Mommy and me

Going to do a double post hopefully.  Here's some pictures I meant to post earlier, but didn't.  

Maggie and I have been going to mommy and me gymnastics.  She's shy, but she loves it.  

Hanging on things is probably her 2nd favorite.  Jumping on things is 1st.

Playing in the yard now that the weather is nice.

Goofy kids

Peachy Keen

Twice now I have bought a little box of peaches at Sam's club and twice now Maggie has stolen them and taken bites out of each one.  The first time was completely my fault.  I left the box out where she could reach it. The 2nd time though, I thought I had it out of reach on the kitchen counter.  Guess she's taller than I thought.  

My little helpers helping me make some bread.

I'm going to choose to remember this moment like these pictures: smiling and happy.

I feel like every time we play outside (especially with Jonny) it ends like this.

I guess Jonny's just always watering something and he can't help but spray them down too.

I probably shouldn't waste time and money on clothes for Maggie.  I know she's not alone which makes me wonder why they even have a 2T size at all? 

Look out, she has on underwear! Trying not to get excited, but she has actually used the potty a few times now.  

Halloween has become a huge topic in our house.  Molly is going to be Ruby Gloom.  I'm sure no one knows what that is. It used to be on netflix, and that's where she latched on to it.  She's just a cute little bright red head girl that's slightly skeletal/zombieish looking.  I was surprised she went for something more "Halloweeny" since it's usually all pink and princess with her.

Maggie with the Ruby wig.

The outfit

The make-up.

Ruby's sidekick is doom kitty, so Maggie, not being able to articulate exactly what she'd like to be, is being roped in to being doom kitty.  I think she'll like it though since she'll get to wear her black leotard and tights. That's pretty much her favorite thing to wear.

Going to the grocery store when daddy is there is so much better than with just Mommy.  I'm always teasing Jonny that he's ruining them when he takes them to stores since I have different standards for how a trip to the store should go. I hate all carts that are not regular. He's happy to push whatever novelty cart they might have available. I don't like to let them (particularly Maggie)out of the cart. He's happy to let them wander within reason. I'm a hard ass (not really) and don't buy them stuff EVERY time...just most of the time.

I can't complain too much though since he's helping with errands.

Grocery store fashion shows are perfectly acceptable.  Even I can agree with that.

Happy Birthday Maggie

I won't start where we left off, I'll start with the most important, which is Maggie's 2nd birthday! I kept it as small as possible.  Pizza, cake and ice cream, presents. No invitations, No organized entertainment (only the bajillion toys we have littering the house), no unifying theme (unless you count "birthday").  Maybe I dropped the ball, or maybe I'm rebelling against the new idea that you must do all of those things in spectacular fashion in order to give your child fabulous memories of how cool you were. It's probably the former.

We also totally smashed the cake.  I thoughtlessly placed the cake directly below some precariously arranged pumpkins and Jonny thoughtlessly walked through the dining room creating just enough vibration to send a pumpkin tumbling into the cake. Whoops!  I made the kids eats that part.

 The Macs and the Morrises

Maggie wearing her uniform: a romper. I can't keep this kid in clothes. Even rompers can be discarded, but they at least slow the process a bit.  I wouldn't care except the whole potty issue.

Trying out her new stuff.

Don't touch! You'll ruin it!

Can't cram it in her mouth fast enough.  It was pretty yummy.  I love Goldsboro's

Can't believe it's already been 2 years!  I can't believe it's ONLY been 2 years! Ha!

So that was last week, but of course there was also the whole month of July and the beginning of August that I missed. I'll hit the highlights.

We were lucky in that we were able to get away some this summer.  Jonny had to work in Ca. so we stayed on Ventura beach and hung out there a few days.  

I had no intention of letting them get into the water this time, and so I didn't bother with bathing suits.  Of course by the time we left, Molly was completely soaked.  Thankfully a better, more prepared mother, let us borrow a towel (and some Cheetos).  Molly was grateful for both.

Playing at the park on the beach.

On the way home we hit up Sea World, which was fun as always.

Checking out the belugas.

Then the next weekend, we went camping near Payson with the Morrises. The weather was great and the kids had lots of fun.

Our tent!  It kept the water out.  Thankfully the Morrises shared their trailer with us.  We even got to take showers!

The last day.  Looking a little disheveled.

Smiling through the mosquitoes.

I somehow I didn't manage to get the log into the picture.  It didn't look safe to me, but she survived.

 Glad to be going home and getting ice cream.

It was pretty fun.  My hope is that my memory of the rough parts will be diminished enough that I'll want to head back out next year.

Now, on to the random.  Maggie is kind of a pain in the butt.  Like most little ones, she's really good at making messes. The flour isn't on a low shelf in the fridge anymore.

 

She enjoys painting

 

 We've had a few firsts.  Molly is now a Lutheran...or at least a student at Yuma Lutheran School.  We were pleased that a child of ours didn't burst into flames when walking into a church. So far she really likes it.  Her class is really small, which is awesome.

 

Maggie had her first dance class.  

 

I sent Molly in with her and that seemed to work out well.  hopefully next week she'll stay in there by herself.

 We have had a pretty mild summer this year.  We've also had some pretty decent rainstorms which is always fun for desert folk.

We're hopefully going to get even more this week.  It's awesome to see temperatures lower than 100 in August. 

Colorado 2013

We're now back in Yuma and all we have to remember the lovely CO weather are these pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.

I was kind of bummed that we didn't make it in time to visit A/U, but maybe next time.  

Papa, Gran, and Uncle Chris, with Molly's new friends, Miles and Nancy (Aunt Stephanie's parents).  Today when we were looking at pictures, Molly said "I remember now. They're Miles and Nancy.  Aunt Stephanie's Mom and Dad." 

This isn't the same fish as above.  I decided you didn't need to see 4 pictures of seemingly identical trout and just picked one.  The first time we visited Cottonwood lake.  Jonny cast Molly's princess fishing pole for her and turned it over to her.  not even a minute later she's claiming to have caught a fish.  We of course think she's full of it or has caught some plants.  We were of course wrong and she caught the first fish of vacation. We kept some of them for dinner.  They were pretty good!

The second day we spent at Cottonwood lake in addition to fishing, we rented a paddle board.  Molly was really into it and tried to hitch a ride with anyone who'd let her on.

This is for Cassie:  Chris is doing an upward facing Dog paddle.

Doing some more fishing with the lucky princess pole.

Maggie's favorite part of vacation was throwing rocks into whatever body of water was available. By the time we left she was demanding "I go walk!" "I throw rocks!"

Why don't we live here?

Poor little chapped up ragamuffin.

Of course at some point, clothes are coming off.

Our place was in walking distance from the river, so we also spent a fair amount of time there.  One day Chris, my dad and Jonny went boogie boarding in a hole.  I ended up being too chicken to do it.

No vacation is complete for Jonny without a conference call.  Here he is trying to put on his wetsuit while talking on the phone.  He almost forgot to put on his life jacket.  Thankfully, Molly wondered out loud why Daddy wasn't wearing the "jacket that makes it so he won't die".

Basically they kicked as hard as they could until the little hole sucked them up and kept them there.  Jonny did take one little trip down river, but he made it out eventually.

I have no idea who this is.  We'll say it's Jonny.

We spent several mornings at the Buena Vista Roastery.  

Molly and Go Go.

The trip was really long (30 hours round trip!) but considering, the girls did pretty good.  Molly could go a couple hours just pretending with her dolls or coloring. I was impressed.  Maggie wasn't always as agreeable, but you can't really blame her.

One last picture:  We're home now, and today we made Gran a birthday cake.  Molly was of course a fantastic helper.

 

Happy Birthday Gran!