chowder wearing glasses.

i completely love my dog... especially when he puts up with my silliness just long enough to take a nerdy picture of him wearing glasses. oh how i love a chowder.

ps... i couldn't decide which one i liked more, so you get both. you're welcome.

eyebrows...

i love saturdays.

and i love chowder with eyebrows. 

and i can't stop laughing.

:)

pool time fun...

have i ever told you how much i love summers in arizona? well... i do. so many people complain about them, but i tell ya... nothing beats a june day spent in the pool. i wish i could spend more days like today... but unfortunately i am a grown up now... working a full time job and junk. it just makes me appreciate pool days all the more. 

hayley even started swimming today... which is a legit first. she was in a little floatie, but she was kicking and kicking her legs! she started out on the lagoon, but quickly figured out that she could go to the deep end... she did so so good! we are all excited to have her actually swimming with us and not just playing on the step. 

i can't figure out how to post a video on here... 

so instead you get a post-swimming pic of hayley & papa.

also... we i thoroughly enjoy putting chowder in the pool. he probably doesn't really like it in the moment, but it's got to help cool him down in these hot summer days right? and it makes me laugh. so it happens. 

dad & austin got flippers and snorkel masks a couple months ago (they are getting ready to go on a big scuba trip) and we love playing with them in the pool. and hayley loves playing with the flippers and masks too! 

good heavens, i love this girl! 

we ended our pool day with otter pops. classic! ps... today was hayley's first otter pop! what a good day for her! hahaha...

tree house part deux...

there was more work completed on the tree house this weekend. 

austin and dad added a swing, finished a wall, almost finished a door,  a mailbox (which was my contribution to the project), added a folding table inside and got the pulley system up and running. 

and we were right... hayley loves it. 

i'm getting excited to finish it up!

hayley loves it! see?! 

so does chowder! see?!

she's really good at climbing up and down the ladder...

how cute is this mail box? it use to look like this. 

side note: we're still working on the path... it's pretty wobbly and uneven at this point, but this kid still loves to run on it...

...unless chowder is blocking the path. then she doesn't love it as much. haha.

and she still loves to help papa water the plants. 

:)

tree house...

about a million years ago, tino convinced the dad to help him build a tree house. they had big plans for this tree house... complete with a hidden storage box, a pole to slide down, and a pulley system. well... life happened.... we all got busy. five years have passed and they are still working on this tree house, but now it's not for tino's fort... it's for the grandkid(s) - at this point it's just hayley (who btdubs loves it!). they have been working on it the last few weekends. they have added a ladder (for hayley's safe and easy access) and austin's long-awaited sliding pole. they're making great progress. maybe they'll even finish it this year! my fingers are crossed!

mud love...

chowder loves to dig.... he especially loves to dig in the mud. 

yesterday the dad was watering some of the plants... it must have smelled really interesting because chowder got right in there.... so this is my question. if chowder likes just dirt and he likes dirt plus water maybe this summer he will like just water? 

hmm... we shall see...

whoa...

so... i got a memory card for my phone years ago and apparently i have never emptied it. as of this exact moment in time i have a whopping 942 pictures on my phone. perhaps i should have waited till i got to an even thousand before i did this, but whatevs. here are my favorite pictures from over the years...

tastes like fall...

i have an awesome pumpkin bread recipe that i got from a friend... and i usually make 4 small loaves out of it. well... yesterday i tried little mini pumpkin muffins instead. and they turned out ever so adorable! 

i baked these for 12 minutes in the mini muffin pans and then just used my 1m frosting tip to put a little star of cream cheese frosting on top. mmm... it really was one bite of fall. 

and it's cold enough out here today that it makes pumpkin bread all the more delicious!

... 

also... can i just tell you how funny i find caving in jack-o-lanterns? they make me laugh... especially this one.... hahahah....

...

and because i haven't blogged any pics of the chowder lately, y'all get one today!

:)

it's a mystery....

so. once upon a time i bought these pretty plants... they had red flowers that are supposed to attract hummingbirds and butterflies, but i pretty much killed them. well, my dad likes to revive the dead plants. for reals. we had this dead grass shrub thing. it was dead. multiple times... but every time he would bring it back to life. anyway... he planted these other dead plants in the garden before we left for our trip to washington (put them on the automatic watering system) and by the time we got back two weeks later they were alive and blossoming. literally. haha... anyway. i figured it was time to move the plants over to the bed by the grass. our other plants (the lantanas and vincas and jasmine) are doing really good over there. so that's what i did. i successfully moved the first plant and went back for the second when i saw this....

what the what?!! i have no idea what that thing is... or why there was a tarantula by it. my first initial thought was that it was an arachnophobia-the movie-type egg sac. but it doesn't make sense! tarantulas like cool dry spaces... not damp gardening beds. and the whitish mystery blob looks almost calcified.... so what is it? i have no freaking idea. and please... if you have any idea what it is, speak up. cause i'm not going near that second plant until i figure it out.... and i would really like to get the second plant moved over.

see how pretty and lonely this plant is? it needs its buddy. 

also. chowder is pretty much the cutest thing ever. still. love him.

oh balls....

so once upon a time i got a little puppy. well, this puppy has been growing and growing... and the time has finally come that he get fixed aka get neutered aka get his little puppy balls chopped right off. it's been quite the experience. he was pretty sad looking that first day.... and then we put him in the cone of shame... he's pretty dorky looking. i love it. 

summer fun...

so i'm back to babysitting duty now that i have some extra time on my hands. yesterday, kelsey and i went down and picked up the niece. she was talking about "swimming in the water" all morning long.... so we came back up to our house to go swimming, but if you recall from our memorial day bust hayley does not like the pool yet. kelsey was certain that we would get her in today. yeah. that didn't happen. she still loves throwing stuff in... but she will not get in past the first step [the water goes up to about her ankles. lol]. so instead we kinda just tooted around until lunch time. then she went down for a nap and we all went back outside to tan. it was a fun day. 

chowder is pretty good being outside with us... he just lays in the shade and watches all of us. i still think that he would like the water... especially when everyone else is in it and having fun. it's kinda like the hayley situation... if they'd just get in i'm sure they would love it! haha...

kelsey and i also taught hayley the wow thing... you know when make "w's" with your fingers and put it up to your face and say "wow" all types of sarcastically... with your mouth making an "o" ... you know the one? anyway... it was funny. hayley was doing it last night. we are pretty much the coolest aunts ever. 

and here are a few more funny hayley faces... just because she is so stinking cute!

:)