Football!

Dallin has really loved playing football!  He has mostly been on the defensive team playing safety or corner back. He has great coaches and the other players on the team are really supportive and enjoy playing together.  Dallin has really learned a lot!  Rawhiders! #9!!

This Saturday he will be playing on the offensive team as running back!  He's been practicing all week and he's a little excited and nervous.  I'm nervous too! He's kinda on the small side and I'm afraid he's going to get really clobbered!

 This is we do during the many practices and games...

We take selfies,

 read books, listen to music, play on our phones, and try not to roast to death!  I'm looking forward to cooler temperatures!

Other random topics....

We had brussel sprouts for dinner the other night.  Maura wasn't too sure about them...

 and Dallin put all of them in his mouth at the same time to get it over with quickly.  

These kids just don't appreciate good food!

 We had a visit from our cousins!!

My sister, Jennifer, got tickets to One Direction for her teenage girls Blythe and Halle.  It was a big Christmas Surprise and they had been anxiously waiting to come to Phoenix for the big event ever since.  They came a couple weeks ago and spent a few days with us and we enjoyed being with them.  Katie and her kids hung out with us as well.  

Took a short trip to the Goldfield Ghost Town for the day.  It was super fun...and super hot!

 Cousins: Halle, Blythe, Dallin, Jeffrey

Adell, Damien, Maura

Jennifer, Me, Adell and Maura

We also took the teenagers to the temple to do baptisms for the dead.  I love that they are old enough to enjoy these kinds of activities when they get together! What a great way to make memories!!

 They also stopped by Grandma and Grandpa's old house to take a picture.  They have vague memories of being here when they were very very young.

 We've been doing a lot of swimming lately!

 Lastly,  Maura climbed to the VERY TOP of the zip line the last time we went to the ranch!!  It was quite the accomplishment for her! Next time we will try actually going down!

Life has been so good! We are so blessed!  We are happy!

Yep, we had a flood.

It all started when it rained like crazy...I'm talking Noah crazy.  It's rained hard before and we've survived it.  We've had our yard filled with water before too and our house has never flooded.  But this one really got close!

Once the rain stopped we thought we were in the clear.  Then the retention basin overflowed!  Evidently other flooded areas (other parks and the freeway) were being pumped into our park and it just couldn't handle it.  We were there to watch the excitement.

  My neighbor called to say there was water on the street so we went to take a look.  We walked to the end of the block and looked at the park.

Or, the lake...whatever you want to call it-but there was no grass or volleyball net or even basketball hoops any more!  Just water!  While we were standing there it kept getting higher and higher and then flowed over the berm and down the street!

 And it kept getting higher and higher!  At this point we decided we had better find the nearest sand-bag distribution to try and help some of our neighbors stay dry!  You can still see the grass in the background.  At the height of the flood water went all the way up to every door on the street!

 Luckily, our house is around the corner and just a little bit higher! We had water in our yard, but it never came up over the foundation and into the house!  Our shed got pretty wet though...

 Sand bags kept the water from getting into the garage.

 The threshold was high enough that we didn't need the sand bags, but they were there just in case!

 The water receded pretty quickly from our yard-but others were not so lucky.  We then had a power outage for about 24 hours.  Thankfully Clay had a generator we could borrow to keep our freezers going!  It was awesome!  I think that will have to be our next investment.

We had a pretty exciting week and thankfully we were relatively dry.  The water was great for our lawn and trees! 

Maura makes me laugh so hard!

This morning as we were eating breakfast I was reading an article from the New Era to the kids.  The article was about remembering Christ daily and how we could do that.  One part of the article talked about things we put in our homes that help us remember Christ.  I paused and asked the kids to find those kinds of things in our home.   They pointed out several pictures, figurines, and books.  I pointed out the huge picture of the Salt Lake Temple over our piano and asked  "What is this a picture of?"



 Maura responded "The temple of the beast!"  "What?" I said  "What do you mean by that?" (In my head I'm shocked! What kind of temple is she talking about? Where has she seen something like this? I'm imagining all kinds of gruesome and horrible things.) "You know, mom, in Beauty and the Beast, this is the temple that the mean beast lives in!"

We had a good laugh and I showed her other pictures of the Salt Lake temple and how it does look like a CASTLE, but it's really a temple and that maybe it's the clouds that make it seem a little scary...

This whole time she thought it was a picture of the Beast's castle hanging over our piano! This girl is a riot!

Love this picture of the AZ temple.  I'm having a hard time finding one that I really want to frame.  This may be it!  Any other suggestions?

Football Season!

We have begun our first ever season of tackle football and Dallin is really loving it!  He's got a great team and he is enjoying hitting people!  Also, needed to get contacts to help him out and they are terrific as well!  This handsome kid is sure growing up!

He is #9! 13 years old (almost 14) and only 104 lbs.   Working really hard on beefing up this kid!

He has practice 5 days a week for 2 hours...most of the time we go and watch...and play the Ipad.

 Or nap.

 Love the time I get to spend with this cutie!  How lucky am I!

 We've had some rain lately which makes for really great practices!  Cool evenings (80 degrees!) and a refreshing breeze!  It makes practice so much nicer for everyone!

We've had a lot of things happening lately...

Dallin had an eye appointment to get contacts!  He thinks that playing football will be easier if he doesn't have to mess with glasses.  For the first few practices he went without glasses and had a really hard time and wasn't very confident. We decided that contacts would help a lot AND we figured out a way to squish his glasses in his helmet, so now he can actually see the quarter back!  He's loving football (so far they have him as safety) and gaining more and more confidence.  He really just likes to hit people...I guess this is a good way to channel that energy!  It's been so fun to have Dale coach him and cheer for him!  It's hard for Dale to sit and watch and not suit up and join them! :-)

 This little one started First Grade!!  She sure does love school.  Her biggest complaint has been that they are just sitting a lot and the teachers are just talk, talk, talk to them...she would rather do work! :-)  I told her it's just the first week and after everyone knows the routine she will be able to do her work.
She has quite the fashion sense...and her own style (as illustrated below).  It's impossible for me to help her get dressed.
Maura-isms:
While at the football practice Maura came running up and said "MOM! Can I have some money for the concussion stand?"
I packed her clothes for our trip to the cabin last week and as we were getting in the car she was questioning what I had packed for her; "Did you bring my sweater? and my white shirt?" When I replied negatively and that she didn't need those things because we were just going to the cabin, she said; "Mom, I must have my fashion! It's all about fashion!!"

 Love this little munchkin.  

 Rain!! Oh how we love the rain in the desert! It was a serious rain too!  Of course the neighborhood kids all came out to play in the street.

 These kids are all so much fun! We sure do love them!

We also caught a bug...not sure what to name it (her) yet.