Home and HOT!

 Claire

We have had a lot of fun this week finishing out our time playing with cousins before coming home. Claire loves to help her grandma feed the animals and usually jumps at the opportunity to help unless she is playing because she will say 'no I'm playing' instead. She even usually says 'no, thank you' when she doesn't want any more food. Now that we are home, it is really hot and we've been hanging out in scarce clothes and she always asks to go play outside in the sprinklers. It worries me when she wants to go out during the hottest part of the day so I've been planning to get them used to going out in the morning and not afternoon. Our house gets the hottest right before bed though and we are trying to stay cool because we can only open the windows when it starts to cool down outside.

Shay

Her sentences are getting really good, especially when describing something like her dream in the morning, but her words are often missing the 's' sounds. I think I practiced with Claire on pronouncing more often, so I have been starting to have her practice full words with specific sounds like milk with the k instead of 'mil' when she asks for it. Even Claire has some words she doesn't say right, but they understand each other so perfectly and I have her interpret on the rare occasion I don't understand Shay. She was excited when we got home to all her toys and they played together really well remembering their old games. Coming back to our church where she has her special Elsa bin the teachers have saved for her was funny and she asked about nana's church toys once.

Rotations

Chris will start a new quarter tomorrow and get to start a new rotation that apparently helps out refugees. I'll be starting our packing, cleaning, and getting the girls back to doing homework and learning. I skipped out yesterday because as soon as we got home Friday night I had a 24-hour stomach bug that made me useless. It is weird to think we are moving in less than a month now! I'll be back in Idaho visiting again and hopefully getting ready to move us to the next place we will be living. I'm glad we got to see friends and family and help out in the ways that we did. It'll be harder when I'm there again without Chris, but I'm praying for it to go by quickly and be back together before I even notice. Even though it will be during our birthdays...Love you all! 

Second Week of Vay-cay

Activities

We got to have a lot of time with family and a night with friends this week and enjoyed all the things we were able to do! There was a fun play date for the kids when we all gathered at Chris's sisters house to prep the yard and lay sod on Tuesday. We had a fun time at the park on Friday while most of us played frisbee golf, the kids played at the play ground and we ended at our friends house. When we were trying to leave, the friend that is Claire's age wanted a lot of hugs and used his 'super Gecko muscles' to pick them up! (The picture is down in Shay's section) I was impressed and it was wonderful to see them while we were here. On Saturday, Chris and I went running out at the school track, cleaned and did chores, then spent the evening at Lava Hot Springs relaxing in the water. It is a tradition because my friend comes and I get to have time with her too! 

Claire

Her listening skills are hard to have her practice when she is having so much fun with her cousins and friends. I keep telling her to use her ears and she always says 'but I just want to play' or something along those lines. It's like she is trying to reason with me, but her reasoning is too simple and not really logical at my level since, ya know, she is 4. Whenever she gets around her cousin that is closest to her age, they start mimicking each other and they always have to go to the bathroom at the same time. Shay will also want to come with them if she's not involved in whatever Elsa toys are present. She had an awesome time with the aunts and uncles that have come to visit over the weekend, one aunt drew some pictures for her to color, and the other brought her dog so she is in love. The uncles are all playful too so she gets giggling pretty good when they tickle or play with her.

Shay

She constantly asks whenever we tell her we are going somewhere if we are going to see 'big Elsa' because her cousin has a larger Elsa doll at her house. Whenever that is not where we are going, she gets sad and we have to assure her that we will see big Elsa again soon. I wish she wasn't so whine and picky about what she eats! She didn't even want to eat Banana Cream Pie for dessert tonight! We had made it for father's day dinner at the firehouse with grandpa Bell and she wasn't interested while we were there (too many cousins to play with). Then when we offered it before bedtime, she wouldn't even try it and I had to beg her to put even one spoonful in her mouth. She is so stubborn that she still insisted it was yucky and is now going to bed saying she is hungry...my new phrase is 'you should have eaten your food then' and send her to bed. It is very frustrating.

Idaho Vacation

 Claire

I have no idea where she learned how to do this, but she started choosing using "Eeny Meeny Miny Moe" rhyme and it is so cute the way she says it! Sorry there is a conversation in the background, but at the end she says 'you and me' when she eats her grape. She uses it for a lot of other things too! The cat here is already sick of being carried around and I keep trying to get Claire to just sit and cuddle for a time instead of changing her mind and taking her back outside every minute. We went to a dinner with friends last night and they had a dog that Claire enjoyed playing fetch with, so much that by the end I was feeling bad for the dog! She was breathing so heavy from all the exercise, and Claire just wouldn't stop because she loved the fetch game so much.

Shay

I made her a little bag because she found the scrap fabric I had after using some for a quilt I wanted to finish, then added a strap when she fell asleep. It is the perfect size for her two Elsa and two Anna toys that she is so attached to. I also made Claire one with different princess  right before we left for our trip so they both were able to bring one bag of their own toys with us. Claire hasn't even brought it out of the car, but Shay had taken hers everywhere and ties to collect more toys from other places. She found the case to a Frozen 2 DVD and calls it her Elsa book, but it's too big to fit in the bag so she loses it a lot. They have both played so well here and liked to go see the cousins and friends that we've seen so far. I'm glad we get this time here, but even here the gas looks expensive and it makes me just want to stay home and not go anywhere! 

Running

We had the opportunity to sub into a 5K race yesterday for family who had other obligations and enjoyed a nice cool morning. Claire and Shay rode in a double jogging stroller that Grandma pushed most the way while my sister-in-law and I ran together, and Chris ran with our niece. I walked back to help with the stroller after I was finished and caught her about half a mile from the finish line and heard all about how they almost got dumbed out because the wheel was acting weird. They also got water from the stand and it spilled on them, but they were good girls and didn't lose any toys or the tablet they were watching. We stayed and had some snacks afterward but didn't win any of the prizes, but I found out that racing in place of our family that would have missed it helps them get a sweatshirt at the end of the 5 race series that is put on by this organization. 

Starting June

Claire

I got a video of her telling the story of the scriptures but it was too long so I just picked a picture to share how happy it makes me. She did well with this week's story about the pride cycle, but she needs prompting to remember the different names from the story. If they were princesses, I'm sure she would have learned them better! She can sing the princess finger song with each princess as she puts them on her finger, then Shay gets her turn right after with her PJ masks finger toys. They learned it from a video on the tablet because after homework is done, they get to watch videos for a little while. Claire is starting to recognize sight words and gets stickers next to the words she remembers so hopefully I can also get her to start sounding out. She is still a little too hyper to sit still long enough to not drive me crazy.

  

Shay

Her playing pretend has no end! She loves to be Claire's kitten, Catboy, Elsa, a baby, mermaid, and probably more if I gave her more ideas. When they found a feather in the backyard, Claire would tickle Shay, the kitten, nose, and she would sneeze. Her sneezing became more and more extravagant, hence why it sounds crazy in the video. I've learned that Shay is sensitive to smells and will ask "what's that smell?" while plugging her nose even if it's a good smell like bacon or ham! If it smells at all, she doesn't want to try it, not that she wants to try any new foods anyway...I need to dye everything blue so I can tell her I made her a special Elsa meal so she will eat it. She was really excited about the blue popsicles because they are 'Elsa ice' apparently.

Us

Chris had a very successful week of testing and passed the two tests he had this week. He has now been studying and doing practice questions for the coming test tomorrow and we are praying all his hard work will continue to pay off. I've been a little extra busy as well by starting to organize to prepare for packing while I watch the kiddos. I want to finish my sewing projects before packing my sewing room, so I've spent a few hours here and there hiding. When I can't hide, I usually read or doodle between when I'm needed as mommy. Our trip to Idaho starts this week and when we get back I'll be really kicking my butt in gear to pack! I have a plan to use the 4 weeks to get this house all ready to go and fit in a yard sale before the final week here. Doesn't seem like too long away now!