Both Hands Full

Here are a bunch of pictures of us while we were in WA. The first week we had a family reunion in Pasco with Mike’s family. There’s several pictures of us at the Snake.

Here’s Mike with his cousin Darielle. I told Mike that it looks like he could sell this picture to Honda for their advertising.

I thought this was a cool picture too.

Us at the river.

\

Noah lounging in the shade.

Me almost ready to let go. I’m still amazed I stayed on.

Me jumping to the safer tube.

Derek and I about ready to get clobbered.

Mike is on the far left about ready to die, and I am content because I cleared it.

My darling children. Mike’s uncle is in to photography and took pictures of us.

All of Robert and Paula’s family.

This picture is so funny. Noah had just thrown up, as you can tell, and he was so kind to leave some for his sister. I love the look on Kimi’s face.

Ok, that took too long to upload all those.  I’ll post pictures of visiting my family later.

It looks like I have been a slacker blogger, which I kinda am anyways, but, we have been in Washington the past 2 1/2 weeks.  We had a GREAT time—water skiing, tubing, hanging out with family, great food, farmer’s market, shooting guns, hanging around the farm—it was so fun!  I’ll definitely have to post pictures later (I have some great tubing pictures).  The 12 hour drive with our kids was probably my LEAST favorite thing over our break, but cheaper than flying all of our family.  Most of you who are parents of young children will agree with me when I say that portable DVD players on road trips are golden.  I hope that all of you are having a great summer, now that it is almost over!

Ok, so I am totally NOT a seamstress by any means. But I do have a desire to sew better, someday. My mother-in-law gave me this pattern because I thought it was so cute. She made one for Amy for her diaper bag after their baby was born. Anyways, it turned out cute! I’m surprised that I could actually make something and have it turn out! So if any of you out there are interested, look for Amy Butler’s patterns for her birdie sling. http://www.amybutlerdesign.com/products/patterns_display.php?id=37 It was not that hard at all! But I do have some tips that might help in case you are interested. Anyways, kinda fun!

I liked this picture—it’s just too funny finding Kimi sleeping in her room like this. Boy does she like that umbrella!

Ok, sorry….this picture might bother some. When I picked him up Sunday evening after he finished up his job, I soon realized that it was all over my hands…. EWW EWW! So, after looking under his shirt, we found this! I know it’s gross, but it was so disgustingly funny to see this huge lump at the top of his diaper (which of course wasn’t nearly close to all of it). I figured I should never be surprised with how much comes out in his diapers, since this boy can put away the food! It’s gotta come out somewhere!

Kimi was tagged by her cousin Shannon, and so I asked her these questions.  A couple of them I don’t think she understood very well, which will be obvious with the answers.  Don’t you love the innocence of a 3 year old?

1. What is something mom always says to you?
K: Eat in the kitchen.

2. What makes mom happy?
K: When I sing her songs.

3. What makes mom sad?
K: Biting is mean.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
K: Blowing on my neck.

5. What was your mom like as a child?
K: Rachael’s a little girl.

6. How old is your mom?
K: 3

7. How tall is your mom?
K: (She stands on the couch and tries to be really tall and jumps)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
K: Toes. (Don’t know what that meant–maybe her crazy toe trick.)

9. What does your mom do when you are not around?
K: Be a butterfly.

10. If you mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
K: Shannon.  (She totally came up with that one on her own)

11. What is your mom really good at?
K: Brushing my hair.

12. What is your mom not so good at?
K: Brush my teeth pretty white, not get yellow teeth.

13. What does your mom do for her job?
K: Brushing my hair.

14. What is your mom’s favorite food?
K: Bread and graham crackers.

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
K: Mommy is mommy.

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
K: Pink Panther.

17. What do you and your mom do together?
K: Eat crackers.

18. How are you and your mom the same?
K:  Green plate. (obviously didn’t understand this one.)

19. How are you and your mom different?
K: Brown picture.  (or this one either)

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
K: “ummm….yeah.”  (I think she got sick of all the questions).

Kimi tags Brynn and Darielle.

This is pretty high on my hate list, if not at the top—kids with the stomach flu. They give you NO warning. I knew that I was knocking on wood when I told several people a couple of weeks ago how it has been so nice to have a healthy family. Yeah, I knew I shouldn’t have said it out loud. Noah has been sick with the stomach flu, and now over it, and Kimi this morning has come down with the same. I decided to be a good wife and take Kimi with me to Pack Meeting this morning, and while we were getting ready she said that her tummy didn’t feel good. But kids always say that…and how often are they REALLY sick? So we went to pack meeting and a couple of minutes after they started their program, Kimi threw up all over the place. Luckily I had a couple of friends that instantly were willing to help clean up. So Kimi went home in just a diaper. Noah, on the other hand, I can’t quite figure out. I think he honestly had the flu on Tuesday because he couldn’t keep anything down. But every day since then (except today) he’s thrown up something. I think he has a sensitive gag reflex, and whenever there is something chunky that he eats, he heaves. And he hates these canned peas I bought at Costco, and he threw those up because he didn’t like them. But the milk isn’t bothering him, and he doesn’t throw up all the time. I think he’s teething. Any brilliant ideas or similar experiences?

This isn’t the first time this has happened–the last time it covered the whole couch. Some days Mike comes home exhausted from work and takes a little nap before we have dinner. The funny thing about this picture is that he honestly had no clue that Kimi had loaded all these toys on him until he woke up.

Kimi was too embarrassed to show her face, and Noah was chillin as usual.

 Mike’s battle scars after 2 softball games tonight.  He opened up one of his old scabs from a previous game.  Played hard.  Dove hard.  Bled hard.

All for the love of the game.

Aunt Rach and Uncle Brady have taught Kimi, or maybe a little more encouragement than taught, this little trick with her toes.  They named it the “Coolest Trick Ever.”  I thought I had flexible fingers and toes, but Kimi surpasses me on this one.  Try it, it’s harder than you think.  She thinks it’s absolutely hilarious.

Last weekend we went to Vegas to visit with Alan, Melissa and the kids. It was a nice break to get away from Utah for a couple of days. A couple of weeks ago we bought our friends’ portable DVD player with two screens. Can I tell you that that was SO worth the 50 bucks? Those things are lifesavers on the road with your kids! We had lots of good food, played lots of Wii, and just hung out. Uncle Alan also took pictures of our family and the kids. I have to say that his photography skills have really stepped it up to the next level. I hate to have any professional take pictures of my kids because he does such a good job! So I posted a few pictures for you to see. Kimi was hamming it up in front of the camera.

Poor Darielle, Kimi was GLUED to her side the entire weekend. She wouldn’t let me bathe her, do her hair, buckle her in her carseat, get her dressed. She wanted Darielle to do everything. I was of course fine with it, but I have to for sure give my thanks for Darielle for be such a good sport. However, the poopy diaper was where Darielle drew the line. It was hilarious seeing how disgusted they were with my kids’ diapers.

One part of the trip that was oh so fun was waking up with both kids during at least 2 of the 4 nights we were there. Kimi was absolutely terrified of their dog Corky (she called him Porky). He’s a little dog, but she screamed at the top of her lungs whenever he got close. The second night we were there she prayed, all on her own, that she wouldn’t be scared of Porky. About 15 minutes after we put her to sleep, we heard her screaming as if someone was ready to kill her! We ran in there and she was scared Corky was going to get her (her bed was on the ground). I probably told her 40 times that night that he was locked outside and couldn’t get her. But I guess if I was as little as her and was scared of dogs, I would have felt the same way.