Another week of summer...

It seems that summer just refuses to leave us yet...I've already made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and my kids decorated pumpkin shaped sugar cookies tonight, but the temperature has been near 100 this week, and the AC has been blowing non-stop...I'm ready for some cooler temps! Please let it happen this week! Andy and I are sick, sick, sick of our house looking like we just moved in...there's still very little on the walls, and the baby's room is still storage. It's not for lack of desire or motivation, it's just very over-whelming. I feel like I've spent a few hours in the baby's room, cleaning out, folding boy clothes, and trying to sort through the closet, and now I've just got to finish...it's been the catch-all for 3 months, and it's time to get moving and make it look like a nursery...I think it'll be easier when the bedding is done...then it can all come together. But honestly, this baby is a-coming, and I'd really like to kick this house into gear...I did finally pull out some picture frames and put them up, and I did buy some new glass hurricanes for the mantle, and a wall clock for the kitchen, but it's still coming rather slowly...Oh well...here are some pics from our week...

Lauren is at the stage where she's afraid of a lot of things...especially the dark. I can remember as a kid that there were certain places in our house where I did NOT like to go...down the long hall to my parents' dark bedroom, down the stairs to the basement, out to my mom's workroom. Lauren is at that stage...the master bedroom is sort of down a longish hallway at one end of the house, and the office is off the master...she will not go down the hall by herself, and forget going to the office by herself. She also can not be in a dark bedroom anymore with the door closed...she has started going to sleep in the hall EVERY night...we put the girls to bed in separate bedrooms (otherwise they stay up playing FOREVER), and so Lauren goes down in baby's room. But she always drags her stuff into the hall and falls asleep...notice the doll asleep in the dish towel...I go through so many dish towels everyday because it makes the PERFECT doll blanket...




Like I mentioned, it's been very hot here...luckily our good friends here have access to a pool, and we can swim often. Lauren will swim in any conditions, any weather--it doesn't matter...she'll cannon ball into the pool without looking back. Kate is a "perfect-weather" swimmer--she likes it sunny and hot...luckily it was this week, otherwise she just hangs out on the side....
Warming up on the hot concrete...
Why is it that the hot tub feels so good, even when it's 95 degrees?
The view from this pool is so quintessential Southern California--I love it.

Some of my bestest friends in the world surprised me with dinner out on Friday night to honor baby #3--so, so fun. Three of us are pregnant, and the 4th just had her baby---we are all friends from BYU, and have stayed close and get together regularly--it used to be just the 8 adults, but now we have 6 kids among us, plus 3 in utero--when did that happen? 9 kids? I mean, come on...I look ready to pop in this picture, and I am...

Kate and I went with my parents to my dad's company picnic on Saturday and had a really good time. Lauren and Andy were at a soccer game (can you believe I've only been to 1 game so far, and I was late? Bad mom, huh? Does it matter that she doesn't even get on the field?...that makes it OK---the season is looking really long right now) Anyway, there was tons of food, games and a pinata for the kids...there were only a few kids, so the candy was plentiful.

Honestly, look at all that candy, and there were only 3-4 kids. I usually monitor closely how much pinata candy goes into my kids' bags, but my dad wasn't helping the situation...he was scooping up tons of candy and filling Kate's bag, and even filling one for Lauren! The picnic was during Kate's nap, and so I kept waiting for the meltdown that would signal our exit...it came after the pinata when I tried to limit the sugar intake. We finally left with Kate sticky and screaming, with red sugar drooling down her chin--it was lovely.


We made sugar cookies this afternoon and let the kids decorate and eat 1, because they hadn't had enough sugar already...oh well.



And that's it for now...

Another week...

I'm convinced that the 8th wonder of the world is seeing piano movers work...I initially had that thought when we moved our first piano from Glendale to Pasadena 3 years ago...we lived on the 2nd story of a tri-plex, with a steep set of stairs down to the driveway--2 guys came and manhandled that upright piano like it was a feather, literally. When we had first moved that piano into the apartment, we had 6 or 7 guys from the elders quorum come and kill themselves to get it up the stairs, but then we got smart and hired professionals to move it out, and it's worth it...I've seen several pianos moved since that time, and it's still just as cool to see...and we're not talking several huge bulky men; it's always 2 average sized guys that can flip a grand piano on it's side and maneuver it around easily...definitely worth the money. I was worried about moving our new piano this past week because we have a big dirt patch in the front where we took out the concrete..."no problem" they told me...and literally...no problem. They put it in the dirt (on a small piano dolly), pivoted the thing around, and up onto the porch...no problem. Allison S. commented, "oh now your room is going to look so put together with the piano in there!" Uh, no--it's still the only piece of furniture in an otherwise empty living room...but at least we now own that piece of furniture.

We bought the piano from its original owner---it has sat in this corner for over 50 years...no sun exposure, so the finish on it is awesome...but the best part is that it sounds GREAT...I played a few others while shopping around, but nothing compared to this one...I keep talking about taking piano lessons again, and I'm not sure what I'm waiting for (maybe to settle into life with 3 kids?), but I'll really enjoy playing this...



Maneuvering it through the dirt by our porch...
And up onto the porch...honestly, how do these 2 little guys do that? These things are SO heavy.
And into its final resting spot...

Hard to tell in the photo, but it's got a mahogany finish with walnut tones...the 90 year old lady that we bought it from originally bought it without a bench...we were given all the original paperwork, invoices and appraisals on it, and it says, "no bench"...kind of interesting...so I'm in the market for a nice mahogany bench at some point...



One thing I really enjoy about my girls right now is how well they enjoy playing together...it happens most in the morning before preschool, and then again in the late afternoon after we pick Lauren up...sometimes Lauren gets frustrated with Kate because she isn't quite old enough to "get it"--whatever "it" is that Lauren is trying to play...rocket ship, school, princesses, doctor...Lauren wants Kate to sit on the fireplace so that the rocket ship can blast off into space like Curious George, but Kate is pushing her stroller around the family room...I patiently explain that Kate is little and doesn't understand, and Lauren is usually pretty good with that. But they really enjoy playing together and I love to listen from the other room...


We celebrated my brother's birthday yesterday and his girlfriend whipped up a fabulous vegetarian meal for all of us at my parents' house...he is vegetarian, the rest of us are not...the kids LOVE playing with Uncle Michael and his girlfriend T...they have more energy than Andy and I have!

A round of funny faces...Kate's expanding her repertoire...

That's about it for the week...I've started cleaning out baby boy's room...it's really been a catch all for the past few months, and it's time to turn it into the nursery it needs to be shortly! We inherited 6 really nice beautiful new rose bushes from my dad's office, and so I suppose the planting in the front year needs to begin...we're starting to gather bids on the brick work, but we're definitely trying to pace ourselves (heard about the stock market lately?) My new project is putting together a photo book online of each year, and then having it printed...nice coffee table-like books with the pictures printed right on the page...I'm not into the scrap booking thing with all the papers and stickers and cut-outs...too much work...but this is right up my alley...I can do it all online, with a simple background and captions printed under the photos, and it shows up on my porch! I'm just about done with 2007, and I'm pleased with the way it has turned out...

Our week...

I took Kate to the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor this week, and after just coming off antibiotics within the previous few days, she still had double ear infections with an ear drum that looked ready to burst...the doctor couldn't believe how awful her ears looked. We discussed possible causes, and then I decided to go ahead and have the tubes put in her ears. Kate and I showed up at Children's Hospital in the pitch dark on Friday morning and had the surgery done. The doctor said that it's the most common procedure done on children in the US, but it's still hard when it's your own child---the general anesthetic is the hard part...

Heading into the hospital...I decided that we didn't need to be there at exactly 6:00 AM, because that would mean sitting in a chair with a tired, hungry baby for over 2 hours...we got there about 6:30, and we never waited any more than 10 minutes in any one place...it was nice.
Kate loved the purple jammies...and the nurse gave her a Cabbage Patch doll right off the bat! That kept her occupied for a while...



Watching Clifford the Dog on the TV screen while waiting to be taken to the OR---she really was so good the whole morning---she has never cared when doctors look in her ears or listen to her heart (I guess she's used to it by now)...a hard part for me was not giving her anything to eat or drink when she kept asking for it; I was glad we had an early surgery.

Getting a little tired...they gave her an oral sedative right before they knocked her out, and she was getting pretty sleepy...watching Elmo at this point...

On her way to the OR---very drugged out!

The procedure was short--20 minutes and everything went well...here she is trying to wake up.

I made the awful mistake of giving her a banana right after she woke up...she was so hungry and when the nurse came back he mentioned that she might throw up.
Throw up she did...within a few minutes of leaving the hospital--all over everything! I had to pull over on Sunset Blvd and attempt to clean up an entire banana from the car seat, blanket, pajamas and Bobo bunny...all the while with crazies honking at me from the road--not fun. Honestly, the hardest part of the whole thing was from wake-up to getting her home into her crib---she was so groggy and loopy and tired and kept crying about her ears---they claim it doesn't hurt them hardly at all, but if you slit a hole in my ear drum and put in a tube, it would probably hurt, and it obviously bothered her. I didn't have anything to give her until we got home. But, overall, a total success---she is happy and it's nice to know that all the fluid and infection was cleaned out. And the most obvious benefit is that she is finally eating better...we don't have to follow her around with a fork--she ate an entire serving of lasagna tonight, unforced--yay.

And here's sister...she wanted her picture taken...


Saturday morning muffins...

To put it mildly, Lauren hates soccer---Kate and I got to her game late on Saturday morning, and as soon as we got there, she walked off the field and wouldn't go back...


Kate, on the other hand, kept running onto the field for her dad...I think this was half-time, otherwise Lauren wouldn't have been on the field!

The best part for Lauren was the end of the game when the team mom handed out a bag full of treats...is that normal??? So much candy at 9 in the morning, but maybe Lauren will go back now!

Later that afternoon we went to a fun b-day party for a friend of Lauren's from church...the kids had a good time on the water slide and with the pinata...


Ear-infection free Kate...I just thought she looked cute...don't worry, I did take the little white shirt off from under her dress because it didn't look as cute as anticipated--her hair has been quite curly all weekend...not sure what it is...

I'm exhausted tonight...33 weeks pregnant, but I feel like 43 weeks. I did get the front door painted this week, and it looks awesome. Andy's in the dumps over the stock market---hopefully things will bounce back sooner rather than later. Our other big news is that we bought a piano this week--a Baldwin baby grand---I'm very excited. We've had a long saga of owning pianos, putting money into them, hating them, giving them away, and most recently piano-sitting. Now we own our very own nice piano, and it feels good. Hopefully this week will be less eventful...

Our week...

We've had a good week...nothing too exciting to report. So here are some pics from our week...

This is what my girls do EVERY single morning for about an hour...grab the doll strollers and push them all over the house and the back yard...Lauren puts her doll and the doll's blanket in; Kate puts in her doll, Bobo Bunny and every assortment of "things" she sees, and it's different every morning. But if the stroller tips over or something falls out, then it's absolutely necessary for every last item to get put back in...this usually requires my help to balance it all in there. And then when we leave to take Lauren to school, most of the "items of the day" must come with us in the car...it's quite the site. I just had to take a picture this week...one of those quirky things that will soon change and we'll forget, but we'll always remember and laugh at the picture. FYI--the walls and trim in the living room and dining room in these pictures have since been painted...bye bye brown. Still no furniture...



Like I mentioned before...my mom is the workhorse behind most of our home projects...these hall closets are SO deep, and she stuffed herself clear inside them to prime and paint them...wow, they look a million times better--how the previous owners lived with flowered contact paper for 10 years is beyond me, but now everything is nice and white and clean.

Lauren had her first AYSO soccer game on Saturday (yesterday)...Andy is the assistant coach. Before we moved to Glendora Lauren begged me to sign her up for soccer, and I kept promising that when we moved to the new house I would sign her up...jury's still on whether it was a good idea. She's only barely 4, and probably WAY too young to be on an organized team...she doesn't even understand the difference between a practice and a game. Luckily, she's not the only one...Andy goes to all the practices and says that most of the girls spend their time kicking around in the weeds. Oh well, the most exciting thing about yesterday was that she finally got to where her uniform and one of the moms made them all matching ribbons for their hair. Can you believe I didn't even go to her first game? I had 2 baby showers to attend in 2 different cities, and I figure it'll be the first of a million games--does that excuse me? She looks cute, though. Go Blue Angels...
Here's Kate standing in the door, longing to go with Daddy and sister to soccer...she stood there until they pulled out of the driveway...you can see our "new-to-us" bench for our front porch...we plan on staining it black to match the shutters and the front door (which is white now, but hopefully the black paint will find it's mark in the next week or so...) You can also see the result of our concrete removal...on the other side of the van we had a concrete strip taken out in order to put in a hedge to cover up the ugly fence you can see...our front looks awful right now...the workers finished taking the concrete out, now we've got to get moving on the rest...it's just too hot to think about working outside in the yard! I guess my only real job is to get the bids on the brick work for the walkway and front porch, which will be laid in brick also...Andy has a lot of manual labor ahead of him---I shouldn't complain. It's time to get going though...our neighbors might begin to wonder...


We take dessert seriously in this family...it's become a sort of Sunday-ritual to make cookies or something every Sunday afternoon...
You missed a spot Kate...


Here's Kate in her position of waiting for the ear drops to dry---you may not know that Kate is our ear infection kid---constant, constant ear infections, complete with 2 perforated ear drums just this summer. We have an appointment with an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor on Wed to be evaluated for ear tubes--not fun. She's had 4 ear infections in 4 months, and I'm TIRED of taking her to the doctor...I feel like I'm always there--each infection requires at least 2 visits---one to be diagnosed, and then a follow-up---and I'm tired of filling prescriptions. We'll see what they say on Wed. Poor kid.