The last few weeks....

We've got vacations coming up, so I thought I should probably get my photos up to date before I bombard my iPhoto again. I've finally successfully overhauled my photo storage system, and took my brother's advice and got all the photos out of iPhoto (we're talking way back to the birth of Kate in 2008), organized them by date and event and have them neatly tucked away in separate folders, waiting to be saved onto external devices. What a process. What a relief. So nice. I swear I'll never force my iPhoto to open 4000 photos again.

I think I mentioned in my last post that my friend Shelley had spent the day with us. She brought her cute baby boy Quinn and the girls loved seeing a baby again. This is what I found 10 minutes after they left--seriously. My girls hadn't played with dolls in a long time, but I guess Quinn reminded them of how fun "babies" can be. Kate's in a pajama shirt again...not sure what's going on with that...

I made pancakes for the kids one morning (the BEST buttermilk pancakes--to die for), and walked out of the kitchen for a minute. I returned to find my perfectly bathed son with THIS in his hair...off to the bath he went for a quick 7:45 AM bath, and we still got Lauren to school on time. That seems to be the question in my life lately--how late can we leave the house, and still walk and get to school on time?


In our furniture overhaul a few months ago, I had a small jewelry hutch built for our bedroom to house all my really expensive costume jewelry :). I finally put some knobs on it so it can actually be used, with Charlie's beady little eyes coveting my screwdriver the whole time...he's such a tools guy. Takes after his Grandpa Hyer. I was assembling a glass side table yesterday and he was perfectly content to sit there in a pile of screws, with his little fingers running through them the whole time.

While making dinner last Sunday, somehow my bottle of dried onion went missing (my very new and full bottle, I might add)...guess Kate needed it to make french onion soup? The whole back patio reeked of onion, almost enough to make my eyes water.

We finally discovered Bonelli park nearby. Not sure what took us so long. We went and fed the ducks, scoped out the beach, visited Brackett airport and watched the little planes come and go, and found the perfect date location--hot tubs that you can rent by the hour that are totally private and have a beautiful view overlooking Puddington Reservoir. We're totally doing that...




I could create an entire post of Kate making faces in photos...

Charlie spends half the time in the high chair simply moving his food from one location to another...

Not a great picture, but Charlie's first time in the "baby" swing on this playset...I finally unhooked the other one and put this one up...now all 3 kids fight over who gets to use it. So fun.

Recent birthday party for a friend's little girl--an old friend from the Pasadena Stake who has moved to my city and lives 2 streets over...

A boy could not have been happier...There might have been some gnashing of teeth when he had to get off...



Many hours past a nap, and one massive tumble down 3 concrete steps, resulting in a very large and semi-bloody goose egg= 1 tired and ornery little boy.

I had to document this little gem before it got tossed. This was Kate's mother's day gift from preschool. When her teacher asked for an old shoe that she had out-grown, I assumed that they were making footprints of some sort. I sent a very nice pair of Robeez Tredz that could easily have been used again with another baby...not to happen. I tossed the plant, but kept the painted shoe. FYI--it used to be pink and cute. This definitely wins for most original school gift.

This is the 3-year-old version of the ripped jeans...what can be said about these black leggings that could sufficiently sum up the love and attention they have received from this little girl? If you look closely, she's most likely wearing them in the majority of the photos that make it to this blog. There might be more gnashing of teeth when they are finally forced to be retired from service.

Memorial Day--we spent the afternoon swimming and BBQ-ing with several of my friends from BYU and their families...like I said--I could publish a book called "the many faces of Kate."




We are off to the beach to spend 5 days with some friends from college. I've been packing and cooking all day, and I'm exhausted. The kids are ready and the weather is supposed to be nice and warm. Good night...