The Monsoons took our swim day away...

but it didn't stop us from having fun in the water. We were all ready to go swimming with friends. I just woke Addysen up from her nap when I looked outside and saw the clouds rolling in. I called my friend Melissa:

Me: "Are you still going?"
Melissa: "Yeah, I promised the kids."
Me: "Okaaay, I'll meet you there."

2 minutes later it was pouring!

No swim day for us.

It wasn't a huge disappointment because
1. We swim atleast 3 times a week.
2. It doesn't rain all that much here in Az. so it was a nice change of scenery.
and
3. It was pouring so hard it was begging for us to go out and play!

And since the girls already had their swimsuits on, heck, why not!?

Addysen was not having anything to do with the rain. She was mostly annoyed that I woke her up and she thought the rain was cold. The sign of a true Valley Girl. She mostly sat on her towel and watched the rain from inside the house and kept saying "I don't like the rain".
She did venture out once the rain stopped but didn't splash in any of the puddles.




Elodie on the other hand ran and squeeled and played in the mud, and squeeled some more. Hog Heaven!



We finished the afternoon off with a good hose down, popsicles, a hot shower, and tortilla soup for dinner. Great day!

Lately...

She is potty trained. She still wears a diaper for naps and bedtime but most days keeps them dry during both.

She calls her panties her minnies because those were the ones she picked out at Target. Originally she wanted handy Manny (Mandy?) but those were boy undies...not that there is anything wrong with a little girl wearing boy underwear MOM!

She learned how to crawl out of her crib and just yesterday crawled out and locked herself in her room. I had to call Chris and use a tool to get the door unlocked.

She insist on sitting at the dinner table instead of her high chair. I'm okay with this as long as she isn't eating cereal. That's just an accident waiting to happen!

She says funny things like "Daddy, hurry as fast as you can!" and "Sister, spank my bum!" We don't use spanking for discipline so she thinks it's so fun when someone spanks her bum!

She very rarely calls Elodie by her name..it's always "Sister" but it comes out more like "Titter" because she can't say her S's all that well. So words like Cookie and Soccer come out "Tookie" and "Toccer". Chris works with her all the time and she can say the letter by itself but not at the beginning of a word.

She felt completely left out when Elodie started her tumbling class. We are hoping to sign her up for something similar for the fall.

She reminds us to say prayer. If you say the prayer she will repeat everything you say.

She calls her bed her night night, her blanket is her tutu, and the tag on her blanket is her peepee. We aren't sure where the term peepee came from as she had named her tag long before we started potty training. All we know is in order to be comfortable she has to have her tutu, she puts her pinkie in between the loop of her tag and she sucks her thumb. And she says "Where'd my peepee go!?" When she is trying to find the tag. It hasn't been embarrassing in public yet because she doesn't usually want her tutu except when she is sleepy. So she rarely takes it outside of the house. Let's hope we never have that awkward moment with a stranger!

SnowCone Party

Last weekend Chris' mom came to town. While she was here, She and Elodie made a stop at Goodwill and came home with a snowcone machine. I thought she was taking the snowcone machine home with her but at the last minute, she decided to let Elodie have it! It was like Christmas at our house. Elodie was so excited!!

It was hot today so we decided to have some friends over for a SnowCone Party! We set everything up outside, included some music, and had fun hanging out with our friends!

I am now convinced that there is no better way to spend a summer evening!

New Shoes...

What's your fondest "Back To School" memory?

I've thought a lot about this as we prepare Elodie to start 1st grade. The school supplies, new lunch box, new clothes, fresh haircut. It's a fun process and I love every minute leading up to the big day.

I'm sure I don't stand alone when I say I want it all to be perfect for her. And I don't see a darn thing wrong with that!

My most vivid memory of back to school was shoe shopping. My parents would take us all to this place called Sports Authority and let us pick out our own pair of shoes.

Last Spring Elodie started talking about Twinkle Toes. But because it was spring and the school year was almost over, we told her she had to wait for 1st grade to get her Twinkle Toes.

Well this was the week. We shopped around and Elodie picked out the perfect pair.

And in case you were wondering- I use to be a scrapbooker. Now I use all the cute scrapbooking paper for photography. Until I can muster the creativity to get back into scrapbooking that is!

Utah Vacation: Bridal Veil Falls

While we were in Utah MAINLY to visit family, we still wanted to be able to do some fun things with just our little family. On our first day in Utah my Aunt Jeanne suggested we take a lunch and go to Bridal Veil Falls. It wasn't far from my Aunt Jeanne's house in Orem so it made for a perfect "couple of hours" outing. We got Subway for lunch and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and weather! We got back to my Aunt Jeanne's house just in time for naps. After naps we spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with my Aunt Connie, Uncle Newell, and their families in Alpine. Perfect Day!

Utah Vacation: Getting There

The trip up to Utah was pretty uneventful. When you are going on an extended road trip, that is always a great thing! Especially considering we had just potty trained Addysen the month before!

We passed the time with ring pops and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We got to Aunt Jeanne's house around 7pm just in time for dinner!

The Start of Something Good...

We spent all of last week in Utah. We left early Tuesday morning and came home Sunday evening. We crammed in a ton of family time, a trip to Lagoon, down to Temple Square in Salt Lake, and wrapped up with a family reunion on Saturday. Our trip was so fun! As is evident by the over 300 pictures I took while on our trip. I had to hurry up and edit all of our family reunion pictures so my cousin Tania can compile them into an album for my PawPaw. And while I'm buried in photoshop world, I will leave you with one picture that makes me smile...because...



-This picture isn't even half of us!
-I love that I got to hang out with my cousins and catch up and reminisce!
-I love that my girls got to play with my cousins kids.
-I love that I got to soak up my Aunt Jeanne and Aunt Connie just like I wanted to
-I love that Kyle and Chris were reunited after way too many years apart. A post all it's own.
-And mostly because I love my family! And it's truly a blessing to know that we are eternal!

And P.S- this takes care of my "Embrace the Camera" project too..score! See how long it takes you to spot me!

Swim Lessons-Check

Another successful year of swimming lessons. We opted not to put Addysen in this year because it was the same mommy and me class she and I did together last year. I'm glad I didn't waste my money because I know she would have been bored. All the kids in the class she would have been in were atleast a year or more younger than her. She is so passed blowing bubbles and singing "Ring Around the Otter". Next year she can go in her swim lessons by herself and I know she will love that!

Milestones this year for Elodie:
-She loves to swim in the deep water.
-I throw the rings and she will dive to the bottom to get them. Before she was too scared and would put her head under to see where the rings were and then use her feet.
-She can float by herself.
-She is getting better at swimming the breaststroke.
-She can do awesome handstands under water.

Goal before the end of summer:
-Jump off the diving board (a child has to be able to jump in and swim to the side by themselves. No parents are allowed to wade in the water next to the diving board) She is a bit afraid but like with all things, once she does it once I know she will love it!

Outtakes

I'm all about reality...this is hers at it's best!

4th of July Dresses

Way back in May I started hunting for the perfect 4th of July dresses for my girls.

No luck.

June.

No luck.

I was getting really frustrated with how little was available. So after surfing a few of my favorite sewing blogs I decided to try my hand at making my own 4th of July dresses.

I've done some sewing projects in my lifetime but this was a big adventure for me. I enlisted the help of my friend, and sewing master, Jen and got to work. I almost completed Elodie's dress while at Jen's house and felt confident enough to conquer Addysen's dress on my own.

The whole process went so smoothly and I really enjoyed my evenings with my sewing machine. So much so that I'm for sure going to make some more dresses for the summer.

If your interested, I got my instructions here. Love that site!

Search the same site for instructions on the headbands and directions for the fabric flowers can be found here! Those are super fun and easy to make! I made one for myself to match my swimsuit! I have a pattern for the headband part so if you want it just let me know.

E:



A:



E&A:

Embrace The Camera

{Just finishing up our 4th of July Photoshoot. The designer and her 2 models}

4th of July 2010

Even though the 4th of July was on a Sunday this year we still managed to enjoy a few activities as a family and with friends.

Our weekend started with a 4th of July breakfast at the church. I am the Ward's Activity Committee leader and was in charge of the breakfast. Planning an activity WITHOUT an actual committee was a little stressful but thankfully a few sign up sheets lightened the load! I also enlisted Chris, Shane, and Mace to set up chairs and tables the night before. I passed around sign ups for muffins, doughnuts, and fruit. The ward (AKA: ME) was in charge of providing the eggs, sausage, and drinks. We had an AWESOME turn out, plenty of food, and everyone enjoyed themselves. If I hadn't have been running around like a crazy person I would have taken more pictures of the breakfast.

Thankfully I put my friend Tiffany in charge of the bike parade so I was able to get some pictures of that. This was a HUGE hit. All the kids decorated their bikes and made laps around the parking lot while the parents cheered them on. It was so fun!





On Sunday we relaxed around the house after church. We invited our friends, The Whites, to go to the Tumbleweed park to watch fireworks. A fun way to spend our evening.