Mary Land

Today Clara is 9 months old! That is pretty exciting! And may I admit, a wee bit sad? I'm not sure if it can be stated as fact, but I believe these past 9 months have been the speediest in recorded history. I'm pretty sure it was just last week that Clara was a little warm lump of a baby the size of a football who needed holding all the time - and now she's her a real person with her own personality and a pretty loud voice, who still needs holding all the time.

This girl is growing and changing daily! She has two bottom teeth. She's drooly. She likes eating real food and her reactions to our attempts at giving her baby food are hilarious. She has a funny laugh that she does with her mouth open wide, especially when she sees her own reflection.

Although Clara can get to wherever she wants to go, she doesn't quite crawl yet. She's a good scooter and travels backwards pretty fast - especially on the kitchen and hardwood floors. She also seems strangely mobile while sitting - kind of scooting on her bottom.

Clara can go from crawl position to sitting. She mastered that a few weeks ago. Today, though, she surprised me when I went into her room to get her up from her morning nap and she was sitting in the crib, working to pull herself up on the side slats!

Clara loves all the attention she gets from the big kids. Amelia is more and more interested in her and wants to hold her all the time, saying, "Put Cara (how she says Clara) down, right there. I wanna hold her." But Clara isn't so interested in having an Amelia straight jacket and wants to move around so it often turns into a wrestling match.

Clara is a busy, happy, loving, peppy, sweet little thing! I just wish she would remember how to sleep through the night again, sniff-sniff.

New Years Resolution (And More!)

2012-01-13T12:28:00.003-05:00

After a couple of weeks of the new year, I have decided what my New Year's resolution will be. I I don't usually make these resolutions because I am trying to do better at just about everything on nearly a daily basis and as I inevitably fail, I go ahead and try again the next day... If I think about it, I pretty much live in a constant state of Groundhog Day.

Anyway, back to this year. I resolve to sleep more. Everything I want to do better at can only be helped by me getting enough sleep. Increased patience. Increased feelings of love. Being healthy - I swear I have had a cold since November that won't go away! Losing the last of the baby weight. Being tired sure saps my desire to exercise. But exercise helps you have more energy! Being worn out also makes it harder to eat well. I am a classic emotional eater - treats see me through many a hard day. Sticking to my grocery budget and eating-out budget (more on these another day). If I'm worn out, planning and making good dinners becomes a big chore and the temptation to eat out increases. Being a better wife and friend. Not getting overwhelmed by daily to-dos. Getting projects started and finished. Feeling positive. Handling toddler tantrums better. And on and on.

All of those things can be easier if I have a full night's sleep! I just love to stay up late. But the kids aren't going to agree to sleep in (or sleep all night for that matter) just because I don't go to bed at a reasonable time!

What's your resolution?

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Randy has been working like crazy on a huge proposal for work. Yesterday, at a meeting to go over the most recent review of the different parts of the proposal, Randy was called out and applauded for the great work he has done on his part of the proposal. I'm so proud! And so glad all of those extra hours of him working on this are being recognized!

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Randy and I went on a fun date for his birthday. We went to see The Sound of Music at a theater in a nearby town. It was a great show with lovely singing and we just loved it! I'm so glad we did that instead of just going to a movie, which is what I had originally planned. It was such a great night out!

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I somehow lost the stuff on the sidebar. Last year I never got around to writing down what books I read and now I wish I had because I have an inability to remember book titles. Here is what I can remember from last year. I know there are more I am forgetting, sigh.

Little Women - an old standby. Very sweet. Sometimes too sweet, but I do love it.
The Lost Summer of Louisa Mae Alcott - Pretty good as these types of books go.
Tina Fey's book Bossy Pants - Funny. I wish she was my friend, only I would bore her.
Variant - Great juvenile fiction! Good suspense! I hope there's a sequal to this one)
State of Wonder - Interesting. I think I liked it.
The Water and the Blood - by the lady who wrote the These is My Words series. I love her writing.
The Host - Entertaining. It's better than her vampire books, but it bugs me that she uses the exact same formula for this book as the others. Kind of an outsider girl deeply in love with someone she shouldn't have, a rather strange love triangle, some strange amount of violence against the female lead character. Why does the love triangle have to involve violence against the girl?
Firegirl - great juvenile fiction. Sad but funny at the same time. I love the main character and his day-dream super powers.
The Tiger mom book. This one got me thinking. I want my kids to be successful and confident. I don't think you need to be such a screamer to make that happen. I can only imagine the tension in their family!

A Randy-a-thon

2012-01-09T14:28:00.003-05:00

Happy Birthday to Randy! I went through the photos to try to find a good picture of Randy for this post and noticed some themes.

A lot of pictures I have of him are of him doing something manly:

Some are of him playing:

A few of him just being silly:

But most of them are Randy as dad:

And always being handsome:

And one of my favorite sights: Randy coming home from work.

Randy works hard, plays happily, fathers well and is a wonderful and sweet husband. Yay for Randy! You're my favorite guy ever! (34 sounds old. Weren't we just 18?!)

Completed!

2012-01-04T22:40:00.004-05:00

Finishing a project is a great way to end and/or begin a year, wouldn't you say? Getting anything out of the ordinary done around here can take me a long time. There are lots of little people who provide lots of distractions. And I'm a little lazy and so when I'm not wiping bottoms, sweeping, playing and doing endless amounts of laundry, I really like to do stuff like read and watch shows on hulu, and think up more projects to do.

From Dresser

Back in July, I found a bed and dresser on craisglist for $85. The bonus was when Randy brought them home, there were actually two beds included in that price! They had a great shape, but were covered in an ugly yellowed finish and had been pretty well used over the years. Oh, and they were kind of stinky. But the price was great and we saw the potential in those little beauties!

From Dresser

Can't you just imagine the heat and humidity of last summer? It's hard to remember how warm it gets here while we are having the first really cold weather of the year this week. Anyway, these beauties blended in nicely with the wood paneling in our garage, but we sanded them down and got to work on the bed first. It seemed like the best place to begin.

From Dresser

And we primed and painted it. No problem! Then came the crappy part: waxing the bed. I am not sure if we are just wax impaired, or if the extreme heat and humidity of the summer sabotaged our efforts, but we ended up doing a lot of waxing, seeing it bubble up all crappy, sanding it all off, adding more paint, waxing again, repeat. We ended up getting a good enough coat and called it good. Putting the bed together was super exciting and then we realized that it was too long for our regular twin mattress! There were four extra inches of bed frame we hadn't accounted for! Yahoo! (A bunch of searching found us a nice twin xl set, which Rand better appreciate by growing extra tall as a teenager.)

From Dresser

Meanwhile, we painted the bedroom that Rand and Clara now share. It is the smallest bedroom in our house, but comfy and functional. But the room was, perhaps, the ugliest shade of green you could ask for. And I like green. It went from minty green to a nice happy blue. Then school started, things got hectic around here, and I put off starting the dresser for a long time. More sanding, priming, painting, waxing... Why didn't I just buy a new set for them instead? But I got to work. (I need to explain here that Randy worked with me a bunch on painting the bed, but he let me fly solo for the most part when it came to the dresser - he's had a busy fall).

From Dresser

I had a long stalled time where I couldn't decide on drawer colors. Then I did decide on drawer colors, but I got stuck on the wax issue and was afraid to try it. Then we had visitors and then a birthday and Halloween and then a 2-week trip to Utah, then a whole month of Utah-trip recovery and Christmas prep, and Christmas.

From Dresser

And suddenly, I had a day where I just went ahead and finished it up. The dresser is complete and in place and working great!

From Dresser

Rand and Clara finally live in a complete, cute bedroom!

From Dresser

The end!

Until I get around to working on a few other things:

From Dresser

Painting the main living areas. Flat paint and children don't jive.

From Dresser

Trying out a DIY slipcover pattern I saw on Pinterest for a free, super comfy, cute chair our neighbor gave us.

From Dresser

For now, a pillow can cheer her up. (I think we'll paint the mantle behind said chair - 2 years of sizing up that fireplace wall and I think I'm ready to go for it!)

Navidad!

2011-12-27T21:42:00.002-05:00

We had a lovely Christmas, as I'm sure you did too. I must say, I felt more frazzled and overrun by Christmas prep this year than ever. Decmeber was a busy month, and the kids and Randy had school or work until the 23rd, so the festive build-up was rather lack-luster. But as soon as the weekend came and we were all home together to relax and celebrate, it finally felt like Christmas and we had a wonderful time!

So, here is photo documentation of our Christmas fun.

From Chrsitmas

I thought I would get around to doing a family Christmas card. I usually love to send them out, but just couldn't get it together enough to do one this year. I took many pictures for what ended up being the Christmas Card that Wasn't. I was excited, though, that I found plaid matchy-matchy dresses for all the girls. I actually bought a matching plaid shirt for Rand that he refused to wear. Clothing decisions aren't something I feel the need to force on Rand, so we all survived and probably benefited from a little break in the plaid. Well played Rand. Well played.

From Chrsitmas

I don't know about you, but plaid and matching are the best combination there is. Here is one of the many out-takes (I'm having a hard time the low winter light and getting good indoor pictures right now). I just love Amelia's face in this one!

From Chrsitmas

Our busy month made for a theme of Less is More. I cut the cards out of our usual routine. I cut the neighbor treats (we did take small ornaments and cards around). And we also did fewer Christmas lights - not that we did many before. But instead of stringing them on the house, we just put some net lights on the front hedges and set up this little snowman who, sadly, has spent more time laying on the ground than standing up. He just won't stay standing! I think next year we'll tie him up to the lamppost since we learned from friends in the neighborhood that our house can be identified as the one with the dead snowman. Poor dead snowman!

From Chrsitmas

On Christmas Eve we had our traditional potato soup in bread bowls for dinner. It was a fun, easy night!

From Chrsitmas

Clara had her first taste of pumpkin pie. She sure liked it, but made this face after each tiny bite. Hilarious!

From Chrsitmas

Then we did our puppet nativity. (See that cute new-to-us chair next to Randy? We love it! Our neighbors got new furniture a few days before Christmas and gave us this sweet rocker/glider - so comfy!)

From Chrsitmas

Jammies were opened. I was going to sew pajamas and actually made a pair of pj bottoms for Rand and cut out a nightgown for Lindsey. But as per our theme this season, I cut that off my list before starting in on the nightgown. Yay for store-bought sanity :)

From Chrsitmas

PJs! After the kids went to bed, Randy and I spent the evening setting up a play kitchen for Amelia, a lego table for Rand, and a mini trampoline for Lindsey and then left those in the basement to be found later.

From Chrsitmas

Christmas morning was very nice. The kids didn't wake up until after 7, and then we all had a great time opening the presents under the tree (we didn't tell the kids about the big gifts in the basement until after church.)

From Chrsitmas

Clara got her first doll from Santa.

From Chrsitmas

We all grew some mustaches.

From Chrsitmas

Lindsey dressed her new doll in the dress grammy McB made her. She asked us, "How did grammy know Santa was going to bring me this doll?!" Grandmas always know!

From Chrsitmas

And then we all headed to church. (Rand has food in his mouth in this one - sorry Rand!) One-hour church that consisted of all music was lovely. I could go for that every week! After church we fed the kids lunch and then told them that since we have two chimneys and two fireplaces, maybe Santa left a few things for them to find in the basement too. So they ran down and discovered the gifts we left down there the night before (no pictures). That was so fun! After some playing and relaxing, we cooked and cooked and had a big dinner with a bunch of friends. Our breakfast casserole that I baked in the morning leaked into the oven, which I hadn't realized until I opened the oven to put the turkey in and was met with a wall of smoke! The smoke detector went off several times in the process of making this meal. Windows were opened, fans were turned on. At one point, there might have even been a small fire on the bottom of the oven. But we had to cook that turkey and so we scraped the black stuff from the bottom of the oven as best as possible and went on with the baking. Our house might have smelled like a fire, but the food was delicious and the friends were fun!

From Chrsitmas

We topped off the night by breaking out the cotton candy maker Randy's parents gave us. What could go better with pie than cotton candy made in our own golden kitchen?

From Chrsitmas

We have had a nice, relaxing couple of post-Christmas days, which have been lovely. I feel like I could sleep for a week after all that preparation and holidaying! Mom, here's Lindsey in her skirt (sorry about the poor picture).

From Chrsitmas

We have spent lots of time playing games (UNO attack is hilarious), trying out the Kinect and of course, making more cotton candy.

Whew!

Big 'uns

2011-12-13T20:21:00.002-05:00

Lindsey is a girl bursting with energy and enthusiasm. She needs time to run and play and we squeak in as much as possible with what time we have between school and dark (oh winter!). Have I mentioned that she can shimmy up to the top of the swing sets at the park, "walk" her hands across the entire top bar, past all the swings and over to the other side of the swing sets, and then shimmy down pole on the other side, without getting tired? She can do this again and again. Perhaps some winter gymnastics classes are in order.

Lindsey finally lost her second front tooth. (Those wiggly teeth gross me out, especially when they are given exhibition time during meals.) Anyhoo, Lindsey is a born helper. She loves to organize, thrives on positive feedback, loves friends, loves her primary teacher sooo much, and above all, loves holding Clara. She and Rand get along great and are the best playmates. She's not so sure about Amelia these days, but then she has to put up with a lot at bedtime when Amelia is at her craziest. Don't you think it will make them best friends in the long run? I hope so (and not mortal enemies)!

We had parent/teacher conferences with her 1st grade teacher last week. What a smartie pants we have on our hands! She's a great student, good friend, and eager worker! I think she might just be her teacher's favorite (and why not?).

Lindsey loves a good story. When we were in Utah, she called my dad Frances (that's his name, but he goes by Wayne) and he gave her the look she is doing in the above picture. She repeats that story and face about once a day! With this love of stories, we are always working on helping her be honest since she comes up with some pretty convincing tales. So much so that several of her friends' parents have reported stories back to me about things like uncles being bit by sharks - and asking if they are true since their kids are completely convinced that Lindsey's stories are real. The other day we caught her in a blatant lie (not just another story) and are trying to figure out how to teach our sweet daughter about integrity of all things! Oh, to have the imagination of a 7-year-old!

Rand is a real ham. He talks a lot. He might appear to be kind of on the quiet side, but if you are within earshot of him, he will fill the room with stories and long, drawn-out explanations of just about anything. And he does it in this loud, surprisingly commanding voice that makes it difficult to think sometimes. (Is this related to hearing loss? I'll tell about that some other time)

At his parent/teacher conference last week, I came away feeling so great about how he is doing in school, socially and academically. Last year he had an ornery preschool teacher who didn't have anything positive to say about him and suggested Rand was too young and needed to be held back a year before starting school. According to his kindergarten teacher's glowing reviews, he is thriving in all areas. He just loves his teacher and draws a picture of himself holding her hand, usually with some small note to her, just about every day. I'm so glad he was put in her class and that she sees what a great and smart kid he is!

When we are helping Lindsey with her nightly homework, he insists on doing his own homework and so we have to come up with things for him to do each night (sight words, math games, etc). It seems the boy can read and really really wants to figure out math (mom, what's 100 times 100? - all day long.). He loves to draw and write. This is a big deal since up until this year, he was completely uninterested in pencils and crayons.

We are always working on listening, using appropriate voices, being honest, sharing, being nice, staying in our seats during meals, and eating veggies. We have plenty of bedtime drama, fits and breakdowns, scoldings over turning on computer games without permission, and enough time-outs to wear a mom out. But all in all, I'd say we've got some pretty great kids around these parts!

p.s. I'm still kind of stumped on what to do for Lindsey for Christmas. Any super cool ideas?

Wee Ones

2011-12-11T22:39:00.005-05:00

Clara is 7 months old! We all think she is totally cute.

She has some delicious cheeks, dimple included. And the bluest eyes. Her eyelashes are still blonde - the lightest and shortest in our posse. Her hair is getting longer, in spots, so she sports a pretty good comb-over.

Her laugh makes us laugh. She's a happy girl, until dinner prep-time of course. We are trying to feed her baby food, but that just makes her blow raspberries. We have gone through many bowls of baby cereal and veggies and I'm not sure if any of them were ingested, or rather spat down her front. At least she enjoys it!

This month she had her first cold and had an impressive amount of snot, which ended up plastered to my clothes. She's better now, but she drools quite a bit. She also had her first bonk - right on her nose. You can see the last bit of her scrape.

She sits like a champ and can happily play with toys (if she doesn't see me sneak away). When she falls back, which happens more than she would like, it makes her livid. I'm pretty sure she can wave to people on purpose. Sitting, waving. We're pretty smart around here.

Clara might just be our first mama's girl, though she is passed around and held by everyone. It's interesting to see that she has her own personality - a little shy and a little cuddly and a smiley little thing. She's learning to use her lungs and join in the loud dinner-time hullabaloo with a surprisingly big and growly voice. She's such a sweet addition to our family!

Amelia is 2. She's got ideas. She's got opinions. She likes to make funny faces and then see how she looks in the camera. She is fun, full of kisses and spunk. She loved Santa at the ward party and went right up to him, nearly knocking over the rest of the kids in her hurry to get to him. Once it was finally her turn, she got right on his lap, talked for a long time, got off his lap and continued talking to him until I caught her and led her away. She is not timid.

All the way to church today she said, "Rise and shout the cougars are out!" over and over. (Our indoctrination is working...)

Her hair is long. And seeing it makes me realize she's no longer a baby. No matter what, her hair only stays looking brushed for a minute. She usually looks like she spent some time in a sticky wind tunnel. In addition to being unable to keep her hair tidy, I also can't keep shoes or socks on this girl. Particularly in the car. That makes running errands extra fun!

You can tell she just knows she is part of whatever is going on. She loves a crowd. Loves counting, reading, seeing Christmas lights, clapping and dancing and being silly. She loves everything that is mine, especially anything I might be eating or drinking. Nothing befouls a perfectly nice glass of water like a 2-year-old. But she's a cute one!

**Sometime I'll think to take out the camera when the big kids are home from school and I'll do an update for them. They are pretty awesome and worth their own post!

Thanks Be

2011-12-03T00:01:00.003-05:00

We are back from a lovely visit to see family in Utah for an extra long Thanksgiving vacation.

As our marriage and family are basically products of BYU, we took the kids to campus to go to the Bean museum (awesome) and to buy some cinnamon bears for a treat. While we were there, someone was giving a carrillon bell concert that essentially gave us a soundtrack for our campus wanderings.

I believe the foot bridges might have been the funnest part of that day for the kids.

We made the kids pose with us where we said our first "I love you's" so long ago. You can tell Rand felt he was on hallowed ground.

It snowed just enough one morning for us to have some fun slipping around outside.

It looks like we did some real sledding, but Amelia was the only one small enough to capture sledding with a full snowy background! She and Linds and Rand loved rolling around in the snow, despite the fact that I did not bring any snow gear and their hands, feet and legs became popsicles.

We spent lots of time feeding the deer, goats and other animals next door to my parents' place.

And the kids got to go for a ride through the berry patch!

Clara wasn't so sure about the cold, but her dad is handsome.

It was fun to introduce Clara to grampy!

Randy and I snuck out for a football game. We won. And froze.

I don't have pictures from my sister Laurie's beautiful house, but we had the best time hanging out there, letting the kids play outside and dress up. You should see their incredible view!

After a few days at my parents' place, we headed south to Randy's folks' which was full of cousins and more cousins.

Randy discovered a love of four-wheelers.

There was wrestling.

Trampoline bouncing during the day.

And night.

And of course, riding in the old jeep (Amelia loves that little phone).

We played a 7-hour game of Puerto Rico (not pictured, you should be grateful - it didn't end well and it was all my fault (or maybe Tasha's (wink)). And there was loads of food. Good food. But alas, no good pictures of it, so you can feast on this cute face.

After several nice days, we went back to my parents' house for an overlapping visit with sisters Laurie, Wendy and their families. Oh the fun! The late night games! The laughing! The shopping!

Clara loved Emily.

Amelia loved the piano.

Randy loved this chair.

I loved this painting.

We all loved hanging out together.

We did more visiting, more eating, more game playing, and very little sleeping. Then we flew home and slept and slept and the kids and I didn't wake up until 8:30 the next morning, but still managed to get them clothed, fed, out the door and on the bus in time for school.

We are all thankful for our great big family, thankful for a good safe trip, and thankful to be home!

Leaves are Falling All Around...

2011-11-15T15:09:00.008-05:00

Can you believe we are already half-way through November?

I probably say this every year, but this has been our most beautiful fall yet. The weather has been lovely and the colorful trees surrounding us have been gorgeous. The leaves are falling like crazy. Some days, we'll look outside and it looks like it's raining leaves. Randy works hard using the leaf blower and mowing the leaves into mulch to keep up with the leaves so we don't have to endure raking an acre of soggy wet leaves all at once like our first year here.

Over the weekend, our yard went from looking like this:

To this:

And this:

But the biggest trees are taunting us with hanging on to a lot of their leaves, like the giant white oak:

Today the yard once again looks like the leaf cleanup never happened:

On an unrelated note, I love how Amelia is now giving me big smiles whenever she sees the camera.

I wish Rand would remember his real smile. But I'm happy he's doing so well in school (purple note taped to his chest from his teacher was worn like a badge of honor for that kid).

Do you ever wake up and realize you have FOUR whole kids? They fill those laundry baskets very fast.

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Completely unrelated:

The other night, Amelia went to bed with a rubberband in her hair - one that, before stretched, has the circumference of a dime. She woke up at 11 crying and crying and I went in and instead of making her either cry it out, or singing to her and putting her right back down, I decided to let her come out and have a snack and a drink before putting her back to bed. She was being so funny and chatty and so we sat on the couch a while together and I told her, "As soon as you finish your pretzel, it's time for bed." So she put her hand up to her mouth to put a pretzel in and I noticed her hand was enormous. She had put the rubberband around her wrist and fallen asleep like that for about 4 hours by that point. That was the scariest looking thing I have seen! I took off the rubberband and yelled for Randy to come look. It was like someone had blown up a rubber glove to make it a balloon. We had her moving her fingers and squeezing our hands and watched as the swelling slowly went down. Luckily, we have a friend who is a hand surgeon (handy!) and Randy texted back and forth with him and we felt reassured that her hand was okay even if it stayed swollen a while. Her hand looked normal in the morning, but even 2 days later, there is still a red ring around her wrist. Poor girl! And now I have yet another thing to be afraid of - rubberbands. I'm just glad our girl is okay.

#Dos

2011-11-01T20:40:00.002-04:00

Okay, this isn't actually a Halloween #2 post. Let's face it, I'm not a good low-light photog so we didn't get any trick-or-treating pictures worth recording.

October was great and long. We did lots of stuff, such as:

The Waterford Fair in VA. It was a lovely early fall day and a beautiful drive. I want to live in one of those 18th century brick homes. We saw some cool craftsmen and the kids got to try a few things. It was fun, but I think would be even more fun with just Randy and I on a date so we could really look at everything...

We took out a few crazy holly trees to open up the bottom area of our yard. Then rotatilled and planted grass. And by we, I mean Randy, with a small bit of help from us - Lindsey and I both tried our hands at rotatilling and we all threw grass seeds around, though I'm not sure if that was so effective. Mostly I just enjoyed the weather and held this girl:

Anyway, grass area before:

After: (Grow grass grow!)

Lindsey's 7th birthday!

How is she so old already? We had a spooky birthday party.

Played games.

Hit a Pinata!

Grandma and Grandpa C came to visit. We love having them! Amelia keeps asking where "Gama Gordon" is, haha!

For Lindsey's actual birthday, we did a scavenger hunt with super clever rhyming clues (go me) during which perhaps all four children cried at one point or another and I wanted to yell, "This is fun [d-word]!" to everyone. But held off and Lindsey found her gift - a new-to-us fancy big kid bike she is in love with. Whew.

We went to Dutch Wonderland in PA.

It was fun and we had a great time,

We agree that Hershey Park is cooler with better food and we will make sure not to miss Hershey Park day again next year :)

We made it through a great and busy month. And now that the Halloween stuff is all put away and things are clean and schedules are simple again, I'm very thankful it's November!

Halloween #Uno (surely there will be a wrap-up)

2011-10-31T12:35:00.004-04:00

Every Halloween I have to sing (to myself in my own head because I'm cool) that song they played over the loud speakers at Sonoma Elementary in days of yore, "H-A-double-L-O-W-double-E-N spells Halloween!" I also sing to myself in my own head the "Spooky Scary" song from 30 Rock and wish I knew the words and/or had a copy of that to play right now.

Have you read any Ramona books lately? We read some of the series sometime last year when Lindsey was in kindergarten. I love the part where Ramona dresses up as a witch for Halloween and wears a mask and then people like her mom and teacher pretend to not know who she is - and it freaks her out so she has to write a little note with Ramona Q. on it to wear so she wouldn't disappear or be forgotten while wearing the mask. Something like that anyway. I just think it's adorable. I think Beverly Cleary wrote a 5-year-old very well.

We had fun coming up with our costumes this year. Due to reading Harry Potter books 1-3 this summer, everyone started out wanting to be Harry Potter characters, but then slowly changed their minds.

I made Lindsey a newer, bigger tutu and found some wings so she could be a fairy. I figure we are coming to the end of Halloweens when she still wants to be something so sweet and pretty. So a fairy it is!

Rand decided to be a blonde Dracula. I pulled out some mad sewing skilz and made him a rather awesome cape. I made the cape twice actually. I sewed the cape like a crazy person 10 minutes before kids arrived for Lindsey's Halloween birthday party. It was functional, but horribly done. So I took it apart and re-did it much better so Rand could look even spookier. I never noticed before, but it seems lots of boys dress up as Dracula since just about everyone his age at the ward party was a vampire. I must say, Rand's cape was the best. (Pat-pat)

Amelia could have donned an old tutu and some wings to match Lindsey, but I decided to put her in the cowboy costume I made for Rand a few years ago. It fits her just right and she is a mighty cute cowgirl! Yeehaw!

Clara is wearing the same pumpkin each kid has worn when babies. Lindsey wore it when she was 1 and walking, Rand wore it at 4 months and it made him cry. Amelia squeezed into it last year, also when she was 1 but not walking. Clara is 6 months and it fit her just right - no tears, but she really wants to eat the straps of that hat.

We dressed up our yard a little. Some houses in our neighborhood really go all out! I guess we prefer the garbage-bag look. I'm not dressing up (bah humbug?), but sometime I need to be Mary Poppins. How has that idea escaped me until

now?

It's Halloween Day and we still don't have pumpkins yet! What? Pumpkins are my favorite! How did this happen? I'll tell you. Squash bugs and stink bugs (and maybe a few kids during a bbq) killed each and every one of our pumpkin plants this summer. So no home-grown beauties this time. Also, October has been majorly busy. Plus, last week each time I thought we could go to a pumpkin patch, it was either too busy, raining like crazy, or snowing. Yes, it snowed much of the day Saturday - not enough to stick, but cold enough to make going to a pumpkin patch less than desirable. I think after we go see Lindsey and Rand at their school Halloween parade, the wee ones and I will just go pick up a couple before the big kids get home. Dear Randy, I know you said very kindly that it would be fine if we didn't have any pumpkins this year, but it's not. I love them so.

A Milestone

2011-10-24T21:33:00.002-04:00

Two posts in one day! Yahoo!

Clara has been lunging at our food for some time now, but I have been lazy about starting this feeding phase. It's so much extra work!

This weekend we gave in and fed her some baby cereal.

In true Clara form, she handled it like it was no big deal, easy peasy.

Lindsey fed her the cereal and did a nice job, so I'll just hire her to be the official cereal feeder from here on out.

Look at that little face. She's such a cute thing!

And so as not to leave Amelia out in my double posting, I must say she's a cutie too! Her new fun phrase is, "Hey, look at me guys!" even if I'm the only one around. Funny girl!

Twinners

2011-10-24T21:17:00.003-04:00

As mentioned in my rather stressed-out post from last week that Rand got a tooth pulled. It has been wiggly for a while, but since Lindsey has been losing teeth left and right, we didn't really think about it as being too odd. At his appointment a few weeks ago, friendly dentist showed me his x-ray and said that it appeared he must have hit his tooth on something hard enough to kill the root. So she suggested we bring him in to have it "wiggled," which is a nice way of saying they were going to pull it out.

Rand was brave and chatty and a good sport about it. What a great kid! He was especially excited for the tooth fairy to come - he even wrote her a note saying how he was brave at the dentist. So she brought him a dollar and a lego guy. The first tooth is a big deal after all!

Now Rand and Lindsey are sporting twin gaps in their smiles. I find this rather adorable! Even more adorable is Rand's new lisp. I expect that to go away as soon as he gets used to his new mouth, but I'll enjoy it until that happens.

Schtuff

2011-10-20T21:56:00.003-04:00

To do, to do, to do. I am going to type for a bit and perhaps that will help my brain slow down. It's all trivial stuff, but enough to make my head spin. Here is a dump of what we've been doing:

2 kid dentist check-ups. I wonder if I would spend less time crying at the dentist now if I had had the same non-scary and very kind dental experiences as a child as my kids have now? Our pediatric dentist is amazing.
1 extra dentist appointment to get a kid tooth pulled (I guess teeth die if bonked hard enough)
1 little Rand sporting a new gap in his smile and a sweet lisp to go with it (pictures to come)
2 adult dentist check-ups.
0 cavities, go us!
1 six-month well-baby visit, scheduled a week too soon thanks to a receptionist who wouldn't listen to me, so now I have to schedule yet another doctor visit in a week or so for vaccines she couldn't get this week.
What? Is Clara really almost 6 months old?
She weighs 14 pounds and is tall - unless they measured wrong, she's in the 85% - wowee! (We never see high percentages!)
Halloween decorating.
Baking. YUM
Halloween costuming - 1 tutu made, 2 sets of wings bought, 1 black cape I should make tonight if I can force myself to...
We are giving Lindsey a small-ish slightly spooky birthday party here at our house tomorrow since the kids have a day off and Lindsey's real birthday is a school day. It's safe to say I'm not ready for it. Somehow, party preparations have made for the busiest couple of days. It's ridiculous how many trips to the store I have made. But Lindsey is soooo totally excited! I hope it's fun! I'm glad Randy will be taking off early to assist in partying.
What? Lindsey is almost 7? Remember when she was a 5-pound preemie?
We have been listening to Anne of Green Gables on cd in the car with all the kids, but Lindsey loves it most of all. It took a while for her to get into the story, but now she just loves that Anne-girl. She asked me, "Why is that lady who owns Anne so grumpy?" Ah, Marilla is the best character. As soon as we finish the book, we need to watch the movie together.
Amelia has felt the stress of all this running around and has been muy emotional today between super cuteness. Poor girl. She cried and asked for Cafe Rio in the most pathetic voice (have we gone there much?) as we left our 2nd visiting teaching appointment this afternoon. If only Amelia. If only.
I visit taught 2 ladies today, then went grocery shopping all before lunch time. See? Too much running around.
Randy has had a big exciting work project and hasn't gotten home until late every night this week. No one misses that guy more than me during those critical evening hours. This place becomes a circus and I have just barely managed to keep everything running smoothly. Splitting bedtimes between small ones and big ones has helped. I don't pretend to know how my sister and sister-in-law handle looooooong deployments. They are heroes and made of tougher stuff than me, that's for sure!
I took L and R to a family fun night at their school the other day while Randy stayed home with the babies. The activity mainly involved a smelly gym full of elementary-aged kids hula-hooping, limbo-ing, and jamming to some rad music played by a very enthusiastic dj. I'm afraid Lindsey has inherited my dorky dance skilz, but none of my inhibitions. That girl is all confidence and lives for an audience. She kept checking to make sure I was watching and her smile was enormous. It was heart-breakingly sweet. Rand ran around with a bunch of kindergarten kids who all call him Randall, and busted out some break-dance moves I never knew he had. How is this "Randall" such smooth operator? Must have gotten that from his dad who has his own inner backstreet.
A friend I visit teach (who I did not visit teach today) came over and did a bit of service for me this evening and though I have only known her a short time, I love her for it.
I have killed roughly one big black spider a day for the past several weeks (2 today though). My mom and sisters and I have been exchanging spider stories. Mom wins! Shudder.
The laundry pile insists on growing. Thanks to diaper blow-outs, random bed-wetting incidents, a really fun and muddy backyard, and the normal wearing of clothing and using of towels, things keep needing to be laundered. When I had Clara I told Randy my only goals were to keep up with the laundry (I did not include folding in the goal) and to sweep somewhat regularly. I even stopped making my beloved to-do lists for a while. Sweet bliss. I set the bar low and have mostly succeeded in these mediocre aims. But not this week. If you come over, keep your shoes on. And just go ahead and pretend you don't see the gunk on my shoulder Clara left there sometime this morning, because I can't bear to wash yet another article of clothing today.

p.s. We do not do extra-curricular activities of any sort, unless you count going on bike rides to the park. How do you all do after-school stuff? (Wait, did you even read this far? Sorry) Anyhoo, the thought of anything extra makes me want to cry.

Amelia

2011-10-12T12:40:00.003-04:00

From Fall

For some reason, Amelia and I have been battling it out lately. She is two and therefore is prone to moods and meltdowns. I am 33 and therefore am prone to moods and meltdowns. It's not always pretty around here, especially when I can't give her the attention she needs and wants. I know with everything we have going on at any given moment, Amelia hears a lot of the following: "No!" "Wait just a minute." "I can't pick you up right now!" " Please stop!" "Use a nice voice!" "Say Please!" "Put that back!" "Get down from there!"

From Fall

It can be frustrating, I'm sure, to be small but think you are big.

From Fall

Amelia is such a cutie. When she smiles she lights up all over. And she is so funny!

From Fall

After I took the picture below, she said, "Ayudame." When she pushes in between me and the counter/stove/whatever I am doing when she wants my undivided attention, she says, "Empujen" (Can you tell she has been watching more shows than she probably should? Thanks Dora! Wah.)

From Fall

She is a good climber and thinks she can climb anything. Eek.

From Fall

This is my usual view of this girl, asking to be picked up and held or hoisted onto something, asking for fruit snacks, trying to grab the camera or whatever I'm holding. Poor thing. She's pretty patient given how often she is asked to wait...

From Fall

Amelia is smart. You should hear her count to ten! I love how she speaks too. She is loving and so sweet. She gives Clara kisses all the time and is always ready for a hug or to cuddle us. She thinks Lindsey and Rand are the coolest and they think she's pretty great too. Kids at the park or church always love to see her and get her to do some of her funny faces.

From Fall

We all just love this girl! I'm glad she's got so much spunk to her. She definitely makes sure she doesn't get lost in the shuffle!

Swing!

2011-10-05T21:18:00.003-04:00

We started with two huge trees, just begging to be put to use.

Then some tree guys hung some really long pieces of rope, which made for really good Tarzan imitations.

Randy hung a swing we bought 10 years ago when we went to Brazil. It hangs from the giant white oak near the back of the yard and has a nice, gentle swing to it.

And finally, we rigged up a swing where the yard is more sloped (slopey?). That swing makes you feel like you are flying. Which, perhaps you are if Randy is doing the pushing!

Do you see Rand in the orange stripes up there?

Amelia makes me nervous on this - she thinks hanging on tight with two hands is optional, so she only gets small pushes.

Rain boots are not optional. It's been so wet and muddy, they are a must in the yard right now. Too bad they are tearing up the grass!

Clara is too small to swing.

Mess

2011-09-27T21:34:00.002-04:00

Want to see what roughly 1/2 of a costco-sized box of dishwasher detergent looks like?

From Messy

Want to guess who did it?

From Messy

Whaaa? She grew a beard made out of felt-tip pen? She's so creative! A stamp of good parenting if I ever saw one!

Updates

2011-09-22T13:43:00.004-04:00

Clara
Is smiley

And happy

Rolls over

Laughs at us, but especially the big kids

She can hold toys and slobbers on them

She can push the buttons on the music cube with her feet to make it play

She has become increasingly resistant to all techniques that I can use to put her down for bedtime or nap times without waking and screaming. I'm spending hours trying to get her to bed at night, and a whole lot of time trying to get her to nap each day (2 hours and about 4 nursings so far since lunch - I'm writing this between attempts while she cries). This is wearing me out and my ability to get anything done is gone.

Luckily, she still sleeps all night

Amelia

Is hilarious

And still feisty

She's a climber

She is beginning to speak like a big kid

Counting is her newest skill

Running around saying "Superman" is a favorite thing to do

She loves books

And loves climbing on my back and saying "horsie!" when I'm changing Clara

She says, "Hello!" to every person we see like they are her best friend

And calls one of favorite friends "Meena," which also happens to be what she calls herself.

Rand

Is confident

And eager to learn

He is excited about everything having to do with school

And he loves the bus

He suddenly loves to draw and write

He can sound out words

Friends from school are called "Kindergarten Friend ____ "(insert name)

Loves his teacher, Ms. C

He can ride a bike without training wheels and can do the monkey bars

Is super starving when he gets home each day.

Lindsey

Is smart

And always energetic

She's very social

She has lots of good stories and a good imagination. I'm always saying, "Now, is that a true story or fiction?

She told our neighbor she's getting a bunny (wha?)

She can climb anything - like to the top of the swing sets at the park

She read for 20 minutes last night after the other kids went to bed and loved it

Each day she needs a good bike ride or to run outside when she gets home from school because she's so crazy

Needs a new bike - she's so tall!

She has the wiggliest front tooth. She's been wanting it to fall out during school so she can go to

the nurse and put it in a little plastic treasure chest on a necklace they give out at school. Pull that nasty thing already!

Mary

I feel busy, always

I'm happy it's fall

I feel guilty, confident, content, foolish, successful and like a failure every day of parenting

Losing baby weight is my goal right now

But I still need daily dessert

I pulled off the ugly wallpaper border in our kitchen. I think that room needs paint.

I love pinterest too much

And Cafe Rio too

I need to hem our bedroom curtains that I took down to wash and hem like 3 weeks ago (sorry Randy and neighborhood!). I guess I'll blame Clara for those not being done!

I need to stop cutting my own bangs - they look like a 5th grader cut them. Not cute

Randy

Is at the dentist

He's busy

And fun

He's always at meetings and more meetings

He's in demand at work and home

He should go up to the attic to find the fall decorations for me (those attic stairs are too scary)

He felled a holly tree, cut it up and stacked the wood and hauled the rest away. One more to go! (and maybe that dead-looking tree out front, poor tree)

That guy can't stop making sorbet

Oh, and he's awfully handsome

Fun Visit

2011-09-15T21:44:00.005-04:00

We had the best visit with my sister Erin and her wee family this past weekend!

Westly was fascinated by Clara. She was equally enthralled by him!

The kids got along great and just played and played.

Friend or Foe? Rand and Forest had some good adventures.

Amelia and Westly are just the same size. With their blonde hair and blue eyes, we got a couple of comments from strangers asking if they were twins.

We played at lots of parks.

We ate at Cafe Rio. Plus we introduced Erin and Bridger to real Maryland crabcakes. Food is an essential part of a good visit.

Speaking of food, having six kids ages six and under in one house made for loads of meals, snacks, cups of juice, and stuff to sweep up each day. Whew!

While Lindsey and Rand were at school one day, the rest of us went to a petting zoo/farm and took a hayride. The animals were a big hit.

While the kids were sleeping each night, we played lots of games. Chaos might be my favorite game yet - the foreign accent rule made for the most hilarious moments of the visit.

We had a rained-out bbq. It might have been soaking wet, but delicious!

Erin and Bridger will be moving to Australia in about a month. What an adventure! We are so happy we were able to visit before they head off on their adventure all the way around the world!

Thanks for coming to visit you guys!

We miss these kids already!

Amelia Turns TWO!

2011-09-05T21:16:00.003-04:00

From Amelia

Amelia is 2! You should hear that girl say, "I two!" It would make you have to pick her up and squeeze her. You should also hear her say, "I love you." Or hear her say her prayers. She's getting so grown up. I feel like her first two years of life have been the fastest we have seen yet.

From Amelia

After waking up on her big day, she got to open some gifts and try out her new tricycle. It has a nice handle for us to help her up the hill - smart for us, but makes things a bit too easy for her. Yesterday on a bikeride/walk, she let me push her the whole way, and even folded her arms to let me know she wasn't helping out one bit!

From Amelia

We had a fun little birthday bbq for her this weekend with some of her favorite people.

From Amelia

I think she liked the pinata most of all!

From Amelia

Amelia is a girl of a million faces. Her eyes are very expressive and she can use them to flirt or be silly or be stern. Her cheeks are delicious.

From Amelia

Amelia loves Toy Story and calls it "Woody Buzz!" (Pretty much everything she says ends in an exclamation point, just so you know.) She also loves books and does the back-up walk to sit in your lap and request about a million books to be read, and you'll read a million of them to her because she loves it so much.

From Amelia

Amelia takes her hair bows or rubber-bands out every day. No matter what. Her cute hair rarely lasts long enough to get us out the door. She was born with the darkest hair in our family, but now she's a blondie just like the rest. Such a beauty!

From Amelia

Amelia has very strong opinions. Her vocabulary is growing all the time, but if she really wants something and isn't getting it (or if it is taken away thanks to her frenemy named Rand), she's got powerful lungs that go to work. We are working on curbing these huge outbursts, but sometimes they can be rather hilarious. Having Lindsey and Rand at school all day which gives her more time and attention from me has helped a great deal.

From Amelia

Amelia likes food! This is a wonderful thing in our house. Her favorites of late are raspberries and watermelon (the above was one from our garden). When you are out picking berries, she'll pick right along with you, eating each one she can get her hands on, saying, "Raspberry!" for each one.

From Amelia

Amelia is so funny. She is our messiest kid ever. She is cute and fiesty! She loves people and people love her. She's such a fun little person and we love her so!

We're Ready to Learn and Get Some Knowledge!

2011-08-30T13:30:00.006-04:00

We had a great summer, but just when I thought I couldn't handle one more mess like this... The first day of school finally came!

K for Kindergarten!

Today is Rand's first day of real school! I can't believe it! It's silly to say that, but I just can't believe our little boy is big enough to go to kindergarten! Having him gone all day is going to take some getting used to.

After a disappointing cancelled first day of school yesterday, we finally got to put on new clothes, tie up new sneakers, pack lunches in new lunch boxes, zip up backpacks, and board the bus!

Lindsey has hit the big time - 1st grade! Doesn't that make her sound so old? We hear her teacher is great, so we are excited for that!

They were too excited to just smile.

I am glad my two buddies have each other.

That sight is enough to break my heart. Conversely, it also makes me very happy. They sat together on the bus (I wonder how long that will last?)

Peek-a-boo!

Like last year, I raced the bus to school, got the babies in the stroller, and ran to get pictures of the kids getting off the bus. What an exciting day!

Off to school!

I'm excited to get to lavish Amelia with a whole lot more attention. She's been needing it (hence the huge messes and huge fits of late). And Clara too! She's a patient little thing!

So far today, we did a quick trip to the grocery store (shopping with only 2 kids is heaven), started dinner in the crock pot, went for a walk to the park, and ate lunch. Both babies are napping. I need to get this post done, do the usual cleaning/laundry stuff, perhaps start giving this place a good scrubbing, and make some cookies for when those school kids get home! I hope they have a great day!

We miss them already!

p.s. They were both so happy and excited when they got off the bus today. When I asked Rand what he thought about Kindergarten he said, "I loved it very well." Great!

Summer Wrap-Up

2011-08-24T13:46:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure I can pin-point just what it was about this summer, but I think this might have been one of my favorites yet. Lots of time has been spent playing in the yard, scootering, gardening, going for walks and swimming at the pool. We did things like bowling, a few projects and crafts, coloring and painting, trips to the library, and lots of play time with friends. We played on our slip n' slide, ran through the sprinklers, and sat in the kiddie pool (which is now kind of gross from all the rain we've had). I was nervous as the summer began about having all four kids home all day, depending on one mom all day long, and how that would work out. Despite a few rather huge messes and the usual breakdowns and squabbles that pop up now and then, I think things have gone rather smoothly. We have had fun! Just ignore the rather low level of cleanliness at my house - once the kids go back to school this place will get a good scrubbing. (I hope that happens before you get here Erin!) Until then, the usual picking up and surface cleans will have to do.

This summer seems to have been the summer for spotting critters. We saw a pod of dolphins during our last beach trip. Countless firelies have been caught and butterflies have been chased. We were kept entertained for a long time by this grasshopper that hung out on the front window the other day.

We chased and chased a baby bunny around our garden the other night, trying to get it to find it's way out, but it kept hiding in the corn and the lettuce patch (just like Peter Rabbit). Poor thing. Randy caught a big fat frog in the garden that kept the kids shrieking every time it hopped. Near the park I found the biggest praying mantis I have ever seen. Also, I have seen a few too many spiders. On walks, we have found two good sized turtles. The groundhog who lives under our little barn has even made a few appearances.

And one very hot evening when we had the sprinklers on, three hawks decided to come cool off in the yard. (Can you spot the one in the tree?)

We made a list of things we wanted to do this summer that were mostly checked off. But there were things we didn't quite get to, like hanging up swings in the big trees, a few yard projects, going to a splash park with some friends in Virginia (sorry Lynette!), and going to a bounce house. Alas, Lindsey's request to go to Hawaii was not fulfilled.

As of today, all of our school clothes, shoes, and supplies have been purchased and are waiting to be used. Don't you love school supplies? I even made Lindsey pose with a bouquet of pencils (hearkening back to my favorite movie). Lindsey can hardly stand knowing there are new clothes for her just sitting in my room that she can't wear yet. I remember that excitement! Rand doesn't seem to feel the same way about his new things, but agreed to try things on to show us his new duds the other day. Tomorrow we have kindergarten orientation, then Friday both kids get to go to an open house where we find their classrooms and meet their teachers while dropping off school supplies.

We are all going to miss having Lindsey and Rand at home to entertain us once school starts!

What will Amelia do all day without those two big kids to keep her occupied?

I have the feeling Clara will be getting a whole lot more attention from Amelia than ever before!

Lucky Clara!

Bumbo!

2011-08-21T21:20:00.003-04:00

Lindsey

From Bumbo

Rand

From Bumbo

Amelia

From Bumbo

Clara

From Bumbo

Beachy: Part 2 - Dewey Beach Delaware

2011-08-15T21:48:00.004-04:00

What? Two posts in one day? Can we handle this? These are mainly for family journaling purposes yo, so enjoy.

Rand and Amelia have many chants and strange words they repeat to each other over and over again. For instance, they say, "Sorry" over and over while plugging their noses and cracking up. This summer, they began a new chant, "Da beach, da beach, da beach, da beach." And then on the way home, they chant, "Home, home, home, home." But if you are Amelia, it sounds like, "Hom, hom, hom, hom." This love of repetition makes me feel somewhat twitchy. They, however, think it's the funniest thing ever.

So, last week we headed to "Da beach, da beach, da beach, da beach" again. This time just a couple hours away in Delaware. When navigating to this more local beach, we didn't end up driving the direction my brain had been imagining. For some reason, I had been picturing Delaware being north of us, but we ended up going south and east. Do I know nothing about our local geography? Actually, this state is rather confusing to me. It is so misshapen! How long have we lived here? Where am I?

Despite my directional disabilities, we greatly enjoyed the drive to the beach, which was pretty short and took us over the enormous and tall Bay Bridge, past produce stands next to green farms with old white farm houses, and through some interesting little towns. It made me want to move to the country. (Drives like that always do)

After that pretty drive, we found ourselves at a wee beach townhouse in Dewey Beach, Delaware belonging to our neighbor's grandparents. They were so nice to invite our rather large family to join them there for a couple of days. The little place maintains it's 60's charm with what I assume are its original funky furnishings, a tiny bright green kitchen and powder blue bathroom. It reminded me of a very scaled-down version of that great house in Dan in Real Life with plentiful wood paneling, flimsy room dividers, and exposed beams. Adorable. Also, it was right on the beach.

I was picturing it being a few blocks away, but the beach was right out the back door. You stepped off the back deck and there was a sandy path through a small stretch of dunes to the beach just feet away. That was handy! The evening breezes coming off the ocean were lovely.

I liked this beach a lot. The surrounding town is very cute and with lots of shingled beach houses with big porches that made me swoon. The sand was soft and the water was pretty inviting. The waves were kind of crazy the first day, but we all had fun wading and running away from waves and watching Randy body surf. Rand said he looked like a dolphin.

Also, there was a bit of a ridge in the sand from where the sand was dry to where the waves were washing up, so that made for some good sand forts, sand slides, and lots of jumping.

Rand was the most enthusiastic of the jumpers. Amelia was the most enthusiastic of sand sliders and really applied herself at being quite the destroyer of sand castles and forts. She also made friends with every person sitting within walking distance of our spot.

Lindsey really wanted to surf standing up on the boogie board. She kept at it a long long time!

Clara wins for being the easiest going beach-goer of the group since this time around, we remembered her bouncie seat - plus I could walk the short stretch to the house to put her down for a few nice long naps while everyone else stayed at the beach and I relaxed inside a bit.

There was a sandcastle competition that weekend that our friend was getting ready for, so he built many little castles to practice. Those kind of stressed me out a bit as my kids think sand castles are for knocking down. He didn't agree. But they did look neat.

One night we were there, our friends took us to the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk a short walk up the beach. There were several kiddie rides for the kids to go on, and bribing with ice cream cones enabled everyone to leave the ride area without tears. Watching Lindsey and Rand on the frog hopper was totally hilarious. I don't know when I have laughed harder!

That was a fun couple of days! We were only there 2 nights, but for some reason, it took me a full week to recover from that trip. Before school starts, we have one more short beach trip planned and I'll tell you all about it in Beachy: Part 3

p.s. Just about all beach pictures in these past two posts were taken with a little point-and-shoot camera the kids keep finding and using. It looks like they have been touching the lens. It feels far too risky to use my nice Nikon with all that sand around. So the pictures aren't so pretty. But you get the idea right?

Beachy: Part 1

2011-08-15T13:49:00.006-04:00

This summer has been great! We have spent most of our time at home, having rather simple, normal days playing, painting, coloring, making messes, swimming, walking to the park, etc. Instead of doing a big summer trip requiring flying and lots of expense (and stress!), we decided to stay closer to home this year.

Due to having a baby this spring, I opted to skip out on a McFamily reunion at the Oregon Coast at the beginning of July. I just knew I wouldn't be up for all that comes with cross-country flights and cross-country camping with a newborn and 3 other kids, therefore depriving the six of us of seeing cousins and siblings....wah. Sorry all, I am still sad we missed it, but it was the right choice for all our sanity.

With all of the heat we have had, we decided it was high time we visited some East Coast beaches during the actual summer season. We have visited several beaches the years we lived here, but never during the summer for some reason (probably because we are usually flying west for summer fun!)

Our first beach trip was planned very spur of the moment. We knew we wanted to go to the beach, but hadn't made any real plans. The week before we went, we found a last-minute deal on a condo for four days in Myrtle Beach, booked it, and headed down. Some lovely things about this set up were that we could do a road trip to a beach and have a nice big, clean place to stay with a kitchen, pool, showers, etc.

Myrtle Beach is a fun place. It is kind of like Vegas on the beach. It's very touristy and full of funky shops selling cheap-ish souveniers and beach paraphernalia to travelers.

We stayed in a condo on a golf course a short drive from all the hubub, so it was nice and quiet where we were. We took some nice evening walks on the golf course and let the kids find a few balls. Later, we read some rules about keeping off the greens. Oops!

It was lovely and SO HOT.

One of the days we were there, it was 110 or something with the heat index (whatever that means), so it was too hot for us to spend that day at the beach with the baby.

Instead, we rode this huge airconditioned ferris wheel, and then the two babies and I stayed at the condo and rested while Randy and the big kids went to the pool. It was a good day to stay inside.

The ferris wheel was so fun, but we all could have used a few more minutes in its air-conditioned goodness, enjoying that view!

Our attempt at a family photo:

But on the nice days, we did have lots of fun in the sand and water.

Our only regret was not taking the bouncie seat for Clara. Luckily Randy is good at improvising and formed a seat for her with sand.

Another bonus of going south on this trip was that once in Myrtle beach, we were only a few hours from Randy's brother Joe and his family.

Our nearest family!

Goooooo East Coast Cousins! It was so fun to visit and talk and watch the kids play! Lindsey loved being surrounded by older girl cousins who played barbies and taught her of such anomalies as Justin Be*ber and silly videos on y0utube.

I think Rand and his cousin Brady look so much alike, but could never get them both to look at me at the same time! As soon as both boys were outfitted with swords, they were inseparable buddies, playing "Ships Ahoy" much of our visit.

We love those guys and have such a great time every time we get together!

So it was great that despite my decision to skip the reunion, we were still able to see some family after all!