Sunday, June 19, 2011

Father's Day Weekend by the Pool!

We spent our entire weekend outside in the water!  

We made plans with Chad's side of the family to celebrate Father's Day together on Saturday afternoon, swimming and enjoying a little Mexican fiesta together in celebration of Michael, Chad, and Lonnie (who was actually at home sleeping, he works the 3rd shift for the police department)!  Rae Lynn didn't end up swimming, but was sweet enough to capture some fun pictures from our day, thank you!

The biggest highlight from Saturday had to be Lola learning how to swim with her floaties! She definitely has her mama's blood in her and likes her water warm and I think that it was finally nice enough for her to get in there and do it!  She was so proud and kept calling herself a mermaid, it was adorable!

 Her excitement for herself ended up rubbing off on everyone!

My mother-in-law in two rare photos (she hates her picture taken, but Rae got two of my favorite pictures ever of her)!

The yummy food!  The seven layer bean dip is always a family favorite!  I can never remember how to make it, so I added the recipe that we use with the picture so I won't forget for next time!

Cousins:  Michelle, Gage, Mason, Saige

Sisterly love!

The squirters were popular with the Durham girls and I found out just how good of aim my niece Michelle had!

Cheesin' it up with the kids!

Daddy gave back rides to both kiddos!

JUMP!!!

Chad and I played a quick game of catch!

 Getting thrown across the pool is always exciting!

A great day as a family by the pool!

This morning when everyone was awake, we took Chad to breakfast at Cracker Barrel, where he opened up his singing Father's Day card that held a picture of a Phoenix Suns Basketball hoop for the pool!  We went and picked it up after breakfast, installed it, and enjoyed yet another afternoon in the water!  Only this time, everyone was shootin' hoops!

 A great weekend together for sure!
Happy Father's Day Chad, we love you BIG!

I wasn't with my dad for Father's Day, but I made sure to leave him a funny card on the counter before I left on Friday!  I love you dad and hope you had a good day today and didn't work too hard!
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Saturday, June 18, 2011

Missed Them BIG!

What a sight for sore eyes!  
Having your kids run into your arms at the airport is some kind of amazing!  It was beyond good to see my babies Tuesday afternoon when I flew into Nebraska to pick them up to take them home!  I missed them so BIG!

I am so lucky to have pretty amazing parents that took care of my babies for the week and had their lives flipped a little upside down. I know they were ready to say goodbye when we left on Friday (day 10 of kiddos, including a daughter for 4 of them), but I know that they miss them too, more than they thought they would.

Pretending to asleep. Cozy, cuddled and snuggled together on the couch!
 They might have the most comfortable couch/ottoman and at least one of them (or two) would sleep on it each night! In fact, our last night there, Lola woke up at 3am, crying to go sleep with grandpa (who we could hear snoring) on the couch. Up she went and slept until morning.

Wake up time!
 

Wrestling with grandpa!
When the kiddos were with grandpa and grandma Nebraska, a couple of new things were discovered:
  • Animal Planet.  This is on 24/7, no joke.  Bigfoot is a favorite with both of the kids (how they aren't having nightmares I am not sure, that show is scary).   All of the dog shows that they have watched has also paid off, they have a new love for our dog Fletcher, who sad to say really doesn't get that much attention.  He is now spoiled with love and affection from both kids.  They constantly want Fletcher to lay with them or be by them or feed him or make sure he is doing okay.  It is adorable and very sweet to watch.  Fletcher now feels very loved.  Thank you Animal Planet.
  • Baseball.  Kyan wants to play catch non-stop and begged anyone in his path to play with him or pitch the ball to him.  Thank you Auntie Marcia and cousin Carrie for the glove, bat, and ball!  
While the kids were in Wahoo, they went to the park almost every single day, usually after my parents got off of work.  The city park is really nice to play on and the equipment doesn't burn your fingers, a nice change from AZ.   Lola got a nice shiner the first night there from the race car. 

Wahoo also has a pretty cool little water park and we went two days in a row (the weather was finally nice enough for them to go for the first time when I got there)!  Kyan spent both days on the lily pads that stretch from one end of the pool to the other, one day for three hours, the next for two.

 We spent the two of the four days while I was there with the kids with cousin Lexi (my second cousin, I think?  Lexi is my cousin's daughter, making her my second cousin, making her the kids'?????)!  Whatever the relation, she plays awesome with both kids and was so helpful!  We loved hanging out with her all day!  
 Lola didn't swim the first day (she was napping), but the second day she made it to the pool!  She dipped her little feet in the water and splashed around, but that was about it!  We hung out on the chairs in the shade and watched the other two kids play.  It was nice bonding time for us!

A little sibling LOVE at the pool!  Lola was very proud of her brother for making it across the lily pads all by himself!  I love how she is looking at him!

With a full moon out one night, grandpa pulled out two pairs of binoculars and they got to take a closer look! 
 

 I am so excited that kids do so well on the airplane, because this little trip home reminded me of just how much I love to be around my family.  Yes, my parents come out to Arizona all of the time, but it was nice to be surrounded by family that doesn't make it out here quite as much.  I got to spend quite a bit of time with my cousin Carrie and we can't wait until she comes out to visit us!  Lola already told her she can sleep in her room and bring her dog, Chloe!  My aunt Sue and my aunt Marcia are too good to us and we loved hanging with them!  I even got to spend a few hours with a few high school friends (ones that I was inseparable from while I lived there) and their kids!  But most important, I got to be with my parents, who I am so grateful for and who I love so much.  I hope to get back sooner than 3 years from now.

Mom and Dad, I can't thank you enough for taking such wonderful care of our children while we could getaway to Jamaica (a post to come soon, I swear, I have so many pictures to go through). Thank you for taking care of me while I was there and providing those applesauce doughnuts each and every morning! Ones that I had to fight my kids for, I didn't think anyone could love them more than me, but I think I have met my match!

We love you and miss you.
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Monday, June 6, 2011

In Good Hands

Kyan and Lola headed to Nebraska tonight with grandpa and grandma to spend the week!
Saying goodbye at the airport was very bittersweet. I know they are in the best hands possible, while we are away, but it was so sad to know that I don't get to see them each and every morning when I wake up or take out their dreams before they go to bed. Lola was happy as a clam and waved good-bye with a big smile on her face, while Kyan was much more emotional. When I first said goodbye, he had huge crocodile tears in his eyes. Crushed me. So I got back out of the car and just squeezed him as tight as I could and whispered how much I loved him. I asked him to be brave and he ever so slightly nodded that he could do it as tears were streaming down his little face. As I drove away, he was still upset, but I was hoping that once I was out of sight, he would be distracted by all the coolness of both his grandparents that he would forget he missed us!

I asked the kids today what they were looking forward to doing while they were in Nebraska, here is what they said:
park
zoo (I am secretly hoping they wait for me to get there to go, just saying)
catching fireflies and fish
going to the water park
getting big kisses
going on a horse ride
playing fetch with lucy
going shopping
loving my grandpa and grandma

And speaking of loving their grandpa and grandma, I also asked them what they love about them:
getting big hugs from them
they get us applesauce donuts
sleeping with them
share and care with them
playing toys with them
their cars
going to work with them

I am excited for the kids and their week with grandpa and grandma and so thankful that my parents were willing to take them so the hubs and I could get away! They are going to be spoiled rotten and probably won't want to come home with me when I go pick them up!

Miss them like crazy already.
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Saturday, June 4, 2011

Made with Love, for baby Ava

When Lola was born, my sister-in-law gave me the most beautiful blanket ever for her! I loved it so much, I begged her to tell me where she bought it so that I could get my hands on another one! Of course it was handmade and since then, I have been dying to try to make one on my own, I just had no idea where to start so I kind of let the idea go out the window...
That was, until I was reading Dana's blog, Made, one day and discovered a whole new world! It is really incredible all of the tutorials that she offers (for free, holla) and how precise they are! While poking around, I about fell over when I saw her tutorial for a faux chenille blanket! It is what I had been searching for (but really forgot I was searching because it had been so long)! With a baby shower just a few days away for my friend Jessica, I knew exactly what I was going to attempt (and pray I didn't screw up) for her baby, Ava.

Let me start off by saying that I am a rookie with my sewing machine I got for my birthday almost two years ago and if I can make this blanket, so can you! While I have done little projects here and there, I feel like this blanket really kick started my excitement for what I just might be able to figure out how to sew on my own! And I don't know if you remember me mentioning it before, but it usually takes me like 45 minutes to get the bobbin working correctly, well...not anymore! I am happy to report that we are best friends!
I took pictures of my process, but really, NO ONE does it better than Dana! Seriously, if you want to make this faux chenille blanket, head over to her blog! You will be amazed at how easy she explains things (even tells you what to do if you make a mistake)! I can only take the credit for the finished product on my end, the how-to is all her!


Crazy to me that 5 yards of different colored fabric (4 of them solid colors) can make such a beautiful blanket!

It is not a lie, this blanket takes close to forever to make (okay, not forever, but it took me very close to 8 hours. The sewing of lines and then the cutting of lines never seemed to end)! What I like about this blanket is that if your lines aren't the straightest it is pretty forgiving and it is okay if it isn't perfect!


Back side of the blanket:

Faux Chenille Side of the blanket:

Another great thing about this blanket, it gets softer with each wash, and has been through the wash twice at our house to get it ready for the shower. Not going to lie, I was so worried it was going to fall apart in there the first time I ran it through!

There you have it, my first faux chenille blanket, made for baby Ava, with lots and lots of love from her Auntie Jenni and Kyan. He was my pin man, handing them to me and taking them out as we got to them on the machine! He wants to start sewing and loves to craft just like his mama!

And yes, there will be more of these blankets, my kids are begging for their own! So when we get back from vacation, we'll be off to the fabric store to pick out something for them! I am going to attempt to make theirs a little bigger, not sure how I am going to make it happen, but I am going to try!

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Running with Glitter

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Our Memorial Day Weekend 2011

What a Memorial Day weekend we had! Of course it kicked off out at my parents place in Estrella, at the Starpoint Water Park! They are always so generous and pay for everyone to get in and have a good time, along with pizza at their place later on in the afternoon! A BIG thank you to both of them for a great time once again this year.

Most of the girls and most of the boys that went to the water park. There was another large crowd that came out for pizza and wings later on, but I forgot to get a picture of everyone.

It was a little windy, making everything out there a little cooler, but the kids still managed to enjoy the water and the slides! The "dark slide" was feared last year, but was the slide that Kyan went on most this year! He loved it and if it wasn't for the wind, my guess is he would have spent lots more time in the water than he did!
Me and Lo, posing for a picture, she was so excited to take it, she pushed my glasses off to the side to get in nice and close!
And Lola only spent a few minutes exploring in the water, again it was so cold and I think Sunday was the day that she started to catch whatever bug it was that she caught (*more on that later), so when she wasn't swimmin' with Camden (Carmen was there too, but is quite the swimmer and was off doing big girl things) she was sleeping on her daddy's lap.
After the water park, we headed back to my parents place (a new place from last year, but still out at Estrella) for pizza and wings! While waiting for food, the kids swam, ran through the sprinklers, and watched the magician do some of his card tricks (my cousin's friend, Joe, is a magician and never leaves home without his deck of cards)! He had the kids wrapped around his finger and kept them entertained for quite some time!

With everything there was to do at my parents house, I got quite a bit of time with little Nixen, who is such a little muffin and such a happy boy to have around!
In fact, I got quite a bit of time with the whole Creel Clan, as they spent the night at our house Sunday night, so they could hang out all day at my parents and not feel rushed to drive home! Camden and Lola were pretty cute to watch, as they are both pretty dominate in their personalities! Camden wore one of Lola's nightgowns (so she could wear a dress to bed, even though she brought her own pj's) and wanted her hair in a pony tail just like Lola's! They had so much fun pushing their babies around the house and playing mommy! We tried to have them sleep in Lola's room, but Camden must have been on overload with all of the newness, as she just couldn't fall asleep. We were all shocked when Lola was out first, considering that Camden was up way past her bedtime!
Candis needed help with a project she was working on for her kids (or should I say her mama was working on) and needed the Silhouette machine! Much of our time was spent in the craft room making letters! When we were finished it was late, but not too late for her hubby to play around on the machine! He was trying to cut his Pink Mouse logo (website launches on Tuesday - I think, woohoo) on vinyl. Because it was a custom design (which I am almost positive you can cut) and I haven't had enough time to play with the machine, I was no help. He was up until the wee hours of the morning trying to figure it out (got the logo in, just don't know how to make it so there are cut lines on it) and had no luck! Any help as to where to look would be awesome!
It was fun to have a sleepover and look forward to having another one in the future for sure!

Later that morning, after the Creels left, we had a few more friends and family members over to swim (some didn't get to make the trek out to Estrella the day before)! My sister in law and her kiddos came over, along with Holly and Sydney, and the Casillas'! Chad's mom brought us lunch and stayed for a while too after her hair appointment!
Most swam for a few hours and left, but Rae and her kids played all afternoon with us! We talked about what life is going to be like when she moves into the neighborhood in just a little over two weeks (right behind us actually, we are already planning on getting a ladder to go over the block fence to cross into each others yards) and how well our kids play together! It will be nice having them closer. One of the best parts about growing up was being over at my aunt Heidi's house playing with my cousins or having them over at our house, and now they it is going to be just like that for my kids!

After they left, I got wrapped up in a new book that I am reading by Nicholas Sparks, called Safe Haven. It is my second read of the summer on my long list of books I want to read and it is awesome! I can't seem to put it down (maybe another reason why this post is taking me until Wednesday to put up). I just finished Jodi Piccoult's, Sing You Home, another one I highly recommend reading! Another tear jerker from her.

Kyan joined me out at the pool later on for some special swim time with just me. I taught him how to dive and we spent a lot of time talking about life, with our feet dangling in the water. With each question he asked me or that I asked him, I was memorized by his eyes. I thought for the longest time they would be blue, just like his daddy's, but after really looking at them out by the pool, I realized they are this crazy bluish/green color. The outside is lined in blue, but the inside is like this turquoise/green color. They are absolutely stunning and he has lashes that most women would kill for. Not only was the color capturing my attention, but just watching them when he was asking questions and comprehending the information I was giving him was so cool, I don't know how to describe it really. It was like I could see the mechanics of his brain working right through them.
Somehow we got on the subject of being hairy, probably because he is a hairy little thing and I always tease him about "becoming a man" (really about growing up) with all of the hair on his legs, and we were at this point checking out his arm pits seeing if he had any hair (he doesn't) when he asked if he will get hair on his boy parts when he becomes a man?! Bwahahaha! That was fun explaining that one! Those few hours by the pool was so special with Kyan and I hope that we get lots more like it in the future!

Later that night, we met up for dinner with my parents at Dillion's restaurant. I didn't realize that Lola wasn't really feeling that good at this point, so we headed to meet them. Once we got to there she fell asleep almost immediately at the table, weird. She would wake up for a red hot second, but then fall right back to sleep, alternating laps between me and my mom. At one point, she was in her chair and put her head on the table and fell asleep. That didn't last long before she was back in my arms, all through dinner. Kyan and my dad were just finishing dessert up when little miss thing puts her head up and says in a little voice, "I just pooped" (she was sitting in my lap)! Seriously? We rushed to the bathroom, to find out that she in fact had pooped a little, poor thing had diarrhea. We got cleaned up and made it home just in time to get to the toilet again, where her butt decided to explode! I felt horrible for her as she had no clue what was happening to her.
She is feeling much better now.

So that is it! Our crazy busy Memorial Day weekend! It was a blast, from start to finish (minus Lola getting sick) and we look forward to it next year!

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Thursday, May 26, 2011

Movin' On Up!

Today was a day of celebration!

It felt funny getting ready to go to work this morning...8th grade promotion is always a big deal. It is a special day to be a part of. Watching kiddos move on after being with you for the entire school year is always emotional, always. With it usually comes a new dress, freshly done hair, and lots of tissues. Bittersweet is the best way for me to put it. If you didn't notice from my last post, I grow to love so many of the kids that I teach like they are my own, so saying goodbye is always hard to do.

But today was different. Yes, it was all of those things mentioned above for me, but add an extra scoop of emotions on top, because after participating in one promotion ceremony, I got the pleasure of attending Kyan's Kindergarten celebration this afternoon. I was so thankful that it was in the afternoon and that I was able to make it! It was absolutely adorable and I am so proud of the incredible year that Kyan had!

Enjoy the show!



My handsome Kindergartener (soon to be first grader)! Kyan meets his teacher tomorrow morning and is so excited! There is one male teacher that teaches first grade and that is all he is talking about, so he has his fingers crossed that he gets him! We have talked at length about what happens if he doesn't get the teacher he really wants, so hopefully Kyan will be excited either way! Even though I work for the district, they don't let me know anything, so I won't know until he comes home after school tomorrow!

And speaking of teachers, we were so lucky to have Mrs. Jones this year! She has been amazing and even got him to smile with all 7 of his teeth missing, yep...you read that right, 7 gone. Two more were pulled by the dentist yesterday to make room. I have been noticing that Kyan is only wanting to smile without any teeth showing lately, but that is probably because he doesn't have any!
Thank you Mrs. Jones for an awesome year. We are keeping fingers crossed that when it comes time for second grade, we get you back!

Congratulations Kyan on a fantastic year!
We really BIG love you and are so very proud of you!
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