Two things to start off my post: First of all I just have to say how much I absolutely love this kid. Secondly, I have to apologize for the crazy coloring in my photos. My camera is dying and the people at
Ritz camera checked it out and to fix it will cost more than it is worth. I had to figure after five years being used so often and being a very basic camera that it was going to happen eventually. We could buy a new one for that much which is what we are now saving up to do. So until the blessed new camera comes the color distorted pictures will have to do. Well
Deke and I recently celebrated our birthday's on the 25
th and 27
th of February. Since
Deke had work and school until 10 0'clock on his birthday we had decided to wait and celebrate later on in the week. However as the day went on I just kept feeling sad that
Deke wasn't going to have any kind of celebration on his actual birthday. After dinner Hunter and I ran over to Fry's and got all the
fixin's to make
Deke a "transformer cake".
Instead of using cake we made a big rice
krispy cube to function as the "all spark" (sorry if you haven't seen the movie than it may not make a lot of sense). Then we put a couple of transformer figurines on the top and I did a bad artistic rendition of the transformer logo with a piece of tin foil for the front.
It could have looked a million times better but of course I waited until last minute and was just trying to get it done, but the love that was put into it was definitely evident.
Not to mention the fact that Hunter had so much fun he couldn't stop smiling and giggling as we were making it. Hunter was so excited that he couldn't sleep and so when
Deke got home he was still wide awake and we put candles in it and dug in.
It didn't matter to
Deke how homemade it looked, he loved it. For my birthday
Deke took me to pick out some much needed work clothes which are so cute. I found five adorable tops, two pairs of earrings and two necklaces. Then instead of doing a cake we enjoyed a
Jamba Juice which was much more refreshing since it is trying to turn into summer down here already. I can't believe it is only low eighties and I am already feeling irritable about the oncoming heat. I again ask myself why I live here since I love the fall weather, rain, cold and snow. Anyways, on Friday we celebrated as a family by going out to Oregano's for pizza, which by the way is amazing!
We had a yummy pizza with feta cheese, bacon and
sun dried tomatoes and a delicious
antipasta salad. For dessert we enjoyed this delightful little number...
yes that is a deep dish cookie, one half peanut butter chocolate chip, the other half chocolate chip warm and still a little gooey. It was delicious, not as good to me as
Macayo's chocolate
chimi cheesecakes but still tasty. As if we hadn't had enough fun we took Hunter and Avery for their first bowling experience.
Over in Mesa there is an alley that has 99 cent games in the afternoons. We had bumpers on our lane and we let Hunter throw his own ball by himself after showing him once or twice and he beat me by two points.
Now I must be honest this really wouldn't be a huge feat since I am the world's worst bowler but he is four so....yeah I am pathetic.
Anyways it was so so much fun and the kids loved it. We had such a fun week celebrating birthdays, when you can celebrate with the kids it makes getting older feel a lot more fun.
I apologize up front for the amount of pictures you are about to be bombarded with. Well this last weekend we were so excited to have a chance to get away to beautiful San Diego for a visit with my mom. It was Deke's spring break so we headed out on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Cali later that night. 
On Friday morning we woke up and drove over to Julian this adorable little country town with rolling hills, farm animals, orchards, and quaint little shopping areas
. It is known mostly for it's orchards and famous apple pies, in the fall you can go there and have a chance to pick the apples and make your own cider. 
We went into downtown Julian and walked all the shops and had fun taking pictures in all of the great little photo spots around town.
I loved some of these pictures that we took of the kids. I don't know why but the one with Hunter standing by the red and blue barn door is just so cute, I 
love it. It was absolutely gorgeous there it was so green and I again wondered why we live in Arizona? 
We stopped by the Julian Pie Company and picked up an apple pie which was flaky and delicious. They make cider doughnuts that are supposedly amazing, we asked to try one and were shocked when the lady told us that you have to reserve a dozen if it is a Friday or a Saturday in order to get any. I then was even more interested in trying one and of course it was Friday so...no doughnuts for us. 
We spent all afternoon just walking the shops and then headed home for the evening. Deke wrestled the children while my mom and I snuck away for some fun one on one time shopping together. 
The next day we went to the Mira Mar aviation museum which was very cool and fun for both of my boys, both the little one and the big one. 
The old helicopter's were really neat and it was great because they actually let the kids touch the planes so they could really experience it.
Then we headed to a huge park across from Sea World and had a picnic which was great until a guy crashed his kite into the tree right above us. Then Deke had to help him untangle it all which was quite a task. Marley took us to Mitsuwa a very neat Asian market.
We went through a bookstore, a neat shop with all sorts of ornate tea sets and tea pots, aisle after aisle of new foods and vegetables and a giant room totally devoted to every type of rice you can imagine. 
It was really interesting to be somewhere where everything was in a different language that you couldn't read and people were talking in a language that you couldn't understand. I guess it was my first time being in a place that I was totally surrounded by another culture, it was very eye opening. 
We then headed home and let the kids play and we just relaxed. We relaxed and visited on Sunday and then headed back to AZ. 
It went fast of course like it always does but I just love love love going to California. It is such a fun place to get to go away for the weekend and let the kids get to spend time making some memories with Grandma and "the auntie's" as Hunter calls them.
This is Hunter's cute 
It was so fun to watch them get so much enjoyment out of something so simple. Thank goodness for the dollar store it helps provide so much entertainment for such minimal cost. Nothing like a shovel and a bucket full of sand to play the day away. They are also both turning into quite the little artist's see the post below.
Here are some cute shots taken of Avery the other day. I have finally abandoned headbands and have found a new passion for these cute little 
She has found a new love for coloring and drawing. If we go to a restaurant then she wants to color right along with Hunter. She enjoys our 
Well Hunter has had a very busy week this week spending lots of time digging in the backyard for worms. I think the other day he had a total of like twenty six after an hour of digging. He is such an outside guy and would live out there if I would let him. These are just a couple of cute shots of him in the backyard while he was playing.
This is a picture of a bat that he drew all by himself that just about blew his mom and dad out of the water!! I have to admit that is the best drawing of a bat that I have ever seen a four year old draw. He definitely has a creative side to him. What I love most about this drawing has to be tied between the fact that he knew to give the bat arms as well as wings and the little fangs. We were so impressed.
This year as part of Deke's valentine treats I filled a goblet with some new snacks. Some of these things included marshmellow hearts (made by the company that makes PEEPS) and my favorite new find: Hershey kisses filled with CHEESECAKE FILLING!!!! Okay sorry if these are not new to anyone else and just new to me but I really like them. Let's just say they are almost gone and Deke hasn't even had a chance to try one yet. What is not to like, chocolate good... cheesecake good... bite sized so you can eat more and feel like you are eating less good.
This year we decided to surprise Deke with a different sort of valentine, first we made it...
Then we put it on Hunter and went to Deke's office. I sent him in wearing it and carrying a balloon and Deke was so surprised and Hunter was adorable and so excited to surprise daddy he could hardly stand it. It was a good thing that we did this now since he is rapidly getting older and pretty soon would never let me subject him to this kind of thing even if I thought it was adorable. However since he is only four he loved it and was thriving on the attention he was getting from the patients. 
It was such a nice valentine's day and we had a lot of fun, on to birthdays for Deke and I later this month and a quickly approaching anniversary for us as well. I am trying to slow life down a little and just take it all in. 
We went up last weekend to see grandma and grandpa Hatch and to celebrate Ethan and Dylan's third birthday. We had a nice weekend, of course we enjoyed a delicious breakfast of grandpa's famous biscuits and gravy and got to bring home some rabbit to eat. Hunter was able to pet and take some pictures with papa's latest bobcat from his trap lines. He thought that was pretty cool and so did daddy.
We all went to the lake in ShowLow and had a chance to feed the friendliest ducks and geese I had ever seen. Hunter loved it and so did Avery unless they came to close and then she would start screaming in fear.
On the way home the trip that usually takes us three hours took us six and a half including two hours of that completely stopped due to the weather. Though we had nothing as far as snow gear we hurried out in it to play which was sooooo much fun!!
We had such a fun weekend, lots of special time together for our little family and lots of neat memories made for the kids with their great grandparents.
