My Finney Girl

The other day Finney started doing her tired leg kick on the stairs, and I hurried and grabbed my camera.

I was spotted in the act, and I expected her to get mad, but instead she just started posing.

Then she started her strange little dance back up. She has added a disturbing element to this routine--she now also simultaneously grabs her belly button. Looks pretty talented to me.

We started sitting Finley on the toilet occasionally, and she has even gone #2 a couple of times. She is so proud!

We haven't gotten serious about training her yet, because, let's face it--I still have severe trauma and very realistic flashbacks from the horror of potty training Sareny several years ago--an exciting adventure that took over a year to complete. Once we get into our new house, I think we'll start potty training our baby girl.

Tempe Town Lakes

Sareny's last day of kindergarten was a half day, so we headed out to Tempe Town Lakes splash park immediately afterwards for some summer fun.
I think the best thing about this splash park is the slide.

This was Finley's second time at a splash park, and she really got into it this time. (The first time she sat on my lap and refused to get wet.)

I spent most of my time there trying to keep up with her!

I walked up and saw Isaac pulling his shorts out so the water could go in. It was kind of funny, but I told him to stop.

Cute friends.

This splashpark has little rivers, which is great fun for the little ones.

We met our friends the Avila's there, and had a lot of fun with them.

What a surprise--Isaac liked the "shooter guns."

All in all, it was a very fun day. I was a little surprised when a news crew from NBC started setting up, and I asked them what they were filming about. Apparently it was the first day Phoenix got over 100 degrees this year, and they were doing a story on how people stay cool here. I called the kids over and she filmed them having fun in the water. Then she asked if she could interview me, which I didn't really think sounded so cool, but I agreed. Fortunately, Krystal was on hand to take some pictures!

Finley realized someone was talking to her mommy. How dare they??

I did the last part of the interview holding her.

So we made it onto the evening news, even if it was only a 5 second blurb. Pretty cool, nonetheless.

A Kindergarten Graduate

The last day of kindergarten rolled around much quicker than I would have liked, and before I knew it, my baby girl was lining up for her last day of kindergarten.

We took some pictures with her friends before the bell rang. Signing yearbooks with Emma and Mattie.

Lined up with Debbie, Isaiah, Sareny, Sam, Cameron, Jayden, Amika, and Lillian.

Another group shot with Lisa, Sareny, Amika, Samir, Debbie, Isaiah, and Jaiden.

The kids were so cute at the front of the room in their little caps. Cameron, Lillian, Lisa, Isaiah, Amika, Debbie, Jayne, and Brian.

Jenna, Isaac, Olivia, Miranda, Jaiden, Sal, Cameron, Lillian, Sareny, Lisa.

Samir, Rocky, Mattie, Jayden, Adam, Emma, Austin, and Sam.

The class poetry winners got to come up front and read their poems.

Then they received their diplomas, and two special frog books as a special gift from Mrs. Jones, who had her class decorated in frogs all year. Mr. Jones was on hand to help out.

One last hug from the best kindergarten teacher ever!

And a final shot of Sareny with her good friends Miranda and Emma.

Then school was out for summer!

More Mommy Confessions

I mop my floor pretty regularly--I would say about once a week. Some of you are gasping in disgust; hopefully most of you think that is okay. Anyway, you would think my floors would be relatively clean, but you would be wrong. I recently decided to tackle the grout, and it was shockingly disgusting. It made me think of Stanley Spadowski from UHF:

And sometimes, life sticks to the floor so bad a mop isn't good enough. It's not good enough. You gotta get down here with a toothbrush and really scrub, and if that doesn't work, if that doesn't work...you can't give up. You've got to run to a window and say, "HEY! THESE FLOORS ARE AS DIRTY AS H---, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!"

I've been on my hands and knees scrubbing the grout with magic erasers for multiple days, and there is still more to go. But the improvement is obvious, no? Yikes.

cute kids

Lately, whenever you ask Isaac to smile so you can take his picture, he makes claw hands and tries to make a scary face.

I like how in this one, Finley looks a little scared. So cute!

Finley is a little ham. I love the scrunched up eyes look.

A couple of months ago, Sareny's class was studying careers and one day they focused on doctors. I loved this little worksheet!

Long, long ago, on Judea's plains, Sareny's kindergarten had a spring concert and awards ceremony. She got all dressed up for the event, and we even straightened her hair.

They were very cute, and most of the songs seemed to have actions with them.

Then Mrs. Jones gave each kid awards. Sareny got an award for being the school and district poetry winner, for reading more than 25 books, and for being "spic and span." Dr. Lopeman, the principal, handed out the awards.

Keith was able to leave work to come and see her sing and get her awards. We were very proud of our kindergartner!

Gila Valley Temple Trip

We took a trip to Thatcher, Arizona on May 1st to go through the Gila Valley temple openhouse. It is a really beautiful temple, and I think our kids enjoyed it a lot. It was a 3 hour drive to get there, but it was an awesome experience for our family.

Afterwards, I wanted to get some pictures of the kids in front of the temple. Do you think I got the beautiful, perfect shot I was hoping for? Of course not. I think this one just might be the best one I got, because all three kids are actually visible in it. And no, I'm not really that bad of a photographer.

Here's the story--after walking through the temple, we went over to the chapel to have some cookies. I took Isaac to the bathroom, and handed him a paper towel after he washed his hands. Apparently that was a big mistake. He wanted to get his own paper towel, but I told him no because 1. He couldn't reach the paper towels and 2. I had already gotten him a perfectly acceptable paper towel. He actually flung himself down right there on the bathroom floor and refused to get up and leave the bathroom. I pretended to leave, and then he came. However, this mood continued for the next half hour.

We walked over to the temple grounds to take some pictures, and he would not look at the camera and just flung himself down on the grass and threw a fit. I even tried positioning him in front of the girls so I could take his picture in all of his fuming, temper-tantrum throwing glory, but he just crawled away before I could get a picture. Fun times. I was just glad he waited until our tour was over to act like that. Someone who saw him said, "Oh he's going to be out in 30 seconds on your drive home." Unfortunately, this was not true--he stayed awake the entire drive home. We put him in the back of the van by himself so his tantrum would be slightly less annoying to us, and also because he and Finley tend to fight when they sit next to each other. Curse our wretched DVD player that stopped working recently...Anyway, he did not sleep, but at least he stopped crying not long into the drive. Finley, bless her little heart, did wail and cry for a lot of the drive home. She finally fell asleep for her "nap" at around 6:30 when we were a mile from our freeway exit.

Anyway, on to the pictures I did get.

The girls were very cooperative.

I snapped a quick picture of Isaac when he sat up for a moment.

Which caused him to do this.

Me and Keith.

And we actually got one with the whole family!

Anyway, I can see us laughing about this years from now when we look at these pictures of a happy family and a scowling little boy. At least now we'll remember the backstory too.