Outside toys

We don't have much of a yard, but there is some gated area behind our house and Kayton likes it when we go out.  It's a gravel yard so we don't do too much, but I have been looking around and found a few toys on Craigslist.  I found a swing and one of those sit and ride in cars from Little Tikes.  The kids have loved them.  I feel bad because Kayton can't really push his car around, but he loves to sit in it.  Merrick on the other hand, loves his swing.  I think I get the best laughs out of him while he is in a swing.  Sometimes, I don't even have to push him, he is just fine sitting and looking around. 

The pack n play

We have our pack n play set up in our office so that when I do babysitting they will have a place to sleep.  Sometimes though it turns into the funnest place for Kayton and Merrick to play together.  Kayton gets so upset if I have to take Merrick out for whatever reason but it is so fun to sit and watch them play together.  Sometime Nate and I will sit next to it and look through the mesh side and we will push our faces against theirs or play peek-a-boo.  I may think it's cuter than it actually is, but I love it. 

His first bowl

The other day, Kayton had his first bowl of Graham crackers and milk.  Now this isn't a big deal unless your part of my Mom's side of the family.  My Grandpa started it (as far as I know) and it's been something that a lot of the grandkids love and it's one of my favorite things to eat in the morning.  You just take graham crackers and break them up in a bowl and add milk just like cereal.  It looks gross and probably sounds gross to some, but it's just mushed crackers and it's irresistible to me. Now you can't have just any graham crackers, they have to be the Nabisco crackers (aka the good kind).  It was a proud day for me to say the least. I hope to continue passing it down to my kids just like my grandpa and mom did.

Easter 2012

Easter was nice this year.  It was Merrick's first Easter and I was really bad at getting ready for it this year.  I didn't plan to have them hunt eggs and I didn't have anything awesome for them when they woke up.  It was just a good Sunday where we hung out and went to church and then had dinner at our friends house, the West's.  They were our family for the night and we enjoyed it.  It was a great Easter and they boys just looked way too cute.  

 

Spring Break

Oh man.  Spring Break was so great for us this year.  We haven't really done anything big or out of the ordinary since we have moved to Show Low so we have totally needed this vacation.  We were just going to go down to the valley and stay with some friends and do things that the kids would love, but one night we went to visit some friends, the Pratts, and we found out that we were going to go down on the same days and we wanted to do pretty much all the same things so we changed our plans.  We searched and searched and finally found this house in Phoenix that we could all rent together and we would split the cost.  The Pratt's came with their 3 boys and then their daughter from Utah flew down with her 2 kids, who are about the same age as our kids, and we all shared this 3 bedroom condo house for 4 days.  It was so great.  

We got there on Wednesday afternoon and stopped to see our friends in Glendale and then headed up to the house and just hung out that night.  Then on Thursday, we got up, ate and then got ready to go to the Phoenix Children's Museum.  What it was is this big huge place that like a museum had different rooms for different things, but it was basically a giant playground for kids.  There was so many cool things, the boys were in heaven.  We wore them out but it was such a fun place!  

Then on Friday we basically just hung out at the house and went swimming at the community pool.  There wasn't anything interesting at the pool but the kids had fun playing with the adults and the teenager boys found games to keep themselves entertained.  The night before we went to the pool for like a half hour when it was dark just to let the kids splash in the water and to get as much swimming in as we could.  Merrick loved to just sit on the steps and splash the water.  It was perfect for him.  But Kayton was amazing.  It took him a few minutes to be comfortable with going in the water, but once he was in he was so awesome.  We bought him a little vest floaty thing and he picked up on it so quickly and wasn't really scared at all.  We were so amazed how well he did.  He loved being dunked under water and jumping to us   and it was so fun to see him learn something new.  

Later on Friday night we invited some of our friends over that we haven't seen for a while and we had pizza and just hung out and talked.  I wish I could have gotten some pictures but it was so nice to have friends our age around to talk to.  

Then on Saturday, we had to check out of the house that afternoon so we got up and got things all packed up while we listened to the first session of General Conference.  After we got all done, we headed to Scottsdale and went to a Train Park.  Both Kayton and their grandson Noah love trains so we thought it would be so great.  And it was.  They had an indoor room that had a bunch of model trains driving around and also had models of the towns in Arizona where the train runs through.  Then outside was a carousel ride and a train ride and there was an actual train that you could pay to climb in and walk around.  We rode the carousel, but Kayton absolutely hated getting on the horses.  Nate just stood and held him most of the ride, but Merrick liked it. Then we all rode on the train.  It was just a little upon car train that drove around the park.  Kayton liked it a lot.  Afterwards, we played at a park they had there and got some popsicles because it was so hot!! It was such a blast.  

Then it was time to go home.  We stopped at Target to get a few things and then headed home.  We had such a good time and it was a great Spring Break.

He's got more tricks

 Merrick is really growing up.  He is pulling himself up to stand next to things.  He stand up next to the couch and the tv stand and he is usually standing up when I go in and get him out of his crib.  He is still army crawling but every once in a while he will crawl normally on his hands and knees.  He has finally figured out how to sit up on his own.  For a long time he would only sit up when we put him on the ground but it wouldn't last for very long.  Now he is so mobile and is a pro at sitting up by himself.

Nate's Concert

Nate's student teaching has been going really well.  He is having a lot of fun with it and he loves getting to actually do things in a classroom rather than being lectured in a classroom. On March 14th, he had the first concert of the semester where he conducted 3 songs for the different groups.  One for Beginning Band, one for Honor Band, and one for Orchestra.  I was only able to see the Orchestra one but he did awesome.  This was basically the high point of his student teaching and now he is suppose to start to phase out of doing so much teaching for the rest of the semester.  I am so proud of him.  He loved doing it too.

He enjoyed watching his daddy