The Children's Museum

One rainy morning, we decided to take the girls to the Children's Museum to let them experience a new environment.

We began with making Butterfly masks.

Sam was especially proud of his piece of work. (Don't worry...I was watching the road.) :)

Genevieve immediately found herself in her natural habitat in the grocery store. At home, she enjoys playing "coffee stand" and likes for you to order coffee from her. Unfortunately, she hasn't caught on to the fact that the customer pays for the product. She likes to give you the your coffee as well as the money it costs. :)

The pizzeria was also a hit. Genevieve worked well up front with the customers delivering them their orders and accepting their money...

While Jocelyn preferred to be behind the scenes preparing and cooking the pizzas.

Is it ironic that this is not the first picture of Jocelyn with a motorcycle? We may have a rebel on our hands!

Worldmark Indio

I am going to divide all of our vacation pictures into different blog entries so that it doesn't appear to seem like an overload! :) (And truth be told, it would take me forever to put them all in at once!)

We went on many walks...every day...this was the typical scenery we encountered within the resort:

I loved being in the beautiful resort overflowing with green grass, palm trees, lakes, pools, etc and then turning around to see the desert right next to you!

The playground located almost directly outside of our patio was occupied by the girls regularly. It was nice that it wasn't just the usual slide and swings, but something new and exciting!

The "Cat Pool" was also another favorite place to hang out.

Jocelyn braving the extreme water feature

They keep us laughing

My next post will be filled with sun-filled pictures of our family vacation to Palm Springs. But for now, I will let you in on a few things Sam and I found pretty amusing this last week.

*The resort we were at, had a number of pools. Large pools, hot tubs, a lazy river, and kiddie pools. We enjoyed getting in the water with the girls, but we also enjoyed laying out next to the pool. We only could do this while the girls were in the "kiddie" pool since it has a depth of 1.5 feet.
At one point, Jocelyn got her swim suit on and asked if she could go swim in the "Cat Pool." Unsure of what she was talking about, we questioned her further and we heard her right..."Cat Pool."
Apparently, she had mistaken "kiddie pool" for "kitty pool." She even meowed as she walked by that pool!

*Here is a conversation I had with Genevieve as she walked in my bathroom as I was putting makeup on.
Genevieve (G): Why are you putting makeup on?
Me: It's just something that mommy's do.
G: But why do you need to?
Me: I am just hiding some blemishes (I really said this thinking that it would confuse her and stop her from asking any more questions.)
G: Can I wear makeup?
Me: No sweetie, God made you perfect so you don't need any
G: So God didn't make you perfect?

Anyway...pictures are coming soon!

Ups and Downs

We were on our way for a family vacation with the girls to Palm Springs, California.
We drove to Seattle from Yakima. No problems. We took a shuttle bus from the parking lot were we kept our car at to the airport. No problems. We took a subway from the check in desk at the airport to the correct gate. No problems. We did all of this with 2 kids, 2 backpacks, a purse, 2 blankets, 2 suitcases, and 2 booster seats. No problems. We tried to take one escalator down to the floor below at the airport. Disaster strikes!
Sam went down first with his hands full. I step onto it with a suitcase in one hand and Jocelyn's hand in the other thinking that Jenna would follow right behind me. As Jocelyn and I start to go, Jenna freaks out. She is to afraid to step on. People start lining up behind her. Jocelyn and I are 1/4 the way down...Sam 3/4 of the way. I try convincing Jenna just to step on and hold on with her hand. She begins to panic. I let go of my suitcase and try calmly to explain to Jocelyn that she needs to hold on and stand still. By this time I am 1/2 way down and Sam is to the bottom. Jenna, well, she's still at the top! And the line behind her is growing with people trying to convince her to go. I am able to let go of Jocelyn, and the suitcase, and I begin to sprint up an escalator that is moving the opposite direction that I am trying to go. I also have a full backpack and a purse in hand. And as I am sprinting up, I hear Jenna crying for me to help her! She had begun to put one foot on the escalator and was holding the rail with both hands as it is moving down, but she is to scared to put her other foot on. This is causing her to do the splits with her head going straight down.
Exhausting! And what I would have considered the easiest part of the trip!
Needless to say, we made it here fine and are enjoying the warm sun and complete relaxation!
More on our trip coming up later. :)

Catching up with the McCoy family

I don't have any real good reasons to blog, but I know some of you are waiting for my next one...so bare with me as I scrap some things together that will hopefully entertain you for hours on end.

Genevieve is doing really well in her second year of preschool and she loves going! I got to teach a lesson on Oral Hygiene this week and all 18 of the 4 year olds sat very quietly and paid very close attention to my presentation. And I know she was paying attention because after her nap that same day, she had some fruit snacks and then told me that we needed to go brush her teeth since she ate a sticky sugary snack. Momma's so proud!
It's super crazy for us to think about, but she will be starting Kindergarten next year! That will most likely be a day that I shed some tears! :(

Jocelyn is enjoying her first year of preschool. Notice how I used the word "enjoying" and not "loving?" That's because she is not a huge fan of it. She goes, and she doesn't throw a fit about it, and shes happy when I pick her up, but she would rather not go if she had the choice. Unfortunately for her...she doesn't have a choice.

Both girls do gymnastics every week and have also been skiing a handful of times this winter season. It is pretty amazing how quickly little ones can pick up a sport! They are anxious for good weather so that they can start riding their bikes more often.

The teachers at Mt. Olive talked and feel as though "The McCoys" should have more kids. What can I say, my girls are cute and 99% of the time respectful and obedient in class. Unfortunately, that does not constitute adding another McCoy child to the family. But we appreciate the compliment! :) In fact, the teachers have obviously not heard "I am never playing with you again!" That is a new sentence that is being highly over-used in our household these days.

Speaking of Mt. Olive...the girls have learned a lot of good Christian habits and ideas from preschool. Jenna informed us yesterday that "God is important. Like milk."

Sam and I just celebrated our 9th year of marriage! We are very blessed to have each other, our children, our friends and family, our church and our jobs. What more could we ask for?

We have both become more into fitness and exercise lately. We are both registered for Bloomsday, a 7.5 mile run in May which is held in Spokane. 3 weeks after that, Sam is participating in "Reach the Beach" where he will be riding his bike from Newburg, Or to Pacific City, Or. This is an 80 mile ride. The girls and I are thinking about going down to greet him at the finish line! ***Anyone interested in making a donation in his name to the American Lung Association, visit: http://tinyurl.com/4bcf62e

AND THEN...Sam and I are going to take part in our first Marathon together in October in Portland, Oregon. Are we crazy? Yes, we are, and we understand that, but we are also okay with that! We are both already training for it by doing really small runs 3 times a week just to build up our stamina without injuring ourselves. We will start to increase our mileage pretty soon in hopes that the May 1st Bloomsday run will be a piece of cake. (Or at least just not "unbearable!")
Starting in June is when the training really picks up with 3 moderate runs during the week and one long run every weekend. Since we are both going to be training, we are going to try and do our runs at separate times so that we don't have to leave the girls home alone. They wouldn't like that. Neither would CPS. So, if anyone gets bored during the summer months and is looking for 2 kids to play with...hit us up! We will donate ours! :)

Isn't it ironic?

Apparently, I am not a strict enough mother. How do I know this? My 4 year old informed me.
We use a discipline chart at home that is similar to the one at her preschool. Last night, I had to change Genevieve's "green card" (which is a good color) to a "yellow card" which gave her a 5 minute timeout.
This morning, as she is getting ready for school she informed me that I don't discipline correctly. She said, "At school, Mrs. Sullivan only gives us 1 warning and then changes our card, but last night, you gave me like 3 chances before you changed my card!"
Isn't it ironic that her honesty is now going to cause her to get stricter punishment?

Possible Occupations

Genevieve was talking to us about what we want to be when we grow up. We informed her that we are already grown up (much to her surprise) and that daddy works on computers and mommy cleans people's teeth. We asked her what she wanted to be when she grows up. Her response: A banjo player.
Where did we go wrong? :)