az pool days

nicole took pictures of our-well my last pool day. pool days live on without me... i'm surprised you guys actually want to get out of bed now that i'm gone...but whatever.

these were taken the friday before i left to okly, a month ago.

but they were way too cute not to share.

in my mary poppins suitcase.....

I would take these things back to Mesa with me:

braums

i'm obsessed. not the healthiest obsession. but the fact that they make everything is making me love it (hamburger buns, milk, cheese, you name it) & its that its cheap makes me love it more.they have a grocery store inside where they sell their milk & stuff! their ice cream is seriously the best. you can get a tiny kid cone too without feeling much damage. coconut chocolate cheesecake. all my favorite things combined into a tiny little cone of amazing. i'm sure i'll be over it by the end of the summer but i'm really wishing AZ would hop on the braum train.

moore public library

they have an awesome dvd collection. i dont think i need redbox or netflix anymore. today, bastien went to a water class where they learned about water & made a 'water' bracelet. its also really cool how you can take your kids there & just hang out. there is a train table & the workers dont seem to care if your 2 year olds are running around the place wreaking havoc.

not like a normal library.

free lunch program

a few times this week after we've gone to the park & library, we've headed over to kelley elementary where they have free lunch for the kids. its not a lame lunch either. there's like 3 kinds to choose from that are packed with different things. i remember doing this when i was a kid in the summer but i dont remember the lunches being this cool. and i dont have to worry about lunch when we get home,i can just relax.

steven's work incentives

if the guys in the office made 100 sales in a week we got to go to a nice steak restaraunt. & they did. we went went last saturday. we got a babysitter & everything. the next incentive they are working for is... well, they have a movie theater here that has balcony seating & they serve you dinner during the movie. cool huh? i really wanna do that..so sell that bug spray boys!

things that can just stay here when i go home are:

the babies naptime..or lack therof.

before coming to ok, the earliest i would put the babies down for a nap would be 1pm. most of the time it was 2pm. i always aimed for them to wake up between 3:30-4pm. and the best part is they would Still go to bed at 7:30pm at night. it sounds to good to be true now, but it was this way forever! so i was pretty stressed after i got here & first of all it took 1-2 hours just to get them to take a nap, then they wouldnt go to bed at night until 10pm . so this past week i have had to accept the hard truth that its either no nap & a peaceful early 7pm bedtime. or naps & i am going crazy until 10pm. (& that time is precious!) it was really hard to accept..esp cause bastien took naps & did an early bedtime until he was 4! telling a 2 year old that its "quiet time & that they are to stay in the living room while mommy takes a nap" is laughable. but i guess i'll trade it for a nice early bedtime.

the humidity:

i'm a dry hott girl. i do like the fact that its not in the 120's. & at least there is a breeze here now & then. (and we can put our turtle outside without knowing it will die) but i think i could do without that constant bead of sweat on my upper lip & my pants always feeling like they are sticky. (camille! -the term swamp ass was invented here!)

so dry heat, i choose you!

nakey is more comfy

there really was no point in bringing the amount of clothes i did for the boys to oklahoma. when we're at home they strip down to their undies/diapers. and then when i dress them in their jammies , they end up taking them off in their beds. these denim huggies mix up the nakey diaper look & despite looking like acid wash jeans...they're sorta cute. (steven doesnt think so) Not so sure they were worth the 20 extra diapers i didnt get, the novelty kinda wore off after the first time.

Bastien is 5

so weird that bastien was a tiny little thing 5 years ago today. 8 lbs & 21 inches long. i dont want him to grow up..he's to stay this little forever & thats final. we had a ghostbuster party for him. my mom even bought him a 1980's ghostbuster gun from ebay that shoots out foam bullets.

bastien's bday is today but we had a party for him on sunday because of steven's work.

we invited all the moxie peoples over per bastien's request.

"i want daddy's friends to come to my birthday"

ben & jackie gave their favorite turtle to bastien. he was so happy, it made his birthday.

isnt he cute?

embry was down the hall, sulking about not being able to open the presents.

connie took some really cute pictures of bastien blowing out the candles.

i think bastien had a really good birthday. it was better than i expected. being away from home we werent planning on anything special, but bastien was so happy that everyone came.

nakey is more comfy

there really was no point in bringing the amount of clothes i did for the boys to oklahoma. when we're at home they strip down to their undies/diapers. and then when i dress them in their jammies , they end up taking them off in their beds. these denim huggies mix up the nakey diaper look & despite looking like acid wash jeans...they're sorta cute. not so sure they were worth the 20 extra diapers i didnt get, the novelty kinda wore off after the first time.

butterflies & donuts

yesterday we went to the zoo again. this time with our friend Connie her little boy Brody. they are also here from az for the summer & we have been having fun getting together to keep the kids busy. i cant get over how cool the zoo is for an 11 dollar total admission for me & the kids! we still havent seen it all..so we'll definetly have to go back. they have this enclosed butterfly thing that you can go in. arent butterflies the best?

they had a cage with all these cocoons that you could see butterflies coming out of!

it has been really humid the past few days..cant you tell?...my boys look so sticky.

while we were waiting for the train a white peacock kept walking closer & closer to bastien. Connie took a cool picture of him with it.

our ward here has a mothers group that does some pretty fun stuff. like today we took a tour at krispy kreme. everyone had to wear a hat to go in the back. and of course everyones kids but mine(& connies:) put on their hats on like well behaved little children. the twins finally agreed after I said "you get a donut if you put your hat on" but bastien was way too cool for the hat. he happily stayed outside (with brody)

when we got in the back, the twins kept ripping their hats off (i didnt really get the point of the hat rule?) & embry stuck his hand in a big bucket of yeast..so tomorrows eaters have some 2 year old lovin in their donuts.

the whole hand in the yeast was my clue to take them back out..& then bastien heard that they were frosting their own donuts so he broke down & put the dumb hat on . then i bought a dozen donuts & ate 5 of them throughout the day. the end.

she' a little girl with a round tummy

we have been on a japanese cartoon kick. well the ones that are in english. it started with Ponyo. (which takes the cake over the others) I redboxed it. Bastien loved it. Then I rented it again for on the way to OK & my kids watched it about 15 times total until it sadly had to be returned. The twins were glued to it even...and they wont sit longer than 5 minutes for anything. Since Ponyo is so cute we are on a mission to watch them all! so far we have watched these:

kiki's is way cute & also has cute music. castle in the sky is allright.

bastien liked it more than me.

this ones called "my neighbor torturo"

torturo is so cute, he reminds me of baby larsie...right?

& the best one.. its kind of like a different version of little mermaid.

Ponyo loves ham. & we just happened to have ham & saimen. so I suprised the kids with ham on top of saimen like this part. and we pretended we were ponyo saying "ham! ham!ham!...hot! hot! hot!" (yeah... we were bored)

Bastien says he wants this again for his bday dinner. so now it'll be a ponyo/ghostbuster birthday.

demented bedtime stories.

The boys ask for more & more stories when steven puts them to bed. he's really animated & always makes up the best stories... even if they do get a little twisted sometimes.

my 4 year old rocks the skinny jeans.

I bought Bastien a pair of pants on the gap clearance rack for 15 bucks.

I thought they were cute & stylish for a pair of kids jeans.

When I put them on him for church, I realized they were skinny jeans. (really skinny)

I think he looks so cute in them, but made the mistake of making a big deal about it. So now, he says he'll wear them as long as I dont call them "skinny jeans" just regular jeans.

refusing to take a picture makes good "regular jean" poses.

our daddy filled weekend!

embry, just woken up from his nap.

(always the last one to fall asleep & the first to wake up)

he's talking to daddy about the zoo today.

on sunday we went to a really cool park steven found like 5 mins from our apartment. the height of this slide tower should make all the AZ parks feel embarrased! burrntt!

I love this sweet boy. Is there a sweeter face out there, i cant imagine?

Bastien found a big fuzzy catterpillar crawling around at the skate park area. He kept saying "You're so cute" to it. He kept him for the night in a bucket with some leaves, then let him go on a freshly rained on tree this morning.

we went to the oklahoma zoo today & i was way impressed. Especially cause for how nice it was..it was so inexpensive! iIt was insanely hot & humid today. My straightened hair went curly by the time we left the zoo.

ANACONDA!

(do you like how I startled you by talking about something boring like my hair, then screaming "ANACONDA!!" at you?)

this turtle had a freakishly long neck.

they had a fun train that went into a deer habitat.

they had these misters all around the zoo. why dont they have these every where in AZ?

just another cool park. there are so many here...it's just kind've gettting ridiculous now.

we went to a self serve yogurt place where they make cones out of thin crunchy crepes... brilliant! i wish you arizonians could partake.

oh and they had condors at the zoo. its sad that i only knew what they were because of Diego. But they are insanely huge birds from the Andes that seem to have alot of attitude. This one kept puffing up his chest with his wings spread out. maybe he was doing his mating dance for the girl? And then he charged at us when we put our hands on the fence, as to say back off. I didnt catch the best video of what he was doing but theyare pretty cool.