Verde Valley Fair 2009

Read to Ride; in other words read 6 books and you get into the fair and you get to ride 3 rides for free. How awesome is that! So Emma went with her elementary school and I took the little joyschool that I was in charge of today. Lucky for me half the class was missing (I didn't realize I was lucky until after the event, because they wore me out!)

Here is Ryland, Sean, Ryan and Makena

with me in the back (Seans attempt at a funny face!)

Thanks goes out to Sister Pat Howard for taking the picture!

Sean finally getting up the nerve to pet a goat.

Yes it was over 90 degrees and he's wearing shorts and a sweatshirt.

I tried to be a good mother and get him to change but after a fight decided it wasn't worth it!

Ryland and some of Makena petting a goat.

Ryan pestering the baby goat that was trying to sleep

I just laughed We saw pigs, cows, goats, bunnies, turkeys, and lots of poop!

Towards the end they were getting hot and tired and so we took a minute to relax. This is the best way to relax at the fair!

Next we moved onto our 3 rides.

Sean and Makena were dare devils and rode the roller coaster together. They both loved it a lot!

Next we ran into Emma and her school- which was a real treat.

So Ryland, Makena and Sean rode the spinning dragons

Next they all wanted to be truckers! Including sweet Makena!

Sean was in heaven with the thumbs up Ryland was all grins because he was the lead truck!

Rylands final ride!

Then I got to hear how they all wanted to ride a ton more, and I politely told them no.

By the time I dropped them off at their homes they were either asleep or pretty close to it!

It was fun to watch their excitement especially when a cow actually moooooooooed!

Newspaper Ryan

Ryan made it into the city paper for the Easter egg hunt!

We have a future paper star :) If only they could get his name right! PS: Those are my great legs behind Logan-

Easter 09

On Saturday we went to Riverfront Park for the annual Cottonwood Easter hunt. It was roped into sections and each section got a turn to go for the candy and prizes. It was extremely cold and rainy, but not many people showed up so we received a ton of candy!

Here we are waiting for Ryan to start.

It took him awhile to figure out what he was suppose to do.

He just wanted to sit down and eat the candy off the grass!

The 3 and 4 year olds had the entire baseball field.

Sean is clear in the back- you can sort of see Shiloh

Sean refused to participate until I walked out there with him and he saw candy.

Emma ran as fast as she could out there, and looked for specific candy she liked! Then after about 20 pieces said, "Mom I think this enough I don't want to get sick!"

Was I the only mother out there encouraging their kids to get "more candy!"

When we got home everyone warmed up in front of a movie! Then after a short nap

we went to our ward Easter party which because of the weather was moved into the church!

This is what the Easter Bunny left this year.

Here is our home Easter egg hunt!

We lost our Baskets yesterday and so Shiloh ran and bought new one's at 11:00 Saturday night.

It was a fun Easter

THE EGG RYAN, NOT THE DIRT!!!!!!!!!

These things are so much fun!

Do you see Sean's tongue!

Hope your Easter was good.

Random Babblings

Here are some random pictures that I have taken in the past few months that I thought would be fun to throw together! I know that they always make me smile- so hopefully it's not a "had to be there" type of post!

Our Spring Break Surprise

Emma has been asking to learn the piano, and with my mothers words still haunting my ears "one day you will regret it (quitting!)" The regret has now successfully surfaced, the yearning to hear the music in my home, and with Emmas desire Shiloh and I decided to buy a cheap but good piano. I've actually been looking for awhile, with no success. Then one day my friend Desiree McDowell called and the next thing I knew we were signed up for lessons and practicing at the church. (Cool little privilege of bearing the church keys!)

We earnestly started looking for a piano, and bought one on Wednesday from a little piano store in Phoenix who delivered it and tuned it for ONLY $50. It is a Acrosonic Baldwin Piano, and a perfect fit for my family. I didn't want anything that was new because I didn't want the stress with the little kids, yet I did want it to sound good. For Example: we had the piano for less than an hour and the bench got tipped over and one of the peddles scratched the top seat part and honestly it looks like a new scratch but it blends in nicely with the rest. Yet it is strong and sounds beautifully- and we have been practicing a lot the past 24 hours.

• Emma gets so excited each week to go to Piano lessons and was the first one to sit at the piano with her piano book and start practicing and counting.
• A really neat thing is Sean sat down at the piano and started playing with all his fingers no problem at all, he has always been musically smart so it will be interesting to see how his little piano career goes!
• Ryan just loves banging away at the keys until Mom has enough and shuts the top.

PS: I was going to name this post "Newest Hoggard Addition," but decided that might be too much for some people. Although I thought it was funny. :)

Montezuma's Castle, Well and Petroglyphs

On Monday, the first official day of Spring Break, I packed up the kids and headed out to some popular sites in the area. Sad that it took me four years of living here to finally go and see these beautiful sites. First we went to Montezuma's Castle, where the Sinagua Indians lived 700 years ago, the kids were amazed at how they lived and all the little areas of ancient life, but I couldn't make them understand how long ago it really was.

Here we are resting after a short hike, it is an easy hike for anyone who wants to go

Here is a close up of what is left of the castle, the front half or more is all missing

The kids are standing where the common Sinagua lived, and Emma proudly told us how they would grind corn (she learned about it in school- it was a proud moment for a mother!)

Next we went to Montezuma's Well, which is a natural spring with pretty warm water. It was a beautiful area- and quite a little hike, but we took water and snacks with us.

Here is a rest stop after a lot of stairs!

Here is Emma at one of the spring exits and canals that would irrigate farms- made by the Sinagua. We were surrounded by giant beautiful trees and we could see fish and turtles swimming in the water. It was so calm and beautiful.

Last we went to V-V Ranch home of many petroglyphs. This is a long flat hike which Ryan did in style. Here one of the park rangers gave my kids a paper with examples on it that they had to locate. It was a very fun game. Emma took this picture to prove that I really did take my kids and that Ryan was in tow!

There were so many- this wall is just amazing. From this wall they found a beautiful butterfly woman and that is why they believe the Sinagua might be the ancestors of the Hopi today. COOL! Can you tell I love history- oh yeah!

Getting ready to head back~ and take naps in the car.

PS- The entire round trip was only 56 miles- all this so close to me meaning-- all of you have another reason to come and visit!

Emma's lost front tooth

After having an extremely wiggly tooth, and a mother who was too squirmy to just pull it- Emma finally lost her front tooth. #3- what a trooper and on the first day of spring break! Now if the wiggly one next to it would just fall out. I will be honest I was nervous as to whether or not they would fall out normal because they both had been capped and had "root canals." I'm relieved that all is well!!