Sophie is 9!

Monday was Sophie's 9th birthday! We do friend parties every other year, so this year was a mellow year (for me at least!). It was nice that Chris could be here on her birthday.

We picked up Sophie from school and took her to Chili's for a birthday lunch.

Later we had dinner and cake and ice cream and presents. Sophie loves lizards right now. Couldn't find any lizard birthday supplies so I got garden girl and we had green accents. There are play lizards all over the table.

Even her cake had a lizard-gross!


Art supplies from the Posners-awesome!

Sam just loves his littlest sister.:)

Rock out! A Hannah Montana guitar.
On Saturday we took Sophie and few friends to see the Hannah Montana movie. It was actually pretty cute. She has just hit the I love Hannah Montana phase. Maggie loves her too. It's a little scary.A party is just not a party without more kids! So we invited neighbor friends over for cake and ice cream. Happy Birthday Sophie!

Easter

While in St. George we got to stay at the Coyote Inn in Green Valley thanks to Andy. It is such a nice place to stay. Luckily the Easter Bunny still found us Sunday morning and brought all the kids some treats and a book.

Charlotte had a basket too, but didn't get a shot of it. She got "Pat the Bunny" book.

Sunday morning we went to my brother's Ward in Bloomington. It was such a trip because he attends in the building where I went as a child. I had not been back since high school. The best part of it was running into the Garretts! Angie was my bestest friend as a child and I spent half my childhood at their house. I got to see her parents, Ann & Kent and her sister Amy too. I sure wish we had been able to chat longer and see her kids too. But maybe now that I will be in St. George more often, that will happen. It was so nice. Forgot to take pictures of everybody in our Sunday best, oh well.

On the way home we stopped in Baker at Bob's Big Boy.

St. George

The kids, my mom and I drove to St. George for Spring Break! We got there on Thursday and on Friday Chris flew in! It was like 36 hours from Abu Dhabi to St. George, what a trooper! We were so happy to see him and be a full family again.

I was so excited too because I got the invite (through Facebook who hoo!) that some my Pine View High School friends were getting together for dinner. Most of them I haven't seen in almost 20 years! It was awesome to see everybody and it felt like no time had passed at all. I just wish we had had more time, I would love to hear everyone's individual stories. Love my girls!

We had a full Fitzell family reunion that included my older half-brother, Kurt. We got family pictures taken to celebrate. Can't wait to see how they turn out. Chris took this shot of my parents with the grandkids.

These are my Harley-ridin' bros. Kurt, Matt, and Andy.

The big reason we were all there was to celebrate my dad's 80th birthday! We all gathered at Matt & Jenny's for dinner and a party!

I'd say he looks pretty darn good for 80! So glad I have the priviledge of calling him Dad. And Maggie likes having him for a Grandpa too.
\

A lot of Jenny's family was there for the party too. It was so nice to have them there and nice that we have more great people to call family.

It's so cool too because Jenny and Chris's sister Brooke were best friends when they were little. And now Sophie and Jenny's daughter, Scout love to be together (cousins, yay!). Jenny's sister, Margo thought it was like a mini Brooke and Jenny running around together.

This is Jenny's sister, Margo. She and Chris went to High School together. Such a small world.

We presented dad with his big gift. My mom and I put together a scrapbook for him. It had special notes and photos from family and friends. He loved it! It was so neat putting it together and so worth it. My mom said it made her fall in love with him all over again.

My cute *single* tennis pro brother, Andy. Ladies?

It was a quick but wonderful trip and we drove home Sunday night ready for a fun week with Daddy!

Hi Again!

Hi Daddy!

Disneyland!

While Chris was here we wanted to make sure we had some family fun time. We hadn't been to D-land in a year and a half so we figured it was about time (yeah for me!) We could escape all the to-do's and just have fun.

We left on Wednesday night and took the kids out of school on Thursday. It was rainy and cozy that night so we only went on a couple of rides but had a nice dinner and sat in front of the awesome fireplace in the Grand Californian.They had a balloon man at the restaurant. He asked Sophie if she wanted a princess crown and she said, "no, a lizard" (that's my girl:). Maggie got angel wings (ironic?) and Sam got a dragon.

We stayed the night at Paradise Pier and had the character breakfast the next morning. The kids loved that. Goofy actually wouldn't leave us alone!

My little Minnie Princesses.

Sam and Dad on the Jelly Fish.

Maggie and Dad on the bumper cars.
It was so fun to be there again, I just love it! It was a bit trickier with the baby, but we used some baby switch passes and I found the Baby Care Center where I could feed her.

Maggie and Charlotte were twins!

This is how Charlotte looked most of the day. All bundled up and just peeking out at us. Cute!

We had a great week with Daddy, we even got to go on a date thanks to my friend Patience. It was SO hard to see him go. It does not get any easier. We have faith and hope that we will be together again soon.

Charlotte's Blessing

Daddy's Home!! We got to have Chris home for a whole week and we made the most of it. We had a bunch to get done while he was here. Some mundane things (taxes, passports,errands) and some fun things-like Disneyland! But the most meaningful was to have Charlotte blessed.

Chris came home on Saturday and we blessed Charlotte the next day. Chris's mom came down from being up with Brooke (who was waiting for baby) and she brought Cambria & Maya with her. And Chris's dad, Ron flew in from Albuquerque. And my mom was still here from helping me out-again. It was so wonderful to have them all there.

We also had Chris's cousin, Zach and his family, Jen, Hannah, Abigail, and . They only live in Mission Viejo, but we hardly ever see them (so sad). It was so nice of them to come out.

Our little family of six.

Maki & Charlotte

Charlotte saying goodbye to Grandma & Grandpa Roberts. I wish we just had a giant family compound where we could all live near each other.

Our little angel