Father's Day

We celebrated Doug a day early this year, since we wouldn't all be together at home on Father's Day.  As a birthday present to me, Doug sent me along with Katelyn & Emily to Hawaii for my family reunion.  After the tickets had been booked, I realized that unfortunately we would be leaving early on the morning of Father's Day.  That meant that Doug got to relish his fatherly role by taking care of the three younger girls all day--even enduring Sacrament Meeting by himself (it takes a village to get Olivia through that hour long meeting!).  I did buy the groceries for him, but he even cooked his own nice Father's Day dinner!
One day early, however, we tried to show Doug a good time.  His request was to roast hot dogs and marshmellows in the canyon.  It was a beautiful day for that activity.  We found a great shady spot right next to the river.

 We sat and ate and Doug pointed out the way the clouds were disappearing above us.

 It's so close and convenient to our house, we really need to do this more often.

At the top of my List

Buy Milk.

So poor little Olivia doesn't have to dip her breakfast cereal piece by piece in water.

Blogging is on the list somewhere, too.  Just not at the top.

Sweet & Sour

During the span of one hour of church today, Olivia went from sweet (giving kisses and cuddles) to sour (needing to be removed from the chapel). As Doug stood up to take Olivia out to the hall, she yelled at him, "You're not the mom!"

Summertime

It's here! It's really, really here!

School's out, and (even more important), the weather this week has been fantastic! Hooray for June!

Doug spent most of the week in New York on business. When he finally got home late Thursday night, I was already asleep, with the windows open to let in the breeze, and the ceiling fan set on low. Perfect!

Suddenly, I woke up shivering with cold at 3:30 a.m. I got up and turned off the ceiling fan, but as I tried to go back to sleep, I recognized a familiar noise: the air conditioner was running! I quickly solved that issue, and slept well until morning. At that point, I had to have a little talk with Doug, which went something like this:

"I have been waiting for eight months to not feel cold! What were you thinking, turning on the A/C?!"

Since then, he has humored me and left the thermostat alone. Thanks, honey!

I will admit, it does get warm in the house. I still think it's perfect weather for the windows open, and ceiling fans circulating the lovely fresh air. But it does make me think twice about turning on the oven. So we've been making good use of the outdoor grill.

Today as I fired it up for dinner, Hannah (who was playing in the sprinkler water) came running over and asked, "Ooh, are we having BYU tonight?"

I wasn't sure what she was talking about, until I realized she was trying to say B-B-Q.

I love, love, love summer!

Memorial

On Memorial Day, I usually pay mental tribute to those who have fought and died for our country, although I don't know anyone personally. I think about my grandparents, whom I miss and love and appreciate. I'm glad I knew them in life. But honestly, the holiday becomes just another Labor Day. We play more, work less, and enjoy the nice weather.

Unfortunately, "work less" didn't apply to Doug this year. He got up and hopped on a plane first thing in the morning, on his way to an East Coast business trip.

The girls and I tried to do something fun. We went on an afternoon bike ride. When it comes to pedaling, Hannah doesn't last as long as the rest of us. So after a roundabout ride to the elementary school, we parked our bikes and played on the playgrounds. We started out at the kindergarten playground, and eventually moved around to the big playground at the back of the school.

After we had swung on the swings, and slid down the slides, and I, as the "bark shark", had tagged all of the girls (YES!), we were ready to go home and make dinner. I buckled Olivia into the bike trailer and started pedaling towards the front of the school, where the girls had already headed. Before I got very far, Katelyn came back to inform me that Hannah and Lauren's bikes were gone.

I thought she was kidding. She wasn't.

Hannah and Lauren had left their bikes in the bike rack at the front of the school, but Katelyn, Emily and I had brought our bikes with us to the back playground.

The two little bikes were gone.

So, on Memorial Day, we mourned the loss of two kid bikes who had served our family well, and were now lost to some unknown enemy.

The blue bike that Emily got for her eighth birthday. The one that her Grandfather and her Father picked out and put together for her.

The one that had gotten accidentally switched at a different school bike rack last year, but quickly returned and exchanged. The one that got Lauren to and from second grade as often as the weather was decent and the tires were not flat.

The little red bike that Lauren and Hannah learned to ride on. The one that had patiently endured collisions with garbage cans, and nights left out in the rain. The "boy bike" that was handed down to us from a friend, which now carried a personalized license plate that read "HANNAH" on the back. The one whose brakes and pedals had been fixed and reattached more times than I can count.

Thank you for serving us well, little bikes. I hope you'll find peace and rest, wherever you are. We won't forget you.

Hannah & Savannah Go Bananas

We brought little cousin Savannah home with us for the weekend. She has 4 brothers and no sisters, so there was lots of anticipation about Savannah escaping to our house full of only girls. But as we started the 40 minute drive, we couldn't seem to leave the boys behind. The topic of conversation in the back seat went something like this:

S: Do you really have a boyfriend?

H: Yes. I have 1000.

S: Then which one will you marry?

H: I'll have to pick one out.

Today they were "twins" at church.

Sometimes I think twins are nice. Maybe not as babies, but after the age of 4 or 5, I think it would be fun to have twins.

Girls

Recently, as I sat in a doctor's waiting room, I overheard a conversation between a young couple expecting their first baby. Having just come from an ultrasound, they each called and texted people on their own cell phones, and this is what I heard from the father-to-be:





"You were wrong....Yep, get out the pink Harley. It's a girl.....Well, it sucks, but whatever."





I found it a little bit shocking to hear him talk that way, and then I just pitied that poor baby girl. If they don't want her, I'll take her! She would fit perfectly in my beautiful little set.

Photo by the fabulous Summer Murdock. See more here!

Stormy Weather

Front yard, May 24th

It's the last week of school. Summer vacation is supposed to start this Friday.

Our garden is planted, our winter clothes are rotated out of our drawers and into storage boxes, our bikes are oiled and pumped and ready for a nice long FHE ride.

And it is snowing today. Doug was whistling "Sleigh Ride" as he shaved and showered. Our poor tomato plants. Our lonely bikes. Our closets will have to make room for sweaters and boots again.

Or, I'll just have to stay in bed all day and read a book.

That's all I have to say about that.

Raising Little Ladies

Hannah and I were enjoying our afternoon story time, cuddled up in a cozy chair together. Among the stack of books Hannah chose that day was one of my favorites: Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey. Sal and her mother are picking blueberries on one side of Blueberry Hill, and Little Bear and his mother bear are eating berries on the other side of blueberry hill. Eventually, the little ones and their mothers get mixed up! When Sal's mother notices somebody taking a great big mouthful of berries from her pail, and realizes it's not her Little Sal, it reads:

"Little Sal's mother turned around and gasped, 'My goodness, you are not Little Sal! Where, oh where, is my little child?' "

Hannah began to quietly giggle as I read on. It is a very clever book, and when you have heard the story before and know that everything is alright in the end, it can be pretty comical. But Hannah's laughter continued, and it made me curious.

I stopped reading to ask her what was so funny.

Pointing to the picture, Hannah answered, "She gassed!"

Can you imagine it the way Hannah thought I was telling the story? Little Sal's mom was so surprised that when she turned around and saw little Bear, she gassed!

I don't know about other households, but in my own experience raising five daughters, the humor of bodily functions is not lost on sweet little girls.

For her birthday, I gave Olivia...

...a haircut!

Sunday morning I spent a good amount of time giving her a cute hairdo, but after church and a nap and the ordinary events of the day, I was disappointed that it looked like such a mess!

A cute mess, for sure, but definitely a mess.

So Monday morning, as Olivia officially completed two years of life, I snipped off two inches of her hair.

She cooperated pretty well during the process, but even when she got too wiggly for any hair cutting, she was willing to hold very still so that I would paint her fingernails pink.  She's trying to show them off, but I'm too focused on her cute little face.

The next thing I'm going to take scissors to is her B-I-N-K-Y.  Wish me luck!