Oh what do you do in the summertime...

when it hot as heck!?!

seriously had to refrain from using the word I really wanted to in that little phrase. 

Well the valley of the sun is once again reminding us why it is called the valley of the sun. It has been a full week of 100 degree plus weather with no end in sight. It will reach 113* on Monday and round out the week at 114* by Friday. That is our signal to hit the road and head up north to cool down for a bit. But until that blessed day I keep reminding myself why we live here. Great job, friends, city convinces and most importantly September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April and even a bit of May. In the mean time we are just trying to stay busy. 

The only way to play outside is if there is water involved. Our little pool has done the trick for now. 

We played out there all morning doing obstacle courses.

Mid week costume parties are always fun.

Bode has been one lucky kid. His preschool and her kids have been putting one weekly session of day camp. For about 3 hours a day 3 days a week Bode has been going over to her house. He has done 2 session and will do one more this month. I planned on not sending him at all but quickly changed my mind because he was getting so bored! Then I thought we would just do 2 weeks, again, I changed my mind. It is defiantly worth the $25 dollar fee to send him 2 more times in June. He came home after the first session and said he would die if he couldn't go again next week. I agree. we both might end up dead if he didn't have anything to do.

The first week they did "Exciting Eggs-periments". It was all about eggs. Bode's favorite day was the day they dropped eggs from a latter. They built safe boxes for them to be in and then dropped them. Bode says his didn't break. Looks like quite the contraption to me. 

The next week it was Magic Tricks. He came home with some fun new things he learned. He loved making a magic wand. He has been "abberbabbering" things every since.

Next week is Rockets. He is super excited to go!

They are doing one more June session and July Sessions if anyone is interested.

Desert Blooms Day Camp

It really doesn't take to much to entertain Laine. For the most part she has been following Bode around, working on potty training, learning to love the Disney princesses (especially "indoelloa" aka Cinderella") and boycotting naps. I guess she figures since she is a big girl doing her business on the potty, she no longer needs to take naps. She has figured out that this whole potty thing is a good excuse to check out every potty in the world. On Tuesday's we go to the movies. Laine had to go potty. That must have been fun because we ended up going 5 times. I am just glad there were no accidents. 

She has defiantly got #1 one down for the moment. #2 is hit and miss. I bought her some princess pull-ups this week when we ran out of diapers (yay!) and now all she wants is to wear those dang princess pull-ups. It is a bit of a fight to get her to wear the other undies I bought her. I think I may need to go buy some princess underwear for my princess. She used to diaper her dolls up in her diapers. She knows where they are under the sink. She asked me yesterday where her diapers are. I told her they are all gone, you wear big girl underwear now. She looked at me and said, "no mom I poop in my diapers." Hmmmmm. I think the whole #2 thing is going to take a bit more time because no Laine, we do not poop in our diapers, we go on the potty. I hope she doesn't get all back up and sick because she won't go unless it is nap time and she has a pull-up on. Or I guess I should be happy that the #2 is in the pull-up and not her undies.

ps: You know you are in the full on parenting portion of your life when 3 out of your last 5 posts are about potty training :)

Although she is boycotting afternoon naps, once she is strapped down for any small amount of time she passes out. Sweet girl.

Jeremiah has been working very hard the last month or so. He has been doing his regular shift and then working an extra 1-2 days a week doing off duty jobs. We did this last winter and although the extra income is great it makes for some long weeks. It makes you really enjoy the time you do get to spend together. It is so very hot outside I worry about him and call or text him to drink water. I am grateful that I married someone who is so willing to work hard for his family.

As for me I can still see my toes, but I don't think that will last long. My belly has really popped out. It always takes me until about 20 weeks to get out of the awkward "is she fat or pregnant" phase. Once that 20 weeks hits, there is no holding it back! Other than my back/hip giving me some pain every so often I feel really good. I am working hard to watch what I eat and not be a whale come October, a baby whale maybe, but not a full on beached whale. 22 weeks 5 days down.... 121 days to go.

Somehow we all managed to catch a pretty nasty cold the last few weeks. It got passed through all of us and now it is gone. I think there needs to be a rule that moms, especially pregnant mom's, can't get sick. We made the best of a cruddy situation though. By about 5:30-6:00 I was beat and ready to go to bed about 3 days last week. I would give the kids a bath and then we all hopped on my bed to snuggle up, find something on netflix and wait for bed time. They were both good sports and let me get some extra rest. Now they think watching a movie on my bed is awesome and want to do it everyday. It was a fun treat. Maybe a new Friday night tradition. 

I go in the potty...

When Jer and I were talking about potty training her we figured it would go one of two ways. A ton of kicking and screaming, forcing her to do it ending in a lot of frustration and a long, long time to get it done because she is so very stubborn. Or SHE would decide that going pee pee on the potty was her idea and just do it with very little help from anyone.

I had set the goal to start potty training Laine on June 1st. We happened to be up at my parents house that week and I thought I would give it a go anyway. We bought underwear and I set the clock to take her every 15 minutes. Well that did not last long. She managed to pee and poo in her underwear within the first 10 minutes of wearing them. I half hearted-ly tired for the morning and decided that is was much better to tackle the potty at home and not at my moms. For one I didn't want to leave my mom and dad's house all "marked" by Laine, and I figured she wouldn't be so distracted at home. 

So when we got home a few days later we started again. Jeremiah suggested just filling her up with as much juice, milk and water that she wanted so that she was needing to go all the time. Well she would wear underwear all morning with no accidents and just wait until nap time, when I put a diaper on her, and fill that diaper to the max. Then underwear all afternoon and the same thing, wait until night and fill that diaper all the way up. 

Then she decided that she didn't need to wait for the diaper to go. That is when I borrowed the steam cleaner.... When Bode was potty training we did it in a house that was all tile. So when there was an accident we could just wipe it up, sanitize and go. Not the case with a carpeted house. After a few rough days of my forcing Laine to just sit on the potty I was frustrated and she was mad at me for making her do something she didn't want to do. I knew that if she just went once then she would just get it. So on the 9th of June I was just sitting on the computer and Laine runs right past me to the bathroom, sits on the potty, pees, wipes, flushes, pulls up those cute Tinkerbell undies, washes her hands, runs out and just keeps playing. Talk about a celebration on my part! Bode even got in on the act and joined in my praise for her. We called Jeremiah and she was so very proud to tell her daddy what she did. 

The next day she didn't want to me watch her go so she would close the door and I would have to wait on the other side of the door and listen. I guess she didn't care for all the fuss over her going on the potty. Since that day she has been almost exclusively going #1 on the potty. 

Now, number 2 is a different story. I remember it took Bode awhile to figure out how to go on the potty. She has gone on the potty once and again she did it all by herself. Good thing I was at least there to help with the wiping. She doesn't like wearing a diaper at all now. After nap one day she was just hollering at me to get her out. I opened the door and there she was, naked, diaper on the floor and she we say a little present for me sitting in her crib. That night called her Grandpa Alex and told him, "I pee on the potty!!! I poop in my crib." 

Friday we went shopping for 2 hours with no accidents. Yesterday she went in the morning with Jeremiah to get a doughnut without a diaper, then she went to Lee's all afternoon with no diaper and last we went to Safeway in the evening with no diaper. I am very proud of this little girl who all on her own decieded to potty train herself. Although I don't pretend for a second to think she is potty trained, but it has been a good week and I hope to continue on this path.

Happy Father's day...

“Fatherhood is not a matter of station or wealth,” said President Ezra Taft Benson. “It is a matter of desire, diligence, and determination to see one’s family exalted in the celestial kingdom. If that prize is lost, nothing else really matters”

Happy Father's Day to the Fathers in my life. 

I will be forever grateful to have grown up in a home where my Dad was present and active in my life. 

I love you Dad!

I am also very lucky to have found a man to marry who understands the value of a father in the home.

I love you Jeremiah!

Girls, Girls, Girls...

Watch out Bode...

You are about to be over run with sisters.

I had a doctors appointment today to figure out what we are having. Everyone had their guess when we went in and all of us but Laine were wrong. To our surprise we found out we are having another girl! I had been trying to be impartial about my feeling either way. Bode and Jer were both vocal about their desire for another brother to play with. Laine has said all along that she wanted a "sidder". Laine got her way, as she almost always does. We are excited! She obviously is meant for our family and we are all happy to meet her in October.

This morning I had talked myself into thinking it was a boy. But as I was getting ready this morning I just knew it was going to be a girl. When we walked into the ultrasound room Bode sat down on the chair, crossed his fingers and started chanting "boy, boy, boy, boy". I got a little worried at the time when he heard it was a girl, he would burst out in tears. But no, he got up on his knees and said, "well, now I will have 2 sisters". 

Jer and I were both in bit of shock. I had to go to the store to pick out something tiny and pink for it to really sink in for me. Jeremiah said he needed to eat some Panda Express and then the shock will wear off. Every time after we find out the gender of the new baby we go to the store and buy a tiny new outfit. This time Laine and Bode were so excited to pick something out. I let them choose, with a bit of guidance or we would have come home with a neon pink onsey and a Minnie Mouse pj set. They oooed and awed over all the cute little pink things and finally choose a stripped, pink and white outfit. It was fun.

Lucky for me, I get to decorate Laine and Baby Girl's little room so cute! I can't wait to get started.

Profile with a hand/arm up by her face.

Front face view. You can see the eyes, a kind of flattened out nose, mouth and chin.

And the full moon.

Escape...

This last week we packed up the car and headed up to Pinetop. We got up there Monday afternoon and got to see my brother's family before they headed home. Love these kids. They have such a blast when they play together, even if it is just for an afternoon, they have fun.

We spent the week having fun, making messes, and most importantly playing outside.

Growing up I spent my summers outside. We had such a fun neighborhood and all us kids would play from sun up to sun down. We have made good friends down in the valley and have plenty of friends to play with. But I always feel like my kids are getting a little jipped in their summer experiences. Summers are for climbing trees, making forts and riding bikes. Not in the good old valley of the sun. Summers for for 100*+ weather, being couped up in the AC and short sweaty outside excursions.  I am so grateful we are able to escape the heat and drive up to my parents house so the kids can play. And play they did! They jumped on the trampoline, rode bikes, helping in the garden and ate outside. It was wonderful. Bode didn't want to come home.

 But all good things come to an end and we were missing our dad. So we packed up and headed out on Friday morning. The kids were exhausted from all the playing. Please notice Bode's dirty feet from all the outside playing. Bode even slept in the car for a bit, something he never does. Now back the heat. Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us come up and play! p.s. I am really starting to look like my Dad.

Deja vu...

In the summer of 2006 the Rodeo-Chediski Fire burned 468,638 acres forcing the evacuation of  3 mountain towns, including my hometown of Pinetop, AZ. I pulled out my journal to see what I wrote down about the that time and in true teenage fashion my entry was short and not very detailed. I think I actually remember more now than I wrote down then.

I won't go into details of the actual fire but just a few memories I have of the week surrounding that time.

• The first time we saw the smoke it was driving down to take my little sister to a softball game. We could all see a small plume out of town.
• The fire spread really fast. There were rumors of evacuation but nothing happened until later in the week.
• Because of the evacuation rumors we had started collecting things through out the house to put in the motor home to save. And my gather things I mean frantically pulling pictures off the walls, find journal, paperwork, and nearly anything that wasn't nailed down got stuffed away in the motor home, my truck, my mom's car, dad's car and the jeep. My dad drove my truck to Snowflake to my aunt's house loaded with all his tools. I guess when you have a few days to pack away your life, the more and more stuff you can gather. We all agreed when we were allowed to come home, we took to much stuff. Stuff is replaceable. 
• We where told to leave our houses late on a Saturday night. I drove my dad's truck and the song on the radio was Garth Brooks "Standing Outside the Fire". I know the song isn't about a forest fire but listening to it and seeing the glow of red fire and breathing in the smoke actually made me laugh. Really, did that have to be the song that was on?
• We spent the night at my aunts house, then a few days with my older sister and her husband, then my parents got a hotel so we could swim in the pool.
• We watched the news constantly. Waiting for updates, hoping the fire wouldn't reach our homes.
• Through the effort of the brave men and women who fought the fire and the grace of God our homes were all spared and we were able to come home. It was such a relief to come home. 

This is Woodland lake, the park just across the street from my parent house. 

You can see the red glowing sun through the smoke.

The view of the plumes from my parents front yard.

A trail of cars leaving after getting an evacuation notice.

Now fast forward 9 years....

The Wallow Fire is burning out of control in our beautiful mountains. Luckily for the time being the fire isn't threatening my parents town, but it has forced the evacuation of a few small towns in eastern Arizona. My heart goes out to those people. It is not a good feeling knowing you have to leave and there is the possibility that you may never return to the home you knew and loved. When we got evacuated I was so sad, not for the land that was being destroyed but for all the lives that would have been ruined it the fire had gone through Show Low and Pinetop. This fire is destroying such a beautiful part of Arizona. A piece that means so much to me and my family. We spent so much time up in these areas camping, fishing, hiking and long Sunday drives. 

Please don't let it get to Big Lake...

I know that one of the hazards of living in the forest is forest fires, just wish is wasn't here.