Soccer Season!

Saturday was Eric's first soccer game of the season. It's been a couple years since he played on a team, so I was a little worried that he would be somewhat behind. Never fear! I guess playing everyday at school during recess time has kept him up to pace....somewhat. Sadly, his team did not win. They lost 1-5, but, guess who scored that one goal? Yup, Eric! Way to go! YOU ROCK!

Summer of Babies!

Okay so I had a birthday the other day and the best present of all was the call from Florida informing me that my newest neice had been born just about an hour before! Wahoo!

I had 4 sisters-in-law pregnant at the same time this year: 2 of Kendall's sisters and my 2 brothers' wives. Not only that, all these babies were born in a nearly perfect pattern: 1st Paul on June 7th, then 17 days later came Ashley on June 24th, then 17 days later came Alex on July 11th, then 21 days later came Cassy on August 1st! Way to go Cassy, you ruined the nice pattern of every 17 days, but at least you came on my birthday! (Once I have permission, I'll post pics of them all).

My lovely sister informs me that I'm next. Don't hold your breath! I've got 2 kids to get out of diapers first!

Today was a day that I really should have had my camera...we took the kids to Riverfront Park in Downtown Spokane. It was super warm and there is this nifty fountain thing that the kids can run through and get soaking wet. Dispite a little knee scrape (Eli, of course) The kids had a blast. It makes my heart so happy to see Eli and Eric play and have fun together. The moments are rare, probably for many reasons...I cherish the ones we get.

Fun with Dad in the park. Puyallup, WA, July 7th.

Eli and Greggers...just being 2 year olds!

One might wonder...do I ever put clothes on my kids? Well, yeah, but it's summer and it's hot and I have a 2-year-old who makes up his own mind about when clothes should be worn. Yeah, he's also trying to potty train himself, so that adds to the mayhem.

Noah holding strong in the bath with Eli. He's the more mellow of the two, but I wouldn't be surprised if he comes out tougher! He might have to, just to survive.

Day at the park to say good bye to Nikki...She's off in Mississippi now. Sad, but good for them, right? WE miss you Nik!

What was I doing 10 years ago?
Uh, was that pre-marriage? Oh well, then, I don't remember. Ha! Seriously, it was a totally different life! Hmmm...1998-recovering from a traumatic relationship (yes, I was doing that often for a few years), working for NuSkin in Provo and playing a lot, yup, that about sums it up.

What's on my to-do list for today?
Well today is over in about 20 minutes. But the major to-do was to go to Post Falls for a Birthday. Check. Oh yeah, and go on the walk. Check. Laundry was done yesterday...Yee haw!

3 Things you might not know about me:
1. I met my husband on eharmony.com. Yes, we really did and we should probably request a lot of money for them to use us on their commercials.
2. I love Swedish Fish. The gummy kind.
3. I'm a tool girl: power, kitchen, whatever...It's common to hear me say, "You must use the right tool for the right job!"

3 Bad Habits of mine:
1. I am the queen of procrastination. I've had an entire life of getting things done at the last minute and not really having things turn out badly. That's not really good reinforcement for changing my ways, now is it?
2. Watching brainless t.v. when I could be doing something WAY more productive.
3. Staying awake because I'm afraid of getting woken up by a baby. Sounds weird, but it never fails...if I try to nap or go to bed early, I'm very rudely woken up by some kid jumping on me or screaming. It's just better to stay awake and go to bed late.

4 tv shows/movies I love:
-Lost
-Greys Anatomy
-America's Got Talent (not for the judges, but some of the people are just so interesting!)
-Get Smart (I laughed harder than I had in a long time)

4 books I love:
-The Palace of Illusions
-Twilight series (yeah, I got sucked in too)
Um...That's about all I've read recently. Do toddler books count?

4 jobs I've had:
-age 16 - Arbys, by far the worst job ever!
-Assistant Event Coordinater, by far my favorite job that paid me money.
-telemarketer, 2nd worst
-Mommy, the hardest, but my favorite.

4 places I've lived:
-Laguna Niguel, California
-Fairbanks, Alaska
-St. Paul, Minnesota
-Pullman, Washington

5 of my favorite foods:
-Ice Cream (usually vanilla with soft fudgy swirls)
-Thai food
-Pasta
-Cheese
-Bread

People I'm tagging:
-Liz
-April
-Carolee
-Whitney Wright

Just the boys...

It doesn't get more precious than this! I love, love, love, how my sweet husband adores his boys!


I promise, I'm as innocent as they come!



We are beginning to see a new phase emerging...These two little guys will now drag out a toy box and play together (sort of). Eli makes lots of noises and crashes things and throws things. Noah will pick up 2 pieces of whatever and bang them together. It's a miracle to me that they can be entertained by this for even 5 minutes!


These were some glow-in-the-dark Harry Potter glasses that somehow never got thrown away. Good thing because they amused Eli for a couple hours the other day! He didn't care that they were on upside down or not even sitting on his ears.

Toddler-hood...it's so tiring! I was working on something at the computer (probably doing something really exciting like trying to pay bills) and Eli and Eric were playing happily and quietly together. I realized things had gotten really quiet. I got up to see what had happened and I saw that Eric had slipped a note under the door saying, "Be quite. Eli is sleeping" (Yes, he really spelled quite instead of quiet! So sweet....they had been playing kind of a hide and seek game and Eli just couldn't quite stay awake any longer.

Our new nickname for Noah is The Gremlin! This face doesn't quite show it. This is just one of his typical huge laughing smiles. We have yet to get the gremlin face on a photo....you'll see it once we do! He attacks and laughs and scrunches up his nose and squints his eyes and bares all his 7 teeth! We laugh ourselves silly trying to escape him!

Who says that toddler toys can't amuse a 10-year-old?

I love the happy grin here.

Beautiful Day!

He wanted to read mommy a story.


Yes, he is under the bed and yes, he got himself there. He was giggling like crazy, thinking it was the best game in the world!



Lunch time with babies. Eli just couldn't make it any longer. Poor guy, if he'd just sleep in a bit more he might make it through lunch.




Eli is boogying to this silly hampster music card that we sent to Aunt Amanda. Should have really taken a video of this one!



Happy little guy.


Noah thinks he can play with Eli. Eli thinks otherwise...he's very possessive of all his toys. Little does he know they were Eric's to begin with.

Today was a great day because...

*I walked outside with a new friend. We walked yesterday too! Not only that, I think I've got her looked and she wants to go all the time! Yes! Sanity will return for me, I just know it. Also those last stubborn 10 lbs will go bye bye!

*I made chocolate chip cookies with my 2-year-old and we both survived it! He was so into the process. "I make it mommy!"

*I didn't yell at any of my kids. After this winter, this is a major accomplishment. Really, everything went very smoothly in our home today. Lots of things play into that, but the bottom line is that it's a good thing and we're happy.

*Kendall finished finals today! Yay! He took his last one this morning and said he felt pretty good about. I'll gloat (on his behalf) about his grades when they're all posted, but it looks good! All his hard work and studying paid off.

*NO SCHOOL for Kendall for 4 months! Wow, he's been taking classes year round for so long, I can't imagine how this will be. I'm going to relish it. Okay, I'm also going to put him to work!

*I read some friends' blogs. I love how creative and truly inspiring you all are to me! Wow, I know some awesome mammas!

*I'm finishing off my day eating some Ben & Jerry's Peach Cobbler Ice Cream and getting ready to watch American Idol results show (definately my guilty pleasure these days)

*I'm not worrying about how the cookies and ice cream are counter-acting my walk today. I'm just having warm fuzzies and being okay about it.

I recently took a little "vacation" to my mom and dad's place in Nampa, Idaho. Yeah, I guess it's not much of a vacation when I take my own little tornado with me everywhere I go. I'm referring to Eli of course! He played shy at first, but was soon aclimated and totally in love with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa helped by taking him for walks to get the mail and of course to get him to go to sleep at naptime (Thanks dad!). Grandma played and sang songs and read stories and made sure he didn't starve (Thanks Mom!). It was such a good trip in many ways. One benefit that I didn't expect was that the babies learned to sleep in the same room. Noah had still been in our room (yes, at almost 8 months old!). I was so worried about putting them in the same room for fear of Eli trampling him or that one would wake up the other. Well, I never set up the port-a-crib and just put Noah in the crib in the room with Eli. It's working beautifully. Who would have guessed?



I also learned that I could drive a reasonably long distance by myself with 2 little ones. They were so good in the car, way better than I could have hoped! Thank goodness for DVD players in the car and for an angelic baby who giggles spontaneously!



I was able to spend some time with my friend and her little boy. Funny, our boys are nearly a year apart, but they look about the same age (they're roughly the same size). They are so different in temperments and the first few hours were a bit rough. However, the second day we went to play, Eli was so excited to go play with Ryan! They did really well, ran and played outside and found plenty of common interests....cars, balls, and slides! You know, boy stuff!