Arizona 2011

We spent last week in sunny (albeit chilly!!) Arizona. We had a great time with my awesome inlaws! :) We stayed plenty busy and enjoyed seeing lots of family and doing lots of fun things. I feel like I didn't take many pics. I didn't take any at the Watson get-together at Amy's house and the 4 of us went off roading and I didn't have my camera. That was a ton of fun and we were totally in the middle of nowhere!

Porter, Grandpa and Stella watching a movie. Cuddle time with Grandma

Chris has a great zoo near his house that we went to this year. Here is Chris, Mike and Stella in one of the aquariums.

Grandma and Porter checking out the sharks.
Grandpa, Porter, Mike and Stella TOUCHING the Stingrays!! It was very cool and the kids loved the hands on areas on the zoo.

Enjoying the sunshine!

The stingrays!

In front of the flamingos, they were so colorful!

By the rhino, Porter was thrilled! :)

Feeding the giraffes!!

Hot tubbing in the backyard.

Helping Grandma make bubble bread.

One morning we took the kids horse back riding and it was so much fun. The ranch we went to had a midget miniature pony. None of us had ever seen (or heard) one before. He was SOOOO cute. He's the dark brown one in front. Super cute! :)

Stella guiding her pony to get ready to ride him.

Stella riding Cocoa.

Porter on Cocoa. He wasn't so sure about the pony, so I walked next to him.

Riding the Frog Hopper at Amazing Jakes. Porter and Stella are on the right end.

Playing Skee Ball.

Stella, Grandma, Porter and Grandpa--great picture of all of them! :)

We had Stefani watch S & P on Friday night while we went out with Steve and Linda to see Renee sing. Renee is Stefani's mom and married to Mike's first cousin, Rick. Renee is a VERY talented singer and it was so much fun to have a kids-free evening out! :)

Thanks Steve and Linda for a great time in Arizona!!!!!!! :)

Fun in the Snow!

Earlier this week it finally warmed up enough to get outside and play. It was so good to to get some fresh air!!! :) We all had a lot of fun!

Eating some snow.

Throwing snow at me!

Going sledding.

Walking on the creek near our house.

Jump Bunch!

I signed the kids up for JumpBunch at the library today. It was a fun (free!) 40 minute class of running, playing and having fun! Porter was signed up also, but once we got there he got a 'tude and didn't want to participate!! Whatevs.....Stella still had fun! :)
Getting warmed up.

Playing volleyball----she loved this. :)

Practicing her balance skillz........

These little discs had squeakers in them, the kids loved them! :) It was a fun way to burn off some energy on another cold Iowa morning!

Stella Lost Her Tooth!!

A big day for Stella yesterday, she lost her first tooth. :) And I mean, she really lost it! We don't know where it is (I think she swallowed it). We looked all over for it and I vacuumed the house and looked through all the dirt I vacuumed up looking for her little pearly white, but didn't find it. She was sad because she thought the Tooth Fairy wouldn't come if she didn't have her tooth, but she still did! :)
Here she is showing off her missing tooth. New smile!

She is very excited, you can see!! She had to tell everyone at church last night that she lost a tooth that day! :) With the tooth pillow that Nana made for her.

It's been cold the past week and last night the kids were needing to burn off some major energy, so they built an obstacle course in the family room. Then Mike and I started telling them different things to do such as: crab walk, hop on one foot, jump backwards, slither like a snake....etc. They were having lots of fun and they were both sweaty when they were done! I got out Porter's scarf and tied their legs together and tried to get them to walk around with 3 legs, but it was pretty impossible, they didn't figure out to work together. But was it ever funny to watch them!!!!

Loose Tooth!

Last week Stella discovered she has her very first loose tooth!! She is so excited as she has been asking for over a year when she would lose a tooth! It's pretty loose now, completely detached from the backside so tonight she wanted Mike to try and pull it with his needle nose pliers.

With the pliers Mike checking to make sure he is pulling the correct tooth

Pulling.......

CRYING!!!!!!!!!

It did not go well!!! Poor Stella. :( The pliers hurt and she was not a happy camper. I do think the tooth will be gone within the next 7 days.....we'll keep you updated!

And I had to share a couple pics of P-man in his new blue hat. He is even sleeping in it right now!

He wanted me to take this photo of him with his new flip flops! He is also sleeping in those, too! Pretty funny, he takes his socks off as soon as we get home so he can wear these flip flops around the house.

Where's Porter?????

I was upstairs folding laundry and putting it away and came downstairs and couldn't find Porter......
I wonder wherever he could be???!!??? :) This really looks uncomfortable!

He was reading his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pamphlet!!

He also had his submarine in there with him along with the pod that goes with the submarine!

Hiding again.....

New Years in Okoboji

We rung in the new year in Okoboji this year. It was a lot of fun and our good friends Kohls, Kelly and Mackenzie stayed with us. Kohls and Kelly have a bunch of ice fishing gear and on Friday they all went out to try to catch some fishies, but no luck. The kids still had fun walking on the ice and seeing the trucks drive around on the lake.
Here's Stella Porter and Mike Mackenzie with Kohls and Kelly in the background.

One of the holes Kohls drilled. Three artists hard at work.

Stella and Mackenzie all dressed up to ring in the new year! (They were asleep by 10!)

Watching a movie before bed.

Mike and Mike

Mike lost a bet to Kohls about who an actress was in a movie we watched on NYE, as you can tell Mike lost the bet and had to run around the house in shorts! It was like -20 with the windchill factor that day!!!

We hope everyone had a great 2010 and an even better 2011!!!!