The Female Foursome

While everyone was here for Mother's Day I managed to get a picture of the four newest members of our family. All four girls were born in 2009 and are getting so big and cute!

Here's Samantha, Reese, Kamri and Ruby

These girls are gonna have so much fun together when they get older!

Yuma or bust!

Well the Rojas family has officially moved to Yuma. Ron and I made a quick trip down last weekend to deliver the trailer full of their stuff and check out their new digs. We are so excited to have them only 3 hours away instead of 11 or 12! We packed in some fun even though our visit was short. The rental house is fairly new and in a nice subdivision. Their backyard and patio area is great with a bbq, pool, spa and fire pit. They have also put a ping pong table on the back porch where I'm sure many competitive moments will take place! Here's a few pics:

Posing in front of the house (it was a little sunny!)

Ranger and Ryder enjoying the spa (the pool will come in handy this summer when it's 110!)

Gabe getting ready to get beat by Papa!

And of course the main reason they are there is the project Gabe is working on in nearby Wellton, just off the I-8.

(It doesn't look like much yet but eventually it will be a new border patrol station)

We are so happy to have all our children back in AZ!

We have puppies!

On Wednesday evening our shih tzu Daisy delivered her first litter of 5 puppies! Everything went well and she is being such a good mama. It's amazing how instinct takes over and they know exactly what to do. The puppies are all doing well and they are mostly dark like Daisy. I will post more pictures as they grow and get cuter. You know you want one!

Good job Daisy!

Emma the Artist

Every year Gilbert Public Schools has an elementary art show at Norwood Furniture. This year Emma was one of the few picked from her school to have their art on display. She is only in 1st grade and we are so proud of her!

We just might have a budding artist in our family. Way to go Emma!

Samantha turns 1!

On Saturday, April 3rd, our granddaughter Samantha had her first birthday! We were in Utah so we partied when we got home. Can't believe how fast this past year has flown by. Seems like yesterday that she was born. She sure is a cutie!



We love you Sammy, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

General Conference

The highlight of our Utah trip (besides seeing the grandkids!) was getting to go to General Conference. Our good friends Sterling and Sheleen Leavitt and Hoke and Diane Holyoak came also and Sterling was able to get us some great tickets. We were able to attend both morning sessions and the men also went to the Priesthood session. All the sessions were very good but my favorite was being there on Easter Sunday, listening to the beautiful music of the Spoken Word, and hearing our prophet and leaders testify of Christ's atonement and resurrection. It was so uplifting and I loved the experience even if we did have to get up early and trudge through the snow and cold to get there! There is nothing quite like being in the presence of the prophet and hearing all the inspiring messages that give us hope and motivation to do better. :)

Most of the snow had melted by the time we got out and we were able to snap a few pictures.



A trip with these guys wouldn't be complete without some good eating! We managed to hit a few choice spots like:

And our favorite was:

Melanie and Gabe had taken us there before and we knew that it would be right up Sterling and Hoke's alley. And it was!

Ruby and Sheleen enjoying dessert!

And here's the fatty patty's admiring their handiwork in the window outside the restaurant!

We also managed to fit in some shopping at the Wood Connection, Tai Pan and Rodworks. We had a great trip and it was sad to leave knowing that my regular trips to Utah are over. :( But it will be so great to have the Rojas family closer. Woo Hoo!

Logan Temple

We made another trip to Utah, this time to help Melanie move and to attend conference. One of our good friends daughter has moved to Logan and needed help getting her stuff there. So Ron agreed to pull a trailer with their stuff up to them in Logan and then we could pull the trailer home full of Melanie's stuff. It was our first time to visit Logan and the cache valley and boy were we impressed. It was beautiful! While Lauren and Cody unloaded the trailer (with the help of their ward) we took the opportunity to do a session in the Logan Temple. It is a very old, beautiful temple and we enjoyed getting to see it. It sits on top of a hill and the views were great. The day was cold but clear and snow was everywhere. Here's some pics of the day:

It is even more impressive at night! I would love to visit this place again in the fall. Wouldn't it be nice to have seasons!