28/52

Milo's first trip to Bridal Veil Falls

Belated Birthday Date

Maxwell's birthday was really busy, so we

waited until yesterday to go on our Birthday Date.
Max wanted to go somewhere that he could get

a burger with cheese, lettuce, tomato, and ketchup.

Is he easy to please, or what?

After considering a few other places, we decided to

use his coupon for a kid's meal at Wingers.

It's so nice to get the kids one-on-one.
I had a great time talking to just Maxwell.
He was kind enough to share a tip with me.
When your burger is too big to fit in your mouth,
you just smash it like this:

He assured me that it works every time,
and was anxious for me to try it.
He was right, it worked.
Thanks, Max!

One Sweet Morning

While Bentley and Maxwell were at school this morning,

Jonah, Ruby, and I made muddy buddies.

I'm sure that put us over our sugar limit for the day,
but one of the Mia Maids had a birthday today,
and I wanted to get her a cupcake
from the The Sweet Tooth Fairy.
So, I loaded up the kids, and off we went.

It seemed a shame to drive all the way there for
just one cupcake, so the kids got lollipops,
and I got 3 new cupcake flavors for our family to try
(along with a pink cupcake for Miss Ruby).

Yum.

Three and Nine

Bentley lost his third tooth yesterday - the one on the top left.

It has been loose for a while, but some Sugar Sweet Corn

for dinner two nights in a row sped things up. :)

Bentley likes the way he says some words differently

(like tooth) now that's he's down another tooth.

Also happening yesterday, John and I (with Milo),

celebrated our 9th Anniversary. (Just a few days late.)

Elizabeth babysat so we could go to dinner (Jimmy Johns),
and run some errands (to the library, and Target).
Do we know how to party, or what? :)

27/52

ready for a walk with Milo, Ruby, and Mae

(it was a short walk - we got chased home by a storm)

Talking to Jonah

(Jonah fighting the scooter)
Conversations with Jonah can be difficult.
They usually begin with him asking,
"Mom, who do you want to be?"
Then he gives me the choices.
(Taken from whatever game he's "into" at the time.)
"Mom, do you want to be a black dragon, or a green dragon, or a necromancer, or a minotaur, or a sorceress, or a knight, or a warlock . . ." and then my head starts spinning and I have to ask him to start over. That doesn't make things any clearer, because I don't know who (or what) they are, so I usually ask him to just TELL ME who I should be. That usually doesn't work. He says I have to decide for myself. I try to choose one at random, but I invariably choose the wrong one. Jonah then tells me why that was a bad choice, and asks if I want to pick someone else. After a few more guesses, we agree on a character for me to play, and he starts telling me about our adventures. I have a hard time following along. He often talks to me while I'm making dinner, and it's difficult for me to read and follow a recipe while trying to pay attention to Jonah's report of various battles. It's very real to him, but confusing for me. Most of our conversations end with me having a head ache, and him thinking his mother is a lousy teammate in the war against evil. Poor Jonah.

6 years ago . . .

. . . our Maxwell was born.

He celebrated today by brawling with his Bakugan buddies,
eating cake, root beer, pizza, and hamburgers,
playing computer games,
watching Saturday morning cartoons,
spending time with Elizabeth, Mikey, Pa, and Grandma H,
and trying not to look directly at the camera
in any of the pictures that were taken.

We're so glad Max is part of our family.
Happy Birthday Big Max!

Watch Out World

Bentley and Maxwell are ready for school.

Heaven help their teachers.

The Park City Expedition

Charles, Laura, and Ella stopped over last night

on their way back to school.
This morning, they went to Park City to do some shopping,

and we decided to meet them for lunch.

I had some second thoughts, but the kids were REALLY good.

Maybe we'll try something like this again - in a year or two. :)

After lunch, we went to the Olympic Park.
Ruby was happy to pose for a photo.

John, Milo, Ella, and Charles at lunch

me, Milo, Ella, and Laura

the rest of the gang enjoying their Panda Express
Ruby, Bentley, Maxwell, Jonah

It was a beautiful day. The kids loved seeing the
mountains up close, and are sure they saw a few
pyramids that have cyclops or mummies inside of them.
It was a great way to spend our last day of summer.

26/52 - halfway!

I took a bunch of pictures while I was playing with Milo tonight,

then I let John choose his favorite one for my Project 52 post.

And here are the ones he rejected:

Week in Review

The problem with not having a lot of time for posting is that when I DO get a chance to post, I have to choose what to record, and what to leave out. I'm terrible at making decisions, so instead of narrowing things down, I made a collage of photos from our busy week. It was a great one!

We started off the week with a visit from Charles, Laura, and Ella. In the middle of the week, Ruby went to a friend's fancy birthday party, and talked me into buying her a princess dress. Then, Warren, Becky, Kenna, and Kylie came to see us. We've been so lucky to have family come to us this summer, because we haven't gone anywhere. :) Also happening this week: Ruby got her hair cut, Bentley had his 2nd grade reading evaluation (where he says he was asked to read "baby words" like "corporation"), the kids had a picnic, Milo rolled over (from front to back and back to front on the same day!), Jonah fought the sprinkler (and won), and Maxwell and I tried unsuccessfully to find Wolverine party supplies in town (we've switched to a Bakugan theme). School starts this Thursday, and although I'd been dreading it, I've had a change of attitude, thanks to the discovery of this blog. I'm no longer mentally moping about the early mornings, scheduled days, homework, and children at school so long each day.

I'm just grateful I'm here with John and all of our wild kids to get to do these things.

Big Bed!

John and I have been thinking about moving Ruby

from her toddler mattress to a twin mattress

for a while now. Last week, I saw an ad for a mattress

sale. I mentioned it to John, and asked Ruby if she

thought she'd like a bigger bed. The next morning,

Ruby got up, got dressed, put her shoes on, came into

our room, and asked, "Are you ready to go?"

Go where?

"To get my big bed."

I guess she was ready.

I took her to pick out some big sheets

(she chose my favorite ones - hurray!),

and then John and Brian took Ruby to buy the mattress.

Ruby and Jonah "helped" me put the sheets on the

mattress, then Ruby spent a good 10 minutes

making sure that the blanket was on the bed "just so."

She loves her new bed.

However, she still doesn't want to go to bed at night.

I don't get it. :)

By the way, Milo is 4 months old now!

25/52

Ready to go to a baptism with my Bentley.

What a Difference Ten Years Makes (copycat post)

Last month, Mindy did a blog post about how much

her life has changed in the last five years.

As I read her post, I thought about how my life has

changed in the last five years - and came to the

conclusion that it's pretty much the same.

I live in the same place, and with the same wonderful

people, only there are twice as many of them now.

But 10 years ago, my life was VERY different.
I was getting ready for my last semester at BYU,
and I hadn't even met John.
I thought I'd share some memories from the
summer of 1999, and although this post won't be as witty
as Mindy's post, it also shouldn't be as long.
(Because I have neither the time, nor the talent
to produce a post equal to one of Mindy's masterpieces.)

Ten years ago I spent my last summer at Home.
Our family tradition was to watch the fireworks
down by the river on the 4th of July.
I took this photo of the Temple there while we waited for the fireworks.
Incidentally, the stroller in the foreground belonged
to my friend, Julie. She gave it to me when Bentley was born,
and I used it until it fell apart. The poor stroller
was totally unaware at this point of it's eventual fate.

Ten years ago, I spent my days "working" here with Mindy:

One of the Best. Jobs. Ever.
I got to spend almost every day sitting on a mower
and listening to music (I wish we'd had MP3 players back then).
The cemetery was old (for Idaho) and beautiful.
These days, John mows the lawn with our push mower,
or we pay some local boys to do it for us.

This year, I went to our Ward Bike Parade
and took pictures of Bentley, Maxwell, and Jonah.
Ten years ago, I went to my Ward's 24th of July Bike Parade.
I didn't have children yet, so I took pictures of
my Dad (in the duck hat),
Greg, (with the shades), and Mikey (cowboy hat).

These days, I get to hold babies as much as I like.
Ten years ago, I occasionally got to hold babies,
but they weren't my own.
These babies belong to my friend, Julie.
That summer, my Mom and I moved Mindy
into her first apartment at ISU.
(This was before her mission, but after her run-ins with
her arch enemy, the President of Ricks College.)

The job Mindy and I had at the cemetery was pretty sweet,
but Warren's job at the skating rink was a close second.
I don't remember if he let us in free or not,
but it was pretty fun to visit him at work, regardless.

The highlight of our summer might have been the day
that we found this thing in driveway next door.

Warren decided to trap it. Notice that he has bare feet,
and he's using a laundry basket.
He's really lucky that he didn't lose a toe.
That thing was snappy.

That plan didn't work, but he eventually caught the
thing (Warren, what WAS it?), and called
animal control. Then, the news showed up to
interview Warren and his friends.

Maybe while the news guy was at our house, he
should have gotten a photo of this fashion statement:

Did Spencer know how to dress, or what?
If he'd been around more that summer, I might
have had more photos to choose from,
and wouldn't have had to post this one. :)

Ten years later, I'm married with five kids,
Mindy is on her way to world domination,
Warren is married and and working at a bank
(instead of trapping animals for a living).
Spencer is married, and he's the kid who ruins the
curve in most of his classes at Canisius.
Mikey just got home from Brazil and is on his
way to BYU to play in the Marching Band,
and Greg is in Portugal, beginning a two year mission.

What a difference 10 years makes!

24/52

John almost always puts the big kids to bed,

but tonight he was holding Milo,

so I got to read to Jonah and then to Maxwell.

Actually, I'm not sure either of them

was supposed to have a story because

it was past their bedtime. I'm a pushover.

That's why bedtime is usually John's territory. :)

doh!

We had a great time over the past week with
first John's parents and then my parents,
but I didn't take any pictures!!!

sigh.
Here's one of our happy Milo, instead.