Finding her in the morning with my iPod. Quiet on the couch. 
Giving her things to do. She so very cheerfully helped me pick up the house that morning, without being asked, and then when she found out we were doing some fun stuff she chattered excitedly by my side, following me from room to room as I gathered supplies. 
She tells me what she’s doing as she goes along. I sit and listen to her adorable voice and feel so lucky to spend my day with her. 

She tried out painting with a toy car’s wheels. She loved it! It took her a minute to warm up to the idea of purposefully, with permission, using a toy to paint with. But once she did she happily played with the toys and paint and was oh so careful about her “work.” 


She was carefully making her painting until she accidentally got a bit of paint on one of her fingers. Her finger hovered above the plate. Knowing what she wanted but that she wouldn’t because she was in a “being good” mindset for some reason… I told her, “You can paint with your fingers if you want to.”
She looked happy and moved her finger towards the plate. Then she stopped and looked at me, checking to make sure this was still okay?
“You can. You can use your fingers or your hand if you want!” 


After painting she played with pipe cleaners on the couch. 
Then played cooking with her dishes and some letter tiles and beads for scooping and pouring. 


She went on to play with that set up for a good hour! I was surprised by how much she loved it. Though she loves scooping and pouring every time I pull stuff out to do so.
She also brought her pipe cleaners over and strung the beads on over and over again. In all kinds of patterns and talking out loud the entire time. I could happily film her playing for hours, it’s just so cute!
One day later in the week the kids and I went to WalMart. Probably Saturday. It rained. It stormed. It was a major downpour. We left the store with our groceries, the rain was coming down in buckets. I told the kids, “Well, here we go! Get ready to get soaked!” And we ran through the parking lot. Everyone was laughing, everyone took a bit longer than normal to get into the car, hoping to get rained on as much as possible.
Once in the car I waited a while until the rain calmed down. But later when I was driving it got worse than even before. It was crazy. But really fun.
At home we ate and then when the rain had calmed down to a sprinkle we went back outside. It was still hot! But it was fun anyway and the highlight of the day (maybe my kids’ entire week!) was when Brooklyn found a baby frog (probably a toad, really) in our driveway. 


Payson and Ember play so sweetly and quietly together at bedtime. It’s actually extremely difficult to make them go to bed because they’re being so darn cute!! 
Over the weekend they stayed up two hours past their usual bedtime. It makes me sad that Payson’s in school. They are such good friends and miss each other during the day. 

A company contacted Allan about a job (well, two!) that they wanted to interview him for. He hadn’t applied for the job, they just heard about him and decided to initiate! So this company is a good company and the jobs (one where we want to move to, one in Colorado- where we don’t want to move to) are awesome. We’re pretty excited and anxious to hear more information. I think he has a second interview really soon and we’re hoping that means we’re moving soon! But I’ve been let down so freaking much I’m trying to mentally prepare for living here in Arizona for the rest of the year. If I plan for that I won’t be so let down if that’s what happens. There’s a lot going on with Everett coming in two months so, I can deal with it.
But I still prefer to move! ha
Anyway, Allan was sending off a thank you email for the interview he’d had that week. Ember watched. 

And I’m spent.