Ayla is being independent

After walking the trails at Whitney Mesa Park this morning the little kids played on the playground for a little bit before heading home. Ayla wouldn't go up the stairs, nor slide down the slide at all. She would only slide if I put her up at the top and held her hand all the way down. Tonight we had a ward picnic at this park. Ayla decided to climb the stairs all by herself and go down the slide with no help or prompting for what to do. I have no idea what changed from this morning, but she's fine with the slide now.

Recently with my little tribe...

Peekaboo!! Playing in the cooler is so fun!

Lunch time was too close to naptime this day. Oops. She slept through getting her hands washed off and only complained for a second when I was washing her face. As soon as I picked her up she was back asleep on my shoulder.

Ayla begged to get up on the chair with Zenock so she could play with the fuzzy blanket too. Fuzzy anything, whether it's alive or not, is her very favorite!

Eating lunch in a booster at Lucille's BBQ. I just might like them better than Famous Dave's...but I might have to eat at each restaurant again before I make my final decision :)

The only way to eat a whole hot dog is to have seconds and thirds of ketchup. Or, I could let him skip the middle man and just have ketchup for lunch. I think that would make a picky eater's day, don't you?

No money required

We took the littles to Walmart for some quick and cheap fun. It didn't even cost me the quarter to start up the kids ride for them to enjoy it.

Sometimes I love my job!

Brady's caption on this cute video:
For Keiza's work we got to go to Lucille's BBQ for lunch today. The little kids came with us and they were well-behaved and downright adorable. I had my hands full trying to feed me and Ayla, so I didn't have much of a chance to document the hilarity, but much of it ensued, here is a taste of it for you, as Gideon tasted the delicious BBQ ranch sauce...straight from the bowl. Note to self: look up recipe for this on Pinterest.

Some fun things and funny kids

Looking cute for church two weeks ago.

A bunch of friends got together for a bike race last Saturday. The kids thought it was pretty awesome, and I know all the families had lots of fun too. We ended up playing at the park for almost two hours. Gideon and Ayla were having such a great time!

We even had a popsicle break after the official race was over.

He loved playing in the "bus"...really a covered wagon.

Ayla was taste testing some rocks and sand by our house. Everyone was so dirty.

Daddy was reading a book to Gideon at the Dr's office, and Ayla noticed she was being left out. She begged to get up on Brady's lap to look at the book too...it's so sweet!

I've started walking in the mornings again with my friend Sam. We trap our kids in the strollers and have some fun chatting for a while...until the little natives get restless. The weather was pretty cool a few days last week, so we walked one day outside at Duck Creek. This is the view from the balcony of the Wetlands Nature Center.

Another funny thing I want to record for posterity happened today. I had finished sewing Zenock's costume pants for his Luke Skywalker costume this year. I just made simple white pants. I showed them to him this morning so he could try them on. He walked around and told everyone, "Look, I look like I'm going to the temple." I just about died laughing...and I got warm fuzzies all that the same time. He just happened to be wearing a white pajama shirt as well, so he really was all dressed in white. And, as coincidences go, we went to the temple this afternoon after Brady got off work. What a great Saturday.

On another note, thank you again a million times to my parents for getting me a carpet cleaner for my birthday last year. I had to use it today to shampoo my van out because Zenock puked in it Friday night, and after baking soda and vinegar everywhere I still couldn't get the smell out. I'm hoping that after the seats and floor dry by morning and the smell is gone. Kids!!!!

Hairy Duck men

Abby put a Duck Dynasty beard app on her phone. These are our picks! Ayla's is the best one, hands down!

The Wetlands Nature Center

While Brady was at work on Saturday, we took Abby to the Nature Center at the Duck Creek Wetlands area. They have some pretty awesome stuff for kids to check out, learning stations, a part to feel real animal pelts, a poop station (the favorite of ours), and some kid toy things to climb and play on.

She liked sitting on the duck.

This frog made noise. Gideon loved climbing on it.

Playing with skulls.

Matching animal eggs.

Splash Pad with Abby

This dude likes to hide in under the tv cabinet. He thinks it's hilarious to get in here and shut the doors. He fits so nicely with all the books in there too :)

Right after school on Friday we took Abby to our favorite splash pad at Reunion Trails park. I brought some cups, and everyone had a blast throwing water on unsuspecting people.

Ayla and Gideon loved crawling and splashing through the little lazy river thing made for little kids.

Happy Birthday to Me!

For my birthday, we had a great two days hanging out on the Strip, enjoying the sites, a show with our friends, and some quality time without the kids clamoring for our attention. In all honesty, I was just happy that someone else had to get up with Ayla and Gideon in the middle of the night. Thank you to my little sister, Abby, for flying down here to spend the weekend with us and watch the kids while we were gone overnight. Having that small break helped my mom batteries get recharged.

Lobby of the Wynn

McLaren at the Cystals at City Center.

Botanical Garden display at Bellagio

Botanical Garden display at Bellagio

Our friends, the Wades, joined us for Recycled Percussion at the Quad Hotel. They showed us their instruments of choice for the show.

These are the instruments we picked. I loved my oxygen tank :) We beat on them with drumsticks throughout the show. It was pretty awesome.

They had a killer entrance....horizontal and then moving upside down while drumming on those fancy 55 gallon drums, hubcaps, and other miscellaneous junk.

They split open a van and played inside

Brady and Jordan got to go onstage. They really got their monkey on...the video is hilarious. Can you guess which one couldn't see? He was so funny. I didn't get much video of him because I was to busy rooting for Brady....but the whole experience was a blast. Our tickets were on the front row! Gotta love sweet ticket deals on Craigslist.

Checking out the nightlife along some of the Strip...I'm so glad we don't "party"....yuck!

One of the world's tallest ferris wheels is being built here. A few weeks ago there were only three spokes attatched, and now it's almost complete.

Waterfall outside the Crystals shops at City Center

Aria Hotel lobby

Coca Cola store was really fun!

We bought the sample of Tastes Around the World. It came with 16 different soda flavors popular from all parts of the world. I think we like 4 or 5 out of the 16. The white one on the far right of Brady's tray was called Beverly from Italy. Oh my gosh....it was so disgusting. I could taste if for about 20 minutes after just one swallow. Brady couldn't even swallow it, he had to spit it out in another cup. We liked pina colada, apple, mint, black cherry, and two red ones. We had a few of the drinks not carbonated which was a little weird to call it soda and not be bubbly.