sunday stew...perfect for a rainy day.

the sunday stew is my favorite way to catch up on a lot of 'this and that' that has gotten left out of the blog. hence the name 'stew'. in no particular order, here is a quick rundown of some recent significant (and some not so significant) events.
we were lucky enough to attend the fiesta bowl with our good friends the taylor's from boise, id. it was such a blast. this is a picture we got with one of their good friends who dressed up with his son as 'bronco libre'. they got a lot of attention. i'm so mad we didn't get a picture with brandon and sally, but they were nice enough to outfit us properly for the game. thanks again guys. we sure miss you. i was even lucky enough to finally meet one of my good online friends kristi! she is even better in person and now i can't wait to see her again.
at the end of january jack and i were able to take a quick trip up to salt lake to attend the baptisms of his cousins henry and sam. these three red heads were all born within three months of each other and are good buddies. i still think it's so great that all three are boys and all three have red hair even though there is no red hair in my family! my brother, sister, and i just happened to marry into that glorious red hair gene. aren't they handsome? they are such good boys too. horray! max finally lost his first tooth. he was so excited. it is really important to be able to put your name on the tooth chart in kindergarten. he was worried this may never happen. what a cutie.
this is why i love to live in arizona. this kind of scene just warms my heart, and i wish i saw it more often. we need more kids in our neighborhood. but, because of the glorious weather we have for most of the year, the kids can get together and play outside often. this was taken on president's day and it just made me happy.i was playing with the camera controls and accidentally took this picture of myself. i was going to delete it, but then i realized it also illustrated why i love arizona winters. this is my daily attire: jeans, flip-flops, short sleeve shirt, and cardigan on stand-by for if i get a little chilly. lovely.
i also snapped this picture of me standing next to our yard flag on president's day. i love that the scouts come around and put these flags in our yards on these holidays. seeing the american flag swaying in the wind is a beautiful sight.jack took this picture of himself one day. as you can see, his hair was getting pretty long. it was cute most of the time, but i was starting to wish he would cut it. i told him he could grow it out until his baptism in may. well one day he came home and said he wanted to cut it.
this is jack now. isn't he so darn handsome? i love how i can see that great face. the only bummer is that it looks so dark now and it's hard to see the red as much. he has my dream color of hair.
this is a note ella wrote to her piano teacher. i laughed and cried. she is so cute. this girl is as genuine as they come. what you see is what you get with her. she obviously hates piano lessons, but at least she's willing to work on it.
ella and i were able to go on a little mother daughter date to see mary poppins. it was great. i'm so glad she enjoys going to these productions with me. she is really fun to have around. we had to laugh because we were running late and both changing to get ready to go. we both came down the stairs and were wearing polk a dots! i almost changed because i thought it might look cheesy, but ella thought it was cute so we stuck with it.
i snapped a quick picture of our heart attacked kitchen. we went a little crazy this year and added doilies to the decor. when i saw them at the store i couldn't resist. it just reminded me of my childhood so much. this is our third year in a row doing it, and it has become one of our favorite traditions. thanks shawni!
i had to get a picture of daddy, his girls and the beautiful flowers he got them for valentines. lucky girls...and guy! no, i'm not giving you the thumbs up in this picture. okay, i guess i could be. but really i'm showing off the nice big blister i gave myself while polishing some pieces of jewelry. can't see it?
how about now? it doesn't look so bad in this picture, but it really hurt! i've been having a lot of fun making things for people. i love all the ideas they give me and it truly is a creative outlet for me. and even though i get an injury here and there, i really love working with my hands. speaking of working with your hands...
here is another one of jack's spelling tests. you may remember this post well over a year ago where i was bragging about jack's incredible handwriting. well, this one blew me away too. keep in mind this was a spelling test, so they had to go fast.

he definitely didn't get this from me. my only 'c' growing up was in third grade for handwriting. click on the picture if you want to enlarge it. okay, i know i'm probably the only one who cares, but i do. he rocks. oh, and they just started to learn cursive. yeah...he's good at that one too. he's in the 2nd grade.

alright...post and bragging finished. happy sunday.