A DeGraw Visit

Doug's brother Matt gets to come to Phoenix every so often for work, and the last time he came he brought his kids, Payton and Macy, wife, Deanne, and mom Nancy. It was SO fun to have them visit for their spring break. Averi always loves a good visit from "Nammy", and having Matt, Deane, Payton, and Macy there too made her week even awesomer!! Since Matt's work paid for his hotel, they stayed there and the kids and Nammy stayed with us. Averi was in Heaven getting to share a room with Macy (who insisted she sleep on the floor next to Averi's bed). Their hotel had a heated pool so we spent a LOT of time there soaking up the sun while the girls swam their little hearts out! They seriously could have swam from dawn til dusk if we let them!

Here's the kiddos on their first day here. Payton and Macy gave Kadence and Averi super cute Easter presents with little stuffed animals and candy in them.

 

It was Dougs birthday the day they arrived so we celebrated with cake, then two of doug's friend's came over seperately to give him cake as well... so we had a LOT of cake!

Macy freezing from the cold water at our pool.

 

Payton and Macy

 

 

Playing in the hotel pool 

Now, it really doesn't get much cuter than this, am I right?!

 

 

I had to go help out at a funeral one day while they all went shopping. Apparently Kadence was quite infatuated with Payton :)

Some yummy Easter treats we made together:

 We went to Estrella Mountain Ranch one afternoon and ate,walked around the lak,e and fed the ducks.

The ducks attacking Averi for a taste of bread.

 Leave it to Payton to actually PICK UP one of them! Still not sure how or why she did but it was hilarious!

Averi's friend Kaige secretly hid a bunch of Easter eggs in our front yard one night, so they got to go hunt for them in the morning. Such a cute and fun idea!!

Their findings:

 

 Kadence seemed to  really like Payton the whole time so here they are just chillin' on the couch together :)

Eating pizza and ice cream on the patio

 

 

Payton and Macy tried really hard to get Kadence to walk while they were here but unfortunately they werent successful. I think they actually did get her to take ONE step that I saw from the corner of my eye but I probably shouldn't count it since that was 3 weeks ago and she hasnt taken another one since then. Boo.

Kadence turns one!

I can't believe we have had this cute little bug for a year. What did we ever do without her?! We love her SO much! To celebrate, we had some of her little friends (and families) over for a bbq dinner and cake. Since her birthday was so close to Easter, we had an Easter theme and the kids got to hunt for eggs outside after dinner. Low-key but super fun, and cute to see the tiny tots play :)

 

The adorable birthday girl

 Kadence and her friend Cassidy watching their older siblings play outside

"One day, Cassidy, that's gonna be you and me running around out there"

 

"What? Am I not supposed to eat this dead flower or something?"

 

K crawling around under the tables

 

 

 Kadence playing with toys with some of her bday guests

 Enjoying some of the presents she received

Thank you to all of her friends that came for celebrating with us and for the cute gifts you gave her! She really did have fun besides the cake part. Not a big fan of cake I guess...dont know how she can be MY kid if she doesn't like cake!

A Proudfoot Visit 2013

 We were blessed once again with a visit from my sister Maria and her two adorable kids last month, one of whom was Baby Rix who I had never met! It was fun getting to know him ... he is such a sweetheart. We had SOOO much fun with them as usual and were sad to see them go. Our week with them was filled with all sorts of fun things, such as:

 

Taking Averi and Kenley to open gym. I have a punch card that gets me in 10 times. However, since I couldn't find it, we were forced to sneak in. Haha! They had a blast and didn't want to leave when our hour was up.

 

 

 

 

Took the kids to McDonalds a couple of times to eat and play. Kadence enjoyed the eating part :)

 Of course we went to the Outlets at Anthem! Doug was so kind as to offer to watch the older girls while we took the babies. I was actually pretty nervous about how Kadence would do, but she ended up being really good and took a couple cat naps so that was good! Rix was a good little thing as well. Here is Kadence conked out with her foot propped up in the stroller.

 Here is Kadence having a chat with Baby Rix. They rode in the same stroller so she felt pretty cool towards the end when I took her buckle off and she could stand up and look at him.

 The girls just had to get their nails done! Okay it was me and Maria's idea, but they got their fingers and toes painted and loved all the attention!

 We went to a spring training game at the Goodyear Ballpark. The weather was great, and we had tons of fun relaxing in the sun but I cant say that either of us know who won. :) (did I even know who was playing??)

 They had some games for kids to do so Maria took them to play while I watched the babies for a bit.

 

Maria and I wanted to try out a sushi place that was featured on Shark Tank so we met up with her friend Heather that lives in the East Valley. We had lunch while the kids ate and played. Then we went to this really cool restoration store down the street called Sweet Salvage. It was amazing, and Heather got some cool stuff too.

Averi and Kenley after church. This picture captures their relationship pretty well. They usually love each other but not always at the same time!

 Beautiful Kadence and sweet Baby Rix after church. They are both just so cute!

 A and K did a lot of "just playing around".

 Playing toss with a bean bag. They actually stayed interested in this game for quite a while.

 We cant wait till the next time! Hopefully this summer I can spend a week or two in Utah / Idaho so I guess I can at least have that to look forward to :)

Valentine's Day 2013

Happy Valentine's Day!

Or as Averi would say "Happy Valentimes!" My mom got the girls these adorable dresses when she came. Perfect for the occasion! What a cute family I have.

 

This is Averi with her stash after coming home from her school Valentine's Day party:

Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks

We were so lucky to have my parents come visit us for a few days at the beginning of the month. Of course the girls caught the flu right before they came so that part wasn't great. Averi got over it rather quickly but poor Kadence was still pretty grumpy/miserable most of the time they were here. But that didnt stop us from having SO much fun with them as always!

 

Here is my "mountain man" dad feeding Averi in the high chair like a baby. She was in heaven :)

My parents cleaned out their garage and brought back some of my old stuff. Most of it was just all my old model horses that I had a million of. I told Averi she could have them and when I would pull them out of the box one by one, Averi would act just as surprised and thrilled about each one. In hindsight, I should have used them as incentives or made her earn them or something. But oh well. She loves them!

 My mom and I HAD to take a trip to the mall so I took her to the new Tanger Outlets. I love shopping with her! We brought the kiddos (a risky move) and Averi enjoyed riding this rip-off of a ride that they have at the mall. Anything to see my little princess smile! haha, yeah right.

 Doug and I totally scored on getting this awesome swing set from a neighbor who was moving and couldnt take it with them. Only problem was that it was about a million pounds and we had to move it. Enter: ElRay. Doug and his friend Justin took it apart and got all the peices to our house, and then my dad helped us put it all back together. I was more work that we thought it would be but with his help and expertise, we got it done and it is an awesome addition to our yard!

 

Here is Averi on the swing for the first time. She was SO excited when she saw it and has had a blast with it.

Grandma pushing her on the swing

Me and Aves

My dad fixed the horse swing that he had made for Averi last year. She was thrilled to get re-aquainted with it.

Nakie Kadence with Grandma. She is such a cute chubby little bubby wubby that I wanna pinch. I don't know why she isn't scared of me ;)

Of course no visit from Grandma is complete without a tea party! Here we are enjoying some delicious finger food in the sun.

 

Disney on Ice

Last month we had the fabulous opportunity to take the girls to Disney on Ice -Dare to Dream at the US Airways Center with the Daynes. Averi dressed up as Mini Mouse and her friend Quin dressed like Snow White. They looked SO cute! I was curious to see if the show was going to keep Averi's attention the whole time but there was not a dull moment.

 

This picture captures the moment perfectly

 Doug being a nerd

 We got to see Princess Tiana, Cinderella, and Rapunzel (Averi's favorite).

 We debated getting a sitter for Kadence and leaving her home but she actually did pretty well and enjoyed the show up until the end when she started getting restless.

I felt like a celebrity walking along the sidewalk having almost everyone ooh and aah over how cute Kadence looked in her cute bunny jacket.