Treats for Daddy

Kate and Clark are very much into helping me in the kitchen. Since we have lots of time on our hands, we like to make lots of treats for Daddy. (and for us too!) I bought some Fruity Pebbles acouple weeks ago thinking the kids would love it and they would't touch it! I thought for sure they'd love it after Cheerios, but they took one bite and turned their noses up! So I saw a recipie on the box to make rice crispy treats out of them and thought I'd give it a try. Ryan loved them and the kids did too- except for the sticky part!

You'll notice that there's less cereal stuck to Clark's hands than Kates. He figured out how to eat it off, Kate just wanted it washed off!

Packages!

Last week we were surprised by a package in the mail from Ryan's sister Jen. She's such a sweetheart, even with all she has going on in her life and with her own kids, she sent a package to Kate and Clark. It was filled with all kinds of goodies- coloring books, water paints (which I haven't been brave enough to open!), bouncy balls, glow sticks, ballons and treats! It was such a nice treat. It entertained the kids for quite a while! Thanks Jen, Rachel, Becca and Emily!

Memory Lane

Saturday night we went to a BBQ in the neighborhood Ryan grew up in. He lived in Orem until he was 10 and his parents still keep in touch with some of their old friends and neighbors there. One in particular is the Toone family. I met the Toones before Ryan and I got married. I've even stayed at their house a few times while visiting Utah. Their son Brady lived with George and Evelyn last summer while he was doing a internship in Tempe. Anyways- they had this BBQ at their house, and even though I didn't know anyone, Ryan had a good time swapping stories with some of the families there. Here's Kate, Clark and I in front of Ryan's old house.

Potty Trained!!

Kate started potty training along time ago, and was just starting to wear real panties before we left for Utah. However, after the move we had to start all over again. She progressed alot faster this time and about 2 weeks ago started wearing real panties, or as she calls them little panties, again.

Kate and Clark have both been asking for bikes, ever since they rode Spencers across the street. So we decided to use the bike as motivation for potty training. I created a little sticker chart, and Kate got a sticker for every day she kept her panties dry all day and Sunday she filled it up! So yesterday she got her new princess bike. She still cannot ride it- but Clark will push for her.

Kate and her sticker chart


I made a sticker chart for Clark, but he is not even close to potty training. He's kinda off and on. Some days he'll want to and other days he'll just ask for the diaper. This drives Ryan crazy and makes him mad that Clarks not potty trained, but I say whatever! I'm not gonna push it. When he's ready and wants to then I'll push it. Poor Clark- he won't get his bike for along time!!

Clark was pretty upset when he didn't get a bike

Aquarium

Today we got to meet up with some of our friends from Mesa who are on vacation and go to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. It was so nice to see friends and remember what it's like to have friends! The good thing about living here is, I realize how much more I should do at home with friends and family. I know there are tons of fun kids things to do in the Phoenix area and I need to take advantage of them better.

The aquarium had lots of different fish- from sharks to rainbow fish and from aligators to eels. They even had a stingray exibit where you could touch the stingrays. There was a "South America" section where they had lots of different frogs and even a HUGE cave cockroach! UGH! Kate and Clark loved it all, but I think their favorite part was hanging out with Annie and Emma. Thanks for hanging out with us!

Kate, Clark and Annie looking at the turtles and crockodiles

Kate crawling through the coral reef

Clark crawling through the coral reef

Kate and Clarks arms weren't quite long enough to touch the stingrays

Emma, Annie and Kate

Annie, Emma and Clark

The Farm at Thanksgiving Point

Because the summer is not unbearably hot like it is in Arizona- we are still able to do some fun things like go to the farm! I'm trying to take advantage of all the fun things to do here, one because we have to be out of the house so Ryan can sleep and two, at home I never seem to find the time to do the fun things.

The Farm at Thanksgiving Point is almost like the farm section at the Phoenix zoo- but more animals and more interactive. We were able to feed the cows, horses, chickens and goats. They have little "vending" machines where you can put in a quarter and get a handful of dried corn. Kate and Clark liked feeding the goats and horses the best. Clark is so funny- he's deathly afraid of dogs, but will feed a horse! We also got to go on the "hay" ride- a horse drawn buggy- and go for a ride on the ponies.

Clark on his pony

Kate on her pony

Kate feeding the goats

Kate petting the Mommy horse with her baby

Best $2 Spent

Occasionally I drop into Target, I try not to go too often because I spend way too much money there. I had to go the other day to get a battery in my watch replaced, and I just had to look at the "One Spot" at the front of the store. I have to say, that's probably my favorite part of Target. Tons of cute stuff all for a dollar. I just happened to find little buckets of sidewalk chalk. Kate and Clark were first introduced to sidewalk chalk by our neighbors about a week ago and I have been thinking ever since- I should get some. So when I saw them for a dollar I couldn't resist! The nice thing is that it's not too hot in the morning- they can acutally go outside and use them. Already they have provided hours of entertainment!

New TV

A few days after we got here our TV started acting funny. The picture would just randomly not work- so we still had sound, just no picture. I had bought some old VHS - ( I know you're thinking why buy a VHS? Once you have 2 kids ruin a $20 DVD in about 2 seconds, then you'll understand. A $4 old VHS works just the same and the kids can step on it and it won't hurt it) Anyways- I thought it was the VHS, and it was just old and crappy, but then it started happening on DVD's too. At first you could just hit the TV and the picutre would come back on, but it progressively got worse. We tried replacing the cables, to see if it was just a connection, but that didn't work either. So we decided to start shopping. We weren't thrilled about having to buy a new TV for 2 reasons: 1. The money and 2. we didnt want to have to take a brand new TV back to AZ and chance braking it.

It took us about 2 hours and 3 different stores to get one. We got a Samsung 46 inch, LCD , 1080 p and 120 hz. (For those of you who are tech savvy and who care to know!)

It's a really nice TV and I'm glad we got it. It's amazing the difference in picture from our old junker. The funny thing is - this is the first TV we've bought our whole marriage. Our first one Ryan bought from someone for $25 before we got married and the one that just died we got for free!

Since we bought it, Ryan's sleep time has drastically reduced! He's been staying up to watch movies and even on his night off last night, stayed up and played Call of Duty online with Nancy's husband Rusty! He tells me that he has to 'play' with his new 'toy'! BOYS. Jeeze.

Old TV, New TV

Nana is the Best!

It has been really hard to try to explain to Kate and Clark that we cannot go to Nana and Paco's house anymore. They are starting to understand that we live in Utah and they live in Mesa and they are far away. But we got a little surprise in the mail from Nana the other day. I had ordered some books online and when I saw the package in the mailbox I got all excited that it was my book- but when I got to the mailbox it was addressed to Kate and Clark! So I waited for them to wake up from their nap to open it up. My mom had sent us some peaches from her tree! Clark ate 2 right away. They were so excited to have peaches from Nana's tree- I did too, as I miss stealing them from her tree! Kate also got a little purse that she carries around everywhere now. So since Kate carries a purse, and Mommy carries a purse, today Clark asked for a purse. So I found another one of Kate's purses and let Clark carry it around. Don't tell Ryan- he'll be so mad at me!

Kate with her purse and peach and Clark with his peach

Getting ready to open the box

4th of July

I know this is a little late, but now I am caught up on all my blog posts!

We had a good 4th of July this year- it definitely was not the same as our usual tradition of going up to the cabin with my family, but still fun. This is what we did that day:

First we mowed our lawn! That was a first for us. We have never had grass our whole married life- so this was kinda fun. ( I can say that because I didn't do it! I was inside making food the whole time!)

After that we loaded up the kids and went to WalMart. Ryan has noticed lately how Clark is not very good a sports, and why? Because we don't play them enough at home. Ryan is not a big sports guy, and I'm just a swimmer, so poor Clark has no one to teach him! Ryan decided enough is enough and took us to WalMart to get a basketball hoop. I'm glad he did- I don't want Clark to be the one boy who doesn't know how to play sports, and it gives them something to play downstairs! He picked it up quick, and is getting pretty good. Kate on the other hand, doesn't get the concept of throwing the ball. She just wants to dunk it. So she has resorted to getting a chair and just dropping it in!

That night we went across the street to Todd and Dee Dee's house for a BBQ. They had some other people from our neighborhood over, which was good, so we could get to know some of our neighbors. The weather was beautiful and we just sat in their front yard, ate, talked and watched the kids play in the street! Once it got dark (about 9pm - stupid day light savings, the sun isn't down until 9:30pm!), we started fireworks! This was the best part of our day! It was so fun to have the kids to pops and sparklers and all those things I remember doing as a kid on the 4th. We spent way too much money on fireworks, but I thought it was worth it. Ryan was a bit disappointed- none of them shoot up. I guess the law here is that you can't have anything over 15 feet. Lame. So Ryan and a friend from work are going to make a trip to Wyoming where you can get the good stuff.

At 10pm, after our little show we drove a few miles where we could see the fireworks show at Thanksgiving Point. We watched for about 30 minutes and then decided to bail. Come to find out we had just missed the finale! Oh well!

Kate and Clark with their new best friend Spencer


Kate, Clark and Spencer throwning the pops into the street

For those of you unfamiliar with fireworks- these are little tanks. You light the back and it sparks and is supposed to make the tank move (ours didn't). Then it has little fireworks come out of the front from it's guns. It's pretty cool. I guess Ryan loved these as a kid- so we had to get some for Kate and Clark.

Ryan lighting the tanks

Sparklers!!

Bedtime with Dad

Occasionally Ryan wakes up before the kids are in bed to help me with the night time routine. The kids have a bath, we brush their teeth and then we read a few books before they are off to bed. Well one night I guess Ryan skipped the first part of the routine and decide to just hang out on the couch until it was time for books. I sent the kids downstairs to read books, and when I came downstairs this is what I found!

Apparently Ryan was too tired or lazy to get up and have them sit on his lap, so he just put them up on the pillows around his head! I couldn't resist taking a picture. Ryan protested- but I knew he couldn't get up to stop me!

Lehi Days

So I guess every year Lehi has a big rodeo, and the whole week before they have all kind of events and parades and such. We were fortunate enough to get here in time for all the festivites, but the two that I'll mention are the parade and the day at the park. I guess they have 3 different parades, but we went to the big one on Saturday morning. It was the first time Kate and Clark had ever been to a parade, and weren't quite sure what was going on at first- but as soon as they started throwing candy- they figured it out! The parade lasted about 2 hours, after which we walked over to Wines Park (the big park in down town) where they had all kinds of fun stuff. There was rides, bounce equipment, face painting, food and a stage where they had performances all day. Here's what we did:

Kate and Clark on a little ride where the swings go around and around ( we waited in line for half an hour) The funny part was watching their faces the faster the swings went and the longer they were on the ride. I thought for sure one of them was gonna loose their lunch!

They are inside a big tiger bouncy thing. They loved that!

The high school FFA brought ponies and a bunch of animals for a petting zoo. They each got a turn on a pony, but I think we're pretty scared the whole time. I wasn't watching Clark closely the whole time, because I was helping Kate get off, and I guess the boy that was leading the pony smacked in on the nose and Clark still talks about it!

Here's Kate and Clark petting the turtles


Clark and Kate petting the bunnies. I think they liked this one best!