Father's Day 2015

Happy Father's Day to the one who has patience when mine runs out and the one who doesn't mind throwing the kids in the pool at least a hundred times.  Happy Father's Day to the one who is good at sports, video games and playing Sofia the First.  Happy Father's Day to the one who wrestles, pillow fights and teaches boys how to lose gracefully at games.  Happy Father's Day to the one who serves us relentlessly.  Your hard work and dedication doesn't go unnoticed.  Happy Father's Day to the one who strives to bring your family closer to Jesus. Happy Father's Day to my babe! You're the best and I'm so grateful to be the mom of your babies!

Happy Father's Day to two super silly and fun grandpas who are even better dads.  Thanks for always being there for us. We love you.

Early Summertime (and late Spring)!

A few of this pictures were from the end of the school. We had an open house for the kids to show off a subject they'd been studying or working on over the last few weeks of school. 

First Graders had been learning all about the Solar System which Rowan thoroughly enjoyed.

Cruz's class was just finished a unit on seeds and were able to show off their grass seed plants that they had grown from seeds.

Coco showed us her "What Makes Me Special" binder.

The boys had their end of the season baseball parties. This was at Cruz's party. We had to miss Rowan's because it was on the same night as Cruz's pre-school graduation. 

Sis enjoyed the pizza. :) 

We've spent our summer days relaxing! The kids, especially Cora are really into coloring so we've done a ton of that. 

The kids got "moved up" to new classes for Sunday School. Rowan is officially in the 2nd Grade class and Cruz in the Kindergarten. The pre-school classes go by age so Coco is still in the 2's. At our church, moving from pre-school to Kinder is kind of a big deal. Kindergarteners join the big kids in their own worship service, plus, they have the opportunity to earn gumballs by memorizing Scripture. Cruz is so excited to be included with Rowan now.

We've done a ton of swimming so far this summer. Cora is still doing great at her swimming lessons. Other than that, the kids swim in our pool every day and we visit our community water park a couple times a week. 

Summer movies have started up again and this year was Cora's first time to be included. She did a great job and will sit quietly with her popcorn for most of the movie. 

All ready to go!

The boys insist on wearing these shirts together. Notice how Cruz's shirt says "Row" and Rowan's shirt says "Cruz." They get a kick out of it every time. :)

Rog and I have been doing a lot of little (and big) house projects. 

Tile backsplash in the kitchen and butlers pantry area.

Cross wall! 

We did some cool textured wall paper in the hallways.

We decided to hang the TV which made the big space feel a lot more filled.

The mancave is also just about completed, Roger switched out our gold doorknobs for nickel and stained our big front door a darker color.  I love his passion for home projects and his determination to finish them- even when they don't go exactly as planned. :) 

Staycation 2015

Rog and I were blessed to spend a couple super fun days exploring Phoenix and Scottsdale as tourists rather than residents. :) Mom and Dad kept the kids and we enjoyed some fabulous adult time. I feel like we've emerged from 6 year cocoon of babies, toddlers, diapers and exhaustion. I love feeling like my own person again and having that extra time to focus on our marriage.

We left after Cora's dance recital and stopped for a quick lunch at In & Out Burger.



We wanted our weekend to feel as much like a vacation as possible so at the recommendation of my cousin Kristin and her husband, we tried Silvercar. They're a cool rental car company that only rents silver Audi A4's. Roger had a blast with this so I'm glad we made the decision to do it.

We spent the afternoon walking around Old Town Scottsdale. We mad a few leisurely stops as we walked.







We ate dinner at the Old Town Tortilla Factory. It was so good and so fun to have a quiet, drawn out meal with complete adult conversation.




Roger heard that Cartel had some of the best coffee so we stopped to try that before heading to our hotel for the evening.


We stayed at the Phoenician which was really nice.

On Sunday morning we planned to hike Camelback Mt. I was getting in way over my head. When I originally suggested doing it, it sounded like a fun and touristy thing to do so I put it on our list. I should have researched more, haha. It was an intense, steep, long, hot hike. Roger made it look like a walk in the park but a bit more of a challenge for me. I almost gave up a couple times but I pushed through and I'm proud that we made it to the top (and back down!).




It was so pretty and a lot cooler at the top.





We planned to go out for brunch afterwards but it was Sunday around 11:30 so everything was packed. We ended up at Portillos instead. Roger was a good sport about my picture taking. :)


We spent the afternoon at the pool. It was so relaxing and not too hot.


We went to dinner at The Henry.


We had so much fun just talking.

We finished off with ice cream for dessert. 

We started out Monday with a quick round of golf.... well, Roger golfed, I rode along, drank Arnold Palmers and drove the golf cart. It was a lot of fun to watch Rog golf (he's really good!) and enjoy that activity together.

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Roger played one of the courses at the Phoenician and it was so pretty! It had beautiful views of the city and the mountains. 

We showered, got ready and checked out to the hotel before heading to lunch. We went to a cool restaurant called Hillstone.

We both had the French Dip sandwich. It was so good.

We shopped all afternoon before heading to a new cigar place Roger wanted to try. I did this because I love him. :)



Little Cruzy love wasn't happy about taking Grammy and Grampy to the airport. The kids had so much fun with them and were so well taken care of. Thanks Mom and Dad!