Father's Day Eve and Father's Day

This past weekend was Father's Day! We had fun celebrating on both the day before and the day off. The day before Father's Day, we went to Grandpa Smithson's house for a Smithson swim party/pot luck! Boy howdy do these guys know how to have fun.

Check it out!

Oliver was like "wow!"

Noelle kept running up to me to say "hi mommy, I love you!" I thought it was cute.

There's my fish, I mean daughter.

"Hi Mommy, i love you!"

And, of course, there is a water slide!

On Father's Day, Melanie and Oliver woke up really early, so I went into the living room with them and we got breakfast started and decorated the table really nice. Eventually Noelle joined us, and then we decided to go wake up daddy. (With tickles and kisses, of course!)

And he made sure to get them back!

Here is our table, full of fun and presents!

I think he likes them! Of course, I told Brandon I was definitely including this picture because it shows him with messy hair... and Brandon NEVER has messy hair. He is very particular about his hair. It's a corky thing about him that I love.

We got all ready for church and Melanie got to sing (with the primary) for him. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and enjoying daddy's company. Brandon is truly an amazing father! I am so blessed to have him as my husband.

Happy Father's Day!

"Got To Dance"

Ever since watching "Singing in the Rain", the girls and I have had a few new songs in our heads. I love the song "Good Morning!". I now sing it (along with "Good morning sunshine/You are my sunshine") to Oliver and the girls first thing in the morning. Great Song (I have changed the lyrics slightly to say "You've slept the whole night through" instead of "We've talked the whole night through", but it's the same, and produces huge smiles). Another song you can hear in our house a lot is "Singin in the rain!" The girls will sometimes sing the lyrics to that song to the melody of "The Farmer in the Dell". It's pretty cute. And the last song we sing a lot is "Got to Dance". That's pretty much the entire song... just those words, but it inspires some serious dancing. I love the movie "Singin' in the Rain"! The plot is great, but even better is the dancing. I especially enjoy the tap dancing. After watching the movie, the girls were dancing all over the place... so when I was able to find a summer dance class through the Town of Gilbert that I could enroll them BOTH into, I jumped all over it! Not only will they get to learn to dance, they will learn a little tap, ballet, and tumbling! It's for 2 full months and really didn't cost that much. I am excited! They have already participated in the class for 2 weeks and are doing such a great job. I'm impressed with how well Noelle is following directions. This is her first class (besides nursery) away from mom. She is a champ! She is probably the youngest in the class.

Here are a few pictures from last week's class. I didn't get any pictures of them tap dancing. I'll have to sneak a few shots next week.

And tumbling! Here is Melanie:

And Noelle!:

So fun! Great job girls!

And... it's a Birthday!

I was reading a book recently. The book was awful, and I returned it to the library without finishing it; however, there was one thing from the book that I did like. She says that birthdays are something you can't change. They are a part of who you are. The day that you were brought to this earth... And so you shouldn't be discouraged by your age. yadda yadda yadda... I can't remember the rest. But, I read that a few days before my birthday and thought it was fitting.

Of course, this put the song "I like my birthdays, every one..." in my head. I have been singing this to myself pretty much ever since.

So, anyhow, yesterday was my 29th birthday. In Melanie's words, next year I'll be OLLLLD. One thing I love about birthdays (besides that they are all about me), is they are full of fun family activities. For example, we went to the Arizona Historical Society with daddy on Saturday and showed him all the cool things that museum has to offer. (If you haven't been there yet... get! Seriously, it's neat and it's always vacant). The following are some pictures from the museum visit:

And drafter's table and some plans for the Roosevelt Dam.

Oliver, enjoying the exhibits:

Brandon is ready to serve his country:

Oliver says "As love as I get to drive!"

What??? No Engine?

Fine... we'll take that old Model T instead:

Stop!!!! okay... Slow!!!

Don't mess with this guy!

So, the rest of Saturday was really laid back. Brandon has been extremely sick for the last... well, since Memorial Day weekend. He has been miserable, so I was really lucky he was able to do some things with us and felt okay part of the time.

Sunday (my actual birthDAY) was funfilled. The girls woke me up with gifts and handmade cards! I got a fun monkey pajama shirt, some bike gloves, and some dark chocolate. Yum! The rest of the day was an adventure.

Our adventure started upon leaving for church. We were all ready to go, got everyone outside and loaded everyone into the truck. Then Brandon went to turn it on.... and NOTHING! He tried again.... NOTHING! hmm... not good! Okay, we have one vehicle that fits everyone, and that is the truck. And we have the jeep Cherokee, which is a vehicle that Brandon got as trade for some work a LONG time ago. He has fixed it up and plays in the dirt with it. It can't fit everyone in it with car seats, the seat belts don't adjust, it has no A/C, and it's dirty. Yet here I am, 15 minutes before church starts, suggesting that we just throw everyone in it, and take the neighborhood roads. Extremely legal (I forgot to mention the jeep was not registered), but it would get us there. So... that's what we did. The girls sat very still in the jeep. It was a fun ride. We laid sheets on the seats and they didn't get too dirty. We made it!

Church was good. At this point, we were a little late and had to sit in the back, with the fold up chairs. I don't like sitting back there because it seems like if you have kids, you disrupt more people in the chairs then in the bench. But it is what it is.

After church, I loaded the kids back into the jeep. Then, being a goof, I was singing "They Say it's *MY* birthday", went to jump into the jeep, slipped, and hit my back against the door jam.... yikes! bruised my spine. I did a nice acrobatic something, got into the seat, and then cry-laughed. It's a unique kind of sensation, having a bruise on your spine. I don't recommend it.

We got home and Brandon made DINNER! yum! He made Chicken Lo Mien for me from scratch. I'm telling you, he is a keeper. After our dinner, I made frosting and frosted the cake while the girls cleaned the house and then made the party hats. Brandon cut them large to encompass the entire pictures on the hats. They all had princesses or volcanoes on them.

(side note, I told Melanie her hat made her look like the pope. She walked to Brandon and says "I don't *want* to be the pope!" It was cute. And she had no idea what the pope was, so it was even cuter. Here are pictures from our party (be sure to check out the hats!):

Dairy Free Chocolate Cake:

Me, my new gloves and shirt, and my little man:

Those gloves sure like to tickle little boys:

The party guests:

Mommy and my Egyptian Pharaoh:

Mommy and Noelle:

Mommy and the Pope:

Mommy and the most beautiful man in the world:

Boy am I lucky! Happy birthday to me!

Now, since I'm 29, I decided to put together a list of things I want to do before I turn 30. Here we go.

1. Complete a Triathlon
2. Run in a marathon
3. Go somewhere tropical
4. Swim in the ocean
5. Take a picture of a fish
6. Walk my mom down the isle
7. Learn a new nice hair style
8. Learn how to make good rolls (I want Anna's recipe... hint hint!)
9. Learn how to slice bread without killing it.
10. Take my flute to get a "tune-up"
11. Go on a stay-cation with just Brandon
12. Play Piano for Sacrament
13. Play Flute in Church
14. Take a cooking class
15. Redecorate my kitchen
16. Attend a free cooking/baking class at Shars
17. Write a children's book
18. Stay out past curfew
19. Help a stranger
20. Eat a homemade ice cream root beer float
21. Try out a new restaurant
22. Buy a new favorite shirt
23. Find a new family favorite recipe
24. Plan a great, cheap date
25. Teach Melanie how to cook something easy by herself.
26. Write 5 friends letters using snail mail
27. Go on a double date
28. Invite a family over for dinner
29. Get a pedicure
30. Get family pictures taken

Good Luck to Me!

Friends Come Over

Everyone has "good people" that live by them. We are lucky to have a few, one being the Orr Family. When my friend, Amy, asked it I could watch her kids for a few hours, of course I said "yes". These guys are awesome.

Before they came over, I decided we were going to have an activity to change things up. Something that I would plan in advance. (We usually play games or do puzzles while they are here, which is fun, but I thought something different may be fun). So, after dinner, we did a scavenger hunt. It started in the kitchen with a clue.

And took them into the girls room...The kitchen (again)...

Oliver's Room...

The bathroom (not pictured) and then the kitchen again... Where they found a treasure chest hiding in the oven.

Inside they found a little after dinner treat!

The two youngest members of both families didn't get to participate in the hunt, but still enjoyed life. This is Oliver (6 months) hanging out with Jason (8 months). Jason is too sweet and was making me smile all night. Oliver wasn't to sure of him at first, but they started playing near each other and smiling at each other in no time.

Thank you Orr Kiddos for coming over and playing with us. It was a good time! What a fun family!

Little Pool = Lot of Fun

Important lesson... a little pool and some water equals a LOT of fun! I blow this pool up (literally... me, my lungs, my mouth... my labor of love) and filled it with water and some bath toys and cups, put the girls in their suits and let them at it. They had a BlAsT!

Oliver enjoyed the outdoors as well. I didn't put him in the pool because he isn't sitting on his own very well yet, and the pool was on the pavement. I didn't want him falling over and bonking that beautiful head of his. But he did enjoy bouncing.

Before they let me take them out of the pool, they built this "za-zooo" (what Melanie named it).

And they went for another little "swim".

Definitely fun!

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day, we spent time with daddy at the Science Center. The girls showed dad the new outdoor water exhibit.

Melanie was a bit of a ball hog, but eventually she realized there were plenty to go around. She also started to understand how the whole thing works and really enjoyed the exhibit.

Mom was proud of this exhibit. My future civil engineer.

I finally got a picture of Noelle laying on a bed of nails!

Daddy laid on the nails too. Melanie was going to (she was actually going to be first), but as she was getting on, some little boy started pushing the button and the nails dug into her hands and knees (where all her weight was pushing onto the table). I was one unhappy mama bear. After that, she decided she wasn't interested in laying on the nails.

This is one of my favorite exhibits to take pictures of. It's in the digital room. You can't see Noelle, even through she is back there, because she never came close to the screen.

Noelle loved the slide on the stomach monster. I still can't get Melanie to go near the thing, and ironically, it was really hard to get Noelle to move away from it. She went down the slide over and over.

We had a great time at the Science Center... and most importantly, together as a family!