West Yellowstone

We recently returned from a very spontaneous & quick trip to Montana. Rich's family has a log cabin there and there was some work that needed to be done on it.

I have been very hesitant to travel with so many little ones, and especially little ones that are not yet walking. Going to a park is hard enough when they're crawling & eating mouthfuls of icky non-edibles (some might be edible, but ICK!). And TWO of them crawling in seperate directions keeps this mommy VERY busy.

So taking crawling twins to a mouse infested log cabin with not so clean floors was not very exciting to me.

Well, I decided we would give it a go anyway and packed everyone up. I am so glad we went after all because I found a large playpen and the twins loved playing in it and I was able to get some good cabin work done.


And I was worried about MOUSE infestation???

Sadie Baby

Her name is Sadie but sadly, I usually end up calling her Ma-Sadie. I can't keep up with all these names. I have gotten better, however, at disguising this all too common parental error. I start out by saying "Mah" and then I quickly add "I" so I say instead, "My Sadie". Isn't that great and aren't I so clever? And my reward for being so clever? Madi and Sadie fight over me all the time. "My mommy!" "No, my mommy!" Every day someone is fighting over little ol' me and it makes me feel special.

So here is My Sadie in all her glory. She is beautiful. And she is mine.

The New "Playdate"

Ashley and her friend couldn't get to each other's home's yesterday because of transportation issues mostly, but usually it's 'busy-mom' issues.

So her and her cute friend instead read books to each other over the phone. Ashley loves reading and on a daily basis will read to whomever will listen.

So that is the new playdate around our house and I love it for various reasons. One of which is that it's entertaining without me being the entertainer. It's kind of like when a kid learns to hold a bottle, eat, potty, dress themselves, entertain themselves, etc, etc. Now when Ashley wants to play with a friend and I'm busy I'll just hand her the phone and a book.

The Heart Magnet

Sometimes when I look at this photo it brings back memories of us in Hawaii with our sun-bleached hair and good 'ol Kahuku High School.

Other times it brings back memories of my place in our large family and how happy I feel to be the only one in the picture being pointed at. Like I'm the favorite or something. Sigh...

I Have Green Eyes

It was St. Patrick's day and Spencer wasn't wearing green. He told me he had green eyes. I told him that what would happen is he would still get a lot of pinches cause explaining about his green eyes would happen after he was already pinched. So we came up with the idea of making a shirt that would hopefully stop all pinchers in their tracks. And then we ate green muffins and green milk.

Swiper no Swiping!

Innocently playing... Leah eyes the prize... She swipes it while Ava isn't looking! Poor Ava!

What is it With This Kid?

He is my third child and after two angels, one of my sisters said I need to have a challenging kid. So then along came Joshy. He wasn't fussy or anything like that, but as soon as he could crawl or walk, he was getting into things and making messes. I put in cabinet safety locks and got those plastic thingy's that go on the door handles. What I really needed was a large cage... er, playpen. He was and is just a curious little thing and if I wasn't closely supervising, he was into something. So much so, as a matter of fact, I started documenting everything so I could remember and laugh about it later. I do, by the way, laugh about it. Cause it is later.

But that is what did it... the goofy faces every time a camera gets pointed in his direction. I did it to him... I know I did. He is the star and I am the paparazzi. Most of his mischief has been documented, which means I have taken many, many photos of this little guy. I would hope if he ever did become a star he would put on a little bit more of a dignified face...

He is my Joshy and I wouldn't change a thing or have him any other way.