Barley got a trim

I think Barley has had the hardest time with the weather adjustment here. He has always been a shedder, black hair everywhere...but ever since we moved here it's been completely out of control. You cant pet him unless you want dog hair everywhere. I brush him pretty much daily and I could go for hours but he doesnt like it. His skin is dry too so it gets all dandruffy if I brush him to much. I have been vacuumming pretty much on a daily basis...thankfully he doesnt do stairs so the hair is only a problem downstairs. It is pretty gross too with the runny noses on the little ones because of the snot and dog hair, yuck, makes the girls look like they have mustaches! Today I finally took him to the groomer and he got a shave. He has never had a trim before and boy does he look handsome. We can pet him with out hair falling out. He seems so much happier! I think I will be taking him monthly now. His tail looks a little odd because the groomer recommended not shaving it since it was his first time so its about an inch thicker then the rest of his body!

Big Black Fat Dog!

sam took a nap

Sam went upstairs to watch a little 'Max and Ruby' this afternoon. I went to check on her once I heard that it was over and this is how I found her! the minute I took the picture she woke up, screaming cuz her neck hurt! duh...

stairs

the morning trip down the stairs!

sometimes it scares the heck out of me but they have no problems what so ever. It is gated at the bottom and the top tho so I dont have to worry about the stairs all day!

Sydney was exceptionally cute this morning!

park

We went to the park near Kims house after dinner tonight. Everybody had a blast! Jon and Kim played basketball with Jack and his friends. Fun Fun Fun

demon eyes

Dollys

Syd loves dollys, blankies and pillows. If she sees a pillow she'll go find a blanket and cover herself up. This morning she laid Sams dollys on the pillow and tried very hard to put the blankie on top of them...



she decided to get in the the action too...

yogurt

The girls love yogurt. I very rarely give it to them because I am pretty lazy about feeding them if they cant eat it with their fingers they arent getting it! Lately they have been using their spoons and sporks pretty regualarly so this morning I let them have some yogurt. They were very happy!

They were also very messy...Syd even thew her container and spoon on the ground when she was done!

Samanthas 'sleep over'

Samantha got to go to Jessicas last night for a sleep over. She was so excited. When she woke up yesterday morning she came into our room all dressed and said she was ready to go. I was like "ready to go where?" and she said "I'm ready to go to Jessicas for my sleepover" Poor girl had to wait until 6pm. We spent the morning at the Maricopa County Home and Garden Show and got a lot of ideas for a yard that we dont have yet! Sam even got to make planter box with her dadplus they let her keep the orange Home Depot apron that she wore. She said it was a crib for her dollys not for plants though! After the naps we went to the Y and swam so she had a fun day of waiting. Kim said they stayed up late and ate popcorn and cake and watched movies 'Enchanted' and 'Alvin and the Chimpmunks.' For breakfast she said she got to have a sprinkle donut too. I woke up this morning at 640 am with something in my eye. I tried to flush it out to know avail so I woke Jon up he couldnt find anything. I was in so much pain that I ended up calling Kim up to come take me to the ER. Sure enough some how...when I was sleeping...I scratched my cornea right over my pupil. OUCH. So now I have to put drops in my eyes every 4 hours for 10 days and I cant wear contacts. I had order some prescription sunglasses this morning at Lenscrafter because there is no way I would be able to live without sunglasses for 10 days! And to top it all off the twins slept in until 9 so it would have been such a great morning to sleep in...

Goodyear Community Center Park

Looks like the community centers are the only places that have the splash pads around here. I am thinking about joining a twins club down here and I was emailing a mom who told me about this park. I've driven by it alot, it's right next to the YMCA that we belong too but we never ventured in until last Weds. It is so much closer then the Rio Vista one that we found. It's nice too. I like the fact that the play structures are right next to the water that way we dont have to pack up and move to the other area. Courtney loves everything that has to do with water. Yesterday we finally took all three girls to the YMCA and Courtney was all about the water. She has no fear whats so ever and when she goes under it just stuns her and she is right back at it. All the girls start swim lessons next week and I think Courts going to be the first one to know how to swim at this rate! Samantha thinks she has to become a mermaid in order to swim!

Sydney sure looks cute in her swim suit!

Sam is such a monkey girl!

Courtney loves water!

Daddy and Sydney

Courtney loves the splash pad!

Scottsdale

Friday night we went over to Scottsdale for some excellent Mexican food. We went with Kim, her boyfriend Mike and all of her girls. Good times! We also went to Sugar Bowl Ice Cream Parlor. A very old fashoined ice cream parlor. Bil Keane who draws the comic 'Family Circus' has mentioned this particular place in a few of his comic strips. The Howes were stuffed from the dinner so we all shared a banana split with coffee and raspberry ice cream...odd but tasty. Jessica didnt finish her ice cream cone so Courtney (or was it Sydney...) and finished it off!

Cj thinks Sam is a strange as the man on the wall!

Yummy Sugar Bowl

Kim and Mike

pink pretzels

Sydney really enjoyed her cherry yogurt dipped pretzels!

our mail lady

Do you think this is USPS issued uniform? Hilarious...looks like she just got back from the beach or something!

Sam goes to the dentist

Samantha had her first dental appointment today. We went to AZ Pediatric Dentistry and met a very nice dentist named Dr. Dave (Ember) and he knew right away that Sam was a princess which pleased her so! She was a little nervous but she did great. We had an appointment at noon and at 12:30 I told the receptionist that this is our first appointment and if this is the way they run there office we will be going elsewhere...we got right in after that. The patient before us was sedated and had a really hard time with it so the dentist had to stay with him until the effects wore off. The office itself is pretty cool. They have video games for the kids to play with and movies going through out the office. The dentist said for us to keep up the good work. I guess singing the alphabet for the bottom teeth and singing it again for the tops really works! He cleaned and flossed her teeth and she held my hands throughout the whole thing. In the end she got to a brand new tooth brush!
Sam was a trooper getting her teeth xray'd but had a hard time with her left side so she only got three pictures instead of 4. It's pretty cool how it's all computerized now. They took the xray and it showed right up on the screen.

back to rio vista

this afternoon we met Kim, Jessica and Jack at the Rio Vista Community Center. I told you this is going to be one of our new favorite hang outs! This time I put the kiddos in bathing suits but Sam was the only one to really get wet today. Since Jon is gone we went to dinner at Subway with them after the park fun.

as you will see Court wasnt into the water fun today!

Rio Vista Community Center

I have been a little surprised that none of the parks here have 'water' areas. Kim told me about one thats about 15 minutes away and I think this will be our favorite hang out. The park even has a Starbucks in it! We could easily have spent the rest of the day here if it wasnt for lunch and naps...next time I'll pack a lunch!

Courtney loves to climb!

Sam loves to climb too!

Syds not much of a climber, she's more of a slider!
The water area was the hit
Courtney loved it the most. She would run through the water and just laugh!
She was the only one that had to get changed afterwards, she was happily soaked

Syd takes Cj down!

Enchanted Island

We looked online to find something fun todo. There are alot of fun things to do here but today we decided to check out Enchanted Island. It's very close to downtown Phoenix which isnt very far from where we live. It was probably about 20 minutes away. It's a fun little amusement park that pretty much is geared for the 2 to 7 or 8 ages. They had a couple of rides that the twins could go on by themselves but only one that Jon and I thought really was appropriate.

The merry go round is always a hit with the girls!

This was a ride that the twins could have gone on by themselves that we didnt think was a good idea. Sam sure liked it though!

Another one they could have gone on...there were no straps to strap them in so another one we decided they wouldnt go on jsut yet!

Sam thought it was fun but she kept the steering wheel go in circles so she got a little dizzy!

Super Fun Roller Coaster, that she went on twice! She did say it was a little loud though.

Now this ride had great straps to keep the little ones strapped in great.

Sam loved the airplane ride but she couldnt figure out how to make the plane go up. She went on it three times too. The third time she even sat with a bigger kid thinking that that kid could make her go high up but the big kid couldnt get it to go up either!

We stopped at Sprouts and got some sandwiches and stuff for a fun little picnic

and the fed the ducks and the geese some potato chips and bread

After the lunch Sam and Syd wanted to go on the Merry go Round again. Courtney was not happy so we watched but once they started going around in cirles Cj wished she was on it.

She liked the truck though

Sam had to get on the truck too!

Back to the fun cars

Sam and I ended the day with one more trip on the Merry go Round. All the kids fell asleep on the ride home and took huge naps this afternoon...Sam slept for over two hours while the twins slept for 3 1/2 and we had to wake them for dinner! Very fun day!