MATCHED!!!

That little piece of paper Rick is holding might not look like much, but it means BIG changes for our family!!!

That paper is the official acceptance letter to a doctoral level internship program located in..........(drumroll)...............OHIO. That means this summer we will be packing up and moving to Ohio! We have been anticipating match day through all the years of grad school. When it came time to apply for internships we sent in over a dozen applications, then Rick flew all over the country interviewing at different sites. We then ranked our top choices for sites and the different sites ranked their top choices for interns and then the computer matches us. We are so relieved and excited that we matched (there were over 1000 doctoral level students nationwide who didn't match) but also so very sad to have to leave our ward and all our great friends. We sure have loved every second of being in Phoenix!  But we are excited to take this last step in Ricks schooling and start a  new chapter for our family. Ohio here we come!

Tball

Tyler and Logan are playing on a little tball team right now. There are twelve kids on the team and nine of them are from our ward, and the bishop is their coach. We were a little nervous when Rick decided to coach considering that he has about zero patience, but he is doing a really great job and the kids are having a lot of fun! 

Their league had opening ceremonies to start the season off. Our team is in the Navy Blue shirts. Their team name is Thunder!!!

It is fun for these two brothers to be on the same team together. And boy let me tell you, does Logan  feel cool or what playing with Tyler and all his older friends! He is in heaven!

Logan is our lefty. He is the youngest on the team. On our opening game he was first up to bat for our team. Right after he hit the ball he ran out in the field, picked up his ball, and then ran it to 1st. He tagged himself out. Hilarious!!!

Tyler running to 1st after his monster hit!!

Just a cute pic of Logan warming up at one of the practices

Spring Break

Tyler had a whole week off of school for spring break so we tried to plan some fun things! 

On Monday night we had a campout in the living room.

We roasted some marshmallows and made smores

Then we set the tent up in the living room. The boys always go crazy when we do this! We all watched a movie and then the boys fell asleep in the tent and I slept peacefully in my own bed! That's my kind of camping!!(Sorry for the lack of clothing from two of my boys!)

On Tuesday we went to a spring training game. The Milwaukee Brewers vs. the Oakland A's.

The kids enjoyed the cotton candy while Rick enjoyed working on his tan :)

The boys enjoying some baseball. One of the Milwaukee players even tossed Tyler a ball!

On Thursday we loaded up the car and drove to Salt Lake to spend the rest of the week with family. We had fun visiting both of our families, but the main reason we went was to go to our nephew Sams' mission farewell.  He was called to serve in the Indianapolis, Indiana mission. He will do a great job!

Sam and Tyler after his farewell

Sam and Carson. This is the oldest and the youngest grandkid on Ricks side of the family.

Rick and Sam. This picture is for evidence. Rick is betting that he will have lost 20 lbs before Sam gets back and he thinks that Sam will have gained 20 lbs when he gets back. I guess we will wait and see what happens in two years.

Zoo

Phoenix has a really great zoo and the kids always love to go.  We are trying to get out and do all the fun things that are outside before it gets too hot!!!

The kids are always begging us to let them do the camel rides. We caved this time and forked over the 5 bucks each for them to do it. They loved it!

We always spend lots of time in the petting zoo. Carson especially loved to pull the goats ears.

Dads Wedding

In February my whole family came out for my dads wedding. He got married to Renae Bennion. We are really happy because Renae and her family are all so nice and really fun to be around. We are excited for this new chapter. Her dad is a sealer in the Mesa temple so that is why they got married down here so that he could marry them.  It was a fun week!

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The whole crew at the wedding!

Just the family from our side

Our side and her side. One big happy family :)

I LOVE this pic of our family!

While my family was here we were able to do some fun things. The kids mostly loved just hanging out with their cousins.

Since cousin Ben was around we of course had to watch a lot of "shows" and I accidentally trained my kids that you can't watch a movie without some popcorn so we ate our fair share of that also.

My sisters baby makes my baby look very big!

Squeezing on the couch to make a Jason sandwich

We went to a farm out in Mesa that had a lot of fun things for the kids to do

The boys thought it was fun to feed the new calf a bottle.

King of the World

Love these three little boys!

Tyler and Logan just getting ready to go work out on the fields

Tyler thought it was way cool to ride a horse

Logi loved the horse. He kept saying that he was Woody and that he was riding Bullseye.

Enjoying some family time around a bonfire

And Last but certainly not least

SUPER BOWL PARTY!!!! IT WAS WILD!!! GIANTS WIN!!!! RICK IS NOT ABLE TO SLEEP THAT NIGHT BECAUSE HE IS SOOOO EXCITED. The man LOVES. HIS. GIANTS.!!!!!

Hoosiers!

Tyler played on a little basketball team this past winter. They were the HOOSIERS. He didn't score a single basket all season but he still had fun!

 Lining up to see who they are guarding

 Tyler jumping for the ball at the beginning of the game. As you can see him and the guy on the other team didn't jump very high.

 This pic is blurry but it is of Tyler bringing the ball down the court.

Getting ready to make his break for the basket!!!

Fighting through the crowd trying to make a play!

Contemplating his next move

Keeping a close eye on his man. Nobody was getting past him!

Christmas

Well, I am finally getting around to posting about Christmas even though Christmas seems like forever ago. We had a really fun Christmas break. We stayed in Phoenix for Christmas morning and church and then we flew out later that day to Salt Lake to be with my family. It made for a busy FUN day!

The boys frosting Santas cookies on Christmas Eve. It turned out to be quite a mess. We know it was well worth it though because we caught Santa red handed

Eating our cookies!

And putting presents under our tree!

and stuffing our stockings! Our secret camera captured these shots and you should have seen the look on the boys faces when we showed them these pictures. Priceless!

Christmas morning finally came and Tyler couldn't wait to dive into his presents.

Logi actually got a big gun from Santa just like he wanted. Watch out Bears!

Rick LOVES the NY Giants!  He was pretty excited when he opened this jacket from his parents. We can't wait for the Super Bowl. GO GIANTS!!!

The boys having a blast with cousin Abby at Aunt Lisas new house!

Since we live in AZ my boys never see snow. They were pretty excited when they woke up one morning at Grandpas house in Idaho to see everything covered in white. Tyler thought it was the funnest thing cleaning the snow off of everyones cars

Logi was excited to make a snow angel!

We put Care Bear to work shoveling the drive way

I just thought this picture was funny because it sums up everyday life at our house. Constant wrestling!

Breakfast with the cousins at Grandpa's house

Everytime we go to Grandpas house the boys love to play on the piano