First of First

Today was Carter's 1st day of being a BIG first grader.


He got a little teary eyed in the car as I was taking him to school and once I noticed and asked him what was wrong he just quickly wipes his eyes and says, "I just can't believe I'm already in 1st grade." I think maybe he's heard that from me a few times and it was a quick cover up for the nervousness that he was feeling. Maybe I should have taken the time to get out of the car and walk him to his class like every other parent in the school did, but I just pulled both Mila and Leah out of bed and put them in the car, so I didn't think that would be a good idea. I just reassured him that I would be there waiting for him when he got out of school and on he went.

When I picked him up and asked him how school was, he said it was really fun but the playground was too hot. (Is that all that school is about?) I couldn't get much more out of him, but that it was really fun. I know he has about 5 kids from his kindergarten class that he really liked, so he should really enjoy it. I guess we'll see...

Homemade Slip-n-Slide

This is another attempt at the homemade slip-n-slide. This time I think we got it right:

• A large piece of (smooth) plastic.
• A big hill.
• And a 32 ounce bottle of shampoo.

A FUN time for ALL!

Saying So Long to Summer

I can't believe that summer is almost over. Carter starts school on Thursday... It's hard to believe it's already here...

We went to Carter's school this morning to meet his new teacher and to see his classroom. He seemed a little hesitant when it came time to meeting his new teacher... and as soon as his teacher was done talking to him he says "can we go now?".

As we were walking down the hall to leave he asked if he could go to Mrs. Williams' room (his kindergarten teacher) to see if she was there. Sure enough she was, and he just lit up when he saw her. He was excited to tell her about his summer and she couldn't believe how much he has grown. I just hope that Carter will enjoy his new teacher as much as he did Mrs. Williams.

Last week Carter went back to Safford to spend the last week of summer break with his cousins and Grandma and Papa Nelson. He loves it so much there that he wishes he didn't have to come home. He said he gets to do whatever he wants when he's there, so I can see why he wouldn't want to come home either... He even got to go shooting real guns. That was truly a highlight for Carter.

Jason and I decided to stay the weekend when we went to go and pick him up since it was the 24th of July Pioneer Day Celebration that weekend. We thought that the kids would enjoy going to the parade and getting to see the fire trucks. And there were lots!



We had to give Mila a sucker to keep her sitting down.

Here's Grandma and Jason's sister Cindy keeping Mila entertained.

Carter waiting for the firetrucks...

Here's all of the Nelson grandkids before the parade.

They are all so good with each of our kids. Every time we go there our kids seem to think that they are their parents for the weekend. It's actually kinda nice...

I love this picture of Leah. It shows how sassy she really is.

Kailie and Leah made homemade chocolate chip cookies one morning and Leah was so proud.

I felt so sorry for Otis their dog... Carter had a leash on him with a police badge and said that it was his police dog. (This is another reason why we do not have a dog.)

We went bowling with the whole family which was so much fun for our kids because they have never been bowling before.

Carter did really well even though we did have the lane bumpers on.

Here's Leah with her stylin' long socks.

Mila didn't have as much fun. She kept trying to run down to the lanes and nobody would give her a chance to get there.

Here's Jason trying to entertain her with a ball.

We all had so much fun this past weekend; now on to waking up by 6:30 every morning....so not looking forward to that!!!

More Breakfast

This morning I made Leah and Mila some cinnamon toast for breakfast. I cleaned up and then went upstairs to start a load of laundry. When I came back down this is what I found:

Leah said I didn't make her enough, so she got out all of the stuff and tried to make more herself. I just had to laugh...

Leah's New Haircut

Tonight Leah and I went to Great Clips to get haircuts. I've cut Leah's hair a few times, but I thought I would leave it up to someone that actually knew what they were doing this time and decided to take her. She has always talked about how she wants to be "a hair cutter" when she gets big, so I thought that would also be a good reason for someone else to cut her hair. They did such a good job with her. The girl was very friendly and very patient (unlike my haircut sessions). We both left with what I thought were very good $12 haircuts...

When we got home Jason dyed my hair and then I gave him a haircut. (Welcome to The Nelson Salon, huh?) Well when I was done with Jason's haircut I left the clippers and all of the accessories on the bathroom counter while he took a shower and I waited for my dye time to be up... Well, Leah found the box with the clipper accessories and happened to find a very sharp pair of scissors. When I walked back in the bathroom I caught her CUTTING her own hair!! I could not believe my eyes! I yelled, "What are you doing?" and she says, "Taking my own haircut."

I guess she thought the whole hair cut experience was fun and just decided to try it out...

Funny Kids

Carter has found a new hobby... A yo-yo. He picked it out at the prize counter at Peter Piper last week and I don't think it's been far from his side since. He came up to me a couple of days ago and says "Watch how good I can yo now." I still laugh when I think about it. He really is getting pretty good...

These pictures just make me laugh period... Leah is such a goof.

These goggles go to a dog that swims in the bathtub and she came walking in with them on. I thought she looked pretty funny looking like a rag muffin and all.

And Notice that she has her swimsuit on. I don't think a day goes by that she doesn't wake up and put it on. She begs and begs to go swimming everyday and I think that she's thinking if she's already dressed, she has better leverage to be able to go, cause she says "but I already have my swimsuit on..."

Shoe obsession...already?

Mila has become obsessed with shoes lately.


And I love having the last girl in our family 'cause I get all of the hammy down shoes. I used to have them in totes at the bottom of her closet for shoes that don't fit her anymore (or never did) and ones for her to grow in to, but everyday she goes in and dumps them all out and brings me some to put on her. She has the fatest feet and most shoes will not even come close to fitting her. Hopefully that will change soon, so she can actully get to wear some of them...

Scorpion Hunting

Everybody needs one of these lights... Stacey and her neighbors have been "scorpion hunting" for a long time now. I never understood exactly what that meant until a few nights ago. We were at my mom's house swimming and someone came running in saying they found a scorpion. I went out to see it and I couldn't believe how it glowed under this UV Flashlight. My mom seems to find about four every time she searches for them which is kinda creepy...but all of the kids and even the adults now love to see if they can find them. One person shines the light and another one has a hammer ready for the kill. It's kinda funny to watch but gives me heebie geebies at the same time. (Just typing this is making me squirm.) Well we decided to borrow Stacey's flashlight and have been searching our own backyard for a couple of nights with no success (thankfully), so we decided to search my neighbors house that no longer live there and we scored! This is a picture of the little devil.

Tonight Jason went out and bought our own flashlight so we can now do our own "scorpion hunting". They sell them at Walgreen's for $15 if your looking for some cheap fun.

A Week Worth of Fun

Jason was on vacation all of last week. We had originally planned to take a trip to California, but after a lot of thought, we decided to wait until next year when Mila will be a little bit older. She doesn't enjoy her car seat or sleeping without her crib, so we thought it would be better...

We really enjoyed having Jason home with us. We got to play a lot...

Our 4th of July wasn't very exciting... and I didn't even get any pictures of the girls in their red, white and blue. We spent the whole day shopping for school clothes for Carter (even though he was at Grandma Nelson's house). When he got home he just had to try everything on which was right up his alley...no shopping. We then just went down the road to watch the Schnef Farms Fireworks Show. We found a really good park right away and unloaded Mila and Leah, and set up their little chairs to sit in, and within 15 minutes of us being there Leah got bit by a mosquito. You would have thought it tore her leg off or something, the way that she was screaming. We decided to pack it up and head home so that everyone else around us could enjoy the fireworks. When we got home we watched the rest of the fireworks from Carter's bedroom window. (Which was actually kinda nice, air conditioning and no traffic to fight when we were leaving.) Mila was pretty mesmerized and really didn't know what to think of the whole thing.

On Sunday Jason's parents brought Carter back home. He had so much fun in Safford that he's hoping to be able to go back before school starts. We'll see. He only has 2 weeks left of summer break.

We did some shopping with his parents and then went to Peter Piper for lunch. Surprise. Surprise. Leah tends to get her way to eat at Peter Piper whenever she can.

This tends to be her favorite ride and I have pictures of her on it every time we go there.

Leah with her dirty face and all.

We took a trip to Canyon Lake with my brothers and their families and my mom. The kids had lots of fun! Except Mila did not like her life jacket, so as long as she didn't have to wear that then she was happy.

Again, she ate almost the entire time there.

Carter still didn't want to try the tube, he just enjoyed playing in the water...

The kids going out for tube rides.

Carter and Leah just took turns being the flag holder.

This was Mila's excitement...A bunch of ducks and birds. They would almost come right up to you to get food, and she was loving it!

Then, we had never been to Sunsplash because I've either been pregnant or had a tiny baby. So my mom treated all of us to a trip to Sunsplash with the whole family. It was so fun! I didn't know how big that place was...It really was Fun for All.

The sidewinder half pipe ride was one of the scaryest rides that they had there and Carter was not afraid of it one bit. You go straight down 5 stories and then up the other side.

(You'll have to make the pictures big to get the full effect.) Their faces are what's so funny...

Here's Carter and Jason.

And then Jason begged me to try it.

That was pretty scary to say the least...At the top, the ride worker is strapped with harnesses and I asked her if she's ever had to use them. She said that some people try to stop going at the last second and they grab her. I really felt like grabbing her at the last second too.

Carter and Brad.

Carter went on this multiple times before, but his face shows the fear... We were laughing so hard at the bottom just watching their faces.

Here's the whole clan of kiddo's just before Mila fell of the bench.

Thanks to Grandma for the really fun day!!! We ALL had so much fun!!

Carter has been begging to go somewhere and stay in a hotel for a long time. (We don't go anywhere, can you tell?) We were going to stay at a local hotel that had a water park, but we were all pretty tired of being in the sun, so we just decided to go to Tucson for the weekend. Jason found a cool western strip mall in the middle of Tucson. I think it's mostly known for the steakhouse that's there, but it was lots of fun. They had a train ride and lots of old western stuff that Carter really enjoyed looking at.

Of course this old Jail cell was one of his favorites. They had an old pair of handcuffs that Carter was a little obsessed with...

I don't think the kids really understood that they were standing in front of someones old "house".

Mila really enjoyed this dog. When we first got there, the dog was taking a ride on the train and they thought that was sooo cool.

My favorite part was the Wild West Hot Sauce Store. They had every bottle of hot sauce under the sun. (I really did go on this vacation. I'm just always the one in charge of the camera.)

This was an old bath tub.

Carter with what else....the fire hoses.

This sheriff building was tucked away on the outer edge of the place and when we were all done looking at everything Carter says we didn't see the Sheriff Building. Of course that was the first thing he saw as we drove in and made sure that we didn't leave until he got to go inside. They had old jail cells to look at, but Carter didn't want to just "look".

At night this little town does a Wild West Stunt Show with gun fights and all, but it started pouring rain just 10 minutes before the show was suppose to start, so we didn't get to see it. Carter was pretty bummed! He kept begging to go back the next night.

It was one of the best rain storms that we had seen in a long time though...It poured rain and the lighting and thunder was amazing! As we were sitting at a stop light, lightning hit the corner right across from us and blew the stop lights out. It was pretty crazy. We couldn't see the car in front of us it was coming down so hard.

Mila had a really rough night without her crib. Getting her to sleep was pretty bad, she slept till 1 a.m. and then there was no getting her back to sleep. So we didn't get much sleep that night.

The next morning we were going to take the kids swimming at the hotel pool and they had it closed because they had to treat it from the storm the night before. They said it would be open in an hour and a half, so we waited...and waited...and waited.... Two hours went by and then two and a half....

Here's the kids waiting for the pool to open....

We just decided to take showers and go shopping. We were going to stay another night, but with Mila missing her crib, we decided to head home and sleep in our own beds. (I guess it was a good thing we didn't go to California after all.)

Now back to reality...