my favorite part of summer....

SWIMMING of course! Even though at times the heat can be unbearable and monotonous when you have two small children, nothing beats being able to go swimming on your days off work! It is guaranteed to cool you off and provides hours of entertainment for the whole family. We love not only LOVE having a community pool to swim in, but also many friends and family that open up their pools to us to come cool off in as well. My parents have been AWESOME about letting us come over and swim at their pool in Gilbert. We have gone at least once a week to their house for the past month and have enjoyed every minute of it. We not only get access to an amazing pool, but I can generally persuade someone else to join me in the pool with the kiddos! A definite bonus! Several weeks ago we went over to my parents on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and had a barbeque with the whole family. Robby and Madison love to bring cups to the pool and they will sit on the top step and dump water on each other and laugh like crazy!
My mom is always such a good sport. When Maddie tells her to get her swimsuit and go swimming she will gladly change and hop in the pool with us.

Funny picture that Jesse snapped of me. He was the official camera-man for the day

Maddie wanted to know what this shooting water was...so what did my Mom tell her? That it was a "little fountain" of course. As soon as Maddie heard this she proceeded to squat down and take a little sip of the water. Kind of gross to think of her drinking from a drip line, but what do you do?! The good thing is she hasn't managed to catch some crazy disease from this little adventure.
A close-up of Maddie drinking from the "little fountain"

tHaNks uNcLE aDaM!

Last year, my brother-in-law Adam gave my kids these ADORABLE outfits and they have been TOO big. We put them on the other day and they finally fit. I think they look stinkin' cute and they seemed to like them as well. We hardly ever manage to get pictures of both kids smiling and looking at the camera!
I love this picture because he is smiling and DOES NOT have a pacifier in his mouth (we really need to do something about weaning from the pacifier :)
Jesse took this picture of "the girls"

Even though this picture isn't the greatest, I had to include it. This shows one of funny things he does right now. He will squat down low and then pop up with his arms high above his head, trying to jump like his big sis. He never actually makes it OFF the ground, but as you can see he gets so excited when he tries. It's almost as if he actually thinks he is full-on jumping!

Gotta love the pink cowboy boots

Father & Sons

A few weeks back, Jesse took Robby on the fun Father and Sons campout with our ward. Jesse's Dad and brother, Brett, also joined in on to be a part of Robby's first camping trip (Maddie has never actually been on a camping trip either :). It sounds like they had a good time and Robby slept good--which is always a worry when you bring a one year old with you! Maddie and Mommy had fun at home as well. We bought Panda Express and then ate popcorn and watched a movie on my bed. Then Saturday morning we got up and went to several garage sales in our neighborhood. Afterwards we headed over to my parents house and played with Grandma! I sure did miss my little buddy and so it was nice to have them come back home on Saturday afternoon (even if they smelled like a camp!)

Uncle Brett and "Papa" Toronto
Robby chilling by the fire

What do May Showers bring??

lots and lots of MUD! Normally I am the type of mom that hates dirty children. I will literally watch my kids like a hawk outside to make sure they stay nice and clean. This time, however, I couldn't resist to watch Robby slip and slide in the mud for probably 20 minutes. Maddie even joined in until she stripped down to her birthday suit, which marked the end to her mud adventure and the start of her bath. Robby absolutely LOVED being good and dirty and had a big grin on his face the whole time. After two days of soaking in tide with bleach there wasn't a trace of mud on the kids clothes and we now have these fun pictures as memories of the crazy May rainstorm in Arizona!

Visit with Grandma

Last weekend, we had my Grandma West come stay with us for the weekend. It was so much fun to have her get to know our kids a little better and it was cute the way Maddie would call her "great-grandma". Maddie had the best time curling up on her lap and watching "Cinderella."