Out for a Hike

We decided to take advantage of the beautiful spring weather and get outdoors for a hike today. Wanting to try something new, we went up to Thunderbird Mountain Preserve, close by where we've been going to church and hiked around the mountain for a bit this morning. We let both boys walk at first, giving Noah a chance to try the hike out before it got a bit too steep for his little legs - at that point, we packed him in the backpack and Chris carried him up to the top. Hayden, on the other hand, was a little trooper, trotting ahead and forging his way to the top of the mountain. Here are just a few pictures taken from our hike, where we stopped to rest at the top, with snacks of course!

Our Soccer Star

Move over David Beckham ... here comes Hayden Robb! Our little boy was a star on the soccer field today. He woke up this morning, hair sticking up all over, and winking at me said, "It's soccer time!" Ah, it makes me smile just thinking about his excitement and how ready he felt to play his game this morning. He even tried to look up at the clock to figure out what time it was in order to make sure we didn't miss his 9:00 game. To say that he has been obsessed with starting soccer is an understatement; since before Christmas, he has been talking about soccer, and talking about it, and talking about it and finally, today was the official kick-off of his season, no pun intended.

He looked so good out there, chasing after the ball, dribbling it as perfectly as any five year old can, and even scored two goals! I never thought I would be one of those moms that would get so into her child's sport, but seeing my baby run down the field, kick his ball into the goal and score, and then turn around and go give his daddy a high five brings tears to my eyes. I just can't believe how fast he's growing up - and what a year makes as I think back to the struggles he had last year with overcoming his shyness and hesitation to get out there and play with his team. Not to say that he didn't participate last year, because he certainly did as we all became more relaxed about it, but today was different - he just went right on out there without any fear at all. And not only did he play well, he was a good sportsman as he took time out to give his other teammates time to play as well. We are filled with pride for our little boy and know we will have a blast watching him play over the course of the next few weeks. What's better is Chris being able to share it with him, acting as the "unofficial" assistant coach! So for those of you who won't be able to join us at a game, here are some pictures to start you off on what should be a very fun soccer season with Hayden!

Pizza Picnic

I had to share these pictures I took today of the boys and their pizza picnic. While outside enjoying our spring weather (I told you the temperature would be on the rise!), riding bikes and playing with friends, we planned an impromptu pizza picnic in the driveway for lunch. I was teased by Chris for choosing the driveway as he indicated we could be "more civilized" and have the boys eat inside ... they are boys, after all, and they didn't mind one bit - they were excited about the prospect of eating on a blanket in the driveway, and they all looked darn cute just sitting in a row eating their pizza and grapes. Plus, what better way is there to keep the mess at a minimum than to eat outside?

Here in mid-bite, Hayden and Carter sit and eat, with a little bit of sauce around the lips, but a picture so precious I had to share. Aren't they two of the cutest little boys you have ever seen?

Our little monkey, sitting on the other side of the blanket, enjoys his juice like a big boy.

Here are just a few more shots I took of the kids enjoying their pizza picnic outside ... the perfect recipe for fun!

Hayden Rides On

Daddy gets him balanced.With a little push, off he goes!
He rides on his own!

This evening a very exciting event happened in our family ... Hayden took his first ride on his bike without training wheels! We were all so excited as we watched him ride effortlessly down the sidewalk without those two little wheels to use for balance. He's been ready for a while to try riding on his own, and today he figured it was time. A few weeks back, Chris had to replace the inter tube on one wheel of his bike and when he put the bike back together, he purposely put the training wheels back on slightly off-centered to help Hayden learn to start balancing on his own. Each time since, we had noticed Hayden doing better and better at balancing on just two tires and at times it seemed as if he was riding on his own, as neither training wheel touched the ground. Today was the same ... we were outside and I was watching him ride and told him he was ready to go on his own. So he asked his daddy to take them off, and with a little help getting started, off he rode ... no help, no out-of-breath daddy running behind him ... with us and our neighbor friends looking and cheering him on, he just rode the bike, on his own, down the street, as if he had always done it. What a champ - we are so proud of him! As he rode, you could hear him chanting "woo hoo" and see him beaming with pride as he recognized the enormity of his great accomplishment. Hope you find yourself smiling, and maybe even cheering on, just as we did watching our little boy take this big leap forward and ride on his bike with just two wheels! YAY - way to go Hayden!

Yummy Muffins

I wanted to share this muffin recipe for anyone out there who hasn't yet heard of these six week bran muffins ... they are so easy to make, so YUMMY to eat, and the batter can sit in your fridge for up to six weeks, so you can scoop, bake and have warm muffins at the ready. My mother-in-law introduced this recipe to me a while back and I then found this one that includes applesauce rather than oil ... My boys, as you can imagine, eat them up ... all three of them ;) and it's definitely handy to have for those mornings when you want to bake something, but don't have the time or energy to pull out ingredients first thing upon waking. If you have a child like my little monkey, who wakes up saying "mama, i wanna eat bretfist", these muffins are for you! I bake the muffins a dozen at a time, and I found it works best if you just use spray in the muffin tins rather than paper liners - we found it hard to get the muffins out when you use the liners and the muffins are warm ... you can't eat them as fast! :) Hope you enjoy these as much as our family does!

Six Week Apple Bran Muffins
Ingredients
· 5 1/2 cups Raisin Bran cereal
· 3 cups sugar
· 5 cups flour
· 5 teaspoons baking soda
· 2 teaspoons salt
· 1 quart buttermilk
· 1 cup applesauce
· 4 eggs, beaten

Directions
Combine dry ingredients (except for cereal).
Add wet ingredients. Mix in cereal well.
Cover tightly and refrigerate up to six weeks.
Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes.

Fondue Feast

Our Fondue FeastTopped off with chocolate!Hayden (yes, in Santa PJs) and Tim dipping for dessert!
Hayden dips some more
Noah's "moshmewo"

We celebrated Valentine's Day together, first with breakfast over at Grammy and Grampy's house, then went to our neighbor's to celebrate their youngest daughter's second birthday. The most anticipated part of our day, however, was our fondue feast with Chris' cousin, Tim, and his wife, Lindsey. Our planning started over a week ago, when I had this idea as I drove home from work to do fondue for Valentine's Day. We pulled out a cookbook I've had for years with many different fondue recipes and began planning for our evening feast ... we ended up doing three pots: one with a sweet bar-be-que sauce for dipping in sausages, meatballs, Little smokies, as well as veggies; one was a "pub" fondue, a cheddar blend, and the other was a classic Swiss. We had everything from carrots and cauliflower to bread cubes. All three turned out delicious, though the Swiss was slightly "gluey" it still tasted great, and we had a wonderful time dipping and eating and dipping and eating ... even the boys got into it a bit, Noah slightly cranky from being woken up from his nap though, and Hayden trying to warm his carrots over the steam from the pots. I tried to get more pictures, but I realized they were all of us shoving food in our face and I was the brunt of a few jokes because I kept trying to snap pictures of everyone instead of enjoying the fondue. After cleaning up the pots, we set out to get our chocolate fondue ready with all the accompaniments ... strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, angel food cake ... it was a perfect ending to a special day together. You can see the boys enjoying the chocolate fondue, using the fondue spears I think was the highlight of their night. We loved having Tim and Lindsey over to hang out as they are such a special part of our lives; we are truly thankful, and very lucky, to call them family as well as friends. Next time I will try to get more of us in the pictures, but for now you get the idea ...

All Bundled Up

To those of you who live in colder regions of our country, you may find these pictures slightly humorous considering we live in Arizona and typically are able to wear flip-flops year round. The past few days, but especially today, we have had a cold blast come through keeping our high temps in the 60s, which for us desert rats is downright CHILLY! Though not to be discouraged by the cold weather, we bundled up the boys complete with hats and mittens and went for our morning walk. They managed to stay warm, I think, even though part way through our walk they were both without their hats and the mittens were gone .... Noah also continued to inform us that he was "fweezing." It was cold and I even donned a scarf with a few extra layers myself, as with the wind chill factor I am sure it was in the 40s ... I realize I probably don't even come close to knowing the true meaning of the world cold, but when it's above 80 for the majority of the year, anything below 70, for me, is sweatshirt temperature! For now, we're enjoying the winter-like weather because before we know it, the mercury will soon be on the rise!