Happiness is....

new toys!!!

Today we changed out toys. The girls chose some toys to put in the basement and when we got down there chose some of the boxed up toys to bring up and play with.

This really is the cheapest way to go toy shopping.

A brand new, exciting toy!

Of course these were toys that had been boring enough to be taken down into the basement earlier this year.

But now? Now these toys are sooo much fun.

Grayson ignored us.

Even when I tried to get in his face, he ignored us.

He pretended to be fascinated with the grass. I know he was just playing hard-to-get.


Finally! Now I'll see that sweet "Oh, HI Mom!" smile that I love so much.

Or not.

Hannah laid on the grass with me and we talked of princesses and fairies and dishes that I didn't want to do. She told me that I was like Cinderella and her Daddy was like the stepmother. Very astute, that child.

Grayson ignored us.

Ainsley talked Hannah into running back and forth on the lawn with her.

Hannah loosely interpreted "run".


And taught her sister how to curtsy to her.

Here's Ains coming to curtsy to me and call me "Or Eyeniss" Sometimes copying your older siblings isn't such a bad thing.

This... This is how this child lives her life. Pure contentment. Pure anger. Pure love. Pure pain. Pure bliss. Pure despair. Pure joy. She does nothing -feels nothing - by halves. It's all there for you to see. I won't show you a picture of pure anger. My camera won't work during those moments. It's scared. It waits for moments like these.

Waiting for me to start the race. Yes, Ainsley changed. Yes, she's now wearing an apron. No, she's not wearing anything else. She's two. No, I will not show you the pictures of the race. I was taking them from the back.

Rhabarbarads.

My girls are picking the last of the flowers on the lawn. The frosts will keep any new ones away.


It started out just "Hey, you want me to make you a necklace out of those?"

Then they needed beautiful wreaths for their heads.

After getting bean flowers to add to her wreath, and having me make them wands, Hannah got very pensive.

Then joyful. "I'm going to be a fairy when I grow up. I'll have wings and I'll be much smaller. But I'll still love you. I'll live in your backyard. Except for when it's winter. Then I'll be human again and live in your house. Except for when it's spring. Then I'll be a fairy again ... (insert 45 second loop)"

This one's less fanciful and more of a pragmatist.

She was chasing the cat with her fairy wand, calling it a "bonk cat". Matt understands her better.

Maybe they're Rhubarb Fairies. Or Rhubarb Nymphs? Rhabarbarads. Yeah, that's my girls. Rhabarbarads.

Creative about cleaning.

I walked into the bathroom this afternoon and Hannah was standing on the sink washing the mirrors. She pointed to the dirty smears on it and said "What do you think did this?"

"I don't know", I said. "Maybe it was from you girls playing?" (It is, in fact, from the last time she cleaned my mirrors. She used toothpaste.)

"No", she said, "it's not that." long pause.... "WAIT! I KNOW! Someone snuck into our house and rubbed a hot dog on it."

....

....

"You think so?" I asked doubtfully. (and, yes, I paused that long - I was trying not to laugh)

"Yes, but, well, they had to cut the hot dog first of course, to make it easier. It's really hot doggy. I'll have to use toothpaste to clean this off."

Of course.

Amish Paradise

We had quite a few cousins visit us this summer. Princess gave quite a few cart rides. She's a wonderful pony.

At the end of the last ride one evening, all of the kids hopped on the cart for a picture. One of the cousins said "I feel like I'm on an Amish schoolbus."

See that kid in the yellow shirt? He's a funny kid. He sent me some slideshow type things he put together with pictures from his visit that are meant to be played with 'Amish Paradise' in the background. I wish I could figure out how to post that here.

Can't do nothin' right.

Hannah: "Mother, pretend you can't see or hear me, ok?"

Mother: "OK"

H: "Mooother! I said pretend you can't hear me."

M: Pretends she can't hear her.

H: "Mooother! Pretend you can't hear me."

M: Pretends she can't hear her.

H: "MoOOther! I said pretend you can't hear me."

M: Pretends she can't hear her.

H: near tears, "Mother! Why aren't you listening to me?

M: "I'm pretending I can't hear you."

H: "Mother, don't answer! I said to pretend you can't hear me!"

Now I ask you, how was I supposed to win that one?

This post is about a grandma.

Grandma always made you feel she had been waiting to see just you all day and now the day was complete. ~Marcy DeMaree

Sure, you can hang with Grandpa.


Grandpas are great at getting burps out.

But they're not grandmas.

The simplest toy, one which even the youngest child can operate, is called a grandparent. ~Sam Levenson

A grandma's name is little less in love than is the doting title of a mother. ~William Shakespeare


Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children. ~Alex Haley

It is as grandmothers that our mothers come into the fullness of their grace. ~Christopher Morley

No, there's not much better than a grandma.

Intermittent Reunion

My husband's family has a reunion of sorts for all of his siblings twice a year - summer and winter. Most of the siblings live within three hours of his hometown, so we usually converge there. This year we went camping in some beautiful Wyoming mountains.

We camped a lot growing up. Real camping - backpacks and all. This wasn't real camping. We parked right off the mountain road and half of the families had campers. I was jealous.

Here are nine of the seventeen grandkids - what can I say, we are, for the most part (read: everyone but my children and me), Mormons. There are nine children in my husband's family and it's always a boisterous, fun group. The cousins are a fun group of kids.

After a morning of running around camp, almost everybody went on a four-wheeler/motorbike ride up the mountain. Hannah and one of her cousins stayed behind because they were picking princess flowers. That's very important and can't be interrupted for something as mundane as a four-wheeler ride.

I stayed back in camp with Hannah and Grayson and a few of my sister-in-laws. I got to hold my sister-in-law's brand new baby girl a lot more that way. She's only four weeks old. Grayson looks so big next to her!

After we'd packed up camp, most of us headed up to Intermittent Spring.

We had lots of littles with us, so this was the perfect hike for us.

A ten minute hike up a well-groomed trail along the large stream.

Enough interesting things to keep the kids entertained, not so long that they got too tired, even wild raspberries for them to eat!

OK, so that's not the kids eating the raspberries, but they did pick enough for the kids to eat. You'll have to trust me on that.

Here is the view of the spring running at full power down the mountain. To the left of the spring is where the well-groomed trail ends and the abandon-all-hope-ye-who-would-drag-toddlers-up trail begins. We went up it.

This was us smiling before we remembered we would have to go back down.

Intermittent Spring is a really interesting phenomenon - one of only three known natural intermittent springs in the world. The water gushes out of that hole for fifteen or twenty minutes and then, quite suddenly, the water stops. After another fifteen to twenty minutes, the water slowly starts back up and gradually increases the volume of water until it's gushing down the mountainside again. That's the basic explanation. Here's a more in-depth explanation.

I love this picture. I have a very patient husband. That weary rubbing of his eyes is about as cranky as he gets - with the kids. Matt had just hauled the infant and the toddler up the steep part of the trail and the four-year-old was having a hard time because of the periodic leg pains she gets that had hit her a few minutes before. Ains was tired and cranky (you can see her walking away from him crying) and Gray was wanting out of the carrier, so he was fussing and throwing himself backwards in the carrier.

And because these springs are so rare and I know you wouldn't want to miss an intermittent spring montage, here you go. I'm always thinking of my readers.

See the elbow in the picture above? That's Matt's brother making the decision to stay on the other side of the spring while it starts back up.






See that man? That's Matt's brother trying to figure out how he's going to get back over to where we are without getting wet in the now raging spring. To the left of the picture is a rock face that won't let him join us. To the right is the other side of the spring. He was in a quandary. I can't believe I just said "See that man" and not "See that boy".

The following picture is my favorite picture from the weekend. This is on our way back down the main trail. This is Zee. Cute little bug. She had that bandaid on her forehead for the whole weekend. She's going to have a sweet tan line.

Do you see that little hole beside her? That was on a huge cliff face. She was in front of us on the hike down but we caught up to her because she was sitting by the "baby bear cave". You know, if it had been me doing that at her age, it would have been to get out of walking for a few minutes. I saw a lot of cool rocks, beautiful flowers, interesting bugs, and amazing patterns in the dirt when we went hiking as kids. I got the impression that Zee was actually waiting for the baby bear to make an appearance. She's probably just a much better actor than I was at the same age.