Andy's family came to visit...

My brother Andy's family recently moved back to AZ and we're glad they live closer. They came down to Tucson for a visit.


Porter and Avery played the game mouse trap.


We went out for lunch and then to the International Wildlife Museum:

There was lots of frogs to see


Marlee looks like such a big girl compared to baby Monson

This room was filled with all kinds of insects






There was all kinds of skeletons

This is a killer whale skull

Clayton really liked the section about taxidermy

Marlee ran from one exhibit to the next-she was so excited




Avery thought of this pose on her own

This room has lots of animals

Josiah and Marlee under a giraffe

I just love Monson's chubby cheeks


And I thought I had a big nose

The tiny animal is a Royal Antelope

This room reminds me of Cabella's mountain


Marlee didn't like sitting on this

All the kids loved pretending to be a ferret


This mammoth was huge

The boys loved reading books about animals


Cutest 2-headed lion I've ever seen



Josiah was real happy when he had this

And not so happy when he had to share it-reminds me of Marlee:)


Our family

Andy's family

dinner with my Valentine...

Clayton snapped these pictures of Laun and I cooking together. This is a common sight in our home, the 2 of us in the kitchen making wonderful food. Well....Laun is often outside by a grill, but together we are making a meal.
Gotta love the cell phone in my back pocket^

Laun and I will often tell the boys to just look normal when posing for the camera, hmmm....I wonder where they get that from?


We had fondue for dinner tonight and it rocked. Laun made this cheese sauce and broth stuff, and I made a chocolate dip. We had meat, veggies, fruit, bread, marshmallows, and pretzels to dip into what Marlee likes to call "sauce." It was so fun to eat and I think this will be our annual Valentine's Day meal.


The other night Laun was telling the boys that they don't have the best manners (our fault and theirs), and they didn't seem to understand what he was talking about. I think this is what he was referring to:
chocolate covered hands^


And then we danced a little to country music and Laun left to do some school work. And the boys bragged about how they brought the coolest valentines to school and what is the correct way to play football, and yada yada yada.

Happy Valentines Day!

I love all these sleepy faces and the frosting covered table:

Breakfast: blue-greenish (I ran out of red food coloring) heart shaped pancakes & eggs (I know I am not the most artistic, but my kids loved it).

The tradition continues, heart shaped sugar cookies with everyone's initials (this is what my Grandma Turley gave us each Valentines, except hers were super fancy and had are whole name on them).

Posing with their cookies, except for Laun because he leaves the house very early.

The boys took a cookie for everyone in their class. I love that they are at a charter school, because they are allowed to take homemade goodies.


Today I did the 2 hearts design in her hair:


I love holidays with kids. I got a big hug from Clayton this morning for the heart pancakes and cookies-food is the way to his heart.

This is what my table looked like tonight...

filled with valentines (sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting) for the boys classmates.

Early Valentines celebration...

Laun and I went on a date today to celebrate Valentines, it included watching the movie True Grit and lunch at the Sushi Garden. I tried lots of new sushi and what I didn't like, Laun ate for me:)


My favorite was the eel roll topped with avocado, it was sweet and I love anything sweet.


Laun changed the oil in our vehicles today. Porter and Marlee took turns helping their dad.


And Marlee had the dirty face to prove it.

Marlee is always trying to figure out how to get what she wants. Today she was trying to open the door, but she wasn't tall enough. She looked around and put one of Laun's boots on to give her extra height.

My friend Rachel always does the cutest hair styles on her girls. The other day they all had a different heart design in their hair. I was excited to try them on Marlee- I'm not as good as Rachel, but I think it turned out cute:

Perfect for the upcoming holiday- I will try a different heart design on Valentines Day!

Curly Sue-Day 2 & 4 Allen kiddos

I put Marlee's curls into a pony tail today. Why is a girl with curls so stinkin' cute? I snapped some pictures of her enjoying her chocolate chip cookie.




I'm gonna miss the Allen family when they move. Our kids are all close in age and Rachel and I swap babysitting. Tonight we had the 4 Allen kids over while their parents went on a date. We pretty much had a lazy night of dinner, chocolate chip cookies, and movies.

Curly Sue

Last night I put soft curlers in Marlee's hair. She stayed pretty still and didn't pull any out. I have been thinking about getting her hair cut short, but when it is curled, in braids, or a pony tail, it makes me want to leave it long.

Getting morning hugs from daddy.

Love this head of crazy curls:

butter...

Last night we made butter in our Bosch. After the cream mixes for awhile, you have to drain of the excess whey. Then it looks kind of clumpy:


Then we wrapped the butter in cheese cloth and squeezed out the rest of the whey:


Then it looks smoother like this:


This morning we had it on our bagels and it was delicious.
Maybe next we will try to make cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, or ice cream-yum!

Marlee loves shoes

Marlee loves to wear shoes, whether they are hers or not. Here she is in Laun's flip-flops. I love that she even knows how to put them on correctly.

yes...another food post

We are loving all of this fresh milk. Laun brought some more home last night, and we scraped off all of the cream to make whipping cream. We were going to make some butter too, but none of us had the will power to not make it all whipping cream. We will have plenty of milk coming our way, so maybe next time we will actually make some butter.

Laun made the whipping cream in our Bosch. In the background is our crock pot full of Greek yogurt. Laun wanted to try Greek yogurt this time to get thicker yogurt.

The homemade Greek yogurt with Laun's homemade prickly pear syrup, great combo.
Laun is such a great cook. The only thing I made was some chocolate cake to go with the whipping cream.

I think cows are becoming my favorite animal:)

It's that time of year...

Girl Scout cookies are for sale, and I always have to get thin mints and samoas. I can't take a picture of the samoas, because we ate them already. What are your favorites?

homemade yogurt by Laun

Our friend Rachel told us that you could make homemade yogurt in a crock pot. This morning for breakfast I had Laun's very own homemade yogurt. It was plain yogurt, so I sprinkled it with brown sugar, and then added some honey and strawberries. It was delicious-thanks Laun!