Tots and toes

Let me first explain that when we water our back lawn (which slopes down pretty significantly) a big dirty water puddle accumulates at the bottom corner of the grass.  Well, yesterday after watering the lawn, I went outside and saw the boys sitting in the puddle of dirty water.  Literally.  I walked over to them and saw that Tyler had a pair of toy tweezers and was trying to get all the bugs up out of the puddle--even though I don't think there were very many.  For a moment I was annoyed, but then laughed.  So grabbed the camera and went outside to get a picture.
The best part is that when I stepped in front of them, Jacob looks up and says, "Uh oh."  Looks over at Tyler and says, "I think we're in big trouble."  Too funny.  He was relieved when I told him it was okay.
Another little tidbit about Fort Irwin that I haven't shared with you (I've talked about the heat, sunsets, insects) is the thorn bushes.  When we first moved here everyone told us we had to take our bikes in to a shop and get "Tuff Liner" on the tires.  We wondered why until we saw this....
That is a very typically sized thorn from one of the many many bushes around here.  These bushes have tons of thorns and they even grow into big trees covered in these.  I think they should be considered lethal weapons--they are sharp!

One side note, is that I have started a little toenail painting business.  I have been doing it for a few weeks now and it started slow but word seems to be getting around.  I don't really care if it ever takes off--I was just wanting something to do around here.  There is a lady in Utah who does it and she is fantastic, I am nowhere near as good as her, but I am getting better.  Here are a couple I did that I thought were cute.  This first one is a 3-year old girl with TINY TOES!  She came in and said, "I want a rainbow with all the colors with pink in back."  A girl who knows what she wants.  So I did my best and I am surprised I got all the colors on there!
This other picture is of a lady who wanted something "not too crazy but still fun."  That was my only direction.  So this is what I did--I think it came out totally cute.  It looks even better in person!  
Anyway, that is my latest venture.  I have pictures of all the toes I have done, but I don't want to post them all.  Maybe every so often I will post my favorites.  The weird thing is that sometimes I think it is easier to do it on myself!  Maybe it is because there is no pressure to have it be perfect.  Anyway, that's all!

Pictures Galore

Okay, so when I add more than 5 pictures onto a post I cannot figure out how to keep them in order (you bloggers know what I mean...I hope, otherwise I am just a little "slow").  So these pictures are all wanky but hopefully you can keep up.  As I said, we spent the past few days at my mom's house doing as much as we could squeeze in.  Boy, was it a lot!  We went to Disneyland, the beach, the temple, the park, baseball games and more.  I'll start with the beach since that is the first picture, even though it is the last thing we did.  There is a great little beach not too far from my mom's house.  People call it "Mother's Beach" because it is in kind of a little cove, it is small with a little river running out to the ocean, the waves are small, there are tidepools and it is never crowded.  You can literally sit in one spot and watch your kids wherever they decide to roam.  No chasing or worrying.  It is great.  Right off the bat Tyler makes a friend (that kid can make friends anywhere).  Above, they are trying to pull a huge floating mass of seaweed onto shore.  They worked hard and were somewhat successful.  Jacob joined in to help.
Funny story about the "friend."  The boy said, "I am from Highland, California."  Tyler thought for a minute, then replied, "I'm just from regular California."  It was funny.  Skip ahead to the evening.  Eric took Tyler to an Angels game.  They had front row seats!  Plus, Tyler scored a free jersey from a worker as he was entering the stadium.  Also, during the 7th inning stretch they were throwing bags of peanuts and stuff into the stands.  Before they started Tyler smiled and waved at one of the ladies and she threw her bag of peanuts to Tyler!  He was pretty excited about that!
What a stinkin' cute kid!  Although I hope that bottle of beer in the holder is someone else's!  Otherwise dad isn't allowed to take the kids anywhere!
I stayed at my mom's for the game with the rest of the crew.  Maggie was loving all the attention from Grandma Calder.  She is still the happiest little thing I have ever seen.  She loves attention and loves to be outside.  A winning combination!
Back to the beach--Maggie loved it.  She sat the whole time and played.  And I mean the whole time, almost 3 hours!  She smiled, laughed, ate a bottle, and was happy as a clam.  Luckily she can't crawl yet or keeping her out of the sand would have been a challenge.  On the way out you have to walk up a big hill (small price to pay for "Mother's Beach") and a lady who had been sitting kind of near us asked me, "Is your little girl always that good?"  I couldn't lie, "She sure is!"  She said she was jealous but I assured her I paid my dues with my first two (mostly number 2).
Jacob, Tyler and Eric caught a bunch of crabs in the tidepools.  Jacob was very proud...
Get  look at this monster!  About 4-5 inches across!  That includes it's legs, of course.
The boys always have such a good time here--they never want to leave.  But mommy gets tired of the sand!  Then for the rest of the day the boys complain about sand in their pants!  I told Eric to solve that problem I guess we just need to buy a beach house.
On Father's Day afternoon we went for a family walk at a park.  We fed ducks and the boys climbed trees.  They had the most fun jumping off to dad.  Don't we love daddies?  

Back to Maggie (you dizzy yet?).  Another cute pic of her.  I must have taken a zillion pictures and I couldn't find a single one where she wasn't smiling.  Man, what a lucky break!


At the park she enjoyed gnawing on the stroller seat.  It was funny because she goes to town!  She crinkles her nose up and just eats away.
Bald head, blue eyes, drool and a smile.  That pretty much sums up all my pictures of her.  Even so, I could stare at them all day!
Ty and Eric climbing trees.

Jacob decided to try to put his own helmet on.  He refused help.  That lasted about 3 minutes then he gave up.  I don't blame him--those things are pretty tricky!
We spent a lot of time playing in grandma's hot tub in the backyard.  The boys loved it.  In fact, at Disneyland they asked to go back to g-mas so they could play in the "pool."  Sheesh--haven't I learned by now that a pool is just as fun as the magic kingdom?
I know, you are thinking, where the heck is Kelly in all these pics?  Well, I am the official picture taker.  I need to make a point of being in more shots.
This next one was actually taken the night before we left for my mom's.  We had a fun dinner of waffles with syrup and powdered sugar on them.  Jacob loved the sugar so much he spent the next 5 minutes after dinner licking all that had spilled up off of the chair and table.  I guess that's one way to clean up.
And finally, back to the park.  The boys love to feed the ducks whenever we go.  As usual, Jacob is right up in the action and Tyler is being more cautious.  They are so different!  But I love it when they play nicely together, play like brothers should.  There isn't much better than being able to sit back and watch your kids enjoy each other's company.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip, even though it was short.  I guess we'll just have to go back in a couple weeks!

No news is boring news...

Just wanted to let you all know that I am still alive, just nothing to blog about.  I am going to my mom's for a few days--I promise I'll have something next week.  My life is so boring, yet so busy.....how is possible that I have so much to do but none of it is blog-worthy, that is, unless you all want to hear about my laundry escapades....  (actually, come to think of it, I did have a laundry incident recently--for the first time in my marriage I turned an entire load of whites pink....a rogue red placemat snuck into the load....exciting, I know...)  or my vacuuming prowess (I vacuum nearly everyday and still manage to have junk all over my floor--that has to be some kind of talent, right?  Or maybe it's just called having 3 kids...)  or my cooking technique (I made our favorite dish tonight and in a moment of culinary inspiration threw in a can of artichoke hearts--it was so bad we threw it out...)   but I think that's enough boring stuff.  Hang tight until next week!

Fly Hotel

So, the above picture aside, our new family activity is swatting flies.  I think we get around 10 new flies in our house everyday.  I guess they are prolific around these parts this time of year.   They get into our house every time the boys go outside--I guess I never taught them how to shut a door.  There is little in this world more annoying than a bunch of flies buzzing around your head when you are trying to relax.  Ugh!  I am thinking about charging and opening a fly motel.  Now for the picture above, I went to the store a little bit ago and the boys each picked out a wooden craft toy.  I let them paint their own and this just goes to show that Jake thought it was just as fun painting himself than his train.  Below is a picture of the robot Tyler and I made.  Tyler was the master architect, but I helped him think of ideas to use for a few of the body parts.  It turned out pretty cool!  But now the problem is that Tyler refuses to get rid of it.  What am I supposed to do with a big robot made out of garbage?  Any suggestions?
Tyler took this next picture of Maggie--I thought it was pretty cute.  It was one of those surprise pictures I find on the camera when I upload them.  Most of them are junk but I do find a few treasures here and there...
Sunday evening we were outside admiring our garden (as you will see in upcoming pics) and I put Maggie on the trampoline (sans the boys) because I got tired of holding her.  She loved it!  She sat there for over 15 minutes just looking around.  They boys were a little upset because I don't let them on the trampoline on Sundays, but here I was allowing Maggie to be on it.  Too bad, so sad.

Last but not least (drumrollllllllllllll) here is our garden!  This is what we planted in the box.  At first the little seedings seemed so tiny I thought for sure we should have planted more stuff but now it is overflowing!  I have one pepper plant that has about 6 peppers on it right now.  The vine plant that has spread through the whole thing is the cantaloupe.  It is taking over.
Here is my basil--growing well!  Now I just need some good recipes using it.  My cilantro grew pretty well but I eat that all the time so it is long gone.  I planted some more seeds of it a few days ago.
And this one is my favorite.  This is our first watermelon...look how tiny!  It is like an inch long.  It will be fun to watch it grow (assuming I don't kill it somehow--or the kids--I've had about 3 tiny green tomatoes brought to me so far, no matter how many times I tell them not to pick them!)

You Know You're a Mother When....

...the "quiet moments" can't be enjoyed because you know it means the kids are up to no good.

...you hope that ketchup really is a vegetable.

...you count the number of fishy crackers in each bag to make sure they are equal.

...the days you shower and actually get to shave BOTH legs is a good day.

...chicken nuggets are considered the "healthy" part of the meal.

...you can't go to any store without stopping in the toy section.

...you convince your kids that at the moment there are no cartoons on any channel, even though you have satellite.

...getting a full night's sleep is a luxury that rarely occurs.

...you can't wait for fall to start (aka school).

...your garage is full--mostly with old baby clothes, swings, bouncer seats, high chairs, car seats, etc....

...you start saying the things your mother said to you  ("Not in your good clothes!")

...you slave over a hot stove even though you know full well that at some point in the meal you will hear the words, "I don't like this."

...you stop judging your mother for the way she raised you.

...you wish you could implant a GPS chip in your child.

...your own spit is considered a cleaning solutions for your child's face when there are no other options around.

...you plan a date night to get away from the kids for a while, then all you talk about is the kids.

...you read that the average 5-year-old asks 437 questions a day and feel proud that your kid is "above average."  (this one I read somewhere else)

...despite it all, you wouldn't trade one minute of it for the world and think with sadness on the day your babies move out on their own.

It's Raining Babies

Okay, so my pictures are all out order.  Sometimes I just can't figure this blog thing out but you guys get the idea.  I snapped a few shots of the kids on Sunday before church.  Tyler was accosting Maggie in the name of "playing" with her.  She was pretty happy despite the boys' craziness.  She is actually sitting up a little bit now.  She can stay up for a minute or two before she slowly topples over.  It's like slow motion when she falls over.  Her eyes get wide for a few seconds while she tries to figure out what the heck just happened to her.  
Skip back a few days to Friday.  Eric had the day off work so we decided to go to Disneyland for the day.  Here we are on Small World.  Of course, Jacob has food on his face.  I swear I do bathe my children.  I think they hide a little extra food in their pockets and right after I wipe them down they smear it on their faces just to spite me.  I used to be one of those women (B.C.--"before children") who said, "My kids will never have dirty faces!"  Yeah well, I also said they wouldn't have boogery faces.  Maybe that's why heaven gave me Jacob--to keep me humble.
Look how strong!
And here's our little jailbird.  I should have gotten Jake in this picture.  He's the child most likely to end up there someday.....  (just kidding!)
And now skip forward again to Sunday.  She's so cute I just can't stop staring at her!  Here she is deciding whether or not she likes her brothers running circles around her...
And here is when she decides it is pretty funny...
Now skip back to Saturday (are you dizzy yet?).  I threw a double baby shower for two of my friends and I went all out (but had a total blast doing it).  They both have multiple children of different genders so I did a "Pamper Party."  Everyone brings diapers as the gift and I give them each a basket of pampering supplies for themselves (lotions, etc).  It was so fun.  I also made them each a diaper cake.  It is a cake made totally out of diapers!  They came out so cute.
And I was going to buy a cake but decided I had spent too much money already so made my own.  I got a little daring and tried to do a roll-out fondant icing to decorate it.  I have always wanted to try it so figure this was my chance.  It came out perfect!  I couldn't believe it.  It even tasted good too!  This is the cake--the whole thing is edible!
And here are the diaper cakes...  (one friend was having a girl and the other was having a boy)
So the shower was a success.  I know the general standard is to have a shower for your first baby or the first of a different gender but I didn't care.  There is nothing to do out here so figured it would give us ladies some social time and also it shows them that this baby is just as special as the rest of their kids.  Anyway, last night Eric was sitting on the sofa with Maggie and she would not stop staring up at him.  It was so sweet.  She love her daddy so much!  She lights up whenever he gets home from work.  I love it.

Now skip back to Disneyland.  Here is Eric and Tyler on Small World.  This was the first ride we went on and it is the only time I really remembered to take any pictures (except for the couple in ToonTown) so please to enjoy...