The Cabin and Grandma Krebs

My Mom is THE. BEST.

No seriously. She really is.

She sacrificed for her children when we were young and now she continues to sacrifice for us and now subsequent grandchildren. Nothing is more important than her family. OK, maybe church, but really it goes hand in hand, right? Even though she lives 2,000 miles away she is a very big part of my life and my children's lives. She still sends cute packages and is such a wonderful Grandma. My kids both adore her and she them.  I love that she makes us a priority because we feel that unconditional love and it bonds our family together.

She (and Uncle Glen) came out to Arizona on June 6th and spent almost 3 weeks with us.  She helped watch my kids while I went to Florida and then played with us here in Gilbert and up at the cabin.  Emma and Grant both loved having her here.

Sniff, sniff....

Laura and Tom abandoned us in Phoenix and moved themselves to Utah.  Tom needed to go for work.  Boy oh Boy were we SAD when they left.  We have lived close to Laura for the last 9 years, first in Utah through law school while she was finishing BYU and then she moved to AZ the same time we did in 2006.  She was such an integral part of our life, it is pretty hard having her so far away.  Especially with that cute little baby on the way, makes me super sad.  Alas, guess we gotta go where these is work, right?  And not 115 degrees?

Here is Emma with Tom the night before he left with the moving truck.  Too bad Grant was already in bed, because Grant had a serious man crush on Tom.

And here are both kiddos with the FANTASTIC Aunt Laura.  Really, everyone should be lucky enough to have an Aunt Laura.  She is amazing.

And here come a SLEW of pictures from our cabin adventures.   We went up on June 16th and stayed for the week.  Matt and his family are spending their summer in Utah, so they came down and played with us.  Emma and Aliya are only 4 months apart in age and have SO MUCH FUN together.  The week together was wonderful.

Before we came up, I created a "bucket-o-fun" and placed a bunch of activities on slips of paper inside a tub.  Everyday when the kids were ready for an activity they got to draw out of the tub and complete the craft/activity.  It was a fun way to keep them engaged and active.  This idea was brought to you by pinterest, as were most of the activities inside the tub.  Love that site for kids ideas!!!

The first activity they drew was "building an indoor fort" - which they made in the upstairs loft with blankets and chair and clothes pins.  We then let them watch a PBS Kids episode inside their special fort.  They thought it was pretty cool.

Here are the boys - Joseph (Jojo) and Grant on our way to Dairy Queen.  When I turned around to take the picture, Jojo in an OBVIOUS hurry to attain his ice cream, snapped at me "Tammy, Dribe the car."  It was pretty hysterical.  Grant is now forward facing in his car seat (just switched him at 18 months) and he seems so much bigger to me now.  boo hoo.  He LOVES it however.

Here is Glen with the bug that Grandma Krebs caught for the kids.  JoJo's first question when he saw it was, "can I eat it"?  Haha.  Pure boy.

The homeless looking girls and their pile of dirt.  This would be their favorite place to play.  This particular day we actually had to give them two baths because of the filth.  But the girls just LOVED to dig and play and hide object in the pile of dirt.  Kids will be kids.

Another activity of "paper towel butterflies".  We had so much fun making these, then drying them on a clothes line, and putting them together.  Best of all, the girls spent time throwing them off of the second story balcony to watch them take flight, and with the cabin wind, they actually did quite well.  Then they would gather them up and throw them off again, and again, and again, and again...

Bath time.  Tried to cover all private areas with my cropping.  :)

Matching PJ's for the girls and Italian Ice.

Grandma Krebs was nice/crazy enough to let the little girls paint her toenails.  This was after the activity of "pedicures" was drawn.  After I painted their nails, they wanted to "help" Grandma.  Emma did one foot and Aliya did the other.  It took her one week and many hours of scrubbing to get it all off.  What a Grandma!!!  I told you she was the best.

Emma's work.

Aliya's work.

Here Aliya is doing our "making pet rocks" activity.

Grant was missing his Daddy, and really took a liking to crazy Uncle Matt.  He could definitely say his name and would taste the "mmmmm" sound for about 5 seconds before screaming the rest of it.  So cute.  And he said it all day.  Anytime he saw Matt.

Here is a "sword making" activity.  Uncle Glen made the swords out of card board for the girls and then they decorated them.  Played with them a ton.

Here is smiley Miss Elsie.  Matt and Corinda' baby.  What an absolute doll.

Here we are on our "nature scavenger hunt" activity.  We had a list of things that we needed to collect.  Even Jojo and Grant got into this one.

Love this smile! 

Thanks Grandpa for building this awesome cabin that gets us out of the heat!!!

Dirty face mcgee.  YUCK.

Another activity of "making GAK".  I thought this would be a quick 20 minute activity that would not keep the girls entertained, but BOY was I wrong.  They seriously played with it for almost 3 hours one afternoon.  Took me 15 minutes to make.

Here are more pics of everyone making pet rocks.  Corinda's pal Amy came up for the day with her kids, so we all had a great time making the pet rocks.  Actually, I think I had the most fun of all with this activity. 

Haha.  We all had a good laugh over this one.  Grandpa Hancock actually put his little dog in the stroller - Grant thought it was hysterical... and so did the rest of us.

Sweet Grandma with sweet Grant enjoying a book together before Grandma had to leave us.  Thank goodness we get to see her again in August during our family reunion!!!

THANK YOU MOM for a wonderful three weeks!  We sure love you and appreciate your love and service and kindness!!  We are so blessed to have you in our lives!!