Arizona Science Center

 We decided it would be fun to head to the science center today as a family.  The boys love our Saturday trips with dad and it was not very busy at the science center which was so great.

 Cameron is super daddy obsessed right now.  He wants Patrick all of the time and when Patrick is home he has to do everything for Cameron and stay with Cameron all of the time.   When we were in the car on the way there I was explaining to the boys that there would be a lot of people there and they needed to stay close to mom or dad.  Cameron quickly said "I got dad".  It was so cute. 

 The boys had so much fun exploring each of the exhibits.  I am always amazed that every time we go they find new and different things.  It is so fun watching them explore and ask questions.

 

 

It was really great to have less people there because the boys were able to play with a few experiments and exhibits that often are crowded.  We have such a fun time together as a family.

Our Pet Fly

While Hunter and I were outside reading the Wizard of Oz during naptime a little fly came and started buzzing around us.  Hunter was so excited when the fly landed on him and absolutely loved playing with the fly and watching him wander around.  Hunter loves animals but he especially loves lizards, snakes, and bugs.  Some of his favorite things to see at the zoo are the lizards and the cockroaches.  He let the fly crawl around on him for 20 minutes and then made a little home for him and had me help him leave food for his fly.

He wanted to keep it in the house but I convinced him that wasn't a good idea.  Now whenever he sees a fly buzzing around he is so excited and is sure that it is his pet fly.  He is so funny.

Painting

This week we decided it would be fun to do some painting.

 I think Cameron wanted to try painting with every color and every paintbrush.  He would just paint the colors one right on top of the other.

 Then we decided to use one of the many lemons we have from our lemon tree to make circles.

 Cameron loved squeezing and adding the juice to the paint.

 He had a great time painting.
Then Brody came over to play and we headed outside to do bubbles.

The boys loved the bubble fan and were really good at taking turns.

 Brody was amazed by the giant bubbles we were making.
The next day we decided to paint with Hunter.  I found these great paint sheets that have water colors at the top of the page for them to moisten and use.

 Cameron liked painting with his extra water a bit more than the paint.

 Hunter is getting so meticulous in his art that he is beginning to be frustrated that he can't paint perfectly within the lines.  Luckily he still enjoyed painting even though it wasn't perfect.

Reading Galore

My boys absolutely love to read. 

I was telling Patrick the other day that I feel like I probably spend 3 or more hours a day reading to the boys.  They will stop, settle down, and cuddle up whenever books are involved I absolutely love it. 

We read at in the morning while we wait for Cameron to wake up, we read at breakfast, we read during potty training, we read every week after we get library books, we read on mom's bed before naptime, we read at naptime, we read while Cameron sleeps (often chapter books), we read with dad when he gets home, we read pretty much any time we see a book.  I can't believe how much the boys love to read it is amazing.  I love hearing them "read" books to each other and hearing the stories that they make up.  Cuddling up and reading with them is one of the best parts of my days.

Hanging out at the Park

Now that the weather in Arizona is absolutely amazing I want to spend nearly every minute that I can outside at the park, hiking, at the zoo, in my backyard, anywhere.   Luckily I have two excited side kicks who love being outside as much as I do.  We have been spending a ton of time at all of our local parks.  We have quite a few amazing parks close by our home and have just been rotating through all of the parks.

The boys love playing in the sand.  We have a sandbox at home but it is never as cool as the sandboxes at the park.

They love lugging along all of their fun sand toys and creating volcanoes and towns in the sand.

The boys are so good at climbing these spider webs.  They kind of freak me out how high they go.  Today we were at the park and a little girl kept telling me Cameron was too little to play on the spider web as he climbed higher than her.  Now I just wish he would learn to climb down a little more carefully.

 With these two I am usually playing a game of super heroes (Hunter is always Superman and Cameron is Batman or Hulk), dinosaurs cracking out of eggs, or we are on a rocket exploring distant planets.  They are so creative and funny to listen to as they imagine.

My favorite thing about going to the park with these two is watching them make new friends.  They are always so excited to make new friends and are so social.  They love going up to new little kids and playing games with them.  I am always amazed how within minutes they will make new little friends and then can go off and play with them for such a long time as if they have been friends forever.  I wish that I could be as brave as them and just walk up to someone that I think is nice or fun and befriend them.  Seeing their personalities blossom and grow is one of my favorite parts of being a mom.

Fort Time

When I was little I remember making countless forts with my siblings.  It was always one of my favorite family activities and I love keeping the fun tradition going with my kiddos.  We have been building a lot of forts around our house. 

These two are very excited about building and like to scope out which part of the for would be their room.  

I love all of their creativity and ideas in creating the fort.  It is amazingly fun.

Zoo and Hiking

We had fun exploring the zoo today. 

The lions were very active and the boys were amazed watching them.  Hunter and Cameron love when I make the animals talk to them.  I will always have a conversation with them pretending that I am the animal and they love responding as if they are really talking to the animal.  It makes me laugh at their little responses and how excited they are that they get to talk to the animals.

After we got done at the zoo we had a little time and the boys always love hiking hole in the rock. 

 The boys are so good at rock climbing and will just take off up the mountain.  I told Patrick that we really need to get into rock climbing and rappelling since Cameron is pretty much rappelling when he dives off the mountain and it would be good to at least have him tethered with a rope.

 

It is funny how they will just climb straight up with no fear and want to go as high as they possibly can and all the adults are scared to climb at all.  These two are fearless.  I had to convince them that we needed dad's help to go on top of the rock.  I wasn't take the two all by myself, but they can't wait to take dad to the top of the rock.

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

This handsome little guy is 3 years old and so at the beginning of the year he was out of nursery at church and into the primary.  He and all of the kids in his class are very active and so for the last month I have been doing practice primary to get him used to sitting down, listening, and being reverent. 

 I think the thing that Cameron was most excited about with primary was to be with Hunter in the primary room.  He loves being a big boy just like his brother.

Cameron did really well and was a good little friend to his little friend that was scared to leave mom and dad.  He held his hand and did a great job sitting down and listening.  His teacher said he was the best one in the class (yay! gold star).  His class had a few technical difficulties that I am hoping get worked out quickly but I am so excited and sad to see this little guy growing up.

Hiking A Mountain

I think that we caught the hiking bug when we were in Sedona and so we decided to start the new year with a hike up A mountain.  The boys love to hike and are good little hikers.  They can usually do a whole small hike by themselves and are so excited to climb up a mountain.  These boys want to be outside all of the time and now that the weather is amazing we are spending a ton of time outside.

 Hunter helped us pack water and snacks in a back pack and he wanted to help carry the backpack up the hill so bad.  He only made it a short distance but not because he didn't want to carry it but because I finally convinced him that it was my turn.  I think he would have carried it the whole way if we let him; he was so determined.

 Cameron is loving climbing the rocks.

 Cameron held daddy's hand up the whole mountain.  He is definitely a daddy's boy and loved doing a little free climbing up the side of the mountain.

 Resting after making it to the top and enjoying snacks.  I think they were so happy to get to the top and have all of their treats.