deliver the letter the sooner the better

We woke up this morning to rain and for my kids that means one thing...wearing rain boots. (Actually, that isn't totally true. Anytime Sawyer puts on shoes it means rain boots which is why he may or may not have worn them to our sunny Sabbath day church outing yesterday.) Today we walked down to the mailbox to put our letters to our missionaries and Sawyer was the letter protector today. Don't worry, they made it to the mailbox with very little mud puddles splashed on them.
Which brings me to my latest trait I have discovered about Sawyer. He is the messiest neat freak I have ever known. He can make the biggest messes but then he can't stand when anything on him is dirty. It can be annoying when you have to wipe him down every 2 seconds at the dinner table. Today he was walking around carefree, splashing in all the puddles until he all of a sudden whimpered and I looked down and, heaven forbid, there was mud on his boot! I finally persuaded him towards a large, puddle filled pot hole where I was able to clean it and, once cleaned, he marched on his way again, splashing and giggling with his sister.
He also falls constantly and then, if he isn't really hurt, he just needs me to acknowledge it in some way ("Uh oh Sawyer, are you okay?") and then he picks himself up and brushes off his hands and runs away. Today in his ginormous boots he did that about 5 times and then right as we were within sight of our apartment, he really faceplanted. I'm pretty sure he landed straight on his forehead. This time I gave him a squeeze and a kiss but he was squirming away from me before I could even finish and he ran off, mimicking his sister's laugh all the way home. I sure love my indestructable Sawyer!

and we sure love our rain boots!

Monsoon

We were able to experience a couple of monsoons when we were in Tucson and one evening the kids were a little restless before dinner so we went and played in the rain. Warm rain puddles really are quite spledid.
(and yes, it is impossible to take a picture of these 2 looking at me!)

its raining....finally!

Houston has been suffering from a drought for a while now so seeing the rain again has been pretty exciting. Luckily, Sawyer

Family Day

today began with a super hard, want to throw up afterwards, awesome kickboxing class. but, it kicked my butt. keep that in mind throughout this post....

after I got home from the gym, Ryan said it was BCM family day today and we had kinda forgot and he was wondering if I wanted to go. we hadn't RSVPed, we didn't really know about parking...but then we decided it would be fun to show Kate where daddy goes to school. for added fun, we decided to ride the metro down there. the second we got in the car it started to sprinkle. we got halfway down the road when I realized I had forgotten my camera (and this post wouldn't be nearly as exciting without pictures) so I had ryan go back and get it. he parked in front of the garage and before turning off the car and taking the keys, he unrolled the front two windows to let us breath. I was like "hey, not so far! its starting to rain!!" so we rolled them 3/4 of the way up and he ran upstairs. within seconds it started to POUR!!! ryan's side of the car was getting soaked but I (cleverly) got my umbrella out and stuck it out the little slit in the window and blocked my side with it. he got back in, turned the car in and I (not so cleverly) went to roll the window down a little and instead rolled it up with my hand in it. and I had NO reaction time left. I just sat there, confused, saying "ryan, roll the window down!!! ROLL IT DOWN!!!" he did and kate started to cry from the panic in my voice (I think thats so sweet and so sad when she does that) and I started to cry from pain and a couple minutes later ryan was like "you closed your hand in the window?" ummm.....yes. how could you miss that?!?! I had this weird 3 mm purple indent on the top of my hand that later turned into a really soft, red bump. can you see it?

so anyways, we start driving, camera in tow, to the metero park and ride lot. we got there and it was POURING. we loaded the kiddos into the stroller and hustled over to the train. kate LOVED it, and it made me think about living in new york. I was telling her all about what it would have been like to live there. and then we got to our stop and it was POURING HARDER!!!

we decided to brave it and ran all the way there. well, ryan ran all the way there with the stroller. I had an umbrella and REALLY tired legs so I was less inclined to run.

we got there just in time for the lunch, but we heard that we had't missed much. it was a lot of speakers and stuff. so we ate and then walked around and saw daddy's school. it was fun seeing the place he spends all his time!!

daddy teaching kate all about cell something-or-other in one of his study rooms
soaking wet daddy and kate enjoying the view

kate teaching us Sawyer looking cute and me looking so proud of myself for taking a picture of us

after we left the school and we were walking towards the metro and talking about how nice and cool it was now that it had stopped raining and ryan decided we should go to the zoo. the BCM family day bug must have bit him because he decided to study later and play with us!! we'll take it!! here are some fun pictures from our quick trip to the zoo.

baby elephant

komodo dragon


look at that big belly!!!

2 monkeys

the obligatory picture of sawyer hanging out in his stroller
hook 'em (a little texas pride) ....actually, they aren't really longhorns, they are some african animal that looked like one

riding the funny carosel. it had all sorts of animals like penguins and sea lions and javalinas and wart hogs and a funny little armadillo. kate is riding the panda in honor of the olympics.

so then we walked back from the zoo to the metro and by this time I was dead. DEAD. that kickboxing really kicked my rear. I love it, I even love being sore, but not this much!!! but it really was a fun day and we were soaking up every minute of our daddy time!! I'm just hoping I can walk tomorrow!

hello dolly!

today we woke up to the rain from hurricane dolly. we really aren't even getting that much, but it was kinda different waking up this morning at 8am to a dark house and having it be dark and cloudy. you don't get that too often in tucson! so I was getting kate ready to go to the gym and I said "okay, go find your shoes. you can wear your crocs or your rain boots." and she got so excited to put her boots on.
after we got home, it wasn't really raining anymore so we splashed in some puddles

kate showing off the bracelet she made in the gym nursery today

sawyer hanging out. do you love how I have to label my baby? (the sticker on his carseat handle says sawyer)


and finally, here is a hairdo that we just started doing. its nice because it is a fast way to take care of bedhead.


now we've had our fun out in the rain and we're going to spend the rest of the day curled up on the couch reading books or playing....the way a rainy day should be spent!

hooston zoo

I don't know if I've blogged this yet, but when we were getting ready to move I was telling kate that we were moving to houston and then she started talking about "hooston." I thought it was so cute that I call it that now when I'm talking to her...and sometimes I'm afraid I'll actually be talking to an adult someday and slip and call it hooston.

anyways, we went to the zoo on thursday. we were getting ready to go and it was so sunny and so hot and so humid and we were afraid we wouldn't survive. kate was enjoying the animals but was very lathargic. we think it was because of the heat. she was so hot and sweaty in the stroller. oh, by the way, I got to use my new stroller. it is WONDERFUL!! I love how light and easy to push it is but it has a ton of storage and both of my babies were really comfortable in it. and just look how great the sun shade is over sawyer! it covers so well. its the babyjogger mini series double jogging stroller just in case you were curious. so anyways, back to the zoo, there were babies! baby giraffes and a baby elephant! so cute! and the exhibits were great. you could look into the giraffe houses through glass and we were right at this HUGE giraffe's feet. seriously, as we looked up into the huge giraffe butt you really got a sense of how tall it was. and you could go into the lion cave and they were sitting right next to the glass. the female turned on her back and rested her paw on the glass and kate touched it. unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. but the good news is we'll be going back many times with our cool zoo pass! thanks mom! after we got through about a quarter of the zoo it started raining. it was a huge texas down pour and we found shelter in this cave with some snakes and toads and the like. we waited out the storm and I had to feed hungry sawyer while sitting in the floor of the cave. eventually the rain let up and my once lethargic kate was happy as can be and loved splashing in puddles!
I loved how curly her hair was after the rain. what a cutie!

as for news of the apartment, we are getting closer but I'm still not ready for pictures! just a little more time! also, tonight we went to a bbq at one of the girl's apartments from ryan's anesthesia program. 3 others out of the group of 14 are LDS too! it was fun to meet everyone that was there and it made it feel a little more real. ryan starts on monday!