Hello Kitty

We celebrated Elise's birthday this past Saturday. We did a

Hellp Kitty theme which was so fun. This was popular when

I was a kid and it still is today. I think it is such a cute theme

to do for a little girl party. A friend of mine from Phoenix

started a cupcake business and made cake pops (she made

two look just like Hello Kitty) and push-up cake pops.

We played a couple of games and then the kids could also make a necklace.

Even little Bella was decked out in Hello Kitty clothing.



Elise got a lot of great presents from her friends. I made all the girls

that came a little skirt just like the one Elise is wearing for their

party favor. I was hoping for a group picture but with that many kids

I didn't even attempt it.



I think that her favorite thing was opening presents. We do need to work

of her saying thank you to everyone as she opened the gifts.

Elise was so excited it was her birthday. I can't believe that she is 3~!



Pappa Gene and Grandma came down for the festivities from Colorado.

It was also their first time meeting little Bella. They had a good time

with the grandkids and we enjoyed having them come stay with us.

YL-Young Life

This year I was part of Young Life. It is a ministry for teenagers

and college age kids. I had found out about it from our babysitter

who is a leader of Young Life here at NAU. We have done a

few things with them in the past but I wanted to do more.

So twice a month before they had club I hosted the YL leaders

for the college group at our house. This was the final dinner for the

year so we had a little BBQ.

This is Jason, he is the area director here is Northern Arizona. The

funny thing is we actually went to college with him when we went

to NAU. I love how there seems to always be a connection here in

Flagstaff.

It was amazing to be apart of these young adults lives. They are

such a great group of men and women. I look forward to serving

them again in the fall and being part of their lives.

Celebrating with ice cream

We went out to dinner and yogurt for Elise's birthday. We have a

fabulous place in Flag called Yogurt U. It is a self-serve yogurt shop

that has 10 flavors of yogurt and then a topping bar with 40 choices.

The kids love to pick out all of their favorite toppings.

One thing that both the kids love is ice cream. So it was a perfect

end to a great day. Elise will be having a party of Saturday so

there will be more pictures to come.

Interview with Elise

Our little girl is three

Today April 26th 2012 Elise turned 3. Three years have flown by.

She is our spit fire and precious little girl. She has a huge personality

and very expressive. We feel so blessed to have her in our life. She

brings a lot of joy and laughter to our family.

Suzuki Violin

This was Christian last recital for the year. He started playing Suzuki

Violin last September. It was been great to see his growth during this year.

He has really enjoyed playing and we have enjoyed

watching him progress. We plan on continuing throughout

the summer and into next year.

The program is through NAU Community Music and Dance. We have

been very happy with the program and his instructor Aryn is wonderful.

Christian's End of Year Recital

T-ball begins

T-ball begins. Christian is on the Riverdogs and he had his first 2 games

on Fri night and Saturday. Shane is one of the assistant coaches and

loving every minute of it.

Little kids are just so stinkin' cute in baseball uniforms. He of course

is loving playing T-ball and is totally into it.

My cousin Andrea and her family came up on Saturday for the day

and got to meet Bella for the first time and it was great for them

to get to see Christian play.

It was great for the cousins to get to play with eachother and they

had a great time.



MOPS- Leadership Tea

Mad Hatter- So every year at MOPS we have a leadership te to invite

new moms to be apart of leadership. So this year we had a Mad Hatter Tea

from Alice in Wonderland. So of course I had to dress up and go all out.

We asked all the ladies to wear a hat and everyone was great and particiapted.
MOPS is such a wonderful group to be a part of when you are a mom
of young children. I feel so honored and blessed to be their coordinator this
year. I am going to be the coordinator again next year but the great thing
is I am going to have a partner to co-cordinate with me.

If you don't know what MOPS is and want to know more go to
www.MOPS.org .

4 weeks have gone by

Our little Bella is one month old. This last 4 weeks have flown by.

She is already out of her newborn clothes and getting chunkier.

Her hair is still red and her eyes look like they are defiently going to be blue.

Spark Plug

Last night we went to Christian's hockey banquet.

It was pretty special because Christian got an award.

There were 42 kids on his hockey team and only 8 kids

recieved an award.

He got the SPARK PLUG AWARD

(this is someone who is high energy, always smiling,

excited to be on the ice, good attitude, a spark plug)

There was 4 awards given out and 2 kids got the same one. His

good friend Drew also got the Spark Plug award. We are so proud of

him, this was his first year playing hockey and he really worked hard

and most importantly had a blast!