Tuesday 3/11/25

 It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done a post, so this will be sort of a catch up one. 

Two Thursdays ago we got to watch Kinley. She’s a girl in the ward that just turned four so she’s in Paisley’s church class now. I’m at the mom Shelby outside on her porch a couple weeks ago and we stayed and played for a while. Brennan also gets along with her dad Michael so we’ve been spending more time with them and they’re trying to become good friends. So she came over to hang out with the girls while Brennan worked from home and I was working at Therapy Tree. When I got home, I took the girls to the apartment park. We played for a while. Then came home to play kinetic sand before Kinsley’s grandma came and picked her up.

Friday night we got to go on a date night the two of us to a Ward dinner group. The word put together some small groups for us to go to dinner to get to know each other a little bit better. Our group was hosted by Lisa and Trevor Whitmore. It was so much fun. She made homemade burrito bowls that were absolutely delicious. Then we played a little bit to know your game with dice and questions. 

Saturday we went out to Scheels for connecting. When we got there they were doing a fun outdoor event with kiosks and vendors and a dog jumping show, where the dogs would run off a platform and jump as far as they couldn’t land in water. The girls were mesmerized and we watched the dogs for a long time. We saw some kids with Painted faces so I went and found the tent with face painting. Claire chose to get a unicorn and spider and Paisley got Marshall the Dalmatian from paw patrol. We went to In-N-Out for dinner. Then home to watch the adult session of stake conference.

Sunday was stake conference so we got to sleep in and watch church from home in our PJs. I had a baptism visit with Sam Morris. Then primary stake luncheon training at 2 PM. Then we were on a Sunday drive and ended up at the temple blocks. They had a beautiful musical number going on when we arrive. We got to listen to that then play in the kids area with Temple blocks and coloring. Grandma and grandpa Harker called for FFF for a few minutes so we got to say hi to them.

Tuesday we went to play at the blue park and stumbled upon a fun outdoor activity the library was doing with chalk. The girls drew some fun rainbows, Chase paw patrol and hop scotch. They also had a read a thon paper they handed out, for every 5 books read the kids get a free hamburger from In-N-Out! The girls were pumped about that. 

Wednesday morning Kaitlynn Petersen invited us to come over for a play date with Charlie, Mae Mae and Easton. She cut mine and all the girls hair and then we switched off and I watched the kids while she went to a dentist. Their neighbors across the street had some fun tree swings so we got to go play over there for a little while. Oh, and they had an awesome monster truck the girls drove around the yard.

This last weekend we were in charge of watching the Colman kids from Wednesday to Saturday night. Wednesday night we went and played at the park while Brennan and Kaden went to young men’s.Thursday afternoon we took Kensley to her skateboarding practice at KTR and then it was time for Kyson’s soccer practice off of Ellsworth Road. We had so much fun playing on the sidelines, kicking the soccer ball around. A few other kids joined and we kicked the soccer ball route, shot in the goals, played tag and just had fun running around together.

Friday was raining all day so we chose to do some indoor activities. We went up to Mesa library and ended up coming across a new family center in the basement. It was so fun. They had some St. Patrick’s Day painting activities and some awesome toys like a tool station, a baby doll station, a grocery shopping station and a little quiet time tent. We went home for lunch after that. Then Brennan got to join us that evening. We went back up to KTR for free skate night. They had pizza and drinks for each of the kids and then they got to spend three hours doing whatever they wanted, whether it was skateboarding, or jumping on trampolines, they had obstacle courses and gymnastics areas. It was so much fun!

Saturday, Brennan got to spend the whole day with us, which was a ton of fun. Kyson had some passes to FatCats that he was anxious to use so we got to go spend several hours there. He had time cards for us to play at the arcade so we each got an hour to play as many arcade games as we could. Then he had to buy one get one for bowling so we got to do a few games of that. The girls fell asleep in the car after that from being wiped out from playing so hard so we headed over to Walmart to get some craft stuff for Kenley to make a welcome home poster for her parents while the kids slept in the car. Then we got an invite from Trellany to do pizza at the park so we swung by Costco to grab a pizza and met them at the park to play for a while. Kaden watched the kids for us while Brennan and I stepped out for an ice cream date. 

Sunday was church. Then I had a ministering interview at 12:30. And a get to know you primary activity with the CTR7 at Chalese Cook’s house from 1-2pm. Shelby, Michael, and Kinley invited us out on their boat this afternoon for a leisure ride. We are so pumped it’s been a year since we’ve been out on a boat. So we got a bunch of snacks yesterday like cheese and crackers and meat and met up with them at 3 PM. We followed them up to hitch up the boat and then off to Saguaro Lake. Our family stayed on the boat the whole time and watched and enjoyed the ride, and they took turns surfing behind the boat, which was so fun to watch. They invited us back to their house for dinner where Shelby made homemade orange chicken and rice and it was absolutely delicious. They like us enough to invite us out on the boat another time so we’re looking forward to that.

Monday morning we had a Primary Presidency meeting at Chalese Cook’s house. All the kids are off for spring break so I brought the girls over and they played outside with Chalese’s older kids. Shelby and Kinley live right next-door so they met up and after my meeting was over, I joined them. We spent the next few hours playing in their front yard and walking down the street to the park on the corner. Shelby left for a doctors appointment and on her way back, she grabbed us sonic slushies that we all enjoyed outside while I finished up playing.

This morning, the girls wanted to paint so we spent some time painting. Paisley wanted to paint some little pictures stand out to some of the neighbors so we’re going to do that later. Paisley heard one of the new Neighbor girls crying outside so she went to check to see what was going on. The girl had dropped her Bluey stuff off the patio. So Paisley being the kind, thoughtful little girl that she is got one of her painted pictures and took it down to give to little girl and help her find her Bluey stuffy. That we invited her and her little brother to stay outside for a stuffy Play Date. We ended up staying outside for a few hours and puppies Jaz & Jax joined us for a little while too.