Easter 2014

Happy Easter everyone! 

We went to the annual Easter Egg hunt at the park by our church building. There were lots of kids, lots of eggs, and it was lots of fun. 

Natalie figured out pretty quick that there was candy inside of the eggs. Jordan had fun counting how many eggs he put in his basket. It was good times had by all. 

I was very impressed, Natalie could eat the candy as fast as her big brother. 

Family Easter Egg coloring. The kids preference was to drop the eggs in the dye and pull them out with their hands. This made for a semi dyed table later. Luckily it came out... eventually. 

There's a reason Natalie is only wearing a diaper. Drop and flash goes the egg into the dye. It's a mess but it's a lot of fun. I love family traditions!

Father And Sons Campout

Jordan and Preston went on the Father's and Son's camping trip up on Mount Lemmon. The forecast was rain and pretty cold, but they went anyway and had a ton of fun! They were the first group of campers up there so they got the campsite of their choice. After everything was all set up they did some exploring in the mountains. Jordan found a pretty cool stick that he dubbed his sword to fight the bad guys.

For dinner Jordan and Preston had some yummy hot dogs, yogurt, and marshmallows. They were still able to have a campfire (which is good since they had to cook things) so Preston roasted one up for Jordan. The folks who made the fire made a huge bonfire. It was very cool to see the big fire but difficult to cook the hot dogs because it was so hot. Later on when they roasted marshmallows it was difficult not to catch it on fire. Funny guys, over doing the fire. I wonder if they lit the fire with gasoline as that can be a tradition... once a scout always a scout right? 

Here is Jordan enjoying his hot dog. He actually ate the whole thing! Good times up camping.

Here is Jordan on the top of a rock. Whoever designed the campsite put it right next to some huge rocks, so of course all the kids wound up playing on them. This is normally not a problem except that the top of the rocks was about 7 feet tall and rather sheer on one side. It made Preston pretty nervous a couple of times because Jordan is not as steady as the older kids but he still wanted to do what they were doing. Here is a slightly smaller rock with a round top to document the event and not make people worried in the years to come.

After it was dark they went for a night hike over the ridge with a bunch of the guys and their sons. They were only able to see from the light of their flashlights. The boys absolutely loved it! As they peaked over the ridge they saw Tucson down below. Quite the pretty sight. 

On the way back it took them a little bit to find their way. None of the guys that were there were really familiar with the area and when they turned around they did not see any light from the camp. Preston got a little nervous, but they did not go far before they were able to hear the shouts from the boys in camp as they played. Of course they made it back safe and sound.

After all the fun wound down for the evening Jordan and Preston got to spend some nice time cuddling by the fire. Jordan ate about 10 marshmallows, 3 cups of hot chocolate, and did not want to go to the tent. When it was time for bed Jordan did not want to go and Preston wanted to stay and talk with the guys. They compromised by Jordan sitting on Preston's lap and falling asleep while Preston talked with the guys until it was quite late. Good times around the campfire. Sounds like pretty adorable father son time to me. 

The next morning on the way down they stopped at windy point to explore the rocks. Here is Preston, Jordan, Nathan Little, and Collin Little. They had a ton of fun and made sure that everyone was safe crawling over the big rocks.

This is a great shot showing the cool rocks and all the fun they had. This was a fantastic experience for the guys. One of the first things Jordan said when he got home was "I missed you mommy," then, "We should all go camping as a family!" With experiences like this I believe we will be spending a lot of time in the outdoors in the future.

Natalie is 1 1/2 Years Old!

Natalie is 1 1/2 years old

Here are her stats from her check up:

Length 32.23 in. 75 percentile

Head Circumference 48.5 cm 90-95 percentile

Weight 26 lbs 2 oz. 75%

Natalie can:

• Can say... a lot! "All done, erogo (aka) here you go, spoon, Jo Jo (Jordan), happy, blank'ey to name a few. She is saying so many new words a day. It's really fun to see her learn about the world around her.
• Climb on chairs, trying to get on bikes close to her size, running to keep up with her big bro
• Give the sweetest pucker kisses
• Coloring... she loves it!
• Dance to music... it's adorable. 
• She loves to watch Jordan and do what he does, which can be good or bad depending on the moment. 
• Going down slides on her tummy and just recently sitting up all by herself. 

 Natalie likes:

• Her big brother and doing whatever he's doing.
• Bubbles
• Stuffed animals
• Opening and closing things, moving something from one cup to the other
• Water and playing in it 
• Fruit
• Queen on cuddles
• Coloring
• Music

Entering Nursery:

Natalie's first experience in nursery went pretty well. She went a week early and lasted about 20 minutes, but the next Sunday when it was official she lasted the entire time. Here's what happened to make that possible... She cried when she realized Mom was gone, then she got tired from crying so much, next she did the unimaginable... she fell asleep in one of the teachers arms! Our kids don't fall asleep in strangers arms. Pretty amazing. When she woke up she must have felt better because she decided to play with the toys. She was thrilled when I came to get her, but she still made it the whole time. We'll see how week two goes.

Every day we are so grateful this Little Lady became a part of our family. She is so happy, sweet, and full of love. She is such a light in our lives. We love you Natalie Ann Murray! 

3.. 2.. 1 Blast Off!

We went to a model rocket show so Jordan could see how fun science can be. Here is a rocket on one of the flags from the sponsor of the event.

On the left is Jordan pushing the button to launch a rocket! They did a cool thing where they let you fly a rocket for just a couple of dollars. On the right are some interesting rockets that look like crayons and other rocket items. 

There goes Jordan and Preston to retrieve the rocket after Jordan launched it. Jordan was so excited that he just ran out there. Preston ran right along with to show him where the rocket was.

Here is the happy boy holding the rocket he launched and retrieved. Jordan loved launching it, finding it, and showing the rocket to mommy. 

Here are mommy, Natalie, and Jordan enjoying the show. There were lots of people with some pretty crazy rockets out there. We had to cover Natalie's ears when there was a loud rocket. She didn't like the loud ones very much. 

Here are some of the possible rockets of our future. We did not get one today, but I can foresee Preston and Jordan doing some really fun engineering in the future. Dad can hardly wait. 

March Goings On

Preston and I finished up our soccer season. A friend of ours in the ward puts together a community soccer team to play in the coed league here in Tucson. It has been really fun to play together. It's a great Friday night date. 

"I'm not tired Mommy..."
(Funny to note this is the part in Peter Pan where Wendy is singing Michael to sleep, coincidence I think not!)

Having a little girl is fun for so many girly reasons. One of them is putting bows in her hair. One day we were playing with the assortment of bows and Jordan decided to decorate my hair. When he was done he said proudly, "Mommy you look so pretty." I had to take a picture of his work. Well done J Man. 

Jordan making faces to make Natalie laugh. It's sweet, Natalie is trying to copy him. Also funny note, in case you didn't notice Jordan is wearing a Dusty the airplane hat, Darth Vader shirt, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (longest name ever) socks. He is one decked out boy today. 

Cute picture of Bo Peep (who will never lose her blanket, but maybe her sheep) and Sheriff Woody. 

Pool time on a hot day in the desert. 

Jordan and his friend Ethan being ninjas.

Bro and sis hang out time is the sweetest. I love this sibling stuff. 

Messy face Natalie. Blackberry jam mmmmm....

Love it when these handsome guys match!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We've been playing with an old cd and making rainbows on the wall a lot lately. Perfect for the holiday. I also tried my hand at an actual Irish dinner. Some things turned out well and others didn't, but there was a lot of green... so it's all good. I love holidays, it's an excuse to make a day extra special and fun. 

Airplane Museum

In Tucson there is a fantastic airplane museum that we were able to visit. It was really neat for all of us, but I think Preston got the biggest kick out of being there. 

In the area in front of the building the museum has a bunch of plants labeled so that people could get to know what kind of plants live here in the desert. Here is the rare Stealth Cactus! You could get a shin full of spines and not even know what happened! P.S. This is Hillary's favorite cactus.. the kind that aren't there. 

In part of the museum they had some really fun exhibits for the kids. Here is an actual airplane that they turned into a play toy for the kids. Jordan is moving the stick there in the middle and it actually moved the flaps. He loved it! It looks a little small but Preston was even able to fit into it. There was a nameplate on it that said it was an experimental airplane built in the 80's. I think I would be been sick riding in this thing.

Here is a close up of Jordan enjoying the display. He wouldn't look at the camera because he was so interested looking at how the wing flaps moved. 

Preston and Natalie even had a turn in the airplane moving the stick and having fun.

The museum had airplanes on the ground and hung from the rafters. This red airplane looked really cool and reminds us of Dusty the crop duster.

Here is another kid display that is the control tower for an airport. There were lots of switches and fun things to play with for the kids. Natalie is here pushing a button and having a fun flashing/spinning light go off. Jordan is also pushing buttons and listening to some fun sounds.

This big blue airplane was the largest Naval Airplane that could be landed in the water. It was pretty much just a transport airplane to haul things from one place to another. The docent told us that in for this airplane to take off it had to have rough seas, and even then it needed some help from a tug of some sort to get it started. If the water was smooth and hugged the hull of the airplane it could not get enough speed to lift itself out of the water. 

They had a pretty cool cockpit from some old airplane. The kids really loved pushing the buttons, flipping the switches, and pretending to fly an actual airplane. They had lots of fun here. Preston looked really hard for the cabin pressure controls and he found something that resembled a rudimentary control switch. Cabin pressure has come a long way from those days.

We walked through a WWII area and Hill and the kids sat in an old fighter airplane cockpit. Lots of fun.

Here is a reconnaissance airplane painted with some cool teeth painted on it. You can tell this is a reconnaissance airplane due to the bubble shaped windows. I assume this is for allowing the pilots to see a little better to spot the enemy.

Here is Preston in front of his favorite airplane ever, the SR-71 Blackbird! He loved seeing this airplane. Every time he sees it and hears about what this airplane can do he gets all giddy and acts like a kid in a candy shop. He is such a cute engineer!

Mud Run

I had the lucky chance to do a Mud Run with my friend Rayleen. Her husband couldn't run with her last minute, and I answered her question on Facebook if anyone would like to run the race with her the coming Saturday. It was an adventure!

Preston and I have done a Mud Run together before, but this one was muddier by far. There were obstacles that forced you to swim in the mud to get to the other side. We had to climb up rope towers, crawl through tubes, scramble up and down slippery hills, go under wire (hence the swimming), and walk through a mud area so thick that many shoes were lost and were never recovered. It was awesome!

It actually rained the day of the race, which for Arizona is a big deal! It made for a more exciting and challenging race. It was only a 5 K, but it felt like a 10 K for how heavy and tiring it felt running with mud weighing down our shoes. 

Speaking of shoes, mine didn't survive the race. I've had these shoes for a record time (since high school), they have been on many a hiking, biking, and running adventure. They were falling apart by the end of the race and so I thought the Mud Race was a great way to end the life of these shoes. 

The atmosphere of a race is always a thrill to experience. I also always get a kick out of what people are wearing when they race... from tutus, superman shirts, all white (for a mud race), to camo (like you need it).

It was a great day! 

Thanks Rayleen for the wonderful experience! 

Now I'm thinking of what race to do next.