Just peachy

I was excited to get 27 quarts of peaches bottled this year, all from my parent's peach tree. I love the feeling of accomplisment after doing something like this. So easy, yet so productive. I love it!

I decided it would be a good idea to get a picture of the peach tree this year. It has been around my whole life but lately it seems to be struggling. My mom is doing her best to keep it alive but I thought I would get some pictures just in case...

This tree is so wonky looking. As the years have gone by, limbs have been hacked away as parts of it have been dying. I guess it would be a better picture if I could remove the neighbor's house but since that's not an option, we'll enjoy this tree in its element.



I brought Livvy outside with me to be my tree model. When I first put her in the tree she was a little nervous, looking around and checking things out.



And after a couple minutes- she was like stop taking pictures and get me the heck out of this crazy tree.

"T"

My little Taylor. He is growing up so fast. He is such a good little boy and I find so much joy having him in our family.

This morning he woke up all cheery (probably because he is off-track from school) and gung-ho to help make breakfast.

He pulled out plates, cups, and forks for himself and the girls.
Opened the pantry and pulled out the bread- popped it in the toaster.
Over to the fridge and pulled out the butter and juice.
Then back to the fridge for some eggs that he then put in a bowl for me to scramble.

And all the while chattering on about how much he loves me and giving me a play-by-play of his breakfast preparations.

After breakfast he followed me up to my room, chatting my ear off, and happy as a little clam. I grabbed my camera and he was more than happy to oblige me with some cute smiles and silly faces. He then helped me take pictures of Livvy covered in marker and then proceeded to walk around the house photographing our day. He absolutely loves to take pictures.

I am grateful for days like today when I am reminded of how sweet my littly guy really is. I love having Taylor around. He is silly, energetic, sweet, fun, and wreaks (literally, on occasion) of boy! I love you T!

It's a hair thang

The last couple of months I have gotten the itch to do more with the girl's hair. I've looked at some hair-do blogs here and there and have been trying some new things. They don't have much hair which is probably the biggest challenge. But hey, we do not accept defeat in this house. And so I say, braid on...

I am surprised and oh so proud at how well they sit still. While I do my thing, we chat about this and that. It really is kind of fun. I let them choose the colors of elastics they want in their hair and that seems to make all the yanking and pulling okay. Afterwards we go over to the big mirror, pull a little mirror out of the cupboard, hold it up, and ooh and ahh over the "do" of the day. It's fabulous.

Saturday was the mack-daddy hair-do day at our house. As Sebastian in the Little Mermaid would say, "this was the pinnacle of my distinguished career." (I think I may spend a little too much time watching that movie...)

I separated Sara's hair into 4 sections, french braiding each section to the middle, where I gathered all her hair into a bun and tacked a little bow on. It was so cute... so cute, in fact, that I had to bring out the camera. And so, for your viewing pleasure- ISN'T IT CUTE? I was dying. I couldn't believe that she held so still. I was proud of her because she had to put her head in all kinds of weird positions to pull it off. No pain, no gain.



We don't do braids in Livvy's hair yet. She doesn't have enough hair. But even more than that, she wouldn't hold still so we don't even try it. However, she does usually hold still and let me do elastic braids in her hair. We've opted to do that a lot lately and have come up with lots of different fun designs. Here is the one we did on Saturday:



Thanks for looking. I love my cute girls! They are so fun.

Tick Tock

I would like to take just a minute to tell you how Livvy spends a large majority of her time...



...in the tub.

She has been known to have 3 baths in a day. And no, that's not every once in a while. It's frequent. Often. Dare I say, daily? If she isn't in the bathtub for something she rubbed, colored, smashed, or spilled on herself, she will be in there just because someone else is. As soon as she hears the water running, she appears from the far reaching corners of the house, running like a wild banshee- clothes and diaper flying, just to get in and take a dip.

Today, of course, was no exception.

I found her behind the lazy boy. This, my friends, is why I purchase washable markers.



Upon closer inspection, I noticed that not only is this a happy place for her to artistically express herself, she is also using this area as a top-secret hideout to stash stolen goods (Raisin Nut Bran and pineapple juice) from an earlier pantry raid. And to incriminate herself even further (as if the marker isn't incriminating enough), she left her basket of toys right alongside the evidence. Gotcha baby!



Isn't she perty?

Not your ordinary corn on the cob

Oh how I love this baby! She always keeps us laughing!

A couple weeks ago we threw some meat on the grill. It was expensive meat so we opted to provide hotdogs for the 5 and under crowd. After bustling to get everything on the table, we sat down. One turn in Livvy's direction and we realized we had dinner and a show. Leave it to Livs (scantily clad at the dinner table, ta boot!) to find an alternative use of her corn skewers.

You only wish your hair was that awesome!

Dance Dance Revolution

Sara started dance this week. She spends 85% of her day running around the house singing at the top of her lungs and twirling around and around and around (makes you dizzy just reading it, doesn't it?). I figure it's time we make this official and get some actual technique intermixed with her love of twirling and spastic body contortions. I opted for ballet/jazz in order to work on her poise and grace. Before her lessons were over, she had already mastered the arabesque ballet position (first time I have ever used that word in my life- you all know my history with dance and coordination- not pretty, which is another reason I started her in dance at an early age- my gene pool isn't doing her any favors).

Dave and I were talking the other day about signing Sara up for dance. I mentioned that I can't do a cartwheel. Never EVER have I done one. I know, pathetic. But anyway, I was saying how I want Sara to do dance and tumbling for a while to get the basics down- learn a cartwheel or whatever. And Dave was like "I never took dance and I can do a cartwheel." Wawawa... Zip it mister.

Before we left to her dance class, we went out in the front yard to snap some pictures. I didn't tell her to pose- she just started throwing poses at me right and left. With Sara it always comes to the point where I have to tell her to just STOP and look at me. No posing. No smiling. Just look. And maybe we get a decent shot.



She was SO SO SO excited to start dance. I stayed and watched her during her first class. She was so cute leaping over cones, holding onto the bar and doing her arabesque, and sliding across the floor like a snake! I was so happy that she was having such a great time. After she came out she couldn't stop laughing. She does this dorky little laugh over and over and over when she gets excited. After her class, she kept cocking her head to the side, posing, and laughing. I really need to record it on the video camera sometime. Absolutely priceless.

And when we got home, you better believe it, she still had some poses up her sleeve.

Spencer turns 3 months old

This little baby of ours is just growing too fast. I am loving every second of him. He is so cute and squishy and good.

Here's the low-down on our little guy:

• He has started kicking. A blanket never stays on him for very long.
• He has also started cooing and jabbering. I love that he has found his voice. It's the sweetest thing in the world.
• He is getting stronger and is starting to use his legs to push against me when I am holding him up.
• He is becoming much more social and loves to be around people. I think he has realized that he is part of a family and wants to be in the mix of things all the time. If I leave the room, baby ain't happy. He likes to sit in his chair and watch me make dinner. He gets pretty offended if we put him in the swing while he is awake.
• He had a cold this past month- it wasn't too bad, just a little congestion. He has a clogged tear in his right eye and most of the cold manifested itself in his eye. Love the eye sludge. We got him an eye drop from the doctor and things cleared up quickly.
• According to Taylor, Spencer says the following words: "up" and "help".
• He is the happiest little guy. He is always ready with a smile. He likes when we run his legs and clap his hands together or cross his arms across his chest. He laughs and we melt.
• He is still sleeping through the night and I lalalalove it! Thanks Spenny.
• Sometimes I call him "Penny" but then I take it back because it seems like a girl name. It just slips out! I've also been calling him "Spenny Spenuel" but the kids let me know that is not his name. Good thing I have these kids around to keep things straight...

Here's a few shots of the little guy throughout the month. He's kind of hard to photograph seeing as how he has no neck.

Here he is showing off one of the many blankets that his grandma has made for him. He is just so chubbers!

He isn't particularly interested in my desire to document his cute little face for posterity. As soon as he catches sight of the camera, all personality turns off and he's like "get that thing outta my face!" My friend gave him this cute little outfit covered in dinosaurs. Super cute! I tried it on him and was taking some pictures. He wasn't having it! He just gave me that "Step down mama- I'm done with taking pictures already" look.

Sara loves to mother Spencer. She plays with him and helps me watch him all the time. Sometimes she plays a little rough and needs to be reminded not to sever his head from his body but we work around that and I don't think he is suffering any ill effects.

The other day I tried to take a few pictures of him with this little hat on. It wasn't a very succesful experience. That said, I love all the pictures I got because they epitomize a photo session with a 3-month-old baby. All his little faces... I could eat him. I love his little round chin and how the rest of his chubby face just pudges around it.

A smattering of love

If you are interested in having your kids gush all over you and tell you how much they love you (for maybe 5 mintues- soak it up because they forget rather quickly) then rent one of these for your backyard:



I went from being "the meanest mom in the world" to "the bestest mom in the world" all in about 2 seconds, once they realized what was out in the backyard.

Dave's summer work party was at our house Saturday night. It was fun people, good food, and most definetly a good time for the kids.

Hair today, Gone tomorrow...

Here are a couple shots of my cute dad. He and my mom had just arrived home from being gone on vacation for over a week and he let his facial hair grow out. None of us had ever seen him with this much of a beard before! We had to take a few pictures because he had to shave it off to go to work the next day. Love the eye brows dad- what a great arch!





Livvy was not to be out done- if grandpa can have a beard then so can she...

This kid can't catch a break

Funny Faces

Last week we went to a little work shin-dig Aunt Nat had going on. I told myself to grab the camera but figured there was no way I would need it. Hello! I always need my camera. It's like an appendage of my body. What was I thinking?

The kids got their faces painted and they all looked fantastic! I wasn't able to get pictures of them until we got home.

Taylor got painted like Darth Maul. I think the face-painter lady was a little thrown by Taylor's request for something Star Wars. A lot of the little boys were running around with Batman across their faces. Dave, being a Star Wars snob and all, let me know this looks nothing like Darth Maul. Oh. Huh. I thought it looked pretty good. However, now that I take a closer look, he probably looks more like a red and black tiger. But shhhh...don't tell Taylor. Eating dinner and running around like a crazy kid removed a lot of his make-up, especially on his chin but it's still cute. You should have seen the ring around the tub after this boy got out of the bath- and I had just cleaned the bath the day before!



The girls got their faces painted like princesses.

Livvy looked so darn cute with her eyes opened up. A lot of the make-up is gone but she had a cute de-cal in the middle of the heart on her forehead and her eyelids were glittery blue. I just want to eat this baby up! She is so fun and so cute. Aunt Nat was with her when she got her face done and she said she had this look of terror on her face while the lady was painting away. Ahhh... Livvy is just so funny.



And here's my other princess, out like a light. Her decal is also missing from her forehead. Unlike Livvy, she loved having her face painted, knowing she was going to look like a princess. It's fun to watch her being so girly all the time.

The Power of Two

Dave went to Zion's last weekend with my brother Russ, my sister Kristina, and my cousin Mike and his wife Kendra. Originally I was planning on going on this trip (you know, before they changed destinations and planned a hike I couldn't go on) but then plans changed, and me and Aunt Nat (Russell's wife) decided to stay home, me- nursing a baby, and her- incubating one.

For some reason, when Dave goes out of town, I get all productive. I had a secret plan formulating in my head to upgrade our bed from "patchwork-quilt-covered mattress thrown in the back of a covered wagon" to "something and/or anything other than what is currently on the bed." Because yes, with the Midvale 5th ward wedding quilt (queen size) stretched over the King size bed, things weren't lookin' so hot in my bedroom.



And so, when Nat casually mentioned going over to IKEA, I was all over it, but only after explaining to her what taking 4 kids, 5 and under, into that store may do to our sanity. She deserved fair warning but that crazy coot- she was still all over it so we threw caution to the wind and headed to IKEA. This was my first trip to IKEA. I know, where have I been? (at Target) I am so happy my first experience at IKEA was with a seasoned professional. Seriously. I wouldn't have known what to do without Nat as our guide.

With two kids strapped in a stroller and a couple more stashed in a cart, we took on IKEA and we owned it. After a crazy run through the kid section, we made our way over to the bedding. It took only a few minutes for us to find something perfect! With that, we hit things into high gear. I explained to Nat that I have a hard time thinking things through with my kids screaming in my ears so she just needed to start tossing any and all necessary bedding items into the cart. And so, with that, we were like a tornado. It was brilliant. In no time, I was at the check out and Nat was chillin' at the cafe stuffing herself and my kids with cinnamon rolls.

So here's the breakdown- Dave's weekend looked a little something like this:









Ahhh... good times hiking the Subway.

And my weekend looked a little something like this:





Whaaaat? I know, what is up with the paint? Well, let's just say I have a tendancy to get a little carried away sometimes...

We got home from IKEA probably around 9:30. We were so excited to get the bed put together. We put the kids to bed, put the bed together, oohed and ahhhed, and went downstairs. We ate, we chatted, and then my eye made its way over to my back entryway (which is painted blue). And I thought to myself, "Hey, I wonder if that blue is about the same color I would need to paint a wall in my room." We went out to the garage to see if I had any paint left over. And hello, I practically had an entire gallon! I opened the can and the paint was all separated and looked bad. I thought it was probably ruined but decided to stir it up and see what would happen. After a quick stir, the paint was good as new and ready to go. Suh-weet.

We ran upstairs, did a test spot and decided this was the perfect color. I took one look at Natalie and said, "I am doing this tonight". We were all giggly and excited because hello! PAINT IS FUN. I went around the house rummaging together all my paint supplies. The only thing missing- a paint pan. After a few minutes of brainstorming- the perfect solution popped into my mind- a cookie sheet! Really, when I get an idea this good and this exciting- there is just about nothing stopping me! And so, we painted, we laughed, we talked, we slept and had so much fun. It just gets so exciting to have a surprise in the works! We were loving it!

This picture is a real charmer but it's the only one we took of us together.



Saturday morning I went out and bought the brown color for the walls. The kids were so excited and wanted to help. I let them all have a turn. Poor little Livvy accidentally put her hand on the wall when the paint was still wet. She came over to me, showed me her hand, and then her little bottom lip came out and she burst into tears. It was sweet.

The room was totally finished Saturday night and put back together for "the big reveal" the next day. (This is sounding strangely familiar to an episode of "While you were out" on TLC.)

I packed up the kids in the car and headed to church on Sunday. Dave arrived home while we were gone. The kids were so excited when we got home and saw daddy's car in the garage. They tore into the house and ran full-speed straight up to our room, thinking daddy would be up with the surprise, while Dave stood in the kitchen watching them run right past him.

Here is our room in all its glory! I can't tell you how happy I am to have some color on the walls in our room! We have been married for more than 8 years and our room has always been U-G-L-Y. Not fun. It is well on its way to being a happy haven for us and I love it! And so does Dave. How could he not love it? All that work- and he didn't have to do any of it.



I can't wait to buy bedroom furniture now! Me and Nat were this close (hold your thumb and pointer finger really really really close together) to buying furniture. But then reality stepped in and we realized there was no way on planet earth we were going to get furniture in there in a day, without a man to move it. But mark my words- the day will come- hopefully sooner than later! Right now I'm still just happy with paint, bedding, and lots and lots of fluffy pillows. Twelve, to be exact. You can never have too many pillows.

Thanks for the good times Nat.

Star shine!

Sara is now officially in preschool! She goes to "I'm a Star" Preschool. She has been waiting and waiting and waiting for preschool to start for about a year now. Dropping off and picking up Taylor from preschool the last 2 years has given her a lot to look forward to. Her teacher, Ms. Wendi, runs the preschool out of her house. She is so good with the kids and Sara is loving it so far! Me, Livvy, and Spencer came to see Sara in her classroom on the first day- she was being spotlighted for her birthday. It was fun to see her at school. We watched her through the dark one-way window and she was being good and having fun! Go Sara!

I took some pictures of Sara before she left to go to school. She told me, "Okay, no more pictures mom." What do you think of this pose?



Sara with Ms. Wendi

Sara turns 4!

Yesterday was Sara's birthday. Woot! Woot! Partay. We celebrated with loads of family & friends, boxes of pizza, and gluttonous amounts of cake and icecream. It was fun! Sara requested to have a Tinkerbell party. We decked out the house with Tink, including a big ole Tinkerbell balloon, which actually may have been a little more freaky than festive but whatever- she's 4- she loved it!

Sara is all about being involved in the planning of big events. She loves parties. A couple weeks before her birthday I was talking to her about her party. Chattering excitedly, she ran over to the cupboard, pulled out a tiny notebook and started writing (3-year-old chicken scratch, of course) invitations to all her friends and family. She would tear each piece of paper out of the notebook and put it in a pile. She had quite the pile of papers on the floor when all was said and done. She really really really wanted to have a game at her party. While at the party store (love the party store), I came across "Pixie Bingo". Perfect! I was worried that things would be too hectic to have a game but it actually worked out nicely. The kids loved getting prizes and it kind of corralled them all for a while and calmed the chaos.

Even Ethan and Taylor enjoyed some Pixie Bingo!

Opening gifts at parties involving small children always leaves me feeling a bit frantic. I've been thinking about this the last couple of days because really, it freaks me out. It brings me back a couple of years ago to when we took the kids to feed the fish at Gardner Village. One piece of bread dropped into the water and suddenly, out of nowhere, large numbers of fish are frantically swimming and jumping all over the place. It was a feeding frenzy. This was the direction the gift opening was going at Sara's party. Neighbor children were grabbing gifts and trying to open them. Kids everywhere, "helping" Sara. Hello. Not a free-for-all, people. This is a birthday party for Sara, who has a control-freak of a mother. Step back. I felt like I needed to put on an orange vest, grab a whistle, and assert my neurotic self with some serious crowd control. Next year I am roping off the area and putting on protective eye wear. No really.

On to the cake- the first gulp of air Sara breathed in and expelled onto the cake completely missed the candles. The second attempt was more successful- she got three! And with one more blow, she had all four candles out! An impressive showing, if I do say so myself. Anytime the kids don't spit on the cake, I let out a sigh of relief. It brings back vivid memories of being at family birthday parties when I was a kid- standing around the birthday cake screaming the 'Happy Birthday' song at the top of our lungs. And then- looking on with wild excitement only to see the beautiful cake barraged with a shower of birthday wishes and spit. We would let out loud groans and moans, muttering to each other that there was no way we were going to eat that cake. Good times, my friends, good times.

I guess I fit into the role of one of those mothers, you know, the ones who buy their kids things in the excitement of the moment, only to realize later that it was a bad, bad idea. Hey peeps, no judgements here because I am guessing, just a shot in the dark, that you are one of those mothers too. So yes, what I am trying to say is that I bought Sara some play make-up. It was probably the most treasured gift of the night. At some point, a few of the girls made their way upstairs to Sara's room to glam themselves up. I didn't notice they were even gone until my neighbor showed up to retrieve her kids. Upon entering Sara's room, we found 6 little girls, faces all aglow with glitter infused grease. I think Sara's goal was to cover every inch of her face. Not only did she accomplish that, but she also had her chest covered as well.

Here she is with her little friend Mary

And here she is again... This is the current "Sara pose". Whenever the camera is on her, she immediately assumes this position- head to the side, hands on her hips. She is such a poser and it drives me nuts! Just smile normal! Is that too much to ask? (Don't answer that)

Make-up is all fine and dandy until you want it to come off! The stuff does not come off easily. And all the glitter! Oh, the glitter! Nightmare. Poor little Spencer has been sporting a shimmery, glittery head from all the kisses and love the girls were giving him. Though I never thought I would say this... it's a good thing Livvy vaselined her head a few weeks back because I am now equipped with every de-greaser you can imagine. A few minutes in the tub with a bar of Lava soap and Sara was as good as new. Well, all except the glitter. I'm sure we will be finding a sparkle of glitter here, there, and everywhere for the next little while. But you know what? It was all worth it because she has loved every second of the make-up. She puts on her make-up and twirls around the house singing, calling herself Gabriella Butterfly Flower. And she's in heaven.

And for those of you thinking that maybe Livvy would let the day fly by without incident, you are WRONG!

A few minutes before guests began arriving, Olivia came down the stairs looking like this:

And here is a very sad Livvy because she knows she is in trouble and "mommy does not have time to give you a bath!" But mommy did. And Livvy survived. And so did mommy. But mommy was not happy when, after her bath, Livvy came downstairs and opened one of Sara's wrapped gifts! Oh, and just in case you are wondering... it's mascara.

Sara had a fun day filled with happy things. She deserved it. We love her more than anything. Happy Birthday Miss Sara! We love you!

A few things about Sara:

• She can be such a good helper around the house. She especially likes to help wash the storm door.
• She likes to organize.
• She likes to surprise mommy by cleaning her bedroom, including making her bed.
• She likes to wash her babies, and just about anything she can get her hands on, in the 1/2 bath sink.
• She loves pink and purple, and sometimes orange.
• She likes to wear lots of colors- none of this matching stuff...
• She likes to do her own hair.
• She wants to be a princess when she grows up.
• She likes to pick flowers from the yard.
• She doesn't like to buckle her car seat.
• She doesn't like shorts- just pants and skirts for this girl.
• She twirls around the house singing princess songs and "Sara songs".
• She eats like a bird, unless it's food from my plate.
• Some of her favorite things to eat are chicken nuggets- dipped in ranch, red punch, popcorn, chips in a bowl, and salad.
• She LOVES to take a bath.
• She very much wants to do everything herself.