You Decide

I'm not sure whether today should be labeled swim day, or poop day. So I'll let you decide.

It was supposed to be a lazy summer swim day. Just a lazy summer swim day. We had friends over all morning and early afternoon to play outside in the water. And boy did they play. Between the mini pool, sprinkler, slip 'n slide, and otter pops, the kids spend hours outside. It was great! I remember days like that when I was little. Days where you would spend the entire day in your swim suit. So here is the shot I got of my kids in their suits having some down time after their hours in the sun (cause I'm lame and didn't take any pictures outside), waiting to go swimming again for family home evening. Sounds like a nice day huh?

But this little one tried to steal the show, and turn it into a poop day. She did this by surprising me after her morning nap with a huge blowout. In her crib. Poop had squished out all over her bed. And the most disgusting things was that her little hands were covered in the poop she had been playing in. And her little mouth had poop around it. That's right! Emmie ate poop today!!!!!! I'm still completely disgusted. She, however, seems to be completely indifferent to the nastiness that occurred today. I guess she won't be scarred for life. Only her mother will. Oh, and you're welcome for not posting a picture of said nastiness.

Visitors!

Last week John's mom came to town for a visit. So that meant a week full of fun and cousins. We made a trip to the zoo, where apparently there is now a petting zoo. I've either missed it every time we've been to the zoo in the past, or it's new. I'm still not sure which!
Here are the kids with their grandma toward the end of the zoo. It was hot, and we were tired. (In case you couldn't tell that from the picture.)

We also got to go to a Hawks game for free thanks to Aunt Paige. For some reason free things are just better!

John's mom even helped me sew some curtains for Ainsley and Emmie's room. They were very simple, and yet I still required assistance. And thanks to her they are straight and even!
So, just to recap....We ate good food, hung out with family, and had a good time. It was a great week!

A little startling.

It's always a little startling the first time you walk in to get your baby from a nap and find them sitting there, playing contently, pulling the limbs off their babies and the blankets off the side of their crib. But that what Emmie is doing now. Sitting up on her own.I finally checked on her today because she had been asleep for so long. So it was a pleasant surprise when I found her sitting there playing. But holy cow...how is she old enough to be doing that!!!???

Father's Day

Although I don't have the pictures to prove it...I'm pretty sure I out did myself this year. Since John is the amazing father that he is, (Seriously. He is. He does tons around the house and to help out with the kids...more than a lot of Dad's I know. And because of that the kids adore him) this year I gave him his true hearts desire.........

A banana chair.

Yep, that's what he wanted and that's what he got. In fact for a while I had 2 in my possession for him. It's a long story, so I'll spare you the details, but he can now play his wii games 90's style. Nice. The kids also outdid themselves and made sweet videos of themselves dancing to the Black Eyed Peas song, 'Tonight's gonna be a good night." Which is both hilarious and sweet.

Happy Father's day John. We love you!

Ahhhhhhh, the Meridian Dairy Days Parade

The Good:

Free chocolate milk at the beginning of the parade

Plenty of muddy trucks during the parade...?

Gymnasts on the high bar flipping dangerously on a float moving at 10 mph.
Plenty of horses and beauty queens to last us till next year.

And last but not least....I'm back in my old jeans, so when I saw this shot I thought, "Not to shabby!"

The BAD:

Then I saw this front shot and thought, "Holy cow!!! I need to do some sit-ups!!!! I swear I don't usually look like this, but maybe I'm just kidding myself! Baby #3 has left my tummy in BAD shape! I guess I shouldn't complain too much though since I have only done sit-ups twice since Emmie was born.

The other sort of bad things were the float/ads ("floads"?), like this little gem,

I guess it's also considered a bad thing when you have to push your car during the parade...no joke!

The Weird/Mildly Inappropriate:

I'm not sure who this woman was with, or how John got the shot, but somehow it just seems strange.

Then we have the mildly inappropriate religious group that strutted down the street displaying the bad habits they had been freed from. But somehow I don't think we needed to know we were in the company of an ex-cutter.

Then there was the scary chainsaw clown on top of the bus advertising the corn maze this fall. What was especially creepy to me though was when the woman in front of the clown man shouted out to all the little children in a sweet voice, "Don't let the crazy clown get you!"

The icing on the cake:

When we took the kids in to see the animals and John had Ains walk up next to a cow to get a shot of her next to it, and the cow started moving around a bit. The next think we knew a woman was darting toward us (you can see her in the back of the picture) because apparently this was angering the cow. So we just left and went home.

Jealous

The other day I decided it was time to store, display, or throw away a HUGE stack of projects Ains had brought home from kindergarten the last few days of school. I kept the ones I wanted, snuck a few in the garbage, and then let Ains hang the ones she couldn't bear to part with in her room.

Owen was very jealous. And since he didn't have a huge stack of art projects readily available to hang on his wall he went and grabbed the tape and improvised.

I still don't know if my the handcuffs or the stuffed bunny taped to the wall is my favorite!

And on a completely unrelated note...........

Emmie prefers to sleep on her side or on her tummy. After one of her tummy naps I was amazed that I could see her hand print so clearly on her face. Fingernails, skin rolls, and all! You might have to make the picture bigger to fully appreciate the detail.

Emmie gave me a particularly hard time as I was trying to get this shot....so please ignore the fact that I'm squeezing her face while she's trying to lick my hand.

Summer Vacation....#1

Our vacations this summer won't be very large in number, or very exotic, or very far from home, or even very diverse for that matter. In fact, our vacationing is already more than half over. This is due in part to budgeting cuts :), and in part to having a baby in tow, but mostly due to having a baby in tow who has a dislike for the car !

So, I decided that our summer traveling would have to be no more than 2 hours form home (about the distance that Emmie travels well(although she traveled quite well this time, so maybe she's turning a corner)). And so far, the only place we can come up with to visit is McCall...so this weekend we went to McCall with my family for vacation #1, and later this summer we will go to McCall again with some friends for an overnight camping trip for summer vacation #2. I know, we're pretty exciting people!!!

But, as ordinary as this little get away seems, it was really relaxing and nice.

My parents were being sold a "time-share-ish" deal and were given a weekend stay in the facilities of the seller. Score! It was really nice to be the beneficiary of the free weekend without having to listen to the sales pitch. And the place was really nice. We got their Friday afternoon and were immediately impressed at how decked out this place was. Probably about 4,000 sq ft. Hot tub. Grill. Fire Pit. Four Tv's. A bedroom and bathroom for every family. And a huge bonus room with bunk beds, a flat screen, and pool table for the kids.

It was nice to be in the woods with out being "in" the woods. It smelled like camping when you walked outside. And I saw a deer walk right by the house one morning.
Plus it had an antler chandelier!!!! It doesn't get much better than that people!
The kids loved their "little" area of the house. We hardly saw them. They colored at the table. Set up toys in the little serving area. Played pool. Watched movies. Owen never wanted to leave. And when we were out and about, he just begged to go back so he could play.
Is it completely sad and nerdy that I made Owen wear water wings in the hot tub?
The men enjoying some quality relaxation time together..... with a fire glowing in the background....
Even Emmie had fun. She was a trooper considering she had to sleep in a closet! Seriously though, her little set up was great. There was a bathroom in our bedroom, so I would turn on the bathroom fan, put her to bed in her pack 'n play in our closet, and she slept like a baby!

We made a stop at the world famous ice cream alley. And my oldest child was sure to maintain her title as my messiest child.

We managed to fit in plenty of eating. I'm pretty sure I gained at least 5 pounds this weekend. I'm also pretty sure that one or more people will hate me for posting this picture of us eating breakfast.
We took in the sights of McCall, which takes about 30 minutes. Which is nice. Since we'll be doing it twice this summer : )!

And we found plenty of time to relax. John even managed to squeeze in some baseball time.

In our short 2 days we were also able to squeeze in a fire, s'more making, game playing, movie watching and lots of hanging out. It was great. I only wish it could have lasted all week. Or that my dad would have bought into the house so that we could enjoy this house more regularly. But, alas, there was a reality impatiently waiting for us to get back to it at home.

And the quote of the weekend goes to Owen who said while in the hot tub, "I love water in my pants!"

School's Out!!!

Here is a picture of Ains on her first day of school...

She decided to go out with style and wear the exact same outfit on the last day of school as the first. What a clever lady!
And then we had to get in some celebrating before the weather turned bad. So we headed over to grandma and grandpa's for some swimming and a BBQ. I think the kids swam for at least 4 hours. They were exhausted when they got home. I love it when kids get exhausted!

Check out Emmie's tongue! She has a new found love for sticking out her tongue...
And Ains hopped in the pool and didn't miss a beat. She was swimming around and jumping off the diving board within minutes. I was worried we would need a bit of practice, but apparently swimming is like riding a bike, once you learn you never forget. Except somehow Ains did manage to forget how to ride her bike. Hmmmm.

John gave ribs another go, and I must say this time they were delicious! He made his own rub and BBQ sauce, trimmed the fat and smoked them for a long time. They were awesome! He also smoked a pork roast with some of his rub and it was way good too.

And last but not least, the kids convinced grandpa to start a fire so we could roast some marshmallows before heading home. He obliged and the kids got to cram in a bit more sugar, to make up for all that was lost while swimming.

A pretty fun after school party I'd say!

Coming to an End

Yesterday was Ainsley's kindergarten graduation. It was really cute. Ains has been talking about the songs they would be singing for weeks! Their performance was entitled "Rumble in the Jungle" and included classics such as, "In the Jungle" and "5 Little Monkeys." In fact Ains got to be one of the monkey's that got snapped out of the tree. I'd post more pictures of the program, but they all look about the same!

And here is Ainsley getting her certificate of completion from her teacher.

Here she is with her teacher Mrs. Perry.

And with her proud parents!
Ains had a great time. She felt pretty special when she got her graduation presents. A Borders gift card and new Junie B. Jones book from grandma (she's already almost done with the book) and a Jonas brothers mp3 player from her parents (I found it on pinching your pennies a few months ago for a few dollars and just couldn't resist...so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it to her!)

On the way home from school I told her she could choose anything she wanted for lunch that day, thinking she would choose McDonald's or something. But she chose quesadillas (how do you spell that? :o)....this girl is easy to please!

Pictures I Found on my Camera

I found a picture that showed off Emmie's teeth. And since I know several of you have lost sleep wondering what she looked like with teeth, I thought I would go ahead and post a picture so you could have more restful nights!

I also found these next three pictures. I have no idea where I was when they were taken...so they caught me by surprise and I thought they were hilarious!
I still can't figure out what they were trying to be.

I also found these 2 of Emmie. This girl is desperate to be on the move! She rolls and scoots and gets up on her hands and knees but has yet to figure out how to crawl. She'll be into EVERYTHING soon, I'm sure of it!!!

When I first looked at this picture I thought John took it to show Emmie rolling around on the floor. Then I remembered that one night while I was at a meeting Emmie just fell asleep on the floor while John was with her. I still can't believe she did that. She is one that needs to be laid in her bed or wrestled with for an hour to go asleep...she NEVER just goes to sleep in random places!

Still cute though!




And here we have Owen's self bandaging. He scraped his knee and has been caring for it himself (I don't think he could be more independent if he tried). Quite the bandage, huh?!

And lastly a picture that just makes me chuckle. I think it's because somehow they were all caught at slightly off moments so they almost look a little scared mid smile. Definitely frame worthy!