Summer

It's kind of backwards that summer is here and we try and stay indoors as much as possible. It's so we don't melt. Last night at 10:00 pm it was 101 degrees! But the other day we ventured out to the pool and had some fun. I'd like to do this everyday but it's a little taxing if I'm by myself. Carly loves the water but she doesn't want floaties, a swim raft OR anyone to hold her. She is so independent that she wants to do it all herself but doesn't get the fact that she'll drown. Then there's Ella. She can swim but not like a pro. She uses her floaties as a crutch but I can't spend time on Ella b/c I've got Carly to watch out for aswell. It's nice when Joseph is home and can help out. Anyway, here's some fun summer pictures of our swimming adventure.




Ella loves wearing her floaties b/c she can do WHATEVER she wants as long as she's wearing them. She swims like a little fish and runs and jumps into the pool as much as she can. Toward the end of the summer last year she could swim a little by herself. She's regressed a little b/c of how long it took to get back into a pool but I've made it a goal to go out at Carly's nap time and work with Ella on swimming without the floaties.


Carly finally let us put her in the float but she didn't like it for long. She lasts about 10 min in that and then wants to get out and play like everyone else. She is SO independent!



Daddy and the girls.





Teaching Carly to swim. She's really good at putting her face in the water and blowing bubbles. The water in the face does't phase her a bit and she likes blowing bubbles. Still learing about kicking.






Carly cheesing it.


Ella's new trick. (hopping on 1 foot in the water. SO cool)


Me and Ella.

Father's Day

Joseph, nerding it up on Father's Day. :)


This Father's Day was nice. I got to spend it with my sweet hubby AND my dad. The girls love having him and my mom here. They play all the time. They get quite a bit of attention from my parents, it's nice b/c I feel like I get my 15 min. breaks. :) Anyway, not too much to say about it. We made daddy and pop a pancake and egg breakfast, went to church, listened to Ella sing for her first time in the primary program, came home and the boys watched golf while the girls made homemade pizza and a yummy dessert. Enjoy the pictures. They tell a better story.


Opening Father's Day gifts.




My dad, Carly (who only wanted to get down and eat cake), Joseph and Ella.


I found this cute "burger and fries" idea on Bakerella and thought I'd try it for Father's Day. It turned out cute but I didn't use the sesame seeds. I didn't want to go buy some just for like 15 of them so they got nixed.



Ella did a special "I Know My Daddy" question and answer paper. I asked her all these questions and these were her exact answers to them:

Favorite food: Pizza
Favorite sport: golf
Favorite color: white
What does daddy do?:Work
What makes a daddy a daddy?:They grow up, have a date and then they get married.
My daddy looks like...: Prince Eric
My favorite thing to do with daddy: Make Magic
Daddy loves to: go on a date with us to the snow, when it's snowing.
What does daddy do at work?:He gets groceries and food and drinks.
what does daddy wear?:Skirts. (lots of giggling) No, that's silly, he wears church clothes.
What color is daddy's hair?:Brown. But he wants it to be blue.
What can we say to daddy to make him feel special?: "Happy Birthday"

Well, there you have it, from the mouth of his 3 year old.... a bit of Joseph in a nut shell.

And last but not least a compilement of pictures of our daddy that we love.





with baby Carly.











With baby Ella.












I love you babe-a-lou! You're the best dad to these little girls!

Shark Attack!

ooo, sorry for the blurriness.





My camera is kinda going out so this shot is pretty dark but now days, you take what you can get. :) Both girls helping make the cake. Ella is used to the rules (washing hands, don't dip your finger in....OR your tongue!) Carly....not so much. We really had to watch that girl. But both were happy once they got their beater. (full of uncooked egg...happy salmonella!)


It was my friend, Susy's, birthday on the 9th so I wanted to make her a cake. I got this idea from the "Hello Cupcake" book, thanks to Monica (thanks Monica!)(And thanks to Crystal for the link help). (LOVE this book!) In the book it's supposed to be just a shark on the cupcake but I wanted to give her a whole cake so I put it in an ocean and put some teddy grams and lifesavers in for effect. Pretty morbid if you think about it. haha Don't worry though, the one in the book looks way better. I don't even have the book. This was the only idea I could remember from the pictures. So it turned out pretty good for not having the book. :) I had to improvise with a few things, like I only knew to make the Shark out of a twinki and to make his mouth out of fruit roll-up. The "gills" are chocolate sprinkles. The eyes are circle confetti sprinkles with chocolate sprinkles pieces. The fin is melted almond bark that I made into a triangle. The bears are...well, duh, teddy grams and I just put them in gummy life savors. It was fun to make and not too hard (I mean, I made it with out directions for cripes sake). You should try it!



In other news... Here's a random picture of the girls. In just the last few weeks they've been playing way more together and giggling at the lunch table at each other. The other day Ella and Carly were spinning in the living room and just feeding off each other, giggling till they were red in the face. I love it! Ella has memorized this book word for word so she is reading it to Carly (who is a fanatic about books!) in their tutus. I actually had one on too and was cleaning house in it but Joseph wasn't awake so I wasn't in the picture. :)




Oh, yeah, and a couple weeks ago or so I cut my hair. I told some people I'd post a picture of it but I either always look like crap or my camera isn't working. This one, I apologize, I look SO tired in but you can kinda get the gist of the cut. They took a good 10 inches off. Maybe more, who knows. There was just a TON of hair on the floor. Every stylist that walked by was like, "holy crap! you're brave" Yeah, no, just sick of long hair.

The things we say

Most moms of a 2+ yr. old know that you need to really watch the things you say. Even if it's just every day language. Yesterday I was trying on skirts to see what I was going to wear to church and of course Ella was there. (she's my shadow if you didn't already know) The convo went like this,


Ella: "Mommy, you look like a princess in that skirt"
Me: "Thanks"
Ella: "But not me. If I wore that skirt.....well....welll I would just look......(thinking of the right word)... disgusting! Disgusting and.....and weird! I would be a weirdo!!"

I was totally laughing by that time but trying to hid my snickers so she didn't think it was a big joke to say that all the time.

Wow.