It's been a while!

I cannot believe how much of a slacker I have been! I have been very busy during Eva's naps lately so I just haven't had a chance to blog, but I am determined to squeeze in the past couple weeks, mainly in pictures. and WE CLOSED! We officially own our home! It's nice knowing that the 7 month saga is over and has a happy ending! I am so happy we moved in when we did, because it was in the mid 110's last week and I would not have liked moving in that heat!

Eva is trying to coax Mr. B out...by gently tugging on his arm.  Jinxy looks on from a safe distance

Do you like my bangs?  These are a wonderful result of pregnancy/childbirth/nursing or something along those lines.  I didn't realize it was super common, but when I made a comment in my playgroup, just about every mom had the same complaint.  The things we put up with for these babies!

this is the ocotillo (pretty much the big straight dead cactus in the middle of the picture)  Posting this makes me realize how long it's been since I last blogged!

these are the spines on the ocotillo - youch!

Eli is working hard to take it down!  I don't have an 'after' picture, and it's dark out, but just imagine nothing in that spot, and that's what the after picture looks like

Mr. B is hard at work - breaking in the closet

since moving to AZ it has been my dream to fry an egg on the hot ground.  But we though we'd go the less messy route, and put the pan out for a few hours.  It didn't work!  Instead the egg got really hard and plasticy.  I was pretty disappointed.  But then I realized that the pan didn't burn my fingers when I touched it so it wasn't as hot as the ground gets.  We may have to try again and go the messy route. 

Happy 4th of July!  this was taken at our friend's house on the 4th.  Eva loved the grass!

Don't worry, I took away the necklaces after our photo shoot, even though she loved them! 

I wish I would have wiped the food off of her eyebrow before this!

We had a 4th of July party (on the 3rd actually so I'm sort of out of order here), and because I love a good themed party, we made it a Redneck 4th of July party (mainly so that our ugly backyard was just part of the 'decoration') Eva could not take her eyes off Eli in his getup. 

Nick and Janet are some of our best friends here.  We are so sad that they are moving :(  Nick also works for Holder (with Eli) and he is being transferred to Atlanta this month.  They are excited but nervous, and we are so so sad to see them go.  FYI Grandma, all of the tattoos that Janet and I have on our arms are fake!

 

Everyone had a great time and we spent most of the time in the pool!  (luckily this was the day before the haboob!)

it's monsoon season, so storms roll in at night quite a bit.  By storms, I mean clouds, and some wind.  Occasionally we get 4 inch rains.  Now this doesn't mean an IL 4 in rain, where it's 4 inches of rain, it's an AZ 4 inch rain, which means the raindrops on the ground are all 4 inches apart.

these doors are the best baby gates ever!

that is the haboob!  that is a giant cloud of dust!  We watched it roll in, we were expecting it because of the news, so we brought all of our outside chairs in and tried to cleanup as much as possible outside.  This was taken from our backyard because it was coming from the south.  I have never seen so much dust/dirt in my life!  Our pool had a thick layer of dust afterward, and there was a layer of dust everywhere!

not the greatest quality picture, but it gives you an idea!

the aftermath - you can see where the vacuum has been (I was trying to do a design, but it wasn't working out)  And Grandma Forsyth, I know that you are thinking that having these pools is such a waste of water, but Eli and I have both noticed that our shower usage has dramatically decreased since owning a pool and being able to just jump in when you are hot and sweaty, so I think it all evens out ;)

they old owners must have had a firepit in the backyard, and Eli started digging up the blocks and rocks and kept going and going and going.   And of course he was doing this on what was supposed to be a 117 degree day!  I think it *only* got to 114 though.

those are all the blocks he dug up.

There is this rock path in our front yard, and there were all kinds of leaves and debris stuck in it, so we though we'd just move the rocks, clean it out and put them back in.  Little did we know it was a deep trench!  It ended up being a bigger job than we thought.  And I keep saying we, although I was inside with Eva while Eli did all of this.  I actually really like doing the outside stuff but we can't have Eva out in this weather and there has been plenty of stuff for me to work on inside so Eli worked solo.