City Deals

My sister recently introduced me to CityDeals.com. It rocks. If you don't know about it, they offer significant discounts on products and services. We recently purchased a deal for a family pic at a professional studio things went so well I wanted to share.
The deal was normally $200 but we paid a little less then $50. For that we received:
1 Hour photo shoot with a professional photographer
4 free sheets and a 11x17
3 head swaps
Blemish touch up
CD with 3 free poses including the copyrights

With 3 kids two and younger, gone are the days of having a friend snap a shot at a nice location. Getting three kids to sit still and look at the camera and smile is nearly impossible. We thought with head swaps we could get a pic with everyone looking at the camera and hopefully with pleasant faces (I didn't even dare hope for smiles).

The photographer was way silly and my kids loved it. She only took pictures for half an hour but the kids patience was running short so that worked for us. My only regret is I didn't have her take any of just the kids. I was too worried about getting a good family pic. We went back the next day and selected the pics we wanted, made a few upgrades and requested some head swaps. The pictures were ready in a week! Here are our favorites.
If you want to check out CityDeals just click here. We've loved it!

THE Iron Horse

The Family Davis had another amazing adventure in Durango this weekend. Thanks to Uncle Mitch Spencer rode in his first Iron Horse. Nearly 2,500 riders race the Silverton Train over a few mountain passes. The race is only 50 miles but 30 of those miles are straight up hill. One of the things I love about Spence is when he gets into something he does his best to understand it, and his bike is no different. Before the race he switched all his cables, tuned the gears and replaced both wheels. He rode with the Fort Lewis College centennial team so he wore a special jersey and started in the front. We made signs to cheer him on, but the boys were only interested for about 3 secs. We rode up a few miles to cheer him on before it go too steep and they shut the road down. He had to climb over two 11,000 foot peaks! The tallest we have around here is 8,000 so he couldn't even train for it. Spencer is really amazing, not only did he make it but he's such a gentleman he helped some random lady over the last peak. As he approached her he could hear that she was sobbing, literally crying as she pedaled. I guess she was spent and worried the sweeper car was going to catch her before she could get over the last peak and the head wind was just about to do her in. So Spencer talked to her, calmed her down and let her draft off of him. So he pulled her over the top before leaving her on the last decent. What an amazing guy! We are so proud of him!! Way to go Spencer.

During the rest of the weekend Mitch showed us a great time in Durango, we watched the llama movie 5 times and attended more races. It was a great weekend and the boys can't wait to see Uncle Mitch again. Audrey thought the criterium was amazing and laughed the whole time. She won all the spectators around us over and had her own fan base.

Little Horns

This morning, at the breakfast table, I laughed right out loud:
"Look Mom, we have horns on our heads!" "Honk, Honk"Their inspiration, a Styracosaurus. Thanks to Aunt Becky dinosaurs are huge around here right now. As their imaginations and vocabularies grow I find myself laughing more every day.

Audrey is still as cute as ever. Turns out she loves to swing. The last time we were at the park she was whining and squirming until I finally picked her up. She nearly lunged right out of my arms for the swing. She swung for 20 mins with a huge smile on her smug little face.

Big Blue

Months ago we signed up to run the Davis County Aggie 5K. At the last min Spencer decided he needed to ride Big Cottonwood Canyon to train for his upcoming race so just the kids and I went. Thank goodness Kearsten decided to join us, it was great to have her help pushing the triple. Big Blue was there and the boys were very impressed and yet frightened out of their minds. When I finally talked them into waving they sat on their hands as if to say "We waved but don't come over here." The race was great and the boys asked about Big Blue the whole way. We finished in just 31 mins. After the race we enjoyed Aggie Ice Cream and snapped a pic with Big Blue himself.

Spencer had a great ride and afterwards we planted our garden. It's the first time in our box gardens and the boys were so excited to help. Beans, tomatoes, even a pumpkin. It's exciting to share these things with the kids and I look forward to teaching them lessons about sowing and reaping. I'm not sure what will come up but here's hoping!

Been Up To ...

Despite the cool weather I feel like we've already started Summer, we've been super busy. For example ....
We had a great Easter. We attended a few Easter egg hunts and enjoyed talking with the boys about Christ and why we celebrate the day.As you can see we got plenty of eggs and candy. We had a bon fire with friends. We enjoyed pony rides and playing on the ranch with sticks! It was little boy heaven.

We've enjoyed several afternoons playing at the park with friends. The boys are always too busy running and playing so here's a shot of the girls. I know they look so enthused (read with sarcasm). Had a sleepover with our cousin. They played so hard and laughed so much they took a full 3 hour nap the next day!We've even ridden the train with Aunt Jenny during her visit. Front Runner to Salt Lake was a huge hit. We visited Temple Square and enjoyed lunch out. It was a beautiful spring day.

The weather is finally spring like and summer is just around the corner so hopefully we'll see you out there!

Just Us

Recently I've read a few articles and talked with a few people who feel blogging paints an inaccurate picture. It's a false life that really doesn't exist and is way to cheery. I'm afraid I missed that tutorial when we joined the blogging world. I've tried to share both the good and the rough. Our life is in no way perfect. We really are just trying to share our lives with our family and friends, many of which live very far away. We've tried to illustrate the simply joys of family in a world that says family and kids are way too much trouble and not worth it. To that we say "Really? Family is great and kids are work, but so worth it!" As we look back on previous posts it's easy to see how much the Lord has blessed us. We are truly grateful for the good and the bad. So we'll continue to post snapshots of our lives and hope you enjoy it.

And as if you needed any proof that we're not perfect, here's a picture of a less then perfect moment.

Why is it so tough to get a good picture of all three?

Socks!

Tall socks, short socks, socks with elastic in them, cute socks. It doesn't matter, Audrey won't wear them. She is a pro at taking them off. She can do it fast, she can do it slow, she can even do it on the sly. She sometimes has one sock off before I've even put the other on. With the boys I lost a total of one sock, not one pair, one sock! Audrey loves slipping them off at the grocery store, on the way into church or in the car and somehow they are gone, just gone.

I know what your thinking "So just put them back on". I can't she either intentionally loses them or she yanks them off and sucks on them. I can't put a soggy sock back on! So yes I know my child does not have socks on and it is snowing but I've already been through 3 pairs today and I promise she is happier this way. This girl just loves her toes, and I have to say so do I.

."What Mom?"She had socks on when she got in the car, I promise.