They Have Grown So Much!

I was looking back at come pictures taken from summers past and I just can't believe how much my babies have grown! It makes me so sad, but so in love at the same time. I love the stages they are in now, but I miss my tiny babies too!

Lilyana's 1st Summer in AZ. 2006
Lilyana's 2nd Summer CO. 2007
Lilyana's 3rd Summer in CO. 2008
Lily's 4th Summer 2009.

And here is my little Alex her fist summer CO., 2008.Alexandria's 2nd Summer 2009. How much she has grown in 1 year!

Butterfly Pavilion

My cousin Mandy and I were trying to find something fun to plan together for this weekend. She came up with the idea to visit the Butterfly Pavilion. We had never been there, so we were excited to check it out. It was a very cool place to go. They had many insect displays with lots of icky bugs and huge, hairy, scary spiders.

Here Alex and I are looking at the cockroaches. They are even more disgusting up close! Still give me the heebie geebies thinking about it!

I believe they are looking at the scorpion exhibits.

Those brown things hanging from the branches, yeah, those are bugs!
Here is a neat video of this ugly, gross bug emerging from under the dirt.



I somehow even mustered up enough courage to hold Rosie the tarantula. It was freaky crazy. Michael was brave and held her too. When I asked Lily if she wanted a turn, she backed away and said, "Nope, no thank you!" and she was gone :).

They had a really big fish aquarium with different sea life. The Upside Down Jellyfish were really neat. Alex and Lily were transfixed with all the different fish! I guess Lily though they were stinky because she kept plugging her nose and saying, "Pee Eww!"
We even got to pet a starfish. They are really soft and slimy.Lily and Alex weren't too sure about touching them at first, but then they each did.
Once was definitely enough!
Then, finally, we checked out the butterfly garden. It was definitely the best exhibit!They had many cocoons and chrysalis' from different countries and you could even watch some of butterflies hatching. It was very neat!
There were so many green plants and pretty, bright colored flowers in the garden. Hundreds of butterflies were just fluttering all around us. Lily and Alex were just giggling and pointing excitedly as they flew by them.
This moth was stinkin' GINORMOUS!!! I think they said it was and Austrailian Moth.
There were so many different species of butterflies. Some had such pretty designs and colors on their wings. It was a lot of fun finding the different types of butterflies. They were all so beautiful and they created such a peaceful atmosphere.

We even got lucky and had some butterflies land in our hair :).It was a very fun and educational day. The kids definitely left pooped!

Up, Up, and Away!!!

Last Tuesday we had a nice breezy day. Lily had gotten the most amazing Disney Princess kite from my cousin Mandy for her third birthday and we had yet to try it out. We thought it would be the perfect day to give it a trial run! Lily was so excited!!!

The wind was being tricky once we got to the park, so we had a hard time
keeping the kite in the sky for long. Lily wanted a turn sooo bad and was very sad to have to wait.

Finally, Daddy got the kite in the sky and Lily got to help hold the string.Look at the height!! Haha! But every once in awhile the wind would really pick up and get the kite swirling around like crazy and then it would start swooping up and down. At these times, I found myself running for my life to get out of the way in fear it would come down on my head and pound me into the ground!Doot Doot was having fun just running around.

Lily was very proud to get to help hold the kite.

Then I thought, "what the hey!" and let her hold it by herself. She did a very good job and we even got it into the sky for awhile.

It didn't get too much higher then this, though, but she didn't seem to mind!

Daddy got it higher!

Alex eventually decided to sit down and enjoy the show!

Park Play

We love it when the weather is nice and we get to walk down to the park. It is a pretty dinky park with only one big slide, two swings, and a merry go round, but it works and the kids love it. (Unfortunately, someone broke one of the swings, so now we are down to one :( ) Anyway, this particular day, we played for an hour.

I had bought the girls matching outfits and thought they looked so adorable in them. I was excited for them to get to wear them!

Alex is such a big girl now and likes to scare Mommy to death when she sneaks up to climb the ladder to the very tall slide by herself. She is very brave, but Mommy is not!The kids feel like it is a special treat to get to have their snacks at the park.I LOVE Alexandria's cheesy grin in this picture. I hope that she never grows out of it.
It always makes me laugh when she does it!
Lily likes being such a big girl and good sister and enjoys pushing
her sister in the swing. Alex LOVES it too!
Lily had an accident at the park, but luckily I had an extra diaper with me. It was too small, but it saved us from having to go home like 5 minutes after we arrived there!
Lily is such a great big sister!
And Alex loves the attention she gets from her!
We all had such a wonderful time playing in the lovely 70 degree weather! You poor Arizona people must be sooo jealous ;P Hehe