April

The Monahans have 6 boys and our boys love to hang out at their house. Always something exciting happening over there!

Weston got to walk Chase field on Little League night! Trav was so good to take all the kids and give me a night alone. I always feel bad missing out on stuff like this, but my never ending to-do list haunts me.

Baby Stetson was born!! OHMYGOSH he is the cutest!!! I love him so much already! What a perfect doll! I can't even handle it. Yay for Katie and Jefferson! 

Camilla's birthday was in February, but our schedules are so crazy, it was months before we could do her birthday date. We have a tradition of doing things a little out of the ordinary for each other's birthdays. This year was no different! I bought us a session doing plasma cutting at a little place in Mesa called The Collaboratory. We got to wear really cute glasses and gloves and be creative... not my strong suite. I decided to try and make the Senergy logo with a sun and cactus behind it, and give it to my dad for Father's Day. Haha! Not the best idea. Doing anything intricate on your first try is going to look like a Kindergartner made it. 

Then we had dinner at Board & Batten in north Mesa. Fancy place, but word of the wise, don't order the lamb. Very lamb-y. The place was empty when we were done, except for a table of men sitting outside who tried to talk to us. We ignored them. The restaurant is right next to Stonebridge Manor and a wedding was going down when we walked out. DJ music drew us in like moths to fire. There was a fence, but we couldn't help ourselves, we walked as close as we could get and started dancing! Kind of with the hope we'd draw attention to ourselves, but no one noticed! It was dark and there were trees all around us. We looked like absolute fools but it was SO FUN. We probably danced for 20-30 minutes, laughing our heads off and acting like we were 16. Then, as we were walking to our car, the table of guys tried again. One of them asked what our names were and Camilla just said, "SEVEN!" I looked at her confused as we walked away and she clarified, "We have seven kids between the two of us" and I died laughing again. Driving back to her house we had the windows down and music blaring while we continued our dance party. I honestly felt like I was in high school again. Then we talked in her driveway for another couple of hours. Camilla is one of my favorite human beings EVER. I don't know what I did to deserve her in my life but I am so grateful!

We went to Casa Reynoso for dinner to celebrate Father's Day then got Andy's for dessert and went back to my parent's house to play games. I gave him the gift then and his reaction was HILARIOUS. We all had a good laugh. To all the preschoolers out there... don't give up. You can still be 38 and give your parents weird crap you made in art class. 

General Conference and cinnamon rolls are a married Mormon couple.

We brought dinner to Jefferson and Katie and all the kids got to meet their new cousin. He was instantly loved and they all fought over who got to hold him first. 

I ordered Melissa's April Fools package of ice cream so we had fun tasting all the flavors and trying to figure them out!

The long awaited shoes have arrived! Collin's excitement could not be contained.

I believe this was the time Collin pulled out his own tooth that wasn't ready because he wanted money. Or  maybe I took a picture because it was his last baby tooth. I can't remember

Olive was asked to be in a trio dance this year and she did great! They competed at the normal competitions she did with her other dances plus an extra one. 

Welcome, baby Nora!!! I have loved this name ever since they mentioned they liked it years ago. I think it fits her perfectly. I love her!

I was picking Tanner up from preschool when I heard a little boy yell, "Wait!" to Tanner as he was walking to my car. All of a sudden, Tanner is pummeled with a huge hug as he stood semi-awkwardly, not sure what to do with his hands. Turns out, it was Braxton, Austin's cousin's son. I thought it was adorable. Tanner apparently wasn't as enthused. 

When I tried to take a picture with their Easter bunny ears, this was the pose I got. Tanner loves playing with Tyde!

I hate the rocks in our backyard. Since getting a pool is too expensive, we're on to plan B. Maybe a pickleball court? Maybe just grass. Definitely bury the trampoline. It's an eyesore and annoying to move every week so mow the lawn. Shoveling those rocks is not joke though. The boys worked hard for months, making slow progress.

The kids have wanted carrots since we started the garden. They aren't big, but very exciting!

Weston's birthday party was supposed to be in February, but he woke up so so sick the day of. The company let me reschedule it, but it took weeks to figure out another day that worked with our schedules. Then, a couple days before the party was supposed to be, the company canceled on me!! UGH!!! So FINALLY, in April, Weston got to have his party. They started with playing video games in the truck, then ended with laser tag in the field down the street from our house. 

The girls made name tags for the boys while they were playing. 

Starting with Weston and going clockwise we have Rusty, Mason Payne, Jonas Monahan, Jackson Cottrell, Liam Dixon, a boy I don't remember, Benson Hobbs, McGuire Law and Collin. Poor Graham was home sick.

How funny are these cutouts on the fridge of Trav's office?

I got called to jury duty on the day of Tanner's preschool graduation. I missed his last one because of Prenda science camp... I wasn't going to miss another one!

Melissa Taylor made Collin his own ice cream when he suggested a flavor for her. He was just a little bit happy about it.

80's day at school!

We gave Grandma and Grandpa tickets to see the new Medieval Times in Scottsdale for their Christmas present! After much ado scheduling and rescheduling... we finally went! Our section cheered for the red knight and whataya know.... he won!!! Olive was HYSTERICALLY screaming. Our other entertainment of the night was the row of college kids right in front of us wearing very little clothing, with their phones in front of their faces the whole time doing snapchat. 

A couple years ago in Oceanside, Weston got a boogie board rash that seemed to spread to his whole body after a few weeks. It wasn't painful or itchy so I just assumed a virus had gotten into his body and it would eventually go away. Well, it didn't. I took him to the dermatologist who shrugged his shoulders and prescribed a steroid cream. The rash was literally everywhere except his face, hands and feet and I didn't feel good about covering his in steroid cream. We spent hundreds of dollars at an herbalist who sent us home with tinctures and a promise it would be gone in two weeks. We did it for two months with no changes. Next, we tried a hair scan and cell cleanse while trying to eliminate a few, triggering foods but no improvement either. I was frustrated and gave up for a few months. Then in January I had him stop eating gluten, dairy and sugar. My thought/hope was that we could lower any inflammation in his body so his immune system could do its job to get rid of this virus. It WORKED. He was such a champ about it and stuck to the "diet" with very few exceptions. After 3 months, the rash he had for a year and a half was gone! I almost couldn't believe it. He is begging me to let him eat all the things now but I'm nervous it will come back. We're starting slowly with some dairy to see how it goes. I shared this on Instagram to give hope or inspiration to anyone else dealing with a skin issue. I don't know if it really was a virus or his body all of a sudden reacting to food sensitivities, I just know that eliminating those foods did the trick. I'm really attracted to the idea of healing naturally through food resources and help that is available now!

Kirk gave us tickets to see the Suns again!

Olive sang in her school's spring concert. The music teacher read several student's answer to the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up" and Olive's was one of them! Olive said she wants to live in New York when she grows up and be a dancer!

Camilla took Olive, Posey and Macy to Skateland to help celebrate Macy's birthday!

I love when teachers send pictures of things the kids are doing at school! Olive and Lily are inseparable at school.