The Aquarium!

While my parents were visiting us for Holland's blessing we stayed busy. This was a little trickier than it typically is because it was August in Phoenix. This means swimming or indoor activities, which is what we did. First on the agenda was an aquarium. This was so fun!

I loved this hairy bright orange/red crab!

The girls loved the tide pool and the area where you could touch the different creatures.

There were lobsters and little cubbies to peak in. There were even cubbies to peak up inside the tanks.

I thought it was cool to see all the fish, especially all of the small sharks.

The girls loved the dinosaur bones in the tank. I swear they were more fascinated with those than the fish. "Do you think those are real dinosaur bones Mommy?" "Nope."

Grandma's favorite was the sting ray.

We all loved the giant turtle.

I liked the 360 degree tunnel.

There was a play ground at the end, which might have been their favorite part! :) 

Thanks Grandma for taking us!

Holland was  a dream through this whole adventure! What a sweet baby!

Ellie really liked the seahorses. So she got 2 toy souvenirs. 

She also got a starfish necklace.

Miriam got a mermaid that grew in water.

We played pin the fin on the seahorse with the seahorse poster Ellie made. We also played Don't Eat Pete. 

And Headbandz!

Of course we had to take Grandpa and Grandma swimming! Love the hot hot weather and swimming!

My sister gave us this floatie, which isn't necessarily age appropriate for my kids, but they still loved it!

Ellie jumping in the pool by herself! Holland is getting to be an old pro at this too!

All of this made us pretty tuckered out.

Ellie never takes naps anymore, so she just read while the rest of us slept! Works with me!

It is fun to have our routine changed up a bit with Grandma and Grandpa here. So grateful that they are willing and able to come visit us so much!

Holland's Blessing Pictures

I still can't believe I am a mother to three. Three beautiful girls!! Can I just say again how woefully inadequate I feel at being their mom? I know they are going to grow up realizing all the different ways their mom was crazy and wrong, and they'll be right! Maybe someday they will read this and recognize that I know more than anyone how far I am from being a perfect mother. Girls, I want you to know that I pray everyday that I will be a better mother to you. Hopefully that counts for something...

Whoa, that was a lot more serious than I intended to go. Let's focus on how adorable baby Holland is! She is gorgeous! 

Right now (at 5 months) she is an easy smile and a little more willing with her laughs, although it is still rare enough to warrant a lot of attention when she is giggly.

She almost always sleeps through the night (knock on wood). She doesn't have regular naps during the day. I don't know when that is going to start happening. Maybe it is a side-effect of being #3, but she normally gets cat naps throughout the day and maybe one or two good long ones. Never at the same time from day to day. I should probably try to put her on more a schedule...

Her blondish-brownish hair is growing so much faster than Miriam's did. It is almost always wet with sweat and spit-up. This girl is a drooling machine!! Her bottom gums are swollen with teeth, but they haven't poked out yet. Those baby blue eyes seem to get bluer every day. And her skin is so soft. (I know babies are supposed to have soft skin, but really it is so soft!)

She is just getting to the stage of grabbing onto everything (unintentionally)--my hair and her binky are particularly noteworthy. Mostly because it is surprisingly painful to have her get my hair, and she makes herself so upset when she inadvertently pulls out her own binky (around 50 times a day).

I love, love nursing her. She likes to hold my finger while she nurses. When she is really in the zone she drapes her top arm across her face, over her eyes. It is adorable! When she is less in the zone, she just watches me and if she catches my eye, she splits into a huge grin that dribbles milk all down us. I seriously love it. (Although we both often smell like sour milk...stinker.:) )

Holland loves the attention from her older sisters. And they just adore her. They fight over who gets to be in her face, trying to get her to smile. They are both convinced she is actually learning her numbers and letter sounds, and that she is actually communicating things in her grunts. What funny girls!

Holland is starting to really love bath time, which is good because she needs a bath everyday. She squirms and wiggles in the bath, which makes her splash herself. This startles her, but she likes it. Little cutie!

She smells so good after her bath. Seriously smelling her (especially her breath--I know, it's weird) sends my hormones into overdrive. My body screams at me--care for this baby!!!

 What an angel! We are so lucky to have her!

Oh yeah, this is what these pictures are about---Holland's blessing was at the beginning of August. My parents came down for the blessing. Included in her blessing was a blessing for good health and strength, to be a good example and share the gospel, to accomplish her goals, be a peacemaker, to help and serve others, to put a high priority on her family, to seek righteousness and God's will, and to know God's love for her. It was beautiful.

Back to School

Wow, I feel really behind on my family journal/blog. The last couple of months have flown by (when do they not?)! Buying a house is a really time consuming process, especially when you have a never ending list of to-do's on that house!

So we were under contract for our house by the beginning of August. Now it was time to wait and pack. We didn't want to take ownership sooner because the lease on our apartment didn't end until Sept. 30th. So by pushing out our close date we could double paying on rent and mortgage. We got a 4.00% interest rate, which we were pretty happy about and were not determined to not play the 'what if.." game. This is our house are we are excited, daunted, and dreading it all that the same time.

Life kept moving forward though. Miss Eliza started school. First grade! I sure thought that this would be easier after having such a great experience with Kindergarten, but it was still pretty hard. I wish I knew her teacher better! I wish I knew the kids she was playing with! I am what they call a 'helicopter mom' which means that I look to hover and be involved with everything that my kids are doing to make sure that they are okay. Got to let them go though, which is a lot easier said than done. I totally cried at back to school night. One little girl from the ward is in Eliza's class and even sits at her table. We ended up sending her to a different school at the last minute mostly so she could be around more kids from church, so we were glad this worked out. Miss Howard doesn't know how lucky she is to get my little girl for so many hours of the day.

In the mean time, Miriam is still my little buddy, and we have a new baby buddy too! Miriam is just enthralled with how Holland is getting more interactive! We sure love our baby sister!

I think Eliza lost 5 teeth in July! Poor girl could hardly chew. Fortunately they are starting to grow in. She enjoyed eating an apple by biting into it for the first time in a while this week.

My little Ellie is still such a sweetheart! She is definitely growing and wants to stretch her limits occasionally, but she still leaves little love notes around for us.

Once I heard her tell Holland, "I  feel special to have you as my little sister." Talk about a tear jerker!

She is such a smart girl! I am constantly surprised at her depth of knowledge and (occasionally) judgement. She knows so much about the gospel and loves learning. We have been working on times tables with her, which is totally her idea! She loves math and making up problems for us to figure out.

Obviously she still loves reading! The other day I heard her say to Miriam, "I am embarrassed to tell you what embarrassed means." It was pretty great!

I still feel sad that she is growing up though! It breaks my heart when she tells me that this or that girl at school was mean to her. Actually I get a little crazy and want to go put the beat down on some 6 year old that was mean to my little sweetheart!

We love, LOVE our little Eliza! She really is a tender mercy in my life! Someday I hope to be the mother that she deserves!