sammy decided she needed toys and threw some into her, hitting her on the head. Sammy was able to do this because I was trying to get Lincoln to sleep and giving him a bottle. So they were up for a little while longer. But all in all it was a good day and everyone survived!

Lincoln Aurich

Later that week we had a birthday, it is official I have 2 teenagers! Kody turned 13 this month. What a fun boy he is, despite the normal things that go along with a blooming future man! The only half listening has already started and the "I work so hard, why do I have to do so much" has also shown itself. heheheheheheee But he is back at sports and just made the soccer team at his new middle school. I am so proud of him in dealing with the switching of schools. At least socially he has done great, he has had a few issues with adjusting to new teachers, but his grades are on the way back up.

We took him to Denney's for his birthday dinner, he wanted breakfast and they were the closest place that serves it all day. While we were sitting at dinner I asked about a cake, since I didn't plan ahead and make one. He stated he wanted Twinkies piled up with either frosting or whip cream on top. So, after dinner I quickly ran into Walmart and believe it or not they were completely out of Twinkies, so he settled for cupcakes. I love it when they blow out the candles, it is so much fun to sing happy birthday and eat cake, I think it makes your birthday worth it no matter what else you get. By the way he did get spoiled too...he got a 2 yr subscription to his fave skateboard mag and a new board, which is a little bittersweet, for the last few years we have talked about starting our own skateboard brand and calling it HOBO boards.
Danny and the kids write HOBO on everything, well a co worker saw it on Danny's welding helmet and said, "Oh you know about HOBO boards too?" It turns out a family in Scottsdale already started it, so Kody got a HOBO skateboard just not his own design. Oh well!!! 5teen boards sounds kinda cool too, don't ya think?

Kody decided to show us a little happy dance as he came back from getting a diaper from Sammy's room. He grabbed Kong, a giant stuffed gorilla, and a fun hat and danced away!!!

Of course I spent more than enough time on the computer, FBing instead of blogging though. I love how the kids find the camera and play with it, there always surprises when I go to upload pics off of it!

Also in Feb. we had a "New home BBQ". It was so much fun, we had a good turn out, however I didn't think to grab the camera til evening when almost everyone had gone home. So, I didn't get pics of everyone, sorry. We had a blast and worked hard to decorate and get the house ready for everyone to see. If you notice my new computer desk, behind Ralphie, Danny built it that morning. I had only been asking for about 3 weeks, but better late than never! hehehehehee

As the night wore on we ended up with a couple of families just hanging out and to our surprise the entire YM/YW from Territorial showed up after the Stake Standards night. The kids were so excited to see everyone. These are just a few pics from that day!

Here's our friend Bree, we met her through the Academy of Performing Arts. She is alot of fun as is her fiance, Sean. They are trying to take Beth and Walter's place I think. They seem to hang out forever, which is just fine with us!!!

Sammy had a great time, he entertained the two younger Wilcken girls most of the night. Here they are watching a movie in his room, all piled on his bed. (Some might call him a mack daddy :P)

Telling stories with the Wilckens, they seem to be some of the only ones who have enough stories to keep up with Dan.

Since Kody's birthday was the week prior to the BBQ, he got to invite a few friends over, unfortunately Will was the only one who was able to make it. We like Will, he has a good sense of humor and is fun to be around, we were glad he was able to make it.

Audrey really enjoyed her giant cupcake that her parents brought from Costco, it was about the only thing she ate all night. But she had fun letting Lolo do her hair and then just being Audrey, she is one of the cuties from our Sunbeam class, last year.

When the youth showed, surprisingly a Mario Bros war broke out! They had so much fun! It really touched me that Jeanine would go out of her way to bring all of them over! Thanks Jeanine the kids loved having all of you guys here!

To end the month, we went to the Valley this last wknd. I am going to do a whole post on the weekend, but figured I would put a few of the pics in anyway. Danielle had a birthday party for a girl she met at her RYLA conferance, also Kody discovered that HOBO boards was hosting a "Come and Skate With Us" night at the Paradise Valley Skate Park, all on Saturday. So we loaded up and headed down for all the fun, while Danielle was at her party we drove over to downtown Glendale and met with mom and Aunt Shelley, Danny and the kids played tag.

The day ended with one black eye, see next post for more details, and pizza and wings at Sardella's...yum yum!!!

All in all I think February was a good month, we got another teenager, finished decorating the house (mostly) had some fun times and fun peeps over! I will try to post more from here on out to keep from having to do such long posts, but I can't promise anything!!

Oh and I started working out...my legs have been so sore!

Unwanted Insights

I love how you can be sitting somewhere, expecting to get nothing out of it and then BAM you realize something.  Last night Danielle and I were at the New Beginnings program for YW with the new ward and we were both on guard thinking it would be dumb and uninspiring.  The thought came to me that maybe we have a wall up, maybe we are not fully embracing all that this ward has to offer.  The program was wonderful.  the leaders did a great job, they had an olympic theme and while the girls passed the torch they each told of a scripture hero or “olympic” star, that had the characteristics that come from living each YW value.  The girls wore scarves in the colors of the values and a sweet headband.  Each leader presented their age girls with a “gold medal” (YW torch charm necklace) and talked about each of the girls and why they love them so much.  When they talked about a few of the girls that Danielle feels are the coldest to be around, they stated how friendly they were and how they go out of their way to make everyone feel welcome.  I felt Danielle tense up at these words and I grabbed her hand to try and comfort her.  The thought hit that even though we felt like we went in with an open mind, maybe we held on to the feeling of love that we have for the Territorial Ward and put up an imaginary wall.  Maybe we sent out the vibe that we felt this was temporary or that we didn’t really want to be there, even though we all know this is where the Lord wants us.  I still am trying to figure out why we are here, but maybe we don’t need to worry about that and learn to let some of these new peeps in.  If these girls are truely that welcoming than why didn’t Danielle feel it, she usually goes in head first and friendly herself…maybe she isn’t ready to leave all those good friends she has in Territorial.  My question is how do we truely let ourselves enjoy this ward?  Especially since we have put up a very high wall in the last few weeks.

I do really like the leaders in this new YW organization, and feel that they do have the best intentions, I hear the ward talking about how wonderful the YW are and have to wonder if we have unknowingly pushed them away.  I want to “blindly” go in, I feel that I have been very judgmental since we moved, that is normally not me and I want to make it go away.  Especially after such wonderful talks last night and about receiving His image in your countenance.  Tonight I am going to carpool to the ladies night out activity with the YW president, her son is also in Sammy’s gymnastics class he started this week.  I enjoyed talking with her during the class on Monday.  I also really enjoy the 2nd counselor, she seems so genuine and like myself as really had to gain a new testimony as an adult, after some issues that have plagued her family.  I am so thankful that I went with Danielle last night and listened to these wonderful women talk, I want to help Danielle overcome her feelings and give this ward a second chance!  I am so thankful for unasked inspiration.  I am so thankful that the Lord knows who I am and can help me and that I have learned to listen!

The Roads are No Longer Safe!

Danielle has received her learner's permit! Beware, if you are driving in our area these days! It took her just twice at taking the test to finally pass, and boy was she happy. Now this may be dating myself, but I remember the day they gave you a blue piece of paper as your permit. We didn't have the fancy equipment to print an ID card for one. She is doing ok, but is definately a beginner, any tips for riding with her would be appreciated. I try to be careful and patient, giving tips as we go, but when she gets too close without stopping I have a tendancy to scream STOP! Or when she can't tell which lane is hers on a four lane road and is straddling the white lines I get a little scared! So any good advice would be appreciated!