driver's training

So, I'm talking to Heath this morning and in the background you can hear cars screeching. He's at his driver's instructor training program where he is learning how to teach new officers h'ow to drive their cars ... he said, "I'll take pics of what you're hearing". Here's what he sent over:

I was also informed later today that he was given a Tahoe to test out ... and ended up getting in on two wheels. Details a girlfriend could probably do without :)

I'm sooo proud of you, Heath!!!!

joe's

I seriously love taking pics at Joe's Farm Grill! I had two photoshoots this past weekend; one of them being my housemate and the other is a mom and son (wife of one of Heath's squad mates). Check them out ...



my beautiful housemate, Mandi

This is sweet Jacob & Tara - is this child not one of the cutest you've ever seen? Simply adorable!!!!

sleepin' with mama

Addi has learned over the years that when you're mom is single, you get to sleep with her every night!! This is the sweet, angelic face I woke up to this morning. She slept with her arm around me all night and told me how happy she was to "be home". I love this babe!!!

a rainy, cold easter egg hunt

When we would drive to Arizona for Easter, growing up, we would always go to Aunt Donna and Uncle Jim's, in addition to Grandma's.

A tradition we had was searching for the Easter egg at the bottom of the pool. It was always warm in AZ (well, compared to Northern CA). It was such a fun thing to do - soooo - Curtiss & I thought it would be a fun tradition to start with Logan & Addi. Heath is such a great sport. It was coooold and he thought it was fun (how lucky am I?).

THEN ... the kiddos thought it would be fun for the adults to do an egg hunt at the bottom of the pool ... :) How could we say NO??!!!

grandma jeans

I am FINALLY getting around to blogging about Easter. I feel sooo behind!! On Easter Sunday, we went to my Grandma's in Scottsdale (this is my Dad's mom). My dad's 2 sisters, Dale & Donna were there as well as my cousin, John. Heath was acting Sargeant so he just popped in for a quick hello. While we were there my uncle's friends came by with their motorcycles and gave Logan rides. It was such a great Easter!!

Grandma Kuhn always makes each holiday so special.
This is where my mom got it from!

Logan LOOOVES coke!

Grandma Kuhn is known for giving more money than candy!!

Me, Curtiss, John and the kids took a little walk to a nearby lake.
I tired to get some pictures with the kiddos ... I think we were successful!

The kiddos LOOOOVE their Uncle Curtiss!!!



Playing with new toys in front of Grandma's.
I love this picture!

Curtiss ASKING to be tased

Lucky, lucky boy!!!

While Logan was riding the motorcyles,
Addi played with Aunt Dale -
... cheerleading ....

... and drawing ...

Logan + Grandma
Logan loves that he's almost as tall as his Great-Grandma

Grandma telling Curtiss how proud she is of him
for serving in the military

Easter has always been my favorite holiday. My favorite thing to do was to drive to Arizona to see Grandma Kuhn. It's now my kids' favorite place to go on Easter as well.

Grandma - thank you for making this such a wonderful Easter for us!! We looove you!!!!

morris easter egg hunt

We had sooo much fun at the Morris Family Easter Egg Hunt. Morris is Heath's Mom's side. We were supposed to have it in the desert, but it was cold and rainy, so they moved it to a church building in Gilbert. It was a blast and Logan & Addi couldn't believe how many kiddos there were in the family.

dying easter eggs & making cupcakes

Seriously, my mom is THE greatest!! She always gives me what I need to make the kids' holiday as good as I had it when I was a child. With Uma's help, this is what we were able to do to make Easter just as special!!

THANKS MOM!!!

uma box for easter

The kiddos got SPOILED from Uma & Papa!! They got sooo many fun things in their Easter!

Uma - thank you sooo much for the best Easter boxes e-v-e-r!!!!!

easter pageant

On Thursday night we went to the Easter Pageant at the Temple. We were able to sit super close this year, in fact, we were sitting right in front of CB's brother's Trent and Dason. Addi, Ashlyn and Lizzy took a picture with one of the warriors in the pageant.

play date with jacob

Last week we had our friend, Jacob, come over and swim with us. Jacob's step-dad is on Heath's squad. We had a blast! Thanks Jacob and Tara for coming over and hanging out with us.

date night

I looove date night with Heath on Wednesday nights!! Last night we went to dinner at Z Tejas in Tempe then to The Big Bang to watch the dueling grand pianos. It was so much fun.

Thanks Heath for always giving me a fun date night out!!!! I always have a blast with you!

growing up soooo fast

I seriously LOVE my camera phone!! :)

We are loving the park at Heath's apartment complex and spend almost every day after school playing on the playground after homework.

Last night Addi showed us her new trick on the bars. She is growing up sooo fast. I remember doing these things on the bars as well ... she's so tough ... check out the end of the video (it's not long, don't worry)!

your papa will be proud

Last night we took the kiddos to the PGA Tennis and Golf Superstore. Both of the kids showed an immediate interest in golfing! Logan was even sad we couldn't buy him a golf set right then and there!!

Golf has always been such a huge deal in my house growing up. My Dad and brother went every Saturday. I started golfing a few years ago when Mark and I divorced. It's one of my favorite things to do to relieve stress.

Oh kiddos - your Papa will be sooo proud!

uma invented the uma box

Dear Logan & Addi,

This post is more for journaling purposes. I never want to forget this morning's conversation on the way to school.

Logan: "Mom, don't forget to send Kaiden's Easter basket today!! He's going to be so excited when he sees what we got him."

Mom: "Thanks for reminding me, Logan. What should we call his box? We can't call it an Uma Box, because it's not coming from Uma."

Logan: "But Uma INVENTED the Uma Box, it HAS to be called that. When Kaiden calls us on Easter, we have to explain the box to him and this is what you get when your mom is our Uma and that all your presents don't have to fit into your basket, you get lots of presents just in the box!!"

I called Uma this morning to tell her about our conversation. I knew she'd want to hear how much you guys love getting Uma Boxes and how you think they are better than anything else. She cried. She loves being your Uma and is so excited to see you guys in May and meet Kaiden.

a spring update

Last weekend was a super busy one!! We had such a blast!!! Curtiss came into town and we were non-stop all weekend (my FAVE kind of weekends).

Alright, this is a little out of order...

On Sunday, we went to Scottsdale to visit our Dad's side of the family. This is (clockwise from the top):
Aunt Dale (dad's younger sister)
Grandma (dad's mom)
Uncle Mike (aunt dale's hubby)
Curtiss
Addi
Me
Logan

We went to a Chinese Buffet and the owner kept telling me and Curtiss what a beautiful family WE had ... yuuuuuck! ;)

Then Curtiss and I stopped by a car show with the kids on our way back to Gilbert. Here are the kids and their fave cars at the car show ....

On Friday night when Curtiss got into town, Heath and I were at Dave & Busters with the kids, eating dinner. The kids hadn't seen Uncle Curtiss since before Christmas. They were soooo excited. Addi couldn't get enough of her Uncle!!

The kids were like little old people at a casino! It was hilarious to watch!

Here is a video of Addi playing skeet ball. She's actually really good at it!

Here are some pictures I took of the kiddos for Spring ... just because. They weren't dressed super cute, but were in good moods ... gotta take advantage of that!! :)



Last Friday night, Heath had an Honor Guard ob to do at a Police Academy graduation in Phoenix. Me and the kiddos went. It's always fun to watch him do the Honor Guard thing .. all dressed up in his uniform. Heath was sweet enough to let me take a pic or two ...

so handsome

On Saturday, we took the kids quadding for the first time. They had a blast!! I think we finally found something Logan really enjoys AND is good at! Curtiss had him doing doughnuts by the end of the day and Addi was going up mountains. I couldn't have been more proud of my sweet babies!!

Curtiss "chasing" Addi

show off! ;)
Curtiss is a great rider

Uncle + Niece
going out for a ride

Heath & Logan
conquering the tallest mountain

Logan
thinking he's a pro rider by standing up while riding

... and riding with one hand ...
(soooo cute)

Heath & Addi
showing her some trails she can go on

Additude
pouting after she crashed

Curtiss & Addi
getting a lesson on how to ride the quad

Curtiss + Addi + Logan
exploring the trails near the trucks

my sweet girl all ready to go

I've been keeping so busy at work and during the week with the kids that I just haven't had any time to really stay on top of my blog. Work is going great, we're expanding!! We are actually hiring and I HAVE to have it done by the end of next week ... yikes!! I'm so thankful for it!

The kids are doing wonderful. They are excited for school to be over and start summer vacation.
Heath starts General Instructor's school on Monday. At the end of April he will be taking a Driving Instructor's class. He is already a Training Instructor. After these two programs, he will start to teach the new police officers how to drive their police cars in all the situations they face on duty. Pretty cool!! I am really proud of him.