Not Missing This

If you come by my house, anytime day or night, you are likely to find several things. You will find dishes in the sink waiting to be done. You will find dust on several surfaces, which will be even more apparent because it has finger prints in it. You will find laundry waiting to be washed, waiting to be folded, or waiting to be put away, or all three. You will find a combination of dirt, hay and probably a few cheerios on the floor. You will find a stack of mail, a stack of magazines, and a stack of receipts. You will find the diaper bag by the door, but its contents will be spilled and scattered. You will almost always find the beds made, with the sheets and blankets lumpy and crooked because they were made by children. You will always find toys. In fact, you'll probably step on them. It's hard to avoid.

And you will find me. In the middle of it all. Enjoying it all. If there is one piece of parenting advice that I've heard more than any other, it is, "Enjoy them." More experienced mothers and grandmothers don't pass on ironing tips or scouring methods. Of all the things they have learned, they encourage me to savor the moments.

So I am. I am not missing this. I play with and enjoy and watch and love my beautiful, precious children every single day. While I know I will miss these days when I am older, I will not look back and wish that I would have sacrificed some other thing to be with them. I am not missing this. I am soaking up every chance for snuggles and stories and sticky smiles and spills. I am breathing every moment of bubbles and babies and blocks and bums. I am wrapped up in working and wrestling and the wonder of it all. I am not missing this.

So when you come to my house, you will be able to see that I missed the corners and the baseboards and the window sills. You will see that I missed the light fixtures and the door casings and the library due date. You will see that I missed some cobwebs and some weeds and maybe even the garbage truck. And when you see all of that, you will see that I am not missing this.

Happy Stampede!

Around here, the Stampede is something of a holiday. We townsfolk wish each other "Happy Stampede" like you do happy Easter or happy Thanksgiving. It all starts on Thursday with the Horse Parade. Levi, Jeff and Daisy rode in the parade this year.

Daisy practiced her 'princess wave' the whole parade route. We were all excited when my family arrived that night to spend the weekend.

The next day is... surprise! Another parade! It was killer hot and record long, but the kids had a ball gathering up all the candy.

Levi wore his 'fast shoes' so he could run out and pick up the candy.

Isaac found a piece and sat down right in the road to enjoy the spoils. Who lets their kid run around with no pants and no shoes and sit right in the middle of the road?

Each night of the rodeo, Jeff pulled our niece Karson in the Hide Race. The horse and rider pull a cow hide from one end of the arena to the other where a rider jumps on and then they race back. They took first place on Friday night!

Saturday morning I was at it early running the 5k. It was a blast. The run grows every year with more and more participants. Right after the run we ate Chuckwagon Breakfast in the park, which is one of my very favorite parts of the stampede. Saturday evening we headed over to the carnival to spend a ridiculously large amount of money for a ridiculously small amount of entertainment.

All three of the kids loved this little Jeep ride. The three of them were giggling the whole time.

After we spent our wad at the carnival, we grabbed some cotton candy and headed over to the rodeo to get ready for the last night of the Hide Race.

We all had a great time at the rodeo. The entertainment was fantastic. The rodeo burgers were classic. The Hide Race was an adventure. The heat was sweltering. I love the Stampede, and I'm always sad when it's over. My favorite part? Having my whole family get together to laugh, eat, cheer, and rodeo. Jeff's whole family (minus his sister's family this year due to an overheated car) gets together; my whole family comes to stay. We get to enjoy all the food, family, and fun of a real holiday and a rodeo to boot.

Out It Comes!

As soon as her cousins and friends at school began losing their teeth, Daisy was certain her's would be falling out any minute. Problem is, none of her teeth were even thinking about becoming loose. Fast forward a few months and Daisy is on the trampoline with her cousins. She came down hard on her knee and her mouth started to bleed. She woke up the next day with a fat top lip. Nearly two weeks passed before her front tooth began to discolor. After consulting with my brother-in-law who is in dental school, I called the dentist. By the time we got in to see him, her front tooth looked like something from a pirate movie.

She was a big fan of the headphones and movie at the dentist's office.
The doc said that in order to play it safe, we should pull the tooth. Daisy was nervous, but she was so brave!

And now she has one less tooth! Since both Jeff and I were late losing our teeth, we are guessing she will have a hole for a very long time.

For now, we are just loving this toothless grin.

It's A Record

It is a record. Since I have discovered a love for this web log thing we call blogging, I have never gone this long without a single solitary post. And here's the confession: I haven't been reading yours either. I could bore you with my list of excuses, but it's the same as yours. The good news is: I am back. And happy to be so. I have missed this! It is my 'me' time, my indulgence. With that, we'll start where we left off...in April.

We were so happy that spring had arrived that we took off for an afternoon hike in Red Cliffs. Thankfully, Chelsea came along because I soon found out that hiking and splashing in the pools with three children was too much for me to manage on my own. Red Cliffs was beautiful, as always, and in April it was not yet too hot.
The kids didn't get to do as much swimming there as they had hoped, but they enjoyed dipping their toes in the cold water.

Toward the end of the month, some of Jeff's friends from college came down for a horse back ride and barbecue. It was fun for the kids and I to meet Jeff's other family that takes care of him when he is off at school.

And it couldn't be summertime very long before we were off camping. Isaac discovered that the best part of camping is that you get to play in the dirt and remain dirty for a very long period of time.

Levi spent the maximum amount of time possible in the excavator with Jeff.

He was a 'workin' man' (and a very dirty one at that.)

May ended with Daisy's kindergarten graduation! Kindergarten didn't end up being all she had hoped, so she was glad that it was over. All of her grandparents came to see her graduation program. We went out to dinner afterward, which was her favorite part.

The first part of the summer was spent at the ball field. Daisy kept us cheering playing t-ball. Her favorite positions were catcher and first base. "Mom," she said, "I am the tallerest one on my team."

Halfway through May, we got three bummer lambs! We had to mix milk and bottle feed them four times a day. We would put the milk in plastic soda bottles, buckle Isaac in the stroller, and walk out to take care of our little lambs. We finally got them weaned, and now we get to lead them out to the pasture during the day, then put them back in the pen and feed them at night. It has been so much fun for the kids to each have their own lamb to take care of.

Daisy and Levi each performed in the dance review. Daisy's favorite number was "Locomotion" and Levi wowed the entire crowd with his rendition of the Guys on the Go "Eye of the Tiger" boxing routine.

Isaac has a hard time taking care of his lamb, so I have to pinch hit for him.

Along with graduation, lambs, and dance review, our major May event was Isaac's first birthday! He loved all the attention, and the wagon full of blocks from Grandma.

We knew summer was in full swing when we found ourselves sitting poolside. Daisy and Levi were each taking swimming lessons, so Isaac and I signed up for the "Mom & Tot" class and joined them. It was heaven on earth (for the kids, at least) to wake up and go swimming every single day for two whole weeks.

For extra adventure one afternoon, we took the cousins and hit Krispy Kreme where we not only observed the entire doughnut-making process to our fascination and delight, but got to eat them too!

We spent the day at the town celebration in the city park for the 4th of July. Daisy and Levi were both so excited to go 'into jail' for this ride. Their unexpected favorite attraction was panning for gold and getting slurpees on the way home.

Jeff finished out the semester well and will be starting the radiation technician program through Weber State here in August. We are really looking forward to taking this next step in our 'back to school' journey.

I was in charge of my class reunion, which has consumed an insane amount of my time. Now that it is over, I am so happy to be back on the blog band wagon.

With no extra kids to babysit and Jeff working for the summer, I have a newfound joy and appreciation for hanging out with my kids. We have had so much fun just being together this summer! We stay up late and sleep in. We do the chores, move the water, and take care of the animals together. We go to the movie, the park and the pool. We go for short runs and long walks. We snuggle and wrestle and make mud puddles to play in. I look at my life and my children and wonder how it is possible to be as blessed as I am.