Coolin' off

After a good hike this morning, the boys cooled off in our kiddie pool...with new watering buckets (thank you Grandma Diane). Brandon doesn't like to have the water poured on himself but he loves to pour it on Mason, its tough to be the little brother.

Weekends with the boys

The weekends never do seem to be long enough! Most of our weekends, since moving last year, have been spent getting settled, tackling a project, or trying to enjoy our family time. My Dad usually visits for dinner over the weekend and I am glad the boys get to know him better, although we don miss getting the chance to escape Tucson in the summer heat! While we seem to be moving along quickly on our household to-do list, it seems like every time we cross off a project we add two more to the list. I suppose that's the way it works when you buy an older house and you want to give it your personal touch!

"Momma, let's go outside"

More fun in the great outdoors!

Bubbles and popsicles

It's amazing to me how quickly we go from using the bubbles appropriately to spilling the contents on the ground so we can use the container as a vehicle for something else, like emptying the dog water into the sandbox to make mud!
Brandon has "adapted" his two favorite vacuums to be one, I think we have (another) engineer in our midst.
Sweet and innocent one minute, mischievous the next!

"Momma, I love popsicles!" Thanks to my mom for discovering the slow melting Mighty Mini's!

Arizona Distance Classic 2012

As previously mentioned, I started the year out with a goal of reclaiming a little personal time (since having babies) and I planned to accomplish that in the form of running. I used to run all the time, and found it to be a great outlet for keeping me grounded, keeping me in shape, and lets face it, less cranky (that's putting it nicely)!

My goal was to regularly run, which would be to run four days a week. Well, lets just say reality had other plans and at most I have been running twice a week (although usually ~4 miles a run). So, in order to keep me focused and motivated, I signed up for the 8th Annual Arizona Distance Classic quarter marathon (10K or 6.5 miles), which was today.


Team Beads of Courage (BoC) Babes (Danielle, Tina, Kim, Ruth)! Thanks to Ruth's friend, Jean-from Beads of Courage, who provided us with our awesome running shirts and beads.
The beads on our shoes represent the fight of a child with a serious illness. We train and wear the bead on race day and then return one of the beads, a note of enCOURAGEment, and a photo back the HQ of BoC, which will then be given to a child particiapting in the BoC program!

It was a great day to run, perfect weather, 2000 enthusiastic people (we were informed that all 50 states were represented and even people from other countries in attendance). This was my first time participating in a 10K and while I found the course to be a bit challenging, the first two miles were uphill, we survived and in realitively good time, 1 hr, 5 min, 45 seconds and ranked 99 out of ~275 people!!!!

I will admit, I wish I had been able to train a bit more but there is always next year to improve upon! That's right, look out 10K, I'll be back in 2013. As I see it, it should get easier to train and spend more time running as the kids get older....anyone think I am fooling myself?

And so the orchard begins...

Sunday morning found us at Rilito Nursery, purchasing these beautiful citrus trees!
Here are the three holes Kevin dug a few months ago. Kevin plans on this being the start of our orchard, hopefully we won't go broke on the water bill here in the desert!
Ever Kevin's helper, Brandon assisted with the planting of our trees.
Brandon learned a new word today, mulch. He loved to play in it, sprinkle it around the tree, and say it!

Here they are, the Meyer lemon, limequat, and Arizona orange trees! Here's hoping we have a bountiful harvest in a few years...

Snuggle in, there's plenty of room!

Is this love or what?

The boys just couldn't help but fall asleep in my favorite pillow (snoogle) from pregnancy and well, the dogs always prefer to sleep with a pillow (if allowed). Actually, more often than not, our dogs seek out the boys pillows or blankets and use them properly, as if laying in the just the carpet wasn't comfortable enough. Needless to say, this really makes Mason mad (even if we are laying on it with him!). He'll go over the dog, pull at the pillow and "yell" at the dog. It's kinda cute and I sometimes feel bad for having to constantly scold the dogs for it.

Just a thought

Mason loves trucks, actually any vehicle with wheels. He is so different from Brandon, who has never really seemed that interested in "trucks"!
I love getting stuff on clearance, especially when I have coupons!


Still learning how to share...Mason loves to drive his car around.





Every month I get a little extra one-on-one time with the kiddos (thanks to having to work one weekend a month at the hospital) and it makes me wonder if I have made the right choice (not that I really have a choice about it now) by returning to work after having my babies.
I once thought that my career was what defined me, it gave me purpose and direction, it gave me an identity. Lately I wonder if I could find the same satisfaction if I were a stay-at-home-mom? We would definitely have to find entertainment outside of the house, I think I would drive myself crazy....if my three months (twice over)of maternity leave provided any insight for me!
I can't help but envy those stay-at-home-mom's (SAHM), I wonder if their kids have less temper tantrums, have a better routine, and if the SAHM finds a groove and really enjoy it? I stalk my friends blog (who is now a SAHM) and is doing all these great art projects, has time to organize her house, and seems to be happy in her new found role.

So, what trigger these thoughts? For the last two days I have been home with my boys and we had a blast, hence my post today! We painted (I finally convinced Brandon to use his fingers), we read books, we spent tons of time outside, we played with Play-Doh, and we napped (ok, they napped and I was envious!)!!! My next day off, I plan to copy my friends idea to let the kids (ok, probably just Brandon) paint a canvas (where their names have been written in tape, so when you peel off the tape their name appears! Aleyna, how did you get the letter so perfect?), so we too can have some personal "artwork" to adorn the walls.