Anna the Guard/Peasant

Anna finally performed her play! For the past 6 months, she's been practicing the play Robin Hood. She had 2 parts-- a guard and a peasant child. She looked so cute! She had such a good  time doing this and can't wait to do another one. I'm proud of her for not being too nervous about going onstage in front of a big crowd. I love this kid!

I'm Broken

Friday morning I was walking through my bedroom and ran into the corner of my bed. It hurt like crazy! I sat down and looked at my foot, and this is what I saw-- see how my one toe is going off in its' own direction? Ugh. It was really gross.

The good news is that I arrived at the InstaCare early and was the first patient of the day. They took X rays and pronounced my toe as broken. There's not much they can do for it-- it's just taped to my other toe and should straighten in the next month or so. But, dang, it sure hurts! Especially when I do anything on the ground, like change a diaper or play with my kids. Getting back up does me in!

Trav and the girls have pampered me today, though, and I'm feeling like I could get used to this. :) They've brought me meals in bed, made cute little cards, and laid down next to me to read stories. What sweethearts!

Big Weekend

Last weekend Trav's sister got married. The bride was beautiful, the wedding was exquisite, and the food was.... vegan. Anyway, we had a great time with family that night.

 

Trav and me in my fabulous $10 formal dress. I bought it last fall without a clue where I would wear it, and it turned out to be perfect for the wedding!

Trav and his dad. We have maybe two pictures of them together. I wish I'd done a better job with this one.

Trav and his sweet mom. I love this lady!

Trav and his gorgeous sister. She is seriously a model, and her wedding party was full of beautiful model people. A bit intimidating for average folks like myself. But, Kristy is great and we are so happy for her and Wyatt!

 Since we were in Salt Lake late that night, we decided to sleep at my parents' house and then take the kids to the zoo in the morning.

Evie loved the baby elephant. "He eating grass, Mom. I not eat grass." Repeat seventeen times.

Anna and Kate with Trav's mom. She gives our family a zoo pass for Christmas every year, so we were excited to take her with us this time!

My dad with the girls. He loves his grandkids so much; he only meant to come for a few minutes, but ended up staying for 2 hours!

The best thing that happened at the zoo was when we saw the orangutans. The mom o. is named Eve, and her baby is Acara. Our little Eve got confused and thought the baby was called Eve, like her. She kept saying "That Baby Eve, like me." Then we asked her what the mommy was doing (she was going through a box filled with paper and tearing them into peices) and Evie said, "She doing laundry."

It cracked me up! Apparently Eve projected the scenes of her life onto those furry little orangutans!

After the zoo Nancy watched the girls so Trav and I could go out. We went to Red Lobster for dinner (thanks to a gift card from his bday) and gorged ourselves. Red Lobster is so yummy!

Thanks to everyone who made our weekend lots of fun!

You'd Better Watch Out

A couple weeks ago the library had a Fairy Tea Party and I signed Anna and Kate up to go with me. The day of the party arrived and Anna announced she didn't want to go! She would prefer doing something with Daddy, she said. I couldn't believe it! Six years old and already too big for fairy tea parties? A small peice of my heart broke at the news.

But, Kate was still in. We had a great time getting her all dressed up, with fancy hair and makeup. Then we had a photo shoot to show off her beauty!

Eve got to take Anna's place, but she had to be woken from her nap to come, and wasn't really into the photo shoot.

I'm grateful to still have some girls that will dress up with me!

Round Here

Around here, there's been a lot of this:

Mashed potatoes and gravy

Honeycrisp Apples

Butterfinger Candy Bars

Cafe Rio

Time in Bed

And the reason why? I'm pregnant again! Our baby is due Sept. 24. The kids are super excited, as are the parents. :) 

Life is Beautiful

I know I've mentioned this before, but I love driving Anna to school. Because this is what I get to see every day.
Well, this is almost what I get to see every day. This photo was actually taken about an hour after I'd driven her to school-- first I drive her to school, then I drive back to our neighborhood, pick up our little preschool pal, then drive them both to preschool. Then I had to run back to my house to grab my camera and then.... finally... take the photo. It was kind of disappointing because by the time I got there, the sun had risen fully over the mountain and there was too much light. On the way to school, the sun's rays were barely peeking behind the mountain, lighting it up from behind. It was glorious.
I don't know a lot about photography, but I do know this-- it's all about the light. And the best times for photos are when there's not a bunch of direct harsh light, like there is in this photo. It's best if the light is muted, early morning or late afternoon. And I've taken enough photographs to learn that that is a small window of time indeed.
My point is this: I wish I'd had my camera the second I saw the magnificent mountain scene early in the morning. If I'd been ready, I would have captured a beautiful moment.
It's kind of like life. We are presented with beautiful moments each and every day. But are we ready? Are we watching? Are we experiencing the beauty the Lord is offering us? I hope so. Not just in the beauties of nature like we see here, but in the beauties of raising children, loving a spouse, enjoying a friendship, even (shudder that I've come to this) petting the dog.
Life really is beautiful. It's up to us to see it.

What We're Doing Today

As of 12:30 pm, we've had 2 successes and 3 accidents. It's only up from here!