Halloween 2012

We had a great Halloween! Cohen picked batman to dress up as and jovie picked Princess Tiana from the Disney movie The Princess and the Frog. We went to a friends house to hang out with them and do some trick or treating. Then we went home to meet Joel, Mike, and Jonne and do a bit more trick or treating in our neighborhood. It was a fun night. Jovie had the routine down. She loved saying "trick or treat." Cohen had a blast as well and they both loved looking at all the decorations, especially the spiders and spider webs.

Dressing up is fun to do

Jovie and Cohen are all about putting on dress up clothes, shoes, and accessories. At least once per day they emerge from our bedroom wearing either Joel or my shoes. Jovie also likes goggles and I have pictures of her wearing goggles in several different places. I even got her goggles for her birthday. She doesn't use them for swimming underwater but she likes to put them on while we are swimming as an accessory. The last picture is of jovie and Cohen at the library. Cohen practices using the computer mouse and playing games with the head phones. Jovie wanted to be just like brother and insisted that "I need help mama." she said this about 20 times that day and I tried to find her something to do but I could only log into one computer at a time so eventually she settled for a snack and wearing the headphones while Cohen played a dinosaur dig game.

4th of July

Jovie didn't like the fireworks. She covered her eyes and hid under a towel for the whole show... Until the 10 seconds before the finale, she came out from under the towel, the finale started and she was right back under that towel. I was happy she wasn't crying! Cohen and his friend, Ariana, thought the show was super exciting!

Summertime

Tent city

Joel put together the wood frame for this tent back in December. My mom was here and we finished sewing elastic to the fabric to finish the project. The kids were so excited to play in it when it was ready. Cohen even slept in it the first night it was up. A week later it is still standing!!

Shrimp

It's that time of year. Cohen started swimming lessons at the public pool. He loves it. The pool is heated but he's still pretty cold when he gets out and it takes him about 5 minutes to warm up enough to the point that he is able to move his arms enough to take off his swim shirt. The last class he either jumped in on his own or fell in. The swim instructor was right there and grabbed him quickly. I think it was a good reminder that he needs help in the water.

"Stop that Wind."

The weather is gorgeous this time of year in Arizona. We have been driving with the windows down a lot lately. Every time I put the window down, Cohen says "mom, mom, stop that wind!" I think he's starting to like it though. Especially when I put his window down.

i wuv you

Jovie was saying "I love you" over and over again. For a long time she didn't say the word love. I would say "I" to start it off, then she knew what was coming next but "love" isn't the easiest word to say, so I would then say "love," and then she would say "you," very long and clear. Then we got to the point where she left out the "love" all together because she knew what we were doing. I'd say "I" and she would say "youuuuuuuuuuuuu." Now she says the whole phrase:)  Right before I took the video she was saying "I love you" over and over again. I went to go get the camera and she said "no cheese" as in I'm not going to smile and say cheese for you mom. You can hear her say no cheese in the video, it's pretty funny and quite cute.

Obama Mama

President Obama visited the valley last week and when I heard that he would be in Chandler, I alerted my friend Jen, who was an Obama campainger for the 2008 election and she and I packed up the kids and drove to the Mesa Airport to see Air Force One land. We were sucessful and saw the plane land and through my binoculars we could see Obama go down the airplane steps (we couldn't quite tell it was him but only two people came off so, so one had to be him). Then we walked over to the street were people were lined up to see the Obama's motorcade entourage drive by. It was cool to see in person and a lot easier (and more managable with the kids) than waiting several hours in line to see him at the Intel manufacturing plant where he was speaking.

What does the Backson do?

I took the kids to the latest Winnie the Pooh movie this past summer and fell in love with the cute story and fun songs. In the movie, Owl and the gang are trying to read a note that Christopher Robin left for his friends. Owl reads it incorrectly of course, and instead of reading "be back soon," he reads "backson" and concludes that Christopher Robin has been kidnapped by a creature named the Backson. A very cute song follows about the mischief that the Backson causes and what he looks like. Hence, we have been singing the Backson song around the house for the past couple of weeks. Out of no where, several times per day, Cohen says to me "mom, what does the Backson do" and we name off all of the things that we can think of from the song. Have I mentioned that I like this movie?!

New Year, New Hairstyles

Jovie's first ponytail.