Mommy Can You Go To A Meeting?

I would think that most children would have a hard time when their FAVORITE person (mommy) has to leave in the evening to run errands or go to a meeting. I expect wailing and gnashing of teeth as I drive away and leave Daddy to deal with the upset. Not true... Lately the girls ask me every day if I can go to a meeting tonight and they can stay home with Daddy. WHY? I've found out his secret... STAR WARS! Who would have thought? As soon as I leave, they quickly finish whatever they were doing, he can give them the quickest bath I've ever seen, and they are ecstatic! They run around the house and pick up all their mess (which usually takes us HOURS, but not if STAR WARS is coming), and then the three of them snuggle down in front of the TV and take turns picking a STAR WARS movie to watch. However, this isn't even brainless movie time, Daddy sits and quizzes them on all the characters and vehicles, what planet their are on, etc. The girls are getting really good at his little tests. They have it down to a science when they are in STAR WARS mode: each person gets two pillows off my couches and lay them at the end table so that there is space to sprawl out. Then whenever someone remotely scary (ie. wampa) comes on screen, they scream and snuggle Daddy, loving every minute of it. I never thought Daddy could turn such girly girls into STAR WARS lovers, but he has done it, and they love this special time with him which I am not allowed to participate in (totally fine by me). I can only imagine what a STAR WARS fan our new little one will be...

Zoo & Aquarium Field Trip

We took a field trip with preschool to the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium. The girls and I have been before, but we got Daddy to take the day off work and come with us. Being 8 1/2 months pregnant, it was a HUGE help to Mommy, and the girls were ecstatic to show Daddy all of their favorite exhibits and everything in the new aquarium.Olivia is into a phase where she loves to dress like twins. Izzy could care less, but Olivia will re-change her outfit to find something similar to her sister. Most days you can't tell other than they are wearing the same color(because we don't have a lot of matching clothes), but recently we picked up these, and Olivia made sure they were exact!!

Olivia was so excited to go on their new log ride with Daddy. Regrettably, they don't allow any pregnant people on it, so she's been dying for Daddy to get to the zoo.

Izzy chose to ride the train as her special ride with Daddy. It was a lot of fun for them to have some 1-1 bonding time with Daddy today.

Daddy getting lots of kisses and snuggles as Izzy is trying to focus his attention on the shark tank.

The girls wanted to take Daddy to the petting zoo (definitely not his favorite place, but he was a good sport and was toted around anywhere they wanted to go).

They also got to feed the Turacos (birds) which is always an exciting adventure.

At one of the touch tanks, you can pet the stingrees. They also have an area where you can feed them. Daddy bought some shrimp, but the girls were a little freaked about putting their hands right where the stingrees mouths were.

Yes, STUPID is a bad word

Olivia is very intrigued by what words are good words to say and what words are bad. We've had a rule in place for some time now that "stupid" is a bad word and not one that we say at our house. Olivia has become the "bad word police" in our house and will call anyone out who says words not allowed (including: shut-up, crap, and butt--although she hasn't distinguished between butt/but which gets kind of sticky). Daddy really needs to work on his language because he is getting caught
CONSTANTLY!!

The other day at lunch, the girls and I had this conversation:
Olivia: MOM, Izzy said stupid.
Mom: Izzy, you know that is not a word that we use.
Izzy: Izzy says stupid. Daddy says stupid and Izzy says stupid. STUPID, STUPID STUPID, see? Izzy says stupid, just like Daddy.
Olivia: MOM did you hear her? Izzy said STUPID!
Mom: Izzy, you better knock it off or I'm going to bop your mouth
Izzy whispering: stupid, stupid stupid
Olivia: I can say STU though because that's not a bad word right?
Mom: right, STU is OK,
Olivia: STU
Izzy: PID
Olivia: STU
Izzy: PID
Mom: knock it off girls, I'm leaving

Then, we had this conversation in the car on our way to church this morning:
Dad: That stupid bird won't get out of the way!
Olivia: Mom, Dad said STUPID!
Izzy: Mom, Dad said STUPID!
Mom: yep, he shouldn't be saying that word.
Dad: Sorry, I shouldn't have said stupid.
Olivia and Izzy: Mom, Dad said STUPID again.
Dad: Got it!! Sorry!!
(3 minutes later)
Dad: Ugh! Why are there so many stupid birds around here
Mom: Oh, great...
Olivia: Mom, Dad said STUPID
Izzy: Mom, Dad said STUPID, STUPID STUPID
Olivia: Man Dad, you are full of bad choices today!

All Dolled Up...with no clothes on

After church, our children usually shed every piece of clothing and hang out the rest of the day...naked. Izzy got all ready to go to a party though and was thoroughly disappointed that I wouldn't let her out of the house.

Community Party

Every year our community puts on a party with: a barbeque, DJ, cotton candy, bouncies and rides, snow cones, face-painting, and the girls' favorite--port-a-poties (I'm really not sure what the fascination is with stinky, dirty disgusting toilets that don't flush). Since Shayne spent the morning golfing with a work buddy, the girls and I decided to go have a blast without him.

We've moved out of the crib

Because the new little one will need a place to sleep, we decided that we should transition Izzy into a toddler bed and out of the crib (I know she's over two and still sleeps in the crib, but she never once tried to get out, so why would I voluntarily remove the bars?) That means that Olivia had to move from a toddler bed to a twin (which she loves jumping on). They loves their new beds, however, we are not getting much sleeping done, especially at naptime. It took Izzy an hour and a half to get tuckered out enough to fall asleep on her big-girl bed, but I couldn't resist a picture of my precious angel asleep.

Captured!!

The girls spent the afternoon capturing each other inside the laundry basket and then sitting on top to prevent them from getting out. Hilarious if you were the one sitting on top, drama drama if you were the one inside. Such creative games...

Olivia's hard-earned ice cream

Olivia loves earning money. She does jobs around the house and earns a quarter for each job successfully completed. Since Nana's been in town, there have been plenty of jobs to go around and Olivia has earned over $2 in just a few days time. She heard the ice cream man coming (yes in Arizona he comes year round) and she grabbed her wallet and her sister and ran outside. I grabbed my wallet and followed because we would have major trouble if Olivia bought an ice cream and Izzy didn't get one. However, once the ice cream man stopped, Olivia turned to her sister and asked her what type of ice cream Izzy wanted. She made sure that she bought Izzy a treat before she ever spent a penny on herself. I was so touched that Olivia so easily shared her hard-earned money with a mooching little sister. Way to go Olivia, you are such a sweetheart!

Enjoying the rewards of hard work. YUM!!

I want to dance!!

Every week Izzy and I take Olivia to her dance class. We get to sit behind huge windows and watch all the girls in their cute dance outfits learn tap and ballet. Every week, Izzy wants to join, but they won't let you start until you are 3. Izzy is hopeful every week as she puts on her dance outfit to wear, and when she isn't allowed past the windows, she steals her sister's shoes and practices her own moves out with the parents.

Valentine's Festivities

The Monday before Valentine's day, we had a family home evening lesson on why we celebrate it. When Olivia was asked why we have Valentine's day, she said it was, "To get candy and treats". When we asked her why we get candy and treats on Valentine's Day she said, "Because we like candy and treats." So Shayne decided we needed a lesson on love since we obviously weren't catching the real meaning of the celebration. After our lesson, we made Valentine's mailboxes that we could deliver love notes to each other throughout the week. The girls really got into it and made notes for each other and us every day.
Of course, once our preschool Valentine's party hit, we were all over the spoils of the day!!
Nana was in town and she watched the girls for hours on Saturday afternoon while Shayne and I went out for sushi and a movie with some friends. Thank you Nana for the long hours of babysitting, my Valentine and I really appreciated it!!

Teddy Bear Picnic

We had a teddy bear picnic for preschool this past week. All the kids brought their favorite teddy bear and we did all kinds of activities with them. Some of Olivia and Isabelle's favorite activities were: making teddy bear bread, patterning with gummy teddy bears, eating our teddy bear bread, and of course the actual picnic at the park(anything with lunch in a lunchbox is cool.)

Saturday Morning Breakfast

Usually during the week, mornings are busy and early, so we end up eating cold cereal. On Saturdays however, I usually make a fancier breakfast for everyone (fancier than cold cereal that is). Olivia was not too excited about having waffles for a Saturday morning breakfast, so I decided to spice them up with SPRINKLES!! Sprinkles make everything exciting. The girls scarfed their waffles and want them again this coming Saturday.

Chocolate Festival

We went to the Glendale Chocolate Festival with Grandma and Grandpa. It's mainly a place that celebrates chocolate covered everything, oh and love since it's around Valentine's Day. The girls got to taste test all kinds of fudge (even made from goat's milk), check out all the vendors, do some valentine's crafts, ride on a bus, play in kiddie land, tour the chocolate factory, pick out their own chocolates, and most especially spend time with Grandma and Grandpa. It was loads of fun, the girls could have stayed there all night, but mom and her big belly had to call it quits after a few hours.

Here's the girls eating chocolates outside the chocolate factory.

Olivia rode the slide over and over and over and over...

Izzy loved the bounce house the best!

Fashion Divas

Olivia likes being in charge of herself, and she loves being able to make her own decisions. I usually let her be the one to choose her outfits and how her hair is done (let her have a little control in life), and lately she's been coming up with some creative hairstyles. Izzy of course wants to copy anything that her sister does, so we usually get matching wacky hairstyles.

Aunt Averi moved to Arizona

Aunt Averi moved to Arizona this week, and we got to go over to her cute townhome and help her unpack. I'm really not sure how much help we were, but we definitely destroyed a few boxes while we played. We love it when people move around, a whole new world of toys...
Izzy's getting some snuggles from Grandpa while she's eating a sucker that she found. Not quite sure where the sucker has been. She's also sporting the new clothes that Grandma bought for the new baby brother, every gift is a gift for her whether you want it to be or not.



Who doesn't love popping bubble wrap?

Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is always a big deal with Shayne. The girls have loved football season with daddy. At lunch Olivia was talking that today is the very last day of football. Then she told us how sad daddy would be, how sad she would be and how sad Izzy would be. But she said mommy would be very happy. How true!! We had our own Super Bowl Party for dinner complete with little smokies, seven layer dip, chips and soda, all on a picnic blanket in front of the TV. However, Olivia is really starting to get into parties and planning them, so she said we also needed popcorn and slippers. Izzy of course watched the game in her underwear, I guess that's a bonus for watching it at home.

Resident Tennis Pro

Daddy has recently gotten back into tennis, and on Saturday, we went to the Surprise Courts to play. The girls had never seen him play and so they were dying to go watch him play. They both took their cameras to get some action shots of their hero. I must admit that our attention span wouldn't last as long as a match, I think they lasted maybe 20 minutes before they decided they were done watching daddy and wanted to go play at the park.

This weekend the Surprise Courts threw a block party to kick off the "Fed Cup" that's coming next weekend. They had all kinds of activities for the entire family. Both the girls decided they are going to be tennis players (daddy better get a really lucrative job to pay for lessons, equipment, court fees etc.). They really enjoyed doing all the drills and activities that we got to do there.

Izzy is determined that this is baseball.

Olivia would have practiced her serves all day long, she loved everything!

They were supposed to hit the balls at some blow-up guys, but Izzy kept aiming for the coach.

This was a great obstacle course that they put together to teach some drills. Olivia did fantastic, and Izzy didn't quite get the concept at all.