Father's Day Weekend 2014

For Father's Day weekend we finally got out and explored the breathtaking sites of Arizona. 

We left Friday morning and drove up to Sedona where we stopped for lunch. Such a beautiful place!! The kids were pretty grumpy when we woke them up to take pictures, but Calin cheered up once I handed my phone over to him so he could snap h

Then we headed up to the Grand Canyon. Amazing.

After that we finished our drive up to Page, AZ where we stayed the night.

The next morning we went to Lake Powell for a couple hours, then headed back home that afternoon.

It was a long short trip - lots of driving - but I think we all had a great time, and it was so wonderful to finally explore Arizona a bit. 

Mother's Day 2014

Mother's Day was wonderful. Jordan is so great about making days special. And the kids were as sweet as ever all day.

We went to church in the morning, and Calin got up with all the primary kids to sing some mother's day songs. Adorable! It made my heart melt when he's smile wide and wink at me from the stand. 

Then we came home for a quick lunch and headed to Tempe Town Lake. The kids rode their bikes, splashed in the water, and Taylor was happy as always just riding along in the stroller. It was a beautiful day. One of the last cooler days until late fall rolls around, so I'm glad we got out and enjoyed it.

 I love Capri's wind blown hair in this photo and how you can see the hint of green in her eyes. She's so beautiful.

 Sometimes I just can't decide which I like most. Color or B&W. So why not post both ;)

When we got home we played "Don't Eat Me" with personalized M&M's Jordan had ordered. They had a picture of the three kids together. 

And of course Jordan and Calin picked out some flowers for me :) My sweet thoughtful boys!

This Mother's Day I requested to take a break from all the demands of motherhood duties and be able to just enjoy the JOYS of motherhood. Jordan came through on that request and I had such a wonderful day relishing in the sweet moments with each of my kids. I just wish I could have shared some time with my own mom too. She's pretty awesome also :) 

June 24, 2014 at 09:48AM

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1pJYu29 This is what watering the flowers with @jonivalponi looks like 💦

June 23, 2014 at 09:20PM

via Instagram http://ift.tt/T4npjW Capri loves her new pink Saltwaters so much she insisted on wearing them out of the store.

June 19, 2014 at 02:16PM

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1sry7Bw These two just keep getting cuter and cuter!!

Calin my Helper

I love this kid!! How did I get so lucky to be his mom?!

I have been dreading the day when my kids stop napping. And Calin is finally there. And I think I like it better. He is SUCH a good helper!! He would probably still nap somedays, but I give him a choice. He can nap, or stay up and help me clean. He always chooses cleaning over taking a nap. And I don't mind one bit! And boy is this kid a good cleaner!! (definitely takes after his dad on this one!)

We make a list together and he checks things off as he finishes (sometimes he even adds things on for me to do hehe). He usually cleans his room and the toy room, clears out the dishwasher (minus the sharp and glass items - I make sure to put those away first), and cleans the living room. Today he picked up the living room, toy room, dining room, and is currently mopping with the swifter. 

He makes me laugh. When he started mopping in the living room he made sure to move the couches and asked me to move the rugs. I tried to just say "oh it's ok, today we'll just do around them" but he insisted that was not the correct way to mop. And I won't argue with that! He even insisted on doing the bathroom floors :)

I would love to say our toy room is usually pretty clean and tidy, but lets be real, it's a mess! Somedays worse than others, the picture below was on a pretty bad day. We had 9 kids at my house that morning. But check out these before and after shots. It's pretty incredible how well he cleans such a huge mess!

Seriously! No help from me! Amazing, right?! And he did that all on his own! I don't know how he does it. The kid is good!