When I Grow Up...

I was having some Q & A with Alex one day, where I just asked him random questions to see what he would say. I asked him what the moon was made out of and he said, "Paper". When I asked him what kind of paper, he looked at me like I'd lost my mind and said, "White!".

I laughed and immediately thought of Jami giving me a stern look and rebuking me for never putting pictures or videos on my blog. So here's our little conversation about what Alex wants to be when he grows up...

What We Did On Our Summer Vacation

And here's our quarterly update! I can't believe summer vacation is over already. What a busy summer! Here are a few of the blips I managed to actually take pictures of.

The kids also had some really fun campouts with Mom and Dad, so as soon as I get those pictures from them, I'll post 'em.

We kicked off the summer with a couple of graduations and birthdays. Here's my little Stevie-Weevie all grown up and graduating from high school!

We're all smiling here because we're trying to hide the fear. The little brother we used to torture now towers over all of us. "We did it out of LOVE, Steve! LOVE!"

Here's Ethan on his 11th birthday. I know! I can't believe it either! Especially when he said, "Now I'm 11 mom. So only 5 more years until I can drive!" Noooooooo....
I told him we could do whatever he wanted for his birthday. So we set up Settlers of Catan and played the night away.

Birthday cupcakes. Mmmm...

Mama's Little Helper

Alex is quite the little helper in the kitchen. We were making hard boiled eggs so we could make grandma's famous deviled eggs for dinner. Here he is cracking and peeling a dozen hard boiled eggs.

Here's a video of Alex crackin' and peelin' those eggs for me.



And so with good must come not-so-good. Alex LOVES to be a "fixer guy" like his daddy, so his favorite new thing to do is to unscrew any screw he can find. Suddenly cupboards in my house are hanging crooked, the boys' dresser doors are now on the floor, electronics are dismantled, and here you can see the bathroom pipes had been tampered with by my little "fixer guy". Here's Darrick fixing what Alex "fixed".

Here's Alex's latest victim: Kate's Leapster. "But it wouldn't turn on, Mom!"

School of Rock

It's Friday night. Time to Rock! Whenever the Xbox 360 decides it wants to work, we have some family rock out time. The best part of playing Xbox with the kids is that the Xbox is bit busted, which means it has to be handled with care to get it to work. Ethan has figured out that if he gently massages the Xbox and whispers "Come on. Come on." while it's loading the disc, it just might load the game and play it. If it doesn't, the gentle massage turns into a light tap until he works up to almost a full body slam.

The funny part about that is Ethan seems to have a knack for getting the games to play, so he's deemed himself a "Level 5 Xbox Engineer". Apparently this means you can get the games to play on a broken Xbox about 50% of the time. Katelyn then deemed herself only a "Level 3 Xbox Engineer". So, if she can't get it to work, she calls in the Level 5.

Alex is taking pictures of family music time. The picture of Kate sitting by the piano with her guitar and Nate on the piano was too blurry to post. But we had some fun jam time!

This is what happens when you give kids 3 months off from school in 100+ degree weather that requires a lot of indoor time. Here's Kate with a bit of Cabin Fever.

Trip to Fergie Baby Town

You all know I trekked up to Idaho to see The J and her newest little monkey. Jami's posted about every pic I had, but I thought I'd put a few of my favorites up. Here's my baby girl, Emmy. Aunt Becca and Mat brought the kids to the hospital to visit Mommy. They were so cute. They were getting a little restless, so I strapped them into the stroller and played "Go Go Speedracer" for a bit.

Cody Bug and his cute dimples.

This is when I first met little Casey. He always looked much bigger in the pictures we first took, but this one shows just how tiny he was.

So I stole him, drove back to Tucson, and he's mine. ALL MINE! Muwahaha. Okay, I didn't do that. But I did steal him away from Jami whenever she'd let me. :-)

This was my view for almost a week. LOVE THAT MONKEY!

The day I had to catch a flight back to Tucson, I had planned to watch the kids while Jami went down to see Casey for a bit. Jami ended up getting sick the night before, so I got to go back and say goodbye to Casey. I was sad J was sick, but super happy I got to see him before I left.

When I got there, they had him under the Bili lights to bring his bilirubin levels down. The nurse first told me I needed to leave him in there, but after I broke down, begged, and fell to her feet, washing her comfortable nursing shoes with my tears, she let me hold him for a bit.

I wanted to stay longer, and I wish I had. My flight was delayed 2 hours! But I took one last shot of this tiny little thing that turned me inside out. Can't wait to see him in September!

Little Casey with his eyes open.

Swim Time!

This summer we were lucky enough to find a PHENOMENAL babysitter. Not only did she play with the kids and teach them how to swim (which is an enormous feat), but she also had my house spotless and all of my laundry done every day. I asked her to marry me but she said "No". Sigh...

So, here's the last day of summer vacation. The kids are showing me how they can all swim now. If you know anything about my kids and water, you know that even a little drop of water on their faces when getting their hair washed turned into an epic Titanic-drowning moment of "AHHHH WATER!!!" Here's Alex swimmin around in his float-assist outfit.

I LOVE this picture. He's not just floating on his back. No. In true Nate style, he's floating on his back, holding his breath, WITH goggles on.

Kate is a little fish! She just dives right in.

Here are some quick videos of the kids swimming. I'd like to apologize in advance for all of the "Woooo! Good Job!" comments I made. I was being a supportive mother, so you'll just have to turn your volume down. :-P




We had a blast this summer. There's a whole lot of fun we didn't get pictures of, like late evening trips to the park to play soccer and baseball, outings to the mall just for the sole purpose of sitting in air conditioning, monsoon lightning shows and rain blitzes, sleepovers with grandma and grandpa, family movie nights, Wii Super Mario Bros Smackdown nights, and more! (I know. I suck at remembering to take pictures. Sorry!)

School starts Monday and we're EXCITED!