BIG Girl room!

The other day I was re-organizing Maddy's closet, boxing all her 24mos-2T clothes and decided that I wanted to take down her baby nursery decorations too. Maddy has been in a twin bed now for a few weeks and the nursery decor just didn't seem to go well with the new look of her room with a bigger bed.

This made her walls VERY bare!

Of course, being the frugal, garage sale junkie, I mean, sale shopper, I looked online, went to the stores, looked online again, compared prices and FINALLY just did it! I bought the cutest and cheerful canvas artwork along with some wall stickers from Target, one of my all-time favorite stores!

(left to right) I love the soft and gentle plush butterfly, flower and lady bug, the two sweet owls, and the cheerful flowers with bird house. I also got some butterfly/flowery wall stickers that coordinates with the theme and colors. That wall will look complete once they are up!

~LOVE~

(oops-need to adjust)

These flower wall stickers are so fun and add character! The kids had fun placing the flowers and falling petals on the wall. I just hope Maddy doesn't peel them all off sooner than later.

 (These are not the ones I got for the other wall)

 

Its all very simple, just the way we are. I think its sweet and perfect for Maddy! :)

Both kids got glow in the dark stars for their ceilings- so awesome! We also added some spider-man stickers to Jayden's room and moved things around as his room continues to transform more into bigger boy too!

So many changes in this home! :)

Payson

The kids and I went to Payson, AZ to visit a girlfriend, Marissa and her sweet daughter, Sadie over Memorial weekend. We left Sunday after church, spent the night and drove home the next day during naptime. It was a busy and fun 24 hours! I am forever grateful for Marissa's parents- Bill and Marilyn to open their home to us. Here are some of my favorite moments!

Bill was so sweet and kind to Jayden. He let Jayden help him cook burgers and hot dogs.

Bill also spent time with Jayden teaching him how to play pool.

 while the girls played with babies

Sadie, Maddy and Jayden calming down for the night with a show

How they fell asleep together

They have the coolest park at the club they belong too. Its EVERY child's dream park from big climbing tires to rock climbing walls to sandbox to tire swings and regular swings, slides, and an awesome zip line.

This slide was amazing! So much fun and Jayden loved it! Here is the 3 of us going down as a family!

Weeeee!

my sweaty boy!

The best joy ever- riding home in the bed of an awesome truck! I was so great! The excitement of Jayden's oooh's and aww's was priceless. I felt like a little kid again! :)

Sarah, Marissa's sister and Maddy

Marissa was too funny with this adventure- she called this

Ghetto Fabulous! This definately wasn't her thing, but proud that she laughed it off! ;)

Payson was fun and it was great to see Marissa and Sadie and the family! The last time I saw Sadie was when she was 4-6 months old so it was amazing to see her as a little girl.

Silly bedtime

Sometimes putting these two monkeys to bed can be hilarious! Sometimes, they are super easy, sometimes bedtime is a struggle, but tonight bedtime was silly!

Tonight they were talking to each other...as I was walking around the house, I was listening to them and after 2 times, I had to get the camera and storytell what was going on!

Jayden's room is on the left and Maddy's is on the right.

Jayden: Maddy

Maddy: Jayden

Jayden: Hi

Maddy: Hi

Jayden: Come in here...

Maddy: ooookkk, coming

(hearing here get out of her bed)

Caught you, sweet girl!

running into Jayden's room

dropped the night-nights and climbed into his bed

Jayden: c'mon Maddy

Giggles-

I love how Maddy is looking at Jayden with

complete admiration of her goofy big brother!

I let them do this one more time after the 'camera story time' was done

and then I got serious about bedtime!

The giggles and joy was priceless.

cool mornings

The mornings are my favorite this time of year, they are perfectly cool with a sweet refreshing breeze. The street is covered with shade from all the trees and its just so peaceful being the only ones outside, hearing the birds chirp and the sounds of the kids riding their bikes! I just love the crisp breeze in my face as I scooter with the kids.

Many of the mornings, we race up and down the street as 'Lightening McQueen.' We line up and saying 'bikers, start your engines, vrooom, vroom!' The kids pedal and I ride my scooter besides them and then we all win at the finish line! :)

This morning, Jayden designated himself as a firetruck, Maddy as a police car and me as an ambulance. We were riding up and down the street and in circles around the 'slow lil man' making siren noises. Soon after, we named the 'SLOW' lil man CAPTAIN SAFETY and he gave us rescue missions. We rescued things such as a kitty in the tree and a chipmunk in the rocks.

The JOYS of early and cool mornings are forever in my heart.

Silent Night...

I love sleeping babies

Today's nap

 Maddy has had no problems transitioning into her big girl bed. She actually seems happier and always appears so cozy in her Dora bed with her pillows and night-nights.

Bedtime tonight

Oh, how I love Jayden's eyelashes

and his sweet hands crossed like he had been praying.

Sweet dreams

It's always so precious to see my sweet babies peacefully asleep.

Love you both to the moon and back!

xoxo

Superheroes

The Super Heros saves the day!

We have Captain America, Bumblebee, Batman, Elmo, Alvin and Eleanor, Strawberry Shortcake, Diego/Dora all here for the showdown of the "bad guys" tied up!

Playing make-belief stories with dolls and action figures brings me back to when I was kid, playing with Barbies. Its fun playing superheros with Jayden and watching his imagination expand as we role play! Some of our important rules is that we only shoot bad guys and at the end of the day, only one person saves the world and that's...Jesus! :)

learning to swim...

Monkey See, Monkey Do...

Maddy wants to do everything Jayden does, hence why she is such a BIG girl for her age! :P

Every time we go to the pool, she is EAGER to swim out of my arms after Jayden, where ever he is, she wants to be... I'm pretty sure if I let her, she would jump off the diving board too!

The first week of June, Maddy will be doing a 3-day survival swim program with http://www.livingwatersaves.org/ which is a super intense course, but the results are evident and amazing. We are trying to "prepare" her so when it comes to these lessons, she will be

"some-what" ready to swim like an animal! Jayden swam at 21 months old with this same course and still is confident and strong in the water. Praise God! :)

Car Wash

On our way home from the community center pool yesterday afternoon, Jayden mentioned something about how dirty our car was...my thought was-why not?! let's wash the car! So, we got the hose, soap, bucket and some towels and washed the car together!

 Jayden was my water boy and Maddy clearly enjoyed herself in the cat litter, I mean soapy water! ;)

Look at that CUTE face! I just love my lil explorer!

HAPPY to have a CLEAN car- thank you kids for your help!

Peek-a-boo!

We are always being goofy at meal times which can be good and bad...good cuz usually its the 3 of us eating and I like to make it fun, but bad because when we go to other homes for dinner, we could set ourselves up for embarrassment. :)

Peek-a-

 boo!

This is usually started by Maddy and then Jayden ends up playing along! :) 

Another night at Music at the Park

Ben had the closing shift at work this past Friday night, so the kiddos and I walked to the park for an hour or so of music and then left at dusk. These kids dancing makes my heart melt and just can't help but giggle! :)
Love these sweet memories!

The last few minutes of us hanging out, we ran into some of our friends.

Here is Jayden and his buddy, Anderson dancing :)

Only one more Friday night for music at the park...but then we go back to our

Friday movie and popcorn night! :)

Inspired

My cousin Corinna has a heart a gold and heart for God! She is always going where God leads and calls her to be. One of her many gifts is serving as a missionary. I admire people so greatly that go on Missions for many reasons. One being that they are humbling themselves before God, sharing about God's love and helping others. One day, I would love to go on a mission with my cousin, share the unity of Christ together and share the joy that God has brought to our lives. I trust that the Lord will put it on my heart when the time is "right" for me and my family...although I feel the calling more and more as my kids are getting older. Corinna is currently in Calcutta, India and you can follow her blog and feel inspired daily by reading http://creatingcorinna.tumblr.com/. We praying for you Corinna, daily! We love and are so proud of you!

Golf buddies

Back in early February before Ben's work schedule got really busy, the boys went to the driving range to hit some balls. They both LOVE going to the range together, its such a fun daddy and son activity to do.

Jayden practicing in the backyard in April 2012

Jayden at the range today, May 19, 2012, with daddy!

LOVE my BOYS!

Summer investment

We are beyond blessed with a great backyard...grass, patio, fire pit, kid friendly toys- playhouse, sandbox, water table. Its hard to get bored outside. While I was enjoying a women's church event- brunch and bunco this morning, Ben and the kids went shopping for the backyard!

Because we spend so much time playing in the backyard during the summer months, every summer, we usually always invest in new water toys weather it be a few beach balls, a new pool, sprinklers, or slip n slide. This is the pool and beach ball that they got, I love the cup holders. :) I think we decided that we are going to move this pool on the patio to conserve water and our water bill! Anyone that lives in Anthem, understands that water cost an arm and a leg! ;)

Happy Summer and stay cool!

Diving Board!

Last week when I was coaching at the the State track meet, Ben took the kids to the pool and Jayden jumped off THIS HIGH dive more than 5 times! His first time was when he was 2 years old, last summer and then again being 3 yrs old. We are so proud of his courage and bravery! Jayden gives credit to Jesus for his water strength and power! :)

GO Jayden GO!

We were on the camera end watching him jump off the diving board.

Maddy was jumping off the edge and I would help re-direct her to the wall.

She starts her survival swim class the first week of June- oh boy!