Late afternoon church...ouchie

Blarg. We just had our first day of 2:00 church yesterday. Brynn does ok without a nap, but she desperately needs quiet time in the afternoon, which I remembered when she was being surprisingly disobedient during Sacrament meeting. We also discovered that Bryce's morning nap is insufficient for the day, he needs two naps. Oh well, we'll consider yesterday's church experience a practice run. I think next Sunday we'll start the day out super early and try to get them each an early nap/quiet time and see if that works out a little better! On the plus side, I don't usually have two exhausted kids at 5:30 while I'm making dinner. This was pretty nice....

What a beautiful May!

I really think that this has been the most beautiful (and by that, I mean coolest) May we've seen in Arizona! My brother and sister-in-law came out from Alaska for a couple days and it was SO great to see them! It was way too short, and I didn't take nearly enough pictures, but here we are at the Queen Creek Olive Mill right next to our house. It was fun to go with them since Marty doesn't like olives.

We also went to Schnepf Farms (also right by us - we live in a great location!) and picked some organic peaches when they were perfectly in season - lucky timing!

I'm telling you, we just couldn't spend enough time outside! The beautiful Gila Valley Temple was dedicated a couple Sundays ago and after we attended the dedication we went on a drive to see Canyon Lake. It's one of my favorite landscapes near our house.

We didn't have a pass and wanted to stay where it was a little more...Sunday-ish. :) So we just pulled off at a scenic look-out and climbed around the rocks a little bit....

And then we just ate a little picnic in the back of the van! It worked out fine because Marty had to get back quickly for seminary graduation. By the way, the last day of school was yesterday! Yeah, Marty! Now is when I get super jealous of his job. He gets to just go study his scriptures all day and attend nice spiritual meetings and gets paid for it!

Brynn was lovin' on Daddy ALL DAY long. I think I may have seen him tear up a little, but maybe there was just something in his eye. :)

And then this morning we went to Schnepf Farms again just to play at the playground. It's free admission right now! Sadly, we got there at 8:00 and after just a few minutes we were all already flushed and sweating like pigs. Wake up, Johnson! It's almost June in Arizona!

This is Brynn singing "True Love's Kiss" and calling all the birds and animals from the window, Just like Giselle (Enchanted).

Pooped.

On Wednesday Bryce woke up with a terrible rash all over his body. At first I thought it was from his MMRs, then I thought it was an allergic reaction to some flax seed I had put in his oatmeal, but we finally decided to take him to the doctor, where we were relieved to find out it was just a virus. He's feeling much better now!

Brynn has taken up a new hobby. She has decided she likes being behind the camera rather than in front of it. At first, her pictures looked like this:

and this....

but she is getting better! Why yes, that is my son standing in the refrigerator. Best seat in the house these days!
As she got better, look at the adorable pictures she took of Brycer!



You can still see the rash on his face

Bryce is getting the hang of the camera too, but he still has some room for improvement.

Father and Son Campout

My very brave husband took Bryce to the Father and Son campout last weekend, and they both had a blast. I hear Bryce did great, slept perfectly at night, and enjoyed himself.

Sadly, I have no pictures to remember my Mommy-Daughter weekend, but let's just call it blissful. I love spoiling that little sweetie. She'll say "thank you" 10 times for the smallest thing, like a pair of 3 dollar flip flops that we got at the "princess store" (meaning the Disney Store at San Tan Village). We shopped around a while at the mall, she played at the little park there, we got some food (which is the second time in a row I've been disappointed by Sbarro's), then came home and put a movie on Marty's laptop and snuggled in "mommy's bed" until it was way past her bedtime. Then I read all night long and finished reading "The Lost Symbol," which is not my favorite Dan Brown book. The next morning we read, read, read together, then played, played, played together, had a tea party, saw "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeak-quel" at the two dollar theater, and somehow managed to give the house (including my sadly neglected bathroom) a good cleaning. It is AMAZING what you can get done without a mommy's boy baby. However, I was definitely ready to have him back Saturday evening. I missed his wrinkled-nose smiles and huge hugs. Good weekend.

No Sunday dishes for me

Marty and I are trying to write in our journals every day (among a few other things) and are making it a friendly competition. At the end of the week, the winner gets out of Sunday dishes. I've always considered blogging a way of journaling for me, so I'm counting this. Good luck, Hubby!

Stinkin' excited!

My sister-in-law just sent Brynn this e-mail. Sorry, Helen - it was funny, I just had to post it. :)

Dear Brynn:

Today is Monday. On Wednesday your Uncle Justin and I are coming to visit. He is very shy so please be nice to him. He likes to have his hair pulled and his feet tickled. He loves to share ice cream and to watch princess movies. (When you are older he would certainly enjoy going shopping with you and following that up with a viewing of Titanic.) So please take a good long nap on Wednesday so you can take good care of him when we get to your house.

Love, Aunt Helen

I can not WAAAAAIT to see you guys!!!!

And P.S. Justin, I actually married someone who loves ice cream as much as we do and yet HATES sharing as much as we do!

Bring it

Dear Arizona Summer,

Bring it on, I'm ready.

*I've got ice packs in the freezer waiting to be placed in the car seat covers while we are at the grocery store.
*I've also got a freezer full of ice cubes waiting to go into the kiddie pool when it feels like a hot tub.
*The kids are stocked with hats, and we have multiple bottles of sunscreen in the house, in the car, and wherever else we may need them.
*We have picked our list for kids activities that take place in nice, cold, air-conditioned buildings (which includes the cultural hall at Daddy's work - can't wait!).
*I have my "cool foods for a hot day" recipes all together.
*We are stocked up on Otter Pops.
*We have not one, but two trips to Utah planned for the summer.
*We finally have a car with decent air-conditioning.

Those things, added to the fact that I am truly acclimating to the heat, not pregnant, and am learning to love the desert, make me able to say: Bring on the heat! The stifling 120 degree days! The melted shoes, plastic, or basically anything else I leave out in the sun! The feeling of a hot blow-dryer in your face as you walk outside into the dead of night and expect a nice cool breeze!

So let's take this out to the flag pole! I'm not afraid!!!