Highlights of Summer

'Highlights of summer?' you might ask. Yes, it is still 100 degrees outside but I feel like with the beginning of August, school starting and a few thunderstorms it feels like the perfect time for a good summer wrap up post. So here goes:

10 Great summer moments of 2010:

1. trip to Colorado for David & Clara's wedding reception: Of course their cute reception was only the beginning of the trip, but we enjoyed the next 10 days playing with grandma's, grandpas, Uncle Jake and cousins. The kids are in heaven when we are in Colorado. At my parent's house Annabelle watered the garden each morning, planted flowers and snuck treats. Asa watched intently at the walking trail out the window for dogs, conned people into taking him outside and practiced taking steps between grandma and grampster.

Every time we drove up the the Sherwood's house I would find Asa asleep in the backseat. I guess a car ride was his only downtime from all the fun :) Annabelle on the other hand would race down to the water feature in the front and eagerly agree to just get her feet wet. Yeah one soaked girl later we'd go on to the next activity of crafties, crazy Dr. Suess games, reading with Grandma, treasure hunts with cousins and so on. Asa loved the attention and outside time with Papa.

2. swimming: Annabelle took several weeks of swim lessons with friends. She can now swim underwater, come up for air and keep going. She learned a lot, but of course put her own spin on it. Instead of keeping her body stiff and straight, she would practice her 'dolphin' swim, in which she would shake her hips and bob her bum up and down. Hilarious.

We also enjoyed weekly swim play dates. Asa quickly warmed up to being in a pool and loved to 'splash' the other kids.

3. tuesday morning matinees: It was a sweet deal, $7 for a summer of movies. Annabelle looked forward to it every week. 'Mom, is it movie day yet?'

4. Asa learned to walk: he had been taking funny practice steps for about a month when all of the sudden one day he just decided he was done with crawling and started walking every where.

5. hearing a 'whoosh-whoosh' sound: I had a great Dr.'s appointment at the beginning of July and heard baby #3's sweet little heart beat. We're excited for the new addition. My official due date is 01/11/11! How cool is that?

6. celebrating the 4th of july in Prescott: we escaped the heat and the big city and enjoyed camping, watching a parade and getting rowdy at a rodeo as a family. Best family weekend of the summer for sure. Oh and Asa's first time camping. He was a champ. He just snuggled up to his momma and zonked out.

7. girls reunion: my best friend's from college and I got together for a much needed reunion/retreat in Utah for a couple of days. We went for a hike, outlet shopping, I got my first pedicure, ate junk food, laughed, stayed up way to late, reminisced and enjoyed a beautiful ride up the ski lift at sundance. It was just what I needed an more.

8. Mike & kids retreat in Utah: coincidence? I think not! Mike and the kids enjoyed time with family playing. They saw Mike's grandparents as well as his brother Sam and his family. From what I heard it was awesome, hiking, playing in the mountains and some quality cousin time for Annabelle and her hilarious cuz Isaac.

9. discovering the yummiest slush recipes to date: of course, I'll share it with you!

Blend together: 2 cups orange juice, 2 cups sherbet, 2 cups cold water, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup sugar and 3 cups of crushed ice. Enjoy!

10. family reunion: the 14 children of Mike's great grandfather have an awesome annual family reunion up in the White Mountains of Arizona. This was my first time going. It was green, beautiful, fun to meet all the other 'Arizona Sherwoods' and what is even better is that 7 of them came back to home with us for a week :)

Monsoon

So we finally got some real rain for the summer, it started off with hail for a few minute and then it rained for little while after. It cooled the weather off from 105 to 80 which was a welcome change of pace and let us get outside for a little fun. nothing beats jumping in puddles after a good storm. Annabelle and Asa had a great time, Asa was amazed at the water falling from the sky and loved playing in it. Annabelle enjoyed getting wet and even helped Asa have some fun.

- mike

Happy 4th of July!

We've had a great weekend thus far, hope you have too.

I'm grateful for the opportunities we are afforded living in this country.

Happy Independence Day!

Guess Who

Yeah! Our little Asa turned one last week. We celebrated his birthday with mud/dirt dessert which he was delighted with and insisted on sharing with each of us.

Annabelle was a good sport, but wasn't about to let that slobbery worm into her mouth! After trying to shovel as much goodness into his mouth Asa discovered the worm and sucked on it for the next 15 minutes.

Asa has developed a funny little personality. Asa says "dada", "annya", "Ahh dun" (all done), "hi" and "hiya". His best form of communication is sign language. His favorite thing in the world is dogs. He stands at the window a few times a day and pants and barks hoping to see a dog even when he is looking in our own dog-less backyard.

Above is the barking face, the bark comes out "Whoo, whooo". Below is the more predominant dog sign, panting. Which is Asa's official name/sign for dogs.

Besides dogs he also loves to to watch for birds and indicates birds by flapping his arms. Earlier this week there was a fat gutter cat in our yard, which has peaked his interest in cats, which he signs by trying to trace whiskers on his face. Other favorite signs are smacking his lips for fish, 'ball', 'more' and 'all done'.

Mike found these little sandals. Asa has been trying to walk for about a month now, when he does walk he gets this big huge excited look on his face. The most steps I have seen consecutively was 23, but he still prefers to crawl most of the time.

His favorite foods are blackberries, yogurt, scrambled eggs, potatoes in any form and almost any snack food. He is 20 1/2 lbs and 31 inches tall. He gives wet kisses with his mouth wide open. When we are in public he waves at people and waits for them to wave back, even if they aren't looking at him. He blows raspberries on my belly. He likes to wrestle and tease. He still loves to pull Annabelle's hair, although he has gotten gentler lately. He'll bite me if he is really excited. He has eight teeth. A few times a day we find him in the pantry which is now called 'The Baby Man Cave" as he likes to bang things around, admire the vacuum and empty the recycling on the the floor. Oh yeah, he loves the vacuum, garbage truck and blender. He still loves to snuggle and often will lay on my chest like a newborn to fall asleep.

New toys are fun!

We love Asa and can't get enough of his silliness. He is a real rascal and fun to be around.

Happy Birthday Asa!

First Hair Cuts

That's right, our kids are growing up! (Sniff, sniff)

Annabelle and Asa got their first haircuts together a couple of weeks ago. Annabelle's hair had never been cut and for the last 2 years or so it seemed that it didn't really get longer, just bigger.Here is her before shot:

I felt a little torn about trimming Asa's hair because it needed a little more length so that we could see whether or not it was going to be curly. But . . . the shagginess around the edges was just looking messy, so I went for it. Here is his before shot:

Annabelle was nervous that she would FEEL her hair being cut. Afterwards she exclaimed, "That didn't hurt at all!" Too cute.

Her hair turned out a little shorter than I was anticipating, but I got the eternally tangled ends off and over all it looks healthier, we might just have to wait a while to get it back into a pony tail. But most importantly - She likes it :)

Asa's haircut went a lot smoother than I anticipated. He loved standing up looking through the chair at a very helpful Sister. She kept him happy and distracted while I trimmed up around his ears and neck.

I didn't take any off the top, just the sides and back. But here is his final result:

I don't know that I'll always cut my kid's hair, but it was fun this time. They put up with me and at this age they can't point out any of the flaws!

April Flowers

Before May turns to June, I should continue with the update. April was highlighted with Easter, great weather here and a whirlwind weekend for a wedding.

In April Asa cut his seventh tooth. He also stopped eating and reverted back to nursing every couple of hours. Our first visit to the pediatrician revealed sores in his throat. It was suspected to be something viral and just to treat him for the pain. A week later, less sleep and even less eating we were back. The sores were so bad he was tested for strep throat, thankfully that came back negative and we were given some prescription pain killer and told it should be gone in a week. By the end of the month I was at wits end with a super cranky kid that was nursing 3 times at night and ornery the rest of the time, so we went back to the doctor. This time he had an ear infection, so armed with an antibiotic and reflux medicine we went home. Cue the applause! Within 20 minutes I had the happiest baby I had seen in weeks! Sweet wonderful medicine! His appetite returned and I am slowly getting him dependent on foods for nourishment - I'd love to begin sleeping through the night undisturbed. Whatever that feels like, I am pretty sure I like it.

One afternoon Annabelle came up to me and asked if I knew what reversible change was. "Uh, yeah I think so". She explained it was when something could go back to the way it was, "Like water turning into ice and then back into water." Normally my jaw would have dropped but I had a sneaking suspicion this had come from her Sid the Science kid cartoons. A few nights later I could hear Mike trying to convince Annabelle that she needed to remember to close her eyes when saying her night time prayers. She said she used to be good at that, but now that she had been keeping them open it was too hard. For some reason Mike went further into debate with her and explained that she had developed a habit of keeping her eyes open and that she could learn to keep them closed again and break the habit. I couldn't help but laugh when she argued back "It's not a habit Dad, it's called reversible change!"

Easter was a great day. I really enjoyed watching Asa try to eat every egg that he found. I hid these little freeze dried yogurt snacks in his eggs since he couldn't really handle candy. He loved them and popped them into his mouth one after the other all morning. And Annabelle of course made out like a bandit with her loot. I think her favorite thing was a magnifying glass in her basket. She immediately wanted to go outside and discover the backyard.

All month we looked forward to our trip up to Utah for David and Clara's wedding. David is my younger brother and we were excited for Clara to join our family. My older brother Adam also graduated with his masters in geology that weekend and so it was a fun packed weekend with great food and even better company. The wedding dinner was at The Lion House downtown Salt Lake. The historic building was beautiful and it was really fun getting to know Clara's family.

They were married in the Draper temple which was beautiful, we had never been before as it is so new. The morning started out cold but when we came out of the temple the winds stopped and the sun came out. Annabelle was thrilled to see Clara and all the flowers. She has quickly become attached to her new aunt. Their reception was great fun as well with flowers from my talented Aunt Julie and a cake made by Clara's sister in law.

Our pictures of that day aren't all that great but my old friend from Provo, Amy Bennion did a beautiful job with the professional pictures from that day. You can get a little taste of them on her photography blog, here. I love them. I wish I had known her before I got married! Maybe then I would have agreed to doing some bridals :) Amy even put us up for the weekend, not many photographers will do that for you! Thanks a million Amy, it was great seeing you and meeting your little Zac.

Oh yeah, back to the trip. It was so fun to spend time with my family. I think my little brother Jake was my hero of the trip. He almost always had a niece or nephew in his arms. Except of course when Mike convinced him to do a little climbing for the reception.

For those of you who know David and Clara they started their own little family blog. It is pretty funny, but private so you'll have to harass them to give you access.

Favorite photo of the month: Yes ladies, they're both mine.

Favorite Videos from March

These kids are hilarious. I wish I had more moments like these on video. Enjoy!