My top 9 of 2015

This is a photo that was generated on a website based on my 9 "most liked" Instagram posts from 2015. The dark picture in the middle is actually a video of my first ever trapeze catch out of safety lines. 2015 was definitely a big trapeze year for me, as I took 3 tricks out of lines and started making round trips back to the board. It's been a great year! What were some of your favorites?

Long family bike ride

We put those new bikes to the test today! We packed up a lunch and headed down the canal towards the Riparian Preserve at Guadalupe/Greenfield. It's about 4 miles from our house, so honestly, I was a little concerned that it was too far for the kids to ride. I sent my mom a text telling her where we were going, and let her know that she may have to give Ava a ride home if she couldn't make it back. The ride there went great! The kids cruised right along, with not a single complaint. I think we did hear "are we almost there?" a couple of times, but when we got there, Ava said "I'm not even tired!" My parents were already there, and sat with us while we had lunch. Tyler had baseball practice later this afternoon, so we needed to get going back after we ate. The kids were much less enthusiastic about the ride home. There was some complaining about sore legs and cold (it was getting cool). We encouraged them to tough it out, and the made it! Dave turned some Disney music on his phone when Ava needed some extra motivation, and that helped. By the time we got home, we had ridden 8.5 miles! Great job kids! We're very proud of you. It'll be fun to take bike rides together in 2016 now that you're getting big enough to hang in there! Happy New Year's Eve!

Mermaids

We went up to Karen's house today and met up with Andy, Vanessa and the kids. I haven't written anything yet about them. They have been here for a couple days now, and we've spent a little bit of time with them down at our house. It's been so fun for the kids to play together! The first time I had ever seen these mermaid tails was when Vanessa posted a picture on Facebook of Danica wearing one on their trip to Disneyworld. I knew right away that it would be something Ava would love too. 

The one that I got her is a little too big. I didn't want to get her a tail that she'd outgrow after the first season so I sized up. Well, a mermaid's tail needs to be tight enough to stay on while she's cruising through the water, so I used Tyler's baseball belt around her waist to hold it up. It worked great. Off she went as though she was born with a tail. 

Click this link for a little video clip from underwater of Ava and Danica, the Little Mermaids.

A sleepover with the Kruses

Ava had her first non-family sleepover last night! She was invited to have a sleepover at my friend Heather's house with her girls, Olivia and Lila. We'd been talking about it for awhile, and knew it would be best to start by having Ava stay there. After all, she's a very experienced sleepover guest. Heather had to make a trip out to our side of town to visit her grandparents, so she stopped by our house to pick Ava up before heading home. The girls were all excited! I got a few pictures throughout the evening of the fun.

They had dinner and then got matching manicures. Speaking of matching--Ava and Olivia have the same batman pajamas! We got them for Olivia for her birthday, and I got the same ones for Ava for Christmas. The also had matching Frozen slippers.

After they were pampered by Heather and Craig (yes, Craig helped with the manicures), they got cozy to watch....what movie? You guessed it...Frozen.

I guess the sleeping situation didn't go as smoothly as the rest of the evening. Sounds like there was a lot of bed switching (from the top bunk, to the bottom bunk, to the mattress on the floor) by all 3 of the girls, and they went to sleep really late. Heather said Ava was great during the whole thing (trying to help Olivia and Lila to settle down and go to sleep), but that her girls were over tired and over excited. They finally crashed around 10:45! In the mean time, we had Braden and Matt sleeping over at our house, and it was a late night for them too. They were up watching Jurassic World until about 11:00. It was nice that Tyler could have a fun night with his cousins while Ava was off with her friends.

The morning was a little bit chaotic for me. Heather and I had planned to take the kids on a hike in the morning when I came to pick her up. They live right off of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve, and have miles and miles of trails that start down the street. We had to plan around Lila's nap time, so I was supposed to be there by about 10:30. I also forgot that Tyler had an 8 am orthodontist appointment this morning. He and I snuck out of the house before the other boys woke up, and were home by about 9:15. I felt bad rushing the boys out of our house so early to get to Heather's, and didn't want to cut Tyler's sleepover short. Heather told me it was ok if I didn't get there until a little later, but she couldn't take the kids hiking without me because I forgot to send Ava with her tennis shoes. I finally decided to drop all the boys off at Tina's house (it was more on my way than Jen's house, which was also an option), and head over to Heather's. It was a crazy morning!

While I was figuring all of that out, Ava and the girls were going for a cruise in their new car. Looks cold, doesn't it! We've had some cool weather lately!

We finally made it out on our hike. Heather's neighbor and her two kids joined us too. It was a easy little hike, but we ended up on a bit of a peak, so that was fun for the kids. I'm jealous of the beautiful hiking Heather has just down the road from her house. It's amazing that it's available right in the middle of the city. Thanks for the fun sleepover, Heather! Ava had a great time with your girls. 

Playing games with J & J

We were looking for something to do with Jason and Janae today. Dave was back to work, Ava has a sleepover planned tonight, so we have some time to kill this afternoon. They came over and we went to lunch at Blue Lemon, and then we were going to use our Pogo passes for mini golf or bowling at Fat Cats. It's a new place in Gilbert, not far from our house, with arcade, bowling, golf, movie theater and some other fun stuff. We haven't gone yet because the passes are only good Monday-Thursday during the day--so it makes it a little tough to use when we're at work and school. When we walked in, it was clear that everyone else had the same idea! Instead of leaving, Jason put some money on a card so the kids could play some games. They had fun! Thanks Jason and Janae!

In the sunshine

Hanging out in the backyard, eating tangerines off of our tree and enjoying sunshine and vacation. I love winter break. 

Trying on presents

I'm sure the title of this post makes you think I'm going to share pictures of Ava trying on all of her cute new clothes she got for Christmas. Nope. Swim caps, mermaid tails, and animal print overload. Enjoy!

Ava is looking forward to starting swim team in 2016. She got a couple of swim caps and a pair of goggles for Christmas. Here was her first experience with a swim cap. Her thought? "It's too tight, it hurts!" 

I'm truly jealous of her mermaid tail. I think it's so pretty, and I would love to try one some day! If I ever go back to Turks & Caicos, I might need to get one. Can you imagine how pretty it would be to swim through that beautiful water in a mermaid tail?

How much cheetah print is too much? Grandma Jean has bought Ava several different pieces this winter, and combined with the pants she got from Grandma Claire for Christmas, she was literally head to toe in cheetah print.  Moderation Ava, animal print is ok in moderation. It's never too early to early to learn that tidbit of fashion advice. This is a look you can only pull off when you're 6 or 86.

This is probably the funniest look of the whole post. Dave, Jason, Janae, and I were out to a comedy show at the Improv last night and I got a text from my dad that said "we have our own comedy show here." Attached was this picture of Ava with a Nemo swim cap pulled down over her eyes and nose! Hilarious! She did put it on correctly later, and she makes the cutest little swimmer ever! Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!

Horihan family Christmas

Merry Christmas to this great group of kids! I got a really good picture of all of them just before the chaos of the cousin gift exchange. I guess it's easy to get them to cooperate for a picture when the threat is "no one gets their present until I get a good picture!" This was the first one I took. Smiles all around! We are just missing Josh and Matt, who were in California with Tim's family. There are two kids you might not recognize--Mackenzie and Taytum, who are the grand daughters of Claire's cousin Mickey. They are cousins of some sort to our kids. We'll just call them cousins to make it easy. 

Then THIS happened. Click the link to watch the video of 12 kids frantically opening gifts in a very small space. It was all over in a matter of minutes. My uncle Marv would be shaking his head at the chaos. When we used to open presents at his house with my family on Christmas, we had to open gifts one at a time so everyone could see the gifts received. As a kid, it seemed to take forever to make it around the circle for your next turn, but as I got older, I appreciated it. This...was the opposite of what we did at Marv & Joyce's house on Christmas. Ready...set....GO!

For two years, Lacy asked for a unicorn that poops rainbows. It exists, and now she has it. Thanks, Aunt Tina.

Ava got clothes and and a Frozen book bag and Tyler got a baseball mitt from their grandparents. From cousins, Ava got hair bows from Hailey, and Tyler got drawing journals and a notebook with markers and mechanical pencils.

Traditional Christmas day family picture....Ava had already changed into her play clothes so she wasn't too happy that I made her change back for the picture. Doesn't she know this about me already? We do family pictures...get used to it kid! I love my beautiful family. Our kids are growing up so fast. Look how tall Tyler is!

It was a cool afternoon with a bit of a breeze, but we were still able to get out and spend some time at the park. I know...Tyler is in shorts and short sleeves so it couldn't have been that cold. I know for a fact there is not a single picture of me from my childhood playing outside in short sleeves on Christmas day.

We've broken out the grass sled on previous Christmas days. I know this is an odd concept to those of you who get a real winter, but this is Phoenix sledding. This sled actually has ice bricks on the bottom that are supposed to help it slide fast, but it didn't really work. I think it was too cold and the ice hadn't melted at all.

The kids still managed to have fun with the help of the adults and bigger kids who pulled them down the hill. I think Braden went faster on his scooter than the sled.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours. I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday with those you love. To all of our family around the country, we love you and wish you all the best in 2016!

Christmas video--thanks to Google!

What did we ever do before Google? As you all know, I upload many of my photos to albums within Google Photos. They recently made some changes to that program, and one of the things they added was the "Assistant" that will put together various collages, slideshows, flashbacks to albums from this day in years past, and videos. They're usually pretty cool, but I've never seen one as good as this. It pulled out some of the best moments from various Christmas videos from my album and put them together in this cool, home-movie looking format. I'm in love with this video! Thanks Google Photos--you saved me a bunch of time trying to do this myself!

Christmas morning is here!

The cookies have been eaten and the milk bottle is mostly empty...

...and there are new presents under the tree. Santa must have been here! Tyler got the Raptor Rampage set, and Ava got a FurReal Friends Go Go Walking Puppy.

Tyler got up around 7, like usual, but he waited patiently (watched some tv) while he waited for the rest of us to get up. We had to wake Ava up at 8:00 so we could get started on that pile of presents. After checking out their gifts from Santa, they dove into their giant stockings and found a miscellaneous collection of goodies.

The kids bought each other gifts this year. Tyler got Ava a kick board and some Frozen body wash, and she got him a Minecraft card game.

She named her puppy Daffodil. She's my kind of pet! She doesn't make a mess, is pretty quiet, doesn't eat or poop, and you can put her in the corner and forget about her if you want! Welcome to the family, Daffodil!

3 out of 4 of us got new running shoes for Christmas. It was my "main gift" from Dave this year. I picked them out on Black Friday--so....surprise! Mine are not quite as colorful as Ava's.

After a few gifts, Grandma and Grandpa, Jason and Janae joined us. Ava introduced Daffodil to Chloe and Ruffles. They weren't too interested.

Ava made these cute little decorations for us. Two for Dave and I and two for Grandma and Grandpa.

Grandma Winden got Ava a soft, cozy robe with matching slippers...

 ...and she got Tyler the Jurassic Park DVDs (all 4 movies). Thanks Great Grandma!

The main thing Tyler asked for this year was a real bow and arrow. He's been interested in archery since he read and watched the Hunger Games series. A couple months ago, he made his own (with some help from dad) out of a stick from our tree and arrows made of straws. It actually worked pretty well, but after one too many times of shooting it at his sister, he got it taken away. He wasn't sure if he'd be getting one after that incident. Luckily for him, we knew he could be trusted with another chance. He didn't know it at the time of this picture, but he  actually got two bow and arrow sets--one "real" one (a compound bow), and this toy set he could play with and even use in the house. Since my parents knew Tyler would be getting a bow, they got Ava this toy bow too. Well, since she was getting that, Dave wanted Tyler to have a toy bow that they could use together--so he got this one too. So....it was an archery fest at our house on Christmas morning.

We got my dad a couple of shirts (one Cardinals shirt that he rolled his eyes at--Vikings fan doesn't think he can wear a Cards shirt), and my mom got a hiking pack and a water bottle from us.

Dave asked me for a big white board that he could hang in his garage.

Ava's main gift from us was a mermaid tail!

I can't wait to see our little fish swim with her new tail! I would have loved to have one of these as a kid. I would have never left the water!

What a mess!

You can click here to watch a cute video of the kids opening up their main presents. 

As I mentioned, Tyler's main present from us was a compound bow and arrows with a quiver. He has a lot of rules he has to follow to shoot it (it doesn't have sharp tips, but would still be dangerous), but he's been very good about them and has been practicing his shot.

After we were done with presents, it was time for some breakfast and mimosas. I spent about 2 hours a couple days before Christmas squeezing 3 large bags full of oranges and tangerines so we'd have fresh juice. It was worth the effort--so delicious! I think Janae and I drank most of the entire bottle of bubbly.

Our newest "family" member, KK joined us for breakfast. She eventually had to give up her spot to make room for Dave though.

We still had one more surprise in store for the kids. My parents and Jason and Janae got the kids new bikes! My parents bought them new bikes two years ago too (and I think the scenario played out the same that year too--surprised them after they thought present-fest was over), and they've since outgrown them. They will be able to use these awesome bikes for several years. They are such great bikes! I'm excited for them to have good bikes so we can go on some fun family rides.

Time to try them out! Tyler made it around the block in no time. He'd had some experience using gears, so he has that part figured out pretty well.

Ava is still learning to use her gears, but she's doing well. There isn't much shifting that needs to happen on our flat roads, but it's good to have that option, and know how to use it. She looks so grown up on her new bike!

 Thanks for the super awesome bikes! The kids will get lots of miles out of them!

After our great morning of presents and brunch, we cleaned up, packed up, and headed over to Claire and Ed's house for the Horihan family Christmas. Stay tuned!