Cousins are the Best!!

I have lots of cousins, several of whom are some of my dearest friends. I am so grateful that my kids have lots of cousins, and am sure they will be dear friends as well. I didn’t get to live by cousins after we moved to Kansas in 3rd grade, so a I am also grateful we get to live so close to cousins – the closest being a 5 minute bike ride!! Here are a few recent excursions with cousins.

While the dads and older cousins were away on a week long backpacking trip, the rest of us partied in Sun Valley.

Not a bad plan would you say?

Emily (6) became Sophie's favorite buddy and caretaker.

I think we have a future babysitter fast approaching.

Maxwell and Elle boating at Lake Cascade.

Elle is such a sweetheart.

I have a feeling Maxwell will be dating her friends in 10 years!!

Sophie and Sicily at a condo in beautiful Donnelly, Idaho.

These two cuties play so well together.

I have a feeling they will be dating the same boys in 13 years!!

Stay off the Sidewalks!!

For my Mom's birthday we all gave her a new scooter...yes, it's street legal...so watch out. Actually, she is one of the most annoyingly cautious drivers I know, so I'm not worried about her driving, I'm just worried about the drivers around her. She bought a bright yellow hunting vest to wear so she will be ultra visible to other drivers. I had so much fun picking this retro looking scooter out for her. I almost picked a bubble-gum pink color, but my Dad vetoed that choice just in case he ever took it out for a spin. Picture a 60 year old, 200+ pound man in dockers and a dress shirt on a pink retro scooter. How's that for a hilarious mental picture? Anyway, after practicing in parking lots for a few days, and getting licensed, she now drives this scooter quite often, and gets up to speeds of nearly 50. It actually will go a bit faster, but even I think that is kind of scary. No more gas guzzling beater Cadillac for her, at least for the summer.

What's cooler...broken arm or missing teeth?

Maxwell broke his arm about three weeks ago and has a bright orange cast (his choice) for all to see. Of course the cast prompts lots of people, old and young, friends and strangers, to ask what happened to his arm. He says, "I broke my radius". How cute and accurate is that? When they want to know more, like how it happened, which is what they were wondering to begin with, I have heard Max say several times, "Hey, do you want to see something really awesome? Look at my missing teeth (there are now two)!" Since when are missing teeth more awesome than a broken arm?

What I've learned this summer

I've learned that when a 3 year old, really smart and independent little girl is not yet potty-trained, forcing the issue doesn't work. I also learned that when that really smart and independent 3 year old decides she's ready to go on the big girl potty two weeks after Mom's miserable failure, she can go all by herself without ANY help (including wiping and accompanying her in public restroom stalls). Yea for smart and independent 3 year olds!

I have also learned that when your 6 year old breaks his arm playing Indiana Jones on Grandma Smith's rope swing, it is not necessary to rush him to the ER at 10 pm because the orthopedic surgeon on call will not want to come in at that hour so the ER doctor will try to reset it but will completely fail, and then the orthopedic surgeon will have to reset it the next day at a surgery center resulting in two hospital bills. Next time we are using Dr. Steve Payne's prescribing ability to drug our kid for the night and will then take him to the specialist in the morning.

I have also learned that camping is more fun than I remember. Especially when the kids have their favorite playmates (their cousins) as camping partners. Having playmates for the kids allows the parents to actually relax occasionally. I also re-learned that I should bring sleeping pills with me when I go camping because even though I'm a really brave and strong woman (!!) any sound outside the tent is a big hungry bear!

Where Have I Been?

Some of you may have noticed that I have been mostly absent from the blogging world lately. I have only written a couple of posts and have not made my usual share of comments. Here are my excuses:

1. For the past 4 years I have made a Family Yearbook on Shutterfly. I started doing this because I really really can't stand to scrapbook, but I felt a need to display my pictures in some way. Problem solved. For the previous three years I completed each years book in January or February after the year ended, but this year it has taken me till May. I had all the pictures placed in the book and just needed to write in some captions, which usually come pretty easy to me, but I was coming up blank each time I would open shutterfly.com to start working my magic. After a couple of months of this I finally enlisted Steve's help. Steve and I were immediately on a roll, feeding off each other, and before long (1 1/2 hours) the book was done. Next year Steve is on the initial caption committee! Now why is this an excuse for not blogging? Because every time I decided to spend my extra time on the computer I was staring blankly at my shutterfly book...not blogging!

2. If I wasn't spending my extra time on my Family Yearbook I was over pondering (some may call that overanalyzing) decoration ideas, food options, and jewelry and shoe ensembles for the weddings and joint reception of two of my little sisters. Cali is getting married on Friday, May 30th and Hilary is getting married on Saturday, May 31st, both in the Boise Temple, then they are having a joint reception on Saturday evening. I am so excited...if you can't tell!

3. This is the excuse that is actually most to blame for my absenteeism. I have these crazy hormone levels right now...because I'm pregnant (16 weeks along)...and for a short time have lost motivation to do anything that isn't necessary or nature-loving (what the?). I am finally over the first trimester, and thankfully I don't get sick, but I was very fatigued and exhausted, which explains the concept of not having motivation to do anything that isn't necessary (necessary to me means cleaning, exercising and taking care of my kids), but the nature-loving thing was new to me. I have never had blues during pregnancy, actually I don't know if I have ever had blues for more than a two hour period, but I definitely had them the last couple of months. Along with the blues came this lack of motivation, accompanied by a desire to simplify my life. I lost all desire to decorate my house (that's huge), buy new clothes (even huger). I have never cared about cars, but I started being more attracted to older cars, I thought women who wore less make-up and less trendy clothing were more attractive, I just wanted to ride my bike everywhere to not consume fuel and to be in nature, and gardens and flowers, which were never my thing, are suddenly so interesting to me. The last couple of weeks I have started to shift back to normal, but I think (and hope) some of the simplification, nature-loving changes are permanent. Below are a picture of Maxwell (first picture) and Sophie (second picture). I thought I'd show you what our third child will most likely look like, seeing as we create clones! The due date is November 4th, but because both my kiddos have come a week early, which puts us at Halloween, my doctor said I could induce earlier.

Obsessed with Guns

Does anyone else have a little boy that makes gun noises way too much? The kids are not supposed to play with guns, even pretend guns, at school, but somehow Maxwell knows what each of his friends' pretend "hand"guns look like. His is a long one, like a machine gun. In primary the substitute teacher had he and his two little buddies put their guns away during class, but as soon as church was over they paraded down the halls shooting everyone, again with their pretend "hand"guns. Amy, (his full-time primary teacher) don't let him get that gun out during class. I'll come in for a visit if he does! He turns the hairspray bottle and comb into a gun each morning as I do his hair. His fork is often a gun at mealtime. He has begun to love drawing, and draws several really detailed pictures each day. Each picture is some sort of battle, whether it is with pirates, star wars characters or soldiers. Occasionally he will draw something with flowers on it for me! He got a little spiritual on me yesterday and drew the Book of Mormon...but then went on to draw a bunch of men with machine guns guarding it! He rarely gets to watch television and play video games, so I think this is just something innate. Luckily he is the most loveable and cuddly little boy who will still play teacher and picnic with Sophie, so I think that this too shall pass!

Remedy for the Weather Blues

Here is a TEMPORARY remedy for the weather blues:

1. Set up an indoor picnic in front of the television.

2. Watch the Sound of Music and sing the songs really loud with your children.

3. Don't watch the entire movie in one sitting because it is really long, so repeat steps 1 and 2 the following day.