i know this is getting annoying, but...

...i can't stop myself from doing these dang collages in photoscape. sorry, everyone, but you'll have to put up with them until i burn myself out.

p.s. water was the best invention ever. tied for second are swingsets and hoses.

watering the flowers

i don't know if i ever mentioned it, but last summer, carson LOVED "watering the trees," an action i would typically applaud except for the fact that the method in which he meant was, let's just say, restricted to boys and not quite appropriate downtown, on the temple grounds, or in public parks (although he got away with it a few times in emergencies at the latter...).

for this summer, we've come up with a more socially acceptable compromise and make our way around our yard and the neighborhood several times a week with squirt bottles to water the foliage. (can you believe these beautiful flowers are in my yard? and there are many more, i just didn't get around to taking pics of them. i'd like to bear my testimony about perennials...)

seriously, we are LOVING summer.

"lays, yoi my BEST fwend"

is that a threat or a promise? either way...

summer fun

pictures are worth 1,000 words (except if you have the photog skills that i have, and then they're worth about 400 syllables of toddler-ese...). so here are a few photos of the past couple of days...and about 600 accompanying words to make up for the lack in photog. we're having a good summer.

we went to the bug lab with a bunch of friends on tuesday. rode the city bus to and from (the lab is at usu), which was a definite highlight for the kids. here are carson & lays waiting for the bus and looking like full-on tourists.

below, carson and layla are showing you all their "favorite" bugs, which, coincidentally, happen to be located in the boxes where they were sitting (i'm pretty sure layla wouldn't have chosen a bunch of enormous, sick spiders as her faves if she hadn't been sitting right there when i pulled out the camera, especially when there were plenty of perfectly ginormous, purple, and shimmery butterflies one row over). carson's pointing to the "hay-ee-est [hairiest] spider of all" as his favorite, and layla's just gesturing wildly at the entire experience.

oh, and carson was brave enough to actually hold a cockroach for a split second (something that i neither encouraged nor discouraged...ewwww), although the photo doesn't actually show it. can you please check out the SIZE of that bug? no. no. no. that should be illegal.

carson just finished his first session of swim lessons (with his cousin ella, a bonus), and he has absolutely loved it. he thought the fact that he had to wear a swim diaper (some kind of law, until they're 4 years old) was simultaneously silly and offensive. what can you do. since he got goggles (on the second or third day of class), his favorite thing has been to go underwater and swim (heh...kind of) around, looking at the "undersea" world of the swimming pool.

his teacher ruled and was so good with her class (in the pool pic, carson's the kid at the top on the left...it's a really good photo, i know). and after class every day, layla and i got to swim with him in the outside pool, which was a highlight. even though i was, as i told paul after the first day, "the biggest and whitest thing there," i guess i didn't really care, because i busted out the bathing suit every day. we're considering doing another session in a couple of weeks.

i bet you're jealous of our basement flood (my fault, too -- in removing some rose bushes right outside the house a couple weeks ago, i completely and unknowingly sliced through a sprinkler pipe, and we turned the auto-sprinklers on without checking them all before we left for the family reunion last weekend, which in turn flooded the hallway of our basement. i feel so proud of myself. paul's been super nice about it, but i just know he's rolling his eyes and muttering inside).

anyway, i don't know if you can tell from the snapshot above, but we had to rip up the carpet, cut out part of the pad, dry everything out, and we have yet to put it back in (or replace it altogether?) because we've had more sprinkler woes and outside projects that have demanded priority. like i said, i just KNOW you're jealous.

anyway. life is good. this good, in fact:

ahh kids

FACT: I, like most mothers, love my children dearly. They, and Paul, are my life. Truly.

FACT: I would do anything for the good of my kids, no matter how horrendous, icky, or embarrassing.

FACT: Sometimes they're angels and share toys and laugh and play so nicely and with such love that nothing can quite compare to the enjoyment I get from witnessing said interactions.

FACT: But sometimes I just want the Ultra-Whine switch to be de-activated for a few hours. And I want a comprehensive instruction manual. Preferably in English. And maybe a glimpse into the future, 20+ years down the road, to see that they just might turn out okay even though they're currently yelling at each other during (yep) family prayers, hitting, ignoring, purposefully taunting, and bawling.

FACT: Yes, that's probably too much to ask.

remember me? didn't think so.

Life has been crazy, and it still is. A brief update:

We had a family reunion at Bear Lake this past weekend with my family (my parents leave for MTC/Sweden this Saturday). Other than some breezy weather on one of the days, it was glorious and too short.

Paul's a trooper and is still getting up before the sun (even in the summer...that's saying something) to get to work. He's not sad to see the Lakers lose the championship.

I'm slightly sunburned and am starting to struggle in bending over thanks to a large belly (does that mean I don't have to shave my legs for the rest of the summer? sweet.), but I'm great other than that. Well, pretty good anyway. Minus a stupid head cold.

Carson just started swimming lessons and is loving it (minus the fact that he thinks he can jump in the deep end because "now I can swim!" Uh, no.). I guess his swim teacher told him to get me to buy him some goggles today, though, because he won't stick his head under the water because of his eyes. Oh, and I was putting air in the tires on our jogging stroller the other day, when he exclaimed, "Don't pump ME up, mom! People are meant to be a little bit squishy."

Layla is becoming more and more bipolar, which I've decided will be how it is for age 2, 3, and maybe even 4. Good thing she's hilarious and cute, or she just might be in foster care by now. Her latest thing is saying that she's "hundree and tirstee" every 5 minutes of the day. And, yes, that includes the 5 minutes after meal-times. She likes to kiss and pat my belly and talk to her little sister.

Just a little over 2 months left till I get to meet our new squirmy little girl. Judging by her daily kick-a-thons, she's going to have some seriously toned legs uponst arrival.

"that's like a dollar an hour!"

you know when napoleon dynamite works at that nasty chicken place and gets paid, like, $6 for the day? i empathize.

the garage sale was fun. my friends and i were able to just sit and chat and enjoy the beautiful morning while people found and bartered for treasures. we even slashed prices drastically near the end to clear out more stuff (even though there was still a TON of stuff left over to haul to D.I. seriously, we had a lot of stuff there).

but, compared to the hours i had put into sorting/packing/hauling/pricing/arranging the, um, "merchandise," i really did probably end up with a dollar-an-hour compensation rate. but our house has less extra and unnecessary stuff in it now, and if i play my cards and quarters right, i'll be able to find my kids some new dressers with the proceeds.

maybe i'll find a sweet deal at some other garage sale...