From Relaxing Exhale to Deep Breath

The past month has been the long, slow, relaxing exhale of having Tyler off of school responsibilities and deadlines and class time and commuting. It's been nice...sooo nice. Every day I get to count on him walking through the door to play with the kids and/or help with dinner. Every night we've had time and energy for pillow talk.

We've gone on dates and spent good, quality family time.

We've done a lot of family walks and blackberry picking (I made jam, Ty made the best cobbler I've had in my life!)

We've given the Ev Man lots of kisses as he's fallen and bumped his head over and over again. Dude thinks he should be pulling himself up on everything but doesn't have the stability/stamina to make it safe to do so.

Oh my goodness...what a lover!

We've danced and sung our hearts out to the Mamma Mia! soundtrack (watching Kelly sing Super Trooper is a total delight, so do yourself a favor and take a gander at the video below)

We went camping and hiked on the Dungeness Spit. This was actually hilarious. It was a beautiful, warm sunny day as we set out. I grabbed the kid's jackets just in case. What I should have grabbed was long underwear and parkas. We got out on the spit and the wind was blowing, like, 30 mph. The kids were freezing! They were crying/whimpering the whole time and their noses were running like hoses. We had planned on trekking out as close to the lighthouse at the end of the spit as we could (5 miles out and 5 miles back) with the kids strapped to us in various contraptions, but only made it about a mile and a half out before seeking refuge from the wind behind some logs and having a snack. We took a video of the joy because it was so funny to us..."We're making family memories, kids, this IS fun!" :) Tyler and I kept laughing about it (when we weren't telling the kids, "Okay, that's enough crying!")

Still gorgeous, albeit cold...the scenery AND the ladies :)

Super Dad! Oh, those freezing cold little legs.

Refuge! Kind of. We couldn't really escape the wind.

This is the perfect picture...that's what Kelly looked like the whole hike. I can't look at it without chuckling.

Looking back down the Dungeness spit to where we began...

Someday we'll make it to the lighthouse..."But it [was] not this day!" (name that movie..."But it is not this day!")

*Sigh* I love the Pacific Northwest

We had a fabulous visit from Ty's wonderful parents. Sadly, I did not take many pictures...but we did a ton and had such a great time. I am extremely lucky to have the best in-laws that I love to be around! Max and I both cried when we dropped them off at the airport. Come again soon, Maggie and Papa Mick!

Doing a Princess puzzle with Papa Mick

We went on a Locke cruise and saw the house from Sleepless in Seattle

At the top of Mt. Walker in the Olympic Mountains...view of the Hood Canal and our peninsula (Kitsap) behind us

We took family pictures (our walls will finally reflect that I've given birth to three little people - Kelly was Everett's age in our last family picture.) I'll post those later.

We've gone as a family to Max and Kelly's swimming lessons.

This is where Kelly spends the whole lesson - by herself on the stairs. Oh well. She practices her kicks and sticking her face in the water by herself.

Max LoVeS it! His teacher, Mike, is great.

The Seattle Mariners may have lost to the Red Sox on Wednesday night, but at least we were there to cheer them on with our foam fingers, kettle corn, cotton candy, and hot dogs topped with cream cheese & grilled onions (sounds scary, but is soooo good! Thanks for the tip, Jennifer!) *There was a smudge on our lens, but we didn't know it...annoying*

We had to run - through the rain - to make the ferry on time...Tyler and I were so wet!

This week has been the deep breath of anticipation (read: slight dread) for the craziness that awaits us. Tyler's taking three (count 'em - THREE) classes this semester instead of the usual two. We want this MBA business over with before next summer instead of at the end of the summer, plus the third is a class he is quite interested in. So sacrifice is the name of the game, folks. You may need to remind me of this in about a month when I wonder why in the world I would have agreed to something so ridiculous; three days a week of the kids not seeing the dad may get a little ugly. The third class is at the UW-Seattle campus (he usually goes to Tacoma), so he'll be hopping on the ferry one day a week. And you do know that he works full-time as well? And did I mention that I am taking two classes this semester instead of the one I'd grown accustomed to? Maybe they should do studies on people that live at sea level; it's got to be the air or something here that makes us do crazy things.

One Lucky Lady

I'm usually talking about how lucky I am to be married to Tyler. Well, today I want to talk about another lucky lady...Maxwell's future wife. I'll tell you the reasons why.

Max is super observant & complimentary. He is always complimenting me - "Oooohhh, Mom, I really like that shirt" "I love when you wear your hair like that, Mom" "Mom, you look beautiful today. Are those earrings new?" Max has a best friend, a little girl named Reyes, and she lives next door. Marcela (her mom) told me that when he went over to play the other day he came inside, Reyes ran into the family room, and Max sat down to take off his shoes. He turned to Marcela and said, "Marcela?" "Yes, Max?" "I really like Reyes' hair like that." **I know these childhood friendships rarely turn into marriage, but we would sure be happy if this was one of those rare occurrences. **

Don't be scared...it's all in the name of protection from bad guys

He's already thinking about what to name his first child.

He believes in love at first sight. On Sunday we were driving to Church and Max asked what it meant to fall in love. I told him that it meant meeting someone who you think is more wonderful than anyone else in the world and you want to be with them all of the time and often you marry that person. Please read his response; you'll be so happy you did:

"It's like if I'm at a big boy party and I'm standing there and there's a girl behind me and I can't see her. And then she comes up to me - to my shoulder - and pokes me and I say, "Huh?" And then I turn and look at her and then I fall in love with her."

He's even a cute runner

He is a great cuddler.

He has beautiful blue eyes that you can get lost in.

He'll be a super great dad because he's currently learning from the best.

He kills slugs and spiders.

He won't be wearing these floaties forever, ladies...he's currently in swimming lessons

He is super thoughtful and aware of other's feelings.

He's already got some pretty sweet dance moves.

He has an awesome memory, so he'll never forget birthdays or anniversaries...or even what shirt she was wearing and how she wore her hair on their first date.

Yep, that wife of his is going to be pretty darn lucky. But for now, I'm the lucky one. I love being the first love of this little boy's life!

Let's see...

• Everett D is a crawling maniac! He went from getting a bit of coordination of some arm-leg movement to full-on crawling in two days. Two days later he had mastered the two shallow stairs that lead out of the family room into the dining room. Say wha?! He just turned 7 months on Sunday. I wasn't prepared. But, boy, is it cute to see him crawling into a room...little man is so very proud of himself. And happy. That kid exudes happiness. He also insists on entertainment during most meals. He often gets fussy while we're feeding him but will consistently eat if I'm singing some peppy song with lots of voice inflection and funny faces.

• Kelly Anne is such a wonderful little lady. I fall more in love with her all the time. The other day I opened the sugar canister that sits on the counter and there was her perfect little hand print on top of the sugar...I continue to love the thought of that. She loves pink (sometimes purple) and princesses and has a fabulous imagination. The other day I walked into the family room after we'd finished painting our toenails (something she insists on regularly when hers get chipped) and she was using the fingernail polish as people. Sister sings and often corrects me as to her name depending on who she is pretending to be at the moment - Jessie from Toy Story, Violet from The Incredibles ("Sometimes her mom calls her Vi"), or Lady Spiderman are the regulars. Sister knows how to bring the drama and sass. Her sad facial expressions are awesome. She loves her brother and when friends come to play...but if it gets to be too much she'll disappear to a quiet place where she won't be bothered and play solo for a while. One of my favorite things she says is, "I can do it 'cause I'm a big sister."

• Maxwell T is growing up before my eyes. Last night I was putting medicine on his poor eczema-ridden thighs and bottom and then looked way up into his eyes (I was sitting on the floor) and suddenly realized how big he's getting. Sure, he's on the short side (and skinny! that boy is so skinny!) but he's a lot bigger than the little 1-year-old I used to have to help get dressed. He's started a soccer course and will take a break from that to start swimming lessons next week. On our trip to Vegas he went from nervously insisting on holding my hand while he jumps into the pool to asking me to back up and yelling "Cannonball!" as he runs from a great distance taking the cannonball stance as he splashes into the water...in a matter of minutes. I was shocked. Once he makes up his mind to do something, he's all in. He likes to tell me about his dreams and had one the other night about me, him, and the iron rod (it was made of scriptures). While he sometimes gets a kick out of pushing Kelly's buttons, he's mostly a really thoughtful, attentive older brother to both Kelly and the Ev man. And he's a big helper to me.

• This handsome love of my life is on a school vacation! He has nearly a month off of school and we are loving (trying not to get used to) it. He took Max on an overnight camp out, just the two of them, last weekend. Max felt like the most important kid in the world. They had so much fun. Last night I took Max and Everett to Max's soccer class and Ty took Kelly by herself to the school to play some soccer and pretend and chat. He loves his kids and his wife (that's me! I'm so lucky!) and it is so obvious. We are running a half marathon together (well, I'm not making him stay with me this time) in Leavenworth, WA, at the beginning of October. We're not ready for it, but we're excited! :) I feel really, really, really lucky to belong to him.

• As for this momma...I have some things to say. A few weeks ago I was on a walk with my family - it was our favorite walk down a beautiful dirt road surrounded by beautiful trees. There are goats and llamas to be seen and we were checking out the new bridge that had been built. We started picking blackberries and made the top of the jogging stroller into a makeshift bowl to contain them all. We had plans for those blackberries - jam and cobbler and our bellies. I was lagging behind with Everett in the stroller and Tyler and the kids were just up ahead. The sun was going down and cast the most beautiful light through the trees onto my little family. Everything about that moment was perfect - the light, the temperature, the smells, the happiness that comes from simple joys, and the fact that we were together as a family. It took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes. Sometimes it is so hard to be a mom of three tiny people...sometimes I just want a break...sometimes I yell at my kids...sometimes I feel like sitting on my booty while someone else cleans my house and answers the next thousand questions of the day. But then sometimes - most times, I'd say - I feel completely grateful for this life that I lead. I know that I am going to ache for these days once they are gone and so I try to cherish them. I love watching my kids grow and as each phase passes I hope in my heart that I have cherished them enough in that moment of time. I just changed Everett's closet out - put away the 3-6 mos clothes and brought in the 6-9 mos. So fast. Oh, and I think it's really fun to take self-portraits on days that I do my makeup and hair. Should I do my hair straight or curl it for our upcoming family pictures? I'm leaning toward curling it.

Ev crawls! It's cute (and short)!

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