Fall has arrived

Folks, we’ve got big news. The water coming out of the tap is….COLD! Yes, we are as shocked and relieved as you. We thought the summer would never end. That is not to say that the hot weather is gone. The 100s are gone, but we still get into the upper 90s most days. But still, that is such a relief from the continuous heat. The kids and I bade fall break farewell by visiting a pumpkin patch in north Mesa. Yeah, I didn’t realize how far away it was when I bought the Groupon. It took like 30 minutes to drive there! Sheesh. But it was really fun and well worth the trip. If it were closer I’d make this an annual tradition. We’ll have to stick to a pumpkin patch closer to home next time.

Amazingly, they all looked through this thing and smiled. For a few seconds while I fumbled for my cell phone. Yes, I forgot to grab my camera (forehead smack). Thankfully I got a few cell phone pics before the battery died (just my luck).

Bounce houses are always a favorite of ours. Emily tried it for 3 seconds then decided she wanted off. My kids jumped for a while, then got out to get slathered with sunscreen (I DID remember that). As we were lotioning up, the bounce house motor thingy ran out of gas and it collapsed! Really quickly. The kids still inside were like, “hey, what’s happening!?” and a bunch of adults ran over to help them out. It was hilarious but my kids were very concerned for the ones left behind. I pointed out that they would be safe and then tried to help them see the humor in the situation. In reality if my kids were in there and it collapsed, they would probably freak out and scream. That would not have been so hilarious.

Pony rides! They chose the smallest, cutest little pony. Emily wasn’t such a big fan, and was more entertained by putting a penny in and out of her pocket than by the fact that she was riding a horse. No picture of her because I had to hold her on while she rode.

 

Natalie looks almost too big for this pony! lol

They also had this cute little hay bale maze set up. The kids got a kick out of it. Even Emily walked around and around. I could tell she felt like one of the big kids.

 

Barrel train. I plopped Emily down in one by herself and they drove off before I realized, hey, she’s all alone in her little car. What if she starts crying? What if she bonks her head? My baby! I should have put her in the car with Natalie. They went down this little road barely out of my sight but I was so worried! But all was good. They returned with smiling, dusty little faces.

Here is Emily running through this huge tire half buried in the ground. There were several in a row to play around with.

After we had our fill of previously mentioned activities, we hopped on a hay ride that took us down to a little petting zoo. It was fun as all petting zoos are, but the coolest thing was this peacock in the tree. It was so beautiful! The kids were more interested in the incredibly soft little bunny. Natalie held it but it scratched her arm as it was trying to escape her grasp. She was about to be sad, but then I was like, “wow! A real bunny scratch! What a cool story to go along with that owie!” and then she was all proud. It’s all about the reaction, folks.

Anyway, after we petted all the animals and washed our hands (with real soap and water set out for our use, isn’t that nice?) we got back on the hay ride and went a little further down the road to the “pumpkin patch.” It was as much of a pumpkin patch as the local grocery store is, but the kids thought it was neat. The big girls each picked out a small pumpkin (for the same price as a grocery store big pumpkin, sheesh) and took it back to the original area to decorate with stickers and paint.

They had a really good time and before we knew it, we had been there for over two hours! We were covered in dirt and other unpleasant outdoor/animal stuff but raced home to get dinner fixed for the sister missionaries. Whew. The timing worked out perfectly even though we got red lights the whole way home. I was praying for greens because we were running late, but Heavenly Father must have known that I would be able to get it done even with red lights and sure enough, I was. Lesson in trusting in the Lord’s timing.

Hooray for Fall. Next up, Halloween!

Lil’ Sweetie

Can you believe this little girl is 19 months old now? {ignore the messy mirror in the following photos}

I know every parent says this, but seriously, the time has flown.  This was her first real hair do.

She goes to nursery at church now, and does really well. As long as I’m in there with her.

She seems like such a baby still! Especially compared to the big year olds.

Emily loves books. She could probably sit for a straight thirty minutes and be read to. It’s the first thing she does when she wakes up. “Books!” She also loves going outside (“ousss”).  The stroller (“lo-lo”) is a source of great excitement especially if we’re going to the park (“paht”).

This girl is so brave. She thinks she’s a big kid sometimes and literally jumps right into whatever’s going on. All summer she just jumped right into the swimming pool. I had to constantly keep my eyes on her because she jumped in so fearlessly. I finally put floaties on her even though she’s  a little young, just to make sure she would bob and not sink if she jumped in while I was looking at one of the other kids.

She is learning her colors and gets them right about 25% of the time. She can do many body parts, including elbow, chest, knee, and neck. Here she is showing me her nose.

And her “mouf.” She can say so many words, seeming to add more each day. The one word we always chuckle at is how she says yes. “hum” is how she says it. We like to ask her a series of yes/no questions in a row to hear her say “hum” at every one.

Every time my injured finger  is mentioned, Emily always says “’dage” meaning “garage.” Our conversation always goes like this:

Me: Emily, did mommy hurt her finger?

Em: Dage! (pronounced dodge)

Me: the door of the garage?

Em: hum

Me: did mommy cry? "

Em: hum

Me: Was mommy sad?

Em: hum

She’s so funny.

I prefer “gracefully challenged.”

You would think that since part of my livelihood (not to mention a great source of enjoyment for me) is playing the flute, I would take better care of my fingers.

Back in June I smashed my left ring finger in my car door. I was at Walmart with the kids and after I got my crying under control, we quickly went straight in to the frozen section where I got a bag of frozen peas and held it to my finger the whole time. It was excruciatingly painful, and I don’t even know how I got through the shopping trip.  The bruising went away after a couple of weeks, then the black swollen nail grew out and fell off, then new nail grew in. It’s a little lumpy but it looks pretty much normal. Because the pain was virtually nonexistent so soon I knew it hadn’t been broken. Total recovery time: 4 months.

That morning, I had played my flute at a funeral. I said a thank-you prayer that this accident didn’t happen the day before because there’s NO WAY I could have played my flute. Then I only had to play at flute lessons, and I was able to avoid most playing while it was still in pain.

 

Fast forward to last week. I was trying to close my garage door (the outside automatic one) and it kept bouncing up after coming down. I was out in the car about to drive to exercise class with my two littler ones in their car seats. I decided to pull the red cord to be able to close it manually (can you see where this is going?). Went outside and put my fingers in the highest gap between panels that I could reach to get it to roll down. Sure enough, I didn’t get my left middle finger out in time and it got squished between panels. It HURT. SO. BAD!! I can’t even describe it. I panicked for a split second after a quick tug would not release it, but then kept my wits about me. I reached down with my right hand and rolled upward two feet or so until the crack opened and I was able to pull it out. Then I proceeded to cry and cry. My poor kids had no idea what was going on. I could not even speak. After a few minutes somehow I drove the car back into the garage and got the kids out. Plopped them in front of the TV and went to lie down in my bed because I was feeling weak and nauseous from the pain. After it subsided a little (ice made it feel worse) I tried to rinse it off with the tiniest trickle of water (it was dusty from the garage door). That small amount of water caused so much pain I started crying all over again. I remembered that lavender oil helps with bruising so I dripped some on my finger and the pain lessened quite a bit. Took some ibuprofen and basically had a “sick” day because I wasn’t able to do pretty much anything. The worst was trying to change Em’s diapers. She hates it and rolls and kicks and it is impossible to do it with one hand so I had to use my left hand. Oh, it hurt.

 

Anyway, I know there are worse pains to be had and I’m just having a pity party over here, but I wanted to record it. The finger doesn’t have as much pain as it did a week ago but it is swollen and the nail is black. There was obviously some nerve damage and I have no sensation in the tip of my finger. It was squashed as flat as a pancake when I got it out and some blood blisters formed instantly. The nail is black but I am anticipating the return of a regular nail by Valentine’s Day 2013. Thankfully I don’t have orchestra rehearsal until a week from Saturday. I’m hoping to have a little sensation back by then so I can tell if I’m covering the hole of my flute key. If not I’ll have to borrow a plug from one of  my students.

 

May the rest of my fingers stay whole and uninjured!

Growing up

On the first day of kindergarten, Natalie lost her first tooth! She had been wiggling it for a while and was asking me how she would know if it was ready to come out. I said, “try pulling it.” She did, and POP! It fell right out and onto the table. She was so surprised! It was hilarious. She and I made a little tooth pouch and put her tooth in it to leave for the tooth fairy. She woke up to a dollar the next day. It was so cute to watch her enjoy the magic of it all. Her adult teeth had already grown in behind the baby teeth before the baby teeth were even loose so we were relieved when we finally got rid of those baby ones. It would not have been fun to lose her first tooth in the dentist’s chair!

 

Father’s Day 2012

The girls and I put together this fun little gift for Mark. We found a frame that they could all fit in side by side and it’s now in his Phx office.

Loving my pretty girls!

The Block Party

Back in April we had a neighborhood block party. It was so fun! I’ll make this a mostly pics post cuz I have a sore finger and typing is no fun.

 

There was a pony ride. The girls LOVED this. Esp Hannah. She got to ride on this cute little pony.

 

The fire department was also there and let kids sit in the fire truck.

But this bounce house was definitely the highlight. They played in it for a looooong time. The bad part was that we couldn ‘t

see the girls once they went in but I’m told it was super cool. Em and I hung out in the grass and tried on all the shoes.

 

What block party is complete without a petting zoo? Bunnies are so soft and cuddly. Chickens? Not so much.

 

 

 

This is a goat. I think. Hannah had a runny nose that day, can you tell?

Bowling with the Sheppards

We had the chance to go bowling over Labor Day weekend (I think) with our good friends, Lucas and Jenny Sheppard. They have twin girls Natalie’s age and a little baby girl as well.

A couple of years ago we went to a cabin in Pine Top with them for a few days and it was so much fun. They now live in Glendale while Lucas is going to dental school so we only see them

once in a while. They were all a little shy at first but warmed up to each other right away!

 

The big girls bowled straight through one game without waning interest, but Em was NOT into it at all. She and I ended up playing arcade games while the

others bowled. There were a lot of things to look at and it kept us busy for quite a while.

 

Ava, Hannah, Natalie, and Brynn. This picture is so much fun.