Random-ness

The other night at dinner we had, among other things, garden peas (from a can) and fresh blueberries from Cory's dad. Unbeknownst to us, Elise picked a very green blueberry from the bowl and placed it in the bowl with the peas. As she later told us, "I didn't think anyone was going to get it, but I looked and I saw Daddy get it and I was like, 'YES!!!!'" And eat it he did, right along with a mouthful of peas. Elise was thrilled and we all got a kick out of her mischief. Obviously she's got a good dose of her Daddy in her. :)

We had a sleepover night before last with a couple of Elise's cousins. They had lots of fun together and played really well together. Elise needed desperately to catch up on the sleep she missed, but other than that we recovered nicely. :) Our biggest excitement came during the day when Uncle Neal had come over to pick up the shop vac that was sitting under the carport. All of a sudden I heard a commotion at the door as the girls had gone over to look out and see what was going on. I walked over to the door, only to see Neal killing a snake with a broom handle! Apparently it had been right there with the shop vac and he was nice enough to take care of it for us. When it was sufficiently decapitated, the girls all cheered that Uncle Neal was their hero and all afternoon Merry Grace talked about "Uncle Meal" and the "Big Nake". We weren't happy the snake was there but grateful its gone now!

And just for fun: Here's a little game I stole from my friend's blog. It's pretty fun. She got a better score than me, but I was still pretty proud. :)

In 3m 44s

Click here to Play

Camping

We spent most of last week camping with my family in Virginia. It was a lot of fun. Neither Elise nor Merry Grace has never been camping or slept in a tent, so this was all new for them. After lots of packing, lots of planning, and lots of anticipation, we finally made it to our home away from home for the better part of a week.

Here was our little campsite. Isn't it cute? My parents and brothers had the campsite next to us, so we were able to spend lots of time together. Our tent was really comfortable, especially with the air mattress we brought. It kept us warm on the two chilly nights we had and dry on the one night it rained.


As we were going to bed the first night, we were talking about different things and Elise said, "My dream is to go to sleep and wake up to a hot breakfast. I think the girls should sleep in and Daddy should get up and cook for us." We just cracked up. True to Elise's dream, Cory (and my Dad) cooked us a hot breakfast every morning. I'm not sure the sleeping in thing worked too well, but we're not complaining.


The first full day there, we went to the lake in the morning. It was cooler that day, as it had rained the night before and the sky was still overcast. But as you can see from Ian's smile, it didn't damped our spirits.

We still managed to all get in the water, and thanks to my family, we had lots of fun water toys to use. Here is a rare picture of me and in a bathing suit to boot. :)


One of the best things about vacation is having lots of people to entertain and love the kids. Here Uncle Adam is gamely playing with the kids on the lake. Uncle Ethan and Uncle Logan joined in quite a bit, doing different things with them, from "super speeding" them in the water to a hundred other little things that made them laugh and keep them happy.


Here is Uncle Ethan playing the slap game. He enjoyed playing with the kids more than the adults because he could win easier that way. :) The kids didn't really mind, though. They just enjoyed playing.


We also took our dog, Max, on vacation with us. He got plenty of attention from the animal lovers in the group and enjoyed playing with his best friend, 8bol, who also came along on vacation with Uncle Logan.


The lake was one of the best parts of vacation, as my little crowd loves the water. Even the sand is fun, though. All the kids got better at swimming and Uncle Adam worked with Elise and Ian on holding their breath. Uncle Adam and Uncle Logan also spent quite a bit of time one day "throwing" the kids in the air and letting them cannonball or whatever into the water. I can't imagine how they had the strength or energy for it, but they seemed to hold up ok.

Ian was what Grammy called a water duck. He couldn't get enough of the water. He was under the water, splashing, playing and wearing himself out constantly. But he sure is a cute little guy.


I'm not sure Merry Grace would have survived this trip without Grammy, or "Gimmy" as she calls her. I can't even begin to put into words how much this little gal loves and adores her Gimmy. She wants to be held by Grammy, go where Grammy goes (even to the bathroom), ride in Grammy's car, and call Grammy on the phone--even if Grammy is 5 feet away! Here is the dynamic duo splashing in the water.


And thank goodness, too, that Papa knows how to fly an airplane. The only trouble is once he got Merry Grace up, he always had trouble getting her landing gear down.


We had really yummy food on this campout. Each morning and night we had a really good meal and even dessert. Smores night will go down in family history thanks to Ethan's creative, yet failed, attempts at new ways to cook smores. We had many a laugh that night. My dad also cooked a perfect peach cobbler one night in the dutch oven. Oh. My. Goodness. It was heavenly! This night we had hobo dinners cooked over the coals. We do have a few picky eaters who preferred hot dogs, but thankfully we'd come prepared.


Here is adorable Uncle Logan, the namesake of our new little girl on the way. (Her name will be Logan Paige, with us calling her Paige. Logan thinks its pretty cool to have someone named after him and we think he's pretty cool too.) Logan spent a good portion of this trip texting a girl he recently met at a youth activity. He even texted her on the lake while floating in the raft. Several people suggested that maybe this wasn't the best idea, and it was confirmed when the phone fell overboard, inches from shore. :) Logan must be more than cool, though, he must also be lucky, because the phone worked again really soon.

We had such a fun week. These pictures only tell part of the story, though, since I didn't always have my camera on me. We took a nice walk one night, played Mormon Rook another, made bead necklaces which seemed to be the biggest hit with my mom :), laughed, joked, told stories, and enjoyed being together. My legs are worn out from walking to the bath house (which was close behind our campsite, but up a steep hill). What a workout that was!!! It was just lots of fun and we made lots of memories together. Now we're already looking forward to next year!

Locks of Love

Elise has been growing her hair out for a long time. It's been super long for quite a while. Several times I've suggested we cut it, but she wasn't interested. She decided over the weekend that she for sure wanted to cut it. It was her idea to do it and she hasn't looked back.

Here are the three kids before we left for Elise's haircut. Ian was super nervous about the whole thing. He was way more nervous than Elise was, who didn't act nervous at all. He did not want her to get it cut. I think he was worried she'd end up bald.


She said she wanted to donate the hair she cut off to "the poor people who don't have any hair." So Locks of Love it was. I don't know how much she ended up cutting off. I know it was at least 10", but I think it was more by the time all was said and done.



Here is the last picture of Elise with her long hair. So drum roll please.....


























And here she is! And she's just as beautiful as ever! :) And I'm pretty sure she knows it. :)

We told the lady we wanted her hair to her shoulders, but as any of you ladies who have ever had a haircut know, you rarely get exactly what you want. But Elise loves it and we do too. Every once in a while I will glance at her and just be surprised because she looks different than what I'm expecting. But its super cute and she loves it. She keeps flipping it and tossing her head and saying, "My hair is so cute!" or "This is way cuter than I thought it would be," and on and on. So it was a fun-filled exciting day. And Ian isn't even nervous anymore. :) I'm glad he survived the ordeal.

The Things They Say

Last night we had spaghetti for dinner and Cory was asking the kids if they wanted their cut up. Elise likes hers "long" but the other two wanted him to cut theirs up. I was bragging on how good he is at cutting up spaghetti (and he is really good at it--he uses two butter knives and in seconds flat he has the whole plate of spaghetti in bite sized pieces). I told them, "I'll bet you don't know how lucky you are to have the best spaghetti-cutter-upper in the world as your dad!" It was quiet for just a second and then Elise says, "Well, at least he isn't French!" We thought it was so so cute and funny.

The other night we had painted the little flower pots for Family Home Evening lesson, and this morning we were filling them up with dirt. Elise wanted to start with Daddy's, but Ian wanted his done first. Finally Elise said, "We have to do Daddy's first because he is the oldest." Ian agreed and then said, "Yeah and because he's our hero." Awwwww...

A Day at the Beach

We went to the beach yesterday with my sister-in-law and a friend of ours from church. It was absolutely the most perfect day for being at the beach and we didn't want the day to end. We stayed until almost 8pm, enjoying every ounce of fun and sun we could. And it was worth every minute of it.

The wannabe twins. They are just too good and too cute!

Merry Grace, Charles Allen, Ian, Madi, Elise, and Emmy: They played sooooooo well together and had a great time. I think the only conflict of the day was between Ian and Charles Allen, but there is a lot of testosterone between the two of them and that's to be expected. They got over it quickly, though, and it was such a blip on the radar that we hardly notices. We had fun being with these cuties and watching them have fun.


Madi and Ian were buddies quite a bit of the day. They never tired of the water and always seemed to drift a little farther away from the group. But they stuck together so it was super cute!


I'm not at all interested in being buried in the sand. I love the sand and the beach and all that comes with it, but this takes it to a whole new level. Aren't they just CUTE?


Emmy and Elise are so cute, and what kind of little brother would Ian be if he didn't try and steal a little of their thunder? :)


The older kids loved playing in the waves this year. They couldn't seem to get enough. I was amazed at how brave they've gotten, just in the past year. Here is Elise just being adorable.


This little imp was not at all intimidated by the water, waves or anything else related to the beach. She thought she was at least as old as the bigger kids and wanted to be out in the waves with them. A time or two she even got rolled over by a bigger wave close to shore, but she always came up smiling and happy.

She is just too funny and cute for words!!!

Poor Ian spent so much time in the water that between the sand, his suit and the water his legs got pretty chafed. The whole inside of one thigh looks really bad. By the end of the day, he was hurting pretty badly but still wanted to stay in the salt water and at the beach. He's feeling much better today. He LOVED the waves, maybe more than anyone. He just couldn't get enough!

Sassy Frassy. What more can I say?

It was a such a nice day yesterday, it was hard to leave and come back to "real life". I think we might have camped out on the beach if we could have. It was wonderful. We're already looking forward to our next trip there!

Father's Day

It's a few days belated, but then, that is the story of my life. We had a great Father's Day weekend. My family got to come spend the weekend with us, so my Dad got to be here to celebrate while the kids celebrated Cory. It was really nice to all be together. Cory spent the Saturday being a dad--taking the Elise and Emmy to a local kids museum for the morning. Elise loved it & Cory was so good to take them and let them play their little hearts out. Sunday morning I passed on our early meetings at church so that I could stay home and cook my Dad and Cory a good breakfast. So we had my Grandma's angel biscuits (which would have been much better if you'd never tasted my Grandma's before. :)), smoked sausage, and eggs. After church we had a a yummy lunch of roast beef, butter beans, and a few other fixin's. And of course, homemade apple pie for dessert. (Also my Grandma's recipe, but a much closer imitation than the biscuits...) I tried to fix some of Cory's favorite dishes since it was his special day. After lunch, he and Elise snuggled up for a nap. I don't know how comfortable it was, but it sure looked cute. :)

For father's day, we gave Cory a set of water guns (one for each of us so we could play together), a pair of UNC flip flops (b/c heaven knows he is running low on Tarheel gear ;)), a wallet thingie, and a quilt. The quilt was definitely the coolest part. It started out with the kids coming up with a list of things they love about their dad and things that he is good at. Here was their list: he is good at sports, good at using tools, sets a good example, he is the world's greatest dad, chooses the right, is a good painter, the #1 tarheel fan, good at putting out fires, we love that our dad reads us the scriptures, dresses us for church, provides for us, keeps us safe, holds us, vacations together, he is nice, he eats his vegetables, sings with us, he beeps the horn, we love snacking together, hugs and kisses, camping, he cleans our car, and he loves us. I thought their ideas were so creative and thoughtful. So we (mainly the kids with a little help here and there from me...) painted squares that I had cut out that represented each of their ideas. We filled in a few extra squares with handprints of each child, a few quotes, and a square that each child painted any way they wanted to. I think we ended up with about 35 squares in all. The kids helped each step of the way: the ideas, painting, and even the sewing. (They are great pedal pushes!) I wanted them to be involved b/c I think its always more meaningful when the kids come up with the gifts or help with them because they seem so much more from the heart that way.

Here is the quilt--it has a lot of imperfections, just like the real family that Cory puts up with each day. But there' s a lot of love in it, too, so hopefully that more than makes up for where it is lacking. :)

What really make the quilt special--those three rascals sprawled out on top of it. :)

I think Cory is such a wonderful Dad. He's so patient with the kids and so good to wrestle and play with them. They love it when he comes home from work and always try to convince him to stay home with us instead of going to work at all. He is great to spend time with the family and do fun things with us. He rescues us when we have crazy things happen, like flat tires or when we spill milkshakes in the car and he does it cheerfully. He can fix almost anything, most recently the door to the microwave when it stopped latching correctly. I was really impressed with that one. I have no idea how he did it, but he did, so that's all that matters. :) He's just as good a husband as he is a dad, so we all consider ourselves more than lucky to have him around. And he's cute on top of that! Can you seriously beat that? :)

I always think I did a pretty good job of picking a husband and a big reason I think that happened is because I have a great dad. He set a great example in my childhood home of showing me what a real man is like, so it was easy for me to spot one. I have so many good memories of my dad growing up: riding around with him on Saturdays to run errands (and usually ending up with a treat from the gas station or a yard sale), working on a project around the house or in the yard, having him play with us (water fights, tricks on the swingset, races, sports, etc.) It didn't seem to matter what the four of us kids were doing or how tough it might be for him to participate, he didn't seem to give that a second thought. He just jumped right in, sometimes literally. I love my dad so much and I'm so glad I got to spend father's day with the two great fathers in my life.

The Three Little Kittens

Elise wanted me to put make up on her face so she could look like a cat. Naturally, the other kids wanted to follow suit (because, as Elise will tell you, the kids are always copying her:)). So here are the three little cuties, all dressed up and as adorable as can be!!!

The Kids

Here are a few cute things the kids have said recently...

Elise told our baby-sitters the other night, after they'd finished playing "Carolina-opoly", that they'd better pick up all the pieces or her Daddy would go crazy. A friend gave him that game and if the pieces got lost he would go crazy. (It's just funny to think of Cory 'going crazy' over anything. )

Ian has started saying the letter "e" in place of the letter "a". For example if he wants alot of strawberries, he would say, "I want "e-lot" of strawberries." Or he might say, "I want e happy meal."

The other day Merry Grace asked for something and so I said to her, "What's the magic word?" She responded, "Four." I laughed over it so much that now she says that every time. :)

They are just toooooooo cute! :)

Myrtle Beach

We spent the last few days at Myrtle Beach with Neal & Amanda and family. It was a lot of fun. We didn't do anything dramatic, just spending time out at the beach or the pool. The kids loved, loved, loved playing together and we had fun visiting and getting some sun. We did have one minor mishap with Elise catching a 24 hour stomach bug, but we survived and it only cost her about 1/2 a day of play. One of our favorite things was a night trip to the beach to sit in the waves. The water temperature was fabulous and it was so nice and peaceful. I think that might have been one of the highlights. Another day at the beach a couple of sting rays swam within inches of Amanda and some of the kids. It was cool, but a little too close for comfort. The pool felt wonderful, the kids got so comfortable in the water which is fun to see, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Now I'm looking at a house that looks like it vomited its insides out, what with laundry, luggage and life in general spread out everywhere. :) Here are a few pictures of our fun times....
Here is official proof that I actually went on vacation with the family. :) I love having a snuggly baby. :)

Emmy and Charles Allen are running from the waves. This wasn't when the sting rays appeared, regardless of how Charles Allen looks. :) We love being on the beach!!!!

The sun got a little bright for this gal. Luckily, I brought my sunglasses to save the day.

Here is Elise, after surviving the stomach bug. Thankfully she recovered quickly and was able to enjoy the rest of the vacation.

My sunglasses were a big hit with all my kids. Here is Ian eating his apple after Cory & I "bited the peeling off" for him.


These girls are like two peas in a pod. I don't think they could be any closer if they were sisters. I think they've had about 2 disagreements in their whole 7 year friendship. They are always together if humanly possible and are most unselfish when thinking of the other. Aren't they cute?

Cory was great to play with the kids while I got a little sun. He never seems to tire of it all. The kids, obviously, think he's great and I couldn't agree more.

The other thing we did really well that I forgot to mention was snack!!! We had tons of snacks and made good use of them. Merry Grace just polished off a powdered sugar doughnut. I'm just guessing here, but I think it was yummy. :) The sand in her hair is courtesy of those two rowdy boys she tags along behind, Ian and Charles Allen.

Here is Ally in her cute little bathing suit. She spent more time on the edge of the pool than in it, but seemed to enjoy both ways equally well. She has the sweetest smiles and she and I bonded over pringles, goldfish, and iced animal crackers. :) Nothing like snacks to win the heart of 10-month old!

I think Charles Allen's favorite thing was the hot tub, although he did spend time in the big pool. I was afraid he was going to cook himself a time or two, but he didn't seem to mind. Luckily, when he got in the big pool, he kept safety forefront in his mind. I think he's going to stay afloat, but I'm not sure. ;)

Ian spent a lot of time at the edge of the pool yelling "Cannonball" and then running and jumping into the water. It was adorable, but it took a couple of days before he realized what a cannonball actually was.


Usually when I come home from a trip, I feel like I've got tons of cute pictures of the kids. This time, most of the pictures looked like this one, or were of the back of someone's head or their behind or other nonsense. So I did the best I could with what I had. We had a a great time, we're glad to be back home, but wish vacation would never end, too. :)

Please tell me no...

Yesterday the kids & I were hard at work getting the house scrubbed down and we were working together in the bathroom. Elise was doing mirrors, Ian the sink and myself the toilet. (Shocking, isn't it, that no one volunteered for that job?!) As I was on my hands and knees with my rubber gloves on, scrubbing around the toilet with a sponge, Ian says, "Mommy, I think you really need a toothbrush to clean the toilet." That struck me as a little odd, considering that I wasn't aware that he'd ever cleaned the toilet, or had any idea how to give it a deep clean. So I responded, "Well, that is a great way to clean the toilet really well, but we can get it clean even if we don't use a toothbrush." To which he said, "When me and Emmy cleaned the toilet, we used a toothbrush." I vaguely remembered a time when the cousins were together that they all went into the bathroom and cleaned it...but of course had no idea the toilet had been cleaned or that a toothbrush had been used! So I asked, "Did you throw the toothbrush away after you used it?" He gave me this puzzled look like he had no idea why I would ask such a question and then said, "I don't think so. I don't really remember what we did with it after we cleaned the toilet." I just kind of stood there, praying my little heart out that whenever he cleaned the toilet with the toothbrush, that it hadn't been mine he's used and that for heaven's sakes I hadn't used it afterwards!!!

A Cold

Apparently I have a cold, or something. It could be allergies, I guess. No one else in my house seems to have it, so who knows. It started Sunday morning when I woke up with a sore throat due to sinus drainage. (Isn't that just lovely?) My throat was irritated from it for the next couple of days. Then it progressed to the cough I have now. I haven't slept good since this started and last night was the worst. I took some cough medicine before bed, and slept a little while. Then I woke up and thought the coughing would not end. Every second it seemed like I had to cough. I was disturbing the entire house with my hacking and was just getting ready to go downstairs to give everyone some peace when Cory mentioned that it might be time for cough syrup again. He got the medicine for me and once it settled in I got a little more rest. It certainly wasn't enough, so today I have the cough, cold and a not-enough-sleep headache. I really don't feel sick (like achy, weak, or anything like that) its just the symptoms that are annoying. Hopefully I'll be feeling chipper again soon.

Brotherly Advice

The other night I had signed up to feed the missionaries and decided to feed them hamburgers and hot dogs. (It's that time of year, you know.) I decided to go with my blue cheese burgers because they're really yummy and after patting out a bunch, began cooking them. I'm still a little sensitive to cooking smells, so once the burgers were cooking, I began to notice an unpleasant aroma. Something smelled just like vomit. I began trying to sniff out the smell and finally decided it was the smell of the meat cooking. I was a little concerned by the smell, but had decided to chalk it up to one of of those weird pregnancy things when Elise (without my having said a word) goes, "What smells like throw up in here?" That is when I started to freak out just a little bit. Here I've put all this time and money into dinner, only to have it smell like vomit? I certainly don't claim to be Wolfgang Puck or anything, but I'm a decent cook. I don't cook things that smell like vomit. The raw burgers didn't smell that way, only the ones that were cooking. I was desperately debating how to solve this problem. So I called my family to see what their opinion was. I got a hold of two of my brothers and my mom, who offered some advice on what I could do. Ethan suggested adding some hot sauce or chili powder to the pan they were cooking in. His thinking was to mask or overpower the other smell with the "hot" smell. Adam thought setting something on fire might do the trick. Nothing like the smell of smoke to "throw" the smell. After talking to them, I just had to laugh. Their advice was so practical on one hand and so typically male on the other. :) They were so sweet to take time to help me solve my dinner dilemma. In the end, I realized the stainless steel pan I was cooking in had gotten too hot and the blue cheese had burned on the bottom of the pan, causing the "vomit smell". Thankfully, once we got that problem cleared up, dinner went off without a hitch. The burgers and hot dogs were delicious and no one is worse for wear for eating them. :) And I had fumigated the house in time, so no one knew about the earlier cooking woes. Why do things like that happen only when you're preparing for company?

Pictures and More

We've been busy little bees around here the last little bit. We've loved the amazing weather and have played outside as much as is humanly possible. So here are some cute pictures to document a little of what we've been doing the last few weeks. Do we have cute kids or what?


A few weeks ago, the kids were sad that Cory had to leave to go to some church stuff. So we made some "experiments" while he was gone. We mixed baking soda and vinegar together and then cleaned pennies with lemon juice and salt. Last, but certainly not least, we made "Goo". I'm not sure what the technical name for it is, but its basically food coloring, cornstarch and water. It is also quite messy. :) But the kids all had a good time and so did I. There really is something fun about playing with "goo".

Here are Elise and Ian getting into the mess of it all. I think this was right before Ian dunked a napkin in his and things started getting really messy.


This picture just cracks me up! Here is Ian with rubber gloves on his feet. He thought it was so funny to have them on his feet. I totally laugh every time I look at this picture. :)


We spent the day at the lake yesterday. It was so much fun and we all came home with a little dose of sunburn. You gotta love those little red cheeks!!! Now I feel like summer is really here.


This girl is just too cute. She may be small but she's got a lot of personality in one little body. :)



I love my little buddy! He's still so cuddly and snuggly. I hope he never outgrows it. I never used to understand the Mama's Boy thing until I had Ian. I can definitely see why mom's encourage it. :) Hopefully he'll end up with just the right amount.


I love that my kids love each other. The fight sometimes, but they love each other more than they get on each other's nerves. The other day, Elise and Ian were being silly in the car and started to get a little out of control. I tried to settle them down a little and Elise said, "I'm sorry Mama, but its just hard because Ian is my best friend in our family and we just like to have a good time together." How sweet is that?!


They love having their picture taken, especially if they can make silly faces! They would let me take pictures of them all day. I literally have at least 20 shots that look eerily similar to this one.


Merry Grace has the cutest grumpiness I've ever seen. It doesn't matter if she's mad or just pouting it is so adorable, all I want to do is scoop her up and smooch her to pieces. She just makes me laugh.



I don't know where this girl gets her spunk from, but she's got plenty to share. She had this cute little "get up" on and was singing her little heart out into the bubble container. What?!


This kid is looking for trouble. Do you see the look on his face?


This was his plan--fill up the fire pit and splash around in it. Like I said, trouble.


Elise has had a stubborn tooth that really needed to come out (it was being pushed out by the tooth behind it, to the point where it was crookedly hanging across her other front tooth) but was clinging on for dear life. Cory has tried to pull it on several occasions, but to no avail. By this point, Elise was pretty nervous about letting him try, but this time decided this morning that she was going to be brave and go for it. Before she would let Cory pull it, she said a prayer that she'd be brave and that her Daddy would be able to get it. It was so sweet. Then she opened wide and Cory got it in one BIG yank. Now she's the cutest, bravest, snaggletooth I've ever seen. I love that look! :)


This was Ian's "uniform" for getting lost balls from the hedge or in the woods. Quite creative, I'd say. I don't think it actually helped him get any balls, but he sure looked tough. ;)


After helping Merry Grace shoot baskets for a while, Merry Grace got "dunked" herself. I don't think she minds a bit.


What a cutie!!! We all just think this little girl is the sweetest little girl ever. She's spoiled rotten, but we like to call it "well-loved". It sounds so much better, doesn't it?