Father's Day Weekend in Page

Clara in my dad's work boots. My mom has a picture of me in my dad's work boots when I was about her age.

We celebrated Masani's birthday at the ball park in Page. It was a hot day and the girls didn't tolerate it well. We ended up leaving early so they could nap :o(.

Clara wanted to sit in daddy's chair...

Running around with the cousins...

Time for water...

Joecy, Kellen & Clara

The girls in their new hippo chairs...

Uncle Travis with Jade and Clara

Oldest and youngest of Lorin's clan, Jewel & Jade (they have three sisters in-between)
Aiyana putting change in her pocket...
Now pulling her pants up...
Travis, Jade & Aiyana

Sunshine Photo...

This picture inspired me to work more with the sunlight in my photographs...



Thought I would throw this one in as well since I just got it off of my camera.

Clara 17 Months Old

Clara is just one day shy of 17 months. Aiyana was this age when I had Clara. It's so hard to believe that we had another child so soon, but what a blessing Clara has been in our lives.

Clara is now repeating so many words that it is difficult to keep track of her vocabulary and the amount of words she is saying. Her favorite song is "Ring Around the Rosie" and she LOVES to eat, but you would never be able to tell that from her slender frame. She gives big open mouth kisses and although she is not overly affectionate, she is quite the clingy one these days. I think it is just a phase, Aiyana went through that phase as well. I thought Clara might be my passive child, but I thought wrong. She is just as dominant as Aiyana is and she will let you know what she wants. Just like her mommy and daddy...

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Who Does She Look Like Anyway?

I absolutely love looking at comparison pictures when other people post them of themselves and their children. I did one a while ago with Aiyana and I, but it has been over a year since I've done any comparison photos. Now that the girls are getting older I can start to see features in them that resemble both Dana and I. It's so fun to watch them grow and see their appearances change as they become little ladies.

Everyone thinks that Aiyana looks like me and that Clara looks like Dana for the obvious reasons... Aiyana has my coloring and Clara has Dana's. Only a handful of people have come up to me and said that Clara looks so much like me. So let's take a look...


Now what do you think? Here's my take... Clara has Dana's coloring and his eyebrows, but everything else is me... her eye shape, her face shape, her smile and maybe even her nose (sorry Clara).

Now here's side-by-sides with Aiyana...

Crazy, isn't it? Aiyana got my coloring and eyebrows, but everything else is Dana... her eye shape, her face shape, her smile and her nose.

I keep saying that Dana and I need to have a third child to round it all out. Dark hair and blue eyes or blond hair and brown eyes. Who knows what we will get.

Rompers

I bought these cute little rompers from Walmart. They are nice for the hot summer temperatures here in Phoenix.

Aiyana - 34 Months Old

It's getting easier to take pictures of this little girl. Aiyana has a heart of gold. She is such a sweet character, but she also has her "terrible two's" moments. One minute she could be touching Clara's face saying "you are so cute, Clara" and the next minute she could be snatching a toy from her. Ya never know with Aiyana.

Weekend Road Trip Videos

"I wanna see!" I have a lot of video footage of Aiyana saying this. She always wants to see herself on camera these days.



Aiyana almost always requests "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" whenever I ask her what she would like to sing. Me: Aiyana, what would you like to sing? Aiyana: Bitsy Bitsy Pider. Clara on the other hand prefers "Ring Around the Rosie". Clara will walk around the house singing "Ah ee... Ah ee... down"



Aiyana was extremely excited to go to grandma and grandpa's house...

Weekend in Page

Aiyana on a swing at her grandma and grandpa's house...

Clara was really enjoying the swings...

Yes... we let them on the trampoline, but certainly not un-attended. They were only up there for a few minutes. It was funny to see their reactions when they started bouncing around on it.

We celebrated Andrew's third birthday party. Aiyana and Andrew are pretty close in age.

Party Glasses

Six of the 16 cousins (soon to be 17). Left to right: Skye, Tessa, Andrew, Gabrielle, Aiyana & Kellen.

Dana's mom playing the piano with the kids while Olin helps them sing songs.

Aiyana, Skye, Lori and Tessa

Memorial Day Weekend - Lake Powell

We headed up north to Lake Powell for Memorial Day weekend. It was going to be our first road trip in the new Acadia, but the Acadia had other plans. Long story short, the Acadia ended up in the shop over the weekend because of a brake fluid leak. My extended warranty contract was too new and not fully processed so they couldn't fix my car until the contract was reviewed and accepted. Sigh... so there went my dreams of a spacious ride with an over-head DVD for the kids. Instead, the BMW dealership gave us a BMW x3 to soften the blow. It was way too small and there was no DVD. We left the next morning and we managed to make it, minus the ideal amount of space and convenient DVD system.

San Fransisco Peaks - Just north of Flagstaff

The Cut - South of Page

The water beckoned us...


It looked to be a promising day as we headed out to a cove near "Sand King".


It was windy, but we made the most of it. Both girls took a while to warm up to the elements, but Aiyana eventually played in the sand and water while Clara watched.

Building a sand castle with daddy...

I thought she was my "Tom Boy", but she was totally un-impressed with the water and the sand. Can you tell?

She got a mouth full of sand from drinking out of her juice bottle. The wind was relentless and kept blowing sand everywhere.

...and that was about it for our adventures on Lake Powell. Thank goodness we waited to set up camp on the beach. Only an hour after we hit the cove, the wind really picked up and we found ourselves stuck in up to 60 mile per hour wind speeds. We remained in the cove, huddled in the boat with beach towels over our heads to protect us from the blowing sand and cold water. Most of the kids found it to be quite entertaining, but eventually they all became fussy, cold and hungry. The boat wouldn't make it back to the marina and we weren't going to attempt it with seven kids and only four adults (five of the kids were under the age of four). There were plenty of life jackets to go around and we made sure to keep them on ourselves and the children as we waited for mercy. We watched as the camp across from us became totally destroyed by the force of the wind. Many of their belongings disappeared in the sky. It was quite the show. One of their sleeping blankets flew up into the clouds, over the mountain, above the birds and towards a small aircraft that was flying over-head. The people who were camping there eventually came back to salvage their things and then seek refuge on the deck of a locked house boat across the cove from us. They eventually waved us over and we waited out the wind on the deck of the houseboat with our new friends. All at once, the wind stopped and we were set free. What an adventure.

Clara was done...