experimenting with language

Linus, to Todd: "Ahoy, Captain Boy!"

stranger than fiction

A shot from the local paper of the fire

Late this afternoon we learned that our area of town was under evacuation notice because of a chemical fire nearby. Todd came home from work, we loaded up the kids, and drove about 5 minutes up the road to the town next door. We spent a very pleasant evening with some friends there, eating dinner, playing with toys, visiting. Kind of an elaborate excuse for a social call, isn't it? Thankfully, we're home now and have clean air to breathe.

I heart two

Two years old is my second favorite age for children (for the record, four months old is my favorite). Casper is still a month shy of the magical TWO, but he is full of all the two year old charm and cleverness, and the language explosion that happens around this time is starting. His favorite sentence is, "I do it!" and he wants to do everything himself -- buckling into the car seat, getting clothes and shoes on/off, even going potty in the potty on occasion. He's so proud of all these accomplishments.

He's talking in full sentences all the time and even Linus and Gwendolyn can easily understand him. Even if he could get his point across in a single word, he goes for the full sentence, "More grapes, please Mama."

Most impressive to me was when he was recently explaining a movement to a new song he'd learned at church. He told us: "This is my arm -- watch -- hamm[er]ing," then hit his fist into his open palm.

And just so no one thinks he is always a great communicator, when he isn't understood the first time he tells you something, or if you don't immediately respond to a request, he resorts to shrieking (or, if you happen to be Linus, biting).

I'm enjoying him so much right now. Also, damn is he ever cute!

meet julia

This is Julia Brooks, a Hogwarts first year student who was sorted into Ravenclaw House. She recently went shopping for school supplies in Diagon Alley. She is pictured here with her bag of wizard gold, some spell books, her new wand, and her pet owl. {This entire storyline was created by Gwendolyn alone and she's been bullying her brothers and father into playing along. She loves to earn points for Ravenclaw by doing extra chores around the house. I love that, too.}

nature spot, july

grateful sunday

This week I'm grateful for:

• the weather we've had this week. Some rain, lots of overcast days, breezy nights. It almost doesn't feel like July in Texas.
• the good health of my family. A week of strep throat really makes you appreciate a healthy body.
• the three kittens that still share our home. They really are so sweet and adorable.
  

insult to injury

As if its not bad enough that an apartment complex is going up in our backyard, the building directly behind our house, the building I see each time I look out my kitchen window, has been painted pepto-bismol PINK.
My greatest hope is that no one will want to live in the pink building, affording us a bit more privacy.

grateful sunday

I'm taking a blog page out of the books of my Houston friends Leslie and Natalie. They've done Grateful Sunday posts for years and I've always loved those entries.

This week I'm grateful for:

• the wonderful father that Todd is. He had the worst of the strep throat, the oral surgery and a big writing project taking up most of his free time. Every day he found plenty of time to play and read Harry Potter, talk about and manipulate Transformers, and read books about Lowly Worm over and over again. There's no question why these kids adore their daddy so very much.
• modern medicine and health insurance. With strep throat making the rounds in our family, I'm so thankful that we were able to get into the doctors' offices for tests and antibiotics the same days each of us began feeling symptoms.
  
• the bit of rain we got over the weekend! Even a half hour reprieve from the drought and heat was cause for much rejoicing.
  

excuses, excuses

This poor blog has been pretty neglected lately, but it has been a trying week for our little family. Lots of sickness and some more oral surgery for Todd has made the week feel especially long. But you know what? A new week is about to begin!

sore

Earlier this evening, Linus and I spent some quality time at the urgent care clinic where we were both diagnosed with strep throat. I'm trying not to think about how crummy I feel, how messy my house is or how much tv my kids watched today.

travelog, day 5

Monday was a bittersweet day for us. We had to say goodbye to the Turley family (which meant Gwennie saying goodbye to Zoe). Thankfully we have our memories, and this photo Todd put together of the girls dancing to a song from Gwennie's playlist, "Wildcat," transposed to the Serengeti.

During the reunion, the girls decided to perform the song as an interpretive dance, which they choreographed extensively outside before coming in to present their feral moves.

We spent the afternoon and evening driving to Grandma and Grandpa's house (something which Linus, in particular, had been looking forward to) with a stop for dinner at "Pickle's Place." This restaurant is in the tiny Idaho town of Arco, but boasts a giant rocking chair and some pretty good fried pickles.

travelog, day 4

We attended the sacrament meeting of a local ward, which was very nice. Our group was large, so we weren't all able to sit together. At one point during the meeting, Casper decided he wanted to go and sit with his Daddy, so he scrambled off the pew, walked to the back of the chapel, turned and walked straight out the door. Thank you to Grandpa for going after my boy and delivering him safely to Todd.

Lydia with baby Gabriel, Zoe with baby Felix, Gwennie with baby Christian

We spent the rest of the day with family, of course. There were so many babies to be held (three boys born this year) and cousins to play with. I love the sweet friendship between Gwennie and Zoe. They enjoy each other so much and play so sweetly together. I'm glad they have each other (since 17 of the 20 cousins are boys).

The girls were out back "exercising" with crunches and push-ups before we snapped this photo. Fun game, kids!

travelog, day 3

We celebrated the 4th of July with a little family reunion. Lots of time spent together with good food, good company and lots of kids (18 of the 20 cousins were there). We had an auction of handmade goods, just like last year, and to include the kids, we made them all little goody-bags (uh, just like last year). This is certainly one of my favorite traditions.
That night, Gwennie had a sleepover with Zoe at the hotel and Todd and I put our other two exhausted kids down for bed early (sorry boys -- no fireworks for you this year).

Then we drove to a town about half an hour outside of Boise and visited with some of my friends from High School/Arizona who I haven't seen in years and years. It was so wonderful to reconnect with them and great to catch up and see all their cute little kids.

travelog, day 2: the wedding

The main reason for our trip to Idaho was to attend and celebrate the wedding of Todd's brother Stephen to Shawna. The wedding was perfection. It took place at a ranch just outside of Boise. The ceremony and reception were both outside on the lawn overlooking a beautiful pond. Gwennie and her cousins Zoe and Lydia were flower girls.

They were so adorable and thrilled with their duties, realizing how important it was for the bride to walk on a bed of flower petals.

And the brothers of the flower girls

The reception was just about as kid-friendly as they come with sparklers, bubbles, a bounce house and a pinata (in the form of a wedding cake topped with the bride and groom, made by the bride and groom) with great food which included hot dogs, hamburgers, cupcakes and raspberry lemonade.

Casper was an absolute junkie. He drank cup after cup of lemonade, waiting for strangers to refill his glass and then wandering around swiping neglected cupcakes off of other people's plates. Not really wedding etiquette, but it was amazing to watch him in action.

After the reception, most of the family drove to a nearby church building where Todd's brother Ian blessed his new baby son, Christian. What a blessing that we could all be there for this event, since Ian and Sarah now live in Alabama.

And some other favorite photos from the day:

Nana and Casper

The four toddlers. A re-creation of last year's "four babies" photo

travelog, day 1

Last night we drove to Dallas and spent the night at Granny and Grandad's house. Today we got up at 5.30 in the morning and hopped a plane to Idaho. It was actually a couple of planes. The kids did amazingly well. After the first leg of the trip, a man seated near us on the plane said of Casper, "He's done so well on this flight! I've actually enjoyed all the little noises he's been making." Music to the ears of any mother who has had a child scream through an entire flight.

During the second leg of the trip, Casper actually fell asleep in Todd's arms. Of course, I made Todd hand Casper over to me since holding sleeping babies is my absolute favorite activity in the world.We arrived in Boise in time for a late lunch with Stephen and Shawna, Ian and Sarah and Shawna's family and friends. I want to always remember how excited our server was about Linus's red hair ("Rojo!") and how shy this reaction made little Linus.