V is for Vegetables

Yesterday in preschool we learned that vegetables start with V. So we colored some vegetables to put on our plate. Then for our snack we enjoyed TASTY-somewhat healthy-carrot muffins (we called them "carrot cupcakes") and raw carrots on the side. Yummy.  

You can see I'm a frosting slatherer.  I don't take time to decorate, good thing my preschool students don't judge me. :)

**Here's the recipe for those interested:

Carrot Muffins

1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 Cup white flour

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup carrot puree

Mix all ingredients until moistened. Bake in 350 oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Frost with 4 oz light cream cheese and 1/3 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla blended.

Makes 12 muffins (or I used a mini muffin tin and it made about 28)

To the mountains we go

While my parents were here we wanted to spend some time outside in the beautiful weather.  So we headed up to the White Tanks for a little hike and BBQ.  We are lucky to live so close to a state park, it was fun!

This is David's first time with Natalie in the front pack.  He liked holding her little hands.  I'm in the picture too, see my shadow on David's leg? 

Our little thumb sucker.  I've got to admit it's cute now, but how is it going to be on her wedding day? :)

Cyrena is so in love with Grandma and Grandpa.  When asked who she loves more, she responded Grandpa.....but he was carrying her through the parking lot at the time.  I'd love him more too.  

Cyrena is always picking her seat.   I'm glad I captured it!

Mmmm.....marshmallows+chocolate+graham crackers=one happy (and messy) Cyrena

Les Miserables

The day we'd been anticipating for over 6 months finally arrived! We've been planning for awhile to go to Les Miserables ever since we found out it was coming to Phoenix. We planned, bought tickets for our Christmas gift to each other and also my siblings chipped in and we bought my parents tickets as well. This last Thursday was the big night!  Our first real date since Natalie was born, and it couldn't have been better. Our amazing, wonderful neighbor Tammy-Anne (love you!) watched both girls and they behaved well for her. This was the first night in Natalie's entire little life that I have not put her to bed. And she did fine! I was so relieved to call at intermission and hear she was sound asleep and Cyrena was heading there as well.

We started off the evening with a tasty dinner at BJ's where we shared one of their famous pazookie's for dessert. Then we headed to the theater. We had some time to wander through the arsty garden adjacent to the theater. There were some 'interesting' sculptures that entertained us. I had never been to the Phoenix theater before and didn't realize how small it was. It was wonderful to be so up close to the actors to clearly see their facial expressions and body language. This was my 4th time seeing Les Miserables and I think it was my favorite! It was also fun to watch David since this was his first time seeing it.

Les Miserables is such an amazing story of overcoming tough circumstances, learning to forgive, and even to love your enemies so that we may return again to live with God.  It makes us all want to be better. What a great night!

Those tricky leprechauns

I had a great treat ready for Cyrena after her nap. However, when she woke up and I went to get it for her, it was gone! All we found were some happy shamrocks in its place. We figured a tricky leprechaun hid it since they love gold, so we followed the shamrocks to find it!

Field trip

Our preschool class visited the zoo this week. A big THANK you to Bloomin' Beginnings for inviting us to join with them!

All my adorable munchkin students!!  They're all princesses, every single one.

Money Shot.  I can't believe Cyrena rode the sky lift ride, thanks to one of the moms who volunteered to take her!  She loved every minute of is and talked nonstop during the 15 minute ride.

Lastly, the favorite train ride, Natalie was wanting to eat at this point.  It was a lovely day full of friends and fun in the sun.

Planted

Alright, so our garden is planted and seeds are started.  Now comes the waiting game.  Cyrena LOVES helping David with the garden.  She doesn't love getting her hands dirty but she'll water all day long if we let her.  

Carrots, zucchini, watermelon, beans, cucumbers, etc!

This is my favorite.  Of course Cyrena wanted to water 'all by herself' but you can see David's hands coming in to rescue his seeds from being flooded!

We've planted some tomato plants since this picture was taken.

Firewoman in training.  This is another awesome neighbor of ours.  Tammy helped spread some top soil for us in the yard.  Have I told you we have amazing neighbors?  We're lucky.

Recap

I feel so behind so I am going to post a few pictures of the past couple of weeks. There are some good ones. Here you go:

A couple of weeks ago we had Stake Conference.  We were assigned to go to the 1:00 session.  So we had a lovely, lazy morning.  Part of it was spent playing on our bed reading books together.

GROUNDBREAKING NEWS:  Cyrena was supposed to be upstairs picking up the mess she made in the preschool area (a daily occurence).  She was up there for awhile and I assumed it was because it was a BIG mess.  David got home from work and I told him she was upstairs, so he went to see how she was doing.  

This is how he found her-on our bed.

She's never done this before.

Never, ever fallen asleep spontaneously (except for a couple rare times in her high chair and once at church--but those were over 2 years ago!)

She even goes the whole drive to Utah with only a 15 minute catnap.

WOW, I was shocked.  So shocked that I grabbed the camera, took pictures and some video footage.

David woke her up since it was after 5:00.  She was mad and didn't believe us that she had fallen asleep.  Luckily I had solid evidence to show her that proved otherwise.  Boy did she giggle.

Cyrena's playgroup pals.  She looks forward to playgroup every week so she can play with Logan, El, and Bode.

Hello, my name is Natalie and I am a 

bath and thumb-aholic.

And I'm darn cute.

Pay it Forward

Alright, I was supposed to do this forever ago.  I jumped right on this on Torrie's blog so I need to post it here.  So here goes:

Be one of the first three people to comment on THIS post and you will receive something unbelievably homemade/handmade (same thing?) from me in the next year.  THEN...are you ready.....you have to do the same thing on YOUR blog for three others.  

Get it? 

Got it?  

good.

Boring to some, adorable to others

Natalie is 4 months old now.  Here are here stats from the Dr.

weight: 13 lbs. 2 oz.

height: 23 3/4 inches

Cyrena was the same length at 4 months but weighed 2 pounds more.  It was around this age that she started packing on the weight.  I think Natalie still looks chubby though, which I love. So here she is playing with her favorite toy and sucking her thumb.  

And she finally took a bottle, hooray!!!

New digs

This last Saturday our neighbor helped David rebuild our garden box.  We decided to replace the wood with concrete blocks.  It turned out great, mostly because our neighbor does this sort of thing for a living. :)  Here's the extent of their conversation:

David:  "What can I do?"

Jersey: "You just mix."

Haha!  So David mixed the mud for him and did some stucco repair in the meantime.  It made me smile.  And I also smiled at their lovely, stocking-cap clad assistant.  She was definitely an asset to the team, being sent inside for tape measures and what not.  Who dresses her anyway?

He thinks he looks like a hunchback in this picture.

*I have videos I want to upload but blogger won't ever let me!