Upcoming Comings & Goings

Some upcoming things we have going on: I plan on enrolling Boo in a tumbling or dance class, I don't really know how much she is going to be interested in it, but I'm hoping to find something to channel her energy into. Also, her birthday is coming up. She has informed me that she wants to have a "'Cinderlella' birthday party, with a 'Cinderlella' cake with 3 candles". Anyone making the trip to help her celebrate? Any good ideas for a cake? Bo is coming up on his year mark for working for SSVEC, which means his 6-month board review for his apprenticeship. He has one test to finish next week, and then he will be done with the required tests. He sure has learned a lot, and is relieved to have 6 months completed, only 3 and a half years left. Bo's brother is coming to visit this week, I haven't told Boo yet, but she is going to be psyched, she loves her uncle 'neil. That's about it, on our upcoming plans.

**I typed this up a week or so ago. Boo's uncle 'neil did in fact come and visit and Boo had quite a fun time playing with him. She just love visitors!

This weekend for Labor Day it looks like we are going to be going up north. Bo has a four day weekend, so it's a good time for us to get out of town and go visit family. We are going to be making a stop in the valley on our way. If I know my husband well, he will want a good meal and House with dessert at FroYo. We miss eating good food, they don't seem to have a very good selection in the po'-dunk town we live in! I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to post from our travels.

Martha Stewart in Training

Boo is really going through a real independent stage right now, she wants to do stuff on her own. I've learned that it may take more time in the long run, but it's less of a fight if I just let her do it. It was really a hard thing for me to accept, I seem to be somewhat of a control freak... I'm going to Control Freaks Anonymous. She has been interesting to watch going through this phase. I find that toddlers are very unsure of themselves and don't like to be embarrassed. When she puts her shorts on wrong, she gets really upset and doesn't want my help to fix it yet continues to be upset and slightly embarrassed that she couldn't do it on her own. She has also showed a keen interest in cooking lately. So, I oblige and let her help stir and what-not, but she still is interested in the stove, and oven which she is always overly upset when I tell her she can't help take stuff out of the oven. The real issue with her helping cooking is:

She wants to lick everything we make! Ew, no one would buy it! She's tried cake batter, waffle batter, cornbread batter, really, if it's batter, she's probably tasted it.

She gets such satisfaction out of helping too. It's fun to watch her learning, and just trying. She tries so hard at things, she really wants to be big.

She was helping Bo make biscuits the other day, I had an apron on so I didn't get grease on my shirt so she had to have her apron on.

Then she had to have a turn mixing the dough, then she had to have a turn with the rolling pin and of course she wanted to cut all the biscuits.

And yes, she couldn't help herself from sampling the dough.

Horsing Around

Boo found Bo's cowboy hat and enjoyed "horsing around" with it along with her trusted steed "bulls-aisle", that's what she calls Bullseye from Toy Story 2.

Mud Pies & Puddle Jumping

If you've never seen the show Jon & Kate Plus Eight, you've got to check it out. It's on TLC, and I'm not sure of the time. Anyway, I don't watch it faithfully, but I've seen enough episodes to know that I don't ever want a multiple birth of more than two. Two is plenty and maybe even more than I could handle. I couldn't imagine having a set of twins and a set of sextuplets! Wow! I tell you this because I watched an episode the other day that made me chuckle. They were on vacation and so they were doing some things that they don't normally do. Kate said that she doesn't usually allow them to get dirty, that for the most part they don't get down and dirty in the dirt and ya know, stuff like that. On the show she was letting them paint with pudding (this was right after I saw your blog Laura), and then they painted their bodies with the pudding. It was humorous to watch. Why you ask am I telling you this? Well I think I'm a bit like that. I really don't let Boo get as dirty as she would like to most days. I know I need to let her, but it always seems like too much work to clean up afterwards. But this last week, I've been rather proud of myself. Twice I let her get muddy and didn't care about how much work the clean-up was, I just let her enjoy herself. Here are a couple pictures from her mud pies making session a couple days ago.

Then today we got completely dirty today but I didn't get any pictures. It rained here and I let her splash in the mud puddles while I finished my gardening in the rain. I had started working outside 3 hours before the rain started and was determined to finish, so the last hour or so I was outside in the rain. Boo got all geared up in her Oaki Wear boots, her Elmo umbrella, and he Strawberry Shortcake jacket and went to town splashing around in the water and mud. We even caught a frog which she named Mr. Frog after the last one we caught last Saturday while working outside. We also caught a snail last Saturday that was named, of course, Mr. Snail. She was disappointed today after I found the frog and I couldn't find Mr. Snail as well. It almost took away the excitement of having the frog period. We were both soaked to the bone when we finally came inside... But I did finish my planting!

Fun with the Hawman Girls

While up north we got to see the Hawman girls a couple times. Here is Boo playing dress up with their nieces.

We went to the park with the girls and the nieces as well.

Boo wanted to bring "Rintoo" with her to the park, he was packed full of snacks that we shared with friends. I also braided her hair for the first time, it just had never really occurred to me to braid it. Cute huh? I've done it frequently since then.

Ashley enjoying the spoils of Boo's snacks.

Aw cute sisters... I just noticed that we are all wearing black (well Ashley is navy but it's looks black)...

Mindi also went to the temple with us and we took some fun pictures.

No, he's not really grabbing her butt, but it's funny anyway.

Picturesque Arizona

I was in a real picture-takin' mood in July and scenic pictures were really interesting to me. I wish I would've taken more, but here's what I have. I've added a couple of captions, so anything that follows the caption goes with that caption until you get to the next captioned picture.

Family Pictures Time

Speaking of rare family pictures... we had another spare person with us when we went to the temple so we took advantage and had Mindi take some pictures for us. They aren't really my favorite, but it works, right?

More SRC Pictures

Here are a couple more picture from our stop at Salt River Canyon.

Here are the stairs Bo had to carry both Boo and myself up. Isn't he just a trooper?!

I got Shannon to take a family picture for us. We rarely take them, so it's nice when we do!

Boo with her daddy. She is sure a little daddy's girl if I ever seen one. She looking at the water, she was so excited to see the "riber". She had a good time finding rocks to try and throw in the water.

History Repeating?

I'm still sorting through all the pictures I took while we were gone in July, so bear with me. We stopped at the bottom of Salt River Canyon on our way home for a break from the car. As many of you know that canyon can make even the toughest, sick to their stomach. It reminded me of a stop we had made there almost six years ago. Bo and I were engaged and we were on our way home from Tucson, we stopped for fun but it didn't end fun. I ended up twisting my ankle and spraining it... at the bottom of the stairs. Bo, the he-man, carried me up all the stairs to the top and to my car. We had a nice lady take a picture of the momentous occasion. Notice my foot with out the shoe, that's the one I hurt, I was sore for about 2 weeks after that.

This last trip we played around a bit, took some pictures and Bo kept saying to me "Now, don't hurt yourself, I don't think I can carry you and a Boo up the stairs together!" Lucky for him, he only had to carry one of us, and she's a bit lighter than I am.

Everyone Loves Videos!

My friend Ashley posted a video of Boo that I sent to her, check it out, it's so cute!

Tan Lines

I meant to include this in the last post but I forgot and then didn't want to go back and change it all. This is her tan. Even with a good coating of sunscreen she still tans. I remember as a kid having quite the little tan, but I don't remember wearing sunscreen. Boo may just be like her dad, he tans but never burns. I on the other hand mostly just burn and then it turns to a little tan, mostly a farmers tan!

Summer Fun

Boo has enjoyed the spoils of the summer, she gets into the public pool free (score!), so we have gone a handful of times. Even with a good slathering of sunscreen, she still seems to still get a tan, at least it's not a burn. We went twice when her cousin Shannon was here, two or three times with Olivia, and a couple times by ourselves. I'm not comfortable with my bodily state at the moments, so we stick to the kiddie pool with my legs in the water.

Boo is quite the water dog, she loves it. Next year I plan to enroll her in swim lessons. The pool closes on Tuesday (that was this last Tuesday, so it's closed now), so we will probably take advantage of the last swim, and look forward to next year (she will still get in free, score! The pool here is free for age 6 and under.)

So I never finished my posts about vacation. Here is the final synopsis. After camping we went to visit the rest of the family up north, mostly Bo's family. Bo had plans to work with his dad to get some odd jobs done, it was a good time for Boo to visit with her Grandma Lee. While there, Bo's mom decided that it was time to start getting rid of her sewing stuff, she says she has moved on to bigger and better things (she makes the most awesome felt art, and does wonderful cross-stitch, I think that's what it's called), so she wants to give me all of her fabric. Since we had the means to transport it home, we said OK! We went and picked up 5 big tubs to put the fabric in to pack it in the truck. After a couple hours of digging it out, we have the bins full and more fabric to go. She had, rather has a TON of fabric. We didn't even make it to the stuff downstairs, I don't think I'm going to have room for all of it! Since getting home, I have also organized the fabric and notions we brought, so I'm ready for another load to sort through to find the treasures that are hidden in the mounds of thread. Going through all of this makes me excited for future sewing projects. Here are the tubs in our shed, anyone need fabric?

We were up north for a couple days, and we were ready to come home. We brought Bo's niece home with us to stay for a couple days. It was a rough car ride home with a little bit of car sickness, but we made it and were thankful to be out of the car. Shannon was with us for 4 days, and Boo just had a ball entertaining her. Boo just loves company! We went the pool twice with Shannon and even went the the movies. We saw Wall-E, Boo likes going to the movies, but doesn't really like sitting for more than an hour so she wandering from our aisle to the aisle in front of us quite a few times. We were sad to have Shannon go home, but since her family came to pick her up we got to see them again and they got to see where we live. They have future plans to come back and go sight-seeing. We'll see if they really do...

That week we had a lot of visitors, probably more than we've had since we've lived here. My brother Brian and his wife stopped twice, and their way to and from Texas. It was fun to have them come and see where we live and go out to lunch with they also made future plans to come and sight see. Again, we'll see...

Disney Movies

I know all parents have different takes on whether or not to let kids watch TV/movies. I am one who chooses to let my child, some days just for my sanity. I have to admit that although she has learned some good things from shows like Dora and other shows like that, those same shows tend to grate on the nerves of anyone over 4 foot tall. Lately I have come to really appreciate the fact that Boo now likes to watch Disney movies. Most of the movies have catchy music, and aren't so blantetly obnoxious that you can stand to be in the same room with them. I've been slowly introducing Boo to more and more Disney movies, one of her newest favorites is Toy Story 2, although she likes the first one she can watch TS2 over and over. Yesterday I introduced her to Hercules. She's watched it twice now; it's funny to have her explain the movie when she one seen it twice. It does have some "scary monsters" in it, but they don't seem to bother her, maybe it's my over-protective-parent-ness that thinks it would be scary. She was even attempting to sing the music in it after only the first time watching it (we've got a singer on our hands!). Anyway, Hooray for Disney movies and the fact that she will now watch them!

Fun Videos

I found this on a friends blog, and liked it so I thought I'd share. It is from a group called Insideout A Cappella.

I liked these other song by them too:

Squirrels

The Stalker Song

SnowMen Continued

Boo the Bookworm

If anyone of you know my daughter well, you would know how much she likes reading. She loves to read! She went through a naughty spell a couple months back where she was riping up her books, but she has learned to treat her books nice, or she gets them taken away. She likes to read before she goes to bed; really I think this is just a ploy to get to stay up later. She usually meanders into the hallway and reads with the hall light and eventually falls asleep on the floor. We've had problems finding proper lighting for her bedside. While at Wally-world this weekend, we found a lamp that clips to her headboard that is really easy for 2-year old fingers to turn on, and she is just as happy as a clam now. Tonight she lined up all her dollies and was reading them to sleep. The only problem, as it seems, her dollies were alseep but she was not. After an hour and some stern talking to, she went to bed a little unhappy that I had turned off her light. This might be a little bit of a fight mixed with a good way to get her to loving reading.

*Since I wrote this, last week, she has ripped up 3 books and has gotten them taken away again. Anyone know how to get a child to stop ripping up books??

Cleaning & the Killer Bush

So as a catcher-upper, here are a couple things that have gone on lately. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, we bought our house, so we are starting to make it our own by changing things. My first goal was to start going through the remaining boxes we still haven't unpacked and either repack with good labeling or for a better idea, get rid of the stuff! We have a shed in our backyard that housed a lot of our unpacked boxes, so we started there. We spent some time before Bo's back problem cleaning it out and pulling out all the boxes and replacing them with repacked plastic bins. Before we took on the shed, I emptied Boo's closet and went through all of the boxes with baby clothes and sorted them, packed them by size in plastic tubs and labeled the tops of them with what exactly them contained. Those got packed in the shed which opened up room in her closet to move toys in there. I took off her closet doors to make it easier to go in and out of her closet, I have a project to make curtains for a cover (thanks to Jordan for the idea). Having this stuff organized will make it easier to maneuver around to paint when we are ready. Since emptying these boxes we've have an accumulative DI pile, so this past Saturday, we loaded in into Bo's truck and trekked over to Benson to take it to the DI pod. Yeah! More free space! My next project is to de-junk our spare room (we have company coming this week, Bo's brother is coming for a visit so I'm in a crunch to get it livable). When I organized our DVD's last month, it was a nice start to getting it organized. About 4 or the boxes we took out of the shed had books in them, so those will find a home on the remaining shelves, that will free up more space. It feels good to be getting a little more organized, once I feel organized we will move onto the kitchen. We have plans to paint, re-tile and replace appliances. One step at a time.

I know I've previously showed a picture of the bush we have in our front yard, it's a beast!

So yeah, there it is... That picture it back from January. I don't find it attractive in the least bit, no offence to those whose like them. My issue with it is the fact that it houses the neighborhood cat, so it smells of cat... and I have issues with that. Besides, it's pokey and not kid friendly. So long story short, we are slowly butchering it.

Aside from what we cut, can you see how much it's grown. Again, before Bo's back problem, we cut part of one side and loaded and filled the whole back of his truck with trimmings. Slowly we'll cut it all out and start landscaping. I know we are getting to the end of the season, but we have some plans for brick work that can be done on the off season, even the edging in the back yard can be done during the winter. I am really looking for to watching the transformation. I've got a vision...

I've got more to post, but that's enough boredom for one day.