Happy Birthday Sweet Baby!

Yes, another birthday! Savannah turned 5 today! It seems like she was born just yesterday. We didn't really do too much today. I sent the girls off to their little preschool class. They were excited to take in lollipops and doughnuts to celebrate their birthdays. Then we went to Red Robin for dinner; Savannah's favorite place to eat out. And yes, she's wearing a sweater. Who gets cold when it's over 110 outside? Savannah, of course. I did make her take the sweater off before we left the restaurant. And why do we have a sweater in the car in the middle of summer? Because it gets so cold in our Primary room. I guess it never made it back into the house.And we finished up with some ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Savannah originally thought she wanted Rocky Road (a girl after my own heart) but in the end she went with Oreo Ice Cream. We gave her a few gifts, mostly new clothes, which she needs since she's growing like a little weed. Happy Birthday my Sweet Baby Girl! I can't believe how the time has flown! I love you dearly!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Melanie continues to promise me that she'll stay my little girl forever, but there she goes and has another birthday. I can't believe that she's already 3! We decided to have so fun by going to the mall and getting both Melanie and Savannah's hair cut. I can't believe how long their hair has grown just in the last few months. Being at the mall of course included some play time in the play area, a stop at Wetzel Pretzel, and of course a treat from See's Candy. It was lots of fun just having a little girl time. Then we went over to Grandma's house for a little party. We celebrated with a cupcakes that were topped with Princess Rings. I thought it was cute that Melanie thought that she needed Savannah's moral support to blow out the candles. And being the good big sister that she is, Savannah was quite happy to help. The rings were a big hit, and of course everyone had to pick their favorite princess. Melanie picked Aurora and Savannah picked Cinderella.I thought it was funny that Melanie licked the frosting off of her cupcake and called it good. Spencer, on the other hand, completely devoured (or destroyed) his cupcake. He even saved some of the frosting on his pacifier for later! I also wanted to throw this picture in there and show everyone that Melanie and Grandma's doggy, Lilly, now get along. Melanie was deathly afraid of Lilly for a long time, but has finally got over it. I'm just glad that Lilly is so easy going and takes the abuse from the kids quite well. Of course we had plenty of presents...Grandmas, Aunts, and Uncles always spoil her. Melanie loved everything she got. She has carried little Snow White everywhere today and we've had to change her outfit almost every hour. And who thought that the activity case with over 1000 items was a good idea? Thanks Grandma; Melanie and Savannah have already fought over all the different little pieces. Last, but not least, Melanie has been asking for a dollhouse for her birthday for the last month. So Jon did some work and found a really nice one on craigslist. It is wooden and came complete with really nice furniture. Melanie was tickled pink when she saw it. Sorry there's no pictures of the actual dollhouse, but Spencer was way past done (he's working on getting 2 molars right now) and no further pictures were taken. The girls have enjoyed playing with the house today, but there were so many accessories that they can't seem to get past the "setting up" stage and Savannah keeps telling me that they "haven't even got to play yet!"

Happy Birthday my Sweet Baby!It seems like only yesterday that we brought you home from the hospital. What a cutie!

Snowflake

I have an aunt and uncle that live in Snowflake and I haven't been up to visit them since Savannah was a baby. So I decided that we would stop there on our way home from New Mexico to try and break up our trip. The weather was wonderful and we had such a great time. Savannah got to ride my cousin's horse, Spliff. She totally loved it! Melanie was forced to also ride and cried the entire time. She later claimed it was fun, but wouldn't do it again. I was surprised that Melanie really wanted to hold their baby goose though. Savannah liked the goose too and it kept following her around, to which she said, "I'm not a mommy goose!" The kids also loved jumping on the trampoline. I just loved the how green everything was and the cool weather. I also took the kids over to see the Snowflake Temple. It was so beautiful outside and we all loved it. Melanie loved the waterfall and all of the pretty flowers. Spencer just wanted to get into everything...the dirt, the water, anything he could. Luckily, Grandpa followed him around and kept him out of trouble.Savannah was a little disappointed that she didn't get to go inside, but she still really enjoyed walking around the outside. As a quick side story, Savannah stopped to look at a bug and so I stopped with her. My Dad and sister took the other kids ahead and when we turned to go and catch up with them a snake had come out of the shrubs onto the sidewalk! It totally scared me and so I grabbed Savannah's arm and pulled her up onto the planter. The snake took a look around and decided to go back into the bushes. It was yellow with black stripes. Needless to say I was a little paranoid about the pretty flowers after that. Here's Melanie touching the temple, like President Monson told all of the children to do! And I need to tell Sarah thank you for riding with me all the way to New Mexico and back! She made this trip possible, since I did it without Jon. The girls loved spending so much time with you! And here's me and my Meli! Other highlights of the trip included playing dress-up with cousins. And of course, roller skating in the house. Who could ask for more fun than that? We all loved it and only wished that Jon had been with us.

Grandpa Bloomfield

My grandfather passed away back in January, about a week after Jon and I moved. My grandparents lived in New Mexico for all of my life and so I was thrilled when they moved down here a little over 2 years ago for my Grandfather's health. Grandpa was such a hard worker and insisted on helping move their stuff in. It was so wonderful to have them live just around the corner so I could go and visit them when ever I wanted. Melanie quickly became Grandpa's best buddy. Here he is trying to teach her to walk, insistent that she should be able to walk by 9 months. Grandpa was the only one that Melanie would just sit with. Here they are at a birthday party, just after we went swimming. Grandpa always shared whatever he had with Melanie, whether it was his ice cream or his glass of water. When he was in the hospital I told him that he had spoiled her and his response was: Nope, you did that yourself! Grandpa always wore suspenders - or spenders as we called them, and his flag ones were his favorite. And he always wore a Bolo tie to church. I don't think that I ever saw him in a regular tie, even at our wedding. All of the grandsons (even Jon) wore bolo ties at Grandpa's funeral to honor him. Here's the last picture that I got of him, enjoying Thanksgiving Dinner, sitting between his two girls. So it's been a little hard since he passed away; probably harder for me because I know how much the girls loved him and how much they have grown and changed since he's been gone. So, we drove up to New Mexico for the funeral when it was so cold and snowy everywhere. And I just couldn't believe that I forgot my camera. But now it has been 6 months and we took another quick trip back to New Mexico to set his headstone. It was a hot and sunny day and the kids all enjoyed running around and playing. Spencer really loved wandering around the cemetery. Grandpa really loved Spencer too. Even when Grandpa was in the hospital, all Grandpa had to do was look at Spencer and he would start laughing. Grandpa loved making him laugh!Here is a picture of my Mom, Aunt Raette (my mom's younger sister), Grandma, and Aunt Mae (my Grandpa's sister). It took forever (about 2 hours) to get the headstone in place, but it looked great when it was all finished. Grandma and Grandpa were sealed in the Mesa Temple when Grandma was 16 and Grandpa was 18. They rode in the back of a pick-up truck for 6-8 hours to get to the temple. They had just celebrated their 62nd anniversary right before Grandpa took a turn for the worse. Melanie was so glad to get to go and see where Grandpa Bloomfield was buried. I also got to find the headstones for both of my Mom's Grandparents while we were there. Here is Nina Maleta Bond & Alexander Finley Bloomfield. And here is Byron Nephi & Maud Cluff Farnsworth. The only one of my Great-Grandparents that I can remember was my Great-Grandma Farnsworth. She lived right next to the temple and my mom came down to live with her after high school. That is when she met my dad. I was 3 when Great-Grandma Farnsworth died and I can remember only a few things about her, so it makes me wonder what memories the girls will have of Grandpa Bloomfield. After setting the headstone we went over to my Grandparents' old home, the one that I remember them living in when I was little. My uncle and aunt live in it now, so we went there and had a BBQ for lunch. Savannah and Spencer both had a blast swinging in the tire swing out back. Grandpa made that swing a long time ago and we used to swing in it all the time when we visited them. Grandpa would push us so high in it! So that was really great to see Savannah having so much fun with something that I remember enjoying too. We headed out after lunch and we got an okay picture of Shiprock. This is the "rock" that we would always look for when we drove up to Grandma's house, then we knew that we were almost there. Seeing it always brings back memories of very long road trips! Grandpa, we miss you and can't wait to be with you again.

One more quick story: This past Easter I was trying to explain to the girls that we celebrate Easter to remember that Jesus died for us and was then resurrected. And because he was resurrected, we will be too. I told the girls that we would be resurrected when Jesus comes to the Earth again. Savannah then got really excited about Easter because she thought that Grandpa Bloomfield would be resurrected on Easter. It was so sweet of her to think that and a little difficult to try and explain that that was not quite what I meant.