Someday....

..... we will live in a place that has sunsets like this. It might not be until we get to heaven, but someday we'll have this as our view.

We LOVE the beach! Even though it was cool and cloudy inland, it was a GORGEOUS day at the beach 6.6.09

It was hard to keep Julia from chasing the waves out.... she loved the sand and rocks under the waves... I had to keep a very close eye on her and try to distract her elsewhere!

Eliana with "uncle" Ben

Ben and Sheri now live in San Clemente... and yes I am trying not to be jealous ;) We actually spent the day at the beach with them and Miley, their beautiful little girl... and some of their friends. I also got to take some pictures of their Miley. To see more click HERE

California

Our plans were thwarted by California's cool weather. It was in the mid -low 60's which is cold for us Arizonans and for swimming. We were looking for things to do so we took Eliana to Victoria Garden's and took her on a train ride and for a ride in the Trolley. She really enjoyed it.

On Saturday morning my friend Jenn came over with her three kids. Eliana and Carissa and Camden have been friends since she was 2 months but they only get to see each other occasionally now. It took a bit for them to warm up to each other but once Eliana found a worm it got them together. Pictured below you will see the "cozy home" they made for the worm which they named Patty. Eliana loves gross things... slugs, worms, seaweed, mudd etc and has no problem touching and playing with these things. I don't discourage it or let her know I think it's gross, I don't want to hamper her exploration but it is pretty gross sometimes and she definetly gets really messy most of the time.

Eliana, Addison and Carissa. Of course Eliana couldn't be serious.

Today is Carissa's 5th Birthday!! Happy Birthday Carissa!!

Vegas

Christian had a training in Las Vegas from 6.2-6.4. He invited us to go along since he had a suite. We decided that as soon as the training was over we'd head to CA to swim at his parents and go to the beach. We had to leave at 5:30 am on the 2nd to get there (we drove). We stayed in the Palazzo which is connected to the Venetian. It was really nice. The girls and I swam and went to the Silverton to the free aquarium and walked around. They were very good and had lots of fun.

This is at the aquarium at the Silverton. It was really cool.

These umbrellas were hanging in the shopping area at the Palazzo. I loved it...

Another aquarium in the shops by Ceasar's Palace.

Holbrook

During Memorial Day weekend, we took a quick trip to Holbrook for our nephew Ethan's blessing. It was fun to see Katie and Jason and be there for Ethan. We are blessed to have a great family.

On our way home the sky was so beautiful...

How Does Your Garden Grow?

5.20.09 Our cosmos are out of control and taking over the garden and they still haven't bloomed. Going to give them a little more time to bloom and if they don't we'll have to get rid of them. (they are just at Eliana's right)

I removed them before our trip to NV and CA (more to come on that soon)


We returned from our trip to find many more sunflowers blooming and growing so tall! I LOVE THEM!!

This is our squash, watermelon and pumpkin garden. We just planted the pumpkins before we left and they are now small plants (on the right). We are so excited for our fruit and vegetables! Gardening is lots of fun!

OUR SANDBOX!!

Right before we left Christian also finished the sandbox for the girls. It is huge and they love it! It provides hours of entertainment and lots of gritty floors, scalps and bums... but, it keeps them busy and they love it so much it's worth it to me.

Owwwwww!

This is a painful entry for me to make, thus the small pictures again, but I feel I need to make it just in case it helps someone else prevent this from happening. Almost 2 weeks ago, while I was showering, Julia got a glass off my nightstand. I saw that she had it and got out as fast as I could, but obviously not fast enough. I couldn't see what happened but heard a crash and scream and jumped out to find her leg seriously sliced. I wrapped her leg up in a towel and had Eliana get my phone. She helped me call Christian and he left work right away. He got home, we took her to urgent care where they told us that she needed stitches which they couldn't do and to take her to the hospital ER for stitches. They recommended we go to Chandler b/c it's better and faster, so we did. They were very fast, the Dr. looked at it and said yes, she needed stitches and sent us to the PA and nurse to do it. Well, they decided it would be better to glue it and told us all the reasons why we should have them do so, including much less pain for our Julsie. We agreed that would be good, since they were in fact the experts not us. They said there was a small chance that it could come undone but they were pretty sure it would work great. As you can see in the first picture, the glue came undone, within 24 hours. I called or pediatrician and he said there was nothing we could do now, and that they should have never glued her leg. That first of all glue doesn't hold well on body parts which move (such as legs and arms) and that second with a toddler, it is even more unlikely to hold. How FRUSTRATING for us!! I feel so bad for her! She is going to have one big scar! Do scars stretch to take up the same amount of her leg as the leg gets bigger??? I don' t know.

So here it is at the beginning of this week. At least it is healing and she doesn't even care but it makes me so so so so so SAD!

Lessons Learned that I want to share:

1. Never leave a glass where your toddler can reach it. Also, they sometimes grow so fast you don't realize they can reach it when they can so keep a close eye on this.

2. If stitches are needed, DO NOT let them glue your child's leg or arm or anywhere else that has a lot of movement. I wish I had known that!

Party at the White House

One of Eliana's best friends Emily got to play at our house for 3 days this week and they had a BLAST! They are such good friends. They are pretty similar in their personalities and tend to be quite mischievous together!



They played in the water A LOT and if your not in AZ I would like you to know that it is already 104 -105 degrees everyday!

I was setting up my lighting for a portrait session and they jumped in for a few shots.

I went downstairs for 2 mins (seriously) and came back up to find them plastered in baby powder. I just had them get back in the studio so I could at least record their craziness. This must mean they are going to be very intelligent b/c they are so curious. At least they have fun together. We loved have Emily spend some time with us.