Water logged

We just spent a majority of the day in the pool! We enjoyed our pool all morning while Camille slept and the girls and I spent the afternoon at Mesquite Groves Center (Chandler). For you locals, this place rocks!! It's only $4 for an entire family. It has big water slides, a lazy river, a diving pool and a huge kids area.

I love summer time and swimming with the kids. It's great exercise for all and it wears the kids out!

Our girls

I really, really wanted a boy (not instead of another girl but just wanted the experience of having a son) but I have to say that i love having 3 girls! I can't wait to watch them grow up together. Hopefully, they will be as close as my sister and I are (minus the petty fights we used to have). :)

All 3 girls are doing great!
We love having Julia home all day. Julia loves spending her day playing games with Bella, learning to swim better and working in her math workbook. Yes, a math workbook. She LOVES math and is really good at it. My mom bought her a 3rd/4th grade workbook a few days ago and Julia is already 1/2 way done! It's funny- I loved math as a child and have memories of my mom taking me to lunch at PizzaHut (during the summer) and doing multiplication problems at the table. I wasn't a nerd like it sounds- I promise! I just liked school. Chet, on the other hand, thinks it's odd that any child would choose to do math problems in the summer! :)

Bella loves to play school with Julia and also loves her swim lessons. She is our free spirit and keeps us in stitches. She is dying to grow older and be able to hold Camille like Julia does. She likes to help when she can and misses Camille when she is asleep.

As for Camille, she is busy growing (and growing and growing). She is over 15 lbs at 2 months! She is off the charts for both height and weight. We joke that she will pass up Julia by Junior High. Chubby babies are happy babies and Camille is VERY happy! :) She loves her sisters and especially her daddy. If Chet had the ability to feed her, I think I would be nonexistent in her eyes.

Dancing Queen

Julia takes a jazz/ballet class at Precision Dance and had a dance recital last week. She did great and loved performing! It's always so fun to watch your kids on stage. She really likes dance and will continue with it this summer and next year.
*the pictures are pretty blurry since flash photos were not allowed.

Baby needs some bling

Bella occasionally (ha!) forgets the rules that we try to ingrain in her head. I remind her everyday not to go into Camille's room (aka our room) during nap time yet I always seem to hear her sweet little voice in the monitor. I try not to laugh at Bella's shocked face when I "discover" her in our room.

I just found her in our room yet again and apparently Camille wasn't dressed "chic" enough for nap time because this is what I found....

*Bella found my favorite necklace and draped it around Camille's neck.

For all of you with lovable 4 year olds

A friend sent me this- it is hysterical! After some rough days with my sweet (but tiring) 4 yr old, I needed a good laugh.
Angie- I think you will like this! :)

Dispatches From the Mind of My Four-Year-Old.

4:30 a.m. Hmm…I’m half awake. It would be so much comfier in mommy and daddy’s bed right smack between them where I can make my body seem almost twice as big and mommy and daddy can pretty much kiss the rest of their sleep goodbye.

4:35 a.m. OH NO! NO NO NO. I left Purple Blanket in my bed! If I cry I’m sure mommy will go get it because I am too tired to walk all the way back to my room.

7:30 a.m. Please don’t let mommy tell me that I have to go to school. If mommy tells me it’s a school day I think I might cry. Scratch that. I know I’ll cry. OH NO! Mommy just said it’s a school day!! Oh, I’m snack girl today? That means I’m the line leader when we go outside! I want to go to school right now! Why aren’t we leaving for school NOW?

7:40 a.m. I MUST GET JUICE! I have never ever ever been this thirsty! Ug, why must my mommy always make me say please? It’s so time consuming. She could’ve been back with my juice by the time it took her to get me to say please. She needs to work on her time management skills.

7:55 a.m. Mommy turned on the TV! She totally read my mind! She knew I really really wanted to watch TV.

8:02 a.m. SWEET JESUS, I LOVE CAILLOU! HE’S FOUR JUST LIKE ME! I must relay this news to my mommy twenty times.

8:30 a.m. I really like to be naked.

8:45 a.m. Mommy has asked me to get dressed so many times today. That’s funny. I wonder if daddy’s IPhone is charged up. I need to play games on daddy’s phone right now. I don’t want to get dressed, I want to play games! Why is mommy trying to make me get dressed? I don’t want to go to school! I want to watch TV and play games all day. Oh yeah, I get to be the line leader, I forgot. I am going to go get dressed.

9:15 a.m. I WANTED TO OPEN THE FRONT DOOR! WHY DID MOMMY OPEN THE FRONT DOOR WHEN I WANTED TO? THERE ARE NO WORDS! ONLY TEARS!

9:30 a.m. I must remind all the kids who are already outside playing in my loudest voice that I am the line leader today and nobody else! Hmm…why doesn’t anyone want to play with me?

10:00 a.m. I LOVE SCHOOL.

10:06 a.m. I HATE SCHOOL.

11:30 a.m. I want to go home right now.

11:45 a.m. I want to live here permanently.

11:46 a.m. I wish my teacher Margaret was my mommy. She smells like bubblegum.

12:00 Mmmm! pizza! I think I will have three whole bites!

1:00 p.m. I don’t want to take a nap!

1:05 p.m. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..

3:00 p.m. When is my mommy coming to pick me up??? Oooh, pretzels.

3:03 p.m. When is my mommy coming to pick me up? Play princesses? Sure!

4:00 p.m. Mommy!!!!! Yay, mommy’s here! I wonder where my mommy is taking me? Hopefully the 99 cents store! I LOVE THE 99 CENTS STORE!

4:01 p.m. Why is mommy constantly asking me if I need to go pee-pee? I don’t have to go pee-pee!!!

4:05 I CAN’T BELIEVE MOMMY JUST SAID WE CAN’T GO TO THE 99 CENTS STORE. AM I HAVING A BAD DREAM? PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME THIS IS ONLY A DREAM AND WHEN I WAKE UP I WILL BE GOING TO THE 99 CENTS STORE.

4:06 Uh oh, I have to go pee-pee.

4:15 Oh no, those babies are here again. This is exactly what I was afraid of. I need cookies.

4:20 Yay, mommy is playing the tickle spider game with me.

4:40 Why does mommy not want to play the tickle spider game anymore? We only played it for ONE MINUTE!

4:42 Phew, mommy turned the TV on. Why is there just a man talking? I want to watch a kids’ show. This is clearly not a kid’s show. Why is mommy not responding when I yell at her to change the channel right now? THIS IS THE WORST MINUTE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!

4:43 Ha! Wiggles! Hurray! I love my mommy.

4:44 MY MOUTH IS SO DRY! MUST. GET. JUICE.

5:00 Mommy is feeding my sisters so this would be the absolute perfect time to let her know that I am really hungry.

5:10 Why is mommy getting so frustrated? I only said no to the last fifteen suggestions she made for thing to make me to eat. We will find something for me to say y-e-s to eventually. Hopefully it will be pudding.

5:30 I ate one bite of my cream cheese sandwich. I can’t understand why I’m not being allowed to eat my Easter candy until I have four more bites. I’M FULL.

5:31 I think I will play some games on mommy’s computer.

7:30 Daddy’s home! Unfortunately, I’m a little tied up playing Handy Manny’s Carnival Game so I can’t go say hi to him. I’ll let him come to me.

8:00 Why won’t mommy and daddy let me play any more games? I only started playing them a few minutes ago! THIS IS THE WORST THING THAT’S EVER HAPPENED TO ME! There aren’t enough tears in the world to express how strongly I feel about this.

8:05 I don’t want to get in my jammies! I want to sleep in my clothes tonight! I NEED TO SLEEP IN MY CLOTHES! NOOOOOOOO…

8:30 Those were good stories. But I sure am hungry. I better tell mommy that I want my cream cheese sandwich now

8:34 I’M STILL HUNGRY. I’M SO SO SO HUNGRY. AND THIRSTY. NEED JUICE. FINE. MILK THEN.

8:45 I CAN’T SLEEP! OH NO! I CAN’T FALL ASLEEP! I’ll NEVER EVER BE ABLE TO FALL ASLEEP!

8:46 zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….

4:30 Mommy and Daddy’s bed sounds so good right now…

ORIGINAL LINK: http://www.mommytrackd.com/four-year-old-mind?page=0%2C0

Our Mother's Day adventure

With my 3 little girls.

I wanted a Mother's Day picture with them before we left but Camille was hungry!

On Mother's Day, I chose to go on a fun road trip and lots of fun was had!!

We headed south to Kartchner Caverns (south of Tucson). It was so neat! It is very warm and humid (100%) inside but we all loved it and Camille was in a heat induced nap in her sling. The caverns were only discovered 30 years ago and only open to the public in 1997. It is amazing that these caverns were underground and no one ever found them until then.

*The mountain behind us holds the large room of the caverns.

Tombstone is only 1/2 hour away from the Caverns. Since neither of us had ever been there but always wanted to go, we decided to finish the day in true Arizona style. Tombstone was awesome and we hope to go back. For some reason, I love cowboy history and old towns like this. There is so much that we didn't see for lack of time. The main street in Tombstone looks exactly like it was 150 years ago- it is a dirt road with most of the buildings still intact. You really feel transported back to the days of Wyatt Earp!

*How Camille spent most of the day!

Happy Mother's Day!

These are the wonderful mothers who made us the parents we are today.

My mom with Julia and Bella
Chet's mom with 5 of her grandkids

Never say never

Before having children of my own, I would hear about "hippie" parents making their own baby food or cloth diapering and I would think "Why on earth would you do that when technology has allowed us to have modern conveniences?"

Well, I have become one of those "hippie" parents that I used to secretly judge and some of my family and friends may think I have gone over the edge! We have officially started to cloth diaper Camille. It has taken a LOT of learning and preparation (honestly, more than I thought) but it's not so daunting anymore. It's kind of like having to learn how to pick out and wash clothes for the first time. Surprisingly enough, Chet is very supportive about cloth diapering. He isn't *excited* about it but knows how good it is for the environment and how much $$ it will save us.

Gone are the cloth diapers with pins and plastic covers. Cloth diapers now come in many types (I sound like a commercial!). We chose ones that are All In One and look like traditional diapers (meaning anyone can figure out how to put it on if they know how to put on a Pampers). I am a sucker for anything cute and am having so much fun with all the colors to choose from. I actually get excited to change her diaper and to pick out her next diaper!

*This is one of my favorites- the velcro makes it very easy to use.

*I deleted the pictures of Camille in her cloth diapers. My blog is public for now and I didn't want those photos out there.

Smiley 'Mille

Baby 'Mille is what our 3 yr. old niece Elise calls her

Unless she is hungry or tired (or wants mommy), Camille is a pretty easy and happy little girl. She almost makes me want to have 4! :)
Here are some recent shots of Baby Mille and whatever that is living on top of her head!

Summer starts early around here

Our little meteorologist (Julia) wonders why summer doesn't officially start until late June yet around here summer has definitely begun. Today was our first day in the pool. The water was still a little cold so only Bella (and the dogs) truly got in. After that,we brought out the Slip n Slide while Camille snoozed inside.

*She wanted to wear her floaties until she was sure she could swim like last summer.

*Why our dogs LOVE summertime. Who needs daily walks??
Check out Harley the flying dog. Pretty impressive for a senior citizen canine!

*Harley and her precious tennis ball. Enlarge the picture to see the full effect of her bug eyes.

*We think Harley (above) was the inspiration for Ice Age's Scrat character.