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!

*Pre-Fourth Fun*

I have to start by announcing that Ben is now officially a 3rd year resident! He's started up his FINAL year of residency and I couldn't be more anxious to have him done. :) I'm so proud of all his hard work to get to this point... he's put in a lot of schooling and working hours, and he's been so patient and diligent the whole way through! I've had several friends (and family) ask what happens for us after residency. Well, Ben still plans on doing a 3 year fellowship program which would allow him to specialize in Pulmonary Critical Care (a specialty of Internal Medicine), but before he can work as a fellow, he first has to work for 3 years to pay back time to the state for the 'incentive loan' they provided for Ben's final 3 years of medical school. We hope to be able complete these next couple phases nearby, so that we can stay in our home and ward that we love. We bought this home with the intention of staying here for 9+ years, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Ben is just about starting the job search for our 3 years of time owed to the state - thankfully, he'll be able to start getting fully paid during those years too, which makes me VERY excited, as I'm more than anxious to get myself a pedicure or two. haha. :)

So, anyway, Ben finished up this 2nd year of residency doing an elective month in the ICU at Banner Good Samaritan downtown. He's back at the Mayo Clinic hospital now, but had a day off in between on Friday. Our very fun neighbor and ward friend a few houses down the street offered up the use of her pool to us, while she was at work, so we walked down the street and jumped on in! :) It was so fun to have a private pool to play in for few hours on a very hot day....

Emma got a lot of good practice diving



Flotation device anyone? (I feel bad that the only arm floaties I have are pink and flowery... poor Jake... hehe)



This is Jake's smug face he often gives



Claire's first time in her cute swimsuit from Grandma Dangerfield. :) We put her in the pool for a minute, but she hated it... she much preferred hanging out on the side of the pool sleeping





So, that night Ben decided he wanted to try making doughnuts... seems random, yes, but my parents gave him another Alton Brown cookbook, and he came across the doughnut recipe and couldn't say no. :) This picture is funny because Becca is wearing a Halloween shirt, and her donut has Christmas sprinkles on it (those were the only sprinkles I had on hand)...



The next day we were getting in a patriotic mood, so I painted the girls nails, flag inspired. :) They pretty much thought I was the best mommy ever for doing this... hehe...



Then, amidst one of our A/C units not working, we decided we better make some popsicles. :)


And here's my patriotic bunch before heading out the door for church...


Happy Fourth of July Eve (also known as July 3rd)! ;)

You're a Grand Old Flag...

Happy Flag Day! I like to think of Flag Day as an excuse to start celebrating the Fourth a bit early, but mostly it's a great day to teach the kids about our American Flag. I was proud that I even thought to dress the kids in their flag shirts (thank you Grandma Dangerfield!), but then at the last minute I thought up a quick activity.... I pulled out our little flags from the holiday stuff and we discussed how many stars and stripes there are and why. Then we colored our own 'accurate' flags. Afterwards, I had Emma write out the Pledge of Allegiance on the stripes, then cut them out, hid the pieces, and had the kids find them and reconstruct the flag in the correct order....






Good thing these kids like "school" type activities... they thought this whole flag thing was the best! :) And in case you are wondering what Claire does while we play - she usually looks like this...


I love burrito babies! :)

I'm so excited to have some cute pictures of little Claire that Annie Miller took for me. I finally got around to putting together simple birth announcements to mail out to family....


And just 'cause it's cute... here's a video of Becca singing her America song that she learned in preschool this year - she's obviously gotten a little fuzzy on the words in parts, but I just think her singing is darling :)

Memorial Day, Baby Shower, and Newborn Pix

We had such a wonderful Memorial Day... I loved that we got to spend it with family and that Ben had the day off work too. And it officially feels like summer! Over the weekend, Ben set up the tent in the backyard so Emma and Becca could have a little beginning of summer campout. They were very excited, and Ben and I spent some time in the tent with them telling silly stories... but 2 minutes after we came inside, the girls decided they were scared out there, and ended up sleeping in the loft in their sleeping bags. :)


Ben also tried out making homemade soft pretzels.... they really did taste just like the ones you get at the mall! He made half of them cinnamon-sugar, and the other half just salted, but with a cheese sauce to dip them in. Next time, we'll definitely want to make an icing dip for the cinnamon-sugar, because that would just put it over the top delicious.


The morning of Memorial Day we drove to Ben's family's house in Gilbert. The grandparents took Adam and Jake to see Rio at the movie theater, Emily stayed home with the 2 new babies, and the rest of us went to play some tennis. Ben, Peter, Emma, Becca and I all had a great time... but I just felt lucky to be able to somewhat chase after the tennis balls as they mostly flew past my racket. :)


After our morning outings, we enjoyed a yummy lunch on the back patio. The weather was in the 70's that morning and just beautiful! It's definitely rare to be able to comfortably enjoy an outdoor lunch on Memorial Day... it's usually much hotter. My contribution to the meal was desert - a patriotic trifle! mmmm. :)




In the afternoon we took the kids to the Tempe splash park...









I forgot to bring along some towels, so Adam was nice to share his :)

So, new topic... I had a wonderful baby shower on Tuesday, put together by some very thoughtful friends in the ward. I was so happy that people actually came even with it being summer time and the day after the holiday. I felt so loved and really enjoyed getting to stay out a bit late chatting with friends, eating yummy food, and opening lots of presents. And I got to show off my sweet Claire. :) I neglected to pull out my camera while at the shower, so I had the kids pose with all the gifts the next morning... some good friends even included bubble wands for the kids with one of the baby gifts, and they were so excited!


One of my favorite gifts are these beautiful newborn photos of my little Claire Bear taken by Annie Miller... she is such a talented photographer and was so patient to get these lovely shots of my tiny babe. :) I'm so thankful to have these!