Play date

The destruction two little 3 year old girls can cause

I should have gotten pictures with the girls playing in the room but didn't pull my camera out until Leila and I started cleaning the room up.  Leila had he friend Paisley over last week and they had a blast.  Yes the room was a mess but the amount of fun they had definitely outweighed the mess.  They painted, played makeup, barbies, polly pockets, decorated for a fashion show, had a fashion show, got ready for a princess ball, played sidewalk chalk, played with stickers, played kitchen,  ran through the sprinklers and went and got snow cones.  I think they pulled every piece of clothing from Leila's dresser and played dress up with them but they had smiles on their faces the entire time.  These two girls are so similar and are interested in so many of the same things.  One of the only differences is Leila is much more shy but other then that they are both very spunky girls with very strong opinions.

new blog

I started a new blog that will have our videos on it.  I didn't want to post videos on this blog because I am going to have it made into a book.  I know most people don't really care to see our videos but I thought family would enjoy it.  It is dunlavyvideos.blogspot.com

GQ

I haven't posted for awhile about Greydon and I want to write some stuff before I forget it.  Greydon is super busy and all over the place he is crawling like a champ and has become super fast.  In church on Sunday he crawled back to his little friend, stole his friends slinky and took off crawling back to me.  He makes messes all over the place, books pulled off shelves, bags of things dumped out, and drawers emptied but it is so fun to watch him grow and learn how to do new things everyday

We were out playing in the backyard the other day and Greydon found rocks and was totally occupied by them for about an hour.  He is soaking wet in this picture because Leila was playing with the hose and kept squirting him, he tolerates a lot from his sister

When Greydon is outside he hates crawling on his knees so he ends up doing a stink bug crawl

This is how I find Greydon when I come to get him up from his naps.  He has been pulling himself up to his knees for quite a while but for the last week or so he gets up to his feet now.  He has gotten quite a few bumps and scrapes on his head from falling

The other day I was feeding Greydon before bed and I noticed he was super tired, I ran and grabbed my camera and caught him falling asleep

This little boy is so much fun and I swear when he says mama he knows what it means.  He is still very cuddly and when he gets tired he will curl up on my shoulder and fall asleep.  He also loves to give kisses, if you make kissing sounds and pucker up he will lean in and give you a kiss (its an open mouth kiss but a kiss none the less). 

I love how much he is concentrating on this toy, he looks so focused

He also loves to show affection, if we are laying on the ground he will crawl over and lay his cheek on our cheek or forehead

He is looking so old to me, he no longer is my little baby, he looks like such a big guy

Doing any kind of house work with him around is almost impossible, he is into everything

We sure love watching him learn new things everyday!

Red Vines

umm..... someone snuck Greydon some licrious while riding in the car, yeah it was a mess and red was everywhere

Lately

Lately it has been really hot here so we either go to the pool or stay in our house.  The past two weeks Leila has had swimming lessons.  We started lessons at the rec center but they just were not pushing her to swim so we signed her up for some private lessons.  Last weeks was super busy because she had private lessons at 10 am and then we would race over to the rec center for another set of lessons.  Leila loved being able to go swimming every single day.  Greydon and I on the other hand got sick of the double lessons, only because we had to sit outside in the heat for about two hours straight.  She has now finished her rec center lessons but still has her private lessons for one more week.

We went to the pool every day after swim lessons, Leila was dying to practice her swimming and Greydon and I needed to cool off afer the lessons

Leila flying into the pool, she has a hard time not doing a big jump into the pool

At one point Leila, Aly and Ryder all lined up on the stairs and wanted Rylee to shoot them in the bum with the water gun

We also spend a lot of time just hanging at home.  Some how Greydon always ends up playing dressup with Leila and I'm pretty sure his favorite toy is the necklace around his neck

Getting ready for swim lessons. The first couple of lessons were hard because she is so dang shy.  She has no fear of the water but people scare her.  The first day she wouldn't do a single thing she just sat on the step the whole time, but each day she tried a new skill and by the end she was doing everything the teacher asked her to do

Leila is finally swimming but not because of the rec center lessons but from the private.  After 3 private lessons Leila could swim.  I am confident that if Leila fell into the pool she would be able to get herself out.  She can swim several feet from the edge and back, she can also jump in, come up and get air and then start swimming for the side of the pool.  It was so fun to see how quickly she learned and progressed.  Her favorite thing to do is dive for toys.  I can put a toy on the bottom of the shallow end and Leila can dive in and get it.

We also play in the backyard with the hose and rocks.  Both kids could play out there for hours.  Greydon loves the rocks and Leila loves collecting big buckets of rock and water

We also have plenty of this (grumpy face)

And over the weekend we went to Cafe Rio with the Karrens and Turners

On Saturday night we ventured out into the heat and went to the drive in movies.  Leila was so excited, the whole drive there she kept yelling, "I'm so excited".  She stayed awake for most of the first movie but was totally asleep for the second and Greydon was asleep the whole time.  We had a lot of fun but it was extremely hot, when we headed home at 1:30 am it was still 92 degrees (sorry no pictures, my camera batteries were dead on both cameras), it will be fun to go back when it is a little cooler.

4th of July weekend

Our 4th of July weekend started friday afternoon with Paul finishing his national board exams.  He has been studying like crazy for the last 6 weeks so it was so nice to have him be done and not have to study all weekend.  On Saturday we got up early and headed to Boulder City for the Damboree Parade.  We got there and found a spot and ended up sitting next to some really nice people.  They let us sit under their umbrellas so we weren't in the sun the whole time and offered us sunscreen and cold water.  We soon noticed that everyone around us had giant super soakers, buckets of water and water balloons.  Our neighbors soon informed us that at the end of the parade many of the entries are water entries and come down the route throwing water balloons and spraying water on the parade goers and the parade goers spray water right on back.  Well it turned into a giant water fight.  At one point a huge water truck came down the street just spraying people down, and it got us too. 

Greydon chilled in his stroller most of the parade and really was so happy to watch the parade go by

Leila was so concerned about getting a flag to wave during the parade, luckily right as the parade started a flag fell off a float right in front of us so she was happy and content waving her flag at all the people

Leila showing me all her poses, seriously love this girl!

Our family at the parade, I should have pulled Greydon out of the stroller for the picture but he was so content I didn't want to shuffle him around

Right after we got sprayed by the water truck Leila was not too happy about it, she didn't want to leave but preferred to stand closer to the sidewalk than the street

The huge water fight, it was actually crazier then this but by the time I decided to take a picture it had died down a bit, next time we will come more prepared to participate

On Sunday evening we went out in our yard and did sparklers and popits

After doing sparklers we headed back to Boulder City to watch fireworks.  Again we didn't quite know what to expect but found that next time we need to leave earlier because we had to park really far away.  When we got to the park it was crazy, people had pulled their campers and trailer right up to the park and everyone was having BBQ's and picnics.  Even though it said no personal fireworks people were lighting of fireworks all over the place, so it was fun to watch those before the big firworks started. 

Leila was a little chicken this year, she was really nervous about the fireworks and did not like the loud booms.  She kept her hands over her ears the entire time we watched fireworks but she did ooh and ahh over watching them

Greydon loved the fireworks! I was nervous he would start screaming because he gets startled from loud noises.  But to our surprise he loved them, he sat leaning foward in his stroller the entire time and didn't take his eyes off the show.

On Monday Leila had her swimming lessons so we decided to stay and play at the rec center afterwards.  Jordan, Rachele and Beckham joined us for  the fun. 

Poor Beckham fell down the slide and got a fat lip

Greydon is so busy and is at the stage where he won't stay put.  At home it is nice because he can move all around and explore all he wants but when we are out and about it becomes really difficult.  At the pool he kept crawling from the shallow water to the deep water.  Luckily Paul was there to help so we could each take a kid. 

There was a waterfall of water that Leila was determined to run through without getting wet but to her dismay everytime she got wet.  But she was determined and tried over and over again. 

That evening we had a BBQ with Larsen's and Reece (our neighbor, his family was out of town).  The kids were so exhausted from the day at the pool that they were both asleep before 7, Leila actually fell asleep on her bedroom floor.  It was a great weekend and we loved spending it together as a family and being able to celebrate and be thankful for all the freedoms we enjoy from this great country!