Grandpa and Grandma's trip

So the Hamptons came to visit at the end of June. We kept them very busy!

We went to the beach:



We played at the Fair:



We swam at their hotel:


And just generally enjoyed each other's company. We always love it when we have family come to visit!

We Love Summer! June, Part 1!

I've been a pretty negligent blogger, although it seems like everyone else has too. I get so sad when my Google Reader just sits empty. :(

But anyway, here are some pictures to show what we were up to in June!

Went blueberry picking with our playgroup:




Went fake camping at Poway Lake with the fam:







Dressed up like Taylor Swift:


And read books about trains (okay, not that exciting, I know, but I love this picture):

One of These Things is Not Like the Other

So a few weeks ago we took the kids to the pediatrician and got some entertaining news. Our little Kenley is in the 3rd percentile for height, while Parker is in the 68th percentile. The doctor said if he were to keep growing at the same rate, he would end up being about 5'11", which is nothing but hilarious to me given that the tallest person in my family is 5'6".

These pictures of our new sunflowers just reminded me of that for some reason.





Yes, we have one sunflower on steroids.

Exciting news!

My night was pretty boring. I went on a walk with my kids and ate Goldfish crackers for dinner after they went to bed. But for one of these guys:



They had the Best! Night! Ever! Because it involved something along the lines of this.....


Still guessing? I'll narrow it down for you. It also involves the person NOT wearing the BYU beanie (What? You didn't know about my school spirit?).


Congratulations Scott and Brianne!

Soccer Star!

I had grand intentions of doing a big post tonight with lots of pictures from the Hampton grandparents' visit this last week. But my computer is being super lame and slow, so I'm just going to start with the pictures we took of Kenley's soccer class.

She takes a soccer class once a week with her friend Parker who lives down the street from us. She really enjoys soccer, and starts off with good intentions, but she and Parker are the youngest ones in the class and always get a little distracted after the class is about halfway through.

Here is Kenley within the first few minutes of class, still participating:


Then things started to deteriorate. The whole class is listening to the teacher, while Kenley and Parker face the complete opposite direction:


They decide to abandon class for a while and go sit inside the goal:


Must make time for folk-dancing...


The class does a drill while Kenley and Parker sit off to the side and chit-chat. Kenley informs me that she is tying his shoes in this picture. I'm sure that was wildly successful.


Aaaaand, finally she decides to rejoin the class just in time to score this fantastic goal. A sports star in the making, for sure.

Simply Clean Living Back Up and Running!

I am recommitting myself to my cleaning and organization blog, Simply Clean Living. I mostly want it to be home organization and cleaning tips, but also easy recipes, baby/toddler product reviews, etc. Just general helpful mom stuff.

I am bringing on more authors, and hope to have about 8-10 contributing weekly. I have a few people lined up, but we're looking for a few more! E-mail me at simplycleanliving@gmail.com if you're interested. Or, if you don't want to commit to posting weekly but have some good cleaning/cooking/organzing ideas, please e-mail them over as well and I'll post them for you as a guest author. Or just come on over, take a look, comment, and support! See you soon!

How to Party Like a Princess

Because Kenley's birthday will be just a month after having the baby, I need to get an early start planning and getting stuff for her party. So last night I sat down with her to start the big plans. I wrote down all her ideas because they were so cute and funny. Our theme is going to be Princesses and Pirates, and here are her requests:

Time:
*In the morning. And a LONG party - five and five hours.

Activities:
*Balloon Fight

Menu:
*Princess Pizza
*Princess Goldfish crackers
*Princess muffins with princesses on the little papers
*Pink and white princess animal cookies with sprinkles
*Strawberry milk with Cinderella, Jasmine, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, and Mulan on the milk carton
*Princess Strawberry punch flavored ice cream
*Pink Princess Castle Cake, with pink, hot pink, hot purple, and hot red

Favors:
*Princess pancakes for each friend to take home in a baggie (because it's a morning party, she explains)

I'm hoping she forgets the pancake idea but at this point she's quite adamant. At other parties you may get a gift bag with toys, prizes, and candy. At ours you will go home with a ziplock baggie full of soggy pancakes. Perfect.

Probably just funny to me

So with working full-time I miss a lot of the funny stuff my kids say during the day. But I'm sure everyone misses hearing about what I find entertaining in my life. The latest:

*The new Goldfish box, labeled, "New packaging! Same amount of crackers." It cracks me up every time. I'm sure what they were going for was having their consumers not think a smaller box meant less fish, but to me it reads very, "We changed our packaging but we're not giving you even ONE more fishie cracker, suckers!" Seriously I laugh out loud every time I get Goldfish.

*So I work out in the countryside, and drive along this lovely dirt road to get out to my school (I know, weird, right?). They do quite a bit of work to keep the dirt road nice. Several times a week they're out there laying more dirt, smoothing it, spraying it with water to pack it down, whatever. I remarked to another teacher that they should just pave the darn road if they're going to do so much work on it. But she told me that apparently it was part of an old path the stagecoaches used to take, and those crazy history lovers out there have been fighting to keep it authentic and dirty and bumpy and inconvenient. But guys, I think it's a FAKE dirt road! The other day I was driving to work and it was like someone had swept off 89% of the dirt and there is a PAVED road underneath! I swear to you! It's not like they managed to pave the road overnight and then dumped the dirt remnants back on it, it is pavement that has been there a while and they were just faking us out all along! FRAUDS! Do you think I should sue them to reimburse me for the cost of getting my car washed weekly while I've had this job?

I'm still not sure either of those stories are actually funny or if I am getting boring. But they seemed crucial to my family history, so there you go.

Language Arts

Having a very verbal three year old has to be one of the most hilarious experiences life has to offer. People are constantly telling me to write down all the funny stuff Kenley says, but I would seriously be writing all day long. But here are some of my recent faves:

*While I was talking to James about my carpool, Kenley asks me what a carpool is. After I explain, she announces, "Carpool? That not a good name! You not call it that anymore, Mommy. Now you call it a car-MOVE. That be way better." And you know what, how could I argue with that?

*Bringing my attention to the fact that we may frequent fast-food establishments more than I realize, Kenley told me the other night that she was excited to go eat at "Arbio's." (A mix of Arby's and Rubio's, for those who sadly are not familiar with Rubio's.)

*Aaaaaand, my favorite. A few weeks ago Kenley pointed out an American flag while we were driving and I was quizzing her on her US Trivia. "And who is our President?" "Um... what his name? Chewbama?" SUCH a better choice for President than John McCain. Way better-looking, and his name lends itself to hilarious combinations with hairy Star Wars creatures. Even if you're not a liberal, you can't be mad at that.

We're great, thanks.

Every time I start to write about this it just sounds whiny, but our life is completely different now, and I figure I owe it to my diligent blog-stalkers who may not know the whole story and are wondering why I rarely update the blog these days. So, what have we been up to, you ask? Well, I've been working full-time teaching middle school Special Ed., taking classes for my Masters, serving as Primary President, and I'm coming up on seven months pregnant. Oh yes, and in my abundance of spare time I've been raising my two toddlers. After being at the babysitter's all day they come home starving and crying while I try to get dinner ready. Every once in a while we even get to see James. Pretty much our life looks like this right now:



Thanks to everyone that has been checking in and helping out. I'm horribly lonely for my friends and can't wait for life to calm down a little. Eight more days of work... I'll edit this to add, for all the many who are wondering, that we do not know what we are having. We had one ultrasound and the baby was being shy. We'll probably have one more near the end but at this point we may opt to go for the big surprise!

My little guy

Isn't he just the cutest thing ever? Brianne e-mailed me this picture and I loved it because it just so captures one of his cutest expressions.

Tonight James had to work and on his way into San Diego, he took Kenley to have a sleepover at my mom's. Parker and I both had a wonderful and much-needed nap, and then got to hang out for a few hours before his bedtime. It was fun to be able to spend a few hours one-on-one with him. We went for a walk and he was just running his speedy but awkward toddler gait as he went from yard to yard inspecting the real-estate-agent-placed Memorial Day flags. Each one was exciting, each one required running to it and exclaiming over its flag-ness. He told me all about the trucks, cars, boats, and bikes that we passed, and the airplanes overhead. Then we went back home and snuggled into the rocking chair and read books. Parker is such a snuggler, and I wish I was better about finding time to read to him. Tonight we read book after book, including a few times through "Goodnight, Goon," a Halloween-themed parody of Goodnight, Moon. It's actually Kenley's but she has decided the "creepy creatures" are too scary, so for now it's Parker's to look through and lovingly point to the goons, gouls, ghosts, and skeletons.

I know I post more about Kenley, because she says such funny things, but I hope everyone knows that I love this little guy beyond all words. He is just the best.

Next she'll be licking the sidewalk

Today Kenley was sucking on her shirt and I told her to stop. Her response? "But Mo-om! This shirt has tasty germs in it!"

The Best of the Best

I'll post more later about what we've been up to (lots). But today we are celebrating! This is my 250th blog post! Can you believe it? My sweet sis set up this blog when Kenley was born, and I don't think I even knew what a blog was!

So I had this idea to do an all-star list of my favorite posts from the past three and a half years. We've added lots of readers since our early days, so I thought I'd bring back some of the best of the best to get our newbies all caught up.

Mostly I'm doing it to have them all in one place for our own reference, but I'd be lying if I said that I'd be sad if everyone skips right over it. Obviously I don't expect you to read them all, especially the relatively boring milestone posts, but hop around, and take a trip down memory lane. And then leave some comment love! How long have you been our blog-stalker? What's your favorite post of all time from this blog?

Did I mention that if I don't get any comments after all this work, I will be very very sad? :(

Milestones
Kenley's First Few Days Home From the Hospital
Kenley's Blessing Day
Kenley's First Birthday and a BIG Announcement!
Parker is Born!
Kenley Turns 2
Parker Turns 1
Happy Father's Day
Kenley Turns 3
Parker Turns 2

Misc. Cuteness
Kenley Decorating Newborn Parker
The Cutest Big Sis Movies
Portraits of Parker
Last Disney Trip

Low Points in Parenting
The All-Time Low
Okay, Seriously

Posts That Still Make Me Laugh Out Loud
Kenley Asleep at the Outlet Mall
Video of Kenley Crying in Her Jumperoo
Falling Face First Into the Pumpkins
Not Quite Ready for the Big Time
The Hidden Pocket
My Little Cinderella
Kenley Sends Herself to Timeout
Boy Cheese Sandwich
Someplace Safe to Live
The Smallest Elmo Ever
My Favorite Picture Of All Time
GAP Fashionista
Scariest Part About Halloween
How to Play With Girl Toys
Life Lessons From Olivia
A Snow White Virgin Mary
Grandma Was a Toodle?
Bad Girls

Happy Easter!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter. We sure did!

Look for us on COPS - we're bad girls

The other day Kenley climbed into my lap and hissed, "Mommy, let's pretend we're bad girls." I was slightly alarmed by this bizarre suggestion but played it off. "Um, okay. What do bad girls do?" "Well, they don't like flowers. And I think that's it." So we sat there disliking flowers for a few moments. Then she eyed Parker, who was playing with a new Slinky and asked, "Are we still bad girls?" "I think so. What else should we be doing?" Why would I ask that? I think the not liking flowers was plenty. She again eyed Parker and said nervously, "I think sometimes THEY want a turn with their brother's toys."

Later that day she totally ruined her bad girl routine by excitedly opening her goodie bag from a birthday party, grabbing a roll of my beloved Smarties, and announcing, "Mommy! These are for you! I been thinkin bout you all day cuz these are your favorite!" and then pulling James into her room and offering him his choice of any candy he wanted, including her FAVORITE My Little Pony fruit snacks, because "you been workin so hard on all your jobs today." (It was his day off and he'd been working in the yard, etc. all day long.)

I know it's unrealistic, but I am really just hoping that sitting on my lap for three minutes pretending to dislike flowers is as close as this little sweetie ever gets to being a bad girl.


(Note: Yes, Kenley has her own knife and is helping me chop veggies in this picture. She may be strapped into her carseat so tightly she can't breathe until she's about six, but her daddy is a chef for heaven's sake.)

Good news, lame news

So, many of you know that we were supposed to go in tomorrow for our "BIG" ultrasound, where we find out if our little tiebreaker is a boy or a girl. Here in the medically old-fashioned area where I live, you have to go to another doctor for that ultrasound, where I guess he has bigger and fancier equipment or something. So anyway, today at my regular OB appointment, I found out policy has changed, and I needed a referral from my Primary Care doctor, which I do not have and cannot get before tomorrow at 10am. But my OB did an ultrasound there at her office and the baby is sitting breech (butt down) with its legs strategically crossed. She tried for quite a while and couldn't even see enough to venture a guess. And THEN, she at least tried to get a cute picture of the baby's face, and the baby just waved its little hands around in front of its face! This baby is already working on driving me nuts and it hasn't even been born yet!

So... while we're disappointed that we have to wait, it's probably a blessing in disguise because now we'll have another week or so to hope that this little bugger either flips around where it has room to wave its little leggies, or at least is willing to uncross them!

It could be worse, though. Definitely. Last night I had a dream that we went in for our ultrasound and Tyra Banks was our ultrasound tech as she was being filmed for a reality show. She didn't even know what she was doing (I know, WEIRD). And I was all stressed out because they wouldn't let me have a different ultrasound tech, this was my one and only chance to find out the gender of the baby, and Tyra was going to mess it up. Good old Tyra.

So anyway, wish us luck, and leave a comment with your guess on this naughty baby's gender if you haven't already!

Spring is Here!

Today our friends called to ask us if we wanted to come play in this field of flowers and take some pictures. The sun was too bright to get any fantastic shots, and of course the kids couldn't sit still, but I still got some cute ones. Hopefully you'll be fooled into thinking we were someplace exotic and beautiful. If you make it to the end of the pictures I'll confess where this really is.











It's an open field in our Wal-Mart parking lot. Klassy, huh?

Happy Birthday Parker!

Today our little Parker turns 2! Since James has to work tonight, we had a birthday breakfast for him instead. We also had a family party on Sunday for Parker and Scott, but that'll have to come later. Here's a video of Kenley singing Happy Birthday to him, and some pictures of our donut breakfast!


Parker is such a joy to our family. He definitely has his tempermental moments, but overall he is such a sweet and mild-mannered little boy. He loves any form of transportation, especially motorcycles, along with animals, books, and balls. It's not unusual to have a quiet house and think, "Uh-oh, where's Parker? What's he gotten into?" and find him on his floor just quietly reading. He has a funny little eating quirk (when he's actually eating), where he takes one bite of each piece of something, and then another bite of each piece. So it's not unusual to look over and each of six apple slices will have a little bite taken out of it. He is keenly aware of any airplanes, motorcycles, trucks, or trash trucks in the vicinity and will always point them out.


Parker loves his sister and cries whenever we drop her off at preschool. He hates being up before her in the mornings and asks for her constantly until she wakes up. He wants to do everything that she does, so luckily she's a pretty good example! He is keenly aware of which colors are Kenley's favorite, and takes special care to save anything red, pink, or purple for her. He loves to snuggle when he wakes up from his naps, and is overall pretty affectionate and sweet. He adds so much to our little family, and I couldn't imagine my life without him.

Oh my darling Kenley Mae

So I know I've been a disappointment as a blogger, but I have lots percolating, don't you worry. Including a musing on dinner battles and an inspirational post on the power of short bursts of cleaning. But to tide you over, here are three of tonight's best quotes, courtesy of Miss Kenley.

Tonight I was pulling out the next size of clothes for Parker, taking any tags off, and throwing them in the hamper. Kenley sat next to me and exclaimed over the cute stuff. To one shirt she said, "Oh my darling!" I assume she was mixing up the phrases "oh my gosh" and the song Oh My Darlin' Clementine rather than attempting to channel the unfortunate "Oh my *anything*" that was the slang of choice for Utah natives during my college years, but hey, you never know.

Second, when Parker was in his new PJs tonight, she told him, "You look gorgeous!"

And third, in the bathtub tonight, after bumping her head on the edge and getting water poured on her head by her brother, she told me, "You need to come get me out of dis tub! I am having so many issues in here tonight!" Yes, this child is three years old.

I told my sister a gross story today and she told me I needed to post it on my blog because you know everyone has the weird inferiority complex where we all believe everyone else is living these amusing, perfect, clean house lives that they represent on their blogs. So here's the nitty-gritty. This is gross, don't say I didn't warn you. I wouldn't read it if I were you (at first I just typed "if I were me" but that didn't sound quite right or make any sense). Anyway, last night Parker threw up all over our bathroom and when I went in to help James clean it up, the smell just hit me. Kenley's quite the puker and usually I'm fine, but I think I've just thrown up so much the last few months I'm still a little sensitive to the smell. Anyway, I started gagging and barely made it our other toilet myself, throwing up so hard and so much that my nose started gushing blood. Like, a lot of blood. So I was puking and blood was pouring out of my nose into the toilet all at the same time. It was so nasty. I know because I inexplicably turned on the light afterwards to look. So see? We're not all glamour and perfection around here. Just most of the time. ;)

Pay It Forward

Pay it FORWARD...

How it works:The FIRST THREE people to leave a comment on this post will receive at some point during this year a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive will be a total surprise--to both of us (well, I'm going to change that part - the only thing I can make is cute invitations and announcements on Photoshop, so that's what it'll be)! The CATCH is that YOU MUST PLAY TOO! Before you leave your comment here, write a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (you can cut and paste these instructions). Then come back and let me know that you are going to play, and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift. It's THAT easy! Remember, only the FIRST THREE comments will qualify. Good luck!