Day at the Zoo

 

 

 

 

We spent this memorial holiday doing a lot of shopping, which was, of course, very boring for the kids. So, on on monday we went to the zoo for a few hours and had such a good time. It was such a cool day for Arizona and it was nice to be outside for a bit. These are a few of the fun pics. The kids loved the petting zoo and and the spider web play ground.

Happy Birthday Sam!

Today is my sister's birthday and I want to tell her. . . HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Sammie has always been a wonderful sister and has become one of my very best friends. I love talking with her and spending time with her whenever I can. These pictures are from her last visit here when we went miniature golfing. Isn't she adorable!

Gracie McKee Leishman

 

Gracie is six-months-old and brings so much joy to our family. She has broken three teeth and I think is working on another, all on the bottom. She crawls around the floor, army style, chasing the dog and often catches him. She loves to try and stick his paws in her mouth to which he gently pulls away and goes somewhere she can't get him. She laughs at just about everything and is happy most of the time, as long as she is rested and fed on time. She is big for her age and I ADORE her chubby cheeks! She has piercing blue eyes that sparkle and she makes me smile everytime I look at her. She has been sleeping through the night pretty good, although occassionally she will wake up and can't find her binkie. She loves being held close to her mommy and smiles HUGE when daddy walks in the door at the end of the day and tries to scoot to him as fast as she can, but since she's not very fast yet, she usually ends up whining for daddy to come to her and pick her up. SHE'S ADORABLE!

Cole McKee Leishman

 

Cole is three-years-old and loves being a boy. He used to love to dress up in Rylee's princess clothes and wear high heels and carry a purse. This, naturally, worried my husband for a bit but he handled it well with gentle reminders from me that he has an older sister and a mom that he spends all day with and is just mimicking what he sees. Well, that has all changed. He now loves to be ninja turtle, turning everything into swords, guns, num-chucks or whatever form a weapon he can come up with. He has a pair of Mr. Incredible pajamas that he wears whenever they are clean. Even after we go out for the day, the first thing he does when we get home is strip down and put on his Mr. Incredible pajamas because "I strong like Mr. Credible." Don't you love it! He is learning his alphabet and recognizes a few of the letters by sight. He can count to ten and is working on counting to 20. He is very smart and learns very quickly. He sings songs that he learns at church and loves to read the scriptures to me. His favorite stories are the ones with Jesus in them because "We have that movie!" Cute! I love him so much and just makes me laugh all the time!

Rylee McKee Leishman

 

Rylee is five-years-old and just finished pre-school. We are all looking forward to her dance recital next friday where she has learned a tap routine to the song "Showtime" and a ballet routine to the song "5'2"" (better known as"Has Anybody Seen My Gal").She loves dancing and singing (see previous video) and is very talented in both. She is learning how to read simple words and spell by sounding out the letters. She amazes us everytime with how smart she is. She is looking forward to Kindergarden in the fall and is excited to take the bus (we'll see about that). She is super fun and loves to make others laugh. Rylee loves her younger siblings and is a great help to me when I need it. She is such a sweet person who loves her friends and loves to share her favorite things with her brother just to see him smile. I am so excited to watch her grow and become the person she is meant to be. She inspires me to enjoy life a little more and find humor in the simple things.

COME, HAVE FUN, EAT TREATS!

Becki and Britta are having a trunk show at my house. Everyone is invited! It will be a ton of fun with lots of yummy treats! Come and go as you please, but just come! Lot's of super cute things! For a look at some of the things that Becki and Brita hand made go to thier website, www.whippycake.com and brouse around, then come to my house and see it all in person!

Serial WHAT!!!!!!

Okay, for those of you who I haven't talked to in the last few days, you're never going to believe what happened last week. So, there's been this serial killer that the police have been trying to catch since last year. He's been connected to two rapes/murders and the last two survived. One escaped from his home and the other was beaten and left for dead in an alley but someone found her and she survived. Well, on wednesday I was watching t.v. when they interrupted my show to have a broadcast. They caught the guy! Fantastic, the public can rest! . . . so I thought.

When Justin got home later that day (the broadcast was around 3 in the afternoon), he walks in around 5:45 which is a little late but not enough to make me wonder about anything. He walks in and says "you won't believe what's going on outside."

me - "What?"
justin - "they arrested that serial killer!"
me - "I know, I saw it on the news."
justin - "It's Trent!"
me - "WHAT!!!!!"

Trent is our neighbor and good friend! He and I hang out outside all the time while our kids play together! He is the "model" neighbor! I'm still in shock! He's been in my home without my husband here bringing us dinner for our family! He has been DNA connected to all four crimes, and who knows how many others that they haven't discovered yet, over the last four years. We've known him for about 2 1/2 years! We've been good friends for a long time!
And, since the last two woman survived, they saw his face and were able to I.D. him. Talk about SCARY!

So, what Justin was referring to outside was a number of police cars, police tape roping off our neighbors house who lives just across the parking lot from us, and every news station trying to get interviews from all the neighbors who continued to congregate outside till late into the evening trying to find out more information.

Lesson learned: 1. My judgement of other people may not be as dead on as I orginally thought and 2. The Lord watches over us.

If you would like to know more you can google Trent Christopher Benson. There are tons of aricles.

Check out my Slide Show!

Army Strong

I know this is a lot of videos all at once, but I kept having problems getting my videos to download so I have catching up to do.

Anyway, Gracie has officially begun to army crawl! Now there is no stopping her. I discovered her first tooth just a few days ago and since then so many things have happened. Later that same day that I discovered the tooth, she began to move by pulling herself across the floor, army style. Then, today, she sat up with no support for the first time and also experienced her first baby food, carrots. She loved them! Me, I'm not loving all the growing so much. Why can't they just stay little babies so you can always keep track of where they are since they stay where you put them? My dad once told me that as a parent, we spend so much time teaching our kids how to walk and talk and then once they do, we spend the rest of our parenting days trying to get them to sit down and shut up! Isn't that the truth!

Anyway, it is fun to watch Gracie grow, it's just happening so fast. But each age that I have experienced so far with my children has been wonderful and enjoyable in different ways. All their personalities are so different from one another!

My Boy, The Ninja Turtle

Ever since Cole was introduced to Ninja Turtles by my mom's Ninja Turtle Movie, he wants to be one. He has always loved swords and now he loves to make them out of his tinker toys, stick them in the back of his shirt, and then pull them out with a fighting attitude! What a boy! It makes me laugh because I've seen home videos of Justin as a kid pretending to be Ninja Turles as well. Cole is growing up to be just like his daddy and I love it!

My Little Star

Rylee loves to sing. She usually makes up her own songs that consist of various off the wall thoughts. We usually can't understand what she's saying and I found out recently it's because she isn't saying anything. Sometimes, in the middle of the song, she will just make sounds or hum to fill in the space where she can't think of words. She's so creative! Anyway, today she told me that she wants to sing on T.V. and since I don't have my own show to put her on, we made this video to suffice her desire to be a star. Now she's on the computer and that works just as well for her. Hope you enjoy the show!

Rylee Makes Gracie Laugh

I think one of the best parts of camping was captured on this video. Rylee can make Gracie bust a gut just about anytime. This video was taken at the tail end of the game they were playing so her giggles have turned more into squeals and grunts, but still adorable. Gracie kept pulling Rylee's hair and Rylee loves it. She just turns around quickly and makes a face at her and Gracie finds it hilarious!

Swimming

 

 

 

 

After camping and dealing with all those bugs and the heat we decided to go swimming when we got home. Do you love the girls matching swimsuits!? The kids love jumping off the edge while Justin "catches" them (usually letting them fall all the way in the water). It was way fun!

Camping!

 

 

 

 

We took Gracie on her first camping trip this weekend. I am finding that camping is becoming a lot more work than fun with all these kids and such a short trip. We spend way more time paking, unpacking, cleaning, packing again, and then unpacking once we get home than we spend acually enjoying the camping. And the spot we chose this time was awful, more bugs than I've ever seen and they were making us crazy! But, Gracie got to scratch off one more "first"!