Enrichment Bears

Last week to celebrate the anniversary of the Relief Society we did a service project. We made bears to donate to the police department. It was a pretty laid back night and not huge attendance but I think it went well. We had a few already sewn so people could begin stuffing and hand stitching, a few already cut so the sewers could get started and lots of fabric to begin the cutting process. Mom and I finished up a few and fixed a few at home and this is what it looked like when we were done. I think in all we made 24 bears that night, plus Sis. Palmer added a few more she made at home. They turned out pretty darn cute. And it was a good reminder of how the relief society started, in service to others.

Family Blessings

We were very blessed for a long time to have all of our family nearby. When I was growing up, my grandparents and all my aunts and uncles lived in Arizona. As time goes on they are beginning to spread a bit more, including my sister who abandoned the family and moved to Utah (just kidding about the abandonment stuff) Anyway, when she was in town over our spring break we took time to see family.

Papa came over to visit 2 of his great grandsons...all kids love Papa.

Braden loved being able to be outside (away from Utah snow) and Keaton loves having a friend to keep him company.

We took a trip to Thatcher to see Karilyn's new house and visit with family. It was a beautiful day outside and we all enjoyed chatting while the kids played. Keaton of course would live outside if we let him.

Look at the dirty hands and face. He's such a boy!

The group kid shot...two of these are my cousins but the others are my cousins, kids. I believe this is 9 of 14 great grandchildren on the Levi side of the fam (with 1 or 2 on the way).

And the beautiful front porch of the new house :)

Bathtime Buddies

These boys have so much fun together and after a long day of play they need to get cleaned up. Here they are taking a bath together. Hopefully we'll have more pics of Melissa's visit and cousin fun.

Sitting next to Braden makes my little baby look so grown up. His baby face has turned into a little boy face.

Softball

I love to play softball...it's one of my favorite pass times.

Just over a year ago I started playing softball on Friday nights with a friend from work and her husband, sister, neighbor, etc etc.... Most of us have been playing together for over a year now, minus one season they played Sundays and I didn't play and a few of the girls (3) being pregnant. Well we finally came in 1st place. This is our picture of our victory Friday night - Gilbert Big League Dreams Rookie West Champions. We won the final game 20-6...it was a weird week, not everyone who normally plays was there do to sickness and injury but here's our troop from Friday Night.

In January a few of the newer girls from the Friday night team asked me to sub on their Wednesday night team....well it seemed that someone was always gone so I played every week. They played in Awahtukee. We won our season there too, but for winning the tournament we only got a $25 Fry's gift card (yes for the team as a whole). So they had a barbecue.....These are most of the girls from our team plus an extra friend or two.

Growing, Growing...Gone

Ok well not gone yet but I am amazed at how big Keaton is every day. They recently started a preschool for school district employees at Dobson High and I plan on putting Keaton in there starting August. I know that's still half a year away and he'll barely be 3 but it's all gone by so quickly. Here is some of the latest happenings with this busy boy.

These pics were taken this morning. Keaton chose all his own clothes including shoes and don't forget the glasses. And he's very particular about his hair, when I comb it down he says no mommy not like that, up up up! I wish the pics had turned out better, his genuine smile is eyes squinty mouth open but I told him to smile with his eyes open and mouth closed and he looks a little grumpy but still very cool.

Sunday Keaton wanted to be the photographer. These are his actual photos. Not great but at least there are people in the shot and his finger is not over the lens. Now we're working on getting his finger out of the way of the flash.

GO CUBS! Ok well we aren't really Cubs fans but we did go to spring training on Saturday. We had lawn seats which I thought would be good for Keaton to run around and play a little instead of having to sit, but our friend arrived late with the tickets and the place was totally packed. So it wasn't until the 8th inning when people started to leave, that we got close enough for Keaton to realize it was baseball.

Before the ball game Keaton had his last day of tumbling class. Yes I keep the boy busy although nothing worked out for March so I guess we'll take a break. It was only 4 weeks and he didn't love it as much as soccer but it was still good for him.

Keaton loves his grandpa. On this day Saturday Grandpa was going to ride his bike to work but Keaton really wanted to ride with him so they went on a 45 minute ride around the neighborhood (at Keaton's pace), then Grandpa drove to work.

Well I did take more video of soccer but I'll just post these final pics for now. Keaton loved soccer and I'd keep him going but the class filled up within a few hours so we're out of luck for his season. Here he is on his last day with his medal. He loved soccer.

I think that's it. A review of the last few weeks. I really need to scrapbook some of these pictures and not just blog them, plus I have so many more....I'll put it on my things to do list.

I've got rhythm, I've got music...

Well a mom has to brag a little...I happen to think Keaton is very muli-talented...he's doing well at soccer and has improved since the last clip I posted, he loves to sing and sings all the time, but he seems to be too camera shy to perform, he knows all the names of his letters by sight and about half of the sounds, and The Boy Can Dance! (still working on the potty training)

I've always know Keaton loves music. Here are a few clips of recent dancing, though I wouldn't say his greatest perfomances :) The first two are his favorite cell phone rings, then the credits to Madagascar 2. Just disregard the fact that he's half dressed and all the toys, etc in the background....

Snow, Lights, Trains, Fireworks......who could ask for anything more?

Ok this post is way overdue and really long. It's so hard to choose just a few pictures I took about 85 and saved about half that to my computer and hopefully I can narrow down this post to maybe half that again.

These are pictures from our trip to South Weber, Utah (Odgen area) to visit Melissa right after Christmas and to see her new house. I've decided it wasn't my old camera but I'm just not that great of a photographer and need to use some sort of photo editing program but I like the pictures all the same.

HANGING OUT AT THE HOUSE - Between Sunday, Ben and Dad working, Ben and Houston snowboarding, Mom always being cold and Melissa with a 5 month old baby, we stayed at the house quite a bit. It was nice to enjoy each other's company and just relax.

SNOW FUN! - Keaton loved the snow but when he was done he was done, big fits and all. T here was enough snow in Melissa's yard we really didn't have to look anywhere else. We build a little sledding ramp off her porch perfect for a 2 year old.

TEMPLE SQUARE - Temple Square in Utah is a lot different than here in AZ. There is tons of lights on the Mesa temple but they are all so close together. The lights were beautiful, took us a while to park but we all enjoyed it.

TRAIN MUSEUM - Keaton loves trains. He has for a very long time so Grandpa and I went to the train museum. They had some old train stuff which was cool but he didn't really understand, they also had some model trains which he loved to watch go in and out of tunnels. Outside they had real train cars. We saw the torch relay train car from the Olympics in Salt Lake and also an old mail and medical car. These things are huge! It took a lot of effort to climb up onto them.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! - Our last night was New Years Eve. We got some sparklers and poppers and it was about 10:00 when we set them off. Keaton was too afraid to hold the sparkler until the very last one, then of course he wanted more. We had some sparkling cider and chips and dip etc. I think I went to be with Keaton around 11.





There are tons more pictures that I really like of Keaton's cute face but these pretty much sum up the trip. It was a nice vacation away from home and always fun to spend time with Melissa, Ben and Braden.