Strike a Pose!

Enough said:)

Booty on the Head!???

Here is my family. They look like the average, run of the mill family right? So what makes them turn into this....


They try to jump on each others heads and shoulders while yelling Booty on the Head! It has become my family's favorite game to play while in the pool. Even Joelle wants to get in on it.

She jumped on Steve's back and yelled "Booty". Just think of the stories they will be able to tell their children about the games they played. Marco Polo, what is that, Booty on the Head was our game!

Hand-me-downs are Heaven

Look at the loot!! Once again Joelle was the more than happy recipient of hand me downs. The minute she walked in the door she looked at a Princess CD player and said "What that mommy?" She knew it was good. She grabbed the horsey and said "This my favorite horsey mommy." Then she said "I love the horsey." These came just in the knick of time. We are leaving for Wisconsin on Tuesday and after 3 weeks of playing with the same toys day in and day out, Joelle needed something different. She is very excited to go to Grandpa Bob's house. Apparently Grandma Ginny is chopped liver since she saw her 2 weeks ago. Grandma Ginny and I were on the phone earlier today and Joelle said, "I talk Grandpa Bob". David and Megan are on a vacation with their mom and a day after they get back, we leave. They have such busy summers, but they enjoy every minute of it. They are so excited now that Grandpa is retired, because they will be able to fish more!

Amateur Haircut

I decided that Joelle needed a haircut. Her hair had gotten so long in the back that every morning it was a frizzy, tangled mess. She has very fine, dry hair and it is difficult to keep it looking nice- especially in the back. She got her first haircut at Cost Cutters and they did a great job, but I had a hard time paying $15 for a haircut that took-literally- 5 minutes. Plus, when I was in my early 20's I had friends that went to cosmetology school and became hair stylists so I learned a lot about how to cut hair. Or so I thought.... It started out just fine. Joelle has curly hair in the back and I was sure that cutting it would cut the curl off. I LOVE her curl because as a girl with thin, fine hair myself I understand what it will be like for her as she gets older. There are a lot of hair styles that I could not have growing up because of the type of hair I have. If Joelle had curls, that would help her out. I started out by cutting the length in the back shorting and blending it with her sides. That went really well and she was doing a great job sitting still and following my directions so I thought, well, I guess I should try to layer the back a little so that it has some volume. This is where I sort of got nervous. After the first cut I realized that this idea was not going to work because I really did not know what I was doing!! In theory, what I did will work, just not when it is on a 2 year old who is turning her head and not sitting high enough because I don't have a barber chair. I ended up having to cut the length a little shorter than I had wanted and I was worried that Steve was not going to like what I had done and I would end up paying the money for a REAL stylist to fix my mistakes. I decided to take a break, wait until her hair dried and then decide what I was going to do. Once it dried- it looked great:) Whew! I was really nervous and it looks great. All of the curl is not gone and I think that helped to hide any mistakes I made. All in all, I am pretty happy with the job that I did. I hope Steve is too!!

Pretty Pretty Princess Anyone?

Today our friend "Uncle" Michael and his daughter Maya came over with gifts for Joelle. They had cleaned out Maya's play room and brought Joelle things that Maya thought she might like! And boy did she like them:) Here she is in a princess dress standing by her new Dora chair. When she saw the dresses, her eyes sparkeled and she wanted to try them on right away. She even insisted on wearing her princess dress up shoes. She is such a girl.

When she put this dress on, she said "I want my bunny hat." I wasn't sure what she was talking about, but then realized she wanted to wear the white bunny ears with the white princess dress. Already she accessorizes!

But what she really liked was spinning and dancing in the dresses!

When Joelle is a teenager and testing my patience on every level, I hope I can take a breath and remember times like this. The cutest thing of all was that every time she put on a new dress, she had to go outside and show her Daddy. I don't know what was more precious, that she needed to show him each dress, or the look in his eyes each time she did.

Are You Okay David?

This is what Joelle would ask David each and every time after shooting him with a water gun!! At least she was concerned for his well being. It is such a treat to watch the kids interacting with each other. They love each other so much. Joelle could not have asked for better siblings. When the doorbell rings in our house, Joelle is so excited she runs for the door to see who is there. When we open the door and it is the kids mom coming to take them away, Joelle stops dead in her tracks and turns and walks the other way. She knows the kids are going to have to leave and she doesn't like it! Likewise, when we open the door at the end of the day and they are coming back- she will look out the window and see them and begin screaming because she is so excited they are back home. I am so blessed to be able to spend the summers with my kids. I can't think of anything better:)

Who won?

A common occurance each day is the race. The kids are never really sure that I am a good judge of who really won, so I decided to tape them and show them that I do know what I am talking about. Of course, after seeing this video, David decided he needed a rematch!

I swimming!

said Joelle as she went swimming for the first time all on her own (without being prodded that is:). She was so proud of herself and swam the length of the pool several times today. She is getting to be a pro in her life jacket. I can't wait to see if she will get in the lake when we go to Wisconsin later this month.

She is very girly girl! She loves to play Pretty, Pretty Princess with her sister and get all dolled up!

Museum Mishaps

Wow, what a great day we had planned. First stop, the Arizona Museum for the Youth. They have a Cactus League exhibit!! We got there when the doors opened, had great parking and then we saw this.....

HOW does this happen? I have no idea. Lucky for me, Super Steve to the rescue. While the kids and I enjoyed the museum, he got on the phone and headed to where we were to solve the problem. We had a great time at the museum!!


By the time we were done at the museum, Steve was in the parking lot waiting for us. He too wondered how does this happen. Lucky for me he did not blame my driving (which was not the reason-ask the kids)!

Swimming

Joelle LOVES to swim. She usually starts out a little timid, but after a few minutes she is crazy. She wants to jump off the side and do whatever her big brother and sister are doing. She has discovered that her life jacket will keep her afloat and she actually used the kickboard to move around in the pool. She also grabs the sides of the pool and uses her hands to walk around the pool. She does it over and over again. After the first day of doing this, I was changing her clothes and she put her arms over her head and said "ouwee", her arms hurt!!

You Go Girl!!

Here is the power house hitter!! Megan had a great softball season this year. Between having a great batting average and....



Being the star pitcher, she had a terrific season. I think she got the game ball 90% of the time. That's our girl:)

Junior High????

OMG, wow. I can't believe that the little boy with the wild, high energy personality is in the 7th grade. He has graduated from the DARE program and is on his way to some scary stuff. The more I think about it, the better I feel about him going to Junior High. He has such a wonderful personality and is always very caring. I am hoping that will help him get through any tough times. I remember when I first met David. It seems like just yesterday that he was in kindergarten. The time goes by so fast. His dad and I are so thankful that he is maturing into a kind, generous adult.