Father's Day

Do you want to know what Father's Day pictures are supposed to look like?

But do you think I have more than one picture like this?

Of course not.

Obviously I wouldn't even be writing this post if I just had a bunch of mushy 

Father bonding pictures.

Let's talk about how Father's Day really went down.

We walked around the corner to this little field because it was one of those Sunday's.

You know the ones.

What??!!  It's only 3:28?

It feels like 11pm.

I said something like that at least 4 times.

I thought I would take some fun pictures of the kids playing with their Dad.

Well...I got one.

But I also got

Aubrey re-enacting a Baywatch scene.

Why is she in a swimming suit you ask?

I'm not really sure, but she prefers to go commando 

so we thought this was an improvement.

Even if the swimming suit is a size 6-9 months.

Bradley trying to remove the dog poop that had just squished between his toes.

Jack snarling at Brooklyn because he never gets to hold the cat.

I can't imagine why since he had just chased the cat into the bushes...

 about 18 times.

Brooklyn finally recovering from crying for 30 minutes 

because Jack kept chasing her cat into the bushes.

And yes, that is a real cat.

Seriously the nicest, most docile cat I've ever met.

Good thing too.

Or she probably wouldn't have lasted around here.

Something about being mothered to death.

And here's our best attempt at a little group picture.

Plenty of personality.

I'm pretty sure Jack has his eye on the cat again.

Look at that devilish grin...

And then I snatched one of Aubrey

 right after Mona had slobbered all over her face.

She definitely reacts much differently than I would if I had just had that giant tongue all over my face.

I mean look at that thing!

Mona can practically lick her own eyeball!

Bleck!

We enjoyed getting out and getting some fresh air.

And I enjoyed having my little helpers 

helping me prepare dinner and dessert for Dave.

(Even though they are a little scary with the beaters...)

I am sure grateful for Dave.

Thanks to our children we share a very lively and wonderful life.

I picked a good one, folks!

Potty Training

Potty Training.

Something I find to be about as much fun as a poke in the eye.

Actually I'd way rather have a poke in the eye.

Like 50 of them.

I'm just no good at it.

I only have the stamina of about 30 minutes.

I basically just want to show them how to do it and then have them independently take care of it after that. 

That's not too much to ask, is it?

Well I've been in the trenches with the littlest one.

And it definitely hasn't been a 30 minute visit.

She was doing great (easiest one yet!)

but it seems that we are moving backwards lately.

It's been going something like this...

[Aubrey waddling in]

"Mama, I pooped!"  (with genuine enthusiasm)

"Where did you poop, Aubrey?"

(pointing to her adorable little buns)

"Ummmmm...in mine underwear."

Sigh.

"Aubrey........Where does poop go?"

"Ummmmm...in mine underwear?!"

Toilet, Aubrey. Toilet.

T.O.I.L.E.T.

My stamina has certainly waned, but seriously, 

I absolutely refuse to follow the child around all day waiting for the face.  

Why must this be part of the parenting deal?

I'm sure there is some lesson in perseverance or patience that I am supposed to be learning here,

but all I am finding is that I stare longingly at the diapers when I pass them in Target.

Anyone else out there thinking that it was a whole lot easier to change a few diapers everyday??

Meanest Mom

The Meanest Mom Ever.
Isn't that a title that all of us Mother's secretly strive for?
We stay up at night plotting ways to torture our children.
I know I definitely do.
You know what else I do?
I make sure that there is a lunch packed for my kids everyday.
Go me.
Well last week Jack walked off and forgot his head lunch.
I saw it sitting there on the table shortly after he left for school.
Well naturally our school system won't let him starve when he forgets his lunch.
So he came home with a $2 bill for the hot lunch he ate that day.
Right next to it was a big smile on his face telling me all about the pizza and milk and cookie.
Not so fast, Mister.
I told him that since I had already paid for a lunch for him that he would have to earn the money to pay back the cafeteria for his hot lunch.
And do you know what it takes to earn 2 bucks around here?
We really don't pay well.
I marched him to the backyard, threw a few bags of mulch in the wheel barrow
and helped his little twig-let arms push that thing all over the yard.
Then he had to dump the bags and spread the mulch around the perimeter of our backyard.
(Which looks lovely, by the way)

He may or may not have been doing a bit of grumbling.
Which I cheerfully (and maybe a little bit sarcastically) responded with something about how delicious that lunch was.
Which really wasn't nice.
In the end he told me that I was THE Meanest Mom ever
because no other kids have to work for their lunch.
All my planning and hard work has paid off!
Do you think he has forgotten his lunch since?
Nope!
But Brooklyn has.
Her torture had something to do with weeds and dog poop.

Brooklyn's Trip to Conference

Brooklyn recently had an experience of a lifetime.

Her grandparents acquired sweet tickets to general conference.

And (because they are awesome) they decided that since Brooklyn is now old enough to go into the Conference Center, that it would be a wonderful experience for her.

Lucky for us, she had her own camera, so we get to see her experience through her eyes.

Brace yourself.

There were many "selfies" to choose from.

I thought this one was particularly charming.

You'll have to excuse her, she was a teeny weeny bit excited.

Also understand that I only had about 5 zillion pictures from this trip to choose from.

Sheesh, I really wish she would have given me a bit more selection.

 In my in-laws true fashion, they nearly saw the entire state of Utah in 2 days.

This Is The Place Monument

 Pioneer Village

(And further proof that she was there with her grandparents...pony rides?  Yep, definitely with her grandparents.)

 She was super pleased with her stilt-walking abilities.

There never was a happier girl than the one petting stinky goats.

 Do you think they would have let me stay for free?

One of Brooklyn's favorite things is to have her Grammy tell her all about the day she was born.

About how we were all waiting, (and waiting and waiting) for her to come out.

She (along with who knows how many concourses of children) was born in

As part of this trip, her grandparents took her on a little personal history tour.

This is the  hospital where she was born.

The stadium where I may or may not have roasted a few times.

And here was our humble abode.

Apartment #6

She was probably frightening some poor young mother.

Like there was some private investigator taking pictures of her apartment or something.

 And of course, no trip to Provo would be complete without a trip to the Creamery.

The little punk called me while she was eating this...just to rub it in.

I told her to eat some extra for me, but I never quite got the satisfaction I was looking for.

 She also got to visit her Great-Grandfather & Grandmother's grave.

She was sad that she didn't have any flowers to leave so she found a feather to lay by their grave. 

 After all of this activity, it was time for General Conference!

She loved being able to go inside the Conference Center.  

Aaaannnddd...she loved the cake that she said was as big as her head.

Wait!  Was she with her grandparents?

Oh yes, yes she was.

Spoiled rotten, she is.

That looks like what I would like to eat for lunch everyday.

I am so grateful that Brooklyn got to have this experience.

I truly believe that it was life changing for her.

When I picked her up, she was telling me all about the trip (for the whole 1.5 hours home.)

At one point she started tearing up and told me that she had no idea that Conference would be so amazing.

 (That giant dude is totally photo bombing my picture)

And it looks like Brooklyn is floating...

I was happy to have my girly back, 

but I am very thankful for these two for making that experience possible.

It takes an entire village to raise a child - 

and I'm really, really happy to be in the same village as these two.  :)

Future Engineer

I've mentioned before what a quiet and somewhat mischievous boy Bradley is.

The thing is, is that he really isn't mischievous for the sake of causing trouble as much as he is a curious little fellow and wants to discover things about the world on his own terms.

When he is curious about something, he quietly 

plays/experiments/watches/blows things up.

A trait that I do believe will come in handy later in life,

but one that can cause a few concerns for a busy mother.

Last Saturday we decided that we had to reclaim our garage.

It had been discombobulated for way too long.

I was going nuts.

So, we opened up the doors, 

pulled out all the junk 

and then did our best to get everything back in it's place.

The kids were in and out of the house, 

but mostly they were riding up and down the sidewalk on their bikes and scooters.

After about 2 hours of this I paused to count heads (for the 50th time).

1...2...3...

Uh, where's Bradley?

Do you have any idea how many times that question has been asked?

Yeesh.

So I walked into the house, and to my alarm smelled something cooking.

Not good.

I rounded the corner into the kitchen to see Bradley's little face beaming.

"Mom, check this out!  It's amazing!"

I cautiously came around the island to find him with the toaster.

Which he had gotten out of the cupboard and plugged in.

He carefully placed 2 pieces of bread.

 Pushed down the lever.

 And then popped it back up.

Sending that bread flying.

He was positively thrilled to discover the amazing abilities of our toaster.

My favorite part though was how he would then take the bread out and peer inside of the toaster.

Dying to know how such awesomeness was achieved.

I'm starting to think that I should be thankful I didn't come in to find my toaster completely dismantled.

I seem to remember a story about my grandfather doing just that.

I imagine it won't be long.

I just hope that he sticks to toasters and toys - 

and stays away from computers and minivans.

Only 2 slices of bread were burned to an absolute crisp in the making of this post.

Aubrey's First Haircut(s)

See that beautiful golden hair?

I love it.

My favorite thing about it is watching it blow behind her when she's running around.

Well...lately, Aubrey hasn't been such a fan of her long, tangled hair.

She doesn't want me to brush it or pull it back.

She basically just wants me to keep my mitts away from her head.

That's a problem when you are two and your hair goes half-way down your back.

I've been debating having it cut for awhile now.

But I just couldn't do it.

So Bradley did it for me.

Eek.

I was cleaning the garage while the children were running wild constructively occupied.

Aubrey was eating a sucker and apparently got it stuck in her hair.

Soooo...Bradley cut it out for her.

Good gravy.

It wasn't horrible, but there were definitely some short pieces in there.

(No pic, sorry.)

At first I decided that we would just roll with it.

It wasn't that noticeable.

But then I looked at her while we were at church and she basically looked like an orphan.

It was the best I could do to get a little clip in to hold it out of her face.

It certainly wasn't the beautiful golden curls pictured above.

Much more like the picture below.

So this morning I took her in for her first "official" haircut.

We had to bring Scooby Doo along on the Ipod because she wasn't a big fan of sitting in that chair.

And I didn't get any pictures of her in her lovely little apron because I was in the chair with her.

But here are the remains of her long hair.

(Well, besides the ones that Bradley already removed.)

I am happy because it will be 100 times easier to take care of.

And look, it still blows behind her when she runs.  :)

Doesn't it make her look so much older?  

Waaaaaa.....where's my baby?

3rd Grade Rocket Launch

 Brooklyn's 3rd Grade class had a rocket launch last week.

I took the two little bambinos to watch.

But I should have left them behind.

Because they were kind of naughty.

They didn't have the patience to wait for Brooklyn's launch.

(Or any launch for that matter)

They were running around and messing with the water fountains.

Stinkers.

But that's besides the point.

Brooklyn built and decorated her rocket.

Pumped it full of air.

 Stood back, pulled the stopper....and....

Blast Off!

It was fun watching all the kids (and parents) get so excited.

I love going to these special activities.

I'm continually impressed by the number of parents who show up to be supportive.

I am not impressed though, by the 15 minutes of Jack pouting because he wanted to be a 

Rocket-Launching-3rd-Grader.

Life really isn't fair, you know.