"Water, Water, Everywhere and not a drop to drink...."

Our exciting weekend....I worked Friday night, and awoke Saturday morning to the news that our water had been turned off. We have been in the process of installing sprinklers and while digging down to our water main, we discovered a leak in the pipe. It hadn't been a big issue until the pressure from the dirt above was gone and then it sprang up..and grew. And it had apparently rusted the pipe, all the way back to our house. So, we had no water for 2 days, which really wasn't too much of anything to complain about. Kevin's parents live down the street and we went over there for any water needs. Although it made me super grateful for running water, flushing toilets, and clean dishes.

All the concrete in front of our house had to be ripped out to access the pipe. Luckily Kevin's dad is doing some concrete work out at their dairy and have offered to come redo our driveway and whatever else we might need. I think I will probably just do a path to our door and leave the rest grass.

The trench out from our house to the road. The kids LOVED it. Lucy of couse loved all the fresh dirt and Isak was super excited to be helping and climbing on more dirt piles.

I swear I feed her. She really has a dirt eating problem. I think she might be an addict.
So Kevin and his dad replaced the pipe and buried it today and now I once again have running water! This would have been so much more expensive had we not had Kevin's dad and his backhoe. I think I will refer to this summer as the Summer of Dirt. I'm hoping by next summer, I should have some grass.

I may not have grass, and I may be one broken car away from being the trashiest house on the block...

but I'll be darned if that isn't a watermelon growing in my garden!! I don't know how long it will live once my kids discover it, but its still pretty awesome!

Recently we bought a booster seat for Lucy and attempted to let her eat at the table with us last night. It was a disaster. She dumped her entire plate of food on the table halfway through the meal and then proceeded to throw it all over the floor and kevin's lap. Needless to say, I think she was done eating. She uses utensils really well, way better than Isak ever did, but the girl is SO DANG MESSY when she eats. For instance, this picture below, She dumped out the yogurt all over her tray and then decided to dip her toast in it. Totally makes sense, Right?

The wall behind her, beside her, and the floor all around her have to be scrubbed daily..and so does she. And that highchair. I think I am selling this highchair when she is done with it and getting a small travel one that just hooks onto the table.Perhaps the mess can be more confined that way...

She thinks my ipod is a phone. And she really needs new pajamas. This is the second pair that have ben cut off at the legs..and ended up at the knee. She's growing like a weed.

I found this costume at a garage sale for $.25, along with a huge bag of dress up clothes for lucy for $5. He has been wearing it all day. Some funny things I heard Isak say today while playing outside:

Isak: "Oh no, Nephi's ship I built has been broken! Now we will Never make it to the promised land. Never!".

"I am going throw this dirt at the sun, with the power of a 1,ooo raging bulls!"

"Are you so nice mom? I so happy you are so nice".

Perhaps he has been reading too many Heman books. The power of a 1,ooo ragng bull phrase has been used many times today, mostly while he is telling me that he is Heman and that I am a rock warrior and that he is destroying me with water from his spray bottle. He has been having swim lessons this week. I can only imagine what he has been telling his poor teacher.

18 month check-up

Lucy turned 18 months on Tuesday.
She weighs 25lbs (61st percentile). She is 33.2" tall (90th percentile). Head is 18" (90th percentile). She can say lots of words and is very mischevious and also incredible sweet. She said I love you for the first time on Wednesday while Kevin's mom was changing her diaper. She was talking to the robot she was holding. She loves books and will sit and look at them by herself for any length of time. She also loves Isak and will wonder around the house chanting "Isa", "Isa", looking for him. Lucy loves to make funny faces and will mimic anyway who is paying attention to her. She thinks this is hilarious. She is very active and a great climber and has been going down the slides at the park by herself for quite sometime. We have been teaching her different body parts and so far she is really great at "nose". We just love having Lucy in our family!



There is a stuffed monkey I have that has velcro paws. Lucy likes to wear it draped across herself, kind of like a baby bjorn only with a stuffed animal. Its weird, I know.

Mark dressed Isak up and put him in "the airplane". Mark then flew him around the yard several times, firing water balloons. Isak is really going to miss Mark when he goes back to school in a few weeks.

Isak's attempt at a photo shoot of Hop. I believe he really thinks these animals are all real. He makes me have them talk several times a day and most recently has started doing "check ups" on them with a little nurse kit I found at a garage sale. Luckily, Hop's blood pressure and pulse have all been within normal bunny limits :).

Below are a few videos I took this week.

Kevin and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on Wednesday. He had to to take off to Houston the next day so we just went up a day early to Spokane and he suprised me with a room at the Davenport Hotel in downtown. It was really fun! The ballrooms in this hotel are beautiful. Most of the time they are used for weddings, receptions, etc, I believe this hotel is one of the oldest buildings in Spokane. It still has a lot of original wood work and carvings throughout and the ceilings are gorgeous. It was fun to just look around the hotel.
We stayed on the 14th floor and had an awesome view. We could see everyone's roofs!

Anyway, Happy Anniversary to us! I must say that we have packed a lot into 5 years when I think about it....2 kids, 6 moves and 6 job changes between the two of us. Here's to hoping the next 5 years are much calmer.

Weekend Happenings

This past weekend we finally started to put sprinklers into our yard. This has been a huge project in the making and it didn't help we had to fill in a very deep pool and level out all the ground before we could even start. I think Kevin plans to work on it through the week...any volunteers?? This is one of the reasons I love my husband...I found this green vintage lazy-boy on a girls website in Walla-Walla (sorry Korbi, really I stole it from your facebook post :)). Now we have a similar, newer version of this chair only brown that my father-in-law gave to us when we got married when I promised I would eventually provide him with grandchildren. Really I just fell in love with it and wouldn't give it back so we compromised. To be fair, Isak's middle name is Robert. I have rocked and fed my babies in it, slept in it when I was pregnant or sick, and both my kids love to sit in it. So I was pretty darn excited at the thought of finding another chair similar to this one.

So when I told Kevin that I needed this chair but could in no way justify driving over an hour to pick up a 40 year old chair, he simply asked when I wanted to leave and said we could count it as our date night. He's a keeper I tell you. The chair is a little brighter than I thought but it reclines flat and is in excellent condition. I cannot see any wear in it at all, the only downside is that its not quite as comfortable as the brown one we have now. But my kids love it and I think I will eventually put it in Lucy's room. Its a great rocking chair!

Isak loves to go sit in the chopper with Kevin's dad and chop hay. He's gotten to do this a few times this season and always gets very excited.

We had some friends over for dinner tonight and I had the kids sit at their own table. From the sound of it, their conversation was much more interesting than ours. I heard snippets such as..."Do you have a dress too?" "My uncle paul gave me that air rifle. Do you have an Uncle Paul?" "I'm sorry I don't have any grass.Do you have grass?"

Yes, that last one was definitely from Isak. The other day he called kevin up on my phone and asked him to come home and put in some grass. This was all on his own, I thought it was pretty darn funny, I really don't know how he even managed to call him. Apparently my plees for a lawn are not going unnoticed.
I think I am going to break out of my anti-social shell and start having people over for dinner more often. Its a good way to get me to cook and clean my house and Isak apparently is desperate for someone other than Kevin and I to talk too.

I found these gorgeous tomatoes in my garden this morning! I haven't taken a look for a while and when I went out there, I found several little green tomatoes blossoming, and my cucumbers have wrapped themselves all around my tomatoe plants. This is our first attempt at a garden and I think I planted everything too close...so easy when all they are is seeds at first..

Oh my and the carrots I think are mutants. There are TONS of them and I failed to thin them properly so they look like they have tentacles. I think its time to make some stew! Or carrot cake...

Its been really hot today. Isak is in the midst of a super long nap and Lucy has been lounging all afternoon with me. We watched 27 dresses for a while then started to clean. She just wanted to eat a sandwich in my bed. She's defintely my daughter.

Interesting Article...

http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/29/parenting-children-obsessive-legal-opinions-columnists-lenore-skenazy.html

This was a great article...especially the first half. I must admit, I sometimes obsess that living in small town in Othello my kids won't have enough "opportunities". This summer was primarily comprised of us going to the park everyday, the pool, visiting nana, and library visits. There isn't a ton of so called "culture" here but I think it will force my kids to be more creative as they get older.

There is one kindergarten, one high school, regardless of the test scores, rankings, or internet reviews, this is where my kids are going to be getting an education. And you know what? I believe that this is okay, because as a parent, I believe that the most important part of my children's education will primarily always be at home. I am who is going to teach them their core values, how to succeed, help establish a healthy self-image and how to work. And hopefully, be able to do it in a way that won't smother them, but allow them to get more independent as they get older. I love how this article pointed out that as a society, we tend to think that the more we parent, the better. When in reality, not letting our children experience failure and sparing them heartbreak is doing much more damage than good. Sometimes we need to let them figure it out on their own, to be disappointed, and to feel the consequences of their actions. We are raising children....not a best friend. Anyway, spoken from the mom who has a 3 year old, I am sure the full truth of these words will become apparent over the next 15 years.

Here's to hoping I can figure out what to do with these two munchkins over the next several years...without messing them up too badly....

Lucy Firsts

I braided Lucy's hair today for the first time....quite the feat since she hates having her head touched let alone me doing her hair. Its not quite straight...or even...but its a braid! The start of many more hair-do's to come, I am sure..

She wasn't too happy about the whole experience.

Lucy started nursery for the first time at church yesterday too! In our church the kids get to start attending the nursery when they turn about 18 months. Its a pretty big deal because it means we don't have to chase her all over the halls for two hours :). I think she did pretty well, although she was crying when I picked her up. Its probably a big adjustment to just have one snack time and not be able to eat every 5 minutes..