Let there be light!

Hey, come over! I’ll make dinner. You can stay as late as you’d like. Till dark even. Then, as you’re leaving…I’ll turn on the porch lights. Because I can. First time since the great paint fiasco I’ve been able to do that. Oh, but if you do come… just help yourself in. ‘Cause we’re still negative one doorbell. Uhh, and if you wouldn’t mind…would you bring dinner too? ‘Cause a kitchen? Well, we don’t have that either.

a (second) confession

I apologize for all the heavy breathing in the video I posted yesterday. I had just ran a big fat marathon! Or jumped on the tramp with Brynlee; same dang thing. I remember when I was young and full of all sorts of vigor and vitality and could jump for hours. I’d pretend I was an Olympic gymnast and do an array of average and rather unimpressive tricks. Now it takes every last ounce of my exhausted energy to try not to pee my pants. This whole motherhood thing is absolutely beautiful. Indeed.

Look what I can do!

Jace can go down the slide! ALL. BY. HIMSELF. Really, he can. And it's stinkin' cute.
He stands at the foot of the wooden stairs. And screams. LOUD! Until somebody, anybody, helps him climb the stairs. Once at the top he holds onto the side of the slide; situating himself on his belly, feet first. Then he zips right on down. Once he reaches the bottom, he giggles, then makes his way back over to the wooden stairs. Where he again screams. LOUD!
And we do it all over again.

And again.

And again.

We spent hours of yesterday doing this.
Over and over.
He became quite the pro. Had it down to a "T".
I decided to get the whole thing on camera. 'Cause seriously! How cute is that?
The little guy, {seeing the camera} might have over performed. Got a little bit cocky.
DANG SHOW-OFF!

In case you're wondering

Why yes, our Sunday was fabulous.

We spent it watching movies, playing in rain puddles and making this:

and these:

Thanks for asking.

Hope yours was lovey too.

Photo Album: Bear Lake

Remember how I mentioned that we went to Bear Lake with Jessica, Brad, Maddie & Livvie?

Well, we did. And, we had a ball.

Here's some picture proof.

Woosa Spence! This picture totally crack me up. My husband the supermodel.

Oh, and my little sister. She's a sassy supermodel too. I told her to smile for a picture and this is how she posed.

Hiking torture Collecting mountain stuff for her collection. Brynlee, Maddie & Marie Family photo just moments before we went home AND SHOWERED! I love this family picture. Jessica was trying to take a picture of Jace's disdain for the water. And she just happened to catch Brynlee and Spencer in the background.

Thanks Jessica & Brad for inviting us. It was a blast.

a confession

You know that song by “Meat Loaf”? The one that goes: I would do anything for love, But I won't do that, No, I won't do that. My big sister once told us that the “I won’t do that” part meant that he would never, ever suck her big toe. The sad part; we believed her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Jessica.

Thanks for being such an insightful big sis.

Marie & Jessica geared up to kayak at Bear Lake

Hot-diggety-ice-cream!

Our town has an ice-cream truck.
It drives through neighborhoods playing catchy chime-y music that makes you wanna eat ice-cream.
Aside from the fact that you have to sell your soul to afford some ice-cream, it's absolutely lovely.
However, on a blistering hot day…your soul is a small price to pay!

Almost breaking news:



I don't Facebook. I don't know why. I just don't.  I have nothing against Facebook.  (In fact, I'm a Closet Facebooker. I'm one of the bigwigs of the underground Facebook society. We hold classified conventions. Late at night. On my Family Room couch. We have NO regularly scheduled meetings. But meet ONLY when my little sister's in town. And it's under her pseudonym that I secretly lurk at your Facebook profile.  Well, only if you're my little sisters Facebook Friend. That's one of the problems with being a closet Facebooker; you don't get to choose your own friends.)

I know there's a Facebook frenzy.  I know it's a great way to keep in touch.  But, for some odd reason, I just don't Facebook.

******

I ran into an old college acquaintance at the grocery store earlier today. We caught up amid shelves of wonder bread and ketchup. She has two little girls who, from the cell phone picture, look absolutely precious. We laughed about college memories, remembered old classmates and mentioned the fact that both of our 10 year class reunions would be held next year.

Then we had this conversation:

Old college acquaintance, now devout Facebooker {OCA,NDF}: Hey, I've looked for you on Facebook. I can never find you.

Lame old me {LOM}: Yeah, I don't Facebook.

OCA,NDF (looking at me like I have some highly contagious diseases): WHAT! Why don't you Facebook? EVE-RY-BODY! FACEBOOKS!

LOM (laughing at her stunned response): So I hear. It's just…

OCA,NDF (disgusted): LAME! Lame, lame, lame! How do you keep in touch with old friends?

LOM: Well, I…

OCA,NDF (still disgusted): You REALLY don't Facebook? Seriously? Do you expect to get invited to your class reunion? You're NOT going to get invited? Do you realize that?

LOM (confused): Why's that?

OCA,NDF (matter-of-factly): How's anyone EVER going to find you if you're not on Facebook? Kim, that's lame. Get on Facebook.

(In which Lame Old Me quickly changed to a non-Facebook subject out of fear that other grocery shoppers would hear that they had a non-Facebooker amongst them and would immediately start throwing tomatoes and chanting lame, lame, lame over the PA system)

******

She obviously didn't take into account that I'm a Closet Facebooker.  I wonder if Closet Facebookers get invited to class reunions.  If they do, do they have to go as their pseudonym?  Are they still considered LAME?

******

In case you're wondering. I still don't Facebook! I know . . . lame!

File this under Yada, Yada, Yada!

Twenty-four things we've done in the last month{ish} that I've yet to blog about:

one. Discovered nearby hiking trails.

two. Enjoyed two plays as a family: The Jungle Book Kids & Seussical.

three. Jumped in a Bouncy House at "Family Fun Days".

four. Had a huge summer hail storm. Made a paper sailboat to float down the roadside river.

five. Watched Brynlee and Spencer play with a centipede. (((shudder)))

six. Helped in the construction of a painted rock family.

seven. Adored this little guy.

eight. Fed the missionaries.

nine. Celebrated (on the 3^rd of July) the 4th of July with my parents and their town in a small-town-tacular celebration. It rained. But don't think that stopped us from eating masses of FREE cotton candy and snow cones.

ten. Thanks to a broken car, spent the 4^th of July swimming in random Utah town's swimming pool while waiting for my dad and his truckslashtrailer to come to our rescue.

eleven. Spent a few days at my parent's house. My little brother, Alan, fixed our car. Spencer drove tracker. I lounged in my pj's, enjoyed the country views and took pictures of random things in my mom's yard.

twelve. Ripped out the dining room carpet in my mom's 100 year old house to discover beautifully finished hardwood floors!

thirteen. Visited with the Gardner & Francis families over Dutch oven dinner. Jace got excited over an abandoned Capri Sun.

fourteen. Made a sandbox in our backyard.

fifteen. Took a friend to the Pioneer Day Parade in our town.

sixteen. The three year old decided that she simply adored parades. Spent the next week playing pretend parade and the next Saturday at the neighboring towns Pioneer Day Parade.

seventeen. Attended one day of the B.'s family reunion.

eighteen. Went to Brynn's {our oh-so-cute! niece} baptism.

nineteen. Ate neglected chocolate pudding.

twenty. Went to Bear Lake with the Wahlen family. {more to come}

twenty-one. Attended Spence's big brother, Matt's, wedding.

Matt and his girls

twenty-two. Matt most definitely married a gem. She's beautiful, composed, energetic, and she makes Matt smile. Plus, she has a firecracker little girl named Charlotte. And there's more. she hula-hoops! Seriously! She even won a hula-hoop competition in Hawaii. I kid not! That's some serious talent. And after a little coaxing she even showed off her hoopin' skillz at the reception.

twenty-three. Held, cuddled and admired my newest nephew Zayne. Who's absolutely adorable, by the way. twenty-four. Felt a bit disappointed when I realized that the summer is quickly nearing its end.

excuses, excuses, excuses

I just glanced back at a few of my last posts and something quite profound occurred to me! Borderline philosophical, even.
I'VE BEEN COMPLAINING A LOT LATELY.
Sorry about that.
And I also realized that aside from all the sudden burst of complaining, ye old blog has been neglected.
Undeservedly. (She says as she shakes her head in dismay.)
I apologize, dear blog. I'll make it up to you. Just not today.
Because I suffer from a mild case of procrastination. And I'm an excuse giver {dot, dot dot} and a list maker.
So instead, I will post a bulleted list of excuses explaining all the bloggy neglect.
So just for you on this lovely Tuesday:

• Yesterday my little sister was due with her new baby boy. She's still pregnant. Poor girl. And to try my darndest to comfort her, I've spent a good portion of the last two weeks calling haphazardly throughout the day to see if she's experienced any labor pains. Nope, I don't think it's been annoying at all.

• I love summer weather. And lately the weather has been heavenly. So I've spent a lot of time outside. With my family. And not with my computer.
(Feeding the ducks at sunset behind our house)
We've been busy watching children heavily overdosed by snow cones and cotton candy chase around a Crisco-ed pig.

Not really. Okay, really. But only once.

(Prepping the poor piggies)
• We need a new car. It's no secret that we need a new car. We know that we need a new car. We spent three days straight trying to find a new car. We've yet to buy a new car.
• It's quite time consuming to dig through this to find a mixing bowl.

• And even more inconvenient to wash said mixing bowl here.

• And we've been busy eating chocolate cake. Loads. Of. Chocolate. Cake!
• Don't judge us! We like cake.

Tomorrow is Wednesday. An entirely new day. Maybe then I will update with all our happenings. Or maybe I won't. I haven't decided yet.