Arizona Historical Society Museum

So Jared and I ventured out with the kids in the heat to go see the Arizona Historical Society Museum.  You weren’t supposed to use a flash in the museum so not all of my pictures turned out and those that are here aren’t that great.

Christian really enjoyed the room that showed the history of “Spring Training” in Phoenix.  He liked trying on all of the hats in the “dug-out” best.  

      

Here’s a photo of announcer’s equipment from back in the day.

Upstairs, they had an area about the agriculture of Arizona and how it all began with the Natives and their amazing canals and how there are tons of them.

Vivian really enjoyed making the different products light-up as she pressed the pictures.

Downstairs, there is a transportation and travel room that is totally interactive for the children.  Christian really liked that they had yet another hat he could try on…though this one (a conquistador's) has got to be the worst thing to wear in the heat of Arizona…if you can fry an egg on the sidewalk, what happens to your brain in this hat?They had the funniest car here that is supposed to demonstrate time and travel….it was pretty fun.  The kids of course had zero interest in just sitting in the back and middle seats so I could take a picture….   …They wanted to “DRIVE”!  I could not stop laughing when Vivian and Christian figured out this system to drive the car, she steers and he pushes the pedal.  When I asked Christian who was going to watch where they were going he replied “You can do that mom”!  LOL

 

(If you can’t tell, this is one of those days I need a “Daddy Dressed me” button ;) ).       This photo is a little fuzzy but it illustrates nicely how intent Vivian is when she colors….and her obsession with silly bands!

This next area was interesting to Christian because he likes to build things and they had lots of materials for kids to construct roads and bridges for the wooden cars to drive over.          Over all it was a pretty fun museum (upstairs they have a real plane floating in the WWII room that you can get up close and person to).  We are for sure going to go back there and spend some more time looking at all the exhibits….and if my parent’s come here, I’m sure they’d LOVE this museum. ;)

Is Five easier than Two?

At the beginning of July, because of the holiday, my neighbor’s babysitter was still on vacation when they came home from their vacation.  So I was asked to watch the twins as well as their older brother.  Things actually were pretty easy except for with my own big boy who was having a difficult time sharing his mom. ;)  I tried to do a new art “activity” everyday to keep them occupied, which worked well between breakfast, playing and lunch.  One day we colored, another we painted and another we played play-dough.  These pictures are from our play-dough day.  It was pretty fun to watch Vivian getting into the play-dough with real interest for the first time.        Christian and Vivian kept getting into each other’s way as you can see from her look of distress!

      The first time EVER in documented history that Vivian has smiled when I told her to “say cheese”!

Once the older kids all noticed that I had the camera out, they all wanted to pose for a picture…with Ginger!  It cracks me up that she’s their favorite back-drop! Sophia

Zion

Christian

Moses

It actually seemed easier to watch all five kids just because I got SO MUCH DONE(!) while they were here….at least for the majority of the time because they entertained each other.  Some of the time, I felt like a maid just because five kids (and with three that aren’t your own  that you can assign chores to) takes a lot of clean up.  I taught piano one of the days and my friend Julie came to help watch kids upstairs while I taught so there were eleven kids at my house at that point!  Needless to say, our house was very quiet after having them over for three days.  But it was fun while they were here!

Splish-Splash!

Vivian is a complete and total water-baby!  Since she was actually taking a bath alone (without her big brother), I thought I’d take some photos of her.  Here is a sample of her and her cuteness in the tub!

 

Tidal wave!

   

“I love getting water in my face!”

  

“Watch me splash my face!”

 

“A little too much water to see…”

“Time to splash some more!”

“Dang, they made me get out and they’re trying to dry me off!”  

June Catch-up

I don’t really know how I’ve been so terrible about blogging lately so this is a major catch-up post. :)

This June it got too hot for me to walk outside everyday so I got to enjoy waking up and cuddling with the kids.  It’s pretty funny because whichever parent is cuddling Christian, Vivian thinks she has to have the parent cuddle her too so it’s not like Jared and I each get a child.  One parent is the favorite at time…that’s why I was able to take these funny pictures of the kids playing with Jared one morning.

Vivian is pretty into being tickled and as you can see from the pictures, she doesn’t need to talk to tell us she wants to be tickled. ;)

 

The boys cuddling…

Vivian’s gorgeous blue eyes       

 

Near the end of June we attended a funeral of a man from our ward in Central Phoenix that though he had severe Parkinson's disease and was confined to a wheel-chair and couldn’t speak easily, he was a great example of a faithful member.  He attended all the meetings that he could despite being unable to speak.  When I think that about him, I feel ashamed to whine about how difficult it is to be to church.  Here’s a photo of Vivian and I after I finished putting her shoes on to go to the funeral.  It was a very good service, and though it was a long drive, I felt that it was worth it for the spiritual boost I felt there.

   

One night, after I’d cleaned the kitchen and went upstairs for family prayer, this is the darling sight I found on my bed….    

I can’t help it, I just think my kids are so cute!

On June 29th, we celebrated Vivian’s half-birthday with half a cake of course.   I had a ton of left-over banana’s from the co-op so I made banana cake with penuche icing.  Yum!

Vivian was a little too nervous to blow out her candles.  I have to say she is a very fun 18-month-old girl.  She loves to “sing” in church, dance around the living room, pound on the piano, color and draw, have her hair “done”, wear bracelets, and change shoes all day long (sometimes her own, sometimes not).  She is all girl.  It’s so much fun.  She’s not much a communicator, but she really does understand a lot.  Whenever I ask Christian to give Ginger water, Vivian goes and gets the watering can out.  She also will put away things without complaint.  It’s very nice.  Christian once left three pairs downstairs in a pile and I asked him to bring his shoes upstairs and he was ignoring me, so Vivian took each shoe upstairs one by one and put them away.  She LOVES to help and it’s darling.  We’ll see how long it lasts. ;) 

Hope you all had a Happy 4th...

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My Happy Birthday

This year for my birthday (which was on a Sunday this year)  Jared was sweet and took me out Friday night.  Then he surprised me by giving me a pearl necklace.  I was enamored to say the least. :)  The next day, we went to the library as a family where I found lots of fun books on decorating ideas and then we picked up a babysitter and went to the temple and enjoyed a lovely time shopping at Seagull Book and Tape afterwards for Christmas….because let’s face it, I’m a planner!   On the morning of my birthday,  Jared and Christian were very sweet and let me stay in bed all morning reading/looking at books before our 12:30 pm church.  When we got home from church, we hung out for a while and the kids gave me gifts….I told Jared that one of the gifts I wanted from him was a nice photo of him….he has a tendency to act either really cheesy or really bored when I pull out the camera and I think he’s so cute I want to capture his cuteness.  So after a dozen attempts or so, I got a pretty handsome photo of my darling husband.

Isn’t he dashing?!

Then I took a photo of Vivian in her outfit of the day… She just kept making her clothes super messy with food and other things so she ended up just diapered for most of the day….notice the accessories are still in place?  According to her, those are the most important factors of her wardrobe.  It’s pretty ironic considering accessories are the last thing I put on and the first thing I take off when I’m home. These next few photos are not the best of me but I love how you can tell how excited the kids were to watch me open my gifts.

Because Jared doesn’t usually think ahead as far as I do, and my birthday was a Sunday this year so I knew he wouldn’t be able to go shopping that morning, ;) I got myself the original “Part Trap” movie and “Summer Magic” so that he and the kids could wrap them for me I have always loved those two movies and maybe because the have something of that “Cinderella” theme that is present in so many movies that some “fairy godmother” will come along a help you fix what’s wrong in your life…and that maybe you can just fix most of your problems yourself... and I had also picked up a copy of The Lion House Cookbook at “Ladies Night”, on conference Saturday for Jared to give to me (all purchases are an additional 20% off during “Ladies Night”)!  I know I’m an insufferable planner because I love amazing deals on things I wanted anyway!    I know this photo’s not fabulous but I love how happy Vivian looks with all of my gifts.Haha, Christian took this picture of Jared and I because he has a real obsession with taking photos of us kissing…..I have no idea why.  I think he’s a little romantic! This year was the first birthday I’ve ever spent without a family celebration on or near “my day”.  I have generally been blessed to have a delicious meal prepared for my by my mother and sometimes with the help of my sisters or sister-in-law who are all really good cooks.  This year, I was wondering what I should make myself for days and days because I wanted to have something yummy and yet with little or no effort as it was a Sunday this year.  Wonderfully, my sweet friend Julie asked us to dinner and I was delighted to not have to make my own birthday meal.  :)   Julie made an amazing baked tortellini from www.ourbestbites.com as well as a beautiful and delicious chocolate drizzled strawberries and cream pie from the same site.  Sooo good.                    Doesn’t that look delicious?!  Here’s a cute photo of Jared and I.  I love having photos of us (since usually one of us is taking the pictures lately there are very few of both of us…unless their kissing pictures by Christian).  By the way, isn’t her shabby-chic table so fun?

Julie put this giant glob of chocolate on my plate for me to eat and I thought it resembled a dragon nesting on it’s treasure so much that I made her take a photo.  Can you see it?

I had a fabulous birthday and it’s all thanks to my wonderful husband, my beautiful children, my sweet friend Julie and her family, as well as all of the thoughtful facebook messages, and calls I got from friends and family.  Thanks everyone for making my birthday special!