Self-Proclaimed Sea Otter

Tonight for FHE we went swimming. It was 103 degrees today so a family swim definitely felt good and was the perfect activity. Everyone in the family is a little fish and so it is so fun to be in the pool. Kolby, Eliza and Carson have been taking swimming lessons for the past week and while Kolby and Eliza are working on strokes and breathing, Carson has been working on just getting in the groove of swimming. He was very hesitant after the first class last Monday and he cried and cried when he'd wake up and we had to get ready for swim lessons but something clicked in him last Thursday. He came to the conclusion all by himself that if Nemo could go under the water and not be scared, then he could go under the water and not be scared. I loved it and thought that was a great analogy and it seemed to work cuz all of the sudden he was happy to swim under the water to me.
Anyways, he has been doing great and turned into a little swimmer. Tonight he swam from the steps out to Geoff and has soon as he reached Geoff, he said so proudly, "I am a sea otter!" He totally came up with that all on his own and I thought it was so cute. The rest of the night he has been telling us that he is the sea otter. So cute. We did go to the Monterey Aquarium last week so he did see some sea otters and I guess they were just on his mind and he wants to be one of them. Btw, we did see Nemo at the aquarium too. That aquarium trip must have been perfectly planned to help out with his swimming success.

Miracle Music Ice Skating

In order to get our kids excited about helping around the house and keeping their rooms clean, etc. we tried something called "Miracle Music". It was amazing how well it worked. When the music starts you can't help but move and get some stuff done quickly, cuz you want to work to the beat. Each song correlates to a new task and you receive points for completing each task. Once you get 100 points you receive your award you have been working toward. Kolby and Eliza both wanted to go ice skating once they got all of their points. So i got a babysitter for the afternoon and took them in the middle of summer when it was 100 degrees outside to a nice cool ice skating rink. Kolby thought it was awesome and loves ice skating and is actually really good at it. Eliza had fun but took a lot of breaks and wasn't sure about being so cold and uncomfortable in the shoes, but she could actually skate by herself by the end of the session. It was so fun for me to take the two big kids out to do something fun. It made everyone pretty happy. And when the session was over, we were actually excited to go back into the heat and thaw out! (I have some good video too but am just too impatient to wait for it to upload!)

Happy Father's Day

US Open @ Pebble Beach Trip

Kolby Basketball Camp & Swim Days

Crazy Dress Up

Warning! These pictures may be a little disturbing. We had some friends from the ward over for dessert one Sunday evening and our kids decided it would be fun to show off their wild and crazy dress up side. Kolby, in particular, took it a little too far and though he does look beautiful dressed as a girl, we are hoping he doesn't make a habit of it. Silly kiddos!

Summer Lemonade Stand

About a month before summer started, the kids got excited about having a lemonade stand and of course I thought it was a great idea, too. So we are two weeks into summer and we have done a lemonade stand twice. The kids have loved it, but at the same time don't last too long cuz it gets hot standing on a corner. We take our table and lemonade and chocolate cookies just to the corner right around from our house and the first time the kids made $6 and the second time they made $15. Trust me, that was pretty good for the amount of time we were actually out there.

It was super cute when the kids would get into it and yell and dance and try to get people's attention and then serve them lemonade and cookies. Hopefully we will do it again soon, but seriously the kids are just worn out from swimming and the sun these days that they don't want to do anything else.

Potty Boy

Great news! Carson has decided that it is time to be a big boy and not wear diapers anymore. I was definitely on the same page and thinking that you are going to be 3 in October, buddy...we better get you potty trained this summer, especially before we have another baby around. He's been doing so awesome. We've been using Pull-ups because we go so many places throughout the day, but it is actually working for him. And he is keeping them dry at night, too. I'm keeping my fingers crossed but it's been a week and I can count the accidents on one hand so I think we're doing pretty well! Go Carson!

Water for My Friends

Yesterday, we were playing in the front yard after swim lessons and everyone was having a blast and then, all of the sudden, Carson disappeared. I asked Kolby if he had seen him and he said he went inside. I just assumed that he must have been hot and wanted to get a drink or just play inside and didn't think much of it while i was talking with the neighbors. About 15 minutes later, Carson reappeared and I asked him what he was doing inside. He told me that he was just getting a drink of water and I thought to myself, "Wow, that was a long time for a drink of water."
Sure enough when I came inside, there was more to the story. He had taken all of the cups out of the "kid dishes drawer" and had filled them all with water and put them in a nice line on the counter. I think there were 12-15. I asked him what all the water was for and he said very matter of factly, "I got water for all of my friends." Of course when I asked him what his friends names were that he was going to give the water to he said, "I don't know," and then started naming Kolby's and Eliza's friends names and our neighbor friends. It was super cute. The kids is a crack up.

Barbie Car is Alive

So we inherited the Barbie car from our old neighbors and the kids have been dying to get a replacement battery so it could actually work. Eliza is the one who was willing to actually do the work to earn the battery, but look which monkeys like the Barbie car the most...Carson and Kolby. We have learned that Carson definitely could not pass his driver's test quite yet. The kid loves to crash into everything. Kolby on the other hand is a gifted driver (I am sure he is better than I am!). Now we just have one more thing for the kids to learn how to take turns with. Ahhhh...

Class of 2010 from Small Wonders Preschool

Sweet Eliza is going to Kindergarten next year and her preschool did a big graduation for the kids. It was so cute. They sang sweet songs and each had their name announced along with what they wanted to be when they grew up. Eliza said she wants to be a doctor. She was so excited to wear her hot pink tutu, which of course was covered up with the blue graduation gown. She had 2 sweet teachers, Miss Jennifer (whom the pictures are with) and Miss Sina. Her most favorite friend was Jordyn, or Jojo. You can tell in the last picture how much they adore each other. But she also had a good time with Katie and Payton. But the only friend she will really miss will be Jojo and it is a bit of a bummer that we are moving because they would have gone to the same school for kindergarten together.

Geoff's 36th Birthday & Eliza's 5th Birthday

Happy Birthday to my sweet husband and cute little girl! Geoff definitely had a different birthday this year. He and Eliza spent his birthday at Grandpa Howard's funeral in Arkansas. So at least he was able to be with his parents and brother and little girl. We gave him some cupcakes and ice cream and a few gifts when he got home but not a big ole party like he may have wanted. Actually he did say he just wanted to go see Iron Man with the Meldrums for his birthday so we did that the following weekend and then went out for his favorite...ice cream!


Eliza, on the other hand, had her first big birthday party. She invited 6 girls to come over for a swim party. She had been planning the party for almost a year and was determined to have a swim party with a water balloon toss, pinata and pizza and grapes. She also picked out the ice cream cone cupcakes that she saw on the side of a cake box and was determined those were what we must have along with cotton candy ice cream. That's exactly what we did. And I think she was so happy. She loved her birthday party.

Her friends who came were Londyn Bennett, Addie Meldrum, Jordyn Bullock, Alexis her cousin, Alana Crawford, Emma South, and Grandma. She really wanted Grandma to be there and was so excited when she showed up.

She got lots of fun loot and was quite the little hostess, which impressed me. She included everyone and just had a good time. It was so fun to see her so happy on her big day! She is such a sweet girl, stuck in the middle of two demanding brothers so it was nice for all of the focus to be just on her. Just how it should be on a 5th Birthday!