The Cousins Came!

Babs made the bold move to drive from Cali to here w/ all three boys by herself. We thought she was crazy coming in July, but were so happy they did! She was ultra prepared and the boys were wonderful on the drive here. They made it in 6 1/2 hours, safe and sound.  Our kids kept looking out the window and asking, when are they getting here? ALL DAY LONG!  It was cute. We caught up a bit, swam, and had soft tacos and watermelon for dinner.  
Ben also got home that night from a business trip, so we were all happy to have him home!

Thursday we relaxed in the morning and headed to Pei Wei to meet Ben for lunch.  It was a bit chaotic with waiting and and the lunch rush, but our kids were great. We then explored the Museum of Natural History...aka the Dino Museum together. It was fun and the boys said they liked everything about it.  There were models of dinos, fossils, a Western movie set, movie, flash flood with T Rex and a hands on room where they got to play fish, color, and do rubbings of dinosaurs. That evening we had a little BBQ and watched Dawn of the Dinosaurs together, while us girls flipped through magazines.

There was lots of time for hanging out.

 Love Kaden's sky blue eyes!

We all are in love with sweet baby Ryker...such a happy boy!

 We also introduced the boys to our version of CandyLand with real candy.

Ben took Friday off and we swam in the morning with the waterfall and floating basketball the cousins brought. After lunch we headed to the new Ice Age Continental Drift movie.  There were lots of cute parts, but the kids especially loved the We Are Family, We Are Ham & Cheese song at the end. That night Uncle Jared flew in and we went out to Red Robin together. Boys club & kids went for a night swim before bed and the guys had some man time while we got the kids to bed.

Saturday they went to see an old mission friend while we cleaned and got ready for a fun afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa Jarvis. We ordered a Ned's Krazy party sub and I made pasta and fruit salads to go along.  It was fun catching up with them and Barbara had a chance to ask Grandpa about her namesake, Ben & Babs' grandma, whom I never met. She died when their mom was 14. He told us she sometimes stuttered, and liked to tell stories to the kids while they went on long drives. It will be great to meet her someday. The kids swam some more with our guys and us girls snuck away for a few hours. There was a HUGE monsoon storm that we got to run through, and luckily the guys had brought the kids in just before. That night the guys tried to see Batman, but ended up at Spiderman. Meanwhile we got the kids to bed, I helped a drug addict, and we had a night of candy...eye candy, and other favs.

BEFORE

AFTER

Sunday I taught Babs how to make cinnamon rolls and we celebrated Jared's birthday a little late.  Babs gave Ruby her first haircut, and so I guess she's officially a big girl.  Where did my baby girl go?!?  Afterward we headed to the Mesa Temple and toured the Visitor Center.

It was such a wonderful visit full of fun memories.  

We are, we are family, we are, we are ham & cheese!

A Child's Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for super beroes. Thank you for our family. Please bless us.

In the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen

Desperate Housewife

I have my own way of introducing myself and getting to know the neighbors.  To back track several years, a month or so after we'd moved to 'copa, I got locked out of our house.  Kaleb was 8 months and I'd taken a ridiculously smelly diaper out to the garage to place it in our big bin, and the door locked behind me.  I'm still not sure how it happened, but I think it wasn't clicked shut but the lock was on and I just pushed it open, then when it shut behind me, I was stuck. It was winter, I had my pjs on, no bra, no shoes and luckily (I guess?) a thin robe on. Ben had just left for work and my only friend in the neighborhood at the time as well. Kaleb was in his high chair with cheerios and Sesame Street on. I ended up going next door to the bachelor pad (3 guys living together complete with a garage band), waking them up and borrowing a phone to call Ben.

In less than a week at our new place in Mesa, history repeats itself. Sorta. I'm still not sure which is more embarrassing! We moved on Sat. June 2, on Tues, 6/4 Ben left on a business trip, and the rest of the fam left back for Oregon, but my mom stayed.  We'd been doing errands in the morning and getting things done, then in the afternoon we'd swim with the kids. Up to that point, I'd been bringing out my phone, a glass of water, etc. every time I went out, but I remember thinking, we're not expecting anyone and I haven't needed my phone yet.  So I left it on the kitchen table. I'm out in the pool with the kids, and my mom joins us. A few minutes later and she needs to get more sunscreen. We then discover our sliding glass door is locked (it's old and the latch is loose, so yeah)...who knows?) along with every door in the house. Awesome.

I am now wearing a tankini (with a VERY short skirt btw) no flip flops, no phone and Ben's in Florida. I decide my only option is to borrow a neighbor's phone. The night before Ben left, the neighbors across the culdesac came by and told us when to put our trash out and introduced themselves. I was getting the kids to bed, so hadn't even met them, but Ben said they were a nice retired couple. Nice is right!  I RAN (it's 4:00 in the afternoon and over 100 degrees) around the culdesac barefoot, introduced myself, explained the situation, and asked to borrow their phone. Miraculously (thank you Heavenly Father) I remembered my Aunt Judy and Uncle Rog's # from when I lived with them for a few months in 1999. I am terrible with remembering numbers...it really is a weakness!  Even more miraculously they picked up (they rarely do!) and Randy was there, but just about to leave.  He came and we tried to break into my Durango to use the garage opener.  After that wasn't working and it was SO FREAKING HOT!, we went to the back and decided to go through a plexiglass closed doggydoor. Meanwhile, the Capistrands, brought over a pitcher of water and cups, a phone book in case we needed a locksmith, and kept checking on us. He gave me a pair of yellow flip flops to borrow while we were going back and forth borrowing tools. He also brought over a power screwdriver and was so kind and helpful. Randy got the door open, shoved over our massive leather sectional through the doggy door with a leg, and Kaleb and Dylan crawled through to unlock and let us in. Our heroes!

In both scenarios, I'm pretty sure the kids felt safe and didn't really know what was going on, but I have  definitely earned my title as Desperate Housewife. :)

The next day

 Cannon-ball D taking a little break.

 Different day, same skimpy suit!

 Love that half grin.

The calm, cool and collect grandma-sitter through the whole ordeal. So thankful she was there!

My water boy.

Home of the Brave

Independence Day was upon us. We were looking forward to a morning of to do's out in 'copa, an afternoon of barbecue and the pool, and an evening of fireworks and fun with the cousins. And then we got to our copa house, it started to really rain, and we decided to see this thing through to the end. We met with the property management company, handed over the keys, and tackled everything else that needed to be done.

You know the things I hate, so rarely do, and desperately needed to be done...I thought they would only take a few hours.  I cleaned under the stove, fridge, washer and dryer, baseboards, rewiped down all surfaces after Ben's painting (somehow he managed to get a layer of dust everywhere with his hole patching) and mopping.  Oh, and the stainless steel...can't forget that!  Ben finished touching up the paint in our fourth room, and a few baseboards. We also took breaks for lunch, playing in the rain, making extra keys, and Ben took the kids to yogurt jungle while I tried to finish mopping. I also took pictures....TADA!

 

 

 

Just before we were getting ready to drive away from our home for probably the last time, Dylan said to Kaleb...we're going to miss this house, aren't we?  K said a resounding NO (he's fallen in love with our new place!) but I agreed. It's been the only home our kids have known, and although we've outgrown it, and were over the commute among other things, we really did love our time in Maricopa.