Splash Pad Family Night

Last Friday we were at home and wanted to do something together...so we decided to have a family night at the splash pad.

 We rode our bikes over (with Westen in the bike trailer). Westen was squealing with delight for a straight hour. He LOVES to play in the water. There was water, kids, puppies and a ball - his mind was totally blown. He had such a fun time.

 Daddy rode his bike down the street and picked us some pizza (and he brought it back in the bike trailer :) ) and we had a little pizza picnic at the park.

 The splash pad wasn't draining very well, so there was even extra water on the ground to splash and play in. We had a really good time hanging out as a family!

Memorial Day Weekend

Our Memorial Day weekend was busy! on Friday and Saturday, we went camping with Branden's extended family. Westen (and the other little kids) were loving climbing all over the 4 wheelers and Rangers.

 

Westen kept saying "brrrm, brrrrm" . He loved going for Ranger rides.

 

 We generally don't take him out in public without his shirt on....but those raviolis were messy! He definitely doesn't skip a meal :)

 We tried to take him on a short ride around camp on our 4 wheeler and he wasn't very comfortable....so after sending him with the people that had Rangers all weekend...we decided to trade our 4-wheeler in for a Ranger. Hopefully we can go camping soon and take some pictures of us in our new toy :)

 Westen was really happy that there were lots of rocks and sticks to throw!

 There was a little trail by our camp, so we went on a couple family walks - but Westen insisted on being a big boy and walking.

 On the last day of our camping trip, the entire family went on a "Lizard Hunt" on our 4 wheelers and Rangers. We stopped every time one of the kids saw a Lizard running. We ended up finding a couple of Lizards and "Grandpa Stewart" (Grandpa Ronnie's brother) found a horny toad. Westen loved the critters, but he wasn't very soft with them - they got a few extra squeezes from Westen's little hands.

 On Sunday, we went to Grandpa Ronnie's house and played in the water in the field.

 On Monday we went on a family date to the Dinosaur Museum. Westen got to say a lot of "roars". It was an awesome weekend full of lots of family time!

Family Pictures - FINALLY!

Our cute little family

Westen has been making the funniest faces for the past week. So glad we caught some! 

 Westen's two mommies!

 Maybe I am biased because he's my kid...but he is so stinking cute!

 Getting Family Pictures was the perfect way to spend Birth Mother's Day & Mommy's birthday!

 Happy Birth Mother's Day Audrey!!

 We are so grateful for Audrey and what she means to our family! Our family is better because she is in it! We are so proud of her! She is smart, hard working, beautiful...and she makes really cute babies!

Birth Mother's Day & Mommy's Birthday!

 This Weekend we went to the Birth Mother's Day walk with our families and with Westen's birth mom Audrey and birth grandma Barbara. Westen had a lot of fun running around with the other kids. (Don't you just love his cute little adoption shirt)

 



We are grateful that FSA (Families Supporting Adoption) plans this walk every year to honor birth moms! We took one walk around the track and then all of the adopted children released a balloon in honor of their birth moms.

 

 Seeing all of those balloons in the sky was awesome! That represents the love of a lot of birth families and adopted children!

 



Westen thought it was cool to watch his balloon float into the sky.

 

We are so grateful for supportive family and an amazing birth family that all recognize how cool adoption is and continue to support us and hang out with us! I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday than to be surrounded by people that I love and to be celebrating adoption!

Yay, It's May!

Grandma came over on friday to help us plant our flowers.

 

Lucky for her, she had a little helper that was pretty handy with a shovel!

Then Westen shared our water soakers with his neighbor friends...and came home soaked!

Today, Branden ran his second half marathon in Provo! (yes, we need a new camera...the shutters sometimes don't open all of the way after a little Mountain Dew spilling incident with our friends)

 

We surprised daddy and came to cheer him on near the finish line.

Then after the marathon, we took Westen to his first Parent-Tot swim class.

 

We are lucky to have such an involved daddy that isn't afraid to be the only dad in the class!

Westen learned how to blow bubbles in the water, splash his hands, float on his back and kick his legs and hold onto the side of the pool.

 

He loved his swim lessons until he saw the basketball hoop. So...after a minor meltdown, we had to abandon swim class to play with the basketball hoop.

 

And now....after a super busy weekend...we are all off to bed. Good night!

Two Birthdays

We Celebrated two birthdays this month...

 

The first was Audrey's

 

We went to dinner for her birthday and then she came out on Sunday to watch conference with us.

The next birthday we celebrated was Blake's! Before his birthday party, Blake (middle) and Kade (left) came over to play for a few hours.

 

While the boys played, daddy put together Westen's new table and chairs.



When the table was all put together, Blake and Westen tested it out and shared some pretzel sticks.

 

                                      

Then later in the afternoon, we went to Blake's birthday party at the pool.

 

There was a little bit of swinging, some splashing, some sliding and lots of swimming with daddy.

 



Spring is HERE!

On the Saturday before Easter, Branden participated in a sprint triathlon.

We watched from the park and Westen had fun playing in the trees.

 

Branden has been running/biking/swimming a lot to prepare for the Triathlon and has decided he really likes it...

 

On Sunday, the Easter bunny hid eggs in our house. Westen had fun finding them. It is a good thing we found eggs before he saw his basketball hoop, because he has been inseparable from the hoop for 2 days now.

 

In Addition to the basket ball hoop, the Easter Bunny also brough Westen a basket filled with toys and treats. (Oh, and don't you just love his little Easter shirt!)

 

 

After church, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for lunch, an Easter message about Jesus and you guessed it...another Egg Hunt! Westen totally got the concept of finding eggs and putting them in his basket, so it was really cute to watch.

Yay for families and yay for Easter!