Joy

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Live and Learn

Grinding 25 lbs of wheat....
is an outside job.

Unfortunately, we learned this the hard way.

It was much easier clean-up this time.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

A Day With Gigi

Last month, my grandma moved out here to Arizona from California. She moved into a beautiful retirement community called Renaissance in Sun Lakes.
The main entranceThe Lobby (very small portion of it anyway)

My grandma pays one monthly bill that covers everything (including once a week cleaning service) ((except for cable.)) She even gets 20 meals a month that she can eat in the dining room. My mom and I ate there with her one day and it was delicious food. When my grandma goes by herself, they have a special seating area for single people so she will be put in a group to get to know people. All of the residents there are so nice and the majority of them are in good health and active. There are so many activities to take part in too! Water aerobics, billiards, bunco, bingo, book clubs, group outings, movies, church services and the list goes on.

I decided that I want to move into a place like this when I am old. It seems like so much fun! It kind of reminds me of being in high school when my sports team would go travel out of state for tournaments and stay in hotels. Just easy, fun-living with friends and activities. Yes, please!

Renaissance also has a little salon, ice cream parlor, library, movie theater and gift shop - All without ever having to step outside in the heat.Each resident can decorate their door and little alcove however they like.
Grandma is not a much of a decorator - but my mom finally got her to at least put a basket of flowers out. Claire likes it because she can tell which room is Gigi's.

My grandma's living area (she has yet to be convinced that she needs something on the walls)

The kitchen

The view from her porch.

Last week, I took the girls and went with my mom to visit her and take our last swim of the summer in the heated pool.Joy doesn't scream in the water anymore!Claire loves to visit Gigi and is not shy around her at all.


and neither is Joy.Group shot!
After swimming, pictures and the hanging of a hummingbird feeder, we went to run some errands, but first stopped by Wendy's for lunch.

Grandma loves to order chocolate shakes and she splits them with Claire. I am sure that Claire gets more than her fair share.Next, we went to good ol' Walmart as we all needed to get a few things.
Claire held Gigi's hand the whole time and told her "Gigi, I need to hold your hand so you don't get lost."
She also held Gigi's hand so she would not get hurt by cars.


It was cracking me up because every time I took pictures that day, I would take about 30 of each shot knowing that out of the 30 maybe one or two would be good. My grandma kept saying I was the paparazzi and 3 different times asked me if I was "out of film yet?"

We look forward to many more fun days at Gigi's new house. This weekend they are having a trick-or-treat night for all of the residents great-grandchildren. We'll be there for sure! Claire is excited for another chance to wear her costume :)

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Our Sunday Best

After last week's post, I realized that our families never get to see Claire and Joy in their church clothes. I decided I will try to post a picture on Sundays so they can see that we do dress up once a week.






I promise my next post will not be about clothes!

Friday, October 21, 2011

African Outfits

Last Sunday, Josh shared about his trip to Africa during the evening service at church. To be festive, I made the girls outfits out of one of the kapulanas that Josh brought home. Joy's was a typical shirred top and this bloomer pattern. Claire's was just a simple dress due to the lack of time and creativity. It was a little ill-fitting since she was napping when I made it - I kind of guessed on the size. Aww, my little brightly dressed family.
I am pretty sure that people in Mozambique don't dress like this.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Sunday Attire

This morning, I let Claire choose what she wore to church and she insisted that she wear a princess dress. She was so excited about it she wanted to show Grandma and Nana and Uncle Didi so I told her we could take pictures for them. (So there you go select few)We then decided that Joy should wear her fanciest dress as well. I had to dig through boxes in the garage to find the matching hair band. When I put it on her head, Claire laughed and said "She looks ridicullus!" I said she looked pretty and reminded Claire that she once wore the exact same outfit.Poor Joy had just woken up and was not in a picture taking mood but she was a good sport.
It's amazing how many things you can do before 8:15am. We were only 1 minute late for church.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Awana Cubbies!


This is Claire's first year in Cubbies!

We are so excited! Memorizing the verses is pretty easy for her and she enjoys when we work in her book together throughout the week.

Her interest and ease of memorizing gives me hope for when we officially start school in January.



She really does love it even though she was being contrary in this video. After she said those 2 verses she got her Jumper patch - which is very exciting.
We are still working on her Cubbies song. I think we sang it 27 times this afternoon.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

2 Months 2day!


Joy is 2 months old already! She just hit 10 pounds.

She loves when Claire holds her and entertains her.She likes to sit in her bumbo and take in her surroundings. She likes to be kissed on her chubby, yummy cheeks.
Joy definitely looks different than her sister. I am so glad because I did not want a mini Claire clone. One of my concerns with having 2 girls is that one is always way prettier than the other. Think about it, every time there are sisters in a family, there is the pretty one and the uglier one. Now of course, as with any of my generalizations, there are some exceptions but this is a common phenomena I have noticed throughout my life. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens...

Claire looks like Dadda but Joy ended up with more of my features. I'm glad to have a child that somewhat resembles me. Her skin is a little darker than Claire's and she has darker hair than Claire ever did. I was kind of hoping her eyes would be brown but they are getting lighter and bluer everyday.

Yep, she looks like the Mason side of my family. Sometimes, at just the right angle and with just the right expression, she looks like the spitting image of my grandpa.


I love this little girl! She is a sweety!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Big Girl Bike

For months we have been promising Claire that when the weather gets cooler we would teach her how to ride her bike. Our neighbors gave this bike to us over a year ago (obviously I would not have chosen a Disney Princess bike for her) but we are so glad to have it now! Claire has held us to that promise and this weekend she finally learned. It only took 3 different sessions for her to get it down and now she is a pro. This afternoon she rode while I walked with Joy. We went a little over a mile with no mishaps. It is great to be big!