Tears at the Park

How could a little girl be so sad at the park?

PROBABLY not enough sleep.

:)

This doesn't even make me sad. Does that make me a bad mom? I don't think so, I think it just makes me a real mom.

For crying out loud-- she was at the park!!

There is no crying at parks. Seriously.

I might have forgotten to mention that it was 92 degrees today!!

Two Peas in a Pod

Seriously.. Rich and our good friend Wes are like two peas in a pod. They are both ridiculously goofy and they both enjoyed playing pool on a dumb little table top set.

Oh, and they are both pretty bald too.

Morning Chores

Ryann knows that if she gets dressed and makes her bed in the morning she can go downstairs or she can play on the computer.

This is what I found and it was too cute not to share.

Her "made" bed:

Playing on the computer while sucking her thumb. Awesome.

My little girls are growing up.... except for the thumb sucking part.

1st Sunburn of the Season

Cute Cara Kay had too much fun today! I am so glad that she has a sweet sitter who will let them play and play and play... I just wish her mommy would remember to put on her sunscreen!

We put aloe all over that sucker and she is doing just fine. Oops, sorry Cara, I will do better tomorrow!

Flower Girl Dress

Ryann wore this dress to Auntie Devyn's wedding. We found it, pulled it out and of course Cara wanted to wear it immediately. She kept saying she was a princess.

That's DRAWSOME!

Sorry, I have been very busy lately- Playing games on my new cell phone. Very addicting.

I will post pictures of my girls tomorrow.

ps... i don't know who these people are- I just found the picture randomly online.

My Reader

Cara loves books. She loves flipping the pages and "reading" to herself. She begs us daily to read her "one more book"

The book shelf is definitely the best part of the playroom for her.

Busy Worker Bee

Poor Rich had to work all day around the house... oh wait, he actually spent the morning shooting huge guns with friends from church...

But in the afternoon I got him :)

Here he is hanging my curtains in my bedroom. I love that he is exact and precise. Measuring over and over again. How he has the patience to do that? I have no idea. I certainly don't measure like that when I hang things.

Did anyone else notice that he is standing on a little kid chair? haha

That is why I took the pictures in the first place. Hysterical!!

Hunger Games Date Night

My sweet husband agreed to pose for some pictures with me before we left for our date night to go see the Hunger Games with some friends. His mom and sister babysat the girls for us (thanks again!!) so that we could head out and spend some time with each other. It has been awhile so we were excited (maybe I was a little more so...) but then I came home and saw these pictures that had been taken...

We tried to make it look like a prom picture. Crazy face Rich.

Now I know where Ryann gets all her amazing faces from... her dad taught her how to NOT smile at a camera.

Oh good- finally a picture where he is smiling.

Maybe he knew how annoying he would be during the movie so he had to smile for at least one picture so I didn't get angry at him.

Look at those Letters

Ryann only knows a few words on her own. Horse being one of them.

She wrote a couple more with prompting from Miss Megan- but can you pick out anymore??

My Loves

How did I get so lucky?

Rain!?

Yes, there was rain in Phoenix this weekend. The girls convinced us to take them hiking so out we went. Ryann snagged Cara's rainboots (Ryann left her's at a friends) so that she could jump in puddles.

Cara quickly found out it wasn't as much fun to jump in puddles without your rainboots.

She walked around for 10 minutes holding up her pants like this. Pretty cute little Nugget.

Finding Homes

Slowly but surely things are finding their way home in our new place. I am trying to focus on one area at a time. My ideas aren't as practical as Rich's but I guess that is the difference between a man and a woman.

The growth chart has a new home.

I turned our awesome clock (thanks Lisa!) into a key holder by adding just a couple hooks.

I have our guest bathroom all straightened away as well. Reusing a lot of things I already had (with a few additions of other things.)

Happy St Patty's Day

We had a fun time yesterday playing with friends, eating at the park, dressing in green, spending some time with uncle Cory and so much more.

Ryann was showing me a "grumpy face"

Then she wanted to take a picture so everyone could see her carry Cara.

And my sweet Cara Kay posing for the camera. Love that little nugget.

Yesterday was so much fun to watch my girls play together at the park. There were so many friends there but they spent the entire time together. Ryann doesn't leave Cara out and it was just so sweet to my heart that they are such good friends.

Seriously- a mother's dream. Thank you girls.

Late-Over Make-Over

Ryann went to a birthday party for a friend where they had make overs! It was a "late-over" which meant it was past her bedtime, but not a slumber party. We didn't have time to feed her dinner before she went, but she was okay with that. I asked her what she ate for dinner and she said, "jelly beans, cotton candy, strawberries, orange juice, candy eggs, and more treats. It was the best dinner ever."

Of course it was the best dinner ever!! She got her toe nails painted and she got her hair styled. She wouldn't take a picture looking at me because she wanted to make sure I got a picture of her princess hair.

She is so cute looking all sassy and grown up.

(they all wore their pj's to the party!)

Busy Bee

My little Cara is simply busy. Busy busy busy. She loves being near people and has much more fun with others than by herself. Quite different than Ryann, but oh so sweet.

She loves having a playroom.

She loves stealing Ryann's Leap Tag and reading books with it. Well, she loves making mommy sit with her while she reads books with it.

She also loves to sing. I wonder where she got that from?

Best Part of the Kitchen

The best part of the kitchen is the spot for a computer. Now I don't have to steal Rich's ipad or print something out or look on my phone for recipes. I just click on pinterest.... or some other fabulous recipe site... and cook away.

Rich likes it too.

Veggie Tales

Ryann and Cara watch a show on netflix called "Veggie Tales."

It has a very catchy tune that is very annoying when it gets stuck in your head on a 3 mile run.

But super cute when you hear Ryann sing it.

I love all the places where she doesn't get her sounds right.

All you speech therapists and teachers---- is she going to grow out of this?

Or are we destined for speech therapy?

Sunday Breakfast

The girls are getting so much better at getting up and ready for the day. This morning at 6:40 both girls came into my room to show me their outfits and tell me their beds were made. Then they went downstairs and started watching a movie until Cara woke me up again at 7:20 because she was hungry. Both girls did extensive research on what they wanted for breakfast.

Cara wanted cocoa krispies. She ate that bowl and another.

Ryann wanted Alphabet soup. Seriously. So I made it up and she also ate 2 bowls.

I had raisin bran and I have no idea what Rich ended up with. Anyway, lazy Sunday and nothing fancy for us.

Love Me My crazy wild silly frustrating Girls

Oh these girls are starting to LOVE playing with each other. When I say love I mean like a love-hate relationship.

This week we have talked a lot about "ignoring each other"

"not copying each other"

"not fighting each other"

"listening to each other"

"stop talking to each other"

and the usual "sharing with each other"

They have tested and tried every bit of patience because we can't spend as much time playing while we are trying to unpack. However, they do seem to spend most of the time happy playing with each other.

I found them like this today- trying to play "superman"

And as I am typing this I just had to say, "Stop spitting on each other"

Where Did The Time Go?

Yes, yes, yes, I know it is only kindergarten and someday it will be college, but SERIOUSLY!

My sweet Ryann had her Kindergarten orientation today. It was cute and we had a wonderful 5th grader take us all around the school on a tour. Ryann was skipping and smiling ear to ear. She is so excited to take this big step in her life.

Cute little picture daddy snapped with his ipad.

Good Bye Old House

Ryann told me today that she LOVES our new house because it has stairs.

I love that too. I like the stairs because now the girls don't go downstairs to watch eat or watch TV unless their beds are made, clothes put on and pjs in the laundry basket.

I also like it because toys stay upstairs and they don't come downstairs.

Tick Tock

I know there isn't actually a clock counting down until I finish unpacking, but sometimes it feels like it. Blogging is my release and I haven't had that recently so I feel so overwhelmed.

Luckily I have had some great friends who have done so much for us and tonight it was so sweet to have had dinner made for us! Wow, what a blessing that I didn't know I needed. I was able to finish unpacking my kitchen when I should have been making dinner.

Closet is almost there. Just looking for a good way to store our shoes... I will have to price out shoe racks and even look for some "do it yourself" projects on pinterest.

My bedside table is as good at it is gonna get... and I can't imagine it any better :)

Hunger games- check. Hair tie- check. Pictures of the temple and family- CHECK!

So seriously it could get way cuter- but not gonna happen anytime soon.

Little girls' bathroom is almost done as well. I just need to pick up a couple more towels and that is about it.

One step at a time, and we are on our way!

Hiking With Grandpa

Only my dad would come to Arizona, see a mountain with NO TRAILS and decide to take his 5 year old granddaughter to the very tippy top of it. (approx 4 miles)

She had a blast. When she got home 3 hours later she was stinky and begging for a nap. She dumped out a backpack full of pretty flowers and special treasures (rocks- go figure)

Thank you so much dad for helping instill a sense of adventure, outdoor fun, and sweet bonding with your granddaughter.

We love you more than words.

Moving Day

Today was moving day.

I was up at 6:45, got the girls together and headed out to the grocery store with Grandma to buy some donuts and milk for all our friends who came to help us on moving day.


By 7am the troops were ready and helping to load up the trailer to bring things to the house.


We had been bringing boxes over all week, so thankfully there was a lot- but not a TON of stuff to bring over. After everything was unloaded into the new house, a couple friends stayed to help me pick out which things couldn't stay and needed to be donated. That was rough for Rich. He HATES getting rid of things. However, he was a good sport and most of the stuff we gave away we got for free anyway.

We were done with moving around 10:30 (or maybe later or earlier??)

So it was a success. Are we finished unpacking? Of course not.

Garage Sale

Garage sale day was last Saturday. I didn't have time to take pictures or post or do anything.

After it was all said and done we still have too much crap but we got rid of a lot.

My favorite part of the whole day was when Ryann starting bringing all of her painted rocks from the backyard up to the sidewalk. She arranged them all in a nice pile.

After awhile she curled up next to her rocks on the sidewalk and just laid there. Not talking, not really doing anything.

We went over and we found out that she was sad no one was buying her rocks. :(

We quickly went into action. My friend Heidi made a beautiful sign "handmade rocks by Ryann", that we posted above her rocks. We moved the rocks to a more centralized location, and then I started mad texting friends and family to come and buy her rocks. She was pleased as punch with that first sale to a cute grandma. She made 12cents on that one. Then our friends the Ingrams came to buy a blue rock for their boy, then the Bakers came and bought 3 and then Grandma mingo saved the day as well as Heidi and a few other friends.

Seriously the best part of the day.

Well, that and the pizza, and selling the pool table, and getting rid of baby clothes to a bunch of friends, and seriously, making the extra cash was really nice too.