this guy

Today, when I went into this guy's room:

to get him up from his nap his pants were on the floor. And so was his diaper.

I'm grateful that it wasn't "messy," if you know what I mean.

Later, when he finished his snack, he came up to me and grabbed my leg saying, "Mommy!"

I picked him up and said, "I love you."

And then he said it.

I kid you not.

Nor do I exaggerate.

"I wuv woo."

Really!

This is a day to remember.

Now his older brother is chasing him around the house, pretending to be a horse.

And his bedding is in the washer.

Life is grand.

idity

HUMID HUMID HUMID HUMID HUMID.

MUGGY MUGGY MUGGY MUGGY MUGGY.

Sure, it doesn't get "HOT" very often in the Seattle area, but humidity like this should warrant central air to be STANDARD.

Alas, it is not.

I'm seriously about to start looking into having central air put in before next summer. We already have central forced air...

I was not created for this HUMIDITY!!!!

p.s. This morning at 5:30 while Brent and I were on our walk, we saw two deer. In someone's front yard. Eating leaves. It was cool because we totally don't live in the wilderness. We live near the coast of the southern Puget Sound. There are some wooded areas in our town, but the houses are VERY close together in this "master planned community." It would have been cool to see them walking or prancing through the streets and yards... which is what they had to do to get to where they were. Maybe it's not the raccoons who are getting into our trash every night?

sunday

Today as a primary we practiced for our upcoming Sacrament Meeting Program. Cooper fell asleep. I saw him slow-blinking, trying so hard to keep his eyes open. Then he leaned on the back of his chair. Then his teacher held him for the rest of church (over an hour).

After our meetings, our ward had a "break the fast." Before the prayer was said, Lincoln had dumped a pitcher full of ice and water on the table, me, him, and cooper - all of which ended up on the floor. Now those "motion detection" paper towel dispensers seem really nice most of the time. But when we were cleaning up a pitcher full of water today? I saw the drawback. Brent finally found a mop and then we were all good. And wet.

As Cooper was getting into the car with Brent and acting up (per usual) Brent said, "Cooper, if you don't settle down then I'm going to pull one of your hairs out." Cooper's response? It was sooo Coop: "THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE!"

On the way home Mercedes said to Coop, "you smell funny... you kinda smell like Grammy." I realized that his teach had left a remnant of her scent all over him. It smelled nice. Just like Grammy.

But the definite highlight of the day was my Mercedes; braving her nerves enough to share her testimony in church for the first time. She's been practicing for the past few days. She decided all on her own that she wanted to (she's always been WAY too scared in the past to even consider it), and then in preparation she wrote out what she'd say and practiced it. It went like this: "I bear my testimony that I know this church is true. And I know Joseph Smith is a true prophet, and Jesus died for us. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." From the stand I saw Brent get teary. Coop just barely preceded Mercedes in the meeting. She didn't want to get up first, and so fearless Cooper went. And BLASTED the congregation. That kid knows how to make his voice heard in a microphone! But it was very sweet and humbling and touching.

Now we're just waiting for our "family project" to finish baking. Brent has wanted to make peach cobbler all week, and so he enlisted all of us to help him this evening. It's smelling pretty good right now. You're welcome to come by and enjoy it with us!

You're also welcome to bring some vanilla ice cream with you if you have some on hand.

recently...

• I've misplaced our usb camera cord, so I can't download pics from my camera, like the ones I took today of Coop and his friend Tanner playing in our pop up tunnels.
• I ordered directv. I bought a super-expensiv-o antenna, and it only got one channel. So I gave in. I miss the news the most. We'll down-grade our internet and cancel netflix. Can't get FoxNews on Netflix, you know?
• Cooper "peed" (pardon my speech) on our leather couch. He fell asleep yesterday before I realized it. He woke up wet a little while later. Oh well. That's life with kids, right? At least that's what I tell myself every time he has an accident (5+ times a day).
• I've been getting excited each time I see sunshine. This is because it's a rare occurrence anymore and I've decided to be grateful each time it appears.
• I fell asleep at 7:30 last night. Getting up at 4:45 to exercise with Brent means that I fall asleep at night before the kids do! Hopefully I'll adjust soon...
• Lincoln's top canines finally came in. He's still working on the bottom ones, the poor little guy. He hasn't woken up screaming in the middle of the night for a few days now - a wonderful thing indeed.
• We discovered that there is a girl in Mercedes' class at school who is also in our ward! Hip hip hooray! She's had a difficult time making friends so far, and there's only one other girl in her primary class. But Megan (who is also in her school class) just switched to Mercedes' primary class (there are two for her age group) and they have become fast friends. Even better? Megan lives just down the block!!! I was able to tell Mercedes that my prayers were answered on Sunday when we met Megan, because I've been praying that she would make some nice friends and the loneliness would end.
• One of my bike pedals fell off during our family bike ride on Saturday morning. Thankfully, we were close to home by then. The pedal is totally stripped, and I miss my bike already!
• Cooper has added "crane" and "Bob the Builder" to his repertoire. So now he pretends: to be a dog named "Lollipop" or a horse named "Skip's Up" or "Mr. Crane" or "Bob the Builder." When he's pretending to be a crane, he crawls around saying "crank, crank, crank" over and over and over... it gets old but I'm glad that he likes to use his imagination.
• Lincoln says "Mama" a lot now!!! I love it. For so long, he'd only say "Dad-ee" and "Pam-paw." (grandpa). He also says, "tank-too", "dog-ee", "no no no", "yes" and "milk."

That's all that comes to mind at the moment.

park city, bethers style

In August Brent and I were privileged to spend some alone time in Park City, UT. It was gorgeous.

We didn't have to worry about our kids at all, because we knew that they were safe and well-cared for (meaning SPOILED ROTTEN), thanks to Grandma and Grandpa. Although, I did worry about the abuse said g&g must be getting from my rowdy kids.

We stayed here:

It was a comfortable and cozy bed and breakfast, with super-great service.

The highlight of our weekend (other than getting to just spend time together without anyone demanding to be fed or held or wiped, etc...) was a ride on the Park City Ski Lift.

We found our future vacation home:

And enjoyed stunning views:

The pictures are so gorgeous that I've almost forgotten how scared I was to be so very high up, riding on a string. Or that I was FREEZING cold in my capris and sweatshirt. Or that it was very LONG.

We had fun together.

That's really the point, right?

right about now...

That song in my head?

"Kids are Music." Thanks Sister Gates! If you grew up in Southern Orange County, then you've probably heard it.

Feeling?

Frustrated. Mercedes promised that if I let her wait to shower in the morning (instead of last night) that she definitely would not whine about it. Well, it's time for her to shower and she's whining and pouting on the stairs. Getting that girl ready for church? NOT fun.

I should be...

Getting myself ready for church. This is my least favorite part of the week. I do enjoy being at church. But the getting ready part? LOATHE it.

Reading?

I recently finished reading "The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud." I highly recommend it; I loved the writing and the story. I've moved on to Meg Cabot's latest "Airhead" book. Yes, I'm embarrassed to admit it. I never outgrew the "teen fiction" stage of life. I'm always in the middle of a few non-fiction books, too. Right now it's "The Engine 2 Diet" - I'm feeling more interested in trying out the "Vegan" lifestyle for a while (my brother would cringe if he heard me say that).

Watching?

I've been enjoying Covert Affairs this season.

Wearing?

House clothes. Today that means: Orange Piggly Wiggly shirt, pink and white striped pj pants and pink emus.

Where in time would I rather be?

Can't decide...

With Mom in backyard in San Ramon, CA. I was 10. Don't you just LOVE the perms?

With cousins in Lewis's backyard. I was 9. Jacob, Rebecca, Mark, Sarah, Jenny, me.

With roommates in the summer of 1998. I was 21. Me, Gwen, Sarah, Lacee. Apartment #437 is the best.

Mercedes and Brent in our first South Pasadena apartment in 2004. She was Lincoln's age then. I miss my little girl!

SLC Airport seeing Ape off on her mission in 1998. Sarah, Lacee, Ape, me. (It was VERY early morning - that's why we all look like we just rolled out of bed. We did.)

Lewis's back porch. I was 3 or 4. Aunt Sharon's was always my favorite place. I'm guessing that's Rebecca on Afton's lap, but I'm not sure. Rebecca, Afton, Mark, me, Sarah.

Ahhh... my back yard on Fortuna East in Irvine. My dad and brothers often had "surfing" contests. Whoever stayed up the longest won. It was usually Kevin because he hardly weighed anything. We had a rope that we'd swing into the water on. I love that house.

shneikies

A minute ago I was folding laundry in my room while Cooper was pretending to be a prince. I'm his princess, but he had to wait until I was done putting the laundry away to take me on a ride into the jungle with his "shooting thing" to shoot the snakes with.

I looked out the window and said, "Cooper - it's raining!"

His response?

"Holy Shneikies!!!"

Thanks Brent. I know that he learned that from you.

Being a Mom isn't all lollipops and rainbows. But it sure is fun sometimes. And it's worth all of the excrement that I have to clean up. I love these kids.

entertainment

Sometimes the kids put on "musicals" for us in the evening.

It's better than TV.

The pictures don't communicate the hilarity of the production.

This one was called "pj heads."

They started out with rain coats and umbrellas, because (in the musical) it was raining. And then they got too hot and took them off.

potty pics

Calm down. I didn't take pictures of the actual, ahem, deposit - like Kate G. does.

Just a pic of his reward the first time that he actually USED the potty on his own.

Good Job Coop!!!

(And it was HIS choice to wear Lincoln's pjs).

first day of school

September 2nd, 2010:

Yes, I know that my photography skills leave much to be desired.

But I still think that she's gorgeous.

a rant

Are we really already one whole week into the month of September???

How did this happen?

Right now I'm sitting at the kitchen table with Mercedes as she does her homework. And it's EXCRUCIATING!!!

My second grader is required to answer essay questions about ANARCHY and BULLYING.

Seriously?

Brent just said: "I don't think that I even knew what anarchy was in the second grade."

The teacher is following some discipline theory. The first two levels (anarchy and bullying) are "unacceptable behavior." The other two, which I'm sure we'll be covering tomorrow, are "acceptable behaviors."

This poor girl gets home at 4 pm and is tired and hungry. She feels overwhelmed and so do I.

Is this the rest of my life? I hate homework. Kids are in school ALL DAY. They need time to develop OTHER skills too.

In other news, Cooper is currently BUCK naked. This is because he's in the process of learning to use the "potty." Every time I've tried to train him, he's completely wet his pants (down the leg) several times within the first hour. So I gave up. But last Saturday, Brent had HAD it. So he took over. I told him, "the only way I was able to teach Mercedes not to wet her pants was to REMOVE all pants - so that she'd feel it right away." And I've TRIED that with Coop. But this kid is so "OCD" that he can't handle not having pants on. He FREAKS. But Brent is more stubborn than I am, so for the first two days he dealt with it. Cooper still does not like being naked from the waste down, but he's not freaking anymore.

We go through about five pairs of pants a day. Every once in a while, he convinces me to let him put pants on. "Mommy, I promise I won't pee-pee in my pants," he says. And I feel bad for him. And I give him some pants to put on. And then he wets. He DOESN'T wet if he's naked. He RUNS to the potty.

The sunshine in all of this is that I have not had to change a dirty diaper today (at least not of a boy older than 20 months). The bottom line? Cooper's having a much harder time getting it than Mercedes did (she was trained - nights too- within about a day). But I still feel like shouting, "YIPEE!!!!!!!!"

And then there's my Lincoln.

Lincoln is a crazy kid.

Feisty.

Mean when he doesn't get his way.

Lately he's been turning on the sink faucets.

And leaving them that way.

And he always goes for the dangerous items in my bathroom drawer (scissors, razors, toothpaste) when I forget to lock him out. Yesterday I found him in the bathroom sink, about to poke his finger into one of the sockets that I didn't think I needed to child-proof.

I've found him doing things that the other kids didn't ever try. I'm learning new things with this one. But I still love him to pieces. He was my peace and comfort while Brent was away. It's only recently that he's evolved from a mellow, happy and easy-going baby to a MONSTER with too much smarts. (Like he can reach into the knife drawer - those "childproof" things don't work because his middle name is HERCULES.)

That's all for now.