Arizona

In February we took a road trip to Arizona for a vacation.  We stopped in Flagstaff to visit my cousin, Laurie and her family.  Of course we had a great time, but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures.  The kids played together all night and Sarah wore Leah out because after we left Leah took a 3 hour nap.  We had a delicious dinner with them and will have to stay and play longer next time!  After Flagstaff we headed down to Phoenix.  The kids all had a great time playing with all the cousins.  We got to meet baby Mitchell, Stephanie and Trevor's baby!  He is so cute - once again no pictures.  I finally remembered to grab my camera Sunday afternoon.  Bubbles are always a hit!

We headed to the Phoenix zoo for the afternoon.  It is such a nice zoo.  The kids had a great time looking at the animals and playing on the kids area.

Their neighborhood has a great little park so one evening we headed over to get some energy out.  Katie had a blast playing in the sand.

We had a great time and enjoyed our little vacation.  On Monday we packed up and drove all the way home.  We did stop in St. George for a break and the kids really enjoyed that playground!

Charity

So Miss Sarah was super brave and we cut 10" of hair off to donate to charity. She absolutely LOVES her new hair cut.  She has become even more spunky since she got it cut.  Love you Bear!

"Princess Sarah"

 

 So this little smarty pants started saying the Pledge of Allegiance  that she learned at school.  I was totally impressed.  I have a cute video but can't figure out how to upload it.  I will keep trying.

 

Also this past weekend she went to a princess party and had a lot of fun. She had her nails done, hair and make-up done.  So fun having girls!

Katie's birthday Part 2

 Since Gary had a conference for work we headed down to my parents to celebrate Katie's birthday.  I made her a caterpillar cupcake.  The kids thought it was great.  We were lucky to have my nieces over to celebrate too. 

 Katie and her balloons.

 Aunt Kelly found her the cutest baby doll that Sarah might have taken over.  Thank you for the cute outfit too.

Katie's 2nd Birthday

 Katie loves playing in Isaac's room and this is where I found her the other day.  She is too funny.

 I can't believe my baby girl is 2 already.  Time has gone by so quickly.  This little girl is such a sweetheart.  She is fun, loving, caring and so good.  She is a great listener and is always helpful in cleaning up the toys.  Katie's birthday was on a Thursday this year and unfortunately Gary had a podiatry conference in Park City so we had 2 celebrations for her.  These pictures are actually from the 2nd party and will post the other pictures later after getting them from my dad's camera.  So on Sunday Grandma and Grandpa Oaks came up to celebrate with us.  The kids just love it when they come over.  It was a fun time just relaxing and of course eating some birthday cake. 

 I  love this one of Grandpa and his girls.

The one of Grandma and Katie is super cute too!  Happy Birthday Beautiful Girl!  Mom and Dad sure love you.

Christmastime

 The kids were super excited for Santa Clause this year.  They had multiple lists for him as well, Isaac even wrote a list on Christmas Eve and left it with the cookies.  Unfortunately I had to tell him Santa already had his toy picked out and can't get you things at the last minute.  So this year Katie was lots of fun with the decorations.  I was afraid she would tear down the tree, but she just liked to take certain ornaments off the tree and then put them back on.  The breakable ones were out of reach!

 

The kids get so excited to make a gingerbread house.  I let Isaac and Sarah each decorate a side and Katie decorated the tree and gingerbread man.  She thought that was great.  They also enjoyed some of the candy too!

On Christmas morning the kids have to come down the stairs, youngest to oldest.  Here are their poses.  Sarah's pose fits her so well!!!

Santa was good this year.  Gary has wanted Kayaks ever since we lived in Iowa.  I was able to keep it a secret, I was also impressed the kids kept it a secret as well. 

So I finally got a new camera.  I am having lots of fun using all the new buttons.

Sarah and Isaac are such good friends, most of the time.  I love watching them play together.  I hope they always stay close.

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care."  Isaac didn't want us to light the fire, because he didn't want Santa to get burned.  I reassured him we would turn it off before Santa would come.

Katie was super cute with opening presents.  She didn't care what was inside of the paper, she just wanted to rip it open.  Isaac was a true believer this year - I hope we get a few more years like it.

Sarah, on the other hand, was scared to death of Santa.  She refused to go anywhere near him.  Her preschool had a visit from Santa and apparently she just cried and held on to her teacher the entire time.  Maybe I should have warned her teacher but it was fun reading the email about the adventure.  Sarah was a little disappointed that Santa didn't bring her anything on her list this year.  She wanted pink legos and a Barbie house.  Well unfortunately we have more legos than we know what to do with so having pink ones didn't make a whole lot of sense and we already have a doll house so having one specifically for Barbie wasn't needed.  She was happy with her new princess scooter.

Santa also brought the Disney infinity game for the Wii, which has been a fun addition.  Gary and I have enjoyed playing it too, once the kiddos are in bed. 

We had a wonderful Christmas day just relaxing at home and we didn't have to drive anywhere so the kids could play with all their new loot.

Sarah's Preschool Picture

She loves her preschool this year and they took some cute picture of the kids.  Here is the one we chose.  I can't believe how big she is getting.  Love you Bear!