The Skinny Dipper

Tonight, while sitting on the balcony in Flagstaff....

"Ashley, look the stars are starting to come out"

Ashley responds, "Ohhh, look there is the skinny dipper"

There he goes....

He loves to ride his bike....and yes, he is oustside in his diaper.

That is one of those things I thought I would never do there are a lot of things I thought I would never do.....

And this how they rode......

...and that makes me happy!

Ashley's "Ah-Ha" Moments of the Day

Tonight after dinner, I am looking at the living room and there are toys everywhere. I tell Ashley that we have a big mess to clean up.

Ashley's response: "Mommy, if you clean it all up really good you can have some ice cream."


Earlier today Ashley asks me to help her spell 'NO' with her foam letters. We talk about the sounds in 'NO' and then she helps put it together. I am thinking awesome, she is learning how to spell and she is thinking....awesome I needed a new way to get across to my mommy that the answer is NO.


The rest of the day, whenever she was asked something that she didn't want to do her response was: "N...O...NO" I laughed the first time that she said it....you know the rest of the story.

Hypothesis

Hypothesis: "If I give the same pudding pops to three different kids, then they will all get equally as messy."

Materials:
3 kids
3 pudding pops
1 hot summer day

Results: The results of this experiment showed that the hypothesis was not correct

BOYS ARE MUCH MESSIER THAN GIRLS!

Thankful

The other evening, when we got home from running errands I told Ashley she could ride her bike for a couple of minutes before we went in to eat dinner. But, BEFORE she could ride her bike I needed to go start boiling the water for the ravioli that we were going to have for dinner. So, I go inside and get the water started and then return to watch the kids ride their bikes. I decide to take a few things in from the truck, you know how all the kids stuff can pile up in the car so, I am doing that and just putting it on the counter right inside the garage door. Lastly, I put my keys and purse inside too. (Can you tell that I have made a MAJOR mistake). I tell Ashley its time to go in, she starts putting her bike away, I open the door for AJ to go in. I realized I needed to put Aidens bike away so, I go do that and then turn back around to open the door to go inside and IT'S LOCKED and Aiden is in the house. He locked the lock on the handle. I panic, I run through the back gate to check the Arcadia door in the backyard, its locked....I run back around to the garage door and I can hear him crying and knocking on the door. I tell Ashley to run next door and tell Miss. Anna and Mr. Larry to come here. At this point she is crying and I felt terrible because she was so scared. As soon as they come outside I ask them to call 9-1-1. Oh, my cell phone was also in the house. They call and within minutes but what felt like hours we could hear the sirens coming in the neighborhood. They walk up and I am on my knees by the door, knocking on it and calling for AJ. I can still hear him crying and knocking on the door. As long as I could still hear him I knew he was not in the kitchen near the boiling water. When they walked up, I looked up and saw a friend of ours, I was surprised to see him but so relieved to see a face I knew at this moment. They immediately went up in my attic entrance in the garage and down in the house and at the same time other firefighters came in through the Arcadia door. They jimmied their way somehow to unlock the Arcadia door. When they brought Aiden out to me he wasn't even crying. AMAZING! I was so thankful that they were able to get to him as quickly as they did. Ashley had gone into my neighbors house to be with their kids. The poor girl was crying and hid in Allen's truck that was in the garage during most of the ordeal. The firefighters were so good with the kids. They gave them hats and stickers. The rest of the night Ashley asked several questions, over and over. She was trying to process what had happened. I retold her the story 3 times and reassured her that she did such a great job. Aiden was so thirsty from crying but other than that he was a happy little boy. Lesson learned, keep a spare keep somewhere besides inside the house!

Sneak Peek

Ashley will have her dance recital this weekend.
Above is a peek at her little costume...sequins, satin, poka dots and lots of ruffles!!

Summertime+lots of time in the pool=BEE STING!

I think I may have been stung by a bee once in my life...it is a vague memory so, I am thinking I was pretty young. Well, AJ was stung twice within 2 days of each other. Luckily, we have learned that he is not allergic to them but we didn't need to learn it twice.

Happy 30th Birthday Allen

Allen turned 30 this month. And so, it was time to celebrate!! We enjoyed the weekend with good friends, good times and good food! When I was looking through old pictures I realized two things: 1.We have only had digital pictures since 2003 that is a lot of living before digital cameras that I don't have access to at the touch of a fingertip....uggh 2: I was reminded that Allen is an amazing part of my life and that he works hard and plays even harder!! I love the husband that he is to me and the father that he is to our children.

Happy Birthday, Allen!

Easter at our house

My parents are away on a 28-day cruise (and they are loving every moment!) and so, before they left we celebrated Easter with them at our house.

My brother and his wife rode their bikes over to our house for dinner, love them! Love that they live so close to us.


It doesn't get much better when I host an Easter Dinner and the guests bring the dinner! My parents brought over an amazing crab dinner.


We enjoyed dinner and then had an Easter Egg hunt in the back yard. Ashley was very disappointed to open each egg and not find any candy! Just dollars that would not even fit in her piggy boink (bank)!

I think I have decided that the all the running around and stressing-out we do at Christmas is over-rated...Easter is a lot less stressful and so much FUN!!

Our Easter

We spent this Easter at Allen's parents' house. We stayed Saturday night at their house so that the festivities could begin first thing on Easter morning.

A.J. was the first one up on Easter ( imagine that!) then Ashley woke up and when we said "Happy Easter" and she quickly began looking all around for anything from the Easter Bunny. She didn't find anything in the house because the night before she told us she was certain that the Easter Bunny would be leaving her basket on the front porch.

When she opened the front door she found her basket full of goodies and it didn't take long for her to see that there were Easter eggs over the front yard.

She collected all of her eggs as A.J. followed her. She opened each one as she found it to see if their was more candy inside.


Immediately following the egg hunt we ate breakfast and then on to the "Big Kids" Easter festivities!!

First, we had an Egg Decorating Contest...we couldn't wait to get started! Alison and I had the winning egg, the turtle. It was her idea but I helped with the implementation. We split the winnings, $25!!
Contest entries included: Super Egg, a ladybug, conception(Yes, that was Allen's idea-he came up with it on his own), a girl egg, the General Lee and a turtle. Tough competition this year!

Next, we had our 3rd Annual Golf Ball Hunt. We all hit golf balls out into the desert that is right across the road from Dave & Cheryl's house then we running through the desert to find as many as we could. Each one was worth $1 then 10 of them were worth $5 and then 2 golden "eggs" were worth $50 each! So, you better believe that we were running around out there like crazy!!


We ran around the desert for over an hour collecting golf balls. Both golden balls were found and we had a BLAST!!

We enjoyed a delicious dinner with everyone and we just didn't want the weekend to end. We enjoyed one more sunset on the porch before heading home Sunday evening.

Easter Egg Hunt in the Cul-de-sac

This year our Annual Easter Egg Hunt with our neighbors in our cul-de-sac was rained out! But, not to worry, that morning I called our dear neighbors who moved to Virginia to ask if we could use their empty home for an inside Easter Egg hunt. So, off came the shoes and the kids ran through their house and collected as many eggs as their baskets would hold. The rain had stopped long enough for the kids to run around outside and ride their bikes too! We had a great time visiting with our neighbors that morning. We also enjoyed a pot-luck breakfast and coffee with everyone in our neighbors' empty garage. We dearly miss the Rogers family and were very thankful they opened up their home to us for our Easter Egg Hunt!

"I love you like 20"

We have explained to Ashley that you can't put a number with how much you love someone. But she insists on saying things such as, "I love AJ like 20 hundreds".

Tonight as we walked out of her room after tucking her in I was closing her door and I said. "I love you" and she yells out "I love you like 20".

I think from now on I won't try to explain that you can't describe the depth of your love with a number I will take it like it is, because to her it means she loves us more than just saying "I love you!"

Happy Birthday Great Grandma Waples

Great Grandma Waples turned 86 years young last week and so it was time to celebrate. You would never know this woman was a day over 50 years old! If she is not on the floor playing blocks with the kids she is chasing them around the house.

I just asked Ashley what her favorite thing is to do with Grandma Waples, and not to my surprise she said "having tea parties and eating candy!" Ashley has it all figured out whenever we go over there, she starts with a Popsicle and then she has a cookie, or two and then she ends the visit with M&M's and always takes some for the road. We think Grandpa Waples enjoys the benefits of having someone there to get all the goodies out!

We are thankful that they live so close and we enjoyed spending the afternoon with them for her birthday.

Weeeeee!

He has no fear, he could have tumbled down the slide and would have still cracked up.

There she goes....

About 5 months ago Ashley asked her daddy to take the training wheels off her bike. So, he took them off but it wasn't even 1/2 hour and many tears before they went back on...She wasn't quite ready.

Today, we were out front playing and Ashley asked again if she could try riding without training wheels. So, off they came and off she went!

She can only ride in a straight line for now but I am sure it won't be long before she figures it all out. She has been out there most of the afternoon practicing with Allen, and even needed to take a break to jump in the pool...after all it is 78 degrees outside today!

I'm a BIG kid now...

Who says I can't use a spoon? I sure can, and look at what a mess I can make. I love yogurt, just wait until I learn that there is more to yogurt than plain, unflavored yogurt!

Happy Birthday Aiden!

It is hard to believe a year ago today, we were in a hospital room with a brand new baby. We had no idea how much joy he would bring to us throughout this past year.

Happy Birthday Aiden!

Ashley's New Shoes

Ashley said, " I bet I could jump over a little mountain with these shoes".

Tell me about your picture.....

Ashley painted this lovely picture the other day and when she was finished I asked her to tell me about it. Not sure what to expect, and expecting the worst. I anxiously waited for her answer....

"They are Kabloons (balloons) with balls on the bottom so they won't float away"

Pheewww!

Then it all made perfect sense as I looked in the hallway and saw a balloon with a ball on the bottom so it won't float away...geeze mommy, get your head out of the gutter!


**For some reason she has always called balloons, Kabloons. I think it is funny because she knows how to say balloons but she thinks that they should be called Kabloons instead.**

Makes perfect sense....

Ashley was looking through one of her picture books and said..."This is my facebook."

**************************

The other night when we were eating dinner, I asked if she wanted anything on her pasta and she said, "dump cheese".

"Excuse me?"

Ashley says with irritation, "You know the kind of cheese you dump out of the can"

...Ooohhh, I get it....Parmesan cheese.

Now, that makes perfect sense.

The leaves are finally falling....

and the neighborhood kids worked so hard to rake them up into a pile just to jump in and throw them on eachother. What fun!

What are little boys made of? Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails

Last night, I found A.J. eating dog food. I pulled it out of his mouth, washed his hands and picked up the dog food he had spilled from Callie's dog food dish. This wasn't the first time this had happened but something about it made me think he was enjoying the dog food. Then I realized maybe he was hungry so, I fed him dinner. About 15 minutes after he ate a good dinner I found him with 3 pieces of it in his mouth and he was walking around the house with a whole handful of dog food. I went to take it out of his mouth and he was trying to get more of it in his mouth from the handful that he had. THIS IS WHEN I REALIZED, I think he really LIKES it!! We keep cheerios on his table for him to reach almost all the time and that is the other clue that led me to believe he is choosing to eat this instead of his food. CAN THIS POSSIBLY BE TRUE?

Moving on to PLAN B: Only feed the dog after he is in bed.

Update

My mom's surgery went great!! They were able to remove the tumor, successfully. She is still recovering in ICU but is progressing really well.

The tumor was much larger than originally estimated. It was 5cm around, and it was removed from her left atrium.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. She is on her way to recovery.

Please Say a Prayer

Please say a prayer for my sweet mom, she will be having heart surgery tomorrow to remove a tumor that was found today.

UPDATE: As of tonight, it looks like her surgery will not be scheduled until Friday.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Love,

The Waples

And he's off to the races....

On Thanksgiving day AJ took is first consecutive steps and since then he hasn't stopped. He has it all figured out now and is cruising all over. How does it all go so fast?

1st visit to the dentist for Ashley

Today, Ashley had her first visit to the dentist. She did so well, we are very proud of her! She sat there so nicely and let them clean her teeth. At the very end of the visit the dentist was poking around and she was getting tired of keeping her mouth open so, she started wiggling and he poked her on accident. She began to cry but it didn't last long once she was reminded that it was time to go pick out her treasure from the treasure chest and pick out her new electric toothbrush!