"We May Not Have It All Together But Together We Have It All"

I am just going to say it....

I am TIRED of POOP

Three kids with high metabolism= 5 poops today (this occurs often); 4 in diapers, 1 in undies

Do you know how hard it is to get three boys to pose for a picture??

We have been going to The Farm for the last couple of years and love it. We have lots of fun jumping in hay, playing in a corn pit, riding John Deer tricycles, hiding in a hay maze and much more....

It was a beautiful day

Below is a quote that was handed out at one of our young women’s activities (I am 1st counselor working with the Mia Maids; I love it but am secretly happy that I don’t have daughters :) ). The activity was on self defense.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not in just some of us.
It’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Marianne Williamson


Self defense, what does this have to do with self defense you say?

Who are you and is it worth fighting to get out of a dangerous situation?

Yes, read the quote again!

This weekend we went berry picking with friends, well we couldn't seem to eat them fast enough so I made smoothies (we did freeze some too). This was the result. Yikes! Ryan was wishing one of the boys would spill on the carpet so that I would get going on ordering up our new flooring. The blackberry/blueberry smoothies were sure good!

OK, so I am a little behind in my posts.....

It seems we have made it a tradition to go camping on coldest weekends of the summer, Memorial Day and Labor Day. We took the three day weekend, went camping with our good friends Kerri and Enoch and froze our behinds off. This time we took the tent trailer (it was a lot of work to clean up for just one time use, we wished we had done it earlier in the season and it wasn't totally level so getting up in the middle of the night to get Lucas and check on the boys wasn't too fun). We did have a great time though exploring the Thousand Trails Paradise camp grounds and Mt. St Helens (as you can see we couldn't actually see Mt. St Helens due to the cloudy and freezing weather- when we were driving away we looked back and saw the Mountain dusted with snow!). While at Mt. St Helens we went to the observatory and watched a movie on the eruption, I looked over at the boys to see how they were doing since it was a loud and dramatic movie. Evan was fascinated and Miles was gripping both armrests. When it ended Miles said (starting in a quiet voice and getting louder) mom, Mom, MOM, I got scared! He got over it pretty quick.

The kids attempted to swim but it didn't last long, it was too cold out. Evan tried to keep warm by keeping all but his head under water. Miles kept warm by running around splashing, he didn't seem to care that it was cold. The boys tried killing themselves by riding down a little hill (between our trailers) sitting in the back of they toy Tonka trucks. Evan has a good bruise on his shin from ramming our trailer step and Miles almost decapitated himself going under our trailer, that was the end of that fun (although they kept trying to get away with going it again and again). We played putt putt, watched people fishing, played on the play ground and even attempted shuffle board.

All in all it was a fun camping trip (except for when the trailers brand new tire blew, at least we were two miles from home)with good food, yummy hot chocolate and great friends! Next year we will remember our coats!

For about the last three or four weeks Lucas has been climbing stairs, well tonight he got up all of them and then he apparently wanted some toys out of the toy closet. He is not quite 9 months old and I don't think he should be able to figure out how to get toys out of the closet (at least I don't want him to it yet!). I love him to death but he is wearing me out these days while he is advancing to the next stages in babyhood.

He’s getting big. Tuesday I took Evan to his school orientation. He got to see his new classroom, meet his new teacher, see the play ground and check out the bus that he will be riding on. I can’t believe this day has come! At the end of the orientation I asked Evan if he was ready to go home, he said, "but I haven’t made any new friends". I let him know that he doesn’t have to make new friends all in one day and that there are lots of kids he will meet in the next few weeks. Walking to the car after orientation Evan showed how big he was getting......

Evan:“Mom I don’t want to hold your hand anymore when we walk, I am big now. "

Mom:"you don’t want to hold my hand?"

Evan:"no"

Mom:"what if I want to hold your hand because I love you?"

Evan:"you can still love me and not hold my hand."

What’s next no hugs or kisses?

First day of School pics.

Evan was so ready to start this new chapter in his life.

Where has the time gone.....???

Ladies, I must confess! I am divorcing my Remington and saying Heeelllooo to Braun! Braun my new best friend, oh how did I ever get along with out you before, my long lost love? Oh, the pain you cause but the freedom you give is worth it (the pain is not bad by the way if you use the starter head)!

Lucas is 7 months old now! Crazy how time flies when you have three boys. We were getting ready for the day and looked up to see Lucas standing in his crib. I figured I better get a few pictures that very day before he changed (which they do overnight). By 7/18/08 when I took the pics he was standing up to things and crawling on his hands and knees a few feet then giving up and doing the army crawl which was faster. He was also following me around the house. Ten days later he is on all fours and pretty fast. He loves his new found freedom. He is now pulling himself up standing at the couch, loving the door stoppers and playing with all of brothers toys. He is also biting on everything, my shoulder, the couch, any toy he can get his hands on. He doesn’t really like solids; he prefers milk so that has been a slow start. He looks at us when we call his name. He is handsome, has red hair that I wish would stay and is healthy. We are blessed!

We got a bunch of good books this month from the library but these two are the most enlightening for very different reasons.

When Evan pick out the left book, The Gas We Pass The Story of Farts at the library he came to me and said Mom can we get this one its about farts. I rolled my eyes of course and asked how he knew that (he can’t read yet)? He opened up to a page which had a kid in the bath tub showing bubbles in the water coming from his bum. Now I had a decision to make; be a kind and open minded mom and allow him to be educated on what his body does or be the mean mom and just say no way that’s gross. Well since Ryan seems to be getting after me lately about being an overly precautions mom I figured what the heck. Evan was so excited to show Dad his new book and when he did Ryan said to me “I can’t believe you let him get that book”. It was worth it, the first time we read it I just had to enjoy it because Evan laughed, and laughed, you know the laugh that you can’t breathe. He hasn’t done that in a long time and I enjoyed hearing it! Did you know that “A healthy person releases almost half a cup of gas in a single fart…..and….. In one day, just over 2 cups of gas are released in farts.” The boys in my house are heeaalltthhyy!

The book on the right, Sidney & Norman a tale of two pigs is a book about a pig (Norman) who is neat and organized, always goes to church and every thing seems to come easily for him but he is always looking down at others that are not like him and yet he thinks he is a good pig and his neighbor (Sidney) who is always a mess, always late and things just are always hard for him and does not think that he is such a good pig. Well they get a chance to meet God; God told Norman three things; “First of all, I love you…., Secondly, your goodness is not the reason I love you……, third you’re not as good as you have led yourself to believe. You are prideful. You’re selfish. You look down on others….” Then it was Sidney’s turn. God told him three things; “First of all, I love you. Secondly, I love you. And thirdly, I love you”. It was a good reminder and a good story for the boys to hear. I might have to buy this one!

We have been able to get out and have some summer fun the last few weeks. Mom and Dad have a membership to Thousand Trails camping resorts which has putt putt golf, play grounds and swimming. We have been there twice so far (just for day trips); once with cousins w/o Dad and once with just our little family including Dad. Evan loves the golf and does not ever want to leave the swimming. Miles on the other hand hung out on the sidelines most of our swim time. He takes time to warm up to things and he was a little nervous about the water. Once he got use to it he had a blast and Lucas loved the new experience, he kept on splashing everyone

Happy 5th Birthday Evan!!

WE LOVE YOU

We had two birthday parties for Evan this year, a school/church/friends party and a family party. This was the first kids party we have had. It was a lot of work but so much fun! Evan had a blast. He picked most of the activities we did; coloring, relay races, pinata, water balloons and just running around playing (even running a friends Dad up a tree). The family party was a lot of fun too. We got Evan Nerf dart gun set (his first guns, I had a hard time with this one but Ryan just rolls his eyes at me and says he's a boy!) he and his cousin Carter had so much fun. We need to have you over again Carter to play good guys and bad guys! Thank you family and friends for such a wonderful time