Busy Lizzy

Yep, she's everywhere, and wanting so much to be  part of the gang.
I am convinced that she has that disease that makes you age super duper fast.
I swear just yesterday I was holding her in the hospital, fresh and new
and now, she is trying desperately to take her first solo steps in this wide open world.

It's so interesting to me how I pushed the twins to always get to the 'next phase' in their earlier years, pushing them to sit up, roll over, crawl, walk.
Now?
I'm over it.
Please somebody,
tell me where the pause button is.
Life is moving way too fast.



Somewhere along the way,
when I happened to blink,
my little twins grew up

and have taken their siblings right along with them.

And this mom isn't quite ready for that.

So please, Busy Lizzy,

Stop.

Come back

Be my little snuggle bug forever.

We LOVE gramma and grampa time!!

I don't know how time does it... 

the week gramma and grampa were here literally felt like a day.

We had such a blast with them!

Joshy loved his snuggle time

Sarah loved the trip time 

(Nauvoo trip - viewing the site where the saints crossed the river on that cold February day)

Seth loved challenging grampa to a game of 'guitar hero'

(and Ben 'helping' grampa through "The Eye of the Tiger")

Lizzy Really,

REALLY

Loved cookie time

(which with Grampa, was plentiful!)

Jerry loved the building time

(we put Grampa to work!  Three projects in three days...

He's going to need a vacation from his vacation!

Thank you so much Grampa!!

We now have:

Steps to the trampoline,

Shelves in the basement (that were filled up about 5 minutes after completion... when did you say you were coming back out?!)

and a ski rack in the garage...

(now we just need 'Santa' to fill the ski rack this Christmas...)

One of the Nauvoo highlights was definitely the horse ride by Gramma and Grampa's friend, President Hill.  He kept us spell bound for the entire hour as we toured less-known sectors of Nauvoo.

Our trip to Carthage - this one is the one that gets

me the most on the Nauvoo trip... the feeling there

can't really be described in mere words...

Grampa showing some of his 'magic' for the family home evening activity - the kids were in awe!!

What a rare treat to be able to go to the Newly restored Nauvoo temple.
Mom and dad did a session, then graciously watched the kiddos so we could do a session together
It was amazing!!

A whole lotta nothin...

... well, let me rephrase that...

a whole lotta:

summer playin

pool goin

bbqin

sprinkler-tramp jumpin

flower waterin

fun frolickin

kids gym playin

summer squealin

friends play datin

impromptu picnickin

silly gigglin

sleepin innin
rain dancin
late night movie watchin

pajama dayin

rice crispy treat makin

chocolate overloadin

ice cream truck chasin

ice cream sandwich gobblin

fireworks festin

road trip takin

gramma and grampa visitin

wood projects buildin

... but nothing on the schedulin summer!


... and I'm lovin it!!!

Month of Momentous Milestones

As our whirl wind spring slowed into a sunny summer, I sat back and one day realized that this extra time with the kiddos has been amazing.  Usually I am climbing the walls trying to find ways to entertain the kids as I crabbily countdown the days until school resumes.

This summer has been completely different.  I have loved having the kids home.  I love waking up and having a whole day to be all together and to just let the day unfold as we go on whatever little adventures suit our fancy.

All in all it has been a perfect change from our usually run-around-all-day-and-come-home-tired-and-crabby modes.

A few days ago, I was thinking about each of the children, and I realized that they are each in such a great mode right now.  One that I could so easily overlook as I busied ourself to death over the past 6 months.

We are doing a little reading course with Ben, and as I was watching him discover a whole new world of words, I went through each of the children in my mind and discovered that within the past month, each one of them has gone through a huge phase of milestones...

Elizabeth... well, I have decided that she lives life in hyperdrive.  She crawled at 6 months (starting out right in the middle of our move... great timing??!)

And is now so wanting to enter the walking world...

She gets so excited when she pulls herself up, and then tries so hard to take some steps out.  So far nothing close to success, but I have no doubt she will be running laps around me in the near future!She has also decided that baby food is, well, not for all babies.  She will only take a bit of the 'smooshy' stuff, and then she dives for the real food.  Her look of triumph when she get a piece of 'big people's' food is priceless :).

I wish I could have gotten a picture of Ben's face when he read his first story - it was the cutest thing ever.  Every single dimple made an appearance.  He was so proud of himself!  It's so fun to see him starting to come into his own instead of live in the wake of Seth and Sarah's activity schedule.

Joshy has entered the world of potties... *Shudder*.  I have to admit - there are many aspects of motherhood that I cherish.  Potty training is not one of those aspects.  Every time it shows up on the horizon, I tend to first push it off as long as possible (I can come up with some great excuses to push it off just a 'little bit' longer...), and then gripe, complain, and outright scream as we wind our way through the path to potty hood.  Wish me luck on this one!!

Seth and Sarah... well, I need to write a whole post about this one, but last month they turned the magical age of 8.  In our church, this is where they get to be baptized and start a whole new path in life.  Needless to say, it was a day full of amazing emotions.  I was trying so hard to make it memorable for them, and try to take time to capture the spirit and wonderment of it all in my own mind.  All in all, it was an incredible day filled with family, love, and a huge dose of the spirit.  Definitely one of those moments that as a parent gives me a tiny glimpse into the eyes of Heavenly Father as he looks down upon us, wanting us so much to do the right things and rejoicing when we take even the tiniest of baby steps back home to Him.

who needs a dog...

The one redeeming quality that I have missed with a dog is the 'automatic vacuum' that they offer.  Seriously, I never realized how much food we drop on the floor in any given day until we didn't have a dog to lap it all up... that is until Elizabeth became mobile...

yes, yes, I know... mother of the year award right here, folks!!!

(in my defense, I had just mopped the day before, and this was dry cereal that had spilled... does that lessen the shutter of all of the germaphobes out there??!)

More on the 4th...

We had an inaugural bbq to kick off the summer season.  I think 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays to do fun food creations.   It's right up there with Christmas.  And Halloween.  And Valentine's Day... and Easter... okay so pretty much every holiday is my favorite to have fun with food... :)

Seriously, I think it's against the law to hold a July BBQ without the traditional "flag cake"...

Daddy and Elizabeth at the 2nd ward 4th of July Breakfast


What, we aren't in 2nd ward, you say??

Well, they did say we could come back anytime we wanted...

and they were serving yummy breakfast in the morning...

How could we refuse??!

In all reality, this was one of Sarah's concerns about moving out of the ward... that we wouldn't be able to go to the 'parade'.  After breakfast, there is always a parade by the primary, and she made sure that attendance in the parade was part of the 'moving clause,' so we did make the trek back to let her shine :)

Here is Elizabeth doing her "I will not actually snuggle to let you know I'm sleepy... I'm merely 'resting my eyes' "  stance...

and this was how excited Seth was to be in the 'parade'... refusing to decorate a bike, or even bring one for that matter, and as I was snapping this picture, he is in the process of turning away... truly they are twins by birth only... :)

Keep it in English please :)

I have one small request to make... I really enjoy reading comments that people make on the blog... but could you please keep it in English?  I don't want to have to make the blog private, but I have thoughts of some super-secret terrorist organization communicating via the comments section and I can just picture homeland security knocking down my door for housing some big terrorist plot... (me, the drama queen??  Julie, I don't know where you get that thought at all!!)

... so please, for my benefit, lets keep it all in this mama's language :)

oh... crap!

... is a bad habit I have been trying to break.
I've transitioned myself into word choices such as
oh man!
dangarama!
oh mylanta! (this one I heard Josh repeating in exasperation when baby Elizabeth was trying to un-build his lego creation)
and just plain aaagggg!

... but today,
there simply was no substitute.

you see, we are neck deep into potty training mode around these parts.

... so far we have been hit and miss...
... some good days
... some .. not so good days,
(you see where this is going... those with weaker stomachs are invited to exit the blog now...)

but none have been quite like today...

Mom, "Hey Josh, do you want to wear you big boy underwear today?"
Josh (with all the gusto his two year old body could expound), "YES!!!"
Mom, "So, when you need to go pee, where are you going to go?"
Josh, "In my potty!!"
Mom, "awesome!  When you need to go poop, where are you going to go??"
Josh, "In my potty!!"
Mom, "awesome!"
...and then I proceed to do the 5 minute 'checks'  i.e. "Hey, Joshy, do you need to go potty?"

issue #1 - I walk into the kitchen to find him squatting on the ground, playing with leggos, doing his 'potty grunt'
mom, "Hey, Joshy, do you need to go potty?"
Josh, "jus a minute, mommy, I not done going poopy..."
mom quickly picks him up, and takes to bathroom to finish the job.
Set Joshy on potty, rinse out undies, go put them in laundry room.
Come back to bathroom to find Joshy on the FLOOR in the middle of not one, not two, but THREE available potty choices (two of his training potties are currently in that bathroom)... on the floor, squatting to 'finish the job'
mom, "What are you doing??!"
Pick him up, place back on one of his potties.  Clean up mess #2. walk upstairs to get another pair of undies.  Come back down to find him once again on the FLOOR finishing the job, and had tried to wipe some of it up with tp, which smeared it everywhere, then steps in it and slightly slips...
... at which time I scoop him up, and b-line it to the shower.
... all clean and before getting into big boy undies again, I find him squatting by the chairs on the CARPET.  Pick him up and step in something oddly oozy and wet...
... and take him directly to the diaper station.

yep, some days, no other word will do.

Happy...

Fourth of July...???

Yep - in typical Minnesota Fashion, we went from sweltering humid heat yesterday,

To Freezing cold rain today.

Go figure

At Least we got some of our fireworks lit last night

Yes, It was July 3rd.

If you know my hubby,

and you know me,

the following SAT-type sentence will make perfect sense:

Jerry is to July 4th Fireworks As Jen is to Christmas Music

As in...

I have been known to break out the Christmas music as early as September

(okay, there was one year that it has been heard around our general vicinity in July... but I'll stick to the 5th on that one...)

And Jerry, 

Well, fireworks have been heard around our general vicinity as early as January.

So last night was more like a '4th of July Eve' for Jerry...

ya know... like getting to open a present (or two) on Christmas Eve

He got to light off a firework (or two... or twenty...) on 4th of July Eve.

And for my benefit, He did start out pretty tame

But pretty soon, it was onto the "Wyoming Specials"

the kids loved it

Including Elizabeth, who made her firework watching debut...

and me?  Well, I only screamed a few times...

... except for the one shriek...

when the launcher tipped over and shot a launching firework directly at our neighbors house, 

then turned and launched one right at our mailbox

then turned and would have launched one right into the garage, but it ran out of ammunition

(it was a pretty long shriek)

Yep, 4th of July 

Never a dull moment around these parts.

HAPPY 4TH of JULY!!!