Annie's first Ballet Recital

Annie's first year of Ballet brought her an immense amount of joy. 4 year old Annie loves anything girly, twirly, and pretty. Ballet gave her that from the beginning, but her mind was blown when she got to recital time. 

Her love for the sparkly costume was intense. 

The bows on her arms was her own customization. 

Costume practice in the studio!

Their song was "Married Life" from the movie "Up."

She has a head of height on most kids on her class! The shortest girl is her BFF Natalie Skidmore. 

The girls on stage!

They had their teachers dancing on the sides for when they inevitably forgot what they were supposed to be doing. For some reason, the audio stopped working right before their number so the girls had to stand on stage forever waiting for it to get fixed. Everyone clapped for them after they had been standing there for a few minutes. 

Annie loved showing this video to people and trying to dance along with her recital vision. She's my favorite ballerina!

Pets and Experiments

We briefly had some very exciting pets! My friend Rachel Sevy found a praying mantis egg sack and hatched a whole bunch of them. She gave us 7 and a jar to put them in. They were legit adorable! They would stand on our fingertips and do this cute little dance. 

This one was named Elsa. Or Fancy Zebra. There was no way of telling them apart, but the kids believed me when I confidently said which one was which. 

Rachel split her orders of wingless fruit flies with me. We had a separate jar for the fruit fly colony. Annie and I enjoyed our mantis friends the most. It was fun showing them off to the neighborhood kids. Eventually we had just one mantis left and my fruit flies died. I put a little weevil for Elsa the mantis to eat... but the weevil ended up eating poor Elsa instead. I'm just not cut out for pet ownership. 

Rachel also got me into the hobby of bug collecting! I'm much better at maintaining these dead bugs than I was with the live ones. This is the first hobby I have undertaken in the past several years, and it was an absolute delight catching and identifying all these bugs. The crown jewel of the collection is the tarantula hawk wasp. These have one of the most painful stings in the world and led me to some very amusing reading about the Schmidt Pain Index. I asked our Alexa what to do when stung by a tarantula hawk. The reply was to "lie down and scream for three minutes." I purchased a legit bug net and prepared for the tarantula hawk hunt with leather gloves and a long sleeve shirt. I managed to catch one and get it into my glass jar with rubbing alcohol without getting stung! It was so much fun, and I'm glad I have Rachel to do all the fun bug activities.

Elliot sporting a giant mesquite beetle, my local favorite

Elliot and his creative friends made the best car/ball ramp ever. Isaac was oh so pleased and oh so destructive. 

This is our mickey mouse cactus. We didn't plant it- it popped up in our tomato pot, and we decided to keep it since it was cute. It grew two big circles coming off of the main head, so it looked like mickey mouse. But then... it was droopy so I watered it, the neck part rotted, and mickey's head fell off. I left it on the gravel next to the pot so that we could watch to see what it looks like as it decomposed. PLOT TWIST- The severed cactus head (pictured above behind the pot) somehow has stayed alive for several months and even sprouted new pads! I'm baffled by this as it hasn't set down roots. It must be absorbing rain water and living off of its stores? The stump left behind sprouted some new pads too. The only downside to our experiment is that Isaac has managed to sit on the severed head. Twice. Pulling tiny spines out of toddler thighs is not my favorite activity. 

In other Isaac news, the little fellow recently experimented with throwing balls into the toilet. He's generally a super easy kid and does not get told "no" very often. His reaction was priceless. 

The Amazing Race

The Gunters in our ward put on the most epic group date of all time. It was our own mini Amazing Race, complete with teenagers recruited to run many of the challenges. 

 

We were the incredibly attractive light green team. The first challenge was to record a 1 minute intro video with a randomly assigned theme. We were motivational speakers. The funniest was the Baldwins who went on a rant about preparing for the Amazing race by rolling around in cacti and drinking their own pee. None of us realized that the videos would be shown at the end so we had a real laugh watching them. 

The next challenges had us driving all over Rancho and doing things like drinking an absurdly large gas station slushie, finding balls while blindfolded on the tennis court, hoola hooping, and balancing eggs on spoons in our mouths. 

The most intense one was when Aaron bravely ate two jars of baby food- he got peas and pear. I had to eat shots of rice crispy cereal in dixie cups until I found three that had smiley faces at the bottom. I think I made it through 26 or so cups. After that Aaron had to memorize an exact pattern of 9 playing cards and then we had to count all the rocks in a bucket. We were pretty close to last place, so our bucket had been counted a few times and somehow had an extra rock mixed into it. We somehow figured that out and got to go to the final challenge- the fire walk!

We had to take our shoes off and walk barefoot over legos to the finish mat in their backyard. Genius. 

Things Annie Loves

Annie is a girl who experiences emotions very strongly. When she's sad, it's the weeping on the floor inconsolably kind. When she is happy, she prances and sings and exclaims her love for the whole world. Here are some of her many loves.

 

Getting ALL WET. She is always down for a trip to the pool, and always sneaking away to hang out in the hot tub!

All things unicorn! She has a stuffed unicorn named Princess that she sleeps with every night. This face paint at Mila's birthday party was one of the best things to ever happen to her. 

The only thing she loves more than face paint is getting wet. The two activities did not blend well together. 

Butterflies and colors! Aaron was a champ helping her make these awesome wings. 

Her first time writing her own name by herself!

She loves her cousins! This picture is from when we saw them riding bikes to the park while we were in the backyard. Naturally this ended in a reunion on the wall. 

Sometimes we would drop Elliot off at Prenda at Claudia's house and Ethan would ask to come hang out with us. I loved Ethan days. 

Science experiments. Especially ones with food coloring and messes. 

Going to the park! Aaron frequently takes her and Isaac after dinner. 

Isaac. Oh how Annie loves Isaac. She loves him passionately and aggressively, and he loves her right back. 

Serenading the little fella with a trumpet duet

Annie is fun to have around because she gets so genuinely excited about everything. She gives the best hugs and cuddles. When Elliot gets hurt, she goes and gets his blanket for him to help him feel better. She has a heart of gold and I'm so glad that she's in our family!

Isaac's Croup Saga

Isaac had a 10 month ordeal where he was sick pretty much continuously. It started August 2021 when we took 15 month old Isaac to the ER in McLean with a bad case of croup- I wrote about it here. The steroid treatment knocked the attack down to the level of a normal cold. One that WOULD NOT GO AWAY. We were sucking his boogers and running a humidifier in his room for months. He had another croup flare up the week of Thanksgiving, but we were able to control it by giving him lots of steamy showers and home remedies. It would ebb and flow, but never completely went away. He was coughing pretty bad during Christmas and our spring trips. 

He developed croup for a third time when Rachel and Savannah were at our house in April. He had been fine other than a stuffy nose throughout the day, but woke up struggling to breathe. It didn't get better when I jumped in the shower with him, so I took him to the ER. 

 

They gave him a steroid treatment that cleared it right up, but they made him stay for observation until around midnight. My attempts to turn off the lights and have a snuggle nap on the hospital bed failed, so I got to have a late night hospital room party with my favorite 2 year old. 

They mentioned that we could get an inhaler that would be able to stop croup attacks. We got one perscribed and were instructed to give him two puffs every morning and night and to double that if he was having croup symptoms. The only problem was that he HATED the inhaler. It was the kind that comes with a spacer, so you put the facemask over his mouth and nose then have him breathe in the medicine. It took two of us- one to pin his arms and legs in a bear hug and one to put the thing on his mouth and puff it. Then we would suck his nose with the nose frieda. It was a daily torture session for the little fella. We gave him a piece of chocolate afterwards and eventually he stopped fighting it, but man was that rough for a while.

We did have to use the double dose to stop a croup attack a few weeks later, and it worked! We didn't have too much faith in the 2 puffs every day though - it didn't seem to do much against the baseline lingering cough. We gave up on it, and eventually it cleared up around the end of May! He has been cough free for three months now. It's a whole new Isaac. 

Our best guess is that Isaac had some underlying sinus/lung infection. It put him more at risk for catching every cold out there, and when he caught them it hit him harder than it did the rest of us. I'm thinking that his immune system was a bit stunted from being born during our Covid quarentine phase, but who knows. We are just glad that he's finally doing better! 

Rachel & Savannah

Two days after my parents left, my cousins Rachel Larsen and Savannah Williams came to visit! Technically their moms are my cousins- daughters of my Aunt Jean. Rachel and Savannah are both working in Gilbert. Rachel is a teacher and Savannah is a nurse, and they are totally a blast as demonstrated in the following picture:

We took them to see Tubac since Rachel is prepping to teach Arizona state history. I love the little museum at Tubac and the 1800's schoolhouse. We got a kick out of the old "rules for teachers" that prohibited unseemly behaviors such as marrying or going to barber shops. 

 

These kids are always down for a photo booth

Especially when there are mustaches involved

Isaac desparately wanted to get this ancient ball out of the museum display. His obsession with balls is ferocious. 

The next day, Aaron took Elliot and Annie to a stake campout. The main event was a cardboard canoe competition. I thought my concrete canoe knowledge would come in handy, but apparently our noble vessel sunk as soon as it got wet. The only boats that worked were the ones entirlely coated in duct tape. 

While the campers were gone, the rest of us went to the clubhouse for a round of mini golf. It was extra challenging becuase Isaac was constantly trying to steal our balls. 

Brightly colored balls? Things to hit them with? Outside? With fun cousins? Isaac was all in.

The next morning we met up with our campers and did a little hike in Saguaro national park. Aaron and the kids kept taking big swigs of water and then whispering "spicy" as quietly as they could. Savannah bought some prickly pear chocolate from the gift shop for us to share. 

Savannah and Rachel are so cool! They are only a few years younger than me, but somehow we never hung out at the family reunions growing up. It was awesome getting to know them and showing them around our area. We hope to see a lot more of them!

Mimi & Grumpa Visit

Mimi and Grumpa came to visit for a week in April! Mimi came prepared with a science experiment kit complete with a labcoat and all the materials needed for the experiment. The biggest hit was dragon breath- bubbles blown through a cloth over the cut off end of a water bottle.

Dragon bubble breath!

Annie was not very good at the "don't inhale" rule. We had to wash soap out of her mouth several times.

Skittle rainbow wash experiment

These kids love their Grumpa snuggles and "Just for Laughs" prank videos

Isaac was a big fan of Grumpa's whiskers

We had a surprisingly fun venture to Sprouts! Dad had never been to Sprouts before and was like a kid in a candy store. He loaded us up on Keto chocolate treats and probiotic drinks. There is a pet store next door to Sprouts that I like to stop by- it's like a free mini zoo and the kids love it.

Grumpa stuck a tissue through the hole and got a cat to play with him. Can't do that at zoos! I'm not sure if you are supposed to do it at pet stores either, but we got away with it. 

They got to come to our ward easter egg hunt and potluck!

Isaac found one egg and then kept throwing it and saying "ball!" over and over again. Luckily he has older siblings to help him find eggs and teach him about the wonders of candy. 

This girl knows the deal

One of many rounds of board games

We went to our favorite Marisco's place, JPS seafood. It used to be a hole in the wall, but apparently they had just opened up a nice new sit down restaraunt down the street from the seafood market we used to get the food from. 

Dad and I both ordered a plate called the "Embarazada." We joked that they picked the name because it gives you morning sickness the next day. Dad came down with a stomach bug. I'm pretty sure he picked it up at the ward potluck because Mimi got it a whole week later. Food poisoning doesn't do that, so JPS's reputation is in the clear! I will eat the Embarazada again!

The two Kimberlys. These girls both love people, talking, and beautiful things. It is so often that Annie will say something or notice something, and Aaron will say "she is such a mini-Kim Johnson"

While Grumpa was recovering from his stomach troubles, we took an evening walk to the safari park. I love the lighting on my little monkeys. 

 

This swing chair by the arch is our favorite hidden spot in Rancho.

Mom tried to take some spontaneous family pictures for us. This was the best we were able to pull off. 

Me with that man I love

You have a 98% chance of getting a picture of Aaron like this one if you ask him to take a picture of you

Me with the best Mom and Mimi in the world!