A Touch Of Tyrell

I've been meaning to write down some random things about AZ that I don't want to forget about once they become "normal". 1. I wasn't expecting to see so many pine cones here 2. I wasn't expecting for it to be so green and beautiful either. The flowering bushes are amazing 3. I wasn't aware of the amount of dust that blows in and covers everything 4. It seems like it might be easy to customize your license plate here. I've seen some pretty cool ones like Lwyrmom (I'm assuming lawyer mom) and Mrmeanr (misdemeanor?) and several others that I can't remember anymore 5. WA has the nasty, disgusting, slimy slug but AZ has the cockroaches, scary-looking spiders, all sorts of lizards, and the potentially-deadly scorpion... all of which we've seen already. I'd rather have the slug back 6. There is some sort of bird here that sounds EXACTLY like a human whistle. The first few times I heard it on my morning walks I would...

Everett is so lucky to have Jake as his dad (and I am so lucky to have him as my husband).  Jake has been working a lot of hours and we don't get to spend very much time with him. So every hour he isn't working, we make it count.  One day Jake and Everett built a mega train city. It was awesome.  Last Saturday we went to the mall and Everett rode the escalators up and down at least 45 times. Then we heard a train whistle and saw a little train drive by. We chased after it (seriously) until it stopped at the station. Then Jake and Everett got to ride it around the mall and wave at everyone. Little Everett was in heaven.  Swimming in the pool is 100 times better when Jake can swim with us. I get to float around while the two of them have a blast.  (Everett likes to flick water on his dad) Jake is such a good dad and Everett loves spending time with him. Hopefully it won't be too long before he can ...

We bought a 52 pack of sidewalk chalk a couple weeks ago and at first Everett just wanted to line them up in a rainbow row. Now he's got the hang of it. He loves to lay down on the concrete so that we can trace him.  Then Everett and I traced Jake.  Jake's chalk body needed a mate... so I sketched what my chalk body might look like.  Everett started to get creative and would lay is super odd positions and we'd have to trace him like that. Some of them actually turned out pretty funny.  It's been a lot of fun drawing on our back patio with Everett. I'd say our $5 investment in chalk was a good one!

 Although Fall has always been one of my favorite seasons, I'm really loving this permanent Summer thing. I'm sure I'll change my mind at some point, but for now I think it's great. It's so funny how I see people in jeans and 3/4 length sleeves just because it's September but it's still hotter than Sriracha sauce outside. I'm sure our little family will be wearing shorts and doing Summer activities for months to come. The other day Everett was playing with his water table and he was being pretty cute. I ran inside to grab the camera and he'd climbed into it while I was gone.  After I took off his 100lb diaper he sprayed me with the hose right on the belly.   The two of us just hung out outside and enjoyed the water and warm breeze. Of course I took 10,000 pictures... Everett insists on looking at the pictures after I take them and reaches for the camera. He's even started to take some of hi...

My 16 year-old sister (Effie) is playing club soccer this year and they had a tournament in Phoenix this past weekend. So her and my other little sister (Bridget) skipped a few days of school and came to visit us last Thursday with my mom.  My mom told me on labor day that they'd be coming and I'd been so excited all month. I was hoping that it was still going to be super hot because it makes our pool water the temperature of bath water and it feels so nice. (Doesn't sound like it would be nice but it is.) Sadly, this is the only pool picture I have of them.  Friday we all went shopping (minus Jake) pretty much all day. There isn't any shopping where they come from and there is a giant mall a few blocks from our house so it worked out pretty good. That night Jake was king of the grill while we played in the pool. He grilled up the kabobs that the girls make earlier that day.  (We also had bacon-wrapped shrimp, those were my personal fa...