Oh, What do you do in the Summer Time…?

Now that summer has officially ended I will re-cap some of our daily summer activities. Arizona Summers are hot; so most of our time is spent indoors, though we do go out for small bouts of time so we don’t go CRAZY! So here’s what we do in the summer time…

The girls like getting out the macaroni bucket and making cakes and pies with macaroni or pretend lunches, and we pretend eat it, or they just sit in it and play.

Finding rolly pollies is a outside favorite thing to do. Then watching them crawl around and roll in balls.

Oh, and reading books. We go to the library about every other week to choose 10 new books and the girls love reading. They always want us to read them stories but sometime they will just sit down themselves when I say it is quite reading time and look at the pictures.

Oh, and popcorn parties are a frequent favorite. We have an air popper and the girls will stand on a chair pour in the popcorn and watch it pop. Then we usually go outside or sit in a circle in the family room and have our popcorn party. It most definitely is a favorite treat.

The Summer here is monsoon season so we get fun warm rains. We could only find one umbrella this day so Anna insisted she was going to use it. Carefree Elise just said OK, and went and picked up the bucket on the porch and put it over her head for her umbrella. When Anna saw Elise walking around with an bucket on her head she thought it looked pretty fun so she said, “Elise, let’s switch.”

Taking their dolls on a walk in the baby doll strollers is also a very enjoyable activity.

Tea parties are often requested. We always use the toy bucket as a table and the girls just love pouring their own tea, usually water but sometimes they get Gatorade if they are lucky. They will say “darling” and love the variety of eating this way. They always want me to join in with them.

Making bubble crowns is a very mermaid thing to do. It sure makes bath time fun.

Blowing bubbles usually last until they spill all their bubbles, which does not take them very long to do. Notice when Elise concentrates that little tongue of hers comes out. I wonder where she got that from?

Dressing up like princesses and dancing to princess music is quite a common occurrence here. The girls like putting on the same thing and being princesses together.

Their wonderful daddy made play dough for them and they request this activity quite often. They like taking the cookie cutters and making lots of shapes.

Girls day and Nana’s house. Yes, the girls favorite place to go is Nana’s house. It basically is their second home. We would go over there at least once a week, and all summer long they got to swim and play in Nana’s backyard. And having girls day and hanging out with the family and cousins is always a treat.

Another absolute new favorite for them is putting together puzzles. They absolutely love it and don’t tire of it. It is requested daily. I have to sit there with them and help them a bit but they are getting good. Anna can do a 24 piece puzzle on her own and Elise can do an 18 piece on her own now. I figure it is good for them. It will build their problem solving skills, their fine motor skills and, concentration.

And most possibly the #1 favorite summertime activity…We swim in a pool to keep ourselves cool. Oh, the girls love going swimming and really got comfortable in the water this summer. They have learned to swim pretty fast with their floaties on and just love playing out there.

Is that what you do?… So do I.

Sparkles for his Girls

Kent is a cute daddy. He went a bought sparkles so he could keep his little girls shoes looking sparkly and pretty for them. The sparkles were coming off so he modge podged sparkles back on the bare spots and has done it several times now on different shoes that they have owned to make them happy and feel like sparkly princesses.

Tucson Getaway

Our last weekend together before Kent started his new job we decided to go on a little vacation, and as I had never been to Tucson before that is where we headed.

Half was to Tucson there is a little Ostrich farm where the girls got to feed lots of animals. The deer were their favorite. It was fun watching the girls. At first Anna was really scared, then she got into it when we told her how hungry the deer were. Elise would open her mouth really wide every time she gave some food to the deer.

It was quite the shock to Elise when a bird landed on her back. She did not know what to do. The ostriches where actually pretty scary animals so we stayed back.

That night we stayed at a hotel and went swimming there which the girls loved. The next next day we headed out to Sabino Canyon and went hiking amongst the Saguaro cacti on bear canyon trail. We rode a tram up to the trailhead, the girls thought it was the funnest ride. We only hiked about 0.5 miles with the girls stopping to pick up rocks and such every few steps but it was really too hot to hike much farther than that.

Then we headed to the creek to cool off. It was lovely; Anna tried to catch all the little fish swimming around and Elise had fun sliding down the rock water fall slide.

The tram only came around to the trailhead once an hour, we were going to let the girls play one more hour but at the last minute we decided we better go because the girls were getting tire and grouchy. Uh oh, we had to get to the trailhead from the creek which was .25 miles away in like 2 minutes if we were to catch the tram. We grabbed the girls as they were, bare feet and all, Kent put Anna on his shoulders and I put Elise on mine and Kent started running. Seven months pregnant and a 30 lbs girl on my shoulders and I thought, OK I can do this! This is what I have been exercising for! So I ran and I made it to the tram just in time; I was very proud of myself.

A Snapshot of Anna right now.

I wanted to just catch a moment in life and freeze it. This picture describes Anna today. We were off to preschool and she insisted that she wanted to wear her green dress that spins, the same dress she wears to church every Sunday, the same dress that says 18 months on the tag, the same dress that is getting quite tight on her and feels very hot in the Arizona summer; yet she loves this dress because it spins and princesses only wear dresses that spin. She begged me to let her wear her tiara to preschool today so that she would “look so pretty.” I figure she is only three once and every other girl in the preschool is about three too so they probably would not think it odd, so I said “OK.” Her favorite shoes are her sparkly shoes because they are princess shoes. They really are her Sunday shoes but every once an a while I let her wear them to preschool. If it was her choice they would be all she wears. And she must wear them with lacey socks that she puts on herself and folds down just like I taught her. Today was “show and tell” in preschool. I asked her what she wanted to bring and she said, “my Tangled doll!” It is her favorite doll. She sleeps with it at night and dances with it when we play Tangled music. She is a little shy at preschool and around people she does not know but loves other girls and loves to have fun. This is my snapshot of Anna girl this morning the 28th of August 2013.

Lying on the Warm Cement

As a kid I did not have a pool, so on those hot summer days my siblings and I would run through the sprinklers.  Then we would often go lay down on the warm sidewalk to dry off and get warm again. I remember the smell of the hot cement as a kid, and the feel of it’s warmth against my skin and lying looking at the little holes and rocks that made up the cement and watching little ants walk by.

So when my girls ran though the sprinklers the other day and then went to soak in the warmth of the the cement, memories of childhood came flooding back to me.

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.