Summer Happenings: A random sampling of everything else

Overall, it has been a fast and good summer. Fast summers are good in my world in this Arizona heat. :) Here is a little glimpse of some of the "daily":

In July, we celebrated TWO YEARS OFF TREATMENT!!! What on earth? Is that cool and amazing and hard to believe or what? She is doing fantastically well. Her risk of relapse is as low as it will ever be - she is well beyond the most risky stage for that. Anymore cancer would probably be considered a secondary cancer as a side effect of treatment from here on out. She still gets monitored every two months for long term effects and proper development and such, but she is doing very well. Her biggest scars at the moment are emotional and there are some hard days... poor girl. But we are so proud of her and grateful for where she is at. It is a miracle! When she was diagnosed, we could hardly imagine being done with treatment period, let alone two years OFF treatment! To celebrate that big milestone, Elena chose dinner out at Chili's.

And it was freaking hot... a lot.

But with the heat, there are a lot of amazing desert sunsets to be had:

 We made several trips (across the street :)) to visit Daddy at work. I have fond memories of visiting my dad at work as a young child (sugar cubes, an old DOS golf game on the computer, and the smell of oil and grease and tires and cars) and so this made me smile to think about the memories our girls are creating. One of those memories will surely be that Eric lets them get a treat out of the vending machine when they come. Definitely a highlight. :)

Our little engineer in his cube - with lots of things to make it "Eric" - I spy a fish in a vase, some greenery, and a little BYU love.

Engineering space camp photo!

Although I'm at 29 weeks now, here's the latest belly shot at 27 weeks. This is getting serious, people- we are down to every 2 weeks appointments with my midwife!

We braved the heat a few less insane mornings (like the mornings we can get out early when it's only in the 90's) and enjoyed some nice walks. 

We have been counting down for the first BYU football game of the year all summer and the day before the game, I walked into Elena and Lily's room to see them all prepped and ready. :)

Elena, Lily, and I had fun decorating the house for the first game and surprising Eric. When he walked in the door Elena shouted, "It's a secret wonderland forest of BYU football!!!" Hahaha. Secret wonderland forest, indeed. :)

For Christmas, we got the girls a baby bird. She is a Parrotlet and the girls named her Blueberry Gogurt (Lily) Snow (Elena) Hoffman - Blueberry for short. She is funny and smart and not too loud and a good deal of fun to have in the house. We had many hours of playing with and laughing at our funny bird.

Lily is still crazy. And stinking cute. She has such a BIG personality inside that little body - she confounds Eric and I on a daily basis and all we can do is laugh and shake our heads at her.

Everyone is getting rather excited to meet little baby boy. One day shortly before our ultrasound, Elena spent her quiet time browsing a baby book for possible names for this baby. This list is pure awesome, but our favorites are probably: Boromeo (pronounced Bore-o-mayo), Earl, and Feo. :)

And we've enjoyed some good pool time, as well. 

Goodbye summer! And here's to fall and football season and babies and less heat (please, please come on cooler temperatures!) and holidays and all the wonderful things that come from here on out!

May 2014

Well, back at the end of April a few planets dropped out of alignment and the earth shook and trembled. With some trepidation and not a little bit of researching and planning (on my side), we entered the 21st century and got smartphones. I know.

But it turns out, I have a very large crush on my iPhone. It is a pretty slick little thing. And it makes life a lot easier. And lots of other things which we could discuss sometime if you want. But, possibly best of all is that it has a decent camera in it and now I always have a camera with me. This is good news for me, the lady who NEVER remembers the camera, ever. So, a lot more life has been getting recorded around these parts. I love just being able to bust out my phone and take a picture on the spur of the moment. 

Here is some of the "life" from our May:

There was a school picnic and Art Fair at Elena's school one early out Friday. Here is Elena with her lifesize self portrait (that inexplicably has brown hair...).

Lily and I enjoyed our daily lunch time with Eric. Living across the street from work is the best. On this particular day, Lily discovered an old baby headband and dressed herself up and made herself a crib.

I counted down the number of days left doing the school drop-off and pick-up routine. Lily was always happy to help Elena finish off her lunch leftovers on the way home. And we have a couple of silly goosen. 

I babysat our new little nephew, Peter, and realized that, over the last four and a half years, I have forgotten most of what taking care of a newborn entails. Turns out they want to be held all the time. And I am also the world's worst swaddler. :) But he was super cute and fun to snuggle.

And Elena and Lily are still really good friends. And also really cute. There are few things that make me smile as big as walking in and seeing Elena reading to Lily.

Elena with her fantastic teacher, Mr. Jim. We are sure grateful for him and the way he encouraged Elena and helped to nurture along her love of learning. 

And big news! Eric passed the PE exam!!!! Come April, he will be a licensed engineer!!!!! Hugetime, folks. One more test to go (and then he will be a super licensed engineer)!

We went camping for the first time since we've had kids! The girls thought it was about the greatest thing ever. More to come on all that in another post....

More camping: I made this breakfast fire all by myself - with no matches or lighters. Including sawing the wood. Pretty much I am hard core. :)

More camping: Lily thought she was a unicorn.

Back at school, the hens had babies! This momma had 11 eggs hatch! It was quite a sight seeing 11 baby chicks running after their mom. So freaking cute!! Elena was very confused at how their could be two different moms with babies when there was only one rooster... :)

One night before bed, Elena and Lily dressed up their animals and held a school for them. Still cute.

And it was 108 in May. It's 111 now in June, so.... that's that. But man it is hot!

We made it to the last day of school! Hallelujah! Elena had a fabulous year in 1st grade and did very well. But I am one momma that is super grateful to slow down and enjoy a quiet summer at home with my peeps. Here she is saying goodbye to her classroom on the last day (changes in the wind for us on the schooling front for next year!):