This week with the Fosters

We went on a two and a half week trip. I'll blog about it soon. For now I want to throw up some pictures and updates.

Kelly and Max are awesome. They do/say so many things that make this mother heart happy.

We'd been swimming and they fell asleep on the way home. Ty laid them on either side of the bean bag, but within a few minutes they were like this

While we were in Vegas my dad asked Max if he wanted tomatoes on his dinner and Max declined. I said, "What?! My boy loves tomatoes." He informed me that he'd eaten a big tomato that didn't taste very good. I told him he shouldn't judge all tomatoes on that one experience. He responded, "No, Mom, I'm leaving tomatoes behind." *I'm happy to say that he has since reneged on this decision*

The other day Max woke up and told me he'd had a funny dream. "I was trying to hug a girl, but I didn't even know her!" Then he started to really laugh. "But she ran away! She ran away from me!" He laughed about it for a long time and even chuckled about it again later that morning.

Max loves to talk about the future...far into the future. We were snuggling on the bean bag and he was talking about how I was going to miss him because he wouldn't always live at our house; someday he was going to get married and have his own home. A few minutes later (we'd kind of moved on in our conversation) he said with a sigh, "I wonder what our baby's name is going to be." I said, "Our next baby?" "No! My baby. The baby I'll have with my wife." Oh, of course, because most 4-year-olds sit around thinking of what to name their first child.

Yesterday we went to the park. There was a large group of kids playing off to the side and Max asked if he could go play with them; I said yes. Then he got nervous. I told him, "Just go ask if you can play with them. Tell them your name is Max and ask if you can play. They'll say yes." "But are you sure?" Oh man, the way he asked that. It was one of those moments when you WISH you could assure your kid that nothing bad will ever happen to them and that everyone they encounter will love them as much as you do. However, I couldn't be totally sure, so I said, "Probably." He spent the next 10-15 minutes walking along with their game at a distance. I caught his eye at one point and motioned like, 'Well?!' He said, "I'm doing it!" I saw him 5 minutes later and asked if he'd asked yet. He said, "They're not listening." I knew he was probably asking super quiet because he was nervous, so I told him he needed to talk louder and make sure they'd heard him. He finally did the deed and they said yes! Hooray for Max and nice kids at the park! My boy is growing up.

He saw me putting this picture up and said, "That's my favorite picture"

Yesterday the kids were eating lunch and I walked into the room and saw Kelly's elbow was on the table with her head rested in her hand. I asked if she was tired and she very sadly responded, "No," with a lip tremble. I asked what was wrong. She pointed upward and sadly stated, "Heavenly Father doesn't know." "What doesn't He know?" "Heavenly Father doesn't even know that I want to play with some toys." I assured her that He knows her really well and probably knows that she wants to play with toys. Apparently that was all she needed because she happily ate the rest of her lunch.

My kids killed a slug the other night. I can't stand the things being in my yard (they eat my flowers) but they're too big and nasty for me to want to do anything about. Tyler will rid our yard of every one he finds. Wednesday night he was at school and I was walking home from a salmon bake at the neighbor's with the kids. On our walkway was a big, yucky slug (this is NOT an unusual find). Max insisted that we should get rid of it and I told him that we'd just leave it be. He insisted, though, and asked for some salt. I gave him the salt shaker 3/4 full. He and Kelly headed out front to take care of business. A few minutes later he came back in and handed me a completely empty salt shaker. That slug never stood a chance. I'm sorry if you are offended by the obliteration of this poor slug...I assure you he's gone on to a better place with flowers aplenty.

Tuesday (our FHE night due to Ty's school schedule) was hot so we put on our swimsuits, picked up dinner at Costco, and headed out to Scenic Beach. Perfect night.

Thursday was cool (kind of chilly, actually) so we entertained ourselves inside. Max made this block soldier. Note the helmet and gun. Pretty good, I say.

While we were on our vacay, this little lover of a man reached 6 months. Half of a year, people. The word I always use for him is delightful. He is so easy-going and has the best little laugh. No teeth yet, but loves most of the foods we've tried (except green beans). He rocks and lunges (often ending in a face plant or scooting backward) on his hands and knees. He's a lover of his own crib in his own room, apparently. He slept pretty terrible on our vacation (which was 2 1/2 weeks long...which made for a tired momma) but didn't wake up for a solid 12 hours our first two nights home. Oh, how we love him. Oh, how cute his brother and sister are with him. Getting Everett to laugh is one of the greatest joys of the day...and it's not hard to do. Prepare yourself for picture overload. I CANNOT choose one or two to throw on here and I don't have to because it's my blog; I like every one for a different reason.

Compliments of Photog Kelly

My FAVORITE picture thus far...taken by the 2-year-old sista