My Girls

A conversation with Evie today:

Me: How was your nap?
E: Good. I slept with my princess. And my girls. (Except she can't say L's, so it comes out as "I swept wif my pwincess. And my goo-wews." Her "girls" are her 2 baby dolls, currently named Caroline and Chocolate).
Me:Did they sleep too?
E: Yes. My girls were hungry. So we had a snack.
Me: What did you make?
E: Pancakes. And drinks ("twinks.")
Me: Good.
E. But they were really hot. So I threw them out.

Another good suggestion from Evie this week: I asked her what we should name baby sister. Her idea? "Chocolate Milk." Perfect.

Projects

Ken was busy while we were gone. Can I just say, I love having a husband who is a handyman?

He put in new light fixtures.

Set up our new bedroom set (and painted the master bathroom a lighter shade of green - it looks great). We are pretty darn excited about this -- we've never had a dresser in our bedroom, let alone a whole set.

He painted our main floor bath and put in new light fixtures and a faucet.

I finally finished my project - a quilt for the baby. I'm really happy with the way it turned out (especially because I don't sew).

Now I just have to work on getting the nursery set up!

A First Time for Everything

We had our first time with stitches on Sunday. I knew it had to happen sooner or later. I was just surprised it was Evie who broke us in instead of Luke (the boy for whom the world is a trampoline). To be fair, Luke has gotten skin glue and once, when he was about 15 months old, he cut his hand pretty badly and probably should have gotten stitches -- but I just went over to a friends house and we taped it up really well). But these were the first actual stitches.

Of course, it happened in Utah in the primary room and there was a ton of blood. But after 30 minutes in the local urgent care we were on our way home with 2 stickers, a fruit roll up and a Dora band-aid. Evie did pretty well, despite the tears and repeated "I all done now! I all done now!" Now she just proudly shows off her owie.
We

Grandma's Magical Backyard

The kids and I (plus Caroline and her kids) are partying in Utah this week while Ken holds down the fort (he's calling it his stay-cation) , training for his triathalon, and doing some stuff around the house.

The trip out here was uneventful and the kids are having a blast. My parents have essentially the coolest house in the world - with the best backyard.

Yesterday we picked 2 buckets full of the hugest, sweetest blackberries.

Happy Luke - he dug in the bushes like a champion.

Grandma and Ryan picking some berries.
Luke and Mommy


Caroline and I took care of the taste testing.

Crazy haired Evie lasted about 2 minutes and 3 berries - then went to play in the sandbox.
The boys then started a waterfight with water from the outside drinking fountain.

Then Grandpa joined in and was declared the winner after he hosed everyone down.

Today

I'm grateful for the recession and Ken's unemployment.

I came home from work today to find this cooling on my counter:



My sink looked like this:


And there were flowers on the table because I've been lucky enough to be married to this guy for 7 years today:



We played frisbee in the rain with these crazy kids (Evie loves being wet):


Then spent our date-night picking out paint colors and walking around the downtown lakes, listening to some old-school band at the bandshell, daydreaming about the houses and watching the boats.

I sure love you, honey!

We spent last weekend in the Wisconsin Dells with my entire family. I'm a little annoyed because we have still never gotten to go to an outside waterpark there (it was in the 60s and rainy!) but we had fun anyways. We stayed in some beautiful condos right on one of the lakes. Luke and Ryan L-O-V-E-D the waterpark and I was surprised at how many of the big slides they both went on! Luke's gotten so much braver in the water this past year.

We ate lots of great food and played some cutthroat games of canasta (my family's favorite fame, complete with lots of sniping -- blame it on my Grandma Walton, the ultimate cardshark. Our husbands have basically vetoed playing with us). We spent Saturday outside playing mini golf (Danica's friend Zack was the big winner), racing pedal carts and playing trampoline-basketball challenges. I almost beat Ken, despite my obvious disadvantage doing anything requiring jumping right now.

Thanks for a great weekend!

Danica and Zack chilling on the rocks. Evie loved Zack. Obesessed.

Grandma and Grandpa showing Evie the lake.
There was this little flock of baby ducks that had absolutely no fear. They came right up to the kids and even nibbled at Luke's big toe. Ryan decided he wanted to kiss a bird (that kid is hilarious) - and almost got his wish.


Calvin got buried in the sand.

The kids loved the food.

Evie enjoyed her ketchup.
Ryan enjoyed his slushie.
Calvin enjoyed the oranges.

And the sand.

Ken was pretty darn good on the boogie-boarding ride, even showing up some of the 16 year olds. Check out those arms!

Happy (Belated) Birthday to me

I had a lovely birthday last week. I slept in, had breakfast with Ken and the Kids, and then Ken and I went out that night. My family came into town the next day and we headed off to the Wisconsin Dells for the weekend.

Here's Evie modeling my present from Ken - a jacket for the fall (it doesn't quite fit me right now)


The kids made some great cards


Thanks for all the wishes everyone!