Out of the mouths...

The other day I was digging through my purse looking for something and Greta comes up to me and says, "Where you going, Mom?"  To which I replied, "Nowhere."  She asked again and I gave her the same answer.  She responded with, "Then why you have your earrings on, Mom?"  

Today I was at the chiropractor. (I have a sprained joint in my hip, the pain is through the roof.  Goodness.)  Our chiro does not have a basket of candy like many places do, but he occasionally will give the kids a treat if they are with me.  On the way today, Aaron was chatting about how he was going to ask the doc for some candy.  I was very clear with him that he was not to ask, but if the doc offered, he could take it.  My appointment was just about finished and the doc was finishing talking about my sprained joint.  Aaron was in the room and I kept hearing him trying to interrupt, and all I heard was candy.  I shushed him.  After the doc was done talking, Aaron looks right at him and said, "So, speaking of candy..."  The doc and I got a good laugh out of that one, esp. b/c when you get to the heart of it, Aaron really wasn't asking for candy...

One more

Found this picture on Steve's phone from our weekend camping.  I love it.

Happy 3rd, Greta

Yesterday our sweet little G turned 3.  Wow, I think I write this at every child's birthday, but where has the time gone?  I barely remember what life was like before the sweet little black haired baby joined our family.  Greta has been such a joy with her sweet personality and big smile.  She gets much love from every member of our family.
Her birthday was pretty low key.  When she first woke up, she was mad that we kept telling her that it was her birthday (she has been my crabbiest kid upon awakening).  She kept saying, "It's not my birthday and I don't want cakes."  When she was a little happier, I asked her what she wanted to do special for her birthday and she said, "Paint my fingernails."  Anything else?  "No."  Wow, is she easy to please or what??
A few days before her birthday, she got a card in the mail from her Grandpa and Bev Heitland.  We made her wait to open it until the day.  She was VERY excited to open the card and I missed the happiness as I ran and got my camera.  When I got back, Steve was starting to punch out the figurines that were in the card.  Greta did not get that and was VERY upset at daddy for ruining her card.  I love the following pics of her reaction.

A happier moment with her birthday card.

I stopped at the dollar tree and got her a balloon.  Favorite part of her day.

Her presents were very simple, but she loved them all.  

Greta does not like cake (all she does is eat the icing).  So I went for the super easy route and we had Klondike bars!

It's funny, as I look at these pictures, all taken the same day, I realize that Greta had 4 different outfits on!  Who knows if that was even all of them.  She changes her clothes constantly and is a little bit of a fashionista.  We'll see where this goes...

Girls Beach Trip "11

Last night we returned from our 3rd annual girls beach trip.  This year it was just me and my 2 older ones.  I figure Greta can wait a few years when she can enjoy and appreciate it a bit more.  The girls and I had a great time away, just relaxing and enjoying the water, sun, and sand.  The weather was perfect, hot, breezy and sunny, but not that crazy hot that makes you feel like you are going to melt.  I was a bit under the weather, I have a cold that has been hanging on and now I believe has turned into a wonderful ear infection (self diagnosis. what else to think? My ear is killing me, can't hear out of it, and the whole side of my face hurts, into my jaw and throat.)  On top of that, I am having some wacko pregnancy thing going on in my hip which is making it very difficult to move.  ANYWAY, enough of my woes...we had a good time in spite of my ailments.

The girls love the beach, Claudia was in the water most of the time and Morgan was in the sand most of the time.  They were mostly content to do their own thing.  It was fun to be with just them.  I'm continually amazed at how different they are and they are becoming their own little women.  Before I know it, they will both be all grown up.  I am grateful for this time away with them.

The joys of a drip castle.

 I'm so M-A-D at these pictures.  I wanted to get a nice shot of the 3 of us, but we took too long to eat supper and so it was quite dark by the time we were down.  Didn't help that forgot I had my aperture bumped way up from being in the bright sun, I forgot to turn it back down for these.  Grr...

Waiting for me to set up the camera.

So here is our "nice shot", kind of grainy.  Me at 28 weeks preggo.  I really wanted to get a shot at the beach, but didn't feel like lugging my camera to the boardwalk to get it!!

Mermaid

Not the most flattering shot (reality!!), but his was how I spent my time at the beach.  I did get in the water once with Claudia and taught them the intricacies of building a drip castle, but other than that I was really enjoying my book (Thanks, Krista Winkler!!).

We got spooked

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I were up early and went yard saling.  It was a wet and foggy morning and upon our arrival home, we were greeted with the funniest scene.  Our yard was just covered in cobwebs. Because it had been so foggy, the webs were filled with dew and made them very easy to see, esp. in the sunlight.  The kids had a grand time running around the yard looking at all the webs.  It was such an unusual sight.  I told them that we got "spooked".

This was next door at my uncle's house.

Ohio Leftovers

Here are a few more random shot from our trip to Ohio.

Greta getting a body outline.

There was Queen Anne's Lace everywhere out there.  The girls were enjoying decorating Avery with it.

 These next few pics are a bit irreverent.  I think it was Aaron who started it.  He was being silly and made up a song entitled: "Halleluiah, shake your booty."  Everyone thought it was quite silly and it caught on quickly with the little ones.

Another sad face/happy face combo that I love!

After a number of meals of cleaning up, Miranda decided that the shot vac was the  best way to do it.   Smart woman!

We had a great trip.  Thanks so much for having us, Chad and Miranda!!

Poor girl #2

Claudia's poison is healing very well, though it's spread a bit to her arms and legs, she looks 100 times better.  It was poor Morgan's turn to have a rough day.  Both Claudia and Morgan were at a friend's birthday pool party.  Since the womb, Morgan has been very physical child.  As a little tot, she rarely got hurt b/c she was pretty agile and I protected her from her limits.  Now that she is getting older I guess I am not seeking to protect her as much and she's getting hurt more and more!!  Last summer she learned to do a front flip off the dive and I guess today she decided was the day for her to attempt a back flip.  She's never done a "back" anything, except at gymnastics she's been spotted for a back handspring.  Her first attempt off the dive for her back flip was not a friendly one.  No adult there really saw what happened, but somehow her face smacked the board.  She is really banged up.  Thankfully, other than a really beat up face, she was not injured.  I took these shots with Steve's phone this evening.  These pictures bring tears to my eyes that she is smiling so dearly as I took these.  I feel so bad for my girl...it looks so painful.  The moms at the party said she did so well.  Her eyes welled up and her lip was quivering, but she didn't cry.

I've been pretty sick all week with a bad cold and have been putting off taking Morgan's birthday pictures.  I told her I guess we will have to wait awhile to do them!!

The Woods

My brother build a new house in a very nice development and one of the perks is that he has a woods in the backyard.  The woods separates them from a seminary so there is no chance of it getting developed.  The kids had tons of fun playing back there.
My girls spent hours back there making their own forts.  I didn't really get any good shots of it, but it was all pretty impressive.

This was Claudia's treasure collection

The swing

Aaron and Afton sword fighting

Greta was determined to have a turn by herself on the swing and when she actually got it, she was a tad scared.  You can tell by her fake smile.

A close up of Claudia's treasure collection.  A broken gold ball, piece of glass, feather,  mushroom, flower, etc. Pretty cute.

There was numerous spots in the woods that I would have loved to do a photo shoot.  The lighting and greenery were just stunning.  I'm bummed that these pics are just a tad blurry, it was darker in there than I realized and my shutter was too slow.
All the kids except Drew.  My strategy for getting them to smile was to have them make a grumpy face...

 And then a happy face!

Morgan's Birthday

Hard to believe that my second born is now 9 years old.  Wow.  She was very excited to spend her b-day in Ohio with her cousins.  The morning of, Miranda and I took all the girls to to a local park with a splash pad.  (The boys stayed home to assemble a table saw.  Which gender got the better side of that morning??)

The girls were very intrigued by the train that went rolling by as we walked across the parking lot.

Miranda was very kind to offer to make Morgan what she wanted for her b-day supper.  She requested roast beef and mashed potatoes.  Yum.

This little girl was not really into the birthday supper.

Miranda got some KILLER cupcakes for dessert.  Blue velvet with buttercream frosting for the kids, and tiramisu for the adults.  Oh my, they were some of the best I ever had.

These pictures pretty much sums up how Morgan eats any dessert.

Concentration

Anticipation

Morgan was very excited about her new Webkins.