April has been a busy month! We have had 3 birthdays in the family, Easter, and father's day at Colton's school. Nate and Colton are headed to our ward's father and son campout this weekend. I don't know who is more excited to go, Nate or Colton.

We had a lot of fun with Easter this year. We colored our eggs while Callie was sleeping, which ended up not being such a good idea. After the Easter Bunny hid the eggs, we went out to find them. Colton was really into it, running around and collecting as many eggs as he could. We had to remind him to save the easy ones for his sister! Callie didn't care for finding the eggs at all. She kept telling me the eggs were "dirty" and would point to them and want me to pick them up for her. I would even set her basket down right next to the egg to make it easy for her, but she never picked up even one egg. My theory is, that she didn't see us coloring the eggs, and that is why she thought they were all dirty. She has this weird phobia of grass though, so it could have been that too. It still ended being a nice day, and I was actually able to get the 2 kids together, both smiling in one picture.

Colton had a FUDGE (friends, uncles, dads, grandpas, etc.) day at school which Nate and my dad (Colton's papa) were able to attend. They sang songs, put shaving cream on the dad's and shaved them with a popsicle stick, made cards, and ate ice cream sundaes. Colton thought it was absolutely great! They gave the dads a few momentos too, that were very nice. The best one was a card. They interviewed Colton and asked him questions about Nate. I found out that Nate is 2 years old, 100 pounds, has blue eyes and black hair, his favorite food is lettuce, and his best friend is his boss at work. It was quite a cute card with all the info on it.




HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY CALLIE!

I can't believe she is already 2! These past two years have flown by! We feel so blessed to have her in our family. She brings such a sweet spirit into our home. Colton said last night (out of the blue) "I have the best sister in the whole wide world!" It was very cute, and I think he truly believes it. (I will admit that they were fighting about 2 minutes after he said that.) Colton and Callie have always had a special bond. We were remembering the other day, when Nate brought Callie and I home from the hospital and took me to my parents house to pick up Colton. Colton held Callie (and it wasn't his first time to do so) and he looked at her and got a huge grin on his face and said, "She's beautiful." They love each other so much.

We celebrated the birthday festivities this last weekend with both families. Saturday was supposed to be a party at Freestone park with Nate's family. However, those of you from the valley know Saturday was unusually cold for this time of year. Around noon the temp outside was 58 degrees, so we scrapped the park idea and instead just had the party at our house. It was a nice time, even though we were missing a few family members. I was suprised that Callie knew how to blow out the candles on her cake. Staying true to her girly girl image, she blew them out with a very soft blow. Her grandma bishop just returned from visiting my brother-in-law's family in Germany and brought her a shirt that says "Girly". It is perfect for her. Later that day, when it warmed up outside, our little family went to Freestone park and rode the train and other rides. The kids enjoyed it. Sunday night we had my family over for dinner and party. We enjoyed more cake, ice cream and presents. It was a nice time to be able to spend the weekend surrounded by family. Today is Callie's real birthday. Colton said, "oh my gosh, we aren't going to have another party, are we?" when he found out today is her birthday. To his dismay, no we are not having another party. We will just quietly be celebrating by ourselves at home this evening.

The beginning of our blog

Summer Driggs (Decker) has inspired us to begin our own blog, in order to keep in touch with our friends and family. Nate has said that this can be my journal, saying that I will probably keep this more up to date than my actual journal. I can't argue too much with him about that.

This is how our story began:

I went on a date with a guy from MCC and he introduced me to his friends. Through those friends, I met more and more people, eventually having the opportunity to meet Nate. I wanted to get to know Nate a little better. One of my friends mentioned this to him, but he said he was at a time in his life where he didn't really want to date anyone. Needless to say, a few days later we had our first date and the rest is history from there. We were engaged about 3 months later, and married 3 months after that in the Mesa Arizona Temple in August 1998.

After we both finished college, we started our family. Both being Arizona natives, we have remained in east Mesa and enjoy being close to our families. We can't imagine ever living anywhere other than Mesa. Even though we haven't been good about keeping in touch with our friends, we do enjoy occasionally running into our friends at the movies, restaurants, etc. We feel blessed to be able to have both found jobs here in Mesa.

Nate is a custom cabinet designer currently working for Ellis Woods. They produce high end custom cabinets and furniture. They recently relocated their office near Falcon Field which has drastically reduced his commute. He loves his job. The rest of Nate's time is spent serving as a counselor in the Elder's Quorum Presidency. This is a new calling for him, within the last few months, and he is enjoying getting to work with the men in the ward. Prior to this he was the Cubmaster for a few years. This is a nice change for him.

I spend most of my time with our two kids. I think I must have the 2 cutest kids in the world. They definitely keep me busy, but it makes it all worth it to hear them say that they love me. I also continue to work every other weekend at the hospital. I enjoy being able to get out on socialize with other adults occasionally. The schedule works great for my family, and I can't complain when I only work 3 days, and then I get 11 days off. Nate does a great job with the kids on those weekends. I couldn't ask for a better husband! I really enjoy the work that I do. I currently am teaching the CTR-5 class in primary, which makes me Colton's teacher. He really enjoys this and so do I.

Colton is our energetic 4 1/2 year old. He is very curious, observant and has an excellent memory. He also is a climber. He has been able to climb, ever since he began to walk. He was probably 13-14 months when I one day saw him standing in the window sill behind our couch, grinning from ear to ear. Another time, shortly after I had Callie, I came out to find him sitting on top of the refrigerator (he was 2 1/2). He is currently in a preschool program through Gilbert Public Schools and enjoys every minute of it. He loves learning nursery rhymes at school, and can learn them very quickly. However, he has not become interested in letters yet, and so he can identify the letters in his name and write his name, and that's about it. It all is a matter of choice for him. His favorite part of the school day is definitely recess. He is looking forward to kindergarten this fall. An example of his good memory: I was at my parents house a few months ago and Colton said, "Grandma, I know where your blue dog leash is." We were all a little surprised, because this was not the topic of conversation. My parents dog had passed away a year prior to this, and they had bought another dog lease when Midnight was still alive, unable to find the blue leash (we are talking it had been missing for probably 2 years). Anyways, Colton said "I know where I put it," and proceeded to walk over to a decorative bird house my mom had, and said it was inside. Needless to say, it was inside and it was quite the task to get out, for he had stuffed the entire dog leash inside the little tiny hole in the birdhouse. It always amazes me what a 2 year old can think of to do. We love our "Sunshine" Colton, his beautiful brown eyes, and his snuggles.

Our little girl, Callie, will be turning 2 next month. It is so hard for me to believe that she is already going to be 2. We definitely see the differences in boys and girls. She loves to have bows in her hair, jewelry and sunglasses on, wearing everybody elses shoes, and can't stand to have her hands dirty. (My dad says that is my fault - I guess it is the nurse in me!) She is our little "sweetheart". She loves to give hugs and kisses. I took her a while to begin talking, but now she can say anything she wants and has become quite the little chatterbox. She will sit there for several minutes, just chatting with herself. One of her new favorite sayings is "Callie do it." She is definitely becoming very independent. We are amazed at some of the grown up things she already does, but she is just trying to keep up with her brother. They love each other so much and do pretty good playing together, most of the time. She calls him "Coco" and he calls her "Sis". Of course we think she is just adorable. She has an infectious smile. We have a hard time catching her smile on camera though. Every time she sees the camera she says "Cheese" and squints and scrunches her face all up, or she sticks her fingers in her mouth. Gotta love kids! We love both of our kids so much and love their individual personalities.

We feel blessed for each day we get to spend together as a family, creating memories together. One of my favorite times is family vacations, which we typically do with my family. It can be stressful at times, with 14 people, but it is a lot of fun. Our most recent outing was to Maui during spring break. Of course getting to Hawaii was the most difficult part. The day we left, Colton woke up with vomiting and diarrhea. Then when we got on the plane, somebody else was sitting in our assigned seats, that they had also been assigned to, and they had overbooked the flight by 20 seats. After a few tears, we did get on the flight, but the vomiting and diarrhea, made it an extra long flight. Even though it rained quite a bit, the rest of the vacation was great and it was just amazing to be in Hawaii. We really had a good time. Some of the pictures are from our trip.

Well here goes my first posting. I promise all my postings won't be this long!