Week 1 of Arizona

On Saturday, June 29th we flew to Arizona. We had a bit of a stressful time because the friend I had arranged to take us to the airport forgot to pick us up. I sent her a text, then called her, and then called her husband...About a half hour later, when we were in our car (another friend said she could take us if we went to her house) she called apologizing profusely and saying she was on her way. Lucky for us (or a tender mercy depending how you look at it) our flight got delayed by an hour (we got the text when we arrived at the airport) so everything worked out. We also had a tender mercy when checking in baggage. The line to check in for Delta was giant and a worker randomly picked people to go to the Delta Priority Line (which was super small) and we were picked- it was so nice. After checking in the baggage and going through security (where Tyler's backpack got searched because he had packed a big bottle of lotion) we had dinner at Chick-Fil-A and then waited for our late night flight. The flight itself went very smoothly but by the time we got to Arizona it was like 2am our time and we were pooped. Penny was the only one who slept on the flight and she had only slept for about a half hour. Needless to say, we all went to bed upon arrival at my parent's house.

On Sunday we went to church with my parents in the morning and then Mike and his family came over to my parent's house that afternoon. The kids all fought over who got to hold Matilda- they love babies. 

On Monday we got to go to my favorite Mexican restaurant, Mi Amigo's. It was just as good as I remembered and I am kicking myself for only going there once the entire month we were in Arizona. While there Lucy took a bite out of her chip and declared that she had a chip beard. She had to of course get a picture with her Poppy and his real beard.

Monday afternoon was Emaline's second birthday party. Ben and Emaline really bonded during the party and he was a big helper and friend to her. I also got Lillian to reenact her pout pout face for me- the one she made frequently when we were in Pennsylvania. 

I bought my brother and my husband the same shirt so I made sure they both wore it to the party. But then I was feeling left out so I wore a green shirt and joined the matching party. We are just the coolest.

On Tuesday we went to the Mesquite Groves Aquatic Center. This is a community pool that's a lot of fun. It had 2 slides, a whirlpool, a mini lazy river, a splash area/playground for the littles and of course, a pool. The kids really had a lot of fun at the pool and I am really liking how independent they are all getting. Steven, Lucy and Ben are not super amazing swimmers but they are all good enough that they can stay floating. and safe And Penny always has her puddle jumper so she can paddle around no problem. It was nice to be in a pool (that actually wasn't freezing) and just watch the kidlings play.

On Wednesday we went to what used to be the $1 theater when I was a young thing, to what is now just the cheap theater. They have totally replaced all the chairs and now have recliners. It is still not a fancy theater (it doesn't look like it's ever been redecorated) but it does have nice seats which was a pleasant surprise. We saw the movie "Secret Life of Pets 2." The kids all seemed to enjoy it and it was entertaining enough but definitely nothing special.

That afternoon/evening Grams helped me bake my first ever banana cream pie. This was the trial run for Tyler's birthday, he had requested one instead of cake. Besides letting the pudding burn a bit on the bottom, it turned out pretty yummy and I was quite proud. I even made homemade whipping cream which is really good and super easy to make- why have I never made it by hand before!?

Thursday was the fourth of July. In the morning my brother's family came over and my mom made her traditional french toast. After breakfast Mike, Poppy and me went to go see "Men in Black 2" as an early birthday celebration for Poppy. It was a fun movie and I enjoyed it. That afternoon we had a BBQ with my family and then later in the day we went to go see the fireworks at Higley High School. We met Mike and 2 of his kids plus Logan's whole family at a church parking lot to watch them. We had some fun times when the sprinklers went on in the lawn next to us- grateful it was them first because then we knew we needed to get out of the grass. Also super fun when Logan's kid, Kyle, bit into his glow stick and then flung it around. When he flung it around, some of the stuff inside flew into his eye and he had an epic meltdown. His eye is fine thankfully. I know my kids are far from perfect but I struggle a bit with Logan's kids. I am easily annoyed by them. 

The firework show itself was nothing spectacular and actually pretty short but our kids seemed to have a good time. An added bonus was that we saw several other firework shows on our drive home.

Friday was Poppy's birthday and he had wanted to take the kids swimming again that morning but the pool wasn't open so we went to a splash pad at Espee Park instead. It was not super impressive and the kids were getting really bored until I saw someone playing with a water bottle and decided that was a great idea. I gave each of my kids their water bottles and they filled them up and started to make "water pictures" on the hot ground. It was cheap entertainment and kept them there a little longer. Steven made a pretty cool smiley face in the bottom right picture.

After the splash pad the kids all ate lunch at my parent's house and then per Poppy's request, we went to DQ for ice cream. Poppy was determined to completely sugar up my kids while we there. Oftentimes he would offer them a popsicle after they had just eaten a treat.

That evening we went to Red Robin's for dinner and then had cake and ice cream to finish Poppy's birthday celebration. 

Saturday morning we did pictures with my family. We did them at 7am and that was such a wise choice. It wasn't super hot so we weren't sweaty and red faced in them. After the pictures I had planned to hang out with my friend Rebekka who was only in town for the weekend while Tyler went to his cousin's wedding luncheon and reception with the boys. Plans went a little awry when my mom got something stuck in her throat.She could still breathe but it was very painful. While I took Tyler and the boys to an Olive Garden in Anthem where his cousin was having his luncheon, my mom went to the Emergency Room. After drinking some Coke and some patience, it went down and she was still nice enough to watch my girls so I could go hang out with my friend.

It was really fun to see Rebekka and 2 of her sisters (Fiona and Yamina) who were there visiting as well. We enjoyed a good chat, then took her brother Parley to Bookmans. He has regressed a lot since I last saw him, he's not talking at all now. He also kept trying to put things in the shopping basket that he wasn't allowed to buy. Still we had a good time. After Bookmans I joined her family for dinner at Cafe Rio. I really enjoyed catching up with her family. I am so glad that she was able to be in town while I was there so we could get together. We had lots of good talks about kids and parenting in this modern world.

Performances

Sunday was not my favorite day this week. There have been a few things that have made me disgruntled about Primary lately (namely not having a partner) and while I was promised a resolution it did not happen. Instead of calling me a teaching partner, they called someone who already had a teaching partner one. It was frustrating. Then they were telling me that when I got a partner I could start going to singing time with my class even though I have specifically mentioned to them multiple times how much I appreciate the Sundays when I get to go to half a grown up class. Also I had a kid in my primary class going to another primary class and no one was communicating with me about this. All this made me feel very unheard and this has always been one of my biggest insecurities so I left church feeling disgruntled. I'm just trying to hold out hope that everything will work itself out.

Also on Sunday the girls decided that "no boys are allowed" (unless they are friends). The signs didn't last too long before I think  their brothers got a hold of them and made them disappear...

Monday night Steven had a Choir Performance. It was with 2 other elementary schools and they each performed 3 songs and then they all did 1 together. I had a minor heart attack when he pulled out his Choir Shirt and I discovered it was stained. I vaguely remember him spilling something on it last time he wore it so apparently I failed to "Shout" it out. I told him he'll just have to make sure he covered the stain while he was performing and that was a poor advice. He sang all the songs with his chin resting on his hand- you can kind of see what I mean in the picture below. Ugh. Besides looking silly he did appear to be singing the words for most of the songs so that's good.

Tuesday I skipped out on volunteering in Lucy's class in the morning and subbed for a second grade class instead. They were actually really well behaved and it made for an easy morning. The only hiccup was that the teacher had accidentally double booked a sub for the morning but since I was there first I got to stay. I am grateful because it take a lot of effort to get me there and it would've been annoying to have to just leave.

Tuesday night Lucy had her basketball skill class again. I am seeing small improvements in her basketball skills- she can dribble a little bit further before losing the ball and she actually hits the rim when she shoots. Baby steps! We now have our own basketball hoop at our house. Our friend had one that the previous owners had left but she didn't want it so we got it for free. We've had some fun games of PIG as a family and I am really grateful to have it.

Wednesday was spent catching up on life and early afternoon into the evening I babysat for a friend. I love my friend but she parents differently then me and her kid kind of makes me a little nuts. We clashed heads over the wearing of a jacket and some other things  but somehow I got through watching her. We also had another kid over who lives near the bus stop. He is in between Lucy and Ben age wise and has been asking FOREVER to come over. The stars finally aligned and we had him over. The boys wanted to just play Minecraft with him and it was a real struggle to get them to play outside with this neighbor- the weather was really great. I have a hard time with this because I want kids to want to come to our house but I also want these kids to all interact and do something other than stare at a screen. Being a mom is rough.

Thursday I babysat for 2 of my friends so we had 3 extra kids hanging around all day. Then on top of that I had 2 more friends and their kids come over to hang out. It actually all made for a great day. The extra kids got along really well with Penny so she played happily and I got in grown up conversation. Helped the day go by fast.

Also for a couple days this week Penny decided she wanted to look like Cinderella. Since we don't actually have the costume we made due with a blue dress and the hairdo. It was pretty cute.  

Friday was a LONG day. I subbed for a third grade class and it would have been a really great day if it wasn't for the afternoon. All the third grade classes got together to watch a movie but the kids couldn't watch it unless they finished their writing. Honestly, most of the kids who couldn't watch it were kids who really struggled with writing. It seemed unfair that they missed out because they have writing issues. It also was real overwhelming trying to help these struggling writers (some of them had no idea how to use punctuation!). After that long work day, we had the Ward Talent Show that night. We had to miss out on Ben's Soccer class because of it and it went super late (9:15!) but it was fun to watch Steven and Tyler perform.

Steven did a lip sync with some friends to "The Greatest Show" He is one easily distracted kid but overall he did pretty good. I enjoyed seeing him having fun with his friends.

Tyler played the Ukulele while his friend Roger 

sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and then him and some friends sang a capella "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles." For the singing one he got up and pretended that he didn't know he had been signed up to sing so he was just going to sing a lullabye he sings for his kids- the he proceeded to sing "Baby Shark" for a bit. Then he said it wasn't going well so he needed some friends to help him which led to him calling up the guys in his group. Also, during the song when he had to sing a high note he hiked up his pants. Everyone thought he was sooooooo funny.

And that pretty mu

A New Address For My Blog

As some of you may have noticed, or maybe not, this blog is under my husband's account. That was because I formerly didn't have my own g-mail account. Well now I do so I thought it was time to make this blog more mine. I have moved to a new address. If you wanna still follow me and continue reading about my super thrilling life (all 2 of you who probably read this) the new address is:

http://lifeasahatch.blogspot.com/

It's still not prettied up but I do have my first post on it so feel free to check it out.

I have also started 2 new blogs which are still major works in progress so don't judge yet.

The first one I plan to use to to talk about books I've read. This is because I suffer from book amnesia and can never remember anything about books I have read so this will help me keep track. Plus I like to share good reads with others. So far I have only discussed one book on it though but here's that website:

http://cleanreadsreviewedbyjenny.blogspot.com/

The last blog I have made is a blog for all my recipes. I wanted to be like my sister-in-law Rebecca and have all my recipes in one place. Plus when people want my recipes it will be easier for me to share them. However, unlike Rebecca, I am having troubles with figuring out how to organize it beautifully. How it is right now is the best I can come up with at the moment. If you click on labels then it will somewhat organize things for you. I have most of the recipes that I use on there but I typed them in quickly and am hoping there are no errors. So in other words, use the recipes at your own risk until I get a chance to recheck them all. Very appealing huh!? With that in mind, here is that website:

http://quickeatsforthehatchfam.blogspot.com/

And those are my 3 "new" blogs which means now it is officially time to end my blogging as Tyedawg. It's been so fun but it will be nice to be just plain Jenny because I do like plainness. See you all at my new addresses!

My Steven

My Steven is becoming an artist. By artist, I mean I can finally tell what his drawings are supposed to be. I did a terrible job of scanning in his pictures seeing how one is a little sideways but here are a few of his recent drawings:

I like the one with the angry eyes on top. Perfect for Halloween. And I think the bottom right one looks just like Tyler!

This morning I was trying to organize some of the tutoring materials I have created. It was not going well because Ben was bent on eating and ripping my tutoring materials. However, Steven took off early in my organizing fiasco with some plates that I had written sight words on and was mighty quiet for awhile. Soon Ben had disappeared as well and though I was finally feeling productive, I felt it in my best interest to check in on the boys. This is what I discovered:

Steven had set out all my "sight word" plates, poured cereal on each one, and had pulled up all the little chairs that we own. When I entered the vicinity he asked, "Wanna come to nursery? It's snack time!" It was kind of adorable (minus all the spilled cereal on the floor).

On a spiritual note, Steven can pray on his own now. It includes a lot of thanking because he's such a gracious boy. We're also reading a verse a day from the scriptures and I have him repeat each word after me. So cute to hear him say such big words!

Last Steven fact. He is doing superbly well with identifying his letters. He loves typing all his friends names on my Kindle as I tell him what letters are in the names and he finds the letters on my keypad. We have also created a fun driveway game with letters in each circle and I direct him on what letter to hop to next. Such a smart boy.

Schnepf Farms

I have been desperately wanting to take the boys to Schnepf Farms but I couldn't come to terms with the expensive tickets. Plus Tyler wasn't too anxious to go.

But Saturday night Tyler's whole family decided to go so it gave me an excuse to splurge and it gave Tyler a reason to go. I'm glad we did because the boys had loads of fun and I think it was definitely worth going into debt for ;)

We arrived before the rest of his family because they were their typical late selves but that was ok with me. While we waited for them we enjoyed some time at the playground, playing on swings and inside a wooden train.

Ben went from a bit bored...

To totally excited!

Steven was pretty thrilled to be inside a fake train which was great since we weren't going to stand in a LONG line to buy tickets and then in another LONG line to ride the real train.

Look how well I can fold my body in half! I'm impressed!

After playing the park we headed to the market store there to buy daddy a Coke. My little addict can't live without his juice. On our way to the market we found this little bus to pose in. Ben tried to commit baby suicide in the first picture...

But then he decided against it in this second one

My boys are so tall! Too bad they covered up the numbers...

After Tyler got his special juice the whole gang arrived. Steven and his cousins first went through the corn maze which was made especially for kids so that their was no possible way to get lost. I appreciated that because I didn't really like the idea of being lost in a poorly lit corn field. Steven had two "traumatic" moments in the maze where his shoe came off and had to be fixed. After the fixing he was for some reason still hugely upset but with the promise of a treat he calmed right down.

After exiting the maze the boys sat down to watch some cool BMX tricks....

And then Steven was given his promised treat. Just look how happy it made him:

Despite the evil eyes, he was still nice enough to share with Bryson

Look mom, it's a tiny spoon

After eating the treat the boys rode on some trikes in a hay bale maze and then took a break to watch some pigs race

Next it was off to the carousel. As soon as we got on the carousel the small fireworks show started so they let us sit on the carousel and watch the fireworks (which so thrilled Tyler). When the fireworks came to an end we were then able to enjoy our carousel ride.

By the time that was over it was majorly late so we quickly went to the pumpkin patch so Steven could pick out a small pumpkin and then we headed home. I think it's safe to say that the boys had a fabulous time!