dirty jobs

Here's to conquering the baby world one cloth diaper at a time! Let it be known (specifically to my sisters) that I can handle the dirtiest of diapers bare handed!

Happy Sunday

Happy sunday to you from us!

the little things

Oh the little things we love about the desert

We love our birds

One day we hope Wes will stay awake long enough to appreciate them too

We love our ducks

                              

We love our cactuses 

It's REALLY hard for me to resist touching them

We love our bunnies

I think this means Easter is getting close

the healthy cookie

These cookies are de-lic-ious!  There is no sugar, butter, or eggs added to the recipe which makes the cookies 'healthy,' buuut the bananas and coconut help balance that out:)  These make for some yummy doughy cookies that you feel a little better about pigging out on

where these cookies were born

the mystery castle

Who knew there was a castle in Phoenix?  In fact when we were looking this place up online we found yet another castle nestled somewhere here in phoenix too!  And then there is Castles and Coasters.. but this particular one is called the Mystery Castle.  Built in the 1930's by a guy who only used materials found at the dump.  The cement is even made of goats milk!  

The castle is definitely very quirky and has an interesting story to it.  It's called the "Mystery Castle" because the guy who built it first abandoned his family after discovering he had TB, moved to Arizona and then secretly built this castle for his daughter.  The family didn't discover it until after he died.  His daughter then lived in it for I think 40 years until her death in 2010.

The castle overlooks the city of Phoenix

This is how the builder patched holes in the window

Oliver..  He's better with an iphone than I ever will be:) 

and the fun continues

 My brother and his fam came for a visit from the desert to the desert.  I think it was a good break for them from the freezing temperatures in Utah.  Liam and Oliver were so cute with Wes, especially Liam!  He would com and say, "Hi Baby!" and give him hugs and kisses.  Ciara  could only hold Wes for so long before Liam decided it was his turn to be held by his mama. 

Matt, Brett and our friend Jake ran the half Marathon in Sedona this same weekend.  Sedona is full of vortexes, "good energy", and the prettiest sceneries you'll lay your eyes on in the whole state of Arizona!  

The race took them on trails through the mountains that were chalk full of hills.  We were only able to cheer them on at the start and finish line, so my friend Vanessa and I went shopping in between and made it back right as these guys were crossing the finish line

There Matt is approaching the finish line

The mustache and beard team 

We got some play time in with these guys too!  We took them to our favorite park, Anthem Park, to feed the ducks and play on the play ground

Matt feeding our son to the dinosaur.  Good thing this dino is extinct

Can you spot the 2 "kids" on the playground?

 We ended our adventure on the train at the park.  Oliver got the biggest smile on his face when the train went through a tunnel.  The kids LOVED it!

The Baby Blessing

At 2 weeks old we had Wes' baby blessing.  He wore the same outfit that Matt wore when he was blessed as a baby.  One of our friends told us how cute his vintage outfit was.  I guess that makes Matt vintage too :) 

Our family from Texas, California, and Mesa came out to celebrate with us

Our friends who were able to make it out

All our babies were born around the same time!  So fun!

Wes with his Uncle Andy

The happy family!

xo

Our Special Delivery

 We have been fortunate to have family visiting us all the way back to the night I went into labor!  That night we had gone to see the Mesa temple lights with Matt's Mom, brother, aunts and other family.  My stomach had been really tight all that day even to the point where I couldn't tell if I was hungry or not.  (That didn't stop me from eating a couple baskets of bottomless fries at Red Robin for lunch!)  

Every night that week Matt would ask me, "Is this going to be the night?" I'd reply back to him each time saying, "No, I don't think so."  As we were walking around the temple I told Matt that I thought that night would be the night.  I had made too many trips to the bathroom for it not to be!

After we left the temple we went to Bill Johnson's BBQ for dinner.  We didn't even get our food before my water broke right at the table!  Frazzled, I jumped up and dragged Matt out the door with me without saying anything to his family.  If you could imagine, it's a pretty uncomfortable feeling to be leaking uncontrollable and a bit embarrassing!  At least for me 

We made the drive back to phoenix where we ate some frozen chinese food we had before heading to the hospital.  Matt's family were very supportive of the whole ordeal:) They even brought us a ham dinner that night!

The waitress joked around when we got there saying she hoped my water would break at the restaurant.  Little did she know her wish would come true!  Luckily for her I got out of there quick enough to not leave a mess for them to clean up!

 Matt's family were the first family members to meet Wes!  Matt's Mom was able to stay with us a few extra days to help us out.  She was more than thrilled to stay with us longer.  After all, we blame her for putting me into labor that night after all the speed bumps she made us drive over :) 

She helped clean and cook and kept exclaiming. "I just love to clean!" and "I just love to cook!"  And we just loved to let her!

Wes with his Uncle Brent and Aunt Maddie

 Then my Mom was able to come and stay with us a couple weeks and continued to help us out.  It was nice to have someone here to calm every single anxiety and fear I had about infants and my Mom did just that! 

My Dad came and joined in the fun the last week my Mom was here.  Him and Wally (as my Dad calls Wes.. he has nick names for all the grandkids) got along great!

Wes is fortunate to have such a big fan club between our 2 families:)

fun sized matt

Matt shares a special bond with Wes.  He gets the most smiles out of him, he can calm him down quicker than I can, and then there's no questioning that Wes is his son.. he is a miniature version of him!  We are both so glad when he comes home at the end of the day