A quick little catch up!

I really should do an individual post for each one of these, but I don't have the time or energy to do that. So here is a quick catch up to bring this up to date and then a renewed commitment to keep it that way!

First off, we headed for the hills over Spring Break and went for a camping trip at Santa Catalina State Park down it Tucson. We planned on spending 2 nights, but it was too cold at night and too hot during the day with not much to do around the campsite and not enough shade. So we wimped out and went home after one night and a hike in the mountains. It was beautiful, nonetheless and we had a good time!

 

Next up was Milly's first birthday...where did that year go? We celebrated with a little cake and the traditional "let her eat her own cupcake and see how messy she gets!"

The end of March brought Jesse's very last Pinewood Derby. His car was awesome and even though he didn't place. he looked cool doing it!

April started with Easter, of course. The Friday before, we hosted a fun Easter Egg Hunt and Spring Eggstravaganza! I was too busy organizing the hunt, egg toss and water games so I wasn't able to fit photographer into the fray, so unfortunately, there are no pictures. But it was a lot of fun and just may be a new annual event!
Saturday morning brought buckets of treats from the ol' Easter Bunny!

And Sunday brought the obligatory Easter outfits and rushed photo shoot...it's not great, but it was the best we could do in less than 5 minutes and without Mom completely losing her temper! (Just telling it like it is!) They looked really cute anyway!

Finally, we had a visit from Uncle Steve and Aunt Kirsten plus Suzie, Eli and Wesley. It was fun to have them hang out with us, although we missed the rest of the crew. Here are some pics from a trip to the zoo.

 A couple of other significant events are worth noting. We said "goodbye" to our old, faithful Ford Windstar with 160,000+ miles on it and said "hello" to our "new" 2008 silver Honda Odyssey with 46,000 miles. We love it!

Also, we made an offer on a short sale and hopefully we will be able to call this place home soon! Keeping our fingers crossed!

And there you have it!

11 Months

Milly is a girl on the move. She is enjoying her increased independence and abilities. She especially loves taking off when I get her diaper off...me, not so much! She sure is cute, though!

I didn't do a post for 10 months, so I'll have to do a little catch up. She has been quite busy these past two months. She has become very adept at crawling and prefers it to being carried. Which means she is always a mess. She especially loves crawling around outside. With winter this year being mostly in the 70's, she's had lots of opportunities to be outside. She also loves eating rocks, leaves, sand and sticks...I can't wait for her to get past that stage!
She has started pulling herself up and cruising along the furniture and she just discovered the thrill of walking while holding on to our fingers.
She got her top two teeth and enjoys using them, much to our dismay. I'm hoping she doesn't go through a bad biting stage like Jesse did...that was awful! She is also an expert pincher, again, a skill we'd happily do without!
Milly is still a happy, sweet little girl. And we love her the mostest!

Isn't she pretty? (I might be a little biased!) Don't mind James, he had to get in on the photo shoot, too. I think he's pretty handsome as well.

February Stuff

A random photo shoot at McDonalds. "Take a picture, Mom!"

 

 Jesse took a spill on his scooter and we ended up in the urgent care. Luckily his wrist wasn't broken, just a sprain. He was a little disappointed that he didn't get a cast, but he did get a cool splint and a sling. I think the coolness of a cast would've worn off quickly. He's doing just fine now and is not even wearing the splint anymore. Thank goodness! Here's a picture of him waiting at the urgent care.

We took advantage of the 75 degree weather and headed out for a little hike in the San Tan Mtns. Beautiful day and beautiful scenery. The also had a little demonstration on panning for gold and the kids got to try their hands. They each ended up with several nuggets of "San Tan gold" (gold-painted rocks!) That was much more fun than trying for the real gold flakes! It was a fun way to spend half the day.

 

A Valentine's dinner for all my little (and 1 big) Valentines. Heart-shaped pizza, red jello, chocolate-dipped strawberries, sparkling cider, balloons and candlelight were all on the menu. The kids loved the "fancy" dinner. I love my cute, funny Valentines!

10 and 3

The end of January brings a couple of birthdays to the Thatcher Clan, which culminates in a few days worth of celebrations. This year was no different.
Jesse turned the big 1-0! I cannot believe that I have a kid in double digits...I guess it's all down hill from here! Soon we will be spiraling headlong into the teen years. Heaven help us!

For his birthday he wanted waffles for dinner and we opened his presents. He also was "turned" 10 by his dad.

James turned in his "Terrible 2's" for the "Thrilling 3's"...one can hope anyway!

To celebrate both birthdays, we went to an indoor playground called Makutu's Island...always good for a fun time.

And we finished off the weekend with cake and presents for James. Jesse requested a "desert island" cake and James was just along for the ride. I think this may be the last year that I can get away with just one cake between the two of them, I'm sure James will have his own opinion by next year!

And just so I can toot my own horn a bit, here's a close up of the cake, I think it turned out pretty cute!

Don't mind the messy desk in the background!

I love my two sweet birthday boys...life just wouldn't be as much fun without them!

My Good Citizen

Grace earned a Character Counts: Citizenship Award at her school. Grace is always so kind and helpful to her teacher and classmates. We are so proud of our good citizen!

A Bear no more!

Jesse earned his Bear in Cub Scouts and has now graduated to Webelos.

 

Despite his serious face, he is very excited to begin Webelos. Although I am sad that he is leaving my Bear den, I am excited for him because he has some awesome new den leaders that are way more fun than his old mom! Good job, Jess!

To finish off the year...

We wanted to take advantage of the 70+ degree weather, so we headed out to this cool train park in Scottsdale. It was a lot of fun, but I apparently didn't get any pictures of any trains...we did see some! But there were some really fun playgrounds as well and that's where we spent most of our time! I'm loving this Arizona winter so far! Can you believe that this was the day after Christmas and we were in shorts??

 

We were also lucky to have our good friends, The Widdisons, come visit us from UT. We headed over to the Natural History Museum...

And took a trip to the zoo on New Year's eve.

We love playing with the Widdisons and are glad they made time for us!