We Made It!

Summer is here! Today was the last day of school. Shout Hooray. I can't believe we made it to the end. My sweet little Mallory is now going to be a 4th grader. YIKES!!!

This week has definitely been a fight. Talk about enduring to the end...the end of a VERY VERY long school year. We have had an uphill battle with education here, but I know it will be getting better. The end of year activities always get so busy. It seems like it just sneaked up on us. Mallory had to get teeth pulled this week also, which added LOTS of stress. She did awesome and isn't scared of the dentist anymore. Then our friends are moving this week. We have been trying to help where we can. It is hard to have friends move away. We are always the ones to move. We have never had this to deal with. Jillian cried tonight because she wanted to play with her friend Emily in the morning. I had to remind her that she won't be here anymore....it was very sad.

So, it has been quite the week. We are so pumped for summer but mainly for SLEEP. I am kinda forgetting what that is. Here is Mallory walking out of her classroom (it was a free dress day).

Singing the sweet tune of SUMMER!

Mallory and her friend that we carpool with.

Mallory giving her teacher a hug. So sweet!

Logan and Jillian were just hanging out, watching all the big kids. Weird to think Jillian will be here ALL day next year...I mean ALL day too. Our school day is ridiculously long!

We went to lunch with some friends after school. I LOVED not packing a lunch!

Crazy bunch!

He is TROUBLE!

After lunch we went swimming at our Bishops house. He is so awesome and always lets us swim. He has one of the nicer pools too. The kids had a blast. I wish we could do this everyday.

Mallory has the Sharpay look down. She was thinking she was in HSM 2.

I love pictures of kids jumping in the water. They are so funny...especially this little fish.

I love Jillian's stance here. She looks hard core!

Yea!!! We had such a fun day. I need a good week of sleep to catch up though. Now we just have to finish up Mallory's dance next week. She has a recital, then we'll be totally done. We will be off to San Diego, Disneyland, and Gramma and Papa's for the summer. Let the fun begin!

Twine Cans

I have been going can crazy! These little cans are so fun to make, not to mention quick, easy, and cheap. I am making them for some organization with my supplies and giving some away for teacher gifts.

All you need are some formula cans or nut cans. I had left over formula that I was saving. Wrap them with twine or jute. I used a glue gun here and there. Then cover the top and bottom with ribbon and make a little tag. Super easy! I downloaded this cute font from here.

Silly Logan

We let our friends use our play car when their little boy was Logan's age. We didn't really have room to move it and sharing toys like this is fun. When we went to visit last week, Logan immediately became GLUED to this car. We took it home...which I do feel a little guilty about. Logan loves it. He is so possessive over it. It has actually caused a little uproar in our home. The level of screaming has become louder. Jillian intentionally bugs Logan by climbing in and on it ALL of the time.

Logan is definitely MY boy. Even though he doesn't look like me at all (it is quite weird..the only reason I know he is mine is from his CUTEST feature, his chin). He LOVES shoes. The first thing he does in the morning is walk around carrying his shoes. He will whine and fuss till I can get his footed jammies off and put his shoes on. Early in the morning you can find Logan wearing only his diaper and shoes.

Our good friends gave us these cute boots. He couldn't wear them when they fit him best since he wasn't walking. Now, I have to cram his foot in them and good luck getting them off!!! We are going to find some new boots that will be more fitting. For now, I have to tuck them away in his time capsule so they won't ruin his feet. I thought he was too funny wearing them around.

This video is of Logan's "new" thing. When we ask him something that he wants he reply's, "YaYaYa" and bounces up and down. We often ask him questions just to see his reply. It is Jillian's favorite thing to do. She always asks him if he wants a tubby. It is sorta mean, he ends up bouncing up and down at the bath tub.

Weekend Getaway

We left for a little weekend trip in efforts to cure our end of year schoolitis! Michael has been working out of town for the week, so we went to stay with him. He is working the dreaded night shift so we hung out at the hotel at night. The initial idea was fun, but the actual trip....TIRING!!! It is all about the kids though, right? So, we got up there Friday had dinner and swam. The girls LOVE to swim. Nobody wanted to sleep that night. Michael showed up about 6:30 am and everyone woke up. Have I mentioned I love to sleep?? We got up and ready, then drove down to Tucson to visit our friends for the day.

We had such a fun day visiting and swimming. We even ate at my fav Mexican restaurant. YUMMY! You would think there would be good Mexican food down here, not really! My friend and I also went to Real Deals, my favorite store. The girls all played so good together...it was like we never left. I didn't think of the consequences of visiting though. I can't stand the fact that I actually said okay to moving. So, the sadness set in quickly and I was back to square on...trying to be happy with where we live. Michael reminded me why we moved. Family IS more important than location.

Jillian and her friends, Carli and Bryson.

Mallory and her friend.

My cute little man! He is such a HANDFUL!!!

Jillian looks so old here! We miss our old pool SO bad.

We had a great day with such good friends. Off to get the Kleenex!

Perspective

Lately, I have been thinking about how our perspective changes as we go through different times in our life. For instance, my perspective on time has been turned upside down since we have lived here (aka paradise). I now think that 7:30 is sleeping in, when just over a year ago I couldn't even get up by 9:00. Another example I have thought of is how long I spend driving my car. I remember living in Tucson, putting $20 of gas in my car to last a week. That would never work here. I almost need $20 a day. That is the number ONE reason why I hate living where I do.....UNTIL.....

Yesterday. I went back to Tucson for the first time since I left , a little over a year ago. Driving into town I was blown away with how pretty it was. There were trees and bushes and finished sidewalks. IMAGINE!! The funny thing is while I lived there I really didn't think it was pretty. I just thought that Cactus are cool! Oh, how my perspective has changed. Now, I am longing to get back there. I guess I need to find the beauty in blowing sand.

I will definitely need some time to have my heart heal...I just ripped out a knife!

Balloon Wreath

We made these balloon wreaths today. I saw them on some one's blog and thought they would be fun. So, 10 of us met together today at my house and played with balloons. I still need to add some things to it. The wreaths take about 150 balloons each. There were balloons scattered all over my table.

The kids had fun being crazy too!

Naughty Little Boy

This is what we do for the rest of the day...turns out I have a really clean floor now!

TRUCK!!!!

This is what we do ALL day long. We live in a newly developed area that is still being developed. So there are construction trucks that drive by all the time. Logan stares out the window yelling "CHUCK." Then he leans down to roll his truck around for a little bit. He is SO different from the girls. It is such a nice change. I can only take so much barbie, American girl, and Hannah!

My new Big Boy

Logan loves to escape outside all day long. He just wonders all over and I just follow. I had to snap some pics of my new big boy. His hair cut has transformed him into a little boy. All of the sudden he is no longer my little baby. He is so much fun!

It is heating up here for sure...almost into the hundreds. ( I am counting down the days till we can get the heck out of here). The kids love running through the sprinklers in the evening. Logan joins right in shouting "wa wa."

Logan's 1st Haircut

So I did it! I finally broke down and cut Logan's hair. He needed it so very badly. My friend did it and was awesome! We took some before pictures. All the blonde curls!

He had Rosiola and was not feeling very good. But he managed to sit still long enough for his trim.

We were actually at a birthday party and ended up doing it there. Logan's friend Owen also had his 1st haircut. They look so cute!

We tried to get some after shots, but he would NOT put his bottle down.

He looks so cute and grown-up now. It took some time to get used to his new big boy look.