Swim Classes!!!

I love swimming in the summer. SO do my boys! Phoenix Parks and Rec offers swim classes close that we decided to do that this summer. Mason and I are in a Mommy and Me class together and Porter is in the swim level 1 class. Just like with soccer Porter's had a hard time with groups of kids and wasn't having the best time at first. He kept telling my how his teacher would throw him in and he would touch the bottom, "I didn't like that mom". I was in a class myself so I couldn't be there encouraging him the whole time. Fortunately some of the other life guards saw the need and jumped in to give Porter some private lessons. He's been doing so well!! I'm so proud of him. He's been thrown off or jumped off the diving board several times and swam to the side safely. He'll swim to me from the side or jump into the pool and swim to me quite a ways. I love getting to see him learn and improve. He's doing so good! Mason is quite the fish too. I almost thought he was too old for the class because he already does everything they ask him to do. He did however get the stitches in his finger in the middle of the course. So we had 4 more days of swimming but he wasn't allowed to put his finger in the nasty water for those days. The first two days I just held his hand out of the water myself. Then I let him keep it out the next couple days. He did really good remembering to keep it out. Sometimes a little too good. He would jump in the water and almost drown because he would NOT put his left hand in the water to help get up. He was really devoted to keeping that finger dry. Even going down the slide that finger would stay nice and high, out of the water. One day I would go down and then once I was at the bottom he would come down after me. For a little boy that slide would whip him around and by the time I saw him he was on his back face first....BUT that hand was way up in the air NOT getting wet!! Too funny.

Poor Mason...again

We were excited to be home Sunday afternoon from Flagstaff and ready to go in and eat a late lunch. Brent was just closing the car door and Mason insisted on helping. Instead he got his poor little finger caught in the door. Brent handed the bleeding boy over to me and said it's his finger. I was trying to get an idea how bad it really was and why he was bleeding all over the place. We decided it was just too deep and may need stitches so we loaded back into the car and headed to urgent care. 3 hours and 3 stitches later we headed home. I'm afraid to head up north again with that boy after his hand burning the last time. Poor guy. Both times he fell asleep by the time we got to the ER or Urgent care. So although Mason and I had blood all over us he was sleeping so I felt like I had to say, I promise we DID need to come in to get him looked at. I'm always afraid I'm being overly concerned, but both times it was good we took him in. Mason was such a trooper. He was such a big boy laying on the table to be examined and then letting us hold him down for the doctor to give him lidocaine. The next time however he knew better and fought having to lay there. It was heart breaking to see him begging for mommy and daddy to help him.

Porter's Puzzle and Mason's Mascara

Alright so I like Alliteration...but it works! We bought and did this puzzle a while back. It's a huge puzzle and Porter did it almost all by himself. It was fun to do one that was so big!
I'm not sure why I thought this wouldn't happen to me just because I have boys, but it did. Myh little man got into my makeup. Mason did a pretty good job getting the Mascara around his eye...first time people.

Science Year begins (since we have the annual pass to science centers). Kimree, my youngest sister, stayed the night at our house for a few days so we had some fun activities planned. We went swimming, she got to watch her Olsen twin movies and we went to the Az Science Center. Brent works accross the street, literally, so we will be going back ofter. We had a good time learning, building, listening, watching and growing. Here are some of the fun things we did.

I'm loving the legs boys. Of course Masons immitating his brother

Yep, this is what kids at work look like. Sitting on the job....nice boys ;)

Without meaning to I got a great shot of what Mason does all day. Copies those around him!! It cracked me up when I was looking through these pictures because of course there Mason is back there copying Kimree. This is what he does all day. He follows Porter around copying him. Love that kid!!

Sweet Porter just may be an archedect one day....wait a minute is that really my child. Standing by a perfectly good building to demolish and not taking action??...wait for it...wait for it...

POW!...there's my boy I know and love. :)

Softball in beautiful Flagstaff

APS had a softball tornament in which Brent was Captain of his team. It was so beautiful in Flagstaff. Made me almost want to move there. We had a great time watching daddy play. We brought some water guns and they were a huge hit! We got to stay with Brent's cousin and her family up there. I had a great time getting to know her and we all had a lot of outside time. We went to the Lowel Observatory (the place that discovered Pluto) and now have an annual pass to Science Centers accross the country! We plan on using that a lot this year! What a fun beautiful trip!

WHAT A STUD!!!!Run'n home!

Girls Camp

So it turns out you can relive your youth! I always LOVED girls camp when I was a youth and this year I got to go again! I think my favorite part was getting to know all the amazing girls in my ward! I got to be cabin mom to the first years and it was so much fun!!! They were young enough to want to go to bed early so I more sleep than I usually do at home. I did miss my boys like crazy but had a blast!!!

Doctor Ed Preschool

This was the most fun Preschool day! I taught the kids about doctors and nurses and what they do. First I brought in my "doctor" bag and they took turns picking out instruments and learning what they are used for. We got to hear our heart beats and, take our temperature and all sorts of fun stuff. Then each child got to make his own doctor bag out of paper and we stapled a zip lock bag in them with some cotton balls, bandaides, cotton swabs, and tongue depressors in it. I then took some paper and traced each child's hand, arm and some feet and gave them "owies" with a red sharpie marker. They then got to play doctor and clean up the wound and put bandaides on them. I was so impressed with how well they clened and dressed their wounds. Even Mason was into it and really good at getting those bandaides right on the "owies". I hope if nothing else they will be comfortable going to their next doctors appointment. Getting a future doctor out of one of my boys would just be PLUS! lol

Home of the Olsens/Scotts

For the past 5 weeks or so we've been blessed with the Scotts living with us. Ashley is Brent's sister and they had a little transition time before moving to New york for college. We've had such a good time having them here! I have an adult to talk to all day and to help me cook and clean (she's been a HUGE HELP!!!), the boys have a fun cousin to entertain and play with and Brent has someone to play xbox with. What more could we ask for. We're really going to miss them when theym move. We love you guys!

Going Private

I am finally doing it! Give me your e-mail if you would like to still view my blog that I update twice a year ;)

Happy Bday Porter

I'm sure every child is this way...but Porter was so excited for his bday and was looking forward to it for weeks! Porter has thi special bond with bugs lately weather it's a fly, cricket, lizard or worm he and the creepy crawly have an instant bond. For example they will crawl on his shoulders and hands forever. We thought the fly's wings didn't work one time but brent flicked it and away it flew. Just wanted to hang out with Porter for a while...interesting

So Anyways, we decided to have a Bug Party for his 4th bday! It turned out pretty good.

We took fly swatters used bubbles as flys to swat as many as we couldWe ate Dirt cake with works and bugs crawling out of it. I even made my first icecream cake and it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

He got so many fun presents!! It was funny to try to open them with him. All the kids just wanted to open their present they were supposed to give to him. It was cracking me up. I had a hard time keeping track of what present went into what gift bag, they just kept getting into them. Thanks all for your gifts! They were great!
We were able to get 2,000 lady bugs from a garden store and at the very end had a live lady bug release! It was exciting to try to catch them and put them in their little bug catchers we gave them!
FUN STUFF!! Happy birthday My sweet Porter! I sure LOVE YOU!

SRP Steak fry

Every year Dad (Olsen) takes us all to the SRP steak fry to enjoy some good food, good company and good music. This year we got to enjoy Jo Dee Messena! It was AWESOME!! We got to meet her back stage and man did we feel cool! Thanks dad! I especially liked dancing with my husband!

SNOW!!

We wanted to take the boys to the snow this winter, so we did just that. Brent had some points to stay in the hotel for free (from the traveling he's been doing with work) so we went to Flagstaff! We broke down and bought some of the essentials. we got the boys gloves and hats and borrowed the rest. We had fun building a snow man (or should I say elongated woman). The boys didn't mind the snow as much as I thought they would. The hotel was fun to stay in and we made sure to get some delicious chinese one night.


On the way home we stopped by Sedona. We took the Pink Jeep tour trail. A family with all this testosterone, off roading is a MUST...ok I LOVED it too!


We stopped by Jerome as well to pick up a bookshelf we found off craigslist and I think Brent found his new favorite town in Arizona. I had been there before with my family to do puppet shows but it was all new to him. It's a town on a cliff. Really quite incredible.

Family fun golfing

Daddy surprised us and took us to Castles and Coasters for a day of fun! We first had fun doing arcades inside and then Miniature golfing outside. It was cute watching the boys focus on aiming the ball into the hole. They loved when it disappeared in one place and magically appeared somewhere else. It was so fun to play together as a family. Brent is so good at making sure he has plenty of time for that. He makes sure not to overdo it at work and come home in time to be with us for a while before the boys go down to bed. He is usually the brains behind all the activities we get to do together. We've gone mining for Apache tears several times, gone to play out in near a river in the desert looking for rocks and fun out of town trips. Any spare time he always tries to be WITH us. Thanks hon for being such a wonderful husband and Father! I love you!

Christmas '09

I feel like a kid again at Christmas! I love the feeling the holiday brings! The boys have so much fun unwrapping presents. Brent wasn't feeling well but had a nice day planned. Poor guy. We had a good Christmas. Mason got an art easel and has LOVED it, he's my little artist. Porter skipped that stage I guess. Porter got a train set that he has had fun with. Brent got us a television with our credit card reward points and I got my bike! It was great!

Stockings

traditions...Decorating the tree

Hosting Christmas

We hosted the Calhoun Christmas at our home this last Christmas and had a great fondue dinner and great time together. Our nativity was quite comical with Porter playing Joseph with an older woman as Mary and Kris as the manger. We love our time with all the Calhouns and this was no exception!!

Sweet little man

This was the sweetest thing ever. Brent wasn't feeling well, hence the pjs, and was having a fever and chills. We sat down and were eating dinner and Brent mentioned his feet were cold. Next thing we knew Porter was not in his seat, I look under the table and there he was on daddy's feet warming them. It was so sweet. I just love him!

FUN

Well Porter got through a season of soccer. It was quite a season for us. He was a little young and I thought he would eventually get used to it and the kids and play but never happened. It was fun feeling like a soccer mom but he never actually got out and played. This picture was about as close as it got...when daddy was out reffing. There was a few times at practice he got into it but quickly reverted to his shy self. I guess as a mother I really can't just do everything for them. It killed me that he wasn't having fun out there with new friends but I realized more than ever that I just need to be his biggest fan, whatever it is he chooses to do or not to do. Hope I can remember that lesson. He is such a sweet boy and I love him so much.
Here Porter was really excited about making EVERYTHING into a train. Often used rope but wasn't always necessary. As you can see the scooter has been snugly placed in the back of the tracker that is tied to his bike. Quite creative!
These boys really love going to MamaZelle's house. They ask to go all the time and have a great time there. Jumping on the trampoline is just one of the many activities they enjoy there.
Grandma's is another fun place, their cousins live there too which make it fun! Mason is enjoying a horse ride ( I think this is a toy around when brent was young...don't quote me on that though...)
HAHA, this cracks me up. mason's got funny faces and funny poses that can give me good laugh anytime