last year in my 20s

I have one more year to enjoy my 20s!  My 20s have been great to me.  Went on a mission and loved every moment of it, got married, had 2 children, will finish my associates (in about 2 months), and have lived in 2 countries, 4 states, 7 cities.  This year some things I would like to accomplish be for the big 3-0 are lose weight, become more organized, love more, play with the kids more, and learn to love my scriptures even more. 
So to celebrate my birthday my friend Corynn and I shared a party.  Her birthday is just a couple days before so we thought it would be fun to invite a bunch of couples to go bowling.  We had so much fun.  All together there was 25 people that came and in our group we had 5 January birthdays.  I think we need to celebrate birthdays with friends more often. 

cute kids

Is it bad when your child's favorite words to spell are ALL related to movies or TV shows (don't you love how Ezra made an 'R' with a 'P' and 'L' to spell Dreamworks.. seriously ask him to spell anything Disney related and he can and will .

Rylie working with her OT doing some messy time with glue.  I just want to give a shout out for early intervention.  It works!  do not delay, if you have any questions about your child's development call your state's early intervention program and get them evaluated and start as soon as you question things.  I don't want to imagine where we would be today had I waited to see if they would eventually talk on their own later.  I'm so glad I went with my instincts and their progress is amazing.

Kids and I having fun tracing our bodies.  Ezra is really into drawing bodies these days so I thought he would really like this activity. 

and he did!  He kept telling me "look mom, its me Ezra"

We have also had fun racing cars while working on our fine motor skills :)

Just a really cute picture of Ezra.... he needs to slow down growing up!

It happened, both kids looking at the camera at the same time and neither one of them are upset.  It only took 3 years, but we finally have "a keeper"  (after every picture we take the kids say "that's a keeper")

I had a couple videos to upload, is there a secret for doing it b/c my videos never uploaded?

A Random Post of everything in between

One thing we love to do as a family is going to the aquarium in Tempe.  The kids love it and I have to admit it really is one of my favorite places to go.  I love the picture of Devin trying to look like he is holding his breath under water..I laugh every time I see it.  Yet again another family picture where not all of us are looking at the camera at the same time..tips please!

We made it up to Greer around Halloween time. The weather could not be more beautiful.  It was such a nice and relaxing trip and I hope we go every fall break.  This trip Ezra broke/bent his arm.  He was acting like Buzz light year and decided to jump off Tim's big ol' truck and landed face first into the dirt. When he got up we realized that his arm was very crooked so we took him to the hospital.  I was freaking out of course.  I especially was freaking out because we were 25 minutes away from the hospital and he was sitting in my lap as devin drove.  He kept wanting to fall asleep and that just scared me so I kept asking him to tell me the ABCs or how to spell his name and anything else that I could think of to keep him awake.  When we got to the hospital the doctor told me that it was fine that he fell asleep..I don't do well with my children being hurt, what can I say? :)  So then we waited to get his arm Xrayed.  Right away they came in to show us the results and said they had never seen anything like this because his arm wasn't broken like they thought, it was bent at a 22 degree angle instead.  Our fear was that he was going to have to have surgery to have them break it then place it but after going to the specialist he decided that it would be OK to let it heal on it's own an just cast it.  It is still crooked today and they said it would take about 2 years for it to fully straighten out but I think he has learned his lesson.  Anytime he jumps off things he now tells me "be careful don't break the other arm." 
Even though all that happened it was such a nice little getaway and fun to see Sweetie and PopPops and Aunti Tanni and Uncle Clayton..even though a certain aunt drove over Rylie's pink box..but i won't mention names ;)

Another random collage because I didn't feel like posting a bunch of individual pictures.  Devin graduated with is bachelors in psychology!!! yay!!! I really thought this day would never come :)  He starts his masters program soon which I'm excited for him but not looking forward to having him back in school, for selfish reasons!  We also got to see our good friends the Tibbs from Alaska recently.  Devin and Jon went to HS together and Jon and I worked at Wellsfargo together.  It was great seeing some Alaskan folks and made me almost miss Alaska-just enough to make me want to visit this year.



The kids have so much fun playing.  This summer/fall we played a lot of hide and go seek, rode bikes with our neighbor friends, Blue's clues,  and had a lot of picnics outside.  They sure are fun to have around and they keep me going constantly.  Sometimes I can barley manage the two of them and often wonder how families manage more than 2 kids but I guess we are given what we can handle.

Because I'm usually the one taking pictures I thought I would post these few pictures that I do have with the kids..i have almost perfected my self portrait pose.  Don't you just laugh and love Rylie's one eye opened look that she always gives, she is a goofy girl i tell you!

California Lovin'

We were really lucky this summer to get to go to San Diego and Disneyland with Grandpa and Grandma Telford.  We seriously had such a great time and going back on these pictures make me really excited to go back for our family reunion in February! We of course went to Mormon Battalion and USS Midway.  Neither one of them were exactly exciting for the kids but we still had a good time anyway.  I loved the tour that the church gave on the Mormon Battalion and in the end we got to dig for gold and rylie got to play in water, her favorite thing to do!

You can't do San Diego with out going to Sea World of course!  I love Sea World, I especially love that we get to go free once a year because of Devin being in the military :)  I think the sea otter show is my favorite, its the most entertaining but Shamu is just amazing!    Ezra thought it was so cool to meet Elmo.  He asked him where Dorthy was right away and they all thought that was pretty cute.  He also was tall enough to do the big Atlantis ride.  He did amazing!  After the first big dip and when we started going up the next one he said to me "oh no, not again!"  He loved the big roller coasters and cried when we didn't let him go a third time!

Ah Disneyland!  I wish I had more pictures, but Neva has a good majority of our really fun pictures.  Seems like words can't describe how awesome Disneyland is.  It was hot and we walked a lot and by the end of the day I admit I was grumpy, but it really is magical.  I don't have pictures of our dinner at Goofey's kitchen but seriously it was one of the best parts of the trip-well worth the $$. 

We were having so much fun that we decided to stay an extra day.  I love how every picture taken at the beach always looks amazing..because the beach is amazing! Ezra loved writing his name in the sand and watching the water wash it away.  I would move to So. California in a heart beat!  We also got to visit Great Great Grandpa Wilkerson (the kids great great grandpa, Devin's great grandpa)  He wasn't feeling well when we went so we didn't get to talk to him much, but we love that we have been able to visit him every year.  This year I believe he is turning 94..I think. 

Ezra Turned 4 ( a long time ago!)

I had so much fun planning Ezra's birthday this year.  I couldn't believe my little guy was turning 4!  Ezra was obsessed with angry birds around his birthday time (September 8) and still is, just not as bad.  So it only made sense to me that I would throw an angry birds themed party.  At the time you could not find Angry bird's birthday supplies anywhere! but now it seems everywhere I go I find angry birds and it would have been really nice to have had all that stuff for his birthday.  I had to do everything by hand, but it was worth it because he loved it!  I also made him a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom magnetic toy thing. He loved it, it didn't last long on the cookie sheet so now it is on the fridge and still gets played with at least once a day. 

I decided to go all out.  Blog world and pinterest really inspired me.  I love seeing pictures of parties people do for their kiddos and I wanted one that looked just as cute.  I was very happy with the outcome and I'm pretty sure the kids were too!

We have great friends and we feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many fun little friends.  The kids watched Rio Angry Birds, played pin the beak on the angry bird, colored, danced, and ate lots of goodies. 


We sure do love our little man.  He is such a smarty pants and loves to have fun.  Thank you Corynn for taking awesome pictures- you are the best!

still alive

Hi all! 
Just wanted you to all know we are still alive and kicking!  I have soo much to blog about and one day when I can sit down and really focus just on it I will.  But we have done so much in the past months that I am feeling guilty, we had a trip to Sea World, Disneyland, Ezra turned 4, he started school again, and we have been having so much playing these days that I have a ton of blogging to do.  So please stay tuned and don't give up on my blog..i haven't :)

Summer Lovin'

I love all the fresh produce during the summer. This year I felt quite domestic as I canned my first jars of strawberry jam and froze tons of fruits and veggies. I didn't get pictures but I also had tons of Zucchini and from that I made 15 loaves of zucchini bread and i don't know how many muffins. Lovely!

I have gotten into crafting quite a bit and was able to attend Girls Night out hosted by Somewhat Simple, Lil' Luna, and My insanity. It was a blast! I didn't take many pictures-dang it! I did get a picture with Lil'Luna..love t hat blog! its hard to take a good picture when you are at least 6 inches taller than the other people taking pictures with you, but i still wanted to share the love. I also hosted a craft night at my house an we made the Flags on breadboard, so much fun and I can't wait to do another!

This summer the kids have been playing hard, learning lots, and growing butterflies. I love to see my kids do learning activities and love it.

Ezra has been doing a summer camp all summer which left Rylie and I time to ourselves 3 days a week for 3 hours. We had a lot of fun. Mostly we went to the YMCA but we did do some outing too. Here we met up with my good friend Amelia from Casa Grande and played at Toy Town in Ahwatukee. Totally fun. Its a small space but has a bunch of different rooms and spaces. Rylie loved the costume room, kitchen, and grocery store areas. I can't wait to go back, and hopefully see Amelia again! :) (hint hint)

One day while Ezra was at camp we took Rylie to the Temple. She loved all the pretty flowers and walking on Temple grounds. She also like going into the visitors center and looking at the statue of Jesus. I love to see my kids eyes light up when they see things of Jesus. Taking her there reminded me that we need to do it much more, at least once a month walk the kids on the Temple grounds. I want it to be a familiar place and a place that they are anxious to be able to go inside one day.