Marlee’s recent preschool creations

Pink horses- ha ha, so cute.

 

Love the noodle cactus.

 

George Washington…”I cannot tell a lie!” Her hand print cherry tree. She has gone on & on about President’s. She can tell you all about George Washington:)

If they could just stay little.

best dad ever

Laun painted Marlee’s nails green & white. He actually bought the nail polish to make Clayton’s pine wood derby car camouflage, but it didn’t work out. Marlee’s always happy to get new polish colors.

pine wood derby

The boys have pretty much been freaking out all day about this pine wood derby tonight. This is Clayton’s last year to participate in the pine wood derby & he really wants to win, especially since he got 2nd place last year. Laun was busy not only helping our boys with their cars, but also our neighbor Carlo with his car.

The cars in progress…

Porter’s car- he wanted an old time gangster car (whatever that means).

Clayton’s car- he’s going to have the money car.

Marlee felt gypped that she didn’t get a car. I think Laun should make her a pink one next year.

 

The racing began & both our boy’s hearts were racing.

Porter’s car racing against our neighbor Jacob’s car. Porter was excited to win that round.

Clayton’s money car was fast.

The boys loved sitting at the end of the track to see which cars would pass the finish line first.

Marlee loved joining in with the excitement.

Clayton’s car won!

Porter got 1st place for his age group & 3rd place overall. Clayton got 1st place for his age group & 1st place out of all the scouts. He was very happy to have the fastest track time. After the races were over, Clayton said, “Finally, I can breath.” Talk about intense.

The neighborhood boys- Clayton, Carlo, Jacob & Porter

Laun helped build all the cars except for the 3rd one- that was Jacob’s car. I like how Carlo’s car looks like a screw driver.

Porter already has ideas for what he wants to do next year.

healthy treats

Recently I’ve been trying to only eat sweets on the weekend, so I’ve been making some healthier treats during the week. I need my chocolate. One of my favorite recipe’s I’ve tried so far is from the blog Food Doodles & it is called Chocolate No-Bake Energy Bites (like no bake cookies, but healthier). We all love them & they satisfy my sweet tooth.

Chocolate No-Bake Energy Bites

makes 1 1/2-2 dozen depending on size

• 1/2 C nut butter (I like almond butter or peanut butter)
• 1/3 C honey
• 1/4 C unsweetened cocoa
• 1 C rolled oats
• 3/4 C coconut (I like to do half coconut & the other half ground flax & ground almonds)
• 1-2 tsp vanilla
• pinch sea salt
• 1/2 C add-ins (I like using nuts or chocolate chips)

In a medium sized pot over low heat, warm the nut butter and honey.  Once warm and liquefied, take off the heat and stir in the cocoa powder, vanilla and sea salt.  When combined, mix in the oats, coconut or other dry ingredients and the add-ins until completely combined.  Chill in the fridge until not warm anymore, then roll into bite sized balls.  If your mixture is too dry, just simply squeeze the balls together instead of rolling them.  Store at room temperature or in the fridge.

short walk

We went on a little walk today, but it didn’t last very long since it was so windy outside. We want to get an electric motor, so we can try out our little fishing boat here.

Coolest guys in the world:

cream puff

Awhile back we went to one of our favorite spots, La Baguette Bakery. There was a misunderstanding & we came home without the treat Porter picked out…a cream puff. There’s almost nothing worse than not getting the food item you want, at least in my book:) So to make it up to him I took him there today & there was only one cream puff left. I quickly told the lady that we wanted that last cream puff. It was so big that Porter couldn’t even finish it all by himself, but luckily his mother also loves cream puffs so I gladly finished it off for him.

We also got a baguette & a chocolate treat to take home for everyone else.

mini vacation- Tempe

Wednesday

Laun had to attend & speak at a Conference in Tempe, so we all came along for the trip. It snowed before we left the house & the kids were excited to play in the snow. As we were driving you could see snow on the mountains, Clayton tried to capture it, but it is hard to tell in this picture.

Before we went to the hotel I took the boys to get haircuts. Normally Laun cuts their hair, so I think it was strange and fun to the boys to go somewhere for a haircut.

The kids were so excited to get to the hotel. Tonight Jane Collier treated us to dinner at the hotel. We had a good time chatting & eating yummy food. Clayton got a steak & Porter got sliders (mini hamburgers with horseradish sauce). Marlee ordered a kids meal of grilled cheese. I think my salmon meal was the best though:)

Thursday

Huge highlight of the trip for the kids was the kiosk- a little room full of all sorts of food. This was free to all people attending the conference at the hotel & we got special permission since Laun spoke at the Conference.

There’s a food side (even the drawers are full of food) & a beverage side.

The kids are loving this & so am I…

I took the kids to see the movie- Escape from Planet Earth. The kiosk snacks came in very handy:)

Then we went swimming (the pool was heated) & the kids had me carry them across the pool over & over again. They loved it & I got a great workout.

The hotel we are staying at is right by the airport, so we saw so many planes flying over. We are also right by A mountain & I decided that we’d have to hike that tomorrow.

When we got back there was ice cream at the kiosk. This is basically the best vacation ever for these kiddos.

Then we were lazy for a bit & just hung out in the hotel room watching TV.

For dinner we walked to a Southwestern Grill restaurant called Z-Tejas. We got a virgin pina colada to share.

The boys each picked appetizers for all of us to share. Clayton got grilled shrimp guacamole tostada bites & Porter got shrimp & pork dumplings with ginger sauce. I love that my boys are so willing to try new foods.

We had fun walking on Mill Ave. We saw an ASU shop & Clayton was wearing his UofA jacket. He thought he was funny to put a thumbs up for his jacket & a thumbs down for ASU. Laun actually attended ASU for awhile when we lived in Phoenix, so I guess we should be both ASU & UofA fans.

After our night walk- the kids in front of the hotel sign.

The view from our hotel room.

Laun came back from his dinner with other Conference people & we headed to In-n-Out for some shakes.

 

Friday

We hiked up A mountain.  I’ve got to say, the mountains in Tucson are so much prettier.

The boys on A mountain.

Porter slid down one side of the A & lets just say he’s lucky he didn’t really hurt himself. I think he got more speed than he expected.

Stopping for a snack break.

Some views from A mountain:

The cream red roofed building is the hotel we are staying at.

We had a great hike- here’s the view of A mountain from our hotel room:

 

Laun was featured in this magazine, since he was a speaker at this conference:

The kids & I had a great mini vacation. We didn’t see Laun a whole lot, but better than staying home & not seeing him at all for 3 days. He was very happy that we joined him. We got home tonight unfortunately, we wished we could have stayed for longer.