April Fools' Day

Here are some pictures of our annual April Fools' Day dinner.  This tradition started a few years ago and the kids will not let me forget it.  They start talking about it several weeks ahead of time and so far it has lived up to their expectations.

Family dinner at our house

Ben eating dessert

Gwen eating salad

Jared eating dessert

Bonnie eating her toast..."Good toast"

Apparently I turn into a pirate on April Fools' Day

Nate eating his dessert

I love this tradition and I hope the kids continue to love it for years to come.

In March Gwen was Student of the Month for her class at school.  I am so proud of her for making good choices at school and being such a great student.

Gwen and her teacher, (in blue) Ms. Conrad.

Gwen with her student of the month certificate.

Visitors Again... Yay!!

We love having visitors come.  My sister Jess and her family were able to come visit over our Spring Break.  We had so much fun with them.  Unfortunately I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I did take some, and Jess took some and between the two I have quite a few pictures to post.

Ben took this picture of our movie night.  Apparently our kids wore us out and we didn't make it to the end of the movie.

While they were here we went to a concert for the Piano Guys.  We took our kids and we got a baby sitter for Kylie because it was kind of a late concert.  It has been a while since I've had to look for a baby sitter and I am once again grateful that I don't need to do that on a regular basis.  We were able to have a Brazilian BBQ with Becca and Nick.  We also went bowling and all the kids beat all of the adults.  I will add that the kids did have the bumpers up, but still it was a pretty poorly bowled, but really fun game on the adults part.

One of the days they were here we were able to go to the Mesa temple.  I always love going to the temple, and it was particularly nice to go with Jess and Spencer.  It's always great to have family there.

The gardener in the back bombed our picture.  It was really funny.

 Jess also took our family pictures again.  The reason for doing them again was pure vanity.  Ben and I had a not very healthy year last year and we were trying to do better this year.  We have both lost quite a bit of weight since January so Jess was kind enough to retake our pictures.

January

March

January

March

 The morning Jess and Spencer left, my kids treated them to a live, outdoor concert.  It was a lot of fun.

The band.

Bonnie discovered that heels are not as comfortable as they are cute.

The finale

I just loved this shot with the holes in the knees and the very large sandals

The band posing

The Audience

Thanks for coming and visiting Knudsens.  We loved having you!  Come back any time.

Gwen Field Trip

Gwen went on a field trip in February down to the Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson. I wasn't able to chaperone this field trip as it was from 8 in the morning until 6 at night.  I let her take the camera and these are some of the pictures she took. I love seeing what my kids take pictures of when I send them out with the camera.  I will not post all 105 pictures.  

Katie, Zoe, and Danielle

The seat on the bus.

Gwen

A dried up piece of cactus that was an owl home

Mountain lion paw print

 

Evelyn, Cameron, Katie, and Gwen

A statue of a bird

Gwen the Desert Tortoise

Pretty Flower

Rattlesnake

The lights and buttons on the bus

Gwen loved her field trip and I am so glad she got to have this adventure.

Braces Faces

At the end of January Nate and I both got braces.  I don't love them and Nate really, really is not fond of them, but in the best interest of my son, and just for pure vanity's sake for me.  We both have braces for anywhere from 18 months to two-and-a-half years.

 By the way, I had to retake this picture about 6 or 7 times to get Nate to give me a decent smile... punk kid (whom I love, just for the record).

I know that my posts seem to all come at once, or not at all.  Hopefully I will have a while of them all coming.  We'll see how it goes.

Happy 14th Anniversary

On January 10th Ben and I celebrated 14 years of being married.  Our wonderful friends, the Piepers, offered to watch our kids for the weekend and we had a little stay-cation in Scottsdale.  Ben's brother Jake was able to get us a great deal at the Westin Kierland villas, where we stayed for Friday and Saturday night. These are some pictures of our sweet villa.

The kitchen

From the kitchen into the living room

The Bedroom

The bathroom

On Saturday we went on a two-hour horseback trail ride at sunset.  It was so much fun and so beautiful.  Although, we were both a little sore the next day.

These are the other people in our group from the back, but I just really liked the scenery in this picture.

On Sunday morning we were all dressed and planning to attend a nearby church when we got a text from the Piepers letting us know that Nate had been throwing up all night long.  The Piepers dropped him at our house and took the other kids to church. Needless to say, we went home and took care of him instead of making it to church.   The Piepers are truly saints to babysit our kids for the weekend, especially when one of them gets sick!  We are eternally grateful.

Testimony

So I'm not entirely caught up on my blogs, but I wanted to share a story that happened several months ago.  I'm afraid if I don't write it down I will forget it, and I really want to remember this event.

Back in August Ben was considering changing jobs and interviewed with a company in Georgia.  They really liked him and made him and REALLY good offer.  Of course we talked with the kids about this and the possibility of moving to Georgia.  Ben also talked with his boss and discussed his options for staying with his current company.  They offered him a raise, although not as generous as the offer in Georgia financially.  Other considerations with his current company, and prayers as a family, helped us make our decision to stay in Arizona.  Throughout this whole process we kept the kids informed about what was going on, not with numbers of course, but with the basics, and we continued to have them pray with us about what would be best for our family.

The Sunday after we made this decision was fast Sunday, and our children love to get up and bear their testimonies in sacrament meeting.  As soon as the time was opened for them to stand up they went to the front.  Our sweet Jared got up and his testimony went like this, "I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers, because my dad got a job offer in Georgia for A LOT of money, but then his boss offered him a raise, but it wasn't as much money.  But our family prayed about it and we knew we should stay in Arizona, so I know Heavenly Father answers prayers."  Needless to say, the whole ward now knows about our job situation.  One of the counselors in the bishopric was laughing so hard he was wiping tears from his eyes.

I love the honesty of children, and I am very grateful that Jared has learned that he can depend on the Lord to answer his prayers.