F is for Farm!

This past week has been filled with lots of activities and just a bit of stress (not like parents ever experience that)! First, Mark and I want to wish all our family and friends that live in Southern California the best, and that they are all safe and their homes are ok. Sometimes watching horrible disasters on the news makes you very grateful for all the blessings of a safe home and a place to live. We are so blessed to have our beautiful little girls and a home in Phoenix. Maybe it is not always "heaven on earth" but as long as we have each other...I guess nothing else matters too much. Our weekend started off with great anticipation for the rare night off and plans to stay home and do nothing.
Well...that didn't happen. Sydney and Sophie were playing in the living room when Sophie rolled onto her tummy. This is not a new occurrence and neither is Sydney helping Sophie roll back over once Sophie starts to squeak (because she is done being on her tummy). However, just as I was in the middle of making dinner, I heard a scream from Sophie. Sydney had flipped her over but somehow Sophie's arm was still pinned under her at a weird angle. I immedietly unpinned her arm and picked her up...but she was still crying and cried for awhile. After Mark got home we decided to take her to the pediatric urgent care because she was still crying and would not move her arm. The doctor was very nice there and looked at Sophie right as we arrived. She was also concerned that Sophie would not move her arm so she sent us into Phoenix to St. Joseph's hospital (which is known for excellent neurological care). They did all the x-rays and everything came back ok. Plus since it had now been several hours since the incident she was acting a bit better. She would at least move her fingers and smile! The doctors told us she would probably be ok...and she was. Saturday afternoon she started moving her arm like normal and grabbing for her toys. Thank goodness things are back to normal.
On Thursday last week, Sydney's pre-school class took a field trip to a farm. Here she is with one of her best friend's, Maddy.
Sydney is grinding lots of corn to feed to the chickens. She also tried to feed this duck that was wandering around. Sydney kept chasing the poor duck (and trying to feed him corn too) all over until I finally could catch her and make her stop.
She loved all the animals and was not afraid to pet or feed any of them.
All the other kids were scared to try and feed this burro or donkey (I don't know which it is) but Sydney stepped right up and let it eat out of her hand. Then the other kids decided that it was ok to try to feed the burro/donkey as well.

This little pig kept sliding underneath the fence and running around. Sydney was delighted and tried to catch it. Then it ran back in the pen and hid underneath the trough that the goats were eating out of. Sydney ran right into the pen, pushed the goats out of the way and was trying to crawl underneath the trough to get the pig out. I went to stop her from getting THAT dirty and instead she is just trying to pull the poor pig out. The pig was kind of cute so I don't blame her for wanting to hold it... And if anyone was wondering, Sophie slept calmly in her stroller the entire time, which is a good thing since I spent lots of time chasing Sydney all over.
We got the girls all dressed up in their costumes to go to the ward "trunk-or-treat" activity. Sydney was excited to be a witch.
We dressed Sophie up like a little black kitty--to match with Sydney of course. So Sydney and her "kitty" went to their party!

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Where has October gone?

I can't believe October is here and almost done with! Now that it is cooling off some, we have been trying to plant trees and other plants in our yard. We are also getting ready to put in sod, in a few weeks. In between all that yard work we have been busy with soccer practice, swimming lessons, and the usual activities that always pop-up on the calander. The other day, one of our friends invited us to go to the zoo with them. I gave in and purchased a season pass to Sydney's "new favorite place to go"! I figured it was about time we started zoo trips again. When we first moved to Phoenix I had a pass and I went to the zoo to walk around almost every week. However, it has been over three years since I have been there and I noticed several changes. They have made so many improvements amd I was pleasantly suprised. We started off our zoo adventure with a picnic inside the park, by a giant tree house (that's not featured in my picture). I don't know if Sydney was more excited about the picnic or the zoo. She LOVES picnics!
Doesn't Sophie look elated to spend an entire afternoon dozing in her stroller underneath her hat...and occasionally watching with some mild interest all the kids running around.

Here is Sydney with her friend Katie and another little girl Skyla who came along too for the fun. We all tried to get some cute pictures of them but they would not stay still or look at the camera that day. Sydney and Katie are also on the same soccer team!
Of course one of their favorite places to stop by was the farm where we could pet all the goats.
So as a reminder, one of my favorite holidays is only a few weeks away....Sophie cooperated and gave the camera a cute smile. I just had to try on Sydney's old pooh bear costume, from when she was a baby. Actually Sophie is going to be a black kitty this year...because Sydney is going to be a witch! I'm sure I will take about a million pictures of them in a few weeks.
Happy Halloween everyone!
I have been feeling a bit busy lately as I'm sure most everyone is experiencing. I still love to squeeze in just a bit of blogging (even though I really should be working on some other stuff right now)! I have started another blog site 4 Tablespoons which is just a blog of my favorite recipes and food! Most of you probably already know how much I love spending time in the kitchen making yummy food. So if you're interested you can check out what's cooking at our house! I love cooking blogs and websites and so this is just my point of view (I guess) on what I like to eat! Maybe some of you will find something yummy to try out for the holidays!

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Sleeping through the night...

Well once about three weeks ago....Sophie slept through the night! She did it for three nights in a row. However, I think those particular three nights she must have communicated to Sydney that she would not be available to wake us up, so it would be Sydney's job to be sure and get up several times to remind us that monsters and dragons do sneak into the house after hours. Unfortunately there has been no repeat performances of sleeping through the night. Instead Sophie wakes up anywhere from 3-4 (sometimes even more) times a night. And then there is the occasional night or two when Sydney comes in to wake us up...because of the above mentioned monsters and dragons. We are so behind on our sleep!
Sydney likes Sophie to just hang out with her while she is playing...and of course Sophie loves to just watch. Sophie is just waiting for the day when she can start crawling and following Sydney all over the house. They are two little peas in a pod! One day I put Sophie down for a nap and went to crash myself. Sydney decided to sneak into Sophie's room and climb in the crib with a stack of books. She woke Sophie up and then read books to her. I'm sure Sophie was excited for the attention. At least that lasted for about a half hour (so I could try and nap)!

Well on Friday, someone from admissions at ASU called and left a message for Mark letting him know he was accepted into the MBA program for next fall. We are so proud of him for the hard work he has done to prepare for this next big step. He will be attending ASU's evening MBA program and continue to work full-time for U-Haul. He starts school in August and Sydney will start Kindergarten as well. We are still waiting to hear back that she has been accepted to the school we want her to attend. This means that we have about 10 months left to enjoy our time together before it gets pretty busy around here.

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Seashells in the Backyard?

Sydney loves seashells. She is always talking about how she needs to go to a beach to find some. Once we were over at a friends house and she saw a vase full of seashells (probably from a craft store). She was so excited and just wanted to play with the seashells instead of with all the toys or her little friend. I just laughed. Consequently, she found this seashell in our backyard yesterday while I was digging a hole for one of our new trees. I was a little surprised. If anyone could find a seashell in Arizona...it would probably be Sydney. Mark and I were discussing how a seashell could possible have ended up in our backyard.

1. A neighbor threw it over the wall.

2. One of the construction workers dropped it while working on the house or sprinkler system.

3. Possibly, this part of Arizona was actually prime beach front property millions of years ago.

However it ended up in our dirt...she is thrilled. She carried it around all day yesterday and told just about everyone all about her seashell. One of her friends came over after pre-school to play today and I wasn't surprised when Sydney ran to her room to get her seashell to show off! I'm not sure her friend was equally impressed or interested but Sydney didn't seem to care. She loves her seashell!

Unfortunately, it was not a very large seashell! I guess it is perfect for her to carry around.

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