June 10th as a Big Girl

This morning I spent about 3 more hours weeding and trimming and cleaning up the back yard. I must have dug up 30 squirrel stashes, which made me wonder something else about squirrels: do they know and keep track of all their stashes around the yard, or do they keep forgetting where they were hiding things and start a new spot? I never quite recovered from all that manual labor complete with bending over and climbing and walking and kneeling and have been exhausted and sore all day. Not sure where I'm going to find the energy or strength to do it all again in the front yard tomorrow.

This afternoon I met with Interior Designer Cousin Katie at my parent's new place to talk about some simple renovations and design ideas. It is great to have an outlet for my pre-natal nesting urges that doesn't require upheaval of my own home. And turns out kids love an empty house, especially one that comes with a projection screen TV and DVD player, so having them along for the design meeting was no problem at all.

But the biggest news of the day is that June used the bathroom twice today! I saw that look on her face and stopped her and ran her to the bathroom and she got excited and did it! I had hoped she'd be inspired by 4-year-old girl cousins Jane & Ruby when they were here visiting, but I don't think I should get my hopes up too high that it will happen again right away. And trust me, I'm really not trying to push it on her before she's ready. But this time she didn't resist at all and certainly liked all the attention (and treats) afterward. (crossing my fingers, hoping hoping wishing daydreaming...)

June 9th with squirrels and a photo shoot

So about squirrels...






















Remember when I posted about how great it was to have wildlife in our yard? How I took it as a sign of landscape maturity and accomplishment that they are comfortable in our yard? Well the thing is I didn't really need more help propagating weeds. They seemed to be doing just fine on their own, and I was doing my darndest to keep up with them. But then along comes the squirrel who insists on stashing seeds between every rock -- deep into areas I dare not stretch my hand, and what would you know, but they have sprouted and grown -- everywhere. Besides just being a nuisance, it makes me wonder about this instinct squirrels have to bury seeds. Squirrels bury seeds for the purpose of storing up food, but seeds grow. Hence when the squirrel goes back to retrieve said stashed seed, it is no longer there, thereby defeating the instinct, right? But on the other hand, what are these mysterious seeds which seem to grow vigorously in such hostile rocky untended conditions?! Needless to say the birdfeeder now remains empty. Bethany suggested I bake the seeds before filling it to render them infertile. But really, that's just way too much work.


And now, a pre-bedtime photo shoot:

Yummy fudgcicle

Strike a pose!

Hillarious!

June - make a mad face

June 8th around town and more baseball in the rain

Today felt quite productive. Here's a rundown:

• shower (woohoo!)
  
• doctor's appointment. Babysitters fell through so I took Oliver & June with me -- Oli sat in the hallway outside the room during the exam part. Looks like surgery is in my future :(
  
• Allen's grocery store so Oliver can buy the model truck that the rest of the neighborhood kids got at the birthday party we missed on Saturday. No time to actually do the grocery shopping we desperately need.
  
• work meeting on the phone with my boss's boss's boss. Brenden babysat June while I hid in the closet upstairs.
• June took a nap
• Brenden's friend Chandler came over. They rode bikes to J Dawgs for lunch.
• Oliver played with the neighbors for hours
  
• Cleaned my room. Made my bed
• some work work
• work meeting on the phone while I made & served lunch & packed up Brenden's baseball stuff
  
• errands run with all 3 kids + Chandler: post office; toys r us to get Brenden's big wheel he's been saving for, only to find they didn't have it; deseret book; walmart to get the snack for baseball -- again no time to do any real grocery shopping.
  
• Brenden baseball game against the #1 ranked team -- Brenden's team won! It rained pretty much the whole time. The picture at the top is of June, Chandler & Oliver standing under an overhang to keep dry.
  
• dinner at 8:30pm from Wendy's drive-through (what are you going to do?!)
  
• take Chandler home
• Oliver needs to go to the bathroom -- lucky thing Mom & Dad's new place is next door to Chandler. Our key worked. The utilities were on.
  
• home. kids to bed.
• finally cleaned up kitchen -- it was getting pretty gross
• R&C stopped by on their way back from Zions. Sounds like they had fun.
  

There's still plenty that didn't get done and more to do to get ready for our trip on Friday.

June 7th on our own again

I don't have a picture today, but wanted to keep up the daily posting anyways. I'll just note the news that the Earnests have left Utah and are making their trek to the beach by way of Zions National Park, then Las Vegas, then San Diego, then we'll meet up with them at Capistrano Beach on Friday. We had such a nice time hosting them in Provo. They are great guests and I can't stress enough how nice it was to have my sister here. She is funny and gracious and generous and strong and smart and compassionate and so many other good things. She cooked and cleaned and entertained and accommodated. Really, it was lovely.

In lieu of a picture, I'll leave you with a funny June-ism. First I'll say I am not a fan of potty-talk and thankfully none of my boys are either so we've avoided that angle of conversation and vocabulary in our home so far. But when June told me that she "burped in her buns", I couldn't help but laugh. As far as I can tell she came up with this clever and accurate description all on her own.

June 6th mostly at home

After our all-day excursion to The Big City yesterday, today we spent mostly at home. I stayed with the boys & June while Annee bought some crafting supplies. Needless to say Oliver was all over that. Bugs, accessories, and princess scenes were created for hours.



Finally as we finished that up we looked out our front door and saw this:
Can you say "Kid's Dream Come true"?

That proved to be enough distraction that Scott and I were able to sneak off on a date. I don't know when the last time was that we were able to do dinner and a movie, but it had definitely been too long. We saw Angels & Demons which we both enjoyed, in spite of our 2nd row seats in a tiny theater.
After dinner we grabbed some dinner at our new favorite Japanese joint, Yamato. I quite enjoyed my caterpillar roll and was duly flattered when our eager and very friendly waitress told me in her broken English that I was a beautiful pregnant woman, not like most American mothers of four who are quite Ugly. Hmmmm, thanks?
We came home to find this familiar scene at home - kids asleep in bed, Rummikub game underway. Since Annee's been here R&C come over almost every night to hang out and this is frequently the activity of choice late into the night.

June 5th in full bloom and at Temple Square

Today I took a moment to smell the roses that are in full bloom in our front and back yards. They are breathtaking. The landscaping is starting to take on the jungle look that we strive for.



We took the kids on a field trip to Salt Lake City. We went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and saw the impressive and impactful Joseph Smith movie. We enjoyed watching for Uncle Pete's cameos, rooted for Christopher in the stick pull, and recognized our old buddy Russ Kendall, of Jewish Santa fame, as Brigham Young. Turns out we're rather connected in the Utah Arts world. Who knew.

Back at home the boys thought that 60 degrees overcast and 7:00 at night was the perfect time to try out the new slip 'n slide. They had a good time but quickly declared it too cold (oh really?!) and came in ready to bundle up in bed.


June put her babies to bed in her play house which doubles as our fireplace. She loves the little door on the front and doesn't seem to mind the ashes too much.


p.s. Look - no mention of food!

p.p.s. Congrats to Mom & Dad for closing on their new Provo abode today. We are super excited to have you close by so soon.

June 4th at Seven Peaks and Panda Express

Nothing like trying to post daily to prove how boring and uneventful our daily life is. Today Annee took all the kids to Seven Peaks for a long time while I did some work and had a little break from mom duties.
I took them a picnic lunch to try and prolong their time at the park, while not spending any extra money there.

For dinner RZ & CZ & Nate joined us at Panda Express where the kids partook of plenty of orange chicken and the adults ate Cafe Rio takeout.

Adult table

Boys table -- we were a little short on chairs

Little girls table (Neon long hair optional)

Christine & Nate

Christine casually mentioned her big news to us that she was accepted to the BYU Masters of Accountancy program. Congratulations Christine! I'm so proud of you!

Man we should start doing something more fun and interesting than just eating all the time.

June 3rd in 3D with hotwheels and more baseball

Today we took the kids to see Disney/Pixar's new movie Up. It was really great. Touching and exciting and interesting and cute.
Since George told us 3D doesn't exist in Korea (not sure whether he meant in the movies or just in general), we saw Up in 3D. For any of you who haven't seen a 3D movie in the last 20 years, let me tell you the technology has vastly improved and is very impressive. Christine, Rachel & Ken joined Annee and I and our 7 1/2 kids. We shared 2 large popcorns refilled them each once, and managed to make it through the whole thing without any baby meltdowns. June did ask about every 10 minutes whether it was all over yet, but she was being impressively patient.
Back at the house, every so often we get sick of the TV noise and tell the kids to find something else to do. The boys have been working on this hotwheels track for a couple of days now and were excited to show us today that it actually works. It goes down the stairs to our unfinished basement and is propped up with suitcases, photo albums, and plastic storage bins, and held together with duct tape. It turns a corner and does a loop at the bottom. Very impressive engineering. I resisted the urge to think too much about all the work it would be to put it all away and just marvelled at their ingenuity and industriousness.

After the movie and a brief stop at the mall, Brenden headed off to cub scouts, then the boys had overlapping baseball games on opposite ends of town again. They each have only one more game before we head off on vacation. Being a sports mom is hard work - physically, mentally, and emotionally.

June 2nd at Seven Peaks and with Old Friends

This morning I took the boys and June to Seven Peaks for a couple of hours. It is fun to see how independent Brenden, Henry & George can be together -- renting a tube, going on slides, sticking together, being brave. Oliver still likes to stick with me and June at the kids pool and has not quite yet gotten up the courage to try the big slides on his own. At the end George came by and they went on some smaller slides together. These boys are really doing a great job of getting along and are building some great memories together along the way.

I don't have a picture to prove it, but this evening we shared popsicles in the back yard with Andrew and Becca Pincock. We grew up in Maryland with Andrew and were best friends with their whole family (including a little singing/dancing troup with Andrew's older sisters which may or may not have been known as "P'Zack Attack"). Always fun to reconnect with people who knew you since Kindergarten, and who know your brothers as Johnny and Stevie.

June 1st with Great Grandma Z and baseball

Oliver W, Ruby E, Henry E, Grandma Z, June W, Brenden W, Jane E, George E

at This Is The Place Heritage Park, Salt Lake City

Oliver holding a duckling (so you can see his lovely smiling face)

**Park pictures courtesy of Aunt Annee who is quicker on the draw than I am.

We got back from Salt Lake and went straight to Brenden's baseball game (that's him playing shortstop). The weather took a bad turn and it started pouring rain, but the game went on. It was very close and pretty exciting.



**Baseball photos courtesy of Uncle Brett who made a surprise and welcome visit on his way back to California from Colorado & Idaho.

****I can see that if this photo-a-day thing is going to work I need to get on the ball with my own camera.