Great friends and fun times!

So you know those friends that come into your life and no matter how long it's been since you've seen them or talked to them, once you are back together, it's like only minutes have passed? Well, this weekend I was able to get together with SO many great friends like this! It was a GREAT weekend!





This is my great friend Cassie, whom I have not seen in two years. We served in the YW presidency together and she flew down to Albuquerque to attend the baptism of one of "our" Young Women. We picked her up from the airport and got to spend the day together. It was so much fun talking to her and hanging out.
While trying to get a decent picture of us both, we were laughing so hard that, well you know me, I cried.
Me and Nohemi, my Young Woman. She was finally able to get baptized and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. She is such an amazing girl and such a great example!

And this is a group of some of my favorite people in the world. We had a "girls night out" and all hung out. We were all (and still are) such good friends when we all went to the Manzano Ward. It was SO much fun hanging out and talking. We stayed up until almost midnight talking and giggling like little girls... someone made the comment that it is a good thing we don't drink...

It was so great to see everybody and hang out like the "good ol days". Of course there were a couple people missing, and we all talked about them and how much we missed them (you know who you are), but it was so fantastic to get together with the group again!

Our "goofy" shot... obviously some of us took it more seriously than others :)

I love these girls!

Petroglyphs and Easter Fun

Well, we're almost all recovered from the marathon sicknesses in our family... we finally took the kids to the doctor and they both had gotten double ear infections. So antibiotics were given and of course this Sunday Spencer broke out into a huge rash, having a reaction from the Amoxicillin... but we're hopefully all on the mend.



We went to Petroglyphs National Monument today. It is about five minutes away from our house... it's about time we went. So here's a picture of some of the first ones we saw on our 2.5 mile hike and as a bonus, you get to see my 5 month baby bump... exciting huh.



A picture of the almost 10 steps Carly took on the entire hike. It was monumental so we had to take a pic of it. Poor Kyle had to carry her almost the entire way.

The crew at some more petroglyphs (behind Spencer).

Spencer did really good and had a lot of fun looking for the pictures on the rocks.

Carly on the other hand.... well, this is a picture of her refusing to walk. She'd just plunk herself down on the dirt and sit there with a scowl. We'd pretend to walk away and say bye, and she didn't care at all, she wasn't budging. So of course we had to go back and pick her up and carry her, what could we do? Let her sit and rot in the desert? (We were tempted at times)

And this is Easter. Spencer got all of the eggs because Carly was more interested in playing in her car than finding eggs.

These are 2 of the 6 eggs she cared to grab.

The kids posing in front of the eggs.

My parents came down for the weekend. It was fun to see them and the kids loved having their grandparents here!
And this is Carly all tuckered out from a hard week. She actually fell asleep standing up... she's amazing.

Happy Birthday Spencer!

Spencer is the big number 5! He had a great day full of swashbuckling fun! ( I have yet to figure out how to get these pictures in order, so bear with me).




Spencer at his birthday party, dressed as a pirate, with his pirate ship cake. (The cake was a lot harder than it looks, you'll have to take my word on that.)

Right before the candles were blown out...

Okay, this has been one of the hardest weeks in a LONG time for our family. I had a major sickness (and of course since I'm preggo, I can't take anything that really works), Spencer got pink eye, then a cold, Carly then got the pink eye and a cold, and Kyle has had one of the busiest weeks at work ever. Poor guy, I hardly saw him at all. It's hard enough taking care of sick kids, when you are sick, but then I got a sinus infection... yep, I've never had one until now and I had no idea they were so painful and miserable. So anyway, taking care of sick kids, while you are sick, trying to plan a birthday party, keep the house sanitized, and support your husband is hard (I know a lot of you have done this and survived, and probably have been in better spirits about the whole thing- good for you, but I'm not one of those people as often as I should be :) ) So anyway, Kyle started getting sick at the end of the week, still working like crazy, on-call at the hospital, feeling guilty because he wants to be home helping me and the kids and can't... You know the story. But to make a long story even longer, Kyle bought me these roses and it is so nice to have a husband that knows what a hard week it has been and has been through it himself, but still thinks about things like this! I am so lucky!

Here's to a better week ahead!

Okay, back to the party.

This is Spencer's birthday morning, opening up all of the family presents.

Spencer on the day of his party, still not feeling quite up to par... poor kid.

Spencer and Carly giving an "AAARGH" for the camera

The party-goers all dressed up as cute pirates.

About ready to eat the cake.

It was a really fun party and luckily it all worked out. We had ordered one of those big jumpers for the kids, and of course Albuquerque had gusting winds and so we couldn't get it. Last minute games were thought up and it turned out great. We played a lot of pirate games, had a treasure hunt, ate pizza, cake, and ice cream, and just had fun.

Spencer loved it and that's all that matters!

Some March Madness..

We have been getting ready for Spencer's big birthday #5! It's next week and he is so excited because we are having a pirate party! (He chose the theme and I am really excited about it because there are a TON of things you can do for a pirate party! Thank you, Spencer, for making it easy on your mom.) Here is the invitation that we gave out. Spencer's favorite part is the ARGH at the end.

We obviously burnt the edges and then rolled it up and put it in an IBC rootbeer bottle. Spencer loved it and loved taking them around to his friends to invite them.

This is a picture Spencer drew of Daniel and the Lions Den. You can see Daniel down with the lions and the king up looking through the hole. Pretty good huh!
And this is his interpretation of a crocodile.

It has been so warm here (off and on). The kids have had so much fun playing outside when it's warm. Spencer loves to push Carly in her swing... she loves it too.

Well, today we took our little white car in to get new brakes. (Yes, we still have it and it's going strong) It has 135,000 miles on it so far and we'll drive it until it gets double that if we can(Unless you ask Kyle). So, the brake place just called and of course there is something else wrong with it. Some piston thing in the back... bla bla bla. So it's going to cost us about 4 times what we had originally thought. Isn't that the way it always happens? Bye, bye new entertainment center that we were saving up for... oh well. At least the car is still running and we will get it back today.

I bet Kyle looked pretty dang good driving into the doctors parking lot at the hospital in the mini van though, especially amongst the BMW's, Porches, and Mercedes... At least we don't have to worry about our cars getting stolen when they're among that kind of company!

See you can always find the silver lining! :)

And in other, better news. We have a new neice! Sydnee Wayman was born on Tuesday and she is SOOOO cute! We can't wait to meet her! Congratulations guys!