Phone Dump

Molly is the master of pulling out five gallon buckets (or 2.5 gallon buckets, which surprisingly help her get a lot of places) and scaling walls. This particular morning she was getting into treats from a girls night we had the night before. Ruthie calls them rice krispie sandwiches, which is clever and starting to stick as the new name around our house, haha. 

The high heels she insisted on wearing to school pick-up that afternoon. You should have seen all the little Latin abuela's laughing at her! Haha.

I love Ruthie's style. Right now it is all leggings, with skirt overtop, with a shirt--she changes out of her preschool shirt immediately when she gets home. I bought her plain white leggings to go with that skirt--I tried to get her to wear them one morning and she goes  "Mom, but there is nothing pretty on them!" my bad. We should just go return the plain white ones then, haha.  

This is right outside of Ruthie's classroom and Molly LOVES them! She feeds them and hugs them and plays with them while we wait for Ruthie to finish up. 

Will started basketball! He LOVES it and has such a great time every Saturday!

We've watched this little guy a couple of times because his mom is starting to have OB appts weekly--almost there!---and he is a mama's boy. Sooo the only way we've found to keep him happy is by baking--he loves to help!

Will's wind-up to jump into the pool is my absolute favorite.

We have the most gorgeous temple. I also made a friend there because I kept falling asleep haha. She lives north of us so I'll have to hit her up for info when we move in the spring! 

Warming up for basketball!

Ruth wrote this on Sterling's present and I think it is the BEST.

That's all the recent phone photos. Life here is busy, hot, and muggy. Sterling has a massive test on Monday so keep praying! We've done a lot of babysitting lately. Ruth threw up Wednesday night (after my piano mom cancelled her five daughters lessons because they were sick) so she stayed home on Thursday and we cancelled four more piano lessons. Friday she seemed totally fine and had seemed fine on Thursday, so we sent her again. No one else, crossing our fingers, has gotten sick, so maybe it was just a fluke cause we were in the pool all afternoon? I wrote an entire Primary Program this week as well as planned the Stake Trunk-or-Treat (don't even ask how it all got put on me. People and their 'I can't speak english" is really starting to get old). I also made a ton of bran muffins and made some library trips to check out the library closer to us. That's all folks!

Sterling's 29!

I had Ruthie snap some photos after church. Molly was zonked on Sterling's shoulder. And his new transition glasses were in sunlight mode. But it was fun anyway!

Can you believe that exactly one year ago I started growing out a one inch pixie? It's kind of crazy because it's been such an easy process I kind of forget about how I'm growing it out and just go with the punches every day. Usually curly--because the humidity makes it curl anyway, so straightening it is very, very futile. But it's kind of crazy. Makes me want to cut a pixie again. Who am I kidding? If I could afford to have my hair cut every six weeks, I would have a pixie forever and ever and ever.

Sterling's head got cut off, but I still love it!

Molly woke up from her nap looking so so cute, I had to snap some photos!

She is crazy. Everything is 'mine'. She opens every door. She pulls buckets out to get into things--today she was happily munching on a pan of 'rice krispie sandwiches' as Ruth calls them (caramel rice krispies) and just smiled when I walked in to find her. On Saturday I walked into my room to see her turns slowly, then slowly start to grin, then jump and yell 'TA-DA!" to show off the purple crayon all over the front of our freezer. She yells "no! mine!" and "Go 'WAY!" a lot. She is CRAZY independent and wore her nightgown and high heel dress up shoes to pick up Ruth this afternoon. But she is also the BEST at hugs and kisses! She squeezes irresistibly tight and grabs your cheeks between her palms to make sure she plants the kiss right on your lips. And it's always very, very enthusiastically. Oh goodness, this little one has my heart!!!

The Birthday Celebrations

We have a tradition of buying the favorite sugary cereal of the birthday-ee and take it to them on a tray in bed. The kids LOVED bringing daddy his Golden Puffs. After church we eat a quick lunch and then the kids take naps, so after naps we had cake! Sterling requested his family's coconut cake that has to sit out overnight. The caramel didn't soak through to the bottom, even after poking the cake with bigger and bigger holes. I don't know what happened. But it still tasted really good!

Will helped blow out the candle. And then blew it out again about four times, haha.

Sterling got all the XMen dvds (was that present for him or me? Hmmm haha) and then his mom and I got together to get a grill. But decided to let him pick it out. He's wanted one our ENTIRE marriage--so I guess six years later is a good time to surprise him with one, right? PLUS we can use it year-round here, so it's really a great thing to have!

After presents we had our Sunday Wii time. The kids don't play the wii at all during the week, and it is TOO hot for our normal activity of taking a Sunday walk, so this has become our new norm for Sunday evenings, haha. The kids are getting really good at MarioKart, I'm super impressed. They used to not be able to complete laps by themselves and now when Sterling and I finish, they are usually on lap 2 out of 3! We also have some family games where they can fish, shoot balloons, race cows, and find matching mii's. And then of COURSE there is Just Dance Disney--because everyone loves that:

She is a pro, and it is adorable. She doesn't just do the hands for the points, she follows ALL the actions! I love it!

Molly dances without a remote, which is super, super cute.

Racing cows. Oh, and Ruth loves this outfit she made because it is heart-hearts. She is pretty sad that she has to wear a KUMC t-shirt to pre-k because it dampens her style, haha. So she lives it up on the weekends by wearing five or six outfits, silly girl. She also changes the MINUTE she gets home. 

This picture is because we got our temple pic on the wall! Ruthie and I spent the past few afternoons of nap time making those handprint and footprint art. She LOVED it. How did I get the crafty, girly, ballerina girl? I am so out of my league. But we had a great time, and it made me want to make more with her and create a whole collage in the hallway or something, haha!

Which reminds me of my new banner and photos. I printed off all these photos from this summer and started to take some old photos down to put up new ones, but every one I grabbed some kid would cry "NO! Not the one of me swimming!" "NO! You can't take down the one with Jack-Jack and Wyatt!" "NO! I LOOOOVE that one!" Which resulted in a lot of squishing in an attempt to put up new photos, and not much getting put up or taken down, oh well. At least the kids like it!

Sterling said he had a great birthday, so that's good! We loved that it was on Sunday so we could spend the ENTIRE day together. Since Sterling is the music chairman, he also planned it so another person led the hymns and another person played the organ so we could sit TOGETHER as a FAMILY throughout all of sacrament meeting. It was like Christmas! Well, not really. But at least there were more hands on deck, which was awesome! 

I'm so grateful he was born so he could be my husband and create this amazing family with me! Love you Sterling!!!!

Swimming

Before swimming, iguanas. Because, our life revolves around the iguana sitings in our backyard--which happen every. single. time. we look out the back door. There is a canal right behind our fence, and a bridge, and several "Warning: Alligator" signs, and primarily, a BIG BANYAN TREE. Which, iguanas in south america are called The Chicken Of the Tree---and so it happens that we have a colony living in our backyard. Which provides endless hours of entertainment for our family. This particular one, even though you can't tell because I STILL haven't gotten a bigger zoom lens for my camera, was probably almost five feet long. There is a six-footer GINORMOUS ALLIGATOR (okay, he's an iguana, but he could pass for an alligator) that also is sited on the regular, and it's pretty crazy stuff. The older they get the less green they become, but we have a ton of little two foot bright green guys as well. We read in a book from the library that their tails are strong enough to snap a dogs leg. Which makes me fear for Molly, haha. But really, those hind legs are easily as thick as Molly's, and those tails? they start out as thick as my fist. It's kind of insane.

Besides the iguanas we also watch turtles on the regular. There are about three that sun themselves on the rocks that you can kinda see in the picture below, and then dive in and swim around--which the kids love. Of course thousands of ducks and ibises, and one really weird red bird the other day that looked kind of like a robin with stork legs and a longer neck? I've gotta figure that one out because it was cool. Apparently people have also seen manatees--we're hoping to catch a glimpse of one! 

And now for swimming at the pool. Which is practically all we do these days, if we do anything. It's been 95 degrees and warmer the past several weeks. I feel like the summer tropical CONSTANT rain has been slowing down, but today was a rainy one, so now I'm feeling ambivalent on that front. But at least we have seen enough sunshine to hit up the pool several times! It's starting to feel a little 'chilly' (the rain cools the pool down) but we are sweating so hard on our 200 yard walk to the pool, that it is ALWAYS a relief to hit the water.

Friday and Saturday mornings I babysit two girls in our ward, so they are also pictured. :)

If you look past the pool you can see the playground behind? It just opened and we are SOOO excited to play in it, but every time we go the equipment is burning hot, so the kids can't slide or climb. But soon, right? 

The kiddie pool has been a hot spot lately because Will has been taking off his floatie and 'diving' for dive sticks. It's the most adorable thing I have ever seen in my life, and also keeps him occupied for hours at a time, so win/win.

Our toy alligator is the most beloved/fought over pool toy right now, haha!

Will diving for the sticks!

Coming up for air!

Presenting his finds!

Molly is hilarious and kinda just putters around in the pool lately. Remember how Will used to just lay on his back for fifteen minutes at a time? She's totally taken on that chillin' role and she is very good at it!

If it rains, we usually stay inside because it is too hot and miserable and muggy to think about anything else. I am REALLY looking forward to November. But then again, these mornings at the pool (quick mornings in-between dropping Ruthie off and picking her up) are pretty relaxing and wonderful right now, so it's a good life!