A bunch of random stuff...

So first off, the YW don't usually cooperate well enough for me to take pictures but on this night they did! Here are the Mia Maids and Laurels in our ward at my house last Wednesday night working on making aprons for the Pioneer Trek that we're doing for Youth Conference this July. They are doing a really great job and are perfecting their sewing skills.

Veronica (in kitchen), Karlee, Xauntal, Kameron (stealing a hug from Dylan) and Kathryn

Kelsie - showing us her strawberry shortcake!

Ashley
Xauntal

On Saturday, after t-ball game rushing craziness, our ward had a Primary activity. It was a missionary day where the kids not only did things for the missionaries (they colored pictures and decorated an apron that said "Called to Serve) but they learned about what it's like to be a missionary. When they got there, they received their badges and then went to the chapel to be "trained." They were put into different groups and went to four different stations. In two of the stations, they learned from Brother Clegg who served in Italy and Brother Andersen who went to Russia. They taught the kids what is was like to serve a mission in that particular area. The third station was for coloring and apron decorating. The fourth station was in the kitchen where the kids prepared their own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - a mission staple, I'm sure!
It was such a great activity - our Primary presidency rocks!

Jake trying out some Italian words
Dylan and Hayden coloring apronsSuch a grumpy missionary!

Dylan's obsessed with taking pictures right now so we let him snap this one of the parentals at the end of the activity. Say cheese Mom and Dad!

So then I decided to post these way cute pics of Carter because we are NOT having a way cute week. This child refuses to nap right now (I know, I'm not giving up, I try every day, blah, blah, blah) and he is utterly grouchy. He is crying and whining over every little thing. Anyone want to borrow an almost 3 year old? Come on, just for one day.
Oh, I know I would miss him terribly. Just look at this cute guy nearly all the way submerged in the bath. I was putting on my make-up and not paying a lot of attention and when I looked at him, here he was with his legs up and only a tiny bit of his face sticking out of the water. He was singing a little song and dumping water from a cup onto his legs. Funny little water baby!

We call this Nay Nay head. He's not playing peek-a-boo with me or anything like that. He just does this sometimes - plays with toys or looks at a book with his Nay Nay on his head.

Also introducing...

My other newest nephew!!
Kyle Reese Motley
Born to my brother Scott and his wife Carrie on April 24, 2008
Weighing in at 9 lbs. 12 oz.Look at those cheeks! Must squish now.
Carrie and Kyle are doing awesome and my mom tells me that big brothers Ryan and Sean are so excited about their new little brother. They are both being so gentle and quiet around him and Ryan was awfully upset at the nurse that came to take Kyle's blood when they were visiting. Can't wait to meet him!

Isn't our family so lucky? Two beautiful boys within two days of each other. Which brings the kid tally on the Motley side to...
Boys: 8
Girls:0
Any bets on what my sister Erica is having? She finds out soon...

Introducing...

My newest nephew!!

Hudson Robert Motley

Born to my brother Chris and his wife Lindsay on April 22, 2008

Weighing in at 5 lbs. 14 oz.

Isn't he so gorgeous?! I can hardly stand it. Look - Chris is a natural!

Congratulations, you guys! We're so happy that Hudson and Lindsay are both doing well. He is precious and we can't wait to meet him.

The joys of food you don't have to cook...

Look at all this frozen yumminess! I am so happy to have these meals to pull out of the freezer and cook at a moment's notice. Well, I know you have to thaw them first!
The Cooking Club Girls!

Ashley (w/Payson), Allison (w/Jonathon), Mary (w/Ella), Nikki

Missing: Sally and Julee (who's out on maternity leave!)

Mary snapped another photo that had a better close-up of all the food.

So what our group does is make six of the same meal (1 of those is for your family) and then we meet at my house to make the exchange. I know other group's that have met to actually do the cooking together but we do our meals on our own. This is the third time we have exchanged meals and the variety this time is so awesome - beef strogonaff; chili lime chicken; meatball subs; slow-cooker orange chicken and lasagna!

Me and a group of friends were going to this great place called My Girlfriend's Kitchen where you go to their store and assemble all the meals you've selected. All the prep work was done by the staff and the food was wonderful! We loved it for quite a few months and then it just stopped working out as well. They raised their prices, changed their ordering system, and changed the way you received perks for hosting a party. I got frustrated and stopped going. Thanks to cute Sierra's good idea (who has since moved to California), we get to kind of have our own My Girlfriend's Kitchen experience! We miss you, Sierra and you too, Jewly!

Thanks girls, for all the great food - can't wait to try it!!

Will we make it to Kindergarten with this adorable face intact?

It's a good thing you can't see inside this child's mouth because it's just that nasty. I even took a picture of the injury so I could post it but I decided I wouldn't do that to you nice people.
This is Dylan not putting the ice on his mouth, like the doctor told him.

Oh look - there he goes!

So anyways, Dylan took a tumble at the park - fell on the stairs going up the play equipment, to be exact, and we had to make a little trip to urgent care. He shredded the inside of his lip pretty good and while I was fairly sure it wasn't bad enough to warrant stitches, he had a pretty good chunk out of the inside of his lip and really long hangy piece of lip skin that I thought the doctor should look at. Me and all my friends at the park weighed in with our thoughts and I decided to err on the side of caution and go to urgent care. He was super nervous but I told him not to worry until we knew what we were dealing with. Besides, at this point it had pretty much stopped bleeding so I was crossing my fingers for no stitches.

We had the best urgent care experience ever - even better than the time Jake had to get stitches and that experience was pretty quick and painless. The front desk lady took one look at the cutie with the mouth injury and bloody wipes pressed to it and whisked us right to a room. Dr. Foy came right in and after he looked at it said he did good, it wasn't too bad - he was only going to have to numb it up a little with some cream and then he was going to snip off the skin that was hanging down. The cream worked great, the snipping didn't hurt at all, we got our prescription for our antibiotic and we were on our way. We were so fast, the front desk lady was still checking on our insurance when I got out there. In and out in 15 minutes! I love Anthem Urgent Care!

So major trauma avoided, thank goodness. He has hamburger for a lip and doesn't want to eat but it could be sooo much worse. So I'm relieved. But the real question remains, when is he going to stop hitting his mouth? He has had at least 5 bleeding lip/teeth episodes in the last year. Thankfully, we just went to the dentist 2 weeks ago and his teeth look okay. But that was before this time! Ugh. Seriously, I'm beginning to think he needs to start going everywhere with a mouthguard.

Aunt Sara Comes to Arizona

Aunt Sara came to Arizona and we got her all to our own selves! It was so fun to see her - it had been way too long! Here's a cute pic of them that I snapped before Jake had to run off to school. We did a lot of fun things and enjoyed the sunshine. The first day of her stay, we did a little shopping and had some lunch. Dylan had school in the afternoon but Jake got to come home early. We also grilled outside for dinner and had a walk, enjoying the nice weather. She kept getting texts from her friends back in Seattle telling her how mad they were at her because it was snowing there and here she was in Arizona enjoying the spring! The next day, Aunt Sara was able to come to Jake's Pinewood Derby and cheer on the cool but slow i-Car. Between the Derby and Jake's Little League game, we took a drive out to Cave Creek and then had a yummy lunch/dinner at San Felipe Cantina in DC Ranch. This is the boys being cowboys in Cave Creek.
Jake and Dylan on the Gila Monster slide in Carefree at the Sundial Park.
We had fun watching Jake play baseball later that afternoon and the next day we had a relaxing Sunday together. Sara even kept the kids so we could go to our Pioneer Trek fireside. So nice!
But of course we took her to the park! We went there on her last day here. The animal fountains were on and Dylan and Carter had fun showing us how wet they could get in their clothes. I'm sad to see this shirt Carter is wearing because it got lost that day. Long story - but I took these wet clothes off of him when it was time to leave and put them in the storage compartment of his Hot Wheels because I didn't want to carry them. I forgot to get them out and later that night, Patrick took the kids to the park again to let Jake skateboard. Carter was riding his bike down the grassy hill by the skate park and must have dumped his clothes out at some point. Of course, Patrick didn't know that Carter had clothes in there and didn't know that they were ours - so they accidentally got left. By the time I had realized that I needed to get those clothes out to wash them, it was 2 days later. I looked at the park and I looked in the maintenance area's lost and found but they were gone. I even went back to Old Navy to see if they still had the same shirt so I could replace it but no, they were all gone. Is it weird that this traumatizes me so much? It's a $6 shirt, I know. But a cute one. Shorts too. Oh well.
Sara and the boys on the tramp.

We were sorry to see her go. She spoiled the boys so much and they loved every minute of it! It was so nice to visit and we hope to see all the Seattle fam soon - hopefully, this summer! We love you, Aunt Sara!