Remember

Remember how I used to blog a lot?  Sometimes I miss it. 

Here we are on Easter Sunday. Aren't we darling? I am trying to remember if Sydney really wore those purple socks with her sandals. I hope not. But there is a real possibility she got away with it. 

Nora

Nora's favorite game these days

Where's Nora?

 There she is!

This valley's on FIRE!

You have to sing the title of this post in, that Alicia Keys song has been in my head all day. 

The Wildes are on spring break.  We met them today in the Valley of Fire.  What a great day, I love my sisters!  It was so fun to see their cute family:)

 There are so many petroglyphs. In case you did not learn this in 5th grade history like I did:

 Petroglyphs are drawings carved into rocks made by ancient peoples.  Yep, peoples.  So you can see there is a dude with a spear, he is going to kill the goat next to him. Below him are two of his friends cheering him on. Jazz hands, jazz hands. Boom. The goat is dead. Good job dude.

Jazz hands

 This weekend just happened to be the world wide atlatl spear throwing competition.  If you do not know what an atlatl is you should look it up because it is really interesting (no it's not).  Okay, fine, here is a link to wikipedia so you can read all about it.

They had arts and crafts for the kids.  Petroglyphs. 

 Rain stick.

 "Canada Dry!" (that is for Bruce and Shauna, one of our favorite Crane family anecdotes)

 Here is Robbie trying his hand at spear/atlatl throwing.

 There of course were many atlatl enthusiasts showing their hand made wares.  Jeff was looking at some, the guy said they were for sale, "you could also buy a t shirt, but you might as well spend your money on something you would use, like an atlatl"  I believe Jeffs exact words were "when in the world would I ever use an atlatl??" haha good times.

Then we had a nice lunch. All of the kids hiked up on this rock, far far away. Did I mention it was a nice lunch? ;)  Sydney had the best time with all of the big kids.  They are all so sweet to her:)

 Then we went for a little hike. This was Nora's first time in the hiking backpack....and the second time we have ever used the hiking backpack. I think 2 hikes in 3.5 years is pretty good.

 Evie and Syd were buddies on the hike.  Mom I know you bought the polka dot hat for Nora, but what can I say?  Whatever Sydney wants, Sydney gets.

 Becky said "If Rachel were here she would be taking a picture of that flower" so I did. You're welcome Rachel:)

 Favorite shot of the day.  It's a Nora photo bomb! :)

 On the way home Syd and I held hands for a while. Then her arm was getting stretched out so she said "Mom, how about you hold my foot now?" 

Any time Syd.  Any time.

Jesus wants Sydney for a Sun BEAM!

On Sunday Sydney became a Sunbeam.  She was a little cranky going into church.  I think she secretly felt nervous. We had been talking about not going to nursery anymore, she was not real psyched to hear it.  We had been having the upcoming Sunbeams come into primary for bits and pieces for the last few months, so at least she knew what to expect.  She did great. But at one point I sat by her (she was sitting at the end of the row) and was showing her and her little friend Tasha how to do the actions to Book of Mormon Stories.  She just gave me a "look" and shook her head. Sigh. 3 years old and already embarrassed about her mom...haha. 

 She had to fill out a survey about herself so at some point she could be the spotlight child.  Here is what her survey said:

How old are you?  3

I have 0 brothers and 1 sister

My favorite food is?  Hamburgers

My favorite place to go is?  The mall

My favorite book is?  Beauty and the Beast

My favorite primary song is?  Jesus wants me for a sunbeam

My favorite scripture story is?  Lehi's dream (lets be honest, I filled this one in myself)

One of my favorite things to do is?  Go on a walk with my friend Tasha and watch Jeopardy and Saved by the Bell with dad!

It is going to be a great year:)

Here is Nora in her beautiful red silk dress.  Doesn't that sound like the title of a Christmas book?  Nora's red silk dress.

I took this while we were hanging out, eating chocolate and drinking Diet Coke  reverently listening to Sacrament Meeting in the mothers room on Sunday.

Love N Stuff

Walkin in a winter wonderland...

 One night in December we headed to Town Square Las Vegas for some snow. Yes, you heard me. It snows every Friday and Saturday night in December. Crazy weather we have here;)

 

Syd was full of anticipation

Nora was just happy to be on her dad's shoulders.

Wheeee!

Right after this photo was taken she tried catching a snowflake on her tongue like on Charlie Brown. She was a little disappointed/grossed out that it tasted like soap.

Thanksgiving and stuff

First is the "and stuff" part.

On November first Neil and I got to upgrade our phones. We found out if we went to the Apple store we could get a free iPhone 4. Score!  I pretty much didn't take pictures on my camera after that. Then on Christmas eve my camera was dead and I could not find the battery charger. Crap. Anyway...

 Nora got cuter every day.













Syd invented the "underhat"

 Nora got carotenaemia and spent the month of November Orange.  I kept thinking I just hadn't washed her face good enough after feeding her, silly mom.

Nora started to get the pincer grasp down. But sometimes it is just to hard to pick tiny things up with your even tinier fingers. So you just have to go straight for the table. Nom nom nom

Sydney made a...spider?  Out of toothpicks and an apple.

                                        She built a "gingerbread house".                                                                      

I finally figured out how to do her hair.  Thank you pinterest.

 We got to Target one day and found Nora like this in her carseat. Parents of the year here people.

 We watched tv with the laundry

 We enjoyed amazing weather

We watched some TV

Now for the Thanksgiving part.

We had Thanksgiving lunch at Neil's office. 

 Rod Stewart came and performed for us. 

PSYCH!  But doesn't he look JUST like him?  And he did sing.

 Orange nose.

The highlight of the weekend was sweet Grandpa Rocky's fun ride.  Wheeee!

 Nora looooved Makayla:)

 Julie, Dewey, Makayla, Zayne and Micah came from Cali.  It was so fun to see them!

 The kids enjoying their dinner. Okay, who am I kidding. Of course they just wanted to play. I told them a story to get them to eat a few bites.

 Then Micah took his shirt off to show us his "big muscles" haha so cute:)  So Zayne took his shirt off.  So Sydney took her shirt off. Naked kids running crazy!

 Don't you know that pie tastes better with your shirt off?

 This cracked me up because it looks like this doll is all "help me, the kids popped my head off and I want to get into the safety of the kitchen, heeeeelp meeeee"

Yum.  This was a little creation Rocky came up with. Roll dough cooked on a stick over an open flame in the backyard. Then fill with pudding and whipped cream.

On Saturday we went home and picked up Mom, Dad and Rachel at the airport. They went to Hawaii for Thanksgiving. How do I sign up for that trip next year?  We went to Macayo's for dinner and then they got on the road. Nora looks sooooo orange in this photo. And Rachel looks soooooo cute:)