The First Half of July

Okay, why is everyone so bad at blogging these days?  Haha!  No but really.  The blogosphere seems to be a ghost town these days.  It's making my blogging motivation go down.  (Which I know no one cares about, but I care because I like to have these memories written down).  :-)  Hmm, blaming others for my blogging laziness..... nice.

Anyway, our 4th of July activities actually began on the 3rd of July.  Before we bought our house we lived in a city about 20 minutes away called Ahwatukee and they do fireworks on the 3rd of July.  I thought it might be kind of cool to take the kids to that fireworks show along with another fireworks show in our town the next day.  So, I got the kids dressed up all festive on the 3rd.

That evening, as soon as we packed up the kids in the car and started driving, the craziest dust storm hit the city!  It was way cool!  I could see it coming straight for us when we were on the freeway and got nervous but Michael drove slowly and it was actually kind of neat to drive through it.  Here's a pic of our view from our car:

And a pic taken by someone on an airplane:

Well, after the dust storm cleared it started storming!  Rain (or any fun weather) is pretty rare here, and of course it had to happen on the one day I didn't want it to!  Ha!  There was some seriously crazy wind going on as well as thunder and lightning!  Obviously the fireworks show was canceled but we decided to make the most of being in our old stomping grounds and got some frozen yogurt at the place down the street from our old apartment where we used to go all the time.  (see: Fro Yo Fridays)

The storm ended pretty quickly so after we got home and I put Kate to bed me and Matthew played with sparklers in our backyard.  He was kinda bummed that we hadn't seen any fireworks but this helped make up for it.

On the actual 4th of July the kids both had colds :-( but we tried to make the most out of the day.  We skipped going to the pool so that the kids could rest (since toddlers are totally awesome at "resting") at home, but we did make it to Five Guys for lunch. Yum!

And then we went to a great fireworks show that evening!  It was close to our home, not too crowded, and it was actually (surprisingly) quite pleasant outside.  (I think thanks to the previous day's storm!)  Glow sticks helped keep the kids entertained until the show started.

And then the next week Cory, Karen, (Michael's sister) Natalie, and Leah came to visit for a few days!  We do not see them nearly enough.  We loved having them here and the time passed way too quickly.  Matthew still talks about "Nataleah."

While they were here we went to the Natural History Museum in Mesa which was actually way cool.  I was surprised we hadn't been there before, or even heard anything about it!  I'm sure we'll be back.  

And then Kate turned 18 months and she got to go to nursery!  Heck yes!  Everyone bring your nursery leaders cookies.  They deserve it.  :-)  Here's a pic of me and Kate on her first day of nursery:  (And she did awesome, by the way).

The second half of July was mostly consumed with our trip to Idaho and CA, which I will write about next!

Kate at 18 months

My girl is a year and a half!  Crazy!  

Kate is still such a joy.  I have a blast hanging out with her and Matthew every day. She is fun and spunky and is learning about the world so quickly.

She is still an amazing night sleeper but a horrible napper. She has already been on the one nap schedule for several months.... and half the time, she takes no nap at all.  Luckily she makes up for it by being a dream through the night, but sheesh, she sure is a little grump in the evenings from being so tired and usually has to go to bed pretty early.  I'm dreaming of the day we can all go out as a family in the evening and have a pleasant time.  ;-)

Kate has become Little Miss Independent.  She doesn't really like us to help her with anything unless she absolutely cannot do it by herself.  Sometimes I laugh when I watch her refuse any help as she struggles to do something on her own and then finally look at me with defeat and say, "Help."  (Which comes out, "Helph.")  

Kate loves bubbles, the moon, going for walks, swimming, and reading books. She also loves jewelry! If I don't put any on her and she can't find any laying around, she'll steal mine. I have high hopes about her getting into dress-up in the not-too-distant future.  

Kate loves to watch Micky Mouse Clubhouse.  It's actually the only thing she'll watch right now.  Luckily, that also happens to be Matthew's current TV show of choice.  If you ask her about Micky Mouse, she'll say, "Minnie."  "Daisy."  (Her favorites).  Her favorite songs are, "Slippery Fish," "Old MacDonald," and "I Am A Child of God."

Kate loves to climb all over furniture, including the stairs.  Agh.  I've spent more time on our stairs lately than I'd prefer, but I suppose the sooner she gets good on them, the better.  She loves jumping on the couches and the bed and plopping onto her bum.

Her favorite foods include crackers, cookies, smoothies, pizza, Nutri Grain bars, strawberries, french fries, hot dogs, and waffles.  Hey, there were a couple healthy foods in there.  ;-)  She absolutely loves when her food comes with ketchup, which she calls, "sauce."  She can dip her fries in ketchup like a pro. When the fries run out she starts dipping her finger and eating the ketchup by itself.  Ewww.  I then take the ketchup away and she gets mad.  (Sorry lady, but that grosses me out too much).  She is totally obsessed with lollipops.  Lollipops have saved my sanity at the grocery store lately.  As long as she has one, she behaves.

Half the time she thinks Matthew is hilarious and the other half of the time she is bugged by him. Ha! In all fairness, he definitely spends a fair amount of time picking on her. Luckily the girl is slowly learning to stand up for herself.  ;-)  She loves giving Matthew kisses and he can make her laugh pretty dang hard.  Overall I would say that they get along well.  They are each other's best buddies and she lights up like a Christmas tree when Matthew runs into her room every morning to greet her after she wakes up.  I am so glad that they have each other.

These last 18 months have been absolutely wonderful.  Love you Kate!

Lately

Time to play catch up if I want to keep this relatively updated!  :-)

Mother's Day was awesome. Michael sent me out that Saturday to go shopping and get a haircut. I stayed out for a good few hours and came home feeling pampered. I love my family and I love being a mother.

The next weekend was our annual Girls Weekend! This was my first time being baby-less overnight since August of 2011!  (By the time Matthew was old enough to leave overnight, Kate came along). It was seriously nuts not having a diaper bag and only having to worry about myself for a couple days. Of course I missed them, but I knew they were fine with Michael and it was pretty nice to have that freedom for a couple days. Plus, I think this might have been my favorite Girls Weekend yet.  

Can I also say that flying without a baby and/or toddler is the BEST!?  :-)  The only, and I mean ONLY, downside to flying solo was that people no longer avoided me like the plague and I was squished by an enormous man that smelled funny.

The theme was, "Under The Sea."

We ate too much, laughed a lot, had a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law Stephanie, did pedicures, and shopped. We went to a cute little Danish town called Solvang (near Santa Barbara) and shopped and shopped and still didn't even see half of the stores.  

On the way home we ate at a yummy restaurant called The Red Pepper. I'm still daydreaming about their pineapple shrimp. Yummmmmy.

We also hung out at the Redondo Pier and enjoyed some awesome weather.  We went paddle boarding (SO fun!) and all got toe rings.

The kids had a blast with Michael. Kate was pretty mad at me the night I got home but was completely over it by the next day.  :-)

Until next year!

And.... summer is here. Noooo! 100+ degrees for the next few months! Argh! On the bright side, we've been doing a ton of swimming.  Both my kids adore the pool.

Also, it's baseball season! Okay, that's not all that exciting in my opinion, but I did love going to a Diamondbacks game with the family a couple weeks ago. Chase Field is very kid friendly, which is so nice. They also have $1.50 hot dogs and corn dogs and $1 popcorn, and who wouldn't love that?

And since we can't just swim for hours on end every day, I've been trying to do more more fun and creative indoor activities.  I'm already sick of trying to think of things. Friends- come over for play dates please! On this day, I let the kids play with finger paints on canvas. It only took Kate 2 seconds to start painting on herself... in red of course, so she looks like she's from a horror film.

A couple weeks ago my parents came for a visit! It's always so depressing when they leave because we have so much fun with them.

Last but not least, Michael got surgery earlier this week! He had a double sports hernia. Ouch! Recovery has been anything but easy but he is finally doing much better.

Right before surgery

And for your viewing pleasure, here's Michael coming out of anesthesia. Haha. You're welcome.

Easter

This is my 100th post!  About time. ;-)

Easter this year was wonderful.  I know my kids won't remember a thing, but I got really into it anyway. Partially for them, but also for me - holidays are so fun!

I figured I'd try to teach Matthew the basics about The Atonement and Resurrection.... and by basics, I mean I pretty much told him that Jesus got owies on his hands, loves us a lot, that he went away, and that he CAME BACK and we get to be with our family forever.  The next time he saw a picture of Jesus he said, "Jesus!  Owies on hands!  Oh no!"  Hmmm, pretty sure that that's all that really stuck with him.  Dang.  Better luck next time I guess. :-)

Anyway, as you can see, I made the kids take a bunny ears picture.  I couldn't help myself. And it turned out WAY better than last year's picture:

We saw the Easter Bunny at Walmart!  Free picture!  And good thing it was free since even though Matthew thought the Easter Bunny was incredibly awesome, he would NOT look at the camera.

We colored eggs!  Well, me and Matthew did anyway.  I am not cool enough to deal with the messy disaster it would've been if I'd let Kate participate this year.  ;-)  I got some cheap plastic eggs for Matthew to color on with markers, and of course we also dyed some real ones.

We took the kids on an egg hunt in the neighborhood the day before Easter.  They had different egg hunts depending on the child's age so it was nice that Matthew and Kate were able to hunt with other small kids and babies.

The Easter Bunny visited this egg hunt so we got another pic.... but once again, they would not look at the camera.  :-)

Why are Easter Bunnies ALL so creepy?  Is it that impossible to make a cute one???  Sheesh.

Anyway, the night before Easter Matthew helped me bake up a bunny cake.  He loves helping me in the kitchen.

My counters?  Yeah, I'd like to say sorry and that they're not normally that messy, but honestly.... they usually ARE that messy.  Agh.

On Easter morning we let the kids open their presents (a couple small toys and a book for each of them) and then had to jet off to 8 a.m. church!  I did manage to sneak in a family pic using a timer.  :-)

We had an Easter Feast that evening.  Matthew's favorite part was, by far, the bunny cake.

So glad I got to celebrate with the fam, and so grateful that I get to be with them forever because of my Savior.