A little summertime fun...

Even though it's summertime, we usually try to get the kids in bed at their normal early bedtimes (Jake at 6 and the girls at 7)... because we rather look forward to our quiet evenings. But it seems that in the summer, activities often arise where the kids get to stay up late in the process. Like when Becca and I had our mommy/daughter date, she didn't get to bed till past 9... then the very next night we got to go to one of Ben's work parties. They had dinner for us at Dave and Busters at Desert Ridge and then we were treated to lots of free games and bowling. The kids didn't get to bed till 10 that night...

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One of Grandma Dangerfield's favorite things is to take the grandkids to art museums, so on Thursday we met up with her and one of her good friends and her daughter at the Phoenix Art Museum. Grandma does such a great job of talking with the kids about the different art pieces and asking them questions and keeping them very entertained. We were also treated to a very delicious lunch at the restaurant there. Yum!






The girls finished up their last round of swim lessons for the summer. The both have done so well. Becca is finally going underwater without plugging her nose! This is a big deal for her!

Emma's dive/bellyflop

They combined a few of the classes on the last day and played sharks and minnows. Emma is in there somewhere :)
And by the way, where has the summer gone? School starts is just about 2 weeks!

A Blessing, Rewards, and Projects

I have quite a collection of pictures from the past week, so this will be quite the mish-mash of a post... let's start with Claire's baby blessing. :) I love little Claire. I give her kisses all day long, and I love when she gives me those precious baby smiles. We blessed her on Pioneer Day, this past Sunday. It was a lovely morning... and thankful for all the family that joined us on Claire's special day. After the blessing, we congregated at our home for pictures and brunch...



Claire and I look like we're glowing! :)



Look at those 3 sweet cousins!

For brunch we had blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs, sausage, and fruit salad.... I think I could eat breakfast foods 3 meals a day... so yummy :)

Now onto some more random pictures - first off, I decided to give a try at potty training Jake this past week. I started out hopeful, but then after 2 days of no successes and many uses of carpet cleaner, I've decided to put it on hold for at least of couple more months. I'm just anxious to not have to have 2 in diapers. :) But, I'll tell you, I did get something worthwhile out of our 2 days of potty madness - this picture....

Sorry Jake, but we'll be saving this little gem for when we roast you at your wedding

So, we started up a rather interesting summertime reward system. To lengthily explain- Ben had listened recently to a topic on NPR about addiction, specifically video game addiction. Well, apparently many games utilize a type of random reward system that encourages repetitive play - like games with treasure boxes that have random prizes inside... sometimes there is nothing in them, and other times there is something AWESOME... and because of this type of reward system, gamers keep coming back for more, in hopes of winning something great. Sounds a lot like gambling to me! So, follow me here... I was complaining to Ben about the fact that the kids whine so much about helping me around the house and that most times when they are asked to do something, they sulk instead of just saying "ok mommy!". My fun friend Melody has these "Ok mommy" jars in their home for each of their kids and every time they say "ok mommy!" when asked to do something, they get a scoop of popcorn kernals in their jar - and when their jar is full, they get a fun prize or outing that's planned out ahead of time. I mentioned this idea to Ben as a possible motivation for the kids to get out of their whining and sulking phase and he suggested that we take it a step further and utilize some of the same tactics that the video game companies use. :) 'Wouldn't it be great if we could get our kids "addicted" to saying "Ok Mommy! (or Ok Daddy!)?'. And thus the Ok Mommy Bucket was conceived...


Inside the bucket are 100 slips of paper. 50% of the papers are blank with no prize listed. About 20% have a 4 written on it (for a few m&m's... i used numbers on the paper slips, with a key, so that if we decide to change up the prizes, I don't have find and change the little slips of paper). About 15% have a number 3 (for a little sucker), then 10% have a 2 (to pick something out of the treasure box... filled with little dollar store type items). And then 4 of the 100 slips have a number 1 on them, each for a different BIG prize. A mommy date, a daddy date, a new toy (with a 10 dollar limit), or a princess tea party with friends. During the day, we keep track of how many times Emma or Becca are quick to be obedient and in essence say 'ok mommy!' when asked to do something. After dinner, they then get to draw out of the bucket that number of times. Usually they draw blanks, and sometimes they get little prizes like suckers or a few m&m's, and every once and while they draw out something GREAT. We've been doing this everyday for a couple of weeks and Emma drew out 'a new toy' once - she got to go to the store with daddy and picked out a skateboard! And Becca most recently drew out 'mommy date'. So, it's been a fun little experiment in bribing our kids to be obedient. haha. I'm not sure they are addicted to saying Ok Mommy, but they've definitely been more quick to do things when asked and their attitudes have noticeably improved. I'll take it!

Onto some more random pictures... isn't this fun?! :) The girls have been doing more swim lessons the past couple of weeks. Emma, in particular, is doing stellar! :) I'm proud of our little swimmer. They were practicing knee dives the other day, so I snapped a quick photo...



On Pioneer Day, after family left from our blessing gathering, we decided to make some salt water taffy... very pioneery. :) We followed THESE directions. We made two batches - one strawberry and one orange. The strawberry taffy was a mess.... I don't think I heated it up enough and it didn't quite get to a firm enough stage - it was CRAZY sticky and thin. The orange batch was quite a mess at first as well but in the course of our taffy pull and letting it sit for a while it miraculously came together to a great consistency. We heated that batch up a bit hotter (to 260), which I'm sure is what made the difference. I would have liked to get pictures of us pulling our taffy, but it was so messy and sticky and crazy, I would have been nuts to get a camera close our hazardous work station. :) But the next day, I did have the kids help me wrap our taffy in wax paper, so I have some pictures for you. In the end, the product was quite successful and delicious. The taffy looks red, but it's actually an orange flavor - I had a mishap when adding the food coloring. :)

We were about to head out the door for swim lessons... thus the swim suit, but I'm pretty sure the kids would be just fine to wear swim suits all day, everyday, in the summertime.



Look! More random projects! Up next is our kids cookbook... I thought the girls would LOVE it if we made a little cookbook for them to use in their play kitchen. So, we emptied out the little pink kitchen and 'inventoried' all their play foods. Then Emma helped me create some close to real life recipes that mostly used foods that they had. I didn't want to pay for lamination and binding, but I also didn't want the pages to just get ripped or ruined so I covered them in contact paper and tied them together with some ribbon...


There are about 10 recipes in the book, but here are the most popular ones :)....











Just like Jake- to sit and eat while the girls are busy taking care of the babies and cooking in the kitchen

The cookbook has been keeping the girls quite busy... and the routine the past few days is for Ben to "order" some food when he gets home from work and Emma is especially happy to prepare it for him. Mmm... apple pie and smoothie!

I mentioned that Becca won a mommy date from the Ok Mommy bucket. Well, on Tuesday night we headed out for some fun. First to Color Me Mine to paint some pottery. I was trying to save some money, so I didn't paint anything, but it was more than entertaining to observe Becca so seriously paint her little jewelry box. She kept telling me as she painted, "I am such a great painter mommy!" It was so cute.


After painting, we went to Yogurtology (per her request) for dessert. I let Becca pick whatever she wanted, and the result was quite the creation! She picked coconut AND pink lemonade frozen yogurt with toppings galore, including frosted animal crackers and sour gummy worms... mmm. ;)


We polished it off rather quickly and then Becca proceeds to drink the last bit of melted ice cream at the bottom... there was no waste here!...



Thanks for the awesome date sweet Rebecca! I love you!

After we are done with our crazy Ok Mommy bucket for the summer, Ben and I agree that we NEED to continue with mommy and daddy dates with the kids. This was WAY too fun to go hang out with Becca till late in the night and hear her funny stories. And she said "I love you mommy!" so many times during our date. So cute. :)

Snow and Snow Cones

We've been spending a lot of time at home over the past few weeks... well, mostly over the past couple months since having the baby. It's hot outside, and it's not the easiest of tasks to take 4 kids on outings by myself... so we've been "holding up the fort" quite a bit, and it seems that laundry has taken on its own life force. You are going to think I'm making a joke, but I'm pretty sure I'm serious with the fact that the shirts are getting together and making baby shirts and same with the pants, and the towels... the socks on the other hand are going on vacations or something, but not in pairs. sigh. The good news is that my kids are cute, albeit a little bit loud and crazy. :) Emma and Becca (particularly Emma) can't get enough Claire Time. They really really LOVE her. It's fun having little mommies in the house, and I think Claire likes it too...


So, possibly as a consequence of being home a lot, I found a new obsession... Pinterest! A couple of friends have recently expressed a love of it, so I got my invite and jumped on board... as a result I've discovered a whole wide world of wonderful internet finds - mostly in the form of kids activities. One of which was this printable to send kids off through the house counting up how many chairs, windows, doors, etc they can find. So, I printed it out and saved it close by till the girls came to me with bored faces while I was nursing Claire. They happily took off with paper, clipboard, and pen and counted away - I instructed them to count out loud so that Jake could absorb the number lesson while he followed them around.


If you can read that and notice that it appears we have 56 sinks, you would be mistaken... it's actually a 5 crossed out and a 6 written next to it... can you imagine having to clean 56 sinks?! Remind me never to have a house with that many sinks... that would most definitely be a deal breaker

So, like I said, we've been home a lot, but eventually we get a little stir crazy... and instead of deciding to take the kids to the library, I decided to take them to the zoo without my husband's help, on a Saturday, when it's REALLY hot outside (107!), and what turned out to be the busiest zoo day of the year. Eeee! We did have fun though, but I was stressed a lot of the time thinking I had lost a child in the crowds. It was busy because they were having their annual "Winter in July" event where they dump several piles of snow on the grass and let the kids play in it. I'll tell you what happens when you dump piles of snow on a somewhat dirt covered ground in 107 degree heat... it makes muddy snow surrounded by mud puddles. The kids all took turns having fun and then getting whiny - Emma said "it's COLD! we should have brought gloves!". Really?! Gloves?! Well, sorry Emma, I didn't think bringing gloves was going to be necessary. Anyway, I can see how this would be a fun experience for kids who otherwise have never seen snow... but this is just another reason why it's important for me to take my kids to Utah in the winter for grandparent visits :)





Thankfully we had some smiles, but Becca's face right here sums up the general feeling all the kids had with the snow experience... haha

So, we moved on to see some animals...

The kids peering over at the orangutan

Playing in the water play area was much more successful - Jake and Becca were so fun! Even though it was crazy busy, they just had the best time - Emma wasn't really in the mood for some reason to play in the water, so she sat out and watched Claire for me while I tried to keep tabs on the 4 and 2 year old...






The best part of the outing was the snow cones! The zoo must have made a killing on snow cones - it seemed like everyone had them, so we had to have one too. Time to buy a shaved ice maker for at home - the kids would LOVE it! And I could make this snow cone syrup. Good idea.





Video time! We went swimming at our neighbor's pool again (fun!), and Emma started practicing flips... she really has come a long way from last summer with her swimming. I'm so proud of her! Round 2 of this summer's swim lessons start up tomorrow... I'm excited to see how she does.



AND, we saw Harry Potter last night... the FINAL Harry Potter... I'm so sad it's over. The movie was amazing!! I might have a cried a bit at the end.

Feeling fine at 29

Isn't it great when birthdays last multiple days? Well, at least when it's your own birthday it is! :) I'm now a happy 29! I was spoiled greatly over the weekend and the fun continued through tonight....

On Saturday, I met up with Ben's parents and fun cousin Adam at the ASU art museum for a kids event they had going on... the kids made lots of crafts, Jake got to say hi to Super Why, grandma took them through an art gallery, and a local author/illustrator read a couple of his children's books and did a drawing demonstration - it was a really fun morning...








After at the art museum, we went to Oreganos where we were treated to a most delicious lunch - the kids were given pizza dough to play with while we waited for our food... they LOVED it! My favorite part of lunch was the pizookie. :)


On Sunday we went to Ben's parents home for Sunday dinner and some birthday celebration - I got some very generous gifts, to add to the birthday checks from my parents, and grandparents... feeling VERY loved and spoiled. I have the best family! :) But the most wonderful part of the evening was getting to leave our kids (sans Claire) with grandma and grandpa and drive home with my sweet Ben without them (hope that doesn't sound too mean to my kids... hehe). Then started our 24 hour date! I am so thankful to Ben and to his parents for arranging this relaxing time with my hubby. It was HEAVEN! Ben took all the nighttime feedings that night and the night following so I could get two consecutive nights of SLEEP. On Monday, Ben made me the most delicious birthday breakfast... this is going to sound very strange, but I had seen it on an episode of Diners, Drive-in's, and Dives - Captain Crunch French Toast! I thought it looked really good, so Ben decided to make it for me for my birthday. :) It was divine... it really was... everyone needs to make this recipe and you will thank me...

Our breakfast plates were piled high and loaded with berries and we enjoyed every bite!

Since our kids were with grandma, we took advantage of every minute of the day... after breakfast, we got ready, and headed out for some birthday shopping - I had a lot of birthday gift money, so I spent it at my favorite places... Target, and the Ann Taylor and Banana Republic outlets. Lots of new clothes and some accessories for me!! It was so awesome to go do some post-baby shopping. :) Then we ate a quick lunch at Paradise (I'm really into their Strawberry Frozen Lemonade!), and then to see Super 8. That movie was AMAZING!

After our movie, we drove back to Gilbert to say a quick hi to our kids, and then drop off our little Claire with grandma. Then we headed back out for a very memorable dinner outing. We learned from Peter and Lacy that you get 10 dollars of free food on your birthday at 3 different restaurants all owned by the same guy, so we went to all 3 and had a 3 course meal all for absolutely nothing. :) We had a rather large pork salad and cornbread at Joe's Real BBQ for our appetizer - then we split the most delicious fontina burger and fries at Joe's Farm Grill - and then we headed to Liberty Market for a generous dessert of bread pudding. The food was all perfectly delicious and we didn't spend a dime... I almost feel bad for taking all that free food... so I guess I'm giving them a little advertising to make up for it. :) You just have to show them your ID to prove it's your actual birthday... fun right?! It was such an enjoyable evening and it was so rejuvenating to get a whole day (and a couple of nights) off of mommy duties.

Since the kids weren't with us for any birthday celebrating on Monday, Ben helped the kids make a cake and they got to give me little gifts on Tuesday night. Ben also made me my very favorite dinner - pineapple burgers!


Thanks for all the attention cute family! Next year I turn 30! Oh my! :)

And here's a present for all of you... a little video of sweet Claire. I wanted to record her giving her cute smiles. She is so great. :)

Fourth of July 2011 ★

We had a wonderful Fourth! The Fourth of July defines a fun summer to me... I love the summer food, swimming, and family. We even got to do fireworks this year here in Arizona! This is the first time that fireworks have been sold in stores, but most of the cities in the valley are not actually allowing you to use them... but, we could use them in Gilbert, so we enjoyed our own little private small scale fireworks show in grandma and grandpa's driveway. Before hand, though, we played at Lacy's parents home - they really have the best backyard! We swam, threw ourselves down the inflatable waterslide, and ate a delicious lunch. Later, we headed to see Cars 2 at the movie theater, and then to more grilling at Grandma and Grandpa Dangerfield's....

Our first family photo since Claire joined the family. :D















Claire and cousin Caroline



Claire and cousin Scout... don't they look so alike?!

It just isn't the Fourth without Flag Cake!

So many Grandkids!

Sparklers and Glow bracelets






Happy Fourth of July!