What's Up Wednesday

Today, I’m linking up with Shay, Shaefer and Mel for What’s Up Wednesday!

What we're eating: 

We discovered Hello Fresh meal delivery and LOVED IT! We had two $30 dollars off coupons so we each signed up with our emails to get a delivery of three meals each. We canceled after our first orders because unfortunately, it's not in our budget when it's full price :( I'm hoping Blue Apron and other meal delivery services have similar coupons so we can be cheap-os and test them all out before canceling ;)
What I'm reminiscing about:
Good weather! August in Arizona is like February in Iowa - I'm sick of the weather and dying to be able to be outside in good weather!






















What I'm loving:  

• I really do love that Arizona schools start so early in the year - I was so burned out of entertaining the kids inside or taking them swimming so I'm glad we are already a month into the "fall" school year routine while the weather is awful and I'm looking forward to the longer breaks when the weather is better!
• I'm also loving this picture of Jack's favorite toy.... is it a dinosaur or something else?! hahaha

What we've been up to:

• David started preschool a couple of weeks ago! He loves school and I love having a few mornings with just Kate :) I am going to start a babysitting trade with my friend so I'll have one morning a week completely to myself!!! I can't remember the last time I was completely by myself so I can't wait! ;)

• He's also doing a little parks and rec tumbling class one morning a week and also loves going to the "sports skills" class at Lifetime Fitness while I go to yoga :)

• We watched two chic flics this weekend! (I bribed Spencer with steak ;) We watched "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" on Netflix (I had read the book and liked it) and saw Crazy Rich Asians in the theater :) To All the Boys I've Loved Before was pretty cheesy but I expected that and Crazy Rich Asians was funny and cute!

What I'm working on:
I'm working on figuring out how to print out this darn blog! It took me a year of using almost all of my spare time to reformat and fix the photobucket issues I had and now the blog printing website I loved (intorealpages) has been shut down for 8 months! I'd love any recommendations!
What I'm dreading:

Nothing at the moment! This week I was dreading a lot of things - the engine in my van shut off while I was driving down a busy road and I had to get it towed. The auto shop that we towed it to said that the engine was ruined and that the repairs would cost more than the worth of the car so I was dreading the fact that we were going to need to purchase a new van after only having our van for less than three years! Their diagnoses wasn't making any sense or adding up so we got a second opinion and it turns out, the problem was a mistake that the same auto shop made three months ago on our alternator! Way easier fix than a new engine! We got a refund on the work they did and will NEVER go to Firestone again! Incompetent at best, criminals at worst!

What I'm excited about:
Labor Day! We are going on vacation with Spencer's family and we are so excited!
What I'm watching:

We just finished Poldark season 4! Poldark is up there as one of our very favorite TV shows of all time! (Along with LOST, the Office, and Parks and Rec :)

What I'm reading:
I'm rereading Harry Potter!!!
What I've been listening to:






























The Newsies soundtrack! David told me the other day that he wants to be a Newsie for halloween :) He will probably change his mind a million times before halloween but I'm hoping he sticks with a Newsie :)
What I'm wearing: 
I should really delete this question because I never take "outfit" pics!!!
What I'm doing this weekend: 
Family reunion with Spencer's family!
What I'm looking forward to next month:
Fall (ish) in AZ

Mom hacks and things I'm loving

(FYI I'm not sure why the formatting is so weird in this post and I'm too lazy to figure it out!) 

I have discovered new hacks for each of my kids that has helped with their behavior significantly!

Jack - I signed him up for Homework Club at his school - he stays 30 minutes after school and gets all of his homework done! Then once he his home, he's done and there is no nagging him to do anything (PLUS I don't have to wait in the horribly long and hot carpool line 4 days a week!) We also started doing his 10 minutes of reading before school when we are both fresh, because there is nothing worse than listening to a tired and whiney 1st grader trying to read after 8 pm ;)

David - music! The first day Jack went to school this year, I asked David what he wanted to do during the day and offered the library, museum, having a friend over, etc and he said, "Let's just go home and have a dance party." hahaha! David is my rage-y child, but I've noticed that when I turn on music during the day he can't help but cheer up and dance. He and Kate both love it :)

Kate - we've learned this month how important it is to walk the baby, regardless of the hot weather :) She basically acts like a dog anytime we ask her if she wants to go for a walk and have started going for short walks after dinner. She gets stir crazy at home and loves to get out of the house. Can't wait for cooler weather!










































































































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Things I'm loving:

• David's new preschool! It seems like with every milestone he hits, I'm surprised he's not one milestone above that! David is only 4 1/2 but I catch myself telling people all of the time that he's 5 already!!! Maybe it's because he is always trying to keep up with Jack, but David has always seemed bigger to me and while I can't believe he's not starting kindergarten this year, I'm glad I get one more year at home with this spunky kid :) My favorite quote from David this week while he was eating a s'more in his if-you-give-a-mouse-a-cookie voice: "If you give a kid a s'more... he's gonna get reeeeeeeally sticky!!!" Love this boy!

Kate and Jack love the cows at David's school (and I love the temple in the background!)

Kate's face kills me!!! This is the face she makes every time she is nervous about a dog or other animal! haha

• the fact that I can post all of Jack's art work on this blog and then throw them away with zero guilt ;)

Sharks

dinosaur puppets

megaladon pic ;)

• Family yoga at Lifetime Fitness! They started this class a couple of weeks ago and Jack and David both love it! The teacher is amazing and engaging and at the end of class, she gets my crazy wiggly kids to get "quiet inside." They lay on their backs (savasana) and close their eyes and are still for about five minutes and as she puts cold, wet towels on their heads and guides them through positive affirmations. It makes me tear up every time seeing their little bodies responding!

• "Long pizza" as Jack calls it! Venezia's is Jack's favorite pizza and he has been asking for so long to go! They had a special on Tuesday so we went after yoga!

• The fact that Jack and David can play Uno together without adult supervision! 

• These screen shots :)

• Vietnamese food! Spencer has a favorite place in North Phoenix that he goes to sometimes at work and I got to try it this Saturday. So yummy!!!!

• My mom's pictures of Glacier National Park! She went this month with friends and it is now on my bucket list!

• This sweet snuggly teething girl. I took this picture at 10 pm. I'm not sure if Spencer was putting her to bed or vise vera :)

• This sunset at the church before volleyball 

• My cute little "helper" in the kitchen :)

• The fact that Kate can sometimes hold her own with Jack and David and play with them. We set up the tents/forts that my parents got for them a while ago and the three of them played in them together all weekend. Also, I'm loving that Kate has formed an attachment to this little pink bunny. She calls it "Beebee" and wants it all the time :)

Last week of summer for David!

David starts preschool on Tuesday and I don't know who is more excited, me or him! (Probably me ;) David prefers to stay home over just about ANY activity and without Jack and our old next door neighbor (Saige) to entertain him every day, it's taken more effort on my part to keep him from not watching the Ipad all day long!!!
On Monday, we went to Skateland! I called Spencer on the way there and he told me I was crazy and to bail while I still could! haha! When David got his skates at first, he couldn't hold his balance at all and I had to walk and hold him up while also holding Kate and I about bailed after 1 minute! I ended up renting a balancing thing for him and asking if I could rollerblade while pushing a stroller and surprisingly they said that was ok! Balancing thing + strollerblading = game changer! We all had SO MUCH FUN!!!!
 
 
 
 
 
 We fueled up with cotton candy then went for another round :)
 
 
 David did get to play with Saige two times this week so David was a happy boy!

 
 
 The kids took a bubble bath for the first time in a long time and loved it :)



 We've been enjoying the monsoons this season! There have been SO MANY!!! A couple times last week it cooled down to (a tiny bit) under 100 degrees so we took advantage of it and went outside!!!

 


 
We tried HelloFresh meal delivery because I had a great coupon code for the first box. (You pick a couple of meals and they send you all of the ingredients to make it) We were surprised how much we liked the food and the convenience of it all but we canceled the subscription because it's pretty pricey full price :( These were the yummy Korean beef tacos:

Kate's latest thing in the car is to reach her hand up and scream at me for water or a snack the entire drive. As soon as I give her something she reaches her hand up again for something different. It's a very frustrating guessing game but that dimply hand sure is cute :)

She prefers every seat in the care besides her car seat :)

This girl LOVES her some popscicles. She is always saying "pop pop" and reaching for the freezer :) My mom gave me the popscicle holders a few years ago and they are a LIFE SAVER (or I guess just a mess saver :)