Karl and Kristin's Family

Baby Sister

This is from a while ago, but I had to include it. I LOVE this photo. I could look at those little faces all day. I'm so blessed to be able to add another one. Can't wait to meet her.

These photos are in no particular order. Just things I wanted to include. I really need to keep a journal for our family and since this blog is already here I figured I'd just add to it. I'm going to try and be more consistent. I'm pretty sure I've said that like 100 times on this blog.

Our entryway really needed some help. I had a small little coat hook and a big basket for all our shoes. It was always a mess, so I took it upon myself to organize it. I built the shelf, vase and bench. I found those little metal bins for our shoes at Walmart for really cheap. Everyone has their own. I like how it turned out. And I'm proud to say that I did it all myself! Karl helped me hang the shelf (it's heavy!) and he held some of the long boards for me while I was cutting them, but other than that these are all mine! It was fun to build it all myself. They were all pretty straightforward projects, but it gave me the confidence to tackle something a little more complicated next time. I'm thinking a media center? We'll see. I have a huge list of things I want to build.

Coral finally let me put her on the big kid swing. She always insisted on the baby swings, which she calls "trap swings". I think she's converted. She's saying, "I'm a big girl!" in this picture.

Lovely little lady.

Tutu, hoodie, helmet, bike.

Posing after Addi's haircut.

I just had to take a picture of this. Addi cannot do anything in the bathroom unless she is reading. It's adorable, but also super annoying because she goes in there and reads and forgets what she's supposed to be doing. Not good on busy school mornings. I tried making a "no books in the bathroom" rule, but she just hid them under the sink, under the step stool, and under the bathmat. I gave up. Guess I can't complain about a kid who loves to read.

Natural History Museum

Last weekend Karl and I decided that we were going to do nothing but have fun with our kids. No projects, no running errands, etc. We took them to the Natural History Museum in Mesa and they had a blast. It was nice to just enjoy them and take as much time as we wanted.

Playing with the 3D dinosaur puzzle

Look Mom! I'm on TV!

Panning for (fools) gold

Checking out the jail. This was the actual jail until 1975 in Mesa. The prisoners didn't get any bed linens and had to sleep on these hard metal beds. Creepy.

Digging for fossils.

Addi in space.

We finished the puzzle! (It was harder than it looks!)

I even got down and helped with my giant 7 month pregnant belly.

Enjoying the warm AZ rain on the way to the car.

It turned out to be such a nice day. We went out to dinner at a funky empanada place afterward. Addi was grump because she gets freaked out about going somewhere new. She always feels better after she eats and realizes the food is good. Goofball.

Coral has been enjoying her dance class at the local rec center. These aren't the best photos, but they don't let the parents in so I've had to sneak a few shots. Next week is her performance, so hopefully I can get better pictures then.

She is so much more clingy that Addi ever has been, so I'm never sure how she's going to react. She cried and clung to me the first day and I had to leave her screaming with the dance teacher, but it didn't last long and now she loves it.

Daredevil

The mall play place is not my first choice, but for the sake of staying cool we end up there once in a while. When we first moved to Arizona Coral was only crawling around in here. Now look. I wasn't fast enough to get a photo from the front, but you get it.

Coral's favorite new toy

Seriously, she's entertained by these washcloths for days. She asked with big eyes if she could get some for her birthday. Sure kid. :-)

Finally a Date!

This summer has been a challenging one to say the least. Explanation to come later. Ha! Maybe. Anyway, we took a much needed evening to ourselves. We discovered this fantastic little place in downtown Phoenix called Cibo Pizzeria, and had a luxurious, long, kid free, dinner. We ate outside under a tree and there was a live band playing jazz. It was glorious.
Here are some photos of the restaurant which is in a renovated 1913 bungalow. So adorable.

These two. . . .

. . . . don't always get along. But oh, when they do, it makes this mama's heart happy.

Primary Water Day

Coral refused to play any water games or get wet at all. Until she discovered this cooler filled with water and sponges, and suddenly she found her own way to enjoy water day.

"Gobbles"

Fierce Princess

Surprise! We are still alive.

We took a little trip to Prescott to check it out before Karl started his rotations there. It's so beautiful. Way better than Peoria. This is Watson lake. We didn't get many other photos while we were there. but it was a nice little break from our crazy summer.

Talk

Addison gave her first talk in primary. It didn't even cross her mind that she might need help. She got up there, read what we wrote out together the night before, and sat back down without a shred of nervousness. So Addison style. I barely held myself together. I love this saucy girl so much.

Sans bandaid

She won't leave the bandaid on her head anyway, so might as well show the damage:

And the curls, might as well show the curls:

Head, meet bed frame

Are you kidding me? I'm going to put this kid in a bubble. She hit her head in the exact same place that she did last week. Except this time the line was horizontal instead of vertical, and there was blood. Lots of it. It was all over her face, shirt, me, the carpet etc. Luckily, no stitches required. Sigh. Poor kid.

This was taken like 1/2 hour before:

What a way to ruin a Saturday morning.

P.S. She LOVES Ad's dress up necklaces. She puts them on whenever she can get her hands on them.

I'm so lucky.

Finicky Eater

When Coral sees something she might like to eat, she makes this face. It's a very enthusiastic, "Please put that in my mouth as soon as possible."

When she is done (which is often suddenly- she was happily gobbling a piece of turkey the bite before) she does this. Hard to predict, and therefore hard to catch. Usually it ends up on the floor. The carpeted dining room floor. Nice.