Phrase of the day...

"Mom, come look at my pee tracks!"  

Swimming lesson graduate

Cambrie just completed her first preschool swimming lesson class! 

Even though I am a swimming lesson teacher, I wanted Cambrie to experience a class without me.  I thought it would be a lot more enjoyable for both of us.  After a rough start, Cambrie loved going.  It was very strange watching the class from a parent perspective instead of as an instructor.  I found myself evaluating the teacher as a supervisor and had a very critical eye as to exactly how she was teaching Cambrie.  It took about three or four lessons before I could enjoy watching just to watch.  Cambrie was very obedient and did everything her teacher wanted her to even though Cambrie wore a frown (or at least a very passive face) most of the time.  Her weak points were putting her face in the water and jumping off the edge.  I was so proud of her when during the last lesson she actually put her face in the water on her front float.  Yippee! 

She did great with her back floats. 

She loved playing Red Light, Green Light. 

And she got up the courage to leap onto the stairs,

and to jump off the edge! 

She was so proud of herself. 

Wildflowers & wild girls

My parents have a condo up in Snowbird at the Cliff Lodge.  Like most everything else I've experienced this month, it's been nearly four years since I've been able to go.  When I got there I was overcome with a sense of relief and peace.  It has the most beautiful mountain scenery.  To all my friends who want us to move away from this: 

I'm sorry, I love you but there's no way. 

The majestic stone mountains rising up about luscious green fields full of wildflowers are just absolutely gorgeous! 

After I took in the scenery, I still needed to get the girls up to the room by myself.  Luckily for me the resort has a luggage cart that worked perfectly. 

We went on a peaceful walk that night, then the next morning we headed up to see the wildflowers which were blooming that weekend.  I really wanted to get some cute pictures of the girls in the fields...it was tricky and I have more pictures of the back of Cambrie's head than the front, but this is what we came up with. 

I was also able to get a cute candid shot of my dad and Cambrie.  He's such a great grandpa! 

           With love from Snowbird

Being a Mom means...

Being a mom means taking 45 minutes to eat dinner because you're trying to slice your children's food, blow on the hot stuff, clean up spills, wipe up spit-ups, pour more drink, keep your plate out of your baby's reach, and eat left-handed because you're holding your baby with your right hand.

Being a mom means eating your dinner cold.

Being a mom means having floaties in your drinks from sharing with your toddler.

Being a mom means bribing your children with cartoons just so you can get a shower.

Being a mom means bribing your children with cartoons and candy so you can shower alone.

Being a mom means smelling like spit-up instead of perfume.

Being a mom means a Sunday drive involves handing toys and snacks behind your seat while keeping your eyes on the road, constantly answering the question, "Why?" giving your baby empty water bottles for her to suck on because she won't take a pacifier, listening to complaints about uncomfortable car seats, and trying not to lose your mind because of all the whining and crying.

Being a mom means offering your chin to be sucked on during church in lieu of a pacifier.

Being a mom means having jewelry that can substitute for chew toys.

Being a mom means waking up four times a night to suck out snotty noses.

Being a mom means coming up with an acceptable answer for, "Why is part of the moon missing?"

Being a mom means listening to crazy statements like, "Mom, McKenzie's brain is chewing on your water bottle."

Being a mom means asking questions such as, "Can my baby digest a leaf?"

Being a mom means convincing your child that dinner is delicious, even if it involves lying, offering dip, offering food off your plate, using funny utensils, or frog hopping spoonfuls into a three-year-old's mouth.

Being a mom means facing the criticism of strangers as your daughter walks around in the same play dress, cow girl boots, and Rapunzel braids for the fifth day in a row.

Being a mom means getting your daughter dressed while she's sleeping at night so you don't have to listen to her complain about it the next morning.

Being a mom means learning to let go of control once your toddler realizes it's all she wants.

Being a mom means putting your daughter in time-out three times before breakfast.

Being a mom means apologizing to strangers as your daughter pinches their child...even if you didn't even know she knew how to pinch.

Being a mom means allowing tape to be put all over your arm just because.

Being a mom means cheering for poop in the toilet.

Being a mom means coming up with silly faces at all times of day to keep the tears away.

Being a mom means crawling on the store floor to find pennies for you daughter's piggy bank.

Being a mom means getting "lubs and kisses" before you walk out the door.

Being a mom means feeling warm inside when your children give you a genuine smile.

Being a mom means cuddling with new babies.

Being a mom means being proud of your toddler because she drew a smiley face that actually looks like a smiley face.

Being a mom means scaring away nightmares of hair-eating ants out of bed so your daughter's hair won't turn white as they eat away the brown.

Being a mom means a deep sigh of relief when both kids are safely and soundly asleep in bed.

Being a mom means loving your kids more than you knew you were capable of, and trying not to forget it.

Being a mom is hard....I'll let you know if it's worth it later.

24th BBQ

I'm not used to having two holidays so close together!  The 4th and 24th of July mean double the family, double the BBQ's, double the fireworks, and double the fun!  (It sounds like a Double-Mint gum commercial).  After the parade we got together with some more of the Pearce great grandchildren for a BBQ and firework extravaganza.  While we were getting ready for the party Cambrie got the fun started by running through the sprinklers.  Apparently she found a way to save time and ran through the sprinklers with her towel already on. Well, whatever works. 

When the Sammy, Macady and Chase got there we started out with some delicious burgers.  Even though you see all the kids sitting at their dinner table, don't be fooled.  I don't think they actually ate anything. 

They were waiting for homemade raspberry ice-cream by Rick! 

They also couldn't wait to jump on the tramp.  The girls were having a blast...at least I don't think they were torturing each other...

Chase is still a little small to jump with these girls and they put up a barricade to protect him from the fun.  It looked so choreographed that I had to laugh.

Once it got dark we started lighting fireworks. 

At first Cambrie was just content to eat her ice-cream and watch the show, but once Sammy started lighting her own fireworks, Cambrie had to have part of that action.  So while I think it should be the dad's job to teach their children to blow things up, I had to teach Cambrie at least how to light a fuse.  

We had a lot of extra sparklers after the fountains were done and even the adults got to play.  Danyelle was able to overexpose this picture and got some cool pyro shots of the guys. 

We tried one with Cambrie but she just wanted to hold her sparkler as still as possible.  

Cambrie and McKenzie both crashed before all of the sparklers had been spent, but I can't blame them.  11:00 is late for my two girls.  I sure hope Colorado has two awesome firework holidays we can celebrate next year.

Days of '47 Parade

Jeremy's family has a tradition of sleeping over at the parade route for the 24th of July parade in Salt Lake City.  I was only able to experience it once before we moved to Philly, and I always felt kind of bad that we missed out on a lot of traditions like that while we were away.  This year I wanted to go to the parade, but come to find out his family wasn't camping out this year.  If we went, it would just be us.  So be it-let's go to a parade!  Bruce got to the parade route around 4:30 that morning to find a place for us to sit.  We had front row seats, but we were on the west side looking directly into the sun.  It got hot, but luckily we had some umbrella shade, free fans, and lots to drink. 

Waiting for the parade to start always feels like it takes forever, especially for a kid. Leesa picked up a bubble gun for Cambrie to play with and it was definitely a huge hit.  She loved shooting bubbles at everyone.  The fans came in handy as a defensive tool.  The scene was pretty cool with dozens of bubbles floating around everywhere and I have to admit that it was a lot easier than blowing all those bubbles one by one.

McKenzie was content to sit in the shade and play with the umbrella. 

Finally the parade started and we were able to enjoy all of the floats.  The theme this year was "Then and Now."  So the floats all referred to how the pioneers handled things and how we handle them today.  My favorite float was the cricket float.  The float was covered with giant sparkly crickets being eating by seagulls.  But the seagulls were very dignified about it and were using the recipe book, "Cricket Cookie Cookbook" to prepare their snack.  Super cute!  Cambrie loved the princesses.  One pioneer princess had Cinderella's glass slipper that she let Cambrie try on.  Unfortunately it didn't quite fit, sorry sweet pea. 

Here we are on the parade route enjoying the show.  It was a lot of fun and definitely worth getting out of bed.

Long-lost cousin party

I have never been a party thrower.  I consider myself a party goer.  So when my cousin Jenny called and said that all of the girl cousins were getting together for the day, I jumped right in.  My cousin, Michelle, her husband and children live in Detroit.  Needless to say I haven't seen them for a very long time.  While the boys were playing with their grandpa, the girls, Savanna and Claire, came to the park to play with us.  Brianna brought her daughter, Jocelyn.  Jenny came with Bethany.  Jamie brought Tate (the only little guy there). And then we had Grandma Great.  It was quite the party.  The girls played at Willow Park that has these great big trees that are wonderful for make-believe.  In this castle there were two Sleeping Beauties who pricked their fingers on a spinning wheel, can you see who the dramatic ones are?  

Jocelyn and McKenzie weren't able to run and play hung with the bigger girls, so they hung out on picnic blankets playing with plastic cups.  Apparently they are the coolest thing ever! 

After the park we headed to the zoo to feed the ducks, then cooled off at the Aquatic Center. 

Cambrie splished and splashed in the wading pool and showed me some of her new skills she's acquired at swimming lessons. 

We stripped down McKenzie to join us in the water but she was perfectly content keeping Grandma Great company in the shade. 

We celebrated the end of a great day with snow cones for everyone.  Even McKenzie sampled the goodness.  It was so much fun playing with our long lost cousins!

The Hokey Pokey

We got a little distracted as we were getting the girls ready for bed tonight....it's too fun not to share.

And Jer-this video is for you.  McKenzie officially doesn't have anything in her mouth :)

Cambrie's Birthday in SoJo

Cambrie has had a month full of birthday fun.  But parties never get old so we celebrated again down in South Jordan. 

Her presents from Nana and Papa was so big that she wasn't sure how to get the wrapping paper off the box. 

It turned out to be a doll house.  A very deluxe dollhouse that McKenzie loves playing with as much as her older sister.  

All sort of people live at her dollhouse now; the Little Mermaid, Jasmine, Jessie from Toy Story, a little shark, and the loving family that came with the house. 

When it came time to pose for the camera with her gifts, she was grumpy...

but then she gave us her Chuck E Cheese smile and totally cheesed it up. 

Cambrie had requested nachos for breakfast, but I'm kind of a stickler than nachos aren't a breakfast food and we made waffles instead.  But she still got her birthday meal for a snack later that day.  Cheese my little three-year-old! 

Chuck E Cheese PARTY!

What three-year-old (or 23-year-old) birthday bash wouldn't be complete without a party at Chuch E Cheese?  So we gathered our cousins together for a little shin-dig. Even though Cambrie and Chalyn are 20 years apart, we can still have a party! 

First all of the guests put on their party crowns to get ready to party!  Princess was definitely the theme here.

We ate some pizza then took off for the games.  I love Skee-ball, and insisted Cambrie play with me. Cambrie doesn't quite have the underhand motion down yet, and instead chooses to throw her balls up the ramp.  It is only somewhat successful, but really cute to watch. 

For this one she had to catch the popcorn which is harder than it looks ;) 

Her favorite thing to do was ride the carousel.  Surprised?  Every token gives you about 20 times around.  I got dizzy just watching her and I think she rode it four or five times.  She didn't want her picture taken proving she liked it so much....

but then surprised us with a very sweet smile the next time around. 

Parker is a little guy, but he makes up for it in determination and creativity.  The jungle gym tubes and slides are still a little big for the two of them, but Parker taught Cambrie how to get up there.  This is actually a big deal because she got stuck at Burger King once and cries every time she sees one of these things.  When she got to the bottom she raised her hands in the air and said, "I did it all by myself!"  She was so proud! 

While we were playing we even got a picture with Chuck E Cheese himself. 

After the games we ate some princess cupcakes. 

The frosting was a huge success and frosting lips were the latest fashion craze. 

Chalyn's frosting actually looks like it was put there on purpose. 

Cambrie couldn't wait to open the presents.  Her cousins were sweet and smacked her on the head with them ;) 

The presents were fun and Cambrie loves her new Toy Story Legos, Little Mermaid bath toy, and Color Wonder coloring book. 

Then it was time to redeem the tickets.  Hmm...what to choose, what to choose.  She settled on an inflatable hammer, little lady bugs, and a tootsie roll. 

What a great way to spend a hot, hot, summer birthday.  Thanks everyone for coming!