Fire Pit

I like our house. So does Mason. The other day, he went around saying, "I love my house. Mom, I love this house. Did you know I love this house?"
Me too, it's pretty nice. One of the cool features about this house is the backyard. I probably won't think it's that cool when it takes me 3 hours to mow it while using a riding lawn mower, but for the moment, I think it's great. About a month ago, Jaxon had his friends Spencer and Dallin over. It was still chilly outside, although Jaxon refuses to wear a jacket on most days, and the boys asked if they could start a fire in the fire pit. Well, they are boy scouts, and the hose extended over there in case things got out of hand, so, ok, sure, you can build a fire. They spent about 1/2 hour trying to get one started. They were never able to get a roaring one going, but it was fun watching them try. They gathered sticks, twigs, leaves, anything they thought would burn well. Jaxon even grabbed antibacterial hand sanitizer because he read "flammable" on the label and thought that might get stuff going. We tried to roast a few marshmallows and hot dogs, but the fire didn't last too long. They had a great time trying and it was fun to see the possibilities for smore-making that are in our future. Mason and Ella LOVED being out there, watching the action. Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying the pit:


Mason liked eating his marshmallows off of a skewer. Even though he didn't want to waste time roasting his, but rather dig in and eat them right away, he wouldn't just put the marshmallows in his mouth. He had to stick them on the skewer, then eat them off the stick. Funny kid.

Ella Turns 6!!

Princess Ella turned 6 on February 8th. We celebrated a few days early since Sean had to work all day on the 8th and we wanted to celebrate the WHOLE day, so we pretended that Saturday the 6th was Ella's birthday, too. We opened presents, Ella decorated her own cake, and we went to the ice skating rink. Here is the birthday girl with her brothers:



Here's Ella with her cake that she decorated all by herself:



Ella loves dolls and was so happy to get some new ones from her grandma:

Batman and Robin

Mason and Olivia are an amazingly awesome dynamic duo. They are faster than a mini cooper on the Autobahn, more powerful than the Euro compared to the dollar, and able to leap tall bunkbeds in a single bound. I love when Olivia comes over. Cookies are baked, toys are played with, and adventures are had. She helps Mason get in touch with his inner super hero, and fun is had by all.

Finally!!!

Yeah!!! I waited and waited and waited to see if I could finally upload pictures to the blog so I could keep all of you on the edge of your seats to find out what we've been up to the past few months. And, it took forever, but I was able to add a picture!! Which means....I'm back!! I probably won't be able to upload as many pictures as before for each post, but that's ok. So, let's catch you up: In January, Sean and I escaped for 48 hours to London to see a couple of plays. We had a 'Wicked' good time seeing the true story of the Wicked Witch of the West, and the next night we were thrown back into revolutionary times as we watched (and Sean quietly sang along to) Les Mis. It was his second time seeing that one, my first. I am a girl at heart and although I thoroughly enjoyed Les Mis, my favorite was....

Yup, Elphaba won me over. I loved the plot and the twist at the end (go see it, I won't ruin the surprise for you!) and the MUSIC!! I downloaded the music a few days after getting back and guess which child LOVES to dance and sing to the Wicked soundtrack in the kitchen on a daily basis? You guessed it, MASON!! We have been singing 'Popular' so much that it is always running through my mind, morning, noon, night, middle of the night...
Well, Sean and I had a great time and a big shout out THANK YOU to the Turner's and the Creer's for watching our kinder so we could enjoy London as just a couple. Fun. Here we are on the Big Bus tour, driving around London, with Big Ben in the backround:

We went to the Tower of London and took a Beefeater's Tour. What is a Beefeater? Go to London and find out!! Here we are with the London Bridge behind us after touring the Tower:

We got caught in a rainstorm Friday afternoon. The closer we got to Buckingham Palace, the worse it rained. I think the Queen may have been a little bit threatened by our awesomeness and caused the rainstorm in a feeble effort to drive us away. Didn't work. We got drenched, had to go to the nearest department store (thank you Gap) to buy me new boots since my shoes were completely squishy, warmed up with some hot chocolate from Starbuck's, (delicious, I might add), and dried off before setting out to see Wicked. The rain storm made for some amazing views as the sun started to set:


All in all, a fabulous weekend getaway!