Galactic Rebellion celebrates Halloween

After blowing up the Death Star, Luke Skywalker and a Clone Trooper (passing back through time) pause to help a little lost Ewok find her way back home.
Han Solo with his pet Ewok.

Cdr. Cody and Young Master Skywalker

Happy Halloween from Han, Leia and family!

(p.s. the hat is knitted, pattern on etsy.com)

cutie pies

Family photo shoot with my very talented brother-in-law, Jon.

Swimming Lessons

We have given birth to three small children who I'm sure could have been fish in a previous life--if we believed in reincarnation. All three love swimming, love the water, love getting water up their noses, love jumping off the diving board, and are practically perfect in every way--just like their mother. wink wink

Our fantastic swimming teacher is our fantastic preschool teacher. She's completely wonderful and the boys love being around her. Her swimming pool is surrounded by "Christmas" pine trees, towering pine trees, a chicken coop, and little ants to follow. Needless to say, it's heaven for a little boy.

This is Will getting ready to dunk his head in.

I love Will's face here:)



This is Lizzy who was thoroughly frustrated for 90% of the boys' lessons.




Sometimes, our teacher lets the older kids swim around in the deep end of the pool while the little kids have their lesson in the shallow end. It really bothered me last year when Carter and Will had their lessons in the shallow end. I didn't seem to mind so much this year. Hmmm....cough **hypocrite** cough.

Carter is a very accomplished belly-flopper. He did it three times in a row during one of his lessons. I screamed each time. After begging him to stop, I asked him how his stomach felt. "Horrible!" was his answer. "Mrs. E says I'm the bravest boy she ever met." Or the craziest!

Mrs. E with Mr. Will.

We took two sessions and by the end, Carter could swim the entire length of the pool--shallow to deep! I think it's about 30 feet. Good thing Michael Phelps will be out of the running for the 2028 Olympics.

Lizzy didn't get any swimming time at swimming lessons and for realsies, she was mad. So we took her to the rec center a few times and blew up the pool for her splash around in. She's so funny in the water--bath, pool, sink. She love, love, loves it!

Lizzy especially loves floating on her back. This picture was taken straight out of the water with Grandpa. It was quite possibly the cutest thing ever--well, I think everything she does is the cutest thing ever. It's very relieving that baby stuff is still so cute the third time around:)

The End.

summer fun

Forever and a year ago we barbecued with J's family and had some pretty sweet scooter races after. All the uncles and boys battled it out down the hill on the path behind our house.

Lizzy played with Kaycee the whole night:)

I proved to be a very poor ripstick rider.

Jeremy fared a bit better on the ripstick than I did. His forte remains the scooter.

Bradee is awesome at both.

We love to hike and have gone up Grandpa John's canyon a few times this summer. The boys are great hikers (when they eat all their breakfast). Lizzy has been a great little hiking companion.

Handsome boys. Pretty rad hats.

This is BY FAR the best way to get down the canyon!

Typical

yup. pretty typical.

Piggies

Lizzy's hair finally fits in piggies! She looks so cute and went from baby to little girl overnight, it seems:) They look so cute but they don't stay in very long. One car ride, nap (duh), or messy dinner ruins her cute hairdo. Luckily, only one of cares.

Evolution of a Black Eye

One day while sitting on a bar stool in our kitchen, cute little Carter was on the phone with his cousin discussing the finer points of Star Wars Episode V Empire Strikes Back when he lost his balance and fell and smacked his head on the tile floor.

This was the result:30 seconds after fall -- poor kid, he was so brave

1 day later

2 days later

3 days later

***

It was all better in about a week. His Kindergarten teacher took pictures of it everyday. I was really grateful she knew me well enough to believe he fell off the bar stool!

slightly belated

So yeah, sometimes I update my blog. Sometimes it's three months behind--such as this post.

We all have birthdays in strawberry season which makes waffles with strawberries and whipped cream the perfect birthday breakfast.

Here the kids on the morning of their birthday and also their birthday cakes.

It's a ladybug--if you can't tell.

Pirate Treasure Map

I botched my Star Wars stencil. It had the potential to look a lot awesommer!

We had really fun pirate and Jedi birthday parties with fun games and costumes. I spray painted 150 rocks gold so the kids could treasure hunt for them in the backyard and made Jedi tunics and borrowed a Darth Vader costume so the kids could complete a Jedi training party. It was way fun.

Neville Longbottom for President

I'm Ready!

We have funny kids

I am kind of lazy about blogging. There are several reasons for my laziness, for instance: 1. I hate Windows 7 (c'etait mon idee, stupid commercials) and therefore I don't upload my pictures that often, 2. I have been reading some good books lately, 3. Who even reads blogs anymore?, 4.Lizzy doesn't like to be ignored. Blah, blah, blah.

Back to the post title: We have funny kids. We really do. I mean, have you met their father? Case in point. Here are some pictures of our kids from the last couple of months. I don't really care if you read them. I'm just posting them.

Everyone at our house (Will and Carter) are super in love with Star Wars. Will decorated himself like Master Yoda a few weeks ago. He looks totally cool and got to go to Home Depot and Smith's where everyone thought he had horrible parents. He kind of does. Oh well.

Our grandparents gave us some bristle blocks a few years ago for Christmas. The boys are just six and four but they still play with them all the time. We call them fuzzy blocks and a little while ago, Carter made a sewing machine. Pretty awesome. It has the manual dial on the side and a cord with a foot pedal, too. Jeremy and I are pretty optimistic about his future inventions and hope to be able retire in Switzerland after Carter hits $1B.

This is my botched photo shoot for Easter. Not only is my daughter a pirate, but our grass looks horrible and the house needs a paint job STAT. On the bright side she fits really well in the mix when the boys play Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

Lizzy learned to pull herself up and now stands in her crib yelling at the boys or for Mom or Dad to come to her rescue. Her little Lizzy language is pretty cute.

Will finished his soccer season with a flare. He kicked the ball a few times and is really looking forward to playing in the fall.

**
Carter played T-ball this spring and LOVED IT. We're officially saying au revior to soccer I think.

This was Carter at his first at-bat. After this game the kids got four pitches from the coach and then hit off the tee if they didn't get a hit.

My little cuties having oatmeal on Mommy's birthday!

Lizzy and her best Sophie.

Lizzy and her best Will.