Art

We've been doing a lot of art lately and both Mykala and Jace, being the natural artists they are, are doing a fantastic job. I have to do a little showing off....

This is Mykala's first canvas painting!!

This is Jace's first painting! (paper)

And last, but certainly not least, is an apple Mykala did with pastels! This is amazing! She copied the apple from a grid; she's been working on shading, details, and color blending. 

We are so proud and impressed!!

Anthem Park

We had such a good day! We went with Gramma and Grampa to a Chinese resauraunt and then went to Anthem park. It was such a beautiful day!

Meet Leo!

I never ever thought that our first pet would be a turtle!! 

Meet our little Leonardo (after the ninja turtle and likewise, the artist). He's 1 3/8" long and 1 1/4" across. Not even 2 inches... he's just a baby! We won't know if it's a boy or girl until it gets older, but we already named him (odds are it's probably a girl though.)

Carol found him in her backyard and couldn't find the rest of his family; it's possible that a bird picked him up on the golf course and dropped him.
We knew nothing about taking care of a turtle, but we are quickly learning!! We've all gotten quite attached to our cute little guy. Slowly yet surely, he's warming up to us.

He is so tiny and beautiful! In these two pictures he's in Kala's hands!

We got him a nice home. He loves hanging in the fake trees and by the water filter. He's a little too nervous to bask in front of us, but he'll go on his floating rock and bask when we are asleep and away. When we first got him, he was too stressed to eat. He's doing much better now.

Sedona and Flagstaff

Weekend vacation!

We surprised the kids with a mini vacation. We picked them up from school early and went to Sedona and Flagstaff. I'm not sure if we'll surprise them again (at least not until they're older!) They wanted to go home more than they wanted to go out of town. Jacer wanted to go home just so he could play Lego Batman on the xbox, that stinker!!

The largest Kokopelli! 

Jace was afraid to stand up there... that's why I don't have a decent picture of them by him.

"The middle of nowhere," as the kids called it. 

This was the first middle of nowhere we found. There were others. :) 

He chose this pose...

I think it was impossible to capture just how beautiful the moon was this night. I certainly tried!

At the hotel!

The Grand Canyon!

They had more fun playing on the rocks than they did looking at the canyon.

We got them toys at the gift shop. These animal trees were adorable and not expensive for what they were. They came with five little beanie animals and a tree to store them in. SO cute and so worth it!!

Boys and Toys

"I want that green car because it has a gun."  

-Jace 

(Barrett Jackson, 1/17/2014)

Lego Birthday(s)!

Chad and I hurried home to get the house ready for bday party #1.

We hung a sign on the door to greet him, hung up lego people around the house, and wrapped most of his presents in lego paper. He loved it.

Kala picked out this book for Jacer. She was excited to give it to him. :)

It's funny. I took a couple of pictures of him and his presents and I happened to get the two that weren't lego sets. The rest of that pile were legos! (He got a little spoiled this year.)

Jace had most of the kits built within a couple of days.

Birthday Party #2 at Grama and Grampa's House...

Jace's second cake... a very blue and lego one at that!

Dad and Kala decorated the cake with candy legos and topped it off with lego candles... perfect for a little boy who loves legos!!

This cake was so bold it turned everyone's teeth and lips blue.

Our little stinker is now 5 years old. Wow.

........

...and you thought we were done celebrating! No way, man! This is birthday party #3!

Lego Cake (cake #3)

I tell ya- no one's as spoiled as my two cute little kids. 

Who else gets three parties (and three cakes!) in one month?

Lego cupcakes to supplement the small birthday cake. 

Those candy bricks were so fun and completely stackable. They were awesome!

Even LLAMAS came to celebrate Jacer's birthday!

(No, I did not plan this.)

Here's everyone with the llamas except the birthday boy - who was too scared to stand by them.

Lego bingo!

Jacer helping dad call out the bingo cards

Since Jacer loves lego people, I thought it'd be fun to play lego bingo. I made cards with lego superheroes and lego bricks. My favorite part about it is that everyone played... it made it that much better. :)

 I also made plain lego people for the kids to color and hang up around the pavilion. As you can see here, Julian couldn't decide which one he wanted to do more. :)

Jacer got a Batman shirt from Julian and he had to put it on right away. I love this picture!

I absolutely love it! Three boys, three Batman shirts. 

It's almost as if they planned it... it's so wonderfully nerdy that they didn't!

The boy got spoiled, we had tons of fun, and I am sick of cake. Another successful birthday. :)