Here Fishy Fishy

We have had a lot of it this summer. Between Dad and Mickey's beach pool, Cam and Jenny's pool and a ward friends pool... we haven't had a problem with getting our fill in.

Mr. Benjamin. He has become a seasoned "beach pool bum." Even though he is always covered in sunscreen, he still has gotten a little tan. You can tell by looking between his little chubby crease lines around his ankles!
(Benji waiting to enjoy a day at the pool)

He is the most spoiled baby, being held by everyone. He eats it up!

(my beautiful cousin Misty holding him at Stella's Birthday pool party)

Too bad I didn't get a good picture of Mickey holding Ben. She was such a help chilling out with him in the shade.

(you can see Mickey and Ben in the background. Thats our set up at the beach pool, very close to when we really do go to the beach, we had our own umbrella and of course the ice chest with food)

When it got too hot Ben really enjoyed a dip in the pool. His favorite was when he was getting tired and I would sway him in the water on his side. He would just close his eyes and coo, must have reminded him of the womb. Most of the time he was a good baby, until he wasn't. And then it was time to go home.

(tired Ben, so sad and ready to go home)

Mikey, Mike. These pictures do a good job of summing up what Mike thinks about swimming.

("cheese")

(I can just hear it now, "I'm goin' to shoot you mom!" give him something that shoots water and he is a happy camper)

He loves the water (has since he was a baby). This was the first year he really got to use his floaties. He took to them no problem. He would kick himself around and then just float, hanging out by himself. Then he would get bored and yell to someone to help him. In other words, he was too dang lazy to kick his legs and wanted someone to pull him to the shallow end!

(being lazy eating his cupcake and drinking some soda at Stella's party)

Mike has always been good with entertaining himself. He will go off and have fun. One of his favorite spots was the water spitting frog. The last few times we went to the beach pool he figured out how to stand straddling the water at the frogs mouth, looking like he was peeing (such a boy).

(just a cute picture of my Mikey boy, ruined by a nice booger)

Miss Abigail. She pretty much learned how to swim this year. Somehow we still haven't gotten her in swim lessons. But its okay seeing that with a little help from Grandpa Webb and watching Wyatt, she decided she didn't need them to start learning. I think the goggles were the key. Seeing under the water is so cool that it makes holding your breath easy to do.

She got really good at playing mermaid and swimming under the water. And it always helps to have a pink swimsuit, especially one with a tutu!

Besides keeping my eye on her and responding to the frequent "Mom... watch me!" I don't get to see too much of her at the pool. She enjoys playing with her cousins so much. When we go swimming without a cousin she gets kind of bored with mom.

(playing in the sand, using that imagination)

The adults... we enjoyed talking with one another trying to stay cool and watch all the kids.

(here is a typical picture of us at the pool, far left is Jenny and Stella, Abigail, Me, Dad, Mickey and Luke -- Christine was probably chasing after Levi when this was taken)

I would have to say that every ones favorite thing was when Grandpa was able to come swim, either right before or after a flight. The kids all love to swim with Grandpa, and I always enjoy talking with my dad. I have to send out a thank you to Dad and Mickey for letting us enjoy the beach pool again this summer. Without a doubt we had fun going and making summer swimming memories!

A Mystery No Longer

Remember my post awhile ago about the mystery tree in my back yard? We figured it out today. Would you guess what it is by seeing a picture of the growing fruit like this one?...

I was still stumped. Then I found one ripe on the ground. We cut it open and it looked like this...

I was still stumped. How about you? Would you guess that it is a GUAVA? Yep, thats what our mystery tree is. Abbey and I rather enjoyed eating our first guava (after I looked up what the heck the fruit was and if it was edible). Turns out you can eat the whole thing, skin and all. It was really good. Kind of a cross between a strawberry and apple. It was soft and juicy. I was impressed and Abbey was too, seeing that she ate her whole half with out hardly any hesitation.

If you want to try a Guava, let me know. I will pick one for you when they get more ripe. Looks like we will have a lot of them this year. Who knew?

Always Good For A Laugh

I love it when the camera catches things like this...

You have no idea how hard I was laughing while editing these pictures. It does a heart good to get a nice laugh after a long day.

Rollin With The Homies

Ben officially started to roll May 29th.

The kids and I were playing Candy Land when all of the sudden Ben just rolled over next to me! We were all so excited.

He hasn't stopped since. In fact, now he is scooting where ever he wants. He started that about a week ago.

Look at that sweet face, so proud of himself.

Need My Space

By the end of May our little Benji, three months at the time, decided that he loved his crib more than the bassinet. Its always a bitter sweet day for me. I get my room back, but it is the end of the newborn phase. I like to wait on the move until the baby can mostly make it through the night. In this case, Benjamin reminds me of Abigail. She was in our bassinet until five months! (that was also due to other circumstances) On the other end of the spectrum, Michael was in his crib by two months. He has been and still is a good sleeper. Good thing too since Benjamin has joined him in the "boys" room. Ben still likes to get up pretty early, like four or five, to eat and then sleep in some more. Man... two boys in two cribs! What did we get ourselves into?!?

Feelin' the Love

The first thing I wanted to do after we got home from Abbey's last day of school was a little shopping to prepare for summer. This is what we came home with...

We already had the easel but had needed to replenish our art supplies to go with it. The kids were super excited. It amazes me how their relationship with one another can go from smiling and excited to this...

It was a classic argument about not saying "cheese" the right way. You can probably guess, Abbey was being bossy and Mike was put out...

And Ben was thinking... I'm staying out of this!

Let the creative juices flow...

They loved doing the arts stuff for a few days straight. Then it got a little old. I'm hoping that they will feel the love again for the arts, its too dang hot to swim!

A Long Time Coming

Back in the end of May a very important event happened. One of many huge milestones occurred. Abigail finished her first year of school... preschool that is! Much to my disappointment, I forgot the camera. Thankfully Tim had his phone and took the most essential pictures. So forever they were on his phone, which is why I never blogged about Abigail's last day of school. Then one day Tim's phone fell out of his pocket and into the toilet. The first thing that I said when he told me was "Abbey's last day of school pictures were on that phone!" Lucky for me I married a electronic man. In a pure miraculous act, Tim was able to blindly activate the storage mode on his phone to download the files from his phone to the computer! It was a miracle, the screen was black forcing him to use my phone as a guide to what keys to push to get where he needed to be and once he got it all done the phone wouldn't even turn on again. So, as titled, it has been a long time coming, but here are the pictures of Abbey's last day of preschool.

We got there a little late and walked into their little program. It was really cute, they sang a few songs. The only one I can remember now was Bingo. The kids with the graduation hats were obviously moving on to Kindergarten. Abbey and some other students that would have another year in preschool had on party hats. No surprise to me, Abbey's hat feel off leaving only the string visible under her chin. Look at all the boys in her class (yes thats a boy to the left of her with long hair). She had them wrapped around her little finger. One of the moms said to me, "Oh, thats Abbey... my son talks about her all the time!" I better watch out, if she is anything like her mother she might be kissing the boys by kindergarten!

After the program and class video, which made me get all emotional. They served refreshments. It was really cute watching how the few girls in her class wanted to sit next to Abbey to eat.

Here is Abbey with one of the most talked about friends, Mariposa. Very often Abbey would want her hair braided like Mariposa's hair. Mariposa must have really loved Abbey too because her dad was very adamant about getting those two in a picture together. I hope that they will be in the same class this coming year!

Here are the teacher aids and her teacher. Miss Kim is top left. She is in our ward along with Miss Tamera, who is siting with Abbey. Miss Tamera moved out of state after the school year, we were very sad about this. Abbey loves to see Miss Kim and Miss Tamera at church. Upper right is Teacher Julie. I am so happy that she will be Abbey's teacher next year too. She is a great teacher! She took the time to go through all her students and say something special about them. She said the nicest things about Abbey. Abbey was her only student that she had multiple nicknames for... Abbalou being her favorite. She said Abbey was very excited and loved to learn, and her favorite thing to do was dress up. The boy next to Abbey was so cute and confused that it wasn't his turn to take a picture. I love that Abbey found a horse and was holding it for the picture!

This was in the car after we were done at the school. Notice her party hat. She kept that hat out and played with it for at least two weeks after!

I had such an emotional tie with Abigail's first year of preschool. She did a lot of growing up and maturing throughout that year. She loved school and was always excited to go. I've had a hard time accepting that things change. Life continues to move forward and things won't ever be the same. Yet here my little four year old is ready to move forward and enjoys what is happening in the moment. I'm really happy that she will be able to go to this preschool for at least a little while next year and have the same teacher!

Whew, that was a lot of rambling... but now that I have this post done I feel like I can really start on the summer posts... be ready, there is a lot to come!

pro·cras·ti·nate

To postpone doing something, especially as a regular practice

Yep, that would define me today. I have so much I could and should be doing before we (yet again) head up to Pinetop... but instead I took a morning nap (ruff night last night), went shopping for myself at the mall, and watched toons with the kids while looking at blogs. Not to mention that I will be leaving my messy house and take my unbathed children to my sisters so we can all play and further procrastinate the getting ready for our weekend trip till tonight.

Yep... I'm procrastinating big time today, oh well...

For no reason at all here are some funny pictures of Mike... just to further my procrastinating getting off the computer

Too Cute... Must Post

I know that Father's Day was so "last month," but these were just too cute to not post. I had these pictures for Tim to wake up to on Father's Day Sunday. And to be honest, it took a lot of work to get the kids to cooperate for them! So now they can be enjoyed on the blog instead of being ignored on the dresser.

Oh... and about Tim's Father's day... He worked that Sunday!! Thats right. Hence the no pictures of his "special" day. So I let him sleep without interruption from me and the kids. And then we had a awesome breakfast of eggs with cheese and a home roasted chili, grits, toast, bacon, fruit salad and orange juice. It was his big Father's Day meal. We went to church and then came home in time for Tim to get dressed and leave for work an hour later. I felt really bad that he had to work. But we made up for it later that week by going on a date to eat Mexican food, watch the A Team and buy his gifts (jeans and wallet, I got him a gift card to get them... you try to buy that man jeans!).

I know I probably say this a lot on my blog... but I'm going to say it again. I love my husband. One of the things I love most is watching him be a father. He is the best dad. So involved in the kids life. They love him. He works so hard to provide for our family in every way. He even goes as far to prove that on Father's Day by still working hard to provide for us at home! Here are a few pictures, some of them recent repeats... evidence of what a involved and awesome dad Tim is!

(he braided Abbey's hair one day for school and sent the picture to me to get my approval, where I was I don't remember... maybe in the hospital with Ben?)

Can't Keep Up

I can't keep up with this guy in my posts! He is changing so fast that by the time I get around to editing and uploading the pictures of him they are dated! These were taken at three months, he is now four!! Oh well, I think the blog needs a little Benjamin...

We have two blankets like this one in the picture. This one and a the blue one with stars that was seen in the hospital announcement pictures. I think they will be his favorite. We use them for naps and bed time. He knows when these blankets go around him that its sleep time. Seriously, as soon as he feels these blankets he smiles as if saying "oh yeah, I'm ready now!"

The kids love to give Benjamin kisses. He is becoming very aware of his sister and brother. I know he is so anxious to join them in all the fun.