summer (or april, rather) is here!

The kids headed back to school on Tuesday. I seem to be much more productive with the kids in school and back in our routine. Even though things heated up by the end of the week (high 90's and up to 100 in phx) we spent lots of time outside in the mornings, enjoying the weather before it REALLY heats up here. I can't believe I'm actually enjoying that it is light by 6:30am. It really helps me get up and get going.

I invited a friend over for lunch on Wednesday which was a long time coming. Interesting story: When my next-door-neighbor in Riverton learned where we were moving to, she put me in touch with her friend Lindsey. Lindsey and I became friends on facebook and she has been a great resource for me here. I go to her pediatrician and our kids are actually at the same school this year. I then discovered from reading her blog, that her younger sister Hillary is married to Rob's cousin Trevor. Small world? Yes. Anyway, Lindsey is awesome and even brought over ingredients to make me delicious panini for lunch. Our kids played well together and it was really fun to visit with her. We got the kids to hold still for about 2 seconds so I could take a photo: Are you guessing that Lindsey's little girl is the same age as Tosh? Yes, well would you believe that these two girls are only THREE MONTHS apart in age?

We got such a kick out of the height difference! Of course Lindsey is almost a foot taller than me (6 foot 2, and her hubby is 6 foot 5).

I had grand plans to get all sorts of cleaning and organizing done during Liv's nap on Friday, but ended up having a little "April Fools" fun with Tosh. I have seen this idea several times and finally got around to making them...

We were almost successful at faking out Hewitt and Burke. When Burke asked what was for dinner I told him that we were having leftover spaghetti (we had it on Thursday) and he was groaning about it when he finally looked over and then said, "OK, I want spaghetti AND mashed potatoes AND peas and carrots." Tosh helped me with the entire project including mixing the cupcakes, counting down with the timer, unwrapping candy, etc.

Rob and I were both involved with a Relief Society program on Thursday evening. It ended up being nice, but I'm always glad to have those sort of things behind me. They gave each woman an apron and Liv loved wearing it around and didn't want to take it off:

(She is starting to squint her eyes on purpose for photos.) Our orange blossoms smell wonderful. Makes me wish we had more than one orange tree. Speaking of trees, we bought about 20 trees/bushes for our backyard and spent much of Friday and Saturday digging holes (Rob) and adding heads to our drip line (me). It was fun to figure out how to add and change lines. We still have a lot of prep work to do, but are hoping to get everything planted in the next couple of days. Our painter actually got us a discount through a nursery, delivered our trees to us, and is having his crew help us plant (he is the nicest guy). The paint crew will be also start prepping to paint our pool area this week.

Liv and me taking a break from working to cool our arms off in the pool (still a bit too cool to get all the way in):

I was really thrilled by the announcement yesterday of a new temple to be built in my hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado. I was so shocked and surprised when President Monson announced this that I yelled out, "What!!!" so loudly that I missed hearing wherever the third temple is going. :) I can't wait to be able to visit it in a few years.

I made "Pumpkin Pie" waffles today. I then of course had to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (with whole wheat and applesauce) since I had more pumpkin to use up. They would be awesome with whipped cream, but I didn't have that so we just used a little bit of powdered sugar. Yummy!

Happy April!