The Mother of Geese

After a trip to the dentist a few months ago it was reported that Amelia's sucking thumb days must come to an end. I have tried to scare her with pictures of kids with messed up teeth on the internet (she laughs), pictures of kids who have anti-thumb sucking devices (she is intrigued), and even threatened her with the purchase of "THE CLAW" (she wants it). I figured baby steps were in order. If she could go 20 days without bringing her yowie downstairs I would take her to the toy store. We made a chart and she was a champ! We welcome Nugget to the family whole heartedly while I consider how to cure her of Yowie completely.

Realizing this is my fourth time reporting on Strawberry Days. I will say my kids look forward to Strawberry Days like they do Christmas and it is one of my favorite things about our town. I'll keep it short and mostly captionless for the blog book. Strawberries and Cream while listening to a band play covers of Bon Jovi (badly). Huck Finn Days-no fishing pole or net for us this year. I had visions of Max heading into the water so we didn't even venture to the pond area. (story interruption: This train ride is the slowest *read dumbest* ride. I told the kids they could each have 4 rides and Max chose the train for one of his. He went by himself. Once he realized how inexciting it was everytime he would pass us he would yell "Gitme off dis wide white now!", then the train would slowly move along. He yelled and we laughed at least 6 times.) Other memories of the week: Brad worked the rodeo and came home with 16 pounds of hulled strawberries. I spent the day making straw...

While Abbie and Amelia are enjoying summer vacation, Max still has some work to do so the girls and I drop him off for school every Wednesday for a couple of hours. (Max is still working really hard on his artic and has made huge strides. I opted out of the traditional playgroup because he really needs to learn how to separate from me. He is in a "transition" class.) Last week I took them to get a $1.00 smoothie from Jamba and to Classic Skate to jump. A word about Classic Skate? Hasn't changed AT. All. from when I went when I was in the 2nd grade. So cool. The DJ was spinning Lady Gaga. Sort of like a rave for kids.

The pre-dance make up party

Scene: 2nd row of chapel, left hand side, aka soft cushy seats where deacons normally sit. Max is standing facing the bench with his head resting on the seat. Thirteen year old Noah comes and passes the water tray to Abbie. Abbie is sitting on the end and Max is in between. I lean in and tell Max the water is here. He pops his whole body up causing Abbie to lose control of the tray and sends the nearly full tray of cups and water upward landing on the family in front of us. Audible gasp from the people behind us. I hand the tray back to the 13-year old who looks at it and realizes its mostly empty. Do they train the deacons in this situation? I have been taking the sacrament for the better part of 35 years and I have never seen a whole tray emptied by an overenthusiastic 2 year old. Max now says I be so ceeful now when the sacrament comes. Nice. The scene of the crime. We are at Salem Pond enjoying a pleasant summer day. A family is next to us feeding the ducks. Max is in the water. Ma...

On the first Friday of the month the city of Provo opens up their art galleries for the public to walk around and experience. It was such a fun night topped off with an delicious banana cream pie shake (yes, they take an actual piece of banana cream pie and mix it with ice cream and whipped cream. Seriously)

Yesterday I went to the fridge to get the milk and noticed the light was not on. No biggie, I figured I would head down to the basement to check the circuits. Everything looked fine. I went to dry the load of whites and noticed the dryer wouldn't work. Good thing I don't run the AC often because that also wasn't working. Want to know how to irritate the power guys? Making the decision to plant like this on top of "their box". Not the exact scene of the crime but you get the idea of the massive perennial take over that had been staged years ago. Dig, Dig, Dig there it is! After the harsh reprimand I promised not to cover the box up with dirt and flowers. I did not, however, promise to not put flower pots on it... Sort of remembering a Seinfeld episode about a tractor and shorts and girl. Anyone? Yes, that is a man IN my grass. And my kid ON their equipment. I plated some of Brad's amazing oatmeal cookies and offered it to the crew as a peace offer/thank you and...

Also, I gave Max a candy necklace while he watched a movie. I looked over a while later and he had eaten it all. Including the string. Nice.

I went to take a picture with my phone and was shocked to see that I had already taken at least 43. This came as a surprise to me because I had just dumped the pictures onto my computer. Don't worry. I found 36 pictures of Amelia's nose.

Every Memorial Day weekend Heber has its annual Day Out with Thomas. And every Memorial Day weekend we head to the country to go catch a glimpse. Love the tradition!

"Worry is like a rocking chair-it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere." Of all my children I worry the most about Abbie. Abbie is a sweet, tender, loyal, and loving little girl who regularly gets tramped on and left out in our neighborhood. There is a very clear pecking order and Abbie unfortunately is at the bottom. While other kids in the neighborhood are playing their games together she is found alone either looking for bugs, reading in a chair, or solving the universe's problems. I have noticed that she isn't as silly as she used to be and she is mostly very quiet. I worry about her and I want her to be happy. She was invited to a birthday party a few weeks ago and I was actually surprised because I know the group of girls that hang out with the birthday girl and Abbie didn't really seem like the "type". When I picked her up from the party the girl's mom kept saying what a sweet and kind girl Abbie is. I agreed. Later I ...

Friday June 4th was National Donut Day. You better believe we celebrated! (Note today is National Chocolate Ice Cream Day and June 12th is National Peanut Butter Cookie Day. Lord bless the internet!)

Expressed by sharing a drink from a rusty old faucet at a park.

Abbie had some dental work done. After, we took her to get a smoothie and mocked her drooling and speaking.

(taken the night off with the stupid flash on so you can't see it that well) (taken the next morning) ...To irresponsible dog owners who let their stupid beasts poop and bite my kid. Seriously. If we were playing Pretty Pretty Princess I would cheat so you would get stuck with the black ring. (That's big here, folks)

(don't think I forgot my own Mom. Truth is, I have very few pictures of her with me because generally she is the one that is taking the pictures. I was searching for "the one" that I remembered from days of yore (last year) but I had to go in the fiery depths of confusion that is my photo filing lack of organization system.) Its difficult to limit myself to only one word to describe my mom or even glean one thing that I have learned from her. There have been so many lessons and moments where I have had a glimpse of her wisdom. I suppose her life can be summed up in the word "capable" and incredibly "hard working." She has always strived to make her home beautiful and warm. She accomplishes this through her amazing meals, clean and tidy rooms, music playing, and her decorating. I have learned to love the holidays and to pass on that love to my children. I have learned to celebrate all the events in my children's lives while realizing that the most i...

Our dear friend Sister Otto is aware of Max's obsession with buses. One day after dropping her kids off at school she arranged a pick up of my little chickens. It was a big rainy day and Amelia liked practicing for her kindergarten bus riding days ahead. Don't let his serious face fool you, he was beyond thrilled with the experience!