Rainy Days

Last Saturday we experienced a CRAZY rainstorm that Robby took full advantage of. We were in the midst of preparing for Miss M's birthday party and the next thing we knew Robby had escaped the house. He was full of smiles and sopping wet. What to do? Why strip him down to the diaper and let him roam the wet world with an umbrella in hand. Slightly white trash, but we couldn't resist this delicious moment. The result= he was in little boy heaven

I would NEVER let this happen

.......or so I thought. I have always heard the stories other moms have told where a certain child takes a swipe at some scissors and then massacres part of their hair. I always have told myself that I would keep all scissors away from children and that I would watch my kids close enough that it would never happen in my home.

Apparently I was sadly mistaken. I have also always told myself that hair is the one thing that grows back and that I would let my kids choose any sort of haircut without emotions coming into play. Again, I was mistaken.

And I also try to never lose my temper with my sweet kids and normally do a fairly decent job at this, no MATTER what they do. For a third time. I was mistaken.

Unfortunately, Miss M DID get her hands on a pair of scissors and DID massacre a big chunk of hair on the left side of her head, I DID start sobbing as I had to cut her hair SHORT and I DID lose my temper with her---which was immediately followed by me spending a good deal of time reassuring Maddie that she was still loved and everything WOULD be okay.

I tried to get a reason out of her, as to why she would cut off her beautiful blonde hair. She kept telling me through tears that she didn't know it would cut so short. She literally has a huge chunk that is maybe 2 inches long at most.

One positive to this whole mess: she managed to crop her hair right next to/behind her left ear, so at least I can sort of flop her hair over that spot. And I guess another positive: she waited until after her birthday party to cut her hair. Now it is on to short hairdos and mainly hair down to cover the butch job.

After all...hair does EVENTUALLY grow back....right?

Can You Believe It?

He has been officially "army" crawling for about three weeks now.

Now I don't have to vacuum anymore...Eli is happy to eat anything and everything off the floor for me instead :)

My Preschooler

Miss M started preschool in August and absolutely LOVES her teacher, Miss Tanya. She has all girls in her class and most of them live just a few blocks away, so it is so fun for her to go to school with all of her friends. She has already learned the letters A, B, & C and loves to point them out to me in books, on signs, pretty much anywhere she can find them. She is also getting very good at writing her name. We couldn't be proud of our little lady and I know Robby cannot wait for the day when he can be "big" like Maddie and also go to school. :)

(Maddie is still in a dress or skirt phase of life. She always tells me that she needs to wear one of those things so she can look "fancy")

Straight from a 2 1/2 year old

"Mommy, you ootiful (beautiful)"

"I don't like it, no more little trees (broccoli) pease"

"I need to go potty" (haven't even started potty training, just copying the big sister)

"I ick mommy, hold you"

"bess (bless) mommy, daddy, ma-ee (maddie) and I-E (eli)"

"this water is icky, now I want juice"

"I hun-ree (hungry), I neeeed food"

"No go bed, I not seepy (sleepy)"

"I want to pay (play), no go home" (every time we drop off Maddie at preschool or playgroup)

"I want to help mommy, let me cook"

"let me do it, aw (all) by MYSELF"

I LOVE this BIG, little guy. He is saying the funniest things now. I love how much he loves his daddy- the world seriously revolves around his daddy, I love his big hugs "with arms" that he gives, I love his teasing little personality, I love how he tries to tickle me and then runs away laughing hysterically, I love that he is obsessed with trains, cars, and balls, I love how he will softly pat the baby and smile and say "I soft", I love how he wants to cook with me and always wants to help, I love how he will spend 20 minutes vacuuming the floor for me, I love how he has to have his special lion and "bankie" (blanket) in bed with him every night, what can I say....I am obsessed with each of my kids, including him!

swimming

Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green? (or in our case, scorchingly hot and more of a brown tint, rather than green)

Do you fish in a stream, or lazily dream on the banks as the clouds go by?

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Is that what you do? So do I!

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Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green?

Do you swim in a pool, to keep yourself cool or swing in a tree up high?

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Is that what you do? So do I!

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Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green?

Do you march in parades, or drink lemonades or count all the stars in the sky?

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Is that what you do? So do I! we sure love our summers...even in Arizona. There is something magical about this time of year; for some reason I feel like I can have lazy days reading books around the house, go swimming pretty much every single day to keep nice and cool, eat ice cream and otterpops WAY too often, fill myself to the brim with super yummy chilled watermelon on a weekly basis, watch my kids turn to a beautiful shade of brown right before my eyes with white little bums, & meet up at McDonalds with my sister and talk while the kids run around like crazy and feel their belly's full of french frys. Aahhh, I LOVE it! Now that school is back in session and Maddie has entered the "preschool" stage of life, I am smiling back upon some of the fun times we have had this summer.

my favorite niece, Kater bug hanging out in the pool

now who wouldn't want to play with such a fun little guy!

Sanctuary at Camelback Mountain

A few weeks ago, we were able to attend the wedding of our good friend, Preston. It was neat to look at them in this blissful moment and reflect back upon that time oh so long ago, when we also made that same commitment to one another. Preston has been waiting so long for this to happen and we couldn't be happier for him. I have so many fun memories of Preston, including the time I went to Peru with Jesse, Preston, and Danny (yes I know...me and three boys :) We are so excited for him to FINALLY take this big step in life and wish him all the happiness that marriage brings!

Another exciting part about him getting married was the FABULOUS wedding reception/dinner at the Sanctuary at Camelback Mountain. The view was gorgeous, the food delicious, decorations were elegant, and of course the company was the best! We were lucky enough to even bring our sweet boy with us for this fun date night. He was so good as always and fell asleep during the wedding video and then slept in his carseat for the remainder of the evening. We enjoyed catching up with Dan (formerly known as Danny to ALL of us :) and his cute date. Maybe at some point we will venture back out to Scottsdale for dinner again, but for now this was MORE than enough!

Eli at SIX months

holding Eli

what is quickly becoming a favorite around our household?

...why taking turns holding the cutest ever little brother. seriously, it is amazing how much arguing goes on in determining who's "turn" it is to hold him. which means propping mr E in front of them while they give me big grins :)

tid bits

*We are driving the other day and Robby says "Mommy, bump that big car" (the car directly in front of us) "Come on mommy, faster, faster" Apparently we have been watching the movie "Cars" too many times

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*This morning Maddie noticed that there were several dead-looking plants and trees along the road and with a straight face said "We need to go home and tell Heavenly Father to make those trees not die so they can grow good"

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*I just learned last week that my three year old has learned how to unlock the latch on the front door and the pantry, scale my closet shelves to locate candy on a shelf that is probably 8 ft high, and drag a chair over and get contraband items off the top of the fridge....oh joy :)

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*apparently Robs has already mastered how to turn a real car on with keys. About a month ago I put the kids in the car and went on a search for my car keys. ten minutes later i went out to the car with my keys and learned that robby had already started the car with the spare: SCARY

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*My kids LOVE bugs. Crickets have taken over our house the last few weeks and one of the highlights of our days is miss M and Robs running around seeing how many "hoppers" they can kill. After they are dead they will bring them to me in a tissue with a big smile on their face (isn't that something only animals do to their owners?). Thank HEAVENS we had pest control come this week and I am feeling much better.