LOTS OF OUTDOOR TIME!!!

This week has been all about being outside since the weather has been so nice and warm, so warm that Brooklyn has been going to bed in just her underwear and Taylor in her onesie! We have enjoyed being outside doing different activities and being together as a family. Matt and I have been doing a lot of our exercises outside running, biking and even doing suicides on the football field! He pretty much kicked my butt on the sprints but I can outlast him on distant running! :)  We have also been enjoying some good food as well! We made fish tacos last night and they were yummy! We invited our friends over, the Howells, and had a good time! Matt just loves to cook but he has to cook when he is under stress haha. He likes to have a few things going on at the same time work fast! I told him he should enter the Iron Chef show since they are working under a limited time. He makes great food and its been fun to try knew things. On Thursday we also had a yummy italian dinner at our friends house, the Bourne's.  The are out here for medical school and have a 3 month old daughter, Haven. They made a dish very similar to the "Penne Rosa" dish at Noodles and Company. We all miss that place! They also made this YUMMY Oreo crust banana creme pie!  If Matt and I don't stop having these fun dinners we are going to balloon up! But its sooo fun and sooo good!

I have wanted to mention that my brother Adam has been called to serve a mission in the Charleston, West VA mission and enters the MTC on July 7th. We are so happy and excited for him. Rochester is only 6 hours away! So we may have to make a trip down there and take him and his companion to lunch! We are very fortunate to be able to fly out to Utah before he goes on his mission and we are thrilled about that as well. We sure can't wait and Brooklyn has been asking me to make a countdown chain so she knows how close we are to leaving. I will stay for three weeks with the girls, but Matt can only stay one week since he has swim camps he has to help run. I WILL MISS HAVING HIM WITH US THE WHOLE TIME!

Enjoy the pictures below of things we have done this week!

A girl in our ward plays soccer and she offered to teach a bunch of kids in the ward how to play. We go weekly and Monday was her first time. Brooklyn seemed to really like it but I am not so sure I like it hahaha.... This sport is on the opposite end of basketball playing where you dribble the ball with your feet instead of your hands! 

Avery, Wyatt, Lena and Brooklyn. Its fun to have kids Brooklyn's age to hang out with.

Enjoying otter pops and a break from the warm heat!

We have several families of Geese that are in our backyard often and we decided to go out and feed them bread. In this picture, Matt is imitating what the Geese are doing, HISSING at him! hahaha He was freaked out about it and being deaf as I am I was so oblivious to it and not scared at all haha. They wanted bread and would run up and hiss at Matt. Brooklyn got spooked!

Brooklyn hiding behind daddy!

Our friend Greg! He has been on a dessert frenzy and we are the guinea pigs! Last week he made carrot cake from scratch.... can I say MMMMM! This week he made cheese cake from scratch as well. YUMMY again!  We sure are lucky to get all these sweets! Thanks Greg!

For Family Home Evening we bought pizza from Papa John's and ate it at Genesse Park. This park is huge with lots of trails (that we like to run on).  The weather was perfect, almost dusk. Brooklyn wanted to swing and we thought Taylor would love it too. Of course we didn't push her high at all, in fact if we gently pushed it she had this fear on her face. She was content just sitting there watching the rest of us!

All smiles!

I think this was Brooklyn's first time swinging on the swing like this. Normally she wants to swing in the one Taylor was in. She really enjoyed it!  Later that evening Daddy taught her how to ride a long board(standing up) and dang it I didn't get any pictures of her doing that. But she had fun! We have a slight hill in the parking lot in front of our house and both Matt and Brooklyn took turns going down it. 

I love this picture...

We have a thumb sucker in our home! Taylor has diligently been working hard on mastering thumb sucking and she finally achieved her goal!  I think its so cute!  She won't take a pacifier, her thumb tastes better!

I love this girl! The picture behind her is of her when she was a baby... I can't believe how big she has gotten since then... please slow down princess!

This green hill, full of pretty white flowers, is at Niagra Falls. We were on our way to meet up with our friends who were in town from TX, Steve and Amy Norton and their one year old darling daughter, Claire.  Brooklyn was all over the place and just loving the outside weather. 

Close up of the pretty flowers

Matt, being a dangerous father and after I protested.... took Brooklyn out in the river before the falls. I was nervous and had some comfort knowing Matt is an excellent swimmer. Brooklyn was all smiles and loving it!

You can't really see but she is holding a small purple flower and told me, "Mom this purple flower is for you because I LOVE YOU!" I have such a sweet daughter!

Our cool friends, the Norton's. We ate at Olive Garden and got stuffed!

Along with the nice warm weather came SNOW! Well not real snow per se. Literally though cotton has been falling down making blankets of snow. I am surprised there is not more sneezing going on! I shouldn't have said that because watch tomorrow I will be sneezing all day.... :)

Brooklyn with our next door neighbor's guide dog. The dog belongs to this man's daughter who is blind, Yasmina. The family is from Europe and very nice people.