a little catch-up

I realize that I haven't said much about the kids in the last couple of weeks. We've finally recovered from the ear infections, pink eye, coughs, etc. that we had around here the week before last. Liv has been fussy with a clear, runny nose this week and I finally thought to look in the back of her mouth (I've only been paying attention to her front teeth coming in). I was slightly surprised to see four molars coming in all at once! No wonder she has been a little clingy and cranky.

I haven't been taking many photos lately, but I'll share a few random things.

Burke taught Hewitt how to play Chess. Burke has played Rob a couple of times and he's actually pretty good. We had Family Night "on the road" last week and went to Target to buy this cheap checkers/chess board. My mom laughed when we explained that we sometimes opt to do Family Home Evening in the car. We load everyone up and they tend to sing better and pay better attention to scripture reading when they are sitting in their car seats and can't go anywhere. It becomes the lesson and activity all in one.




Burke is always trying to invent something or discover something new and interesting to do around here. He created his own recipe for a lemon/limeade with a secret ingredient (hint of cinnamon). He named the drink, "Petey Goodness," and wanted to take samples to the families that Rob home teaches.



Hewitt is obsessed with book making and pretty much spends his free time sitting at the kitchen bar drawing. His new favorite is doing comic books (shown below with some silly face he's making).



Soccer has started again for Burke and Hewitt and suddenly we are busy every night of the week.


I'm enjoying having time alone with Tosh everyday. We play lots of board games or go swimming.
He likes helping me clean and likes to pretend that my mop bucket is his pirate ship.

I have a hard time getting to Tosh to eat something besides fruits and vegetables. I laughed at his lunch plate the other day (the reason I took the photo below). Red pepper, fresh peaches, peanuts and a pickle. Whatever works! He has refused to eat bread ever since he was a baby...although he does love french toast and waffles.

I found Tosh and Liv in Rob's music room the other day. Liv was "singing" into the microphone and I didn't have time to focus the camera. It was super cute.

Aunt Alisa and Uncle Kevin are here for the long weekend. We were busy getting all of our "chores" done during the week so we could just relax and hang out with them. Yesterday we swam and watched college football. Alisa and I helped Burke with a school project, and I even worked on my Christmas stockings a bit. Liv really likes her Uncle Kevin.

We are excited to have a couple more days together before it's back to school and work on Tuesday. Have a happy Labor Day.

my modern miracle

Yesterday morning I started on the to-do list I had created the night before. It has been cooler this weekend (in the 80's yesterday morning) and I thought it would be a good day to vacuum out both cars and sweep out and reorganize the garage. When I finished vacuuming the van, I went to start on Rob's car, but noticed he had some shoes and other things in there. I went inside and asked him if he could come and clear out the stuff in his car so I could vacuum. He was holding a very clingy Liv, so I changed my mind and told him that I would just set all his things on the trunk of the car, and then he could put it all away.

Rob is known on occasion to leave Tupperware (and the like) in his car, and there were a couple of these items sitting on the passenger seat. I bent down and moved a container and plastic blue plate off of the seat and noticed something small and shiny sitting toward the back of the seat. I screamed and immediately burst into tears! I was absolutely SHOCKED to discover my WEDDING RING!

I last remember wearing my ring when I was pregnant with Tosh. Yes, THREE and a half YEARS AGO! I took it off when my hands got too big for it to fit and thought I had put in in my jewelry box in my master bathroom...at least that is where I had left it during the previous pregnancies. I remember thinking one day, "I haven't seen my wedding ring lately..." and started looking for it. It wasn't in the box and I ended up removing the items from my each of my bathroom drawers trying to find it. I searched for it everywhere with the exception of taking apart all of the pipes under the sink. I knew I had to have put it somewhere, but the fact of the matter is that I have young children that go through drawers, and sometimes put things in strange places. My fear was that Hewitt (two-years-old at the time) had found my ring and had thrown it away.

When we moved away from Utah last year, my final words to my friend Lenny (the buyer of the house) was, "I lost my wedding ring in this house. Please let me know if you ever find it." Since that time, I have thought about my ring a lot and have shed some tears over losing it. I know that it's just a material thing, but it represents something wonderful and it was a gift from my Rob. We'd talked about replacing it, but honestly with so many things on the laundry list of things we need to buy, fix, and replace, it hasn't been a priority. Just this past month, I have discovered that I'm missing all of the letters and tapes that Rob sent to me when I was on my mission! This has been devastating to me as well. I joked with Rob through my tears and told him, "Now I have no proof that you were ever in love with me...well, besides these four kids." :)

I am beyond thrilled to have my ring back. And I have no idea how the ring ended up in Rob's car. Maybe I took it off when we were out on a date in his car one night? Why would I do that? I'm probably in that car only once or twice a month. I can't imagine that I would just set it down in the car anyway... I laugh about how many times we have vacuumed out that car in the last three years, and the fact that we've even had Burke vacuum out the car! It's a miracle it didn't get vacuumed up. It was also bizarre that the ring was just sitting there; not lodged in a crevice or hidden under the seat or anything like that. Weird. Weird and absolutely awesome.

My reaction to finding the ring must have been something to see. I think it is interesting that I had asked Rob to come out into the garage to help me yesterday. Initially I asked him because I was slightly annoyed with cleaning out his mess on my own, but am so glad that Rob was there with me when I found it. After I started screaming and sobbing, I ran over and gave him a huge hug and kiss. Rob later told me that he thought I had found a scorpion at first! We concluded that my reaction to finding the ring yesterday was much bigger than my reaction was when he first gave it to me over 11 years ago. Not all that surprising, really. Don't things usually become more treasured to us once they have been lost? And lucky for me, I love my husband more than I did when we were first engaged.

Now to find all those missing letters and tapes. I can't wait for Rob to hear how "mushy" he was when we were first dating...

weekend in colorado

I was able to get away for a little reunion last weekend with some of the girls I grew up singing with. We did a similar gathering four years ago (which was the last time I left my kids to go anywhere solo...), but decided we needed a little more time together this year.

One of my dearest and oldest friends (Lori) picked me up from the airport on Thursday morning. We grabbed some lunch and made a brief stop at her home before heading up to Frisco, CO (near Breckenridge and Vail) to stay at her parents' condo for two nights. There were five of us staying together at the condo (Leslie, Erin, and Jessica) and we had a great time visiting and catching up. It was very cool and rainy that first night which was a really great change. Friday was a beautiful day. We went for a little hike and then did some shopping on Main street in Frisco. We went out to dinner for some awesome pizza before heading home to soak in the hot tub and watch a movie.

With so many cameras there, I didn't get very many photos with mine... Here is one that I took with my timer (just set the camera on top of a garbage can) on our walk home from shopping. I think it turned out pretty cute. I loved the wild flowers up there!

(From left to Right, Jessica, Leslie, me, Erin, and Lori)

We were able to visit with each other's parents while we were together (personally or with Skype), which was really fun. After spending literally hundreds and hundreds of hours together as kids, we not only feel like sisters, but connected to each other's families as well. After leaving Frisco, we stopped by Janet's house for lunch. Janet was our director for years as well as Leslie's mom (and a second mom to us). It was really interesting when we realized that she was about our age when we were all performing in high school, which was a little odd! Oh the things our directors put up with over the years with all the drama that teenage girls can create!

Our friend Shelby was able to join us on Saturday as well, with her new baby boy. Shelby and Lori and I started singing together when we were nine years old!

Saturday night, we gathered with a larger group of performing friends at one of our favorite restaurants in Ft. Collins (Young's). We laughed about old times and missed those that couldn't make it this year (yes, that's you Lindsay and Britt, among other friends that we miss and love).

(Shelby, Erin, Jessica, Melanie, Leslie, Jessica, Chris, Julie, Emily, Me, and Lori)

A bunch of us stayed the night at Shelby's house and stayed up really late talking and watching old videos. I'll note that this trip made me feel somewhat old because it was the first time in my life that I had a really hard time getting to sleep (all three nights) and I was the first one awake every morning (around 7AM). I guess I can't blame getting up early on my kids anymore. On the flip side, being together with these friends is wonderful because we are able to pick up right where we left off as if no time had passed at all. I love these people and am grateful for the great experiences we've shared together.

I headed back to Denver on Sunday morning with Leslie. I went to church with her and then was able to spend a few hours with my brother Mark and his family before heading to the airport. (I am just realizing that I didn't think to take any photos of my cute nieces and nephew.) My kids were really sad that I visited cousins without them! It would have been fun to have the whole family with me, but have to say how nice it was to have some time alone and to spend time on the flight reading and just sitting there in silence. Ahhh.

The weekend was really great. I loved being in the mountains, wearing a sweatshirt, laughing and crying with old friends, and feeling ready to get back to my kiddos and Rob. Thanks to Robbie for letting me take this little "Girl's Trip." He took two days off work to be home with the kids, and kept the house and everything together, including taking a trip to Urgent care (Tosh got an ear infection on Sat.). Thanks, hon. You're the best!

Hope to see all my girls again in another 3-4 years!

namesake

My parents e-mailed me this sweet picture today:



It's my mom (Maryana) at 8 months.

I looked back on some photos of Liv at that same age tonight and can see a bit of a resemblance...

After all, her name is Liv Maryana.

Ooh, I really love babies, and their cute, kissy cheeks.
And (sigh) this one already seems so much older now.

one more thing to check off my list :)

Another busy week. I was commenting to Rob the other day that my days seem to fly by now. I'll admit that I've had many times as a SAHM when my days have moved by very slowly, and I'd find myself glancing at the clock and thinking, "It's ONLY 10AM!?" Honestly, I can't remember the last time I had that experience; there is always so much to do and not enough time to do it. I actually think that this is a great thing. Life is getting busier, and at times it feels a little crazy, but overall it's a good balance of feeling generally productive and like I've accomplished many of the things (but not all) on my list each day. I'm also recognizing that life is just going to get busier, at least that's what everyone tells me. I'm just trying to do the things I need to do, and also be sure to enjoy my kids while they are still little...and enjoy them, I do!

I've been giving Liv baths after breakfast instead of at bedtime lately. Here's why:

I felt bad that Tosh wasn't represented in photos last week, so I tried to make up for that this week. He is starting to do this funny closed-mouth smile lately.

Showing off his block castle:

These two are getting better at playing together all of the time:

Livvy is starting to pucker up to give kisses and is usually pretty generous about sharing the love.

We have several bushes in our front and backyard that exploded with color this week. Gorgeous, purple flowers that only stayed in full bloom for only about 3 days... It seems odd to me that something would bloom suddenly in mid-August. It's gotten above 110 this week.

We hung curtains (and rods) in our family room yesterday and did some other minor home improvement type things. I love getting things (beyond dishes and laundry) done!

I guess that Sunday afternoons have become somewhat of a dress-up day lately. Today, the boys created their own pirate costumes.

You don't want to mess with these pirates... oh wait, are those smiles I see?

I call this "Platypus Face." I usually see it at least once a day:

Heave ho-ing the boat ashore:

Livvy giving Rob "five"

I caught her cute new front tooth in the "up above" five. Cute toes too:

Guapo Roberto. These eyes are rarely seen without glasses. Rob got released from his nursery assignment at church this morning (if only he could have stayed in there for three more months until Liv was "legal" in nursery). Next chapter: High Council (and five bucks says that Rob will not like that I've mentioned that, nor will he like that I'm posting this photo I took today).

And to make it fair, here is a photo that Rob took of me this afternoon. I am leaving on Thursday for Colorado! This will be my first get-away-by myself-without kids-trip in four years. I'm getting really excited, and am planning on packing jackets and jeans because the low is supposed to be 40 degrees in Vail (highs in the low 70s). I just might freeze (ha!).

Have a great week everyone!

eight/eight

It was a good week. It was great spending time with my mom (thanks for coming)! I took her back to the airport on Tuesday. We had a nice time visiting, and she helped me get started on my Christmas stockings. Rob's sister helped me with a design when she was here in March (which I have modified a bit), but I hadn't gotten around to starting them yet. I don't work on projects very often because I tend to get a little obsessive with them and have a hard time getting all the "other things" done. I spent a couple of days this week embroidering every chance that I got, and ended up with very sore fingers and a messy house. I am almost done with Burke's so I will post photos when I actually complete one. I figure that there is plenty of time to get those done before December hits.

It seems like it's all I can do to keep Tosh and Liv from destroying every room in the house. I think I mentioned last week that Liv is down to one nap a day and that is an adjustment for me. She is hitting that "I can do it myself" phase. She insists on feeding herself which gets mighty messy at times.



This little girl is awfully sweet. We are certainly starting to see more and more flopping on the floor and more drama in general... It doesn't help matters that her other front tooth finally cut through the gums this weekend. Poor, fussy Liv.


The boys had a great second week of school. I am carpooling with a neighbor that has a son in third grade; he was in Burke's class last year and switched schools as well. This is a huge blessing! Not only does Burke now have a friend at school (they weren't really friends last year but are starting to play together), but I take and the mom is willing to pick the boys up from school which is great for me; I don't have to worry now about messing up Liv's nap schedule.

Hewitt forgot to bring his lunchbox home after school on Tuesday, so I decided to let him try hot lunch for the first time on Wednesday. I thought I 'prepped' him fairly well by discussing what his lunch choices would be, reminding him several times to give the lunch money to his teacher, reminding him that even though he wouldn't be eating cold lunch to remember to bring home his lunch box, etc. I emailed his teacher to make sure she knew I was sending money. I heard back from her saying, "Hewitt did forget to give me the money. When I asked him about it he said, 'My mom already gave it to you!' LOL!" When Hewitt got home from school I asked, "So Hewitt, how did you like hot lunch? Did you get the hot dog?" His response was so funny, "Well, I looked in my lunchbox and there wasn't a hot dog in there. But, there was a little shop where I was able to get one." I love it!


We went to our ward swimming party last night. It was at a really cool outdoor pool (at one of the high schools) with a lazy river, water slides, play stuff, etc. It was the first time that Burke and Hewitt had ever jumped off of a diving board. On Hewitt's second jump he did a flip and then did about 20 consecutive flips after that. Burke also did a few flips and especially loved the water slides and the whirlpool. It was a really great night and the kids had so much fun. Rob and Tosh were buddies, Burke and Hewitt were buddies, and I followed Liv around. She loved the splash park area and getting sprayed on her arms and back. Tosh and Rob went down the water slide together once and then he sent Tosh down on his own. He sent him sitting up, and at the end Tosh was on him tummy, head first with his body spread eagle. After it was over, Tosh was a little sad and said, "Daddy, (pause), that scared me!" He had a total blast otherwise. It's really a bummer that I didn't think to bring a camera...we'll have to go back.

The boys spent a lot of the weekend building a "fort" in our loft. They also constructed a zipline that runs from the fort down into our dining room.


The zipline is perfect for various action figures and Rescue Heroes:
We had a couple of visitors for dinner tonight. Martin (left) and Markel (right). They were wonderful guests and even seemed to have better table manners than our oldest two children (who strangely went missing for a couple of hours...).

(Rob adds that Markel is part hip-hop, part old man that lives in the retirement community down the street.)

We told them that they are welcome back anytime. We love visitors, especially ones that clear their places after dinner.

monsoon season

August is here as well as some much cooler weather. A fairly mighty monsoon hit our area just as school was getting out on Thursday. I get to the school quite early to wait for the boys and when I arrived, the sky was black yet it hadn't started raining yet. By the time 3:00 came around (about 20 min. later), it was dumping rain and there were wind gusts up to 40 mph. I wasn't sure what the school would do with the kids, especially the new little kindergartners. I waited and waited (I didn't want to pull my two babies out of the car into the storm to take them into the school to try to find the kids) until the principal came by (drenched) to radio in the names of which kids to send out. The boys were soaked when they eventually got to the car, but were pretty excited about the storm and the mayhem that went along with it. Hewitt was hilarious about the storm, "...all the girlfriends were crying, and some of the boyfriends were crying, and I even saw a big girl that was crying, but I wasn't crying, I just kept saying, 'I'm FREEZING!'..." We've been keeping our trees trimmed back and so we're hoping not to lose any more to monsoons. I must say that I really like the rain, but the increase in humidity makes me even hotter.


School is going great for the boys, although it is wearing Hewitt out! On Wednesday morning he said, "Mom, I think two days of kindergarten is enough; I just want to play today." He comes home very happy and excited though. I am really impressed with both of the teachers the boys have. I think it will be a great year.


Being home with just the two younger kids has been a little exhausting...mostly because Tosh and Liv work together as the destruction duo and really go to town trying to get into everything. Liv is generally taking one nap instead of two now, and so I try really hard to fit as much work into her nap time as I can. It's been fun to have more one on one time with Tosh. We swim together, play board games or he will help me clean. He is my little buddy and I love hanging out with him.


I was able to go to the Bishop's Storehouse with my Young Women this week. Our volunteer shift was for three hours, and in that time the girls did a lot of cleaning (it brought back memories of my summer custodial job that I worked after my freshman and sophomore years of college), stocked shelves with food, and helped host the patrons that came in to fill food orders. This was really a touching experience for me and made me feel grateful for my blessings. I was impressed with the facility and all of the missionaries and volunteers that keep the place running. I was also impressed that the girls had such a great attitude and didn't want to stop helping the patrons when it was time for us to go.

A couple of my cute girls mopping in the back room:





Liv is starting to "smile" for the camera. Her face is suddenly looking a lot older to me:

The other big news of the week is that my mom is here! We picked her up from the airport yesterday and she will be here until Tuesday. The kids (and I) are so happy to have Grandma here. We're having a great time!