we've been BUSY : part two june

did june fly by for you too?  

i couldn't believe how fast it was gone.  

ours started with a road trip to california.

roasting marshmallows around my parents' fire pit is always a must.

those flames are perfect for toasting treats...

and chilly backsides.

 mr. max turned 11 on the trip.

what?  how?  yikes, i'm getting old.

the only candle we could find was a #2.

he didn't care.

leave it to his sisters to make him feel loved.

it was a flurry of wrapping paper and tissue.

and root beer.

and a birthday bash, compliments of aunty cat.

(next two pics compliments of her too.  thanks.)

max and logan share birthdays one day apart (and a year) so why not share a party too?

that was fun.

and then there were visits to see dear friends.

back in idaho nikki decided to turn 9.

she actually got all nine of her deserved candles.

there are never enough books in this house to satisfy these kids.

i can't keep up with them.

contemplating snatching a birthday-root beer from nik's stash.

and then some gwen randomness.

and this one too...

with toothpaste on her face.

i've got a ton of pictures on my phone from june of cousins and zoo trips and boating that i'm having issues putting up, so those will have to wait till later.

next up is may.

then maybe i'll get to august, which should be a good one considering we'll have an introduction on our hands.

t minus 2 weeks till baby.

YES!

bubbles

kids love bubbles.

my kids especially love bubbles.

they love them for lots of reasons,

one of which took me by surprise the other day.

so i've been trying to find the best brand of bubbles.

only because i've bought a couple brands this summer that i can't even get one lousy bubble out of.

lame.

i guess that's what you get when you fall for the bargain price of 2/$1.

well, i'd had enough.  so i googled "best brand of bubbles" and came up with gazillion bubbles.

they're a little pricey, 

but, WOW, are they ever worth it.

i can blow for a good 30 seconds on one dip of the jumbo wand

and i swear if you tried to count all the bubbles that come out,

you'd get... a gazillion.

i've figured it's a total ploy on the part of the manufacturers:

they make really great blowing bubbles that take no time at all to blow through (pun intended. ha.) because they work so well.  you end up buying bubbles more often because you're going through the bottles so fast.

so you're spending more money on the bubbles AND buying them more often.

hmmmm.

i say it's still worth it.

anywho, the kids are in heaven, as i'm blowing, and blowing, 

and...blowing

and getting a little light-headed.

and i mention that i can't blow all day. 

"because you might pass out, mom?"

is whitney's observation.

devan pauses her popping for a moment to contemplate my passing out, and i can promise you the look on her face is not one of concern at the prospect.

rather, it's one of amusement and, dare i say it, even hope.

next comes the explanation.

in a half whisper she tells whitney,

"if mom passes out then we can go play 

the computer as much as we want."

GASP!

surely whitney will set her straight on this one.

surely she'll inform her of how wrong and unloving it is to wish that your eight-month pregnant  mother will pass out as she is in the very act of expending herself for the soul purpose of your enjoyment.

surely.

whitney's reply?  

"i hope she passes out."

pop. pop. pop.

pop.

new friends

look who came to stay!

we'll just call them take-4 and take-5.

since the other three cats didn't stay long term.

the kids, however, have named them squirt and dr. pepper.

maybe in an attempt to get their mother to let them drink more soda?

i don't know.

although it may not look like it, these two little kitties actually seem to really like it here.

wonder how long it takes for them to get keen on the way my girls operate around small critters.

whitney is much more gentle than she's been in the past,

so lets just hope these two stick around.

gwen thinks they are her babies and is constantly putting them "to bed" and covering them with "blankets".

but they don't run away, so i'm assuming they like the attention.

no, gwen's hair does not always look so disheveled.

mostly just after naps, which seems to be when i've been pulling out my camera as of late.

whitney's hair, on the other hand...

apparently wade's side of the family is contributing money to a pool, the amount of which will be awarded to the member who guesses the closest the length of time it takes before one or both of the cats either run away, are mauled to death, hit by a car, sat upon to death, kidnapped, or scared to death.

MY side of the family would never do such a thing. 

birthday baby

little gwenie pig turned two last week. 

TWO!

that's getting old.

i made her a tee pee, just like the one my sister made for her little 2-year-old, and she LOVES it.

this little thing is so sweet.

she tries to be funny all day long.

it's very important to her that she be funny, i guess, 

because every time she tries to be comical in some way she asks,

"is it funny, mom?"

"funny" was one of her very first words

 and she loves to laugh.

every time she laughs she gets the hiccups.

 every time.

she has since she was an infant.

i hope she never grows out of that.

her laugh is really goofy.

it's deep and throaty and, well, goofy.

add in the hiccups and you can't help but laugh with her too.

when she's not laughing she's most likely singing.

she LOOOOVES to sing.

and she knows all the words, more or less.

if she's ever in a funk the easiest way to snap her out of it is to sing songs with her.

the other night, at 3 a.m., she came downstairs and got into bed with us (which she's never done before) and as she lay there between me and wade (who was sound asleep through it all. rude.)

she kept saying, in a very. intense. whisper.,

"mom, it's cwazy!  call me baby song!"

over and over and over again.

she was trying to sing the words to that "call me maybe" song.

at 3 a.m.

seems just as good a time as any other, right?

i think we re-lit her candles about ten times because she was having so much fun blowing them out.

and all day long you could hear gwen singing,

"happy bir-day tooo yooo - cha cha cha!"

 someone was getting into the olympic spirit 

with her gymnastics getup. 

so fancy.

"mom.  come on.  that's enough."

happy birthday, baby girl!!

here is the tee pee tutorial