Three reasons why you do not give a 2 year old icecream in the car!

I thought if I gave my niece Cassia a shake with a straw it would be fine to take in the car. I guess I have forgotten that the mind of a 2 year old and the mind of a mom are not on the same track. She decided that it would be fun to paint with the straw as a brush. Here are the results of her painting. The two year old wearing a new dress.

The inside of my car when she was done.

The cutest face that I could not be mad at when she smiled and said, "Look Emily!"

The funny things Cayden says.

The other day I was having Cayden practice writting his name and do his ACB flashcards. I told him he had to know all this stuff before kindergarden. It was working for a while until he wanted to do something else. anyway to try and get out of doing work, he said to me, "Mommy, I can not think anymore! I think my brain got broken and the xbox needs to fix it." I had to laugh. Leave it to a 5 year old to figure out how to get out of homework already!

She's Walking

Really Kayla has been taking steps for 2 1/2 months, but this week she decided that walking was so much better then crawling. She now walks just about everywhere. My kitchen floor is constantly cluttered with tuperware, lids and toys that she drags out, I put away and she drags out again. This is a fun game for her. she loves to help me put the stuff back so she can pull it out again.

Although she does not look so happy in this picture, I think she is ready for bed! please note the cute little shoes, I got them at Savers for $0.99! They look brand new and are even Stride Rite, she likes the little sparkles on them and picks them out, of her 2 choices I give her, every time.

The Promised Photos

Kayla playing with the balloons at the 60th anniversary party

The entire Posey family, well minus most of the grandkids and one child.

Lexi

Cayden

Cody

The older kids eating

John and his sweet little Cassia

The happy couple after 60 years

Grandma and Kayla

Cayden and Lexi

Jared the chef

Josh the teenager

Lake Powell, beautiful!

Jenna and Cayden -best cousins

Jenna

Trey (the other best cousin)

Aunt Debbie with Cayden and Kayla

This is the bow holder that I made for Kayla's wall.

Fun in the Sun

I have failed to update my blog every week as I had originally planned. My excuses are usually long and wordy so, I just didn't get to it will have to be the excuse for this time. The past few weeks have been filled with fun in the Arizona sun. Blaine's mom and sister and brother in law came down for a week to see us. Blaine has the most crazy schedule in the summer. I am not really sure why, but he tells me that ice usually sells better in the summer. his family rarely saw him, but we had fun with them. One day we took a tour of Chase Field where the Arizona Diamondbacks play. Lynn (BIL) wanted to go to a game but they were in St. Louis for the week. It was pretty cool to see the locker rooms and all of the behind the scenes stuff and hear the history behind it. We were the only people in the tour so we got to ask lots of questions and take our time. It was cool. Our tour guy took this picture of all of us. Like I said we were the only people in the tour, so he was very accommodating.

Tammy (SIL) wanted to go to the Phoenix Zoo. We knew it was going to be hot, so we decided to go early and avoid the heat. Well, we got there early (8:30) but it was already 102 outside. I should have watched the news the night before because there was a heat advisory out for that day. by the time we left (1:30), it was 114 out. We were all very tired and ready to relax in a nice air conditioned house for the rest of the day. We did have fun at the zoo though. Here is Kayla, she was the only one that did not have fun. She pretty much just drank here juice, cried and sucked on her Binky the entire day.

Cayden got to feed the giraffe while we were there. He thought it was pretty cool. They have a huge long black tongue that scared him a little when the giraffe stuck it out to get the food Cayden was holding. I only took a few pictures the entire week they were here. I know, I was a major slacker!

The week before they came was the fourth of July week. I did not get many pictures of that either. Andrea and I took the kids to the beach pool. They love to swim there. It has a zero entry beach with real sand, so the kids built sand castles and played in the water for a few hours. I then took the kids home for naps before dinner and fireworks. I had to go collect rent from one of my dad's tenants, so I stopped by there on the way home. The kids were sleeping already so I left the car running in the driveway and went to get the rent. I did not realize that the tenant had 2 pitbulls. I am TERRIFIED of dogs.

This is why. I got bit! This is the picture 2 days later. My belly was too swollen to wear regular shorts or capris for a week.

We did have fun watching the fireworks out at my dad's house. We got eaten by mosquitoes, and killed a scorpion, and fought the heat. Despite all of this, it was so much fun. Kayla and Cayden loved watching the different colors explode in the sky in many different shapes. I loved seeing their faces light up. I can not wait to show them so many more things as they grow. I so enjoy being a mother!

Updates...

We have had a very eventful summer this year. For the past few years we have not done much as far as vacations in the summer, but this year I think I made up for it. The older boys go to their dad's house during the summer but I rarely do anything fun with them during the summer. This year we went to my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary party in Mayhill, NM. You all know where that is right? My guess is not. It is a tiny town of lees then 200 people in the middle of nowhere. They have a small cattle ranch and lots of room to explore. The boys love going there. We were able to spend 4 days there this time and they got to run all over, help feed the cows, and Jared learned how to bake. Jared has always been the one that loves to learn in the kitchen and he really learned tons this trip. My grandma is about the best baker that I know, so I would say she is an expert. She instructed us on how to make cinnamon rolls and cakes from scratch. The results were super yummy! We ended up making 4 batches of cinnamon rolls. They would disappear as soon as they were cool enough to get out of the pan. I decided that I HAD to get a bread maker for home so that I could make these yummy treats for Blaine to enjoy too. He was not able to get off work, so he was not able to go with us this time. The wedding party was a hit, lots of family were able to attend, and lots of pictures were taken. I am still editing them but I will post a collage or slide show when they are finished.

The trips there and home were long, but so worth it to see my family that I had not seen for so long. The trip takes about 7 hours if you stop one to two times for gas and a potty break. with 4 kids 14 to 1, it took 9 hours to get there and 8.5 hours to get back. When we got back there was a rush to get the older boys' laundry done and them repacked for their flight at 7 am the next morning. 5 loads of laundry does tent to take a while so I was up late and did not sleep well (I never do when I know they are leaving, I really hate it.) They were on time for the flight and as luck would have it, the flight was delayed one hour. I got to spend one more hour with them! I really enjoyed hanging out with them in the airport, Jared was being super silly from lack of sleep and Josh was having fun on the inside, he just did not want to look silly in case anyone was watching! Teenagers!

My sister was here for the whole next week. I was so excited to spend time with her. We talk at least once every day and I was glad to have her close by for a short time. We let the kids play while we chatted for most of the week. We also took a few shopping trips!

The next week, Cayden, Kayla and I headed up to St. George to Blaine's family reunion. Blaine could not get time off work, so we went without him. Another 8 hour road trip that took 10 hours this time. not really a fun time, but well worth it. We got rained out of going to the lake the first day and instead played at the pool by Grandma Maggie's house. Friday, the family headed to the Grand Canyon minus us. I was not really up for another long car trip, so I stayed in St. George and hung out at my sister's house. The boys played in the backyard, the little girls took very long naps, and we made Kayla lots of pretty hair bows. Then we went out to dinner and the kids played by the water fountain and threw in pennies, each time trying to get the penny into the little bucket the the girl in the fountain sculpture was carrying. Saturday was the reunion part of the get together. I was impressed with how interesting Maggie had made the info. She even made books with family trees and journals of many family members for us to take home. It was really cool. After that, we took the kids to the pool for mare swimming. Ann and I were in charge of the kiddos and we forgot the sunscreen. Jenny brought some later but I forgot about it and needless to say, no one had any one. Fortunately, the only one who got really fried was me. I just feel so bad when the kids get burned and they hurt and it was my fault. If I get burned it was my one fault and I can not complain to anyone about it. Sunday morning we packed up and headed home. I was thankful that our trip lasted only 9 hours and was so happy to be home in my own bed.

That summarizes our last 3 weeks. I have tons of pictures but I have not gotten them all edited yet. I will post pictures soon!

Cute Photo