My Sunshine

Lately, this little guy is my sunshine and my joy.  Guess what?  He is 1 today!  Makes me sad.  I wish he could stay at this age at this stage for another year because he is just so happy and content and easy!

I love him so much!! Don't get me wrong, I LOVED having twins and would do it again in a heartbeat, but it does feel a little different to focus all my love and motherly doting on 1 baby at a time this time around.  I feel so close to him and feel like I know him so well.  I'm not saying I love him more than I loved the girls at this age, it just feels a bit different and it's nice.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN!!!

You are such a joy to your family!

Our 4th of July

Since the 4th was on a Sunday this year I picked up these dresses at Kohls a few weeks before for the girls to wear to church and I LOVED them!  Nathan already had lots of patriotic clothes to wear.  I had the kids all done up for church and had french braided the girls hair and was about to take pictures when Morgan came running down the hall, tripped on her shoes and went head first right into the corner of the door jam.  She had a huge egg on her forehead and took a good 20 minutes to console, making us late for church and I wasn't able to take any pictures.  After church we went to Russell's Aunt Lynne's house to have homemade ice cream and watch the University of Redlands fireworks show from her front lawn.  I was able to take a few shots of the kids, but they were uninterested and messy by that point. Oh well, this is what we got . . .

We had just gotten home from our trip to Arizona the night before and I got food poisoning on the way home (thought I was gonna die in Blythe!!) so when we got home we pretty much just went to bed with no thought of the next day.  In the morning I remembered that Morgan had grown out of all her church shoes (again!) so all the girls could wear to church was their cheap white flip-flops.  So Russell washed them up for me and I tied on a bunch of patriotic ribbons and I think they turned out super cute!

Nathan wasn't keen on taking any more pictures at this point, so here is the boy in another patriotic outfit, just to be fair

The girls watched the fireworks with Grandpa and Grandma Kinser

And the tired boy hung out with Mom and Dad and kept trying to reach out and touch the fireworks.

Love the 4th of July, love my family, and love this country!

Phoenix Children's Museum

We were in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago because I was coaching my club team in the Volleyball Festival.  We were there for one very long HOT week and were looking for something that we could do with the kids indoors on my day off.  We discovered the Phoenix Children's Museum downtown and the kids loved it!  When you first walk in there is this huge jungle gym.  Russell took the girls up and they spent a good 20 minutes climbing around in that thing

You can't tell from the picture, but they were like 50 feet up when they finally reached the top

The hard part for Russell was coming down.  The workers didn't thing he'd make it.  There were a lot of tight spaces the way he chose to come down, but he did emerge (only a little battered and bruised!)

This table was really neat.  It was lit from below and had fine sand on top that the kids could draw in and just feel and squish to their heart's content.

The girls really liked this "noodle jungle."  They took off in it a couple of times and we had to chase them down in that crazy maze.  They had a ball.

Just outside the jungle was a table with different kinds of rocks that the kids could paint with water and brushes.  We kept running into this other set of twin girls that are 1 year younger than mine and I had a nice time talking to their mom.

There was a little grocery store with shopping carts and bags and checkout stands and Madylin went to town (Pay no attention to the tea that my daughter is stuffing into her bag- we're trying to kick the habit ; )

Hands down the favorite part of the whole museum was the kitchen area.  The girls spent at least a half an hour in here making pizzas and salads and whatever else they wanted to make!

Morgan is such a little homemaker.

Madylin spent most her time making pizza in the brick oven with Granna.

and then watching her enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Nathan loved the "Ballroom"  where he just threw balls and chased them or played catch with his daddy.

If you're ever in Phoenix with your kids, I'd recommend the place.  There were always areas for little babies to play and lots of comfy places for parents to sit and watch!