Dewper

Every Thursday morning at the mall, there's a little music show with a giant prairie dog named Dewper. The kids LOVE him! I took them to the show today and...

Hannah got to prance around in a congo line behind Dewper shaking some African morocca thing!
She was so proud of herself!

Mason was content to just kick it with Mom on the carpet.

My kids think Dewper is, like, a ROCK STAR!
After the Dewper show, we cruised outside for about 2 1/2 minutes by the pretty fountains...but then we started to combust into flames. It's friggin' H.O.T. today!
So we headed back inside for one last AIR CONDITIONED stop at Border's Books where Mason just pulled all the toys off the shelves....
...and Hannah played with the bead game and we read some books. Good, Fun, FREE entertainment!

#1 and #2

Okay...I know I'm a terrible mother to do this....but I'm just so dang proud of my little baby boy! He's finally learning to potty train! A couple weeks ago, I was just telling a friend, "Oh Mason's not even CLOSE to wanting to potty train!" And now here he is peeing in the toilet...and YES, even doing the #2 today!!! What a big boy he's turning into! :(

I feel like having a diaper-free house is just right around the corner...just as long as Mason doesn't relapse! Hopefully he won't kill me one day for posting these pictures...but he's so stinkin' CUTE!

Cool Weather Camping

This past Tuesday, Jim took a couple days off from work. It's been really hectic for him lately so we decided to skip town for a few days. We borrowed our friend's motorhome and headed up north to go camping with our other friends, Brooke, Brian, and their two sons, Brody & Bryce. It was sooooo nice getting out of the insane heat of the valley...and we even got rained on a little bit each day! The kids had so much fun playing together while the adults just kicked back and did a whole lot of nothing.


Bryce was sad about something...so Mason tried to make his buddy feel better.
We headed down to the nearby Willow Springs Lake one afternoon...so everyone except me and Brooke could do some fishing. She and I just sat on the shore and drank beer. :)

The kids took a little dip after fishing. It looks like Hannah's saying, "Whatever BOYS! I'm OUTTA here!"

Bryce and Hannah go to preschool together. They weren't that close to each other during the school year...but whenever our families hang out now, they are INSEPARABLE!

When we first arrived, Mason hopped on Bryce's little 2-wheeler with training wheels. To say he "rode the wheels" off that bike while we were camping is an understatement! He is such a natural (way better than Hannah, in fact). Bryce is getting a new bike for his birthday today...so Brooke and Brian told us to just take this little 2-wheeler home with us for Mason. He's STILL riding the wheels off of it!

Line 'em up!

Mason doesn't typically care if things are neat and orderly. But apparently when it comes to hair rollers, he's all about organization!

I watched him from around the corner as he placed each roller next to another until they were all lined up.....then he would do it again!
Maybe this is a sign that I need to bring out another new toy that's stashed away in the closet? If they're resorting to playing with my hair styling tools, maybe they're really bored?

Pretty Pretty Princess

Lately, Hannah's been VERY into dresses, pretty hair-do's...and anything else that makes her feel like a princess. She actually ASKED me to make her look like a princess the other day and TAKE PICTURES OF HER! Bestill my heart! I jumped at the rare opportunity!

Bath Blizzard

After Christmas and birthdays, I usually put 2/3 of all the gifts high on a shelf in the kids' closet...to be pulled out on a rainy day (as if we have those in AZ!) I just find that the kids are so overwhelmed by all the new toys, that they really don't appreciate any of them unless they're introduced one by one.

I had forgotten about this one really cool present that somebody (forgive my lack of memory) gave Mason for Christmas. So I pulled it out a couple weeks ago and it's been a hit with the kids ever since! Introducing: The Bath Blizzard!


Just pour in some bubble solution...add a little water....

...and the bubbles just keep coming and coming and coming. Sometimes the kids will let the entire tub fill up with the bubbles and then they wear them as hats and beards!

My little bath boy :)

And here's Hannah demonstrating her odd teeth brushing techniques!

Woo Hoooooo!

Naked baby launching!

A visit from Auntie Brenda

This week, Jim's sister...Auntie Brenda is visiting from Wisconsin! The kids have been so excited for her arrival...and now that she's here they don't want to let her out of their sight!


Even though it's been a year and a half since Hannah has seen Auntie Brenda last, she had no hestitation about hopping right on her lap when she arrived!

It was sooooo hot that day too...not at all like the more mild Wisconsin summer weather Brenda is accustomed to! So we did a little bit of swimming at Auntie Jenny's house to beat the heat. I, my nephew Austin, and Mason were having a contest to see who could make the biggest slapping noise with our noodles!

Austin was shooting his webs at us....he loves Spider Man!

On Saturday evening, Jim and I took Brenda and Jenny to a Diamondbacks game...we had awesome tickets thanks to our friend Jason! It was a great time...and we even came home with a gift for the kids. It was "bobblehead night" at the ball park!

Mason, who probably didn't remember Auntie Brenda at all (he wasn't even walking the last time they saw each other)...has really taking a liking to her! He loves reading books while sitting on her lap!

One of the things that the kids were MOST excited about Auntie Brenda's visit was taking her along to...you guessed it: Peter Piper Pizza! We went there this morning with Grandma Carol too. The kids were having fun and winning a bunch of tickets when all of a sudden, Hannah hit the JACKPOT on one of the games! She won 716 tickets at one time! She was dancing around screaming, "I won the JACKPOT!". So this time, instead of winning piddly little stuff like plastic dinosaurs and tootsie rolls, she got to pick out BIGGER junk...like hair bows, a microphone (just what she needs), a paddle ball, and stickers. Mason even got a giant watergun for himself! How exciting!!! :P

Peter Piper Pizza

My kids are so in love with Peter Piper Pizza lately. It's ALL I hear about every day..."Mom! Peter Piper Pizza! Can we go to Peter Piper Pizza?" So we go...and I spend approx $20 so the kids can play games and win tickets and "buy" tiny pieces of candy and plastic dinosaurs and cheap stickers. So much fun! :P

Gettin' Soggy

We have been spending so much time at the lake lately! Big shocker, I know. The only difference: we have been heading out there at 5pm instead of 10am. It's just too dang HOT! And I hear the temps are forecasted for 115 this weekend. Dontchya just love Arizona in July? Anyway, I brought my camera out with us to the lake the other day (which I rarely do)...so I wanted to post some pics of our lake buddies and the fun times we've been having!



Mason L.O.V.E.S jumping off the boat into the water...he would do it 100 times if we let him!

This is a picture of our friend's daughter, Sloan..and Hannah. They're playing "beauty shop" on the boat...so girly!

I'm pretty sure Hannah wants to marry this guy...the guy with 100 nicknames. Belushi, Spicoli, Sunshine, Biggins....whose real name happens to be Ryan. He's a great lake buddy and he always has us laughing.

And this is our other lake buddy who happens to be our "slip neighbor" at the docks. Jason is totally laid back, has no kids, but loves ours...and is always fun to tease! He's a great guy!

Biggins was being such a great sport while Hannah was trying to push him off the boat!

Happy 4th of July!

Our 4th of July weekend was awesome! Early on the morning of the 4th, we hopped in the truck and headed 3 hours north to Heber, AZ. For the first time ever in our lives, we arrived EARLY! We set up our chairs on the side of the road and waited for the parade to start. The kids LOVED the parade...with all the floats carrying water gun spraying people! Mason's favorite was the fire trucks...oh, and the candy too! I can't wait to take them to my hometown Mascoutah's Homecoming parade in a couple years!

After the parade, we drove around in the beautiful pines *with our windows DOWN*...the kids had fallen asleep and we were thanking God for every minute of shut-eye they could sneak in. We knew Mason would never make it thru the long day of festivties without a little snoozer.

We hung out at our friends' cabins for the afternoon where there were tons of kids for Hannah and Mason to play with. And at sundown, we all drove down to the highschool to watch the INCREDIBLE fireworks! There were also food vendors (kettle corn, YUM), a DJ, and a big blow up slide that we couldn't keep the kids off of!

The next morning, we headed back to the melting Valley of the Sun...but we made a quick pit stop first. My mom happened to be camping with her hubby very near where we had spent our weekend, so we crashed their campsite for a couple hours. It was a nice visit...and my kids ate her out of house and home, as usual!

It's always nice to be back to your home...but we sure enjoyed the 80 degree daytime temps of Heber...instead of the ones reaching 110 in the valley!

Go ahead, JUMP!

The kids are really getting a lot of use from their trampoline! This morning, it was beautiful and cloudy...and pretty cool considering our hot daytime temps the last few days! I even dragged my butt out of bed for a 5:30am 3 mile run. It was GORGEOUS!

Mason gets some pretty good leaps!

And Hannah's always doing crazy stunts!
Like this....
But Mason was frustrated that he wasn't able to do somersaults as well as his big sister (note the pouty face)
But then he did it!!!