Hanging out....

This is how we've all felt after our month long painting project (blog below this one).... a little crazy!!!
Jay got an opportunity to hang out with his friends from Jr. High and Highschool...Sean, Jason, Nathan, Brian, Jay, Chris and Troy. They will all get to gather again next month in Illinois for Jason's wedding. So fun to have life long friends!!!
2 little firemen working hard in the backyard. I love the creativity of my boys!
The four of us went to the zoo the other day and rented a paddle boat. I loved riding on these as a kid on Catalina Island with my family so it was extra special to do it with my family. Yeah, for fun family moments, I am so blessed with my 3 boys! Thank you Lord, I am grateful!

And we are finally finished!!!!!!!!

We decided that we'd like to put our house on the market and thought we should paint the outside of our house first. It was a MUCH bigger undertaking than we realized. We hired a couple of guys and all worked hard for weeks....
We had to scrape paint off forever and power wash the house and prime things, and replace wood pieces and tear down other parts and whew what an ordeal.... however, we know have....
A freshly painted house that looks quite nice! I really wish you could see it up close and personal. We choose a gazebo grey and Platinum grey and we look forward to our flowers and bougainvillea growing up and blooming along the freshly painted house. :) And.... we are very happy to be back to a more normal way of life. YEAH!!! And because we have finished we are ready for our house to go on the market. :) It goes up on Tuesday....

Out of Africa

Out of Africa is in Camp Verde, AZ about 1 and a half hours north of our house. My parents and little boys decided to go up today on President's Day while Daddy is out of town. Look at how beautiful the mountains look and how close you really get to the animals. It was really neat!
Caeden holding his first snake. Daddy is scared of snakes so he couldn't wait to show him this picture. :) Later in the day we pet a 17 foot python snake, it was crazy!
We rode a safari bus that came right up to the giraffe and we were able to give him a carrot. I put mine in my mouth so I could get a kiss as he ate it. It was very fun! This giraffe was especially wrinkly, as you can see and the tour guide said giraffes only sit about 20 minutes a day so this was quite a thing to observe. :)
Here is the clan after 5 hours at the park. We all had a great time! Thanks mom and dad for treating the boys and me to a fun day out!!!

Thanks Uncle Dutch

Fun times at the mall...
Playing trains....
Eating, talking and playing as a family...
And great fun at the Suns game with the Star Wars characters. We sure enjoyed our time with you Uncle Dutch and we miss you already!!! We love you.... Caeden and Caleb