Fourth of July

We had a pretty fun Independence Day this year. In the morning, our ward had a breakfast at Falcon Field Park, which is right by Falcon Field Airport, a small airport in Mesa. Elise had breakfast before we left, but she still ate five sausage links, and probably would have eaten more if we would have offered them to her. The morning was overcast and lovely. The high that day was only about 90°, a perfect day to play on the playground (it has been too hot for Elise to play on playgrounds outside here for months). She thoroughly enjoyed the food, the kids, the playground equipment, the weather, and the airplanes. I don't know how she could've had a better morning.

This one makes me laugh because it looks like she's putting her hand over her heart.

Later, we joined up with my sister Holly's family for dinner and to see the fireworks. At their house, there was an enormous, disgusting frog by the trashcans outside. Elise still talks about that frog over a month later, so I had to include a picture (although I'm not really sure why I took a picture in the first place).

 cute cousins

 Holly's family, waiting for the fireworks to start

one with Grammi included 

(Elise loves Grammi like she's her third grandmother.)

Grammi brought glow sticks for the kids, which they loved. Leighton and Ryland played like theirs were light sabers, Savannah wore them like jewelry, and Elise had to have hers taken away because she bit right through it. Typical.

Elise stayed awake the entire night, even though she had almost no nap that day (trying to put her down for a nap for hours was definitely the worst part of the day). She enjoyed the fireworks, though, and fell asleep almost as soon as we got in the car to go home. All in all, I'd say it was a pretty fantastic Fourth.

Nesting

There has been a lot of nesting going on around here. By Elise, not by me. Actually, I feel like our house is totally unprepared to receive the new baby that will be here next month (though we are so excited for her to come). No, the nesting is all Elise's doing.

Elise's kind of nesting is not the same as a pregnant woman's nesting. Elise likes to make nests, like a bird. More specifically, she likes to sit on things in her Bumbo seat, especially balls (she's been a little obsessed with balls lately).

[And she likes to play in her crib throughout the day, which is why she is in her crib in these pictures. Totally her idea, and she just asks and I get her out whenever she wants.]

She also enjoys putting puzzle pieces in her Bumbo. This is her teddy bear sitting on a nest of puzzle pieces.

She often puts the pieces from all three of her puzzles together into the Bumbo, then does all three puzzles at once.