Changes

This year has been one jam packed busy year. I can't believe how busy the last few months have been, how much has changed and how time has flown by. I am so far behind in blogging so here is a quick summary of what we've been up to the first few months of the year.

1. Rental living. I think I've been pretty vocal that I am not a huge fan of living out of boxes and suitcases while not actually on a vacation. The month of January seemed to drag on as we waited for our house to close.  We did try to make the most of it though.

We didn't move in much furniture so we were often playing on the bed or the floor.

The boys trying out their marshmallow shooters that Santa brought them. 

There was a little park by the rental but we didn't make it there much because it was always very crowded. 

Logan was glad to still have his dress up clothes at the rental. This was his adorable cowboy outfit.

2. Looks who is old enough to be in Sr. Primary at church now...yep...Lincoln! I can't believe he will be getting baptized later this year. He is sure blossoming into the cutest guy.

3. My birthday - yes, another year older and I'd like to think wiser too. I got to celebrate with a BBQ dinner with my boys. I also had a girls night out that weekend with dinner and games at Debbie's and some fun relaxing time painting ceramics.

Famous Dave's BBQ

Debbie, Kristy, Bam, Joyce

We all made a cup of some sort that had pink, black, white and gray with at least one tennis ball on it somewhere. 

4. After a bit of drama, a few weeks delay and some frustration, in February we finally moved into our new home.  It was SO nice to finally be in, unpacked and not living out of boxes. Ricky and Grandpa TuTu loaded and unloaded the moving truck over several days. We love our place! It is also A LOT of work to move. My mom came out from CA for a week and helped. Finding the right place for everything, decorating and just one project after the next. Right now we are waiting for our our front yard to be finalized.

5. Lincoln's year of karate has come to a close do we are ready to move onto the next activity. It is something that he really learned to love and be successful with but it's time to try something new.

6. Valentine's date - I was lucky enough to take two handsome boys to the Mother Son dance at the boys school. Grammy was also in town, helping us to move in, so it ended up being like a double date and was perfect. We went to Red Robin for dinner (which is the boys favorite) and then headed to the dance where my shy boys turned into the life of the party. Logan jumped right into the conga train and Lincoln busted some awesome moves in the middle of the floor under the crazy DJ lights.

Ricky got me this adorable tennis necklace for Valentine's Day. 

7.  Phoenix Wildlife Zoo - Lincoln's school field trip for the Spring was a trip to the zoo and I was thrilled to accompany him. It's important for me to take some time away from work to participate in their classroom or school activities and this was a fun day to do that. It's always nice to see him interact with his friends and be there to support them.

8. Student of the Month....twice! Lincoln got student of the month for improving in reading. In April he got student of the month for recognizing the character trait of Citizenship. We are very proud of him for working hard academically and more importantly, for being a nice and caring person.

9. Out of Africa - We had been to Out of Africa previously and it was a rough trip. We went in the hot  fall and it was dirty, the kids weren't too interested and oh ya, it was HOT. I'd been wanting to go back and give it another try and considering a few years had passed, I figured now was that time. We went in January so it was a cool day. The boys were much more engaged and Ricky was happy because he got to take pictures. It was a great day trip adventure and I'm glad we gave it another shot.

They have a train ride that took us on a guided tour around to see the different animals close up. Logan was in heaven. 

Rock Springs is out in the middle of nowhere but we pass it on our way to and from Out of Africa. This time we made a point to stop and eat there. Food wasn't anything to write home about but he homemade fresh pies were AMAZING. 

10. Bikes with no training wheels. We have a large grassy area near our new home so it was a goal of ours to get the training wheels off of the boys bikes and get them riding regularly. Lincoln took to it immediately and did fine. Logan, unfortunately, couldn't quite keep it upright. We will still continue to work with him and I'm sure he'll have it in no time.

Notice we started with smiles from Logan.

This was the end result...Lincoln happy he had mastered the bike and Logan was mad his brother did something he couldn't do. 

 11. With a new home in a new city comes a new ward at church. This is a MUCH smaller ward than we came from but we are appreciating it. The primary is small, which is unfortunate for the boys right now, but hopefully that will grow over the years. The second time we attended, Ricky and I were asked to speak the following Sunday. When the ward is this small there is no flying under the radar. We both already have callings as YM Secretary and Ward Employment Specialist, respectively.

12. Tennis - oh how I missed playing tennis over the last 10 months while I was recovering from my ankle injury. It was difficult to get back on the court. I was very hesitant to move much for fear of re-injuring my ankle. I also felt like my groundstrokes suffered the consequences of not holding a racket for so long. Luckily my serves stayed in tact but even that by an hour in was forcing an uncomfortable feeling in the ankle. For the most part my ankle has done well but it still hurts and is sore after playing. My ego from losing is probably what hurts more. I played three 4.0 matches at the end of the season and didn't win....which is an unusual feeling for me but hey, it happens to the best of us I guess and I hope to change that in the fall season. I'm really just glad to be back on the court playing a sport that I love.

13. Say cheese! Ricky's photo studio is up and running and he's had several photo sessions over the last couple of months. Everything from product work to senior pictures, family pictures, fourth grade portraits and some head shots. He has a pretty great set up and creates some beautiful pieces of work. You can see more of his work at his website http://rcphillipsphotography.com.

The adorable little model on this package is Rory, my sweet niece. 

14. Hiking. I don't go hiking as often as I would like to. I do actually enjoy walking a nice trail through beautiful places where I get to enjoy all times of wildlife and nature. I hope that hiking with the boys will get easier as they get older. This trip was nice but about every five minutes we had to stop because someone was thirsty, hungry, tired, wanted to run off the trail or just wanted to sit. We did actually make it to the waterfall head to see what amounted to the small pool of water with no waterfall. We had been before so it was no surprise but there is always hope that there is actually water falling from the marked waterfall.

15. Movies. One thing my boys love is movies. I am glad that as a family we all have that in common and can share in watching movies together. I enjoy watching the lighthearted kids movies with them and daddy enjoys watching the action and Star Wars movies with them so we've got our bases covered. If we aren't going to the movie theater, we are often renting something new from Red Box. Friday nights are usually our movie night and we look forward to treats and a movie.