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...