New ice cream joint: Sweet Addiction

Choose your flavor of homemade cookie and Thrifty ice cream to make an ice cream sandwich. My two addictions combined... great. It was good, but Matt said I make better cookies. Aaaww. :) 

Family Visits

We went to the Poppe's house to see Grandma and Grandpa Johnson this weekend. I didn't get a lot of pics, but we had fun playing Catch Phrase in honor of Heather, who was visiting for her baby shower. She is having a girl in a few months. A girl first is the way to go!

Claire sang some of her primary program songs with Cindy at the piano - I am trying to load the videos to You Tube but it's not working for me. Her part in the program was, "I will dress modestly to show respect for Heavenly Father and myself."

Claire, Miles and Grandpa Johnson

Look at this face! 

Penelope is on the verge of rolling over - she can rotate 360 degrees on her back

Goooooaaaal!

Claire scored her first goal last Saturday! She kicked the ball up and over the goalie's head - awesome! Then later in the game she played goalie, and no balls got by her. The end score: 1 to 0. She was so excited!

Birthday: Part 2

Claire had her first "friend" party this year. I was hesitant to plan something, but we ended up doing a swimming party at our community pool. So we just swam, ate pizza, opened presents and had cupcakes. I can't say just how much food coloring these kids consumed, but they liked the cupcakes! And I think Claire had a great time. She has some good friends from school and church, and some from both her class at school and her primary class. Fun times!

Birthday Week: Part 1

Claire has had two birthday celebrations so far - We went to the Hillers for a family birthday celebration Sunday, then she had Hello Kitty cupcakes at her kindergarden class on Monday, her actual birthday.

Claire is very fun to buy presents for because she is genuinely excited for everything she gets. She just lights up - even over clothes.

Monday we went to dinner and then to Build a Bear. Wow - they have their marketing down pat. They barely talk to the adults - it's straight to the kids to sell their extras - sound, outfits, shoes, the works.

Luckily Claire had some birthday money from Grandpa Johnson to spend. Claire picked out some Twinkle Toes shoes for her bear that are almost exactly like the ones she got for her birthday. They don't light up, but they are very glittery and bright, just like Claire likes her accessories. She named her bear Twinkle. Miles picked out a luchador costume for his bear and named it Nacho.

Rain!

You have to be a desert rat to fully appreciate the rain.

Then we went inside and read two books about the rain - "Are You Ready to Play Outside?" by Mo Willems and "Horton Hatches an Egg" by Dr. Seuss. I felt like I should put that on Pinterist or something to show off our theme. :)

Four Months Old - What the What?!

How did this girl get to be four months old already? Penelope is so smiley and happy and she laughs a lot now - I love it! She is ticklish too - feet and under her arms. She sits up well in the bumbo and she kicks, kicks, kicks all the time. She is taking the bottle like a champ, and I think we will start cereal soon. I am having a hard time pumping some days - but I would like to keep going for a few more months if I can.

Current nicknames for Penelope include:

• Nelope
• Nelopers
• P
• Sweet P
• Penny
• P'Nell

She had a check up recently and here are her stats:

Height: 25.25 inches - 75-90 percentile

Weight: 15.8 lbs - 75-90 percentile

Head: 42.25 cm - 75-90 percentile

Soccer Saturday

It's amazing how 95 degrees in the shade can feel so much cooler than the 110 degrees we are used to! Hopefully our game days will start to be a bit cooler, but Miles, Penelope and I found another nice shady spot to hang out during the game. Claire is playing full back or goalie mostly and is doing a great job defending the goal. She didn't let any goals in while she was goalie, and she gets to be by Matt quite a bit since he stands behind the goal coaching her (he is Assistant Coach again). Matching hair ribbons for the new season of Tiger Lilies soccer!

Student Star - Good Job Claire Bear!

Claire was chosen as student of the week from the kindergarden classes - my understanding is they pick one student per grade, per week. They had her name up on the TV screens in the classroom, and I guess they would have had a video too but she was sick the Friday before when they wanted to make the video. Week 2 of school - not bad Claire :) 

More Quotes - Hope You Aren't Sick of Them Yet

Claire has extensive conversations on her cell phone (my old Blackberry). Here are a few things heard during Claire's calls - I can only imagine what the other side is saying back :)

• "I am calling about the contract. You need to give 65 and 111 percent."
• "I really don't know what to tell you... I just can't make it!" 
• I will send you an email

Claire said to me recently, "Mom, I was hoping that Penelope would be on our team but she has blue eyes instead of brown. But that's OK - I love her!"

Some of Miles favorite little phrases of late are:

• "That makes sense!"
• "All riiggghht, I wiiiillllll"
• "Hug, hug, kiss, kiss" 

Claire and Miles were discussing their full names and their initials. Miles said, "Your name is Claire Bear." To which Claire replied, "My name is Claire Abigail Hiller...Bear."

New Soccer Season

The Tiger Lilies are back in action this season. They take the summer off, and yet it was still over 100 degrees at Claire's game on Saturday. Fall weather can't come soon enough. Claire is number 8 this year - her second choice was number 4. She was a little upset that she has a new jersey color - dark green this season instead of orange for Tiger Lilies like last season.

Here she is playing defense - kind of hard to see her with my iPhone pic from pretty far away.

Miles, Penelope and I hung out under the shade of one of the few trees on the field. Miles always manages to get his own share of the soccer snacks - orange slices this time. Classic.

Tummy Time

Swimming Again!

Miles got his cast off last week! He held his arm bent for the first day, like he still had a cast on, but then he quickly got used to using his left arm. He was able to buckle his car seat without help again. He looked down at the straps, smiled and said, "Hey! Two hands!" We went swimming to celebrate since we had been avoiding the pool - poor Claire, she had to have a ban on swimming too. Miles traded one injury for another though - he scraped the skin off his nose after doing a belly flop into the shallow part of the pool. This boy....

We got the bill for the ER visit to set Miles' arm - $4100 before insurance, $75 with insurance. Thank goodness. Haven't received a bill yet from the orthopedic doc, but I decided I should keep these bills so I can add up the total cost of Miles' ER visits. So far, he has 3 bills for his 3 years of life. That total amount might come in handy some day - as in, "No Miles, you can't have a new car because you have already cost us $23,217 in medical co-pays!"