The Date Festival

Yesterday we finally had a free day to take a ride down the mountain and go to the Date Festival. This was the second year in a row that we have gone, but this year we thought Emma would probably enjoy it a lot more than last year and boy were we right!! :)

We met up with our friends Jeremy & Angella and their two kids again. It was nice to be able to spend time with them and watch the kids together.

One of the first things we did was go into the barn so that Emma could see the animals. She snorted at the pigs until one of the squealed very loudly and she got scared.

Then we saw the goats. Emma was a bit timid at first, but she got very friendly with them very quickly!! :) Goat kisses:

She was sad when we left the barn and every time we walked by it the rest of the day she tried to get us to go in. It was kinda funny. But she soon found something fun to do and it took her mind off of missing her favorite goats. She started feeding Hudson. The two of them thought that was just the best game ever!!!

Then after walking around a bit more and a treat of shaved ice we headed off to the pig races. Emma was being goofy while we waited for them to start:

Cheering for the piggies:

After that Jeremy & Angella had to leave, but we hung around for a little while longer. We went over to the games and Daddy won her a dog. She was starting to get tired so I couldn't get her to smile, but she loves her dog. She carried it around the rest of the night and kissed it and barked with it. :)

Before we headed out we took one last trip to the barn so Emma could see her goat buddies again and then we headed into the petting zoo. This made her day for sure!!

Petting a camel:

And feeding more goats:

After a pizza dinner we headed home with a very sleepy, very happy little girl. She is already counting down the days until next year when we can head back. :)

Valentine's Weekend

Last weekend Dave had a 4 day weekend & Valentine's Day happened to fall on one of his days off - yeah!!!

We spent Valentine's Day as a family and had a really good time spending time together and just relaxing. We had a nice big breakfast of heart shaped pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon & fruit. Emma even got to put M&M's on her pancakes - yummy!! Then for lunch she got heart shaped sandwiches. :)

Here is our adorable little Valentine:

Emma got several things from us on Valentine's Day, but her favorite was a new aquarium. She loves her "shies" as she calls them and she looks forward to feeding them every morning and evening. :)

Then after Emma went to bed, Mommy & Daddy got to have a nice grown-up dinner. It was really yummy, but the best part was that we just got to spend a few hours talking and really enjoying each other. We couldn't have had a better day! :)

The next day we drove over to the park. Emma had a REALLY fun time going down this slide. It was a double slide so we could help her down, but she could still sit on her own slide. She was really cute.

It was one great weekend and we look forward to spending many more Valentine's together. :)

Dave's Birthday & Feeding the Ducks

Friday was Dave's 29th Birthday! We went down to the desert with him for the day. Emma & I hung out and ran errands while he was at work, but when he was done working we had a fun evening of celebration!

Last week I discovered a duck/fish pond in La Quinta. So, after Dave got off work we took a trip over there to feed the ducks.

Emma throwing bread in the pond for the ducks - with Daddy's help of course:

She tried to kiss them:

And she tried to chase them:

Of course she had to take a bite for herself: :)

It was a gorgeous night and we had a lot of fun!!

After feeding the ducks, we headed over to Las Casuelas for dinner with our good friends Corey & Lindsey & their baby Andrew.

They sang to Dave:

And Emma ate almost all of his dessert:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVEY - WE LOVE YOU!! :)

Lots and lots of snow!!!!

A couple of weeks ago we had a series of storms that dumped a whole bunch of snow on us. It kept us from doing some things that we had planned and Dave was unable to go to work for several days, but despite some inconveniences, we did have a lot of fun!!

Here are a couple of pictures near and around our house. The snow was definitely very pretty!!

Dave did his best to keep the driveway clear so that his car could get out if it needed to:

But he was really no match for the snow, as his car continued to be buried deeper and deeper:

When it finally quit snowing we were able to dig the car out. The snow was certainly piled high alongside our driveway! :)

And when the work was all done we got to have some fun too:

Facing Forward

On Jan. 9, we finally turned Emma's car seat around in the car. She is now facing forward! We waited a bit longer to turn her around because new studies show that it is safer. But her legs finally just got too cramped to be facing backwards and so we flipped her around. She really likes being able to see us and out the front window while driving. The only negative is that the sun gets in her eyes and then she cries. We might have to move her to the side so that it doesn't bother her. :)

So anyway, here she is on her first day facing forward:

Dave's First Chainsaw!

My darling husband has been wanting a chainsaw for many, many years. However, he has never really needed one so we've never made it a priority to get one. But now that we are in the mountains he has some use for one, so for Christmas he got gift cards to go buy one. He loves it and it was fun for him to use it to chop up our Christmas Tree.

I told him to pose, but he didn't think it was very manly:

His first cut with the new chainsaw - bye-bye Christmas Tree! :)