Where's my Wewing Ring?

It seems like I haven't been snapping very many pictures of the kids lately...but I did today. Sometimes I think, "They're just so dang cute I wanna squeeze them til their heads pop off!" Mmmmmmm....I LOVE 'EM!

Mason's been "singing" up a storm lately. It's usually the same tune over and over. It goes a little something like this.... "mmmmmm buh. mmmmmm buh. mmmmmm buh" I sense a record deal in the near future!

Hannah fit her "crack mommy up moment" in for the day. We're driving to the gym and I'm chatting with Jim on the phone...not thinking that she's paying a bit of attention to what I'm saying (Monster's Inc. was on, afterall). I was explaining to Jim how since I stopped taking the Prednisone the other day that I can feel my knees tightening up again and that I had to take my wedding ring off this morning because my fingers were swelling. Hannah pipes in, "Mommy you took your wewing wing off?"
I said, "Yeah Honey I did."
She said, "Where did you put it?"
"In my jewelery box", I said.
"Noooooo! You're gonna lose it Mommy!"

So funny how she knows how important my "wewing ring" is! (And even scarier that she was eavesdropping on my conversation again!)

Viva Las Vegas!

I just returned today from a very fun trip to Las Vegas with my highschool buddies! We had a blast catching up on old times and painting the town red! Speaking of red...Anne, Katy and I even went to see Elton John and the Red Piano! It was an awesome show!

Great great weekend...but was also glad to get back to see the smiling faces of Hannah and Mason! They went camping this weekend with Daddy...and all went well! Everyone had a great trip!

Water park fun!

Stacy's friend hooked her up with a suite at the Pointe at South Mountain last week....so we all took full advantage of the fun water park at the resort! Jim took a half day from work and joined us too! The kids had a blast in the wave pool and the splash pad...and the adults had fun on the big water slides! Great time! Thanks for having us Stac!

The latest and greatest

I haven't posted much lately because our life has been, well, pretty uneventful lately! :) So let's see...what have we been up to? We took the kids to the "freeway opening party" the other night. This is an odd ritual that takes place from time to time in the valley when a new section of freeway opens up. You can ride your bike, roller blade etc on the roads with no cars to worry about. It's kinda dorky and I can't believe we actually took time out of our day to celebrate....but we have been anticipating the freeway opening by our house (less than 1 mile) for, oooooh, about 6 years now! It's very exciting to us to be able to jump right on the freeway without having to deal with all the surface street traffic! (ok, we sound really boring now)

The kids have been doing LOTS of swimming! In fact, Hannah can swim without her floaties on now! Of course we're still right there to watch her every second because she needs help from time to time. But we're so impressed with her progress! I'll post some video of her talents soon!

Mason's just staying busy being handsome. Check out his belly rolls! He's getting so big....more to love!

I'm heading off to Vegas this Thursday with my girls from Illinois! I am SOOOOO excited! Tons of photos will follow this trip! Jim will be taking the kids camping that weekend! By himself, you ask??? No way! He's recruiting the help of 3 other families (aka the wives) to help him while I'm gone! Sheesh! What an amateur! LOL

Fort Moser

Jim hasn't been feeling the greatest for the past couple days. So, today he came home a little early to lay around and rest. Yeah right! Like the kids were gonna allow that? They were too excited that Daddy was home early! So Jim decided to build some forts in the living room. They all had a blast together!

Cutting Corners

Mason's hair has been growing so fast lately! I can barely keep up. So, to save money, I decided Mason's hair is going to get cut at home from now on. And he's gonna be my guinnea pig to test my skills!

His Aunt Stacy was nice enough to bring over her clippers that she uses on little Jackson's new buzz cut. We sat him down and she went to town! I used the scissors to trim up the top...I love his little spikey's! Not bad for a little team work! Next time, I'm trying it all on my own! Look out Mason!

He really seemed to be enjoying himself...can't ya tell? ;)

A Woman's Right To Choose

Hannah has been roaring right thru her terrible 2's lately. I gotta say, it's been rough. There's days when I can't decide if I want to give her up for adoption...or sell her on Ebay. LOL But seriously, a 2 year old can really test your patience and definitely knows how to push your buttons!

After having a particularly rough day with Hannah yesterday, I layed in bed last night thinking of a plan of action for the next day. There had to be some new tactics in avoiding all these HORRIBLE meltdowns that she's been having for no reason! So I began thinking...maybe Hannah needs to feel more in control during the days. I spend so much time bossing her around and telling her what to do. And "they" say that 2 year olds are constantly struggling to gain independence. SO...I knew my plan of action.

The next morning....

ME: "Hannah, I love you. You and I are gonna have a GOOD day today okay? And I've decided that I'm going to let you make some choices all by yourself...okay?"

HANNAH: "Ummmm....no. I wanna make eggs."


Do you think she had ANY idea what I was talking about? LOL

So you wanna know how it went???

ME: "Hannah, do you want mommy to pick out your outfit for today or do YOU want to pick out your outfit?"

HANNAH: "I want Mommy to pick it out"

ME: "Okay?!"

(we go into her room and I grab a shirt and shorts from her drawer)

HANNAH: (throwing herself on the floor) "NOOOOOOO!!!! WAAAAAAAH! I WANT TO DO IT! WAAAAAAAHHHHH! EEEEEEEEEEEGH! AAAAAAA-AH-AAAAAAAA~!"

.....so much for choices.

Happy 4th of July!

We spent our 4th of July weekend at Hawley Lake...same as last year! The weather was beautiful! While it was over 100 degrees in the valley, temps were in the mid to upper 70's at the lake! We even got to enjoy a nice rain storm with hail (something the kids had never seen before!) The not so enjoyable part about the rain was that Jim, Hannah, and our friend's 2 kids were out on the canoe when it started to down pour! They all came running back to the camper LAUGHING!

Hawley Lake is truely one of the most beautiful places to camp in Arizona. It feels so peaceful and quiet when you're there. Oddly, cows roam freely about this indian reservation...and will even come right up to your camp site! As you'll see in the pictures, we had an early morning visitor to our camper! He even tried to lick our grill clean! LOL

As we were packing up to leave, the kids and I were sitting on the back ramp of the camper eating Cheetos as Jim was loading up the canoe. All of a sudden, this HUGE cow came wandering right up to us! I thought the kids would be terrified of the big animal walking our way. So I jumped up and started smacking the bag of Cheetos to make loud noises while saying "Shoo! Get outta here! Shoo!" I HAD to protect my children from this wild, raging beast who was likely to attack and eat us for breakfast! Well, my plan worked, and the cow went running off. And you know what Hannah's first words were after all this commotion?

"Mommy, why did you slap my Cheetos?"

Oldies but Goodies

I haven't taken any pictures lately...just busy I guess! More to come after this coming weekend when we go camping for the 4th of July. Anyway...I decided to post some older photos of Hannah and Mason. It's so fun to see how much they've grown in a year!