It Was an AJ Sorta Day

Do people ever do things that make you look at them and think, "what planet do you come from where that's oKaY?" Then do you ask yourself, "what's wrong with me if I'm in the same place as them?"

I had that moment today.

If you can get over 100 barefoot, germy kids running around together, the play areas at malls can be a lot of fun. Today, not so much.

As we walked in, a 10 year old (?) girl grabbed Braelynn and tried to run off with her. Braelynn looked back with those "save me" eyes, and we explained to the little girl that we needed to get a place and take Braelynn's shoes off. We "conveniently" found a place to sit right next to this girl's mom...I am no longer surprised it was the only open spot.

Kent, Braelynn, and our new little friend ran off to go play. I was bouncing Brooke on my lap, watching Braelynn, and I feel Brooke being pulled from my lap. The 8 year old (?) personal space intruder told me she wanted to hold the baby. I told her the baby was spitting up, so I was going to hold her. She turns to her mom and says "I wanna hold the baby." The mom (without looking up from her intense text-conversation) tells her to ask me again. The little girl tells her mom that I said no, and the mother's reply was for her to ask me "why". Seriously??? As the little girl continued to poke and prod at Brooke we inched our way to the left.

When she finally got up to go play, her older (12?) sister swoops in to continue to pester me. "Can I hold the baby?" Before I even tell her "NO WAY!!!" her mom informs me that this daughter is really good with babies. I then tell the girl "I don't think so."

Apparently this annoyed the text messaging-Apache Junction-slit wristed (I tried to not judge, everyone has problems, but it needed to be noted)-mother to the point that she decided it was time to go. Her 10 year old was not listening, and she sent her 12 year old to go get her. Upon their return, she SMACKED THE GIRL ACROSS THE FACE, and said it was time to go.

Yes, yes it was.

#1- You tell your children it is not polite to touch other people's babies.

#2- If it's not polite to touch other people's babies, it might be a little more wrong to hold them.

#3- Don't encourage your child to ask "WHY?" when an adult says "NO."

#4- Spanking is one thing...smacking your child on the face is just wrong, end of story.

We're sticking to San Tan or Chandler mall from now on.

Here Comes Trouble!

I am so super excited to the point that I am about to bust!

There is a special lady in my life...we'll call her "Jeanette." She is my sunshine! Not only does she make me happy when skies are gray, so lets me whine and complain about 'em too! She is perfect in every way, except for the fact that she's been living on the other side of the country for far too long.

Well, guess who's baaack?!

For those of you who know us, you know how wonderfully bad this is! Never in my life have I known someone who can get me in as much innocent trouble as this girl.

You may not see me for awhile.

Kent and Bryan should probably find some hobbies. We've got alotta catching up to do ;) CODE- shopping, hair, nails, laughing, shopping, a smidge of gossip (just to keep it interesting), putting things into our language so they make sense, eating in our favorite "I'm so hungry, this is going to be disgusting to watch, but I know you won't say anything" form, and maybe some more shopping...we gotta find some new outfits that are "a good kinda tight!"

But don't worry, guess who's joining us in September?

Then we'll really be painting the town red!

4th, Chik-free-a, and the Diego 2011

I love July. It feels so summery, so fun, and so American!

We didn't do anything for the 4th which is unusual, but nice. We did drag everyone out for ice cream and fireworks at 9:30. Big mistake. After sitting in our prized spot for an hour in 100 degree weather before everything started, Braelynn was ready to go home. We packed up and while carrying Braelynn up the stairs to her room, we found out that we can see the fireworks from our windows! Next year we will definitely take advantage of that!

Who doesn't love Chik-fil-a? Such good food and an awesome company all around. They had cow appreciation day last week! If you dressed from head to hoof as a cow, you got a free meal! Kent was mortified...it isn't very often I can't bribe him to doing something for free food! Luckily I got the days mixed up so we got to do a dress rehearsal the night before! By Friday morning Kent was much more willing. While eating lunch at our nearest location we thought how fun it would be to drive around and see how many free meals we could get. Yes, we need real jobs...or a hobby.

After 5 stops we decided we had enough food and decided it was time to go home. Just so you know...their nuggets and fries freeze beautifully!

The next day we loaded up the car and headed to our annual San Diego trip with my family. This year Shawn and her family, and Kenny were able to come. We really missed Eddie- hopefully he can make it next year. The weather was beautiful, the beach was perfect, and we were finally able to have a campfire and roast some marshmallows! Braelynn had a blast with Chloe, and definitely loves the beach. Now we are counting down the days until next year!

Pictures!

I know blog posts without photos are o-so-boring...so here are oodles of pictures. We're still just busy painting, unpacking, and working on other odds & ends around here. More adventures to come. In the meantime...

Braelynn has finally decided she likes to hold her baby sister. She has really become quite the helper!

Whenever she wants to hold her she does the sign for "more" and repeats it over and over. I have no idea why she associates this word with it.

We've been getting to spend A LOT of time in our Jammies. When mommy & daddy are painting for hours and hours all time is lost. Less laundry :)

Here's our sweet girl, Brooke.

Her personality is really starting to show. The past few days she has started to smile quite a bit, and just seems to be so happy to be here. Yeah!

When we 1st bought paint for our house, we thought we bought too much so we decided to get a little creative and do 2 colors in the formal dining and formal family rooms with a chair rail...17 gallons of paint later we finally got to the chair rail. We really enjoyed doing this project together, and are really pleased with the results.

Can't wait to start on curtains! Actually, I can...we didn't budget for 17 gallons of paint.

***Disclaimer*** Behr Paint & Primer-in-one doesn't do so well with 1 coat like they say.