Beautiful Sedona

Despite our crazy, busy Arizona trip schedule, the kids and I were able to get a way for a short visit to Sedona to see My brother, Mark & his girlfriend Erin, and my Parents, Paul & Kathy Reese.


As I mentioned before, my brother is a chef at The Barking Frog Grille, and The Cowboy Club. We had the pleasure of having dinner with Mark, Erin, her kids, & my parents in a private dining room at The Barking Frog.  It was amazing!! Appetizers included, cactus fries, vegetable quesadillas, pancetta, fresh mozarella cheese, blue corn chips with fresh salsa, guacamole & queso.  For dinner I had the most amazing carne asada--yum!  This was my dessert--Mark's fresh made Tres Leches Chocolate Cake. Kate grabbed my strawberry and took a bite before I could take my picture.  It was such a wonderful meal--the kind where you wish you'd never feel full because everything tasted so yummy and you didn't want to stop eating! :)

Kenzie was mesmerized by this beautiful tiled bench outside of the restaurant.  This is actually one of two--facing each other.  

My brother and his girlfriend live in one of the most beautiful places ever!  They live in Oak Creek Canyon, just minutes north of Slide Rock State Park in Sedona.  I was standing right by their front door when I took this picture.  They have an apple & pear tree orchard right in front of their house.  I told them that I couldn't live there, because I'd never get anything done!  You just want to sit and stare at the beauty around you.

Part of the orchard right off their front porch.

This was taken as I walked back up to their house from the creek.  So beautiful!!

Even though the water was freezing cold, the kids absolutely loved exploring in the creek. Next time we will bring water shoes to make it a little easier on the feet.

My brother Mark was a good sport to get in a little and help with Kenzie.  Here they were looking at the little minnows in the creek.

Kenzie needed to warm up a little.

On the way to the creek is a wonderful tree swing!  I wish we'd had more time to swing and explore.  We had such a great time and the kids talk about it at least once a day.  Kenzie has decided that she wants to move to "Arizonia" to live in Sedona with Uncle Mark. :)

My wonderful parents!  Thanks Mom & Dad for driving back & forth from Flagstaff to see us!  We love you and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Thanks Mark & Erin for your hospitality and patience with our kids--especially as they kept your dogs and cat running the whole time we were there!  You guys are amazing!

Kenzie's Birthday

O.k. I have decided that from now on I think I should have a separate photographer at birthdays, because I just can't seem to get any good pictures and keep the birthday festivities going!  

Besides that, we ended up keeping things low key for Kenzie's birthday. She couldn't make up her mind what she wanted, or how she wanted to celebrate. The only thing that she didn't constantly change her mind on, was that she wanted a "Miss Trunchbull" chocolate cake, like Kevin had for his birthday.  That, and she wanted hot dogs for dinner. We invited our friends the Lindsey's over to celebrate with us.  Ron and Linda watched Kenzie for us when I was working at the High School.  They are both from Hawaii and have come to be "Tutu, and Tutukani" to our family. That is, Grandma and Grandpa in Hawaiian.  Don't worry Grandparents--they are not taking your place! :)

 Kenzie did not seem to mind the absence of a huge party and truly enjoyed the day.  We went swimming at the neighborhood pool and I think by the time we left everyone there new it was Kenzie's birthday because she had to tell everyone!!  Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera to the pool.


The Tinkerbell "cafe" you see in the background has an interesting story.  One of Justin's friends' family has a toy business. Every November they hold a large parking lot toy sale and we try to help out with set up, etc. Without fail, they generously give us toys, which most of which become gifts that our children give to other's on their birthdays. the cafe, was one of these gifts. We've been trying to hide it in our closet since November. Kenzie of course found it months ago and we had to get creative on why we had it, and who was it for. We had to re-hide it about 3 times!  It was a happy day for everyone when we were finally able to give it to her. I know you're probably wondering why we didn't just give it to her when she found it. We considered it, but felt it best to have her wait. 

See what I mean about getting a good picture?! Anyway, we love this beautiful girl. She is creative and imaginative the way that Kelly was at this age and happily entertains herself with anything around her. Just the other day she was having a conversation with her feet as if they were toy figures. She even changed her voice to have them converse back with her! :) She loves wearing dresses or leotards everyday. If those aren't available, or the day we went hiking in the Natural Bridge and she had to wear denim shorts--it's quite an emotional event to get her dressed. *Sigh* She is bright and fun and we are so blessed to have her in our family. We love you Kenzie!!

Momma, Can I play in the rain?

How can you not love Play Dough?

Granted, you have to be in the right frame of mind for play dough. There are times that I just don't want to deal with the mess.  But most of the time it's a win-win. Kids are occupied and happy and parents have some "free" time to do something else if they wish. My favorite is listening in to their creative play. Today Kenzie was making "little sweet apples" and later she made plates & plates of delicious cookies!

Here is my favorite Play Dough recipe.  It comes from an old Family Fun Magazine and makes quite a bit. What you see in the above picture is only half of the following recipe.

Ingredients:

3 cups of white flour

1 1/2 cups of salt

1 1/2 tablespoons of cream of tartar

3 1/4 cups water

6 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Food Coloring

**Optional: A few drops of your favorite essential oil to make it smell yummy. 

Mix the flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a medium saucepan. In a separate bowl, mix the liquids, adding drops of food coloring (and essential oil if using), until you reach your desired shade. Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients and stir (don't worry about lumps--they'll work themselves out). Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture holds together and gets too stiff to stir (it will stiffen even more as it cools), about 5 to 10 minutes. **Let it Cool.  It will be pretty warm. If necessary, knead the dough to work out any remaining lumps.

Then let the creativity roll!

Amazing Imagination!

I love being able to stay home with Kenzie.  She is very creative in her play. She actually reminds me of Kelly who used to sit down to color and end up using the crayons as figurines that would act out intricate story lines. :)


On this particular day Kenzie decided to make Macaroni & Cheese for everyone.

It is actually this fun set of "pop" beads that we've had for a while.

I love how carefully she chose the spoon & bowl combinations.

Then on this day she spent quite a long time taking care of her "babies." She even fed them and changed their diapers and then made comfy beds for many of them.  Can you tell what she was using for babies? Yes! Matchbox Cars!

Yes. She is wearing a swim suit.  It's a new one and I think she wore it for a couple of days straight.

I love the caring expression on her face in the above picture.

You can see all the beds that she made. Like most "moms", after caring for all of those babies she was tired and before she knew it she had fallen asleep.  It may not look like it because of the casual way her legs are crossed, but she is in fact asleep.

I love that she can entertain herself for hours and I love overhearing her use her imagination.

Enjoying Spring

What do you do when it's Spring Break and Kelly is on Trek?  With as beautiful weather as we've been having I took the three younger kids to the Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary.

One of the beautiful Red Bud trees. At least that's what I think it's called. This picture doesn't do it justice. It is so beautiful with it's purple blossoms.

"Mom! Take a picture of me by this tree!"

I have no idea what kind of flowers these are--but just looking at them make me happy.

On one of the trails we walked, we came across a snake sunning himself.  He stayed so still and the kids were really good about not getting too close. It was tempting for Kenzie to get close, but thankfully she didn't.

Water Break! What a great group. (A note about Kate's clothing choice: She thinks that if she wears shorts with her low-top converse shoes it looks dumb so she insists on wearing jeans rolled up.  I can't figure it out. Hopefully I think she will wear shorts with flip flops so summer should be o.k. With Kate--who knows!)

One of the new trails we visited went through a wetland/swamp.  My favorite part of the whole day was hearing Kate say, "This is just the best day ever because we are exploring a swamp people! A swamp! Because swamps have mushrooms and beavers and turtles!"  She went on and on about mushrooms for a while and was ecstatic about seeing them, exclaiming that she'd been wanting mushrooms for the longest time.  Really?! That would have made Christmas a lot easier. ;)

We looked and looked for beavers, but didn't see any. Thankfully we saw plenty of turtles. 

It was a beautiful, wonderful day. The only thing that would have made it better? Having Kelly & Justin with us.

Kelly's Photo Shoot

The weather here has been beautiful!  Unfortunately I've had a really hard time getting our kids to get outside.  I don't get it.  Anyway, Kelly asked if she could take some pictures and it worked like magic! Everyone was happy to be outside and had a good time taking and posing for pictures.  Here is the best of Kelly's pictures, (with a little creative editing on my part).

Below are some of my favorites.

All in all I think she did a great job and I love how they turned out. Plus, I loved that they finally went outside! :)

I love my Little Helper

Ready to Play

"Mom! I'm ready to play in the bagrage!"

Kenzie was trying to convince me that she could play out front by herself by saying that she was only going to play in the garage.  Sadly, no.  But it made me happy to see her so proud of dressing herself. :)

Decades Day (With a little help from Kenzie)

Kenzie would not stand still and we had about 30 seconds to take pictures before they had to go to school.

I made Kate's leg warmers out of an old sweater.  Believe it or not she didn't want to wear them all scrunched up.  She thought they looked better stretched long over her entire leg.  We tried and tried to convince her that wouldn't have worked for the costume and that most of the time they were worn scrunched up.  Man--another stubborn girl.  Anyway, she finally agreed and scrunched them up--whew!

I know this is blurry but I can't get over Kenzie and her pj choice and sleepy hair.  It was a fun morning.

This Girl

One busy Saturday we were wondering where Kenzie was--you'd think with as small as our place is we'd always know where everyone was--but anyways....Kenzie had decided that she was tired and put herself down for a nap.

When I started taking pictures of her she woke up.  I guess I caught her before she was totally asleep.  This ended up being a good thing because she's in that phase of if she naps then she never goes to sleep at night.

This girl is sooooo stubborn!  She insists on things her way, no highway option. Which means we seem to be "fighting" battles throughout the day--every day!  One day she wanted a particular dress that was in the wash.  I mean literally it was in the washer.  She refused to do anything else until it was ready to wear.  She wouldn't play games, watch TV, read books with me.  She just laid on the floor and sucked her thumb until it was ready.  That's just how determined she can be.  It makes for some good lessons to learn such as, "You can't always get what you want," etc. 

Speaking of thumb sucking.  She only does it when she has her "lovey," the light pink thing in her hand in the above picture. It was originally a beautiful silk pashmina that a friend had given to me, but once Kenzie got attached to it, that was that.  I've been trying to get her to leave her lovey on her bed so that she will only have it at night and thus only suck her thumb at night.  I tried bribing her that if she could leave it on her bed for so many days she'd be able to earn a prize at the store.  She starts the day with every intention of leaving it on her bed,  but before long it seems to make it's way downstairs and into her thumb sucking hand.  Hmmmmmm.  This is going to be more difficult than I had hoped.

How is it that I could have forgotten so quickly what life with a 3 year old was like?  Maybe it's because every time I've had a 3 year old at home there has been a sibling at home as well to act as a buffer.  I find myself dreaming of preschool--that is terrible.  I should be enjoying every moment!  I just try to remember how it was before when I was gone and someone else was teaching her things about life.  Then I realize how much I love being with her--battles and all.  I count my blessings.  Take some deep breaths and press on.  

Because this girl is worth it.

Look Alike's

(This is me when I was about 3 years old--a loooooong time ago).

Kenzie was talking about her cheeks being "fat" which I immediately said that they weren't fat; that they were perfect.  So, yes I have posted these pictures already once before, but I wanted to show her how much we look alike.