A Useful Pet

Now this is the kind of dog that I need!
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Be sure to scroll all the way down to see pictures from our California visitors!

Movie Night

Last Friday evening we had a family movie night. We dragged the couch over in front of the TV, popped some popcorn and watched a very funny flick! Emma lasted about 20 minutes then once her popcorn was gone she was done. But Charis lasted through the whole movie. Here's Charis waiting for the movie to start. She loves looking through catalogs and while Aunt Deidre was visiting she learned how to shop online. She now knows how to scroll through the clothes on gap.com and pick different colors and sizes (fantastic)! And Emma waiting...what a sweet face!

Aunt Deedee & Maddie Come to Visit

Last week we were so blessed to have Aunt Deedee & Maddie visit for 4 days! We had so much fun! The girls fell in love with Maddie all over again (maybe even more so because she could play along). Although at one point I overheard Charis say, "Maddie! You are so mean to me! Stop taking my toys!" We had to explain the baby stage all over again. On Tuesday morning the girls & I drove to the airport and picked Maddie & Deidre up. Then we came home and introduced Maddie to Chloe. Maddie loved her! She was following her all around the house laughing a deep belly laugh! Chloe was a little frightened! Charis is trying to pose Maddie for a picture. That afternoon we pulled out all of our water toys and spent some time cooling off in the front yard. Isn't she precious? Emma was always trying to "help". Apparently she thought she needed her bottle in the pool. The next morning we walked to the park very early in the morning. By the time we walked home (8:30 am) it was almost 100 degrees! But we had fun anyway! Swinging...and more swinging. Maddie learned how to climb the stairs. Deidre loved that! In an attempt to avoid the heat (which is not really possible in AZ when you have children) we made a trip to the mall. We shopped, ate lunch and played with the books in the Ann Taylor dressing room. That afternoon we drove out to a city pool. Maddie literally melted in her car seat. I think it was about 108 when this picture was taken...and it was at 5 in the evening! Charis loves swimming! So does Maddie, but it took her a little while to warm up to it. And Emma, well, she loves pacifiers! She got out of the pool just to get a paci fix! This isn't even her paci, it's Maddie's! Ben met us at the pool after work so we were there for awhile without him. The girls were scaring me! Emma has no fear of the water. She would just hop in anywhere or just keep walking until the water was over her head. So I asked the lifeguards if I could use a life jacket. That made things much better! She's so cute! Our family on the lazy river. I can't get over her cuteness! If you look really carefully in the bottom of the picture you can see our family. It was a cool pool! All done swimming! After swimming we went to Joe's Farm Grill for some of their amazing milkshakes. The next morning we had to say good bye to Deidre & Maddie. It was a sad morning. Here's a final shot. Thanks for coming Aunt Deedee & Maddie! We loved having you! Come again soon!

More Charis

Yesterday we went grocery shopping. That is always an adventure with my girls. Emma is buckled in the front of the car cart all the while she cries/yells/screams and Charis is usually dancing up and down the aisles like a butterfly. I literally have my hands full of shopping lists, coupons, pacifiers, cell phone ringing, lollipops to keep Emma quiet and so on. Usually I shop on Monday mornings. Monday mornings also happens to be the time that the local retirement community shops. No, I'm not kidding...the bus from Sunrise Retirement Community rolls up at about 9am, just the same time that I'm there! This past Monday was no different, except for Charis. As we were walking through the meat department she announces in a very loud voice, "It smells like dead cow in here!" I tried to shush her and explained that we were indeed surrounded by dead cows, chickens & pigs. That's why they call it a meat department. She continues on in her loud voice, "How do they kill the chickens? Do you think they shoot them then pull the legs off?" (What is it with this child and her obsession of killing things?!? It makes me concerned!) And, no, I don't notice the stares and weird looks anymore...I'm immune.

A little bit of Charis

While driving away from our pastor's house on Saturday evening we heard a little voice from the backseat say in the most serious & grown-up manner, "This is really unsafe!" "What is?" I inquired (a little puzzled). She quickly answered with urgency in her voice, "Nobody ever buckles my car seat!"
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On Saturday morning we went shopping for some new clothes. I had tried a few things on in the dressing room and walked out with one thing in my hand. Later I put it back on the rack, deciding not to buy it. Charis didn't see me put it back so as we were walking out of the store she said, "Oh, are you just pretending that it's free?"
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Also at the mall on Saturday we were sitting in the food court eating lunch and I said, "I think we have the two cutest girls in the whole mall sitting at our table!" Ben piped in and said jokingly (and just to get a rise out of Charis), "Oh, you mean Mommy & Emma?" To which Charis very quickly replied while laughing, "No! Daddy & Emma!" (Good one Charis!)
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Also, look for pictures from our California visitors to come soon!

Weekend Away

This past weekend Ben & I went away to celebrate our last 6 anniversaries! We've never celebrated our anniversary...isn't that sad? There has always been something (pregnancies, sickness, moving to a new state, being in separate states, etc.) In fact, we haven't been away, just the two of us, since May 2003! But this last weekend may have made up for it. My parents flew out from CA to stay with the girls and Ben & I hopped in the car and drove up to Sedona for 3 days. We stayed at the Sedona Rouge Hotel & Spa. It was so nice! Ben thought I was so silly to be taking pictures of the architecture and furniture but I thought it was cool!

Our room. The super cool dresser that was in our room. The view from our room. (Not bad!) They brought us champagne & strawberries! After we checked in we drove to Uptown Sedona and walked around all the crazy shops. That night we ate dinner at Reds. We ate the most delicious scallops I have ever tasted! The next morning, after breakfast we drove to slide rock and went on a little hike. First we walked past all the hoards of people swimming in the water. The we hiked up a little more and found the next hotel we're going to stay at. Then we found this nice quiet area and decided to try out the water for ourselves. It was freezing!!!
I stayed in for about one-third of a second but Ben wandered around the rocks for awhile. I was content to sit in the shade and swat bugs & spiders away. While I was sitting there I noticed this rock in front of us...it looks like an angry old man, don't you think? It was a pleasant hike and we enjoyed seeing some green & water. (Somethings you don't see very often in Arizona.) After our hike we went back to the hotel and I was able to experience the spa! I had a 60 minute massage followed by a 60 minute facial. It was wonderful! Before & after my treatments I had full use of the spa facilities which included a tranquility room, tea, spa water, fruit, jacuzzi, showers, steam room and more! It was a fabulous 3 hours that I spent there! While I was being pampered Ben stayed in our room and studied for his next exam...which happens to be today at 4:30! For dinner that night we ate at Javalina Cantina (yum) then I broke my 5 year streak of not going to a movie theater by seeing Star Trek. (That was for Ben...I figured that after 3 hours at a spa I could sit for 2 in a movie theater because I know that's what he likes to do.)
I got some not so great shots of the hotel at night. But I thought it was so pretty I would at least try to get a photo. It was a wonderful weekend and I'm so thankful to my parents for coming out and taking really great care of the kids. I don't have any pictures of their weekend but I know they had a blast! (Because my kids are exhausted and my house is a mess!)

Dangerous Furniture

On Friday I was vacuuming the house and Emma, who is deathly afraid of the vacuum, ran and tried to hide behind the entertainment center. She managed to squeeze herself in and when I went over to help her out she panicked. She realized she was stuck and started pushing herself out without waiting for my help. I kept trying to turn her head so she could slip out but she refused help. So now she has about 5 less layers of skin across her forehead. This was taken last night when we were playing in the fort I built in our bedroom. It doesn't seem to bother her but it sure looks funny!

AMY- Arizona Museum for Youth

Last week I took the girls to the Arizona Museum for Youth. We had so much fun! Heidi & Noah came along as well so it was even more fun! Emma found these chairs before she saw anything else and it took a lot of convincing to pull her away. The museum would have been worth it for her if she could have just stayed here the whole time!

Then we found this cool climbing structure that the girls enjoyed while Noah enjoyed a bottle. After that we entered the museum part and there was a big display on recycling. So the kids were able to make a "recycled craft". Charis traced this butterfly on an old magazine, cut it out, wrote her name on it and glued it on the wall with all the other kids butterflies. See, it's there written in purple, below Leon. Emma was plenty content to sit and glue all the pages of the magazines together. After we finished up with the museum we quickly ate lunch at about 11 then ventured over to the indoor playground. I was hoping we would be there during lunchtime so there wouldn't be that many kids. And I think it worked! The girls had a blast! I think we were in there for 2 hours and by 1 o'clock we still weren't ready to go but I knew it was better to leave when everyone was happy rather than when everyone was grouchy! Emma went down this slide at least 42 times. Charis loved all the pretend play. She dressed up like a chef and played in the kitchen, then she played a piano. She even took some eggs from the kitchen and brought them over to the garden area and put them under a stuffed bird. When a little boy tried to touch them she urgently yelled, "Don't disturb the mommy bird! She's hatching her babies!" Noah got in on the fun too when Charis wanted him to dress up in a Hawaiian shirt like her.

They had a special area for little ones 2 and under. It was like a huge padded playpen with tunnels to crawl through and mirrors to look at and apparently walls to scale as well. But I don't think that was the intention of the design.