Hooray!!

I'm sure you can sense the excitement in my voice during this video! Hooray for Becca!! I love how she kind of wiggles her tush in preparation for the next step. :)

Hugs for daddy!

So, we're on to week 2 of Ben's Tucson rotation. Thankfully Ben was able to come home for part of the weekend. We miss him so much when he's gone! We kept busy last week to stay somewhat distracted from the fact that we were without a daddy - plenty of playgroup activities, swimming, Young Women stuff, visit teaching, and playing with friends to keep us moving. Emma helped me make her daddy's favorite cookies on Friday afternoon. Whenever she helps with baking, she insists on putting her little apron on. She also loves turning the mixer on and off as we add ingredients. Ben had to work through Saturday morning - he met up with us at his family's home in Gilbert around noon. Before he arrived, we spent the morning with Grandma Dangerfield shopping and playing at San Tan Village. They have a cute kids section with children's clothing shops surrounding a great outdoor play area with stuff to climb on as well as a splash pad. This was Becca's first time playing in little fountains like this - she was hesitant at first, but warmed up to it quickly and rather enjoyed it! She was really wanting to walk while playing in the water, so Ben's mom was clever and had her push the umbrella stroller around - it was funny - it got soaked, but dried off in like 10 minutes from the heat. We got back to Ben's parents home just after he had arrived. We were all soooo happy to see him! The girls snuggled with him for a while - still in their swimsuits from playing. Becca, in particular, is a real daddy's girl right now and rested her head on his shoulder while smiling real big for a good long time. It was just the cutest. Ben had to leave again Sunday evening. We are planning on going to see him on Friday afternoon since he has a half day. On Saturday evening he's coming home late and then taking us to the airport Sunday morning. We get to go see my family for a week in Utah! Hooray!! While we're there we'll be celebrating my dad's and my brother's birthdays, as well as Mother's Day. I'm really excited!

BubbleShare: Share photos - Play some Online Games.


For a good giggle, I thought I'd add this photo of Emma from our latest swimming excursion. We were getting ready to go, so I put her back in her regular clothes - but while I finished gathering our stuff, she went ahead and put some swim goggles on and hung out next to the pool. Her hair was all crazy from swimming, adding to the amusement. I know I always say that Emma is a goof - but come on! Here's some real proof!!

More cake please!

We enjoyed more birthday celebrations this weekend! I love birthdays! Ben turned 28 on Saturday. Happy Birthday cutie-Ben! I have to admit that I am usually the lamest when it comes to buying fun presents or planning fun activities for Ben's birthdays - which is a real shame considering how above and beyond Ben will go for me on my special days. I tried really hard this year to plan better and put more thought into his birthday this time around. I got him the awesomest present (if I do say so myself... is awesomest a word? probably not) - Ben is now the proud owner of his very first grill. Now that we actually live in a house with a little patio space, we have space for one and Ben's been wanting one FOREVER! He was super excited about it (which made me feel good) and we grilled 3 times this weekend with his new manly toy (which made my tummy feel good). So, anyway, I surprised him with that on Friday afternoon and later that evening, after it got all assembled, he grilled up some pineapple and topped it with vanilla ice cream and caramel. Wo yummy!! On Saturday I made his favorite breakfast - eggs benedict (I don't make it as good as he does, but it turned out alright - it's the thought that counts right?). After breakfast, he got to open presents from the girls. Emma actually picked out her present and paid for it with her very own money (quarters and dimes from her piggy bank). She even wrapped it all herself and she did a pretty good job! :) Later in the morning we headed over to our new favorite store and Ben picked out some steaks and other stuff for his birthday dinner (see how well I planned that? I bought him a grill for his birthday and then he just can't wait to make his own celebratory dinner... I'm so sneaky... anything to get out of cooking!). In the afternoon I had a sitter come watch the kids while Ben and I got to go to a movie. We saw Leatherheads which was just okay. We both agreed that the music was fun and the acting was good, but the story was a little odd - I wasn't really sure what was going on some of the time and the ending was kind of abrupt and nothing was resolved really. Anyway, it was fun to get out nonetheless. That evening we had the Lee's over for dinner (which included grilled steaks of course!) and more grilled pineapple for desert! Earlier in the day we also had yummy cupcakes and Emma got to help in singing Happy Birthday to daddy. Becca was just super excited to get to eat cake again. On Sunday we had dinner at Ben's parents house and celebrated some more with cake yet again (I'm sure I've put on a few pounds this week!) - It's Ben Lee's birthday on Wednesday so this was in honor of him as well. The boys opened some presents and later I had to bid adieu to Ben as he left for Tucson. The last rotation of the school year is sadly 2 hours away. He'll be coming home on weekends, we assume. Ho hum. I always hate it when I'm without my Ben. At least we had a fun weekend!

Swimming and Shoes

So, we had the beginnings of some summer heat this past week with the temps getting in the 90's! Woohoo! Well, I'm bracing myself for the REAL heat in a couple of months when it's over 110 and I start melting like a Popsicle. Although, the past few summers I've been learning how to really love the crazy Arizona heat - swimming! We recently tested out Taya's pool at the Jones Family Resort and Spa (book now... they're filling up fast!!). This was Becca's first time swimming! Last summer she was so tiny and honestly, I just didn't want to bother getting her in a swimsuit and all lathered up with sunblock and such, especially when she was so content to sleep in shade. :) But, now she's the big ONE and the time had come. She really loved it! She kicked her little feet and giggled and pulled some concerned but amused faces whenever the older kids jumped in the pool and made a big splash. And both the girls looked cute in their new matching swimsuits - thanks Grandma Dangerfield!

And a shout out goes to Jodi for spending all morning (and into the afternoon) teaching me how to make her famous baby booties. I love the way they turned out! Becca wore them all day today - I love that they never fall off! You're so awesome Jodi!

How 'bout some cake?!

We celebrated Rebecca's 1st birthday yesterday with Ben's family - I was so happy to see Becca enjoying her presents and cake. We had a yummy dinner and then we opened presents. Becca's Grandma and Grandpa Dangerfield got her lots of great new clothes, including new matching swimsuits for Emma and Becca, which I LOVE! It's fun having 2 girls in a row, so that they can have matching clothes sometimes. It makes them doubly cute! Ben and I got her her first toothbrush and a couple of new toys as well. After presents we did cake and it was hillarious! First of all, while we were singing Happy Birthday to her, she started screaming because her cake was too far away for her to eat - she was like "stop singing and let me eat!!" The first thing she did when she got her cake in front of her was stick her whole mouth on it. It was cute. For the cake, we decided on everyone getting their own mini bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes. For Emma's first birthday she got her own little bundt cake as well. They are super yummy so we keep going back for many of our birthday events. It was fun all having our own little cake, including Becca of course. She loved it! We were laughing at the difference in how Becca eats versus Emma. Emma has always been a much messier eater and Becca tends to be much more meticulous in her eating. She like to make sure as much as possible actually gets her mouth and even licks her fingers and hands so as not to waste too much. Emma, however, just demolishes her food in an attempt to eat it - and on her first birthday most of it ended up on the floor or all over her face and hair and arms (as you can see in the picture to the right). Becca's cake actually stayed nicely intact, even to the very end, with a relatively clean wedge taken out of one side, and considering she ate it with her hands she kept herself quite tidy. Emma, even last night, smashed up her entire cake somehow in the process of eating it. Rather amusing, I thought, to notice these differences in our girls.



I took Becca to her 1 year well check this morning. Here are the stats:
Height: 27.5" (25th%)
Weight: 16 lbs 13 oz (10th%)
Head Circ: 18" (75th%)
Once again, I was taken aback at how small she is - I always thought Emma was small growing up, but she was over 18 lbs at least at her one year mark. I thought my kids were supposed to get progressively bigger each time, not smaller. Anyway, I've been anxious to get Becca's carseat turned around, but I can't do that till she's 20lbs. I'm guessing that'll be when she's like 2!

Becca is ONE!

Happy One Year Old Birthday to my dear little Rebecca! :) I couldn't be happier to have a such a cute little girl. This first year has gone by super fast! It seems like I just had her! Things Becca loves at the big ONE: food (daddy made her some yummy chocolate marshmallow pancakes for her birthday breakfast and she loved it!), standing up (I anticipate her starting to walk really soon!), giggling, flirting (especially with daddy), bathtime, going to bed EARLY (lights out at 6 or she's a mad baby!), being cute and small - a lady at the grocery store today came up to me and said "you're little baby is so cute... is she like 5 months old?" When I told her that she was turning one today, she was extremely surprised! Yes, she is tiny and I like her that way. :) Oh, and she also now has 4 teeth (and a 5th about to pop through in the next couple of days). I can't believe she's gone from no teeth to almost 5 teeth in just a month! So, we won't actually be doing cake and presents until tomorrow, so I'll post about that later - Monday she has her well check, so I am anxious to see her stats. I LOVE my Becca!!

Emma's first dentist visit!

Emma went to the dentist for the first time today! I was so proud of her, so I was sure to take a couple pictures. She was such a big girl as she listened and followed the dentist's instructions. She kept her mouth open real wide and wasn't scared about the x-rays or any of the dental tools that were put in her mouth. Awesome job Emma! We really liked the dental office we went to. I've been looking around for a while for a good place to take Emma that takes our insurance and finally (thanks to Aubree and Liora) I found a great place! Hooray for clean teeth and no cavities!

Fishing, John Denver, and... throw up

That title sure was an attention-grabber, eh? Now you just can't wait to read what we've been up to! ;) We went camping last night in Burro Creek near Wikieup, AZ. It was awesome! As with all camping trips, though, we ran into a bit of problem in that Becca started throwing up just as we were getting ourselves ready to go to bed. Eeek! Thankfully, it didn't last all night and Becca and I were able to get some sleep. Little Becca seems to be doing okay today - just a little tired. I don't know what it is about camping with us lately... there's always some sort of incident that arises to keep things interesting. Well, even though there was some sick Becca involved we had a great time! Activities included: fishing (well, Ben Lee fished and showed the kids how to do it.. I enjoyed watching - at one point the fish were literally jumping out of the water, but we just didn't have good enough bait for them to grab a hold of - I suggested using Becca, but that just wouldn't be nice), eating super yummy food (we did Dutch Oven chicken and rice and cobbler for dinner, and the Lee's cooked up a huge breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, fruit, and cider!), making s'mores and singing around the campfire (Ben's dad brought his guitar and we rocked out to John Denver, Buffalo Springfield, and the Beatles). Anyway, it was a good time... but now I'm soooo tired. I don't know what it is about camping exactly (maybe the sun, lack of sleep, lack of shower?), but it wears me out!