Kent’s New Job

After three interviews, Kent received a job offer as an Instructional Designer at the University of Advancing Technology, here in Tempe, AZ. Yeah! It was probably the sharp looking shirt and tie I picked out for him for his interviews. :) He started right away, this past Monday in fact. He is excited about this new job and the career and learning opportunity it presents. But for me, I have some mixed feelings. I love that he got a job here in Arizona, which I was praying for. So, I was excited too, yet at the same time this is a great change for me and I am trying to get used to it.
Ever since we have been married, for the last 4 years, Kent has been in school and has had the most flexible schedule. He could work from home and be home anytime I wanted him to. He would watch the girls every time I worked, it was lovely.  He also used to do all the grocery shopping the days I worked.  Maybe I was super spoiled, but I loved it. So my husband having to go to work Mon-Fri is quite the change I am trying to get used to. I even went grocery shopping for the first time in over a year; blah!

This semester shall be a very busy one too. I sometimes don't know how we will do it.  Kent will be working full time while finishing his doctoral dissertation. He also will continue to go on camp-outs and outings and weekly Wednesday night scout meetings, etc, etc, with the young men. I will be working part time until mid October when our new baby is due to be born. My wonderful mom will help us out watching the girls when we both have to work. I will also try to balance along with work and new baby, being the primary president in our ward, attending to primary needs, planning the upcoming primary program, trying to attend work meetings and renew my certifications, and being a mother to a three and two year old, etc. Just say'in, that is why the laundry is not folded yet. :)

Preschool Begins

Anna started preschool on Monday. I can’t believe my oldest baby girl is big enough to go to preschool. I remember when she was just little, we would take walks down our street past the preschool, she would always watch the kids playing and ask when she got to go to preschool. I told her, “oh, when you a 3 years old and a little bigger you can go to preschool too.” Lo and behold she turned 3 and got a little bigger!

She was so excited to go on her first day and went right it. She really likes it and I am glad she gets to go.

It is good to have some one on one time with Elise too, before the baby comes, and just focus on her. It is strangely quite in the car after I drop off Anna, I guess Anna is the one always talking. Elise asked a few times when we were going to pick up Anna from preschool.

Uncle Chris Came to Town

The group of Boy Scouts that Kent works with decided to do a backpacking high adventure trip this year to Fossil Springs. We decided to invite Uncle Chris to come down and spend some time with us as well as go on the backpacking trip.

After a little confusion regarding plane flights, Chris came down and we had a great time! The backpacking trip was great, and the other scouts ended up calling Chris “the Terminator” because nothing could slow him down of stop him.

For those who don’t know, Fossil Springs is a beautiful oasis in the bottom of a high desert canyon. Below, Chris shows some of the awesomeness that is Fossil Springs. Chillin’ in the mini waterfall! And boy do we mean chillin’. The water was freezing cold, but it felt nice after the 4 mile hike in with full packs. Though the water was cold, it was a beautiful paradise complete with ripe blackberries, swimming holes, rope swings, and lots of waterfalls.

The girls had so much fun with Uncle Chris. Chris flew in after the girls had gone to bed, so when they woke up he was there waiting for them. At first, they didn’t know what to think of this strange guy in their living room. Kent left for 5 minutes to drop Dayna off at work, and by the time he got home, Chris had won the hearts of the girls. They had so much fun playing with Chris, teasing him, etc…they did not want him to leave.

Monsoons, Sleep, Rafting, Ultrasounds, and More

“Mom, can we go outside and see the rain?” “Sure”

“We just want to get our feet wet.”

“Can we just stand in it for a moment, mom?”

One thing leads to another…

We love the monsoon rains here. They are definitely a welcome reprieve from the summer heat and a lot of fun too.

I love to peek into the girls room to see them sleeping. They always look like little angels and just the sweetest things. I also find it funny the positions Anna gets herself into at night.

Sometimes the girls pull out the bookends from the bookshelf to use as their book reading chairs. You will also often find them practicing their pouring skills and saying “darling” in their much loved tea parties.

And for my birthday this year we finally got to take out the raft, just the two of us, and row around the lake like we have been wanting to do for 4 years since we bought it.

Well, we got another ultrasound of our littlest athlete and found her doing a somersault with great form and position. We scored it a 10!


One last little story:

Last week I got to church and realized I forgot my primary keys and I had to come all the way back from the church to get them. Well, this week as I was walking out the door to head to church with the girls, my smart little, barely 2 year old Elise said, “memer prwimawy eeys.” I couldn’t even understand her for the first two times she said it, and almost brushed her off. She then she looked at me intently and repeated, “memer prwimawy eeys.”  Then I said, “Oh yes!! Thank you so much Elise for reminding mama to get her primary keys. What a big helper.”  I can’t believe my little 2 year old remembered. What a darling helper.

Elise Potty Trained

We potty trained Elise in July at just over 2 years, she was totally ready, as she had been watching and trying to copy her sister for awhile but we wanted to wait until the family reunion, swim lessons and all that stuff was over.

I personally hate potty training because I feel like I am stuck in the house for a week until they get the hang of it, not wanting to go to the store or anywhere where there surely would be puddles. It took a good 2 days is all until she got the hang of it and was having minimal accidents. Though we kept the area rug tucked away for a few weeks as she was still learning and would have accidents here and there every day. I gave her lots of juice and drinks and I had her help me take her Josh teddy bear to the bathroom often. I would squirt yellow, food coloring dyed, water from a syringe behind the bear and then we would clap for the Josh bear and give him a treat and let him put a sticker on the sticker chart. Then when Elise went potty we would do the same thing for her.

Some funny things about potty training Elise is that Anna was not going to be left out. She wanted a treat too and a sticker every time she went potty also, though she is already potty trained, she even wanted the praise attention and clapping that we gave Elise so it was like potty training two girls, except the one never had accidents. Anna had her own sticker chart too.

It was funny watching the girls and their different cognitive levels. When I would put the teddy bear on the toilet and discreetly squirt the yellow water into the toilet behind the bear to make him pee, Elise would just watch and say, “Good job Josh Bear” like it was normal that teddy bears peed in the toilet. On the other hand Anna would grab the teddy bear, pick him up and look behind him and underneath him trying to figure out how I made that happen. Then she would look at me very suspiciously. Kinda funny. I never let her on to it though.

Another thing different between the two was that Anna was big on the treat (two skittles) part of it and Elise could really care less about the skittles. The thing that motivated her was that she wanted a sticker to put on her sticker chart.

Well, no more diapers for a few months until baby comes. Just pull-ups at night and naps, I am not going to attempt potty training the girls at night quite yet. I don’t have it in me, especially with a new baby on her way.

The Drama that Goes on Here- Flushing and Poo Poos

Elise walked into the bathroom as Anna finished up going poo poos in the toilet and decided to flush the toilet. Anna then started bawling that she wanted to flush her own poo poos down the toilet. Then Elise said she had to go poo poo. When Elise finished, I told Anna to go flush the toilet so that she would stop crying; she did. Then Elise realized that the poo poos Anna just flushed were hers and she started bawling. Seeing Elise start crying, Anna remembered her own poo poo that she didn’t get to flush and started bawling again. I had two girls in the bathroom crying so loud you would think it was the end of the world, with crocodile tears streaming off their faces. Oh dear, the hardships!

4th of July, hair, and other stuff

We went to mom and dad’s house to celebrate the 4th for a BBQ and fireworks with some cousins and grandparents. The kids loved the little firework show that Danny put on and waving around their sparklers magic wands.

A couple days earlier we went to see Mesa's big firework show with the girls. When the fireworks and let off the big booming noise the girls both got very scared. Elise calmed right down but Anna started crying and would not look at the fireworks for several minutes. I finally had to convince Anna that they were little sparkly fairies yelling yeah, horray, boom boom, before she would watch the rest of the show.

Anna’s hair is finally getting a little longer, though her bangs still haven’t grown more than an inch since she was born. Her favorite hair style is the bouncy pig tails. After I put them in her hair she likes to stand in front of the mirror, jump up and down, and watch them bounce.

I also decided to try to French braid Anna’s hair for the first time and it worked out pretty well and she liked it.

When Anna gets bouncy pigtails Elise asks for bouncy hair too. Hers is barely long enough to put in piggys and after a day at church ends up looking pretty frazzled. I love her cute short look though.

The girls love to have popcorn parties. They like to pull chairs up to the counter, pour the popcorn in the air pop popcorn, push the button, and watch it pop. Then we usually go sit somewhere on the floor together or outside and gobble it all up; a fun, yummy snack.

At breakfast time the girls and I like eating green smoothies. They get a kick out of their green mustaches and make silly faces to go along with them.

The bear slippers come out pretty frequently in our house too. Everyone walks around growling, it gets pretty scary.

The girls are always begging for a story. They also like to take their dolls for walks, make pretend birthday cakes and pies with blocks or macaroni, ride bikes, swim, play with bikes, chase each other, watch moves and make great big messes, and help with everything. But their favorite thing is to go to Nana’s house. Oh and they just got done with two weeks of swimming lessons. Anna cried the first three days but then did great and Elise hated loved it but hated getting her head wet or going under.

The girls are always playing together. When Elise takes a nap in the middle of the day I will often hear Anna say, “When Elise wakes up…” or “When is Elise going to wake up?” She really misses her sister when they are apart for only two hours. I try to do preschool stuff with her during that time.

Elise is a funny girl. She will randomly come up to us and say,”funny faces,” and make the silliest faces. She is the sweetest girl too and will give us lots of kisses and loves. Tonight when I was laying next to her to help her fall asleep she sat up and said, “kisses baby,” lifted up my shirt and kissed my pregnant belly. Then she got her extra pillow and put it on my belly and said, “pillow baby sleep.” She wanted to make sure baby had a pillow to sleep on too. She is also a stubborn girl. We just started potty training yesterday, and she will not sit on the toilet unless she wants to. She will say, “No!” emphatically, or say, “want to,” which Elise’s language means she doesn’t want to. But when she actually does really well when she wants to.

And yes I am 6 months pregnant now and that baby is kicking and wanting a name.