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!

Dallas World Aquarium/Kate's Birthday

I know this is way behind. (It took me a while to edit all of the pictures). For Kate's 7th birthday she decided on a family trip to the Dallas World Aquarium, instead of a birthday party. It is a wonderful place with a full indoor aquarium with some animals literally right at your fingertips.  We had a great time!

You may not be able to see it very well in this collage, but the picture in the top left is Kelly looking at a huge crab. Seeing Kelly's arm & head gives you an idea of how big it was!

Behind us is a 3 story tall exhibit with a center island and all kinds of trees, birds, and these tiny little black monkeys that Kenzie called "kitten monkey's" because they were so small and sort of looked like little kittens playing in the trees.

The aquarium was close to Dallas' Founder's Park.  If we're nearby we like to stop and walk among the cattle statues.

Kate's birthday dinner request?  Chick-Fil-A of course!  It has been her favorite since she was very little.

I love seeing her expression as she opened this gift. She had been asking for a lava lamp for a long time and was so excited to get it.  The ironic thing about it all is that once it was plugged in and turned on, it creeped her out to see it glowing in the dark that she doesn't even use it.  I'm sure as she gets older she will be more comfortable with it. (If not, Kevin has dib's on it, so either way we're covered). :)

Happy Birthday Kate!! We love you so much and are so grateful to have you in our family!

Beautiful Birthday Girl

Kate's big birthday wish this year--Pierced Ears! It was pretty exciting. She has loved showing people and telling them she chose, "Crystal Daisy," earrings.  I love it because she has wanted her hair in a pony tail every day since so she can show off her new jewelry.

Kate's dinner request?  Chick-Fil-A has been her favorite since she was old enough to tell us.  I couldn't argue with the ease of this dinner prep.  She was even more excited when I told her that she could turn in her "toy" for ice cream.

She wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling and vanilla frosting.  Yes, this cake is lop-sided because I was totally putting it together last minute--but it tasted great!  She just kept saying how much she loved everything and how grateful she was for everything.  I have to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised at how much she had matured. She didn't express as much gratitude in that way before.  

She is a beautiful girl and a light to our family. We are so grateful to have her in our lives. She is bright and funny and makes sure that we keep fun in our lives.

We Love You Kate! Happy Birthday!

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.

Wacky Tacky Miss Matched Day

Thankfully this dress-up day wasn't cancelled! Kate & Kevin had a great time putting together these outfits.

Kate insisted on going to school with "Bed Head," thinking that it was perfect for Miss Match day.  Not my first choice, but not really worth arguing about.

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! :)

This week's Top 5

1). Kate lost her first tooth!  She has been on cloud nine ever since.  It was very wiggly and while she was at school she just grabbed it with a tissue and pulled it out herself! Pretty awesome stuff.

2). Kevin called to tell me that he was performing with the 5th graders in an assembly. Of course I enjoyed watching them and listening to his part as a narrator, but the best for me was that he thought to call me and let me know so that I could be there.

3). Here's a glimpse of one of the "popcorn" trees. They are blooming everywhere and are just beautiful!  I love it when Kenzie points them out as we drive around.

4). Most of you have probably already seen this; but I had to post it here as well. I am totally loving being a Texas Fit Chicks trainer. It is so much fun! This video came out this week and has been a highlight for me.

5). And last but not least, we've enjoyed having Justin's sister, Emily, stay with us while she attended a class to become a Certified Lactation Consultant. She was so patient with all of the kids and we enjoyed getting to spend some time with her.

That's our week. How was yours?

Grateful for Walls & Favorite Famous Person Day

"Mom! Look what I can do!"

"I love this wall sooo much!  I'm so grateful for this wall!  If we didn't have this wall I would have anything in the whole house to hand upside down on !"

Sorry this picture is a little blurry--I was giggling.  Good thing we had this wall just so Kate could have something in our house to hang upside down on! 

Once a month the kids have had a different dress-up day.  When I got the paper about it at the beginning of the year I thought I would be organized and write them all down on the calendar.  So this month was 'Favorite Famous Person Day.'

Can you tell who they are?

Taylor Swift and James Bond

I didn't bother telling Kevin that James Bond was a fictional character and not a real person.  It just wasn't worth the argument.

I thought they looked great and was impressed that we came up with it the night before.  They love participating in these dress up days and were excited to go to school.

Sadly, this dress-up day had been cancelled and no one told us!!

Kevin was really mad that he spent the whole day at school in a suit.

Oh well.  If anything he learned that if something like that happens again he has the freedom to call me and I'd bring him something else to wear.

Good Times!

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.

On the Horizon

With the beginning of a new year there are a few changes going on around our house.  The biggest news of course is that I am no longer working full time--Hurray!  I am going to be the newest Texas Fit Chicks Personal Trainer--double Hurray!  I will officially take over one of the local Boot Camps in February.  Until then I am furiously working on renewing my certification and learning about the business side of personal training.  It is very exciting! My Boot Camp will be Mon/Wed/Fri mornings at 5:30am.  Yes, it's very early, but then I have the rest of the day to be with my family.  This is something that I have been wanting to do for two years and now that it's actually happening I can hardly believe it!

Once I get that squared away I have all kinds of things I want to do: sewing projects to create, parts of my house I want to deep clean and organize, activities and recipes I want to try.  If I try to think about it all at once I get too overwhelmed.  

Kate won the "Principal's Award" at school today.  This award is for someone who works hard, is kind and is a leader by example.  We are so proud of her! (It probably would have been nice if I had removed the restaurant gift certificate so you could have actually seen the award, but oh well). She was so surprised to 1) see me at school, and 2) to receive this award.  She didn't know she was getting it.  


As you can see, she still has her own sense of style.  Her t-shirt is the school shirt for this year.  They want the kids to wear them when they have these awards assemblies. She has gone from being my "girly-girl" to more of a tomboy, but I'm not worried.  She just loves to roll up her pants these days and can't go anywhere without her Chuck Taylor high tops.

 

I literally had to wrestle Kenzie into these clothes this morning.  It was one of those times where we had approximately 2 minutes to get ready and get out the door and she insisted on wearing what she calls "short pants" even though it was 40 degrees outside.  She also kicked and screamed when I hurriedly put her hair in a pony tail.  When I helped her take her coat off after we got there she whispered, "I hate my clothes." As soon as we got home she took out her pony tail, took off her clothes and got back into her pj's. We are still adjusting to being at home together.  I need to be better at setting up a routine.  It's weird to think that you would forget what it's like to be home, but you sort of do. Until  we get our rhythm down, I'll be content to enjoy snuggling and giggling with her--which is what I am doing right now as she tries to touch all the buttons on the keyboard.