4 months.

I luf this girl. 

4 months. 

4 months of a beautiful, infectious smile. It's been 4 months of pure joy. 

Evie girl is happy, all the time. Except when she is hungry.... But she is a brewer, it's bound to happen. 

Evie is giggly, and coos. She blows bubbles, raspberries, and makes noises that sound like she is talking back. 

And, in true brewer fashion, she was introduced to limes today and couldn't get enough of them. In fact, it was the only thing to calm her down when I didn't have a bottle ready for her when I went to get a burrito with Lindsay tonight. Gotta love that. And Evie. Gotta love Evie. 

Long live summertime!

We are having too much fun right now to post much. Dance class, pool, sprinklers, outside play, doggies, parties, friends, visitors, it's all just making time fly. These two fight as hard as they love each other, so that's fun. Summer is slipping through my fingers like sand, and I can't get it back. I'm sorta obsessed with watching the Olympics as much as possible, and it's driving my kids bonkers I think. Anyone else?

And that binky..... Oh man he hasn't had it since January, but found it last week and he insists sometimes. Yikes!

Whiplash

It keeps happening. Time speeds up and slows down, and makes no sense at all.

Evie is four months? But I don't remember life without her anymore.

My dad retired today. (no more wakes-ups!) never thought that day would come for him. So deserved. So proud of him.

As I've mentioned, some days seem long, and bed time seems forever away. Each day slowly melts away. My seeeeester is staying with me right now, so luckily I have an adult to converse with whenever needed.

Caleb turns two in three weeks. When did he get so old?

I moved to Provo 6 years ago. How has it been 6 years??? But only six years? That's 1/4 of my life, so sometimes it seems longer. This is the longest I've lived anywhere dice elementary school. I'm feeling itchy about that.

It's speeding up and slowing down every time I blink. I can hardly keep track of the days of the week.

And my claire girl, she seems like a teenager already. Whaaaaat? All her friends will be in preschool this year. I can't bring myself to do it. She won't be in kindergarten for two more years anyways, and right now I am having so much fun teaching her about things. Her imagination is exploding, and she soaks up everything we learn about. I don't want to think of anyone else teaching my baby about the world right now. She is being molded and shaped at every turn, and I want to be part of it all. Claire got into a bit of a cat fight with a neighbor girl the other day, and the other girl came out of it with a bloody lip..... It was a strange moment where I was MORTIFIED she would retaliate enough to hurt someone (we had a loooong chat after) but also a tiny bit proud she stood up for herself (it was determined the other girl started it after trying to exclude some girls from playing and claire tried to tell her everyone could play.) I definitely don't condone the hitting back, EVER, but just being strong willed enough to defend her friends made me smile on the inside. She has always been my little miss independent, who cares deeply for her friends. And I love that about her.

She is doing a little dance class with her friends again this summer, and has improved by leaps and bounds (haha) from last summer, in pretty much every way. She is also rocking at swimming- when she is in the mood. She is almost swimming all by herself regularly. Loves diving for rings and being underwater as much as possible.

I can't figure out when she got so big! I started imagining what she might be like as a teenager, and as difficult as it might be, I hope her sassy-ness never changes.

Someone stop this back and forth? And can someone stop it from being August next week? I'm thoroughly enjoying as much of summer as I can. And staying tan easily, since we're outside pretty much every day, and the water park almost weekly. And we're downing peaches like there's no tomorrow, because peach season never seems to last long enough.


Blah blah blah.... Olympics! Are you watching? Pretty sure it'll be on 24/7 at our house.

Now how adorable is Claire?

Fears, yuckiness, and generally unwanted

Lately, I've been doing things I don't really want to do.

Claire's hair has always been a little out of control. It's super thin, and it stick straight on the sides and crazy curly in the back. No matter what I do, or don't do, she wakes up with a messy for in the morning. Sick of the mess and tears trying to keep it groomed, we said good bye to her locks.

She likes it! I dream of her having long, pretty locks, but it's just not meant to be right now. Sad.

Yesterday, Lindsay practically shoved me down a humongous water slide face-first. I thought I was gonna die. I try and avoid heights at all costs. Oh, you remember me jumping out of a plane five years ago? Yeah, this was pretty close to that. Dizzy, shaking, screamed the whole way down.

Cleaning up dog pooh. Yep, doing that too. Must be love.

But, even all that, among other things, is forgotten after seeing the beautiful quilt my mother-in-law made for sweet Evie. She is SO blessed, and I am so lucky to have her in our lives. And that's all for now.

Just the kiddos.

Everyday I wake up and have to remind myself I have three kids. (how did that happen?) Everyday I am so glad to have them. But it usually takes me a while to get myself up. Because they are sometimes long, lonely (lonely only because i dont get to see joe) days, with some pretty active kids. Most days, joe is gone pretty much the whole day. Like, sometimes it's three days before the kids see him for more than the 15 minutes before he leaves for work.

So most days it's me and the kids, and some days we don't do anything. But it's summer and I don't mind. Summer is for playing, snow cones, sprinklers and pools, suntans, and right now, snuggling with my baby, who is growing up entirely too fast. And it's for chasing my almost two year old, who doesn't want to wear a diaper. The little rascal.

More to come

Just my favorite snapshot from last Sunday, when baby Evie was blessed by her daddy. She was perfect the whole time (duh) and looked adorable (as always).

All the guests are gone, for a little while. But we still have dogs! The poor things get tortured constantly by my oh-so-loving children. Working on that.

Can I just say how much I love summer? It's been blazing hot, but it's better that way.

And, I can't stop eating cookies. I'm hooked on cookies. And chocolate. I put five pounds back on in the last few weeks because I can't stop. Purging my house today. It's gotta end.

More pics when I get some time, which is probably never.

My littles are literally bouncing off the walls in anticipation. My parents are on their way here with half their house in a moving truck, and Lucy and Lizzy, the doggies. And papa is coming so soon too! It'll be a very full house for a while, and I'm stoked. We like it crazy around here :)

So if things are quiet on the blog, I'll be back soon. And if it's a really long time, it's because a couple doggies ate something they shouldn't have.

And because I'm so excited, a cute picture of my parents with bubba on his blessing day. Let the crazy begin!

My buddy

I feel physically ill that she is 2.5 months old already.

She:
is trying to hold up her head.
loves nursing
is very drooly
gets giddy when nakey
would rather skip tummy time
is so patient with her adoring siblings
gets chunkier by the second
wakes up with a smile every morning, and after every nap
cries so quietly
hasn't had the hiccups for a few days

I want to eat every last bit of her. And bottle her up for later.

memory lane

luckily, there are few things in my family that any of us siblings would fight over who gets to inherit. there are definitely a few, but some of those few are random, kinda funny things. do you have those?

one of the first "major" furniture purchases that my parents made (the first?) was a set of solid wood bunk beds, that my older siblings slept in. as years passed, we have all slept on the top and bottom, and all of us left our marks on it. from the dents and scratches, to the gum that has become like cement on the corner knobs, there is a little of each of us somewhere. 

the beds were not being used anymore, and since im the one with kids, they got passed on, and claire and bubba now sleep on them. and i always have a laugh when i lay down on the bottom bunk and look up and see the slats, because i remember being there as a child, and drawing on the underside. all of us did it at some point, writing messages, coming up with things to stir things up with another sibling. im sure it drove my mother crazy, but im so grateful for those now.

the huge wood boards were replaced, sadly, but those little 2x4s are around, and i love it. and i really, really hate that my kids are in a "color on everything i can get me hands on" phase, but i really hope they will sneak away and write things on the underside when they are older. memories of childhood friends and sibling rivalry to be saved forever on those boards. 

im going through a "memory" phase right now.... can you tell? just feeling that need to get it all down and saved. 

Thoughts on Saturday night.

This picture cracks me up. This girl cracks me up. Lindsay cracks me up. (its lindsays hair.) I wonder if this is what Evie will look like? Claire with brown hair? Will evie's hair stay darker? Fun to think about....

Time is moving faster, and slower. It went so slow before joes mom came to visit, she came and I blinked and she was gone. Now it's two ish weeks til my parents come, and I can't wait any longer, it's taking too long. But wait, Evie had her two month check up.... And she is not a new born anymore! I'm being jerked around every second, I feel whip lashed some days.

I love books. I haven't been reading as much for myself lately, but I have always wanted to have children that love, love to read. Claire likes books, and loves to read with me. But sweet Caleb, that boy has never wanted to read, at least with me. Every time I have tried, he rips the book away, slams pages and starts whining. And my hopes of him loving books have been shattering little by little. Until tonight. Claire fell asleep early so I had some precious one-on-one with him, and he didn't want to get in bed til we sat on the floor with him in my lap and a stack of books and read book after book. That boy. Oh how he melts me.

Its been a rough week. A good week, but rough. I was SO spoiled by my mother in law, I could hardly handle the kids not being occupied while I nursed, pumped, or fed baby girl. I forgot in that short span what my kids do unsupervised. Oh well. We are back in it, and getting better at sticking to a schedule I can manage. Maybe. (ive been out of bed before 730 every day. This is a big deal people.) I lost it, completely broke down after listening to kids whine, pick up and clean thing after thing. And my sweet husband listened, helped me laugh it off, and helped make the bed. I luf him. So much.

And I can't stop eating ice cream. It is not helping me reach my goal of skinny jeans. Not in the slightest. It's an addiction. Hopefully admitting this will be my first step of breaking the habit....

It's Sunday tomorrow. I am so excited. I don't know why, but I am. I get my husband home all day I guess. And I already have our sacrament meeting quiet entertainment bag packed. And it includes felt dress up dolls. We did felt Velcro dolls instead of paper dolls growing up. Oh yes. And I have inherited them for Claire to play with. I'm probably more excited about it than she is!

Now to finish Saturday chores. And crash in bed, waiting for husband to come home. Nighty night!