Hide-N-Seek

Oh, How I Love Thee!

So I accidentally bought some ice cream a while ago and then some Magic Shell fell into my cart as well. Gosh darn I love this stuff. Seriously, it brings happiness.

It reminds me of my old roommate Stephanie who was trying to be helpful and thought the Magic Shell belonged in the refrigerator. Silly Stephanie.

Happy Birthday Adam!

Miss High Maintenance

Stella just got her first French manicure.

Tempe Stake Softball

Our Evergreen Ward has won the ostentatious softball trophy for the last 2 years. I think it spent the first year in the bishop's office, but then he grew extremely tired of looking at it, so it was moved into the clerk's office. I don't think Elliot was sad to relinquish it to the Shalimar Ward this year.

Stella and I didn't make it to the first softball game because I fell asleep watching an infomercial (note to self: buy a Haan steam vacuum). I hoped I would make it on time to bring the cooler full of water, Gatorade, and juice boxes for the players and kids. They were famished.

Apparently I missed Elliot's near homerun from the first game, but I made it in time to take this picture of him striking out. Love you Sweetie.

Daniel Farar

Josh Sigfried was a lefty, so I didn't get him batting because I was too lazy to move to the other side of the field.

Brian Park

Jeremiah Horn

Johnny Reading

Mike Duree

Dennis Farar

Mike Ashby

Clint Bills

The Tempe Ward thrashed them in the first game (the one I missed), then they beat Petersen Park Ward, then they were done with the loss to Alameda Ward. Shalimar ended up beating Alameda for the trophy. Goodbye giant trophy. Seriously, it's bigger than Stella.

The Bat Boy Parker. Stella still thinks that every time Parker goes a little bit away from his mom that she has to pick him up and take him back to her. Parker doesn't seem to mind though.

We missed the end of the last game because Stella suddenly grabbed her stomach and said she needed to go to the bathroom. I asked her how many apple juices she drank. She held up one finger and then slowly added fingers until she got to 4. I don't know about you, but in our family 4 apple juices = not a pleasant bathroom experience.

The question is . . . is that dirt or is he still wearing socks?

Happy Birthday Adam!

If You Can't Say Something Nice . . .

Lately Stella has been a little . . . let's just say SNOTTY. Not as in boogery snotty, but bratty snotty. She does NOT lack in the confidence department. She has been getting in arguments with her friends at school and at church. I've tried really hard to make sure that she is confident, but I try equally as hard to make sure she's a nice person. Don't get me wrong, she is more nice than she is snotty, but if we could just rid ourselves of the snotty it would be really nice.

(isn't she cute)

In comes Family Home Evening. I love FHE because it gives us a truly focused time (as focused as our 5 3/4-year-old daughter can get . . . don't miss that 3/4 . . . she'll remind you) with an organized activity to discuss these things.

Since Stella loves reading now, I wrote out different situations (that have actually happened) and gave 2 outcomes for our "What Would You Do" game. For instance, "You like to ride your bike. Your friend is not wearing his helmet and your head is getting sweaty so you take it off." Stella, of course, would put this paper on the frowny-face side because she would NOT do that. It's happy-face side was also in the mix where she keeps her helmet on so she can be safe and listen and obey.

A happy-face side would be "You did a coloring project at school and colored it really pretty. Other kids colored pictures too. You tell each of them what you like about their picture." (the frowny-face would be "you tell them yours is the best.")

Another one might be, "You see someone who is not healthy. You smile and say hello." It's other half was, "You see someone who is not healthy. You tell them they are fat." To this one Stella exclaimed, "Hey I said that!" Yes, yes she has.

Another example is, "You are really good at doing cartwheels. You see your friend do a cartwheel that isn't as good and you tell her she doesn't do very good cartwheels." To this Stella also exclaimed, "Hey I said that too!" Yes, yes she did.

We tried to get her to say what she SHOULD say instead of what she did, but she couldn't quite say something without saying how good she was at doing cartwheels . . . like, "You can practice doing cartwheels and then you'll be as good as me," or "You can learn a lot by watching my cartwheels." Finally we got a "You are doing a great job. Let's keep practicing!"

So the point of the game is to think before we speak and when we speak, make sure it's something nice. We threw a little be nice like Jesus in there too.

After we were done (we didn't get through all of the papers), we pulled one more out that said, "Your mom asks you to get ready for bed. You say, 'OK Mom,' and then you go to your room, put on your pajamas, brush your teeth, and go potty right away."

. . . and she did that too. I think she gets it. I love FHE. I love Stella.

The Date: Ansel Adams

I love date night with Elliot. He's a planner. There's hardly ever a "hey, what do you want to do?" question when it comes to our dates. Elliot always has something up his sleeve. I'm a lucky girl.

So this date happened at the beginning of April, but it still brings a smile to my face, so I need to write about it. Elliot and I took the light rail train to downtown Phoenix and walked to the Arizona Center for dinner at Sam's Café. I wish I would have taken a picture of my food. It was delicious. I was sad we didn't have our car so I could keep the leftovers.

We walked around the beautiful grounds a little bit more and as we were standing at a crosswalk next to someone who was smoking, I mentioned to Elliot that I'd much rather stand next to someone who is farting than someone who is smoking.

We made it to the Phoenix Art Museum for the Ansel Adams art exhibit and it was our lucky day because the first Friday is free! I'm a cheap date! The art exhibit nazi's were out that night! I ran my hand along a glass case and Elliot's hand rested a little longer on it or he tapped the glass or something. The lady was right on top of him, reprimanding him for touching it. We wanted to sit on the glass and see what she had to say about that.

These were our favorite photographs that Ansel Adams took and were on display that night. These copies are kind of dark.

Giggle.

We barely missed the train headed back to our house, so we had to wait for a while for the next one. That's alright though because I was with my favorite person in the whole world.

When the train finally did come, the conductor said that he'd try to get us through downtown before the Diamondbacks and Suns games let out. No such luck. The train was quickly packed. Elliot gave up his seat when he saw an older couple get on, but a greedy little 20-year-old stole it. I was about to say something, but then I decided not to ruin my good mood.

The train became so packed that Elliot was leaning over me and people were standing in the doorways. The level of my head happened to also be at the level of everyone's butts. The guy standing at the doorway with his girlfriend behind him, hugging him totally farted! She started making a fuss about how he farted on her and if I could have gagged it out I would have said, "NO, HE FARTED IN MY FACE!"

I'm seriously re-evaluating my comment about the crosswalk smoking guy.

Happy Birthday Bill!

I can't be sure, but I think he's in deep thought . . . not getting ready to pick his nose. I don't know, I wasn't there. :)

Community Project

A couple of weeks ago Stella was learning about Community in her Kindergarten class. Each student got to choose a part of the community to create for their project.

We made a big mess.

And maybe I helped a little too much, but Stella really likes her Community Pool.

They had an Art Walk at school so we got to see most of the artwork the kids have done during the year which was on display. These were some of the projects from Stella's class and other ones I just liked:

Someone's Starbucks. I think there were 3 of them.

Stella's pool.

Harmonee's pool.

Pyper's baseball field.

Chloe M.'s recycling center.

Someone's Target.

Andin's jail.

Someone's Waffle House.

And one of my favorites . . . Cili's Dialysis Center. Hilarious.

A Visit From My Girlies

Hannah and Brynnie's Uncle Ryan got married at the end of April in the AZ Temple. The girls got to come play at our house for a while during the luncheon and Hannah got to serenade us on Stella's guitar. Gosh darn I love those girls!

I love that belly!

The Bangarts sure know how to throw a party. Stella and I danced the night away at the reception with Hannah close by. I'm very dizzy.

They had a photo booth that took 6 pictures and we got to choose which one's to keep and which ones to give to the bride and groom. Such a cute idea and such a fun party!

Oh, and I'm glad I got to see Lindsay and Keith too.

Gila Valley Temple

Elliot went with the Young Men and Young Women to the Gila Valley Temple Open House earlier this month.

The temple dedication was today Sunday, May 23, 2010. Church was canceled so that everyone could attend a session of the dedication. I don't think I've seen so many people so excited about canceled church. Hum.

Cherry Tomato Harvest

I even eat them now. There's just something about growing your own stuff that makes it taste better.

Mother's Day Bouquet

Xan made this little delicious bouquet. I think it was just for decoration. But it's now in Stella's stomach.

Pilates

Stella was sick last Monday so she stayed home from school. Monday is my Pilates day and I CANNOT miss my Pilates. However, I also can't take sick kids to the gym. So I whipped out the Windsor Pilates video I stole from Lindsay. Stella was trying to be really helpful and would cradle my head as I lowered it slowly (kind of missing the point, but she was trying to help).

After I was done, she decided that she wanted to do Pilates. She has beautiful form. I even took this picture to show my Pilates instructor yesterday. I love Stella.

Goodbye Friends

My friend/workout buddy/triathlon training partner just moved to Virginia yesterday. I'm sure I'll miss her more than she'll miss me. She is a crazy goal-oriented lady that always pushed me to work harder at the gym and make loftier goals. Thanks My (just let me know when you've found a replacement for your position as my gym buddy . . . did you forget to put that on your list of things to do?).

Happy #3 Birthday Miss Hannah!

Happy #4 Birthday Claire!