And Then

I came home to this:

Um, yeah. That was my reaction to the facial growth as well.

Tahoe and Cali

Kent's family went to Tahoe again in July (yes, that was two months ago. That's how far behind I am...). And I got a whopping 4 pictures.

Here we are at the beach! Sweet little girl.

The boys LOVED the beach.

This is the first pair of sunglasses Erik was given. And what does he do with 'em? Puts them on the top of his head instead of over his eyes. Sunglasses are an accessory for me. And I practically die when I don't know where they are.


This is back at my in-laws' home in Clovis. While we were there Erik insisted on wearing that life jacket all day. He didn't want to take it off. Maybe he thought someone was planning on throwing him in a pool when he least expected it.

A Little of This, A Little of That

After we came back from our trip to California in May Taylor was quite disappointed that we didn't end up going camping as a result of the rain. So we figured we could just camp at home! Here's our lovely campsite: And here we are roasting marshmallows in the backyard (courtesy of our neighbors' firepit).

And just in case you were wondering, the "camping" didn't go so well. We thought we'd just let the boys stay up and lock, I mean, put them in the tent when it was "bedtime." So we zipped it up, made sure the zippers were at the top, and went upstairs, all while listening to them bouncing off the sides of the tent. A while later we heard footsteps downstairs. Unfortunately they could reach the zipper. Genius that I am, I decided to tie the zipper down so it wouldn't unzip from the inside and told them it was bedtime. Apparently Taylor didn't think that was such a hot idea and he was slightly hysterical. So we put Taylor in his own bed and shut Erik inside the tent. We have no idea how long it took him to fall asleep, but we figured he couldn't break anything, right?

And here's the preschool graduation picture. Yes, they now graduate from preschool. And yes, I win chump-mom-of-the-year award for the following accomplishments:

1. Almost being late for Taylor walking down the aisle by himself (how was I supposed to know they were doing a cap and gown ceremony?? It's preschool!) Good thing our last name starts with an "S,"
2. Not purchasing him a balloon or flowers when every other parent did, and
3. Not dressing him in his Sunday best. Yes, that's my child wearing a T-shirt and jeans on graduation day.
   

Just a cute picture of Taylor and I. Yes, he is wearing a necktie. And no, this was not for graduation.

About a month and a half ago we realized that Erik was in desperate need of a haircut. It was getting pretty long. I almost considered letting it get just a little longer and donating it to Locks of Love. But he hated how long it took to wash the shampoo out of his hair.

Yes, he's on the toilet, but no, he's not constipated. That's just the face he makes when you tell him to smile.

Mid-haircut:

Again, not constipated.

And here's a picture of me on the Fourth of July.

That's that? Why am I wearing a mask? Well, the Friday before the weekend of the 4th I started feeling achy everywhere. But no big deal. Then on Saturday it totally hit me- I could barely get out of bed. I had a splitting headache, I had the chills, and my neck was so stiff I couldn't move it without wanting to scream. After I called Kent that afternoon and told him that he had to come home because I could no longer safely watch the kids, he came home, asked me what was wrong, and took me to the E.R. After a fun lumbar puncture it turns out I had meningitis. And I guess there are a ton of different meningitises (is that right for the plural form?) to get. Mine was viral. So it wasn't the scary kind. I spent a night at the hospital and I was discharged the next day. No, it didn't last long, and yes, I'm quite fine now, thank you!

And the other of only 2 pictures we got on the Fourth. And I made Kent take this picture. It's officially the first skirt I made for Melanie!! Technically we were supposed to have matching skirts, but seeing as how I couldn't take care of the kids that Saturday, let alone sew, only she got to wear hers. I'm quite proud of it :)

Almost Two Months

Apparently it's been that long since I last posted something. Not that we haven't done anything worth posting. It's quite the contrary- I haven't had much time (okay, I haven't really made the time) to just sit and work on a post. My apologies. Hopefully people will still check our blog... eventually.

Back in May we had plans to go camping- we even had our campsite reserved. Unfortunately the weather didn't really want to cooperate, and it was supposed to rain the ENTIRE time. Not my idea of a lovely camping trip. So through much coaxing and some tears I finally convinced Kent to drive down to Clovis to visit his family. We spent a day at the zoo checking out the wildlife. No, this isn't real. And if you look very closely you can see a string of drool hanging out of Erik's mouth.

I love this picture.

This was probably taken by Kent before our riff-raff children ran up and started whoopin' and hollerin' at the poor dear.

They had this cute little area where kids could dig for fossils. Cute, really.

Doesn't the goat look totally excited to befriend our children?

And then the goat saw this:

And now it doesn't look quite as happy about Erik wanting to be friends.

And how convenient!! Disneyland is only a THREE hour drive from Kent's parents' house!! And wouldn't it just be so lovely if Kent and I went? But the kids would probably rather stay with Grandma and Grandad, right? I mean, they just went in March. Don't want them to get tired of Disneyland or anything.

Our new line of action figures.

Except I'm supposed to be running- not punching myself in the face.

We actually took a picture almost exactly like this one (same ride and everything!) when we were first dating. If I wasn't so lazy I'd go find it...

Kent was very proud of himself for maxing out his score.

No, really! Here's proof:

I'm not quite sure what I'm doing here.

And thanks to the lovely Leifson family for helping me badger Kent into making the drive. We met up with them and we had a great time!

And a BIG thanks to Kent's parents for taking our kids for those few days that we were in the Happiest Place on Earth. With no kids. And I swear, Melanie doesn't always wake up in the middle of the night and cry and cry...

Once again I realized, after going through all of the pictures, that there are absolutely none of Melanie. We really do love her. I promise. So here's one of her just so we don't feel too bad:

Yes, she loves Oreos. Until Kent told me that she probably doesn't need them that early.

Father and Son Campout

Last month was the father and son campout for our ward. And Erik is now officially old enough to go with Kent without making it too much work. So off they went to go camping! I'm sure there was nothing healthy within a 5-mile-radius of the site, and I wasn't surprised when the next day the kids had a slight case of diarrhea considering the fact that I sent them off with a full bag of marshmallows and a new package of Hershey's chocolate squares.The boys had so much fun and were completely sleep-deprived the next day. But it was lovely since I was able to have a girl's-night-in, and Melanie conveniently goes to sleep at 7:30. Good stuff. If only they had father and son campouts more often...

Beach Trip

It's been a while. I have quite a number of posts to catch up on, but first things first.

Almost a month ago we were planning on checking out a beach that one of Kent's co-workers had mentioned was awesome. Unfortunately, the day before we had planned on going Erik started throwing up. So Kent took Taylor to the beach to check it out. Taylor loved it and keeps asking when we're gonna go back. Maybe it's the fact that I didn't grow up around ocean water, but I had no idea starfish got that large...

...or could be found in any other color beside yellow.


I can just hear this crab saying, "Yo. What up?"

I love this picture of Taylor!

6 Months

Okay, so she's gynormous. We really don't feed her pure butter, though she does eat her cereal like I'm rationing her food and she doesn't trust me to feed her regularly. I have to put her in 12-month clothes because her arms are too big for smaller sizes. She shares diapers with Erik. In fact, she's only about 7 pounds lighter than Erik. For her 6-month appointment, she weighed just over 20 pounds. As big as Taylor was, he wasn't even that heavy at 6 months. I ended up having to hold her almost the entire time at church yesterday (instead of finding some unsuspecting victim to pawn her off on), and my arms are totally sore today.

But really, is she not the cutest thing you've ever seen?