Swimming

It's what we do in AZ to help us deal with the sweltering heat. Swimming lessons, community pools, splash parks- you name it, we're doin' it! This week we went with Candice and some friends to Power Ranch pool- the kids loved it (Although Janie's face says otherwise, she did eventually warm up to the idea).

Clara and Clay just finished up their first session of swimming lessons. Clara has learned to be a great swimmer and Clay loves the water, he just doesn't like going under. He cried the first 3 weeks, and the last 2 days was loving it. There is hope!

Mmmmmm....

Just one of the many ways we've been enjoying our peaches.

Peaches!

Saturday we went to the Peach Festival at Schnepf Farms. We got there just as it stopped raining, so the weather was perfect and there weren't many people. We enjoyed the peach pancake breakfast and took home 2 boxes of peaches as well as 2 peach pies. I've been eating them for 2 days straight and still can't get enough.

Clay was the only one that liked the plane ride. The other kids couldn't get out fast enough once the ride stopped, but Clay wanted to go again.

It looks like I had more fun on the slide than Adam did. :)

Until next year...

J.D.'s home!

My brother, J.D. returned home Thursday from his mission in Indiana and we all went to the airport for his arrival. It was so exciting waiting and watching for him to get off the plane!

He looks really good- definitely more mature. We have grown in numbers since he's been gone so he was finally able to meet Janie and Adam, and in a few more days, baby Jonah. It's fun having him home!

Clara

Candice and I had our final young girls' performance of the year. Clara was beyond tired so she wasn't very cooperative and only sang the last 2 songs.

Last week was Clara's preschool graduation, and again, not very cooperative. This was Miss Jan's last year after teaching for 15 years and we love her! I'm sad that Clay and Janie won't get to experience Jan's preschool because it was the best! Clara loved every minute of it. Thank you Miss Jan, Miss Devry, Miss Heather, and Miss Becky!

Happy Birthday Clay!

Clay is 3 today. Unfortunately we haven't done any celebrating because he woke up at 5:00 am with an ear infection and the pukes. At least he already had a party! Some things about Clay:

He often goes by Clayton, Claybud, Claybub, Clayclay and Clayboy

He has a very large gap between his 2 front teeth (although I don't have any pictures of that because he will not smile for the camera)

He loves ANYTHING Buzz Lightyear (and lately Spiderman)

He has a really cute, deep voice

He loves to play dress up with the girls ( I think Uncle Parker helped him with that)

He has to have his white blankie when sucking his 2 middle fingers (probably time to start breaking that habit)

He's the sweetest, nicest kid around and I couldn't have asked for a better boy! Love you Clay!

Clay's Birthday Party

Clay's birthday isn't actually until Saturday, but we decided to have a double birthday party with one of his buddies that also turned 3 a few days ago. We had a water slide, snow cones, cupcakes, a pinata, and lots of yummy food. It was a great time!

The bike we got him is just a little small, but he loves it and can ride it pretty good so that's all that matters!

I guess turning 3 can be exhausting!

Mother's Day

I'm so glad we celebrate Mother's Day to remind us of how amazing our moms are. My moms are such good examples to me and my family and I hope they know how much we appreciate them!

Derek got up at 6am to make this delicious breakfast so that we could make it to 9 o'clock church on time. He changed all the diapers for the day and did the dishes- it was a very relaxing day!

My gifts from Derek and the kids. Finally I can become a pro baker! (Or at least try)

Clara made this card and flower magnet at preschool. At least she got the first answer right!

Time for some organization!

I've been in the decorating mood lately, but haven't had the time or the means for a major redo, so my new project is going to be my little office/craft room. I'm not quite sure what to call it because I don't do crafts or business in there, but it's where I keep all my party decor, home decor, wrapping paper, ribbons, etc. It's in the back of the house where nobody ever goes so it's gotten kinda junky. Here are the befores:

With a little paint, some furniture, accessories and organization it should be a new room!
I'm hoping this will tide me over until I can afford to finish our bedroom!

Spoke too soon

I was just talking to someone the other day about how great it was that we hadn't seen any scorpions in our house for over a year. I put glueboards in almost every room, but the only place we seem to find scorpions is the living room. Occasionally I check the living room glueboard which is between our piano and the wall just to make sure there aren't any scorpions on it and I happened to be playing the piano this afternoon and decided to peek at the glueboard and this is what I found. I almost threw up. I HATE HATE HATE scorpions! I've always been deathly afraid of them and with good reason. Growing up we would find at least one a day at my parents house and I remember going in the backyard at night with a black light and finding 86 in one night! I was afraid of being stung in my bed, so I slept on the couch in the family room. One night (I was about 17), I felt a needle-like stab in the back of my thigh as I was sleeping. My first thought was that it was a pin sticking out of the couch so I went back to sleep. A few minutes later I felt that same pain on my chest, so I ran into the bathroom and looked down my shirt and there was a scorpion! I freaked out and started shaking my shirt to get it out and it stung me 4 or 5 more times before falling out. The stings weren't so bad; I was just numb in those areas for most of the day. It was the thought of that disgusting creature crawling all over me that had me in tears. So there's my scorpion story. And now that I have kids I would hate for that to happen to one of them! Sorry if the picture grosses you out- I could barely take a picture of it. It still makes me ill. Oh yeah- and the one on the bottom was still moving.