The backyard

It started like this.....

and now looks like this.....

  

My baby is 1!

Yesterday Madden turned 1!  I can't believe how fast this year has gone by.  Madden has been so much fun for us.  We love having him in our family.  He has been the happiest baby in the world!  His dimples melt us and I love how adventurous he is already.  Madden was an unexpected blessing in our lives.

Madden loved all the attention he gets when we have a party for him (we have had 3 so far).  He loves it when we sing happy birthday to him and he loves tearing open the presents.

Madden's fun present was the sandbox.  He tried eating the sand and loved picking it up and throwing it out of the sandbox.

But the best part of the birthday was the cake........

(make sure you click to enlarge this picture so you can see how much he really enjoyed it)

Happy birthday my sweet little baby guy!  We love you so much and you have brought so much fun and happiness to this family!

uncle ry

This is our ry with madden guy.  Madden loves ry, he always smiles at him and loves it when he is around to play with.

Emerson and Ry are best buddies.  Ry was only 8 when Emerson was born.  They lived in the same house for until Emers was 1.  Emerson thinks Ry is so funny, that he has the best toys and is so fun to play with.  Emerson now tries to do everything Ry does and always tells me Ry is funny.  If Ryan is on a nerf kick, so is emerson.  If Ry is on a lego kick, emerson wants to be too.  He is a pretty cool kid to try and be like!

Many people from Mike's mission that don't know me, think Ryan is my son.  I guess it is pictures like this on facebook that make them think that:)  We would claim him any day.  Everytime we see Ry, I always ask him if he will just come live with us forever!

Ry is so helpful with the boys, he is always so concerned about them and their safety.  He is the greatest uncle & we are lucky to have him.....everyone should have an uncle Ry!  He is the best!

Where have I been?

This month has been CRAZY for us!  My sister Alyssa was about to have her 1st baby so on March 17th me and the boys headed up for Utah by ourselves.  The boys had been sick with fevers since the Saturday before we left so I thought for sure they would be fine by the time we got to Utah......I was very WRONG!  We were in Utah for 10 days and we were all completely sick and miserable for the first 7 days.

Don't get me wrong, we still managed to have lots of fun.  One of the things that made my trip was hanging out with my sister Chelsey.  We spent so much time together and most of it was laughing and being completely immature.  I was so sad to leave her!!!

Mike's mom came back to Arizona with us and stayed for 9 days.  We got a lot done including finishing the landscaping on the backyard.  Here is a picture of the boys riding in the firetruck together.  Madden loved every second of this!

This is me holding my first nephew Ezra Jordan!  I had to wear a mask the entire time I was there but at least I got to see him.  He is so perfect and we are so excited for our kids to finally have cousins.

Emerson at the Surprise Easter egg hunt.  He had so much fun and didn't want to leave until....

he got home and realized we got these ball chairs for him and Madden.  They love them and get one in each of their rooms.

Can I just say how much I love ARIZONA in April?!  The weather is perfect and I love eating outside on our patio and going on walks.  It is so nice!

Now for some really sad news.  Yesterday was a hard day for our family.  My brother Rob and his wife are expecting their first baby.  She had been having a lot of pain in a certain spot on her body.  She finally went to get it checked a couple days ago with her doctor.  They were really worried it could be a tubal pregnancy so they scheduled an ultrasound for yesterday.  At the ultrasound they found out that it was what they thought.  The worst part about this is that while doing the ultrasound they found out they would have had twins!  We are so heartbroken for them.  Now she has to go in for a D&C on Monday to get the babies out.  We know the Lord has a reason for everything and they will be okay:(

Sorry for all the random in this post....I guess that's what happens when you don't blog for over a month:)