Pictures. Pickles. and Dancing.

He's awesome. Level 1 here we come!

We had family pictures today so yesterday I spent a good bit creating outfits, washing them, finding shoes that had a pair, and ironing.
Stressful stuff.
 The boys were awesome at keeping themselves happy though.
With my camera. ! 35 pictures.
Boy, they love it. Brycen took this picture and the next two.

My hair is so long. I LOVE it.

My pickle lovers. 

Not Daddy's pickles. My pickles. We buy two kinds of pickles.
Mine are the best.

On a really good day, they will share with me.

Not today.
We enjoyed dancing to the credits of "Mulan" though.
Loved the movie with my family, loved the dancing even more.

Our home teachers this month encouraged us to do activities to strengthen our family and gave us a list.
Today we marked off 3 of them.
Went out for ice cream.
Had a movie night.
Danced together in the living room.

Just like the cover of June's Ensign.
Pure happiness.

Summer Survival, right?

Brycen's number one fan. Cian watched him 9 days of swimming lessons (so far). And loved at the end of each one, when it was time to pick him up. 

Our fish.

Please ignore the strap-falling-off and wedgey-picking girls, Brycen's thumbs up is.the.best.

He's clearly been perfecting it since birth (or I guess, 8 days old).

Fruit smoothies are always a hit. Don't tell, but I think mine are better than Jamba's. 

As the summer gets hotter, I'm finding less and less motivation to turn on the oven.
Annie's Mac n' cheese is a weekly staple in our house.
I LOVE it. 
I think more than the boys do.
The taste. The ease. Mmm.

2 peas in a pod. They love books and story time. 

Okay, awesome--right? But the library keeps their A/C at like -60. I froze.
And sadly, it was me that was begging them to leave after an hour, promising I will read books to them in the car (which I did). My teeth couldn't stop chattering.

Last week while we were doing this:

Hey, no complaints. These boys are my world. (Anyone want a free tv?)

The Mr. was doing this ("important conference"):

In gorgeous Florida.

His upgrade for the week. 

It's a tough life, right?.;)

Saturday Jobs

We get the opportunity to clean our church about twice a year.
Brycen thought it was awesome.
He sprayed. Mommy ran behind, trying to keep up.

Cian is SO scared of vacuums. Still.
Poor guy. He settled for a 2 hour shoulder ride and almost fell asleep.

(Yup, still have blasted candy canes from Christmas--top right corner. Can't seem to get rid of them. It may be the fact that I think the peppermint flavor is blah.)

I was asked to teach Relief Society. Of course I'm going to bribe them with my ultimate Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies! They are to die for. Katie, when the time comes and you are ready--I will make some for you :)

Katie and I's Mt Olympus survival last month was a hit with the crowd.
I will have to publish that soon. It's quite the experience.

Cooking in the Jams. He loves putting in the chocolate chips.

Now--The real question: How many did you sneak?

None? So impressed, I still can't believe it. Side note: he hates the tags in all his shirts.

He's awesome. Love his blue eyes.

Brycen volunteered to give the opening prayer in Primary today. By himself.
Had the adult folk cracking up with the cuteness that followed. 

Heart this.

These boys always get along the best at bedtime. Anyone else have this problem? 
They purposely try to play perfectly (like I don't know something is up) and I never interrupt it.
We get to bed LATE. Every night.

I HEART this picture. Best friends.
It is SO awesome.

  We picked up the pool today for 8 bucks. They played, and I sat and watched them from the kitchen table in the A/C ,doing our budget. My kind of life!

After our outdoor activities, a HUGE storm blew in. It cooled off enough to first, blow all the bugs away and then open all the windows---it felt ah-amazing. 
Brycen actually insisted on riding his tricycle until it POURED.
I HEART a good rain.

Not the drizzly, weak all day Oregon mist. But a --once a week, feed my grass, cool the Summer heat with the beautiful wind, entertain my kids, fill my house with the smell of it, and OH, the sound of thunder-- Kaboom rain. 
And.... it lasted TWO hours.

It might also be the life of an adult. Any reason to turn off my A/C and have my grass watered. Yes, Please! I love saving money.  

It was so perfect timing. Swimming lessons done for the week and my grass was looking a bit parched.

Trouble.

Who remembers this?

Brycen was not quite 6 months old when he had a terrible encounter with my straightener. 

After interrogating me about being an abusive mother, they finally let us go home. 

Brycen handled it like a champ.

 We still have some leftover burn ointment they gave us that day and it came in handy a few weeks ago when Brycen decided to try to the cut the German Pancakes cooling on the stove. The pan was hot hot hot!

And since, I'm not going back to a hospital unless we absolutely have to 're dying, it was so nice to have it.

Anyway, today we were driving home when we passed this:

It's the hospital we took Brycen to, 3 1/2 years ago.They have since built a new one (where Cian was born) and thus no longer needed the above. Poor surrounded area. It has killed it!

With two boys, it has basically just become natural to not even ask if they want to watch, but to pull over and let them watch it.

Crazy large building compared to the twizzer like instruments they are using to destroy it. I can now see why some companies just prefer to blow it up.So much faster.

Poor Cian. His usual stunt of standing on one foot, on his tippy toes, on a skinny arm of a chair in order to grab a book, failed terribly-- right before bed last night.

Time to leave. Getting hot and cramped. 

Which is too bad because I wanted to wait until the very top fell/tumbled/did something cool.

~~~~~~~~~~

The biggest beetle ever. If there are bigger ones, I prefer to not know.

Whenever I say that it's time to go, Cian panics, "ruck boo! ruck boo!" (Truck book!) It's a necessity. 

6pm. We are in TROUBLE.

They have kept me up all week!

I even tried to wake him by carrying him in the house.

Daddy comes home tomorrow.
I'm sleeping  in ALL weekend.

Yes.

The Mr. calls me a city girl.
Now when I think of city, I think of NYC.
No city girl here but I do like visiting big cities
and living in residential areas with neighbors.
Especially while my kids are growing up.
Today is totally why.

Before the details, here's the scoop.
Brycen and the next door neighbor's kids have kinda (finally) hit it off after we both happened to be outside last Saturday (4 days ago).Hit it off as in, they no longer just wave to eachother but can play tag and LOVE that they have someone new to talk to. They all talk and sometimes all at the same time. Sample conversation I overheard:

Kid 1: I went swimming today.
Kid 2: I like root beer.
Brycen: I have pink mouthwash.

Brycen loves kids and has watched them from behind our fence as they have played in their backyard for the past year. They are both older than him. And both their parents work so we really haven't seen or heard much than the occasionally spotting of them playing in the backyard with their babysitter.

But since Saturday, it has broken the ice. They seem to find Brycen cool enough and Brycen doesn't even try to hide his excitement. Twice now, the kids have come, rang our doorbell to say "Hi".

Fast forward to today:
Brycen: Mom, can I go see if my friends can play?
Me: What are you going to do?
B: Ring their doorbell.
M: Do you know their names?
B: No
M: So what happens if their parents answer?
B: I will ask them if their kids can play.
Good one. Point for Brycen.He is SO much braver than I ever was or.....am today.

M: Well...lets have lunch first, and then brush your teeth...(stalling..)
I haven't had the best experience with older kids "playing" with Brycen.
*Brycen did the above in lighting speed fashion all the while asking, "How about now, can I go now??"

M: Okay...but only in our back yard.
B: Yippee! Thanks Mom!

I then watched him skip, hardly being able to contain his excitement, across our driveway and into theirs. Where he then vanished out of sight to go up their front steps. I waited and thought.

Do I really have a child old enough for this? Without me?

While Cian naps, he can do this all summer? 

Don't get me wrong, I love how this could potentially replace his want to watch movies....all day.

This was totally what I did with my summers growing up. 

And now Brycen is.

It was a bittersweet realization.

B returns, hands flying in the area, "Their dad said he would send them right out! We're going to play!!!"

His excited face! He is SO awesome. (Thanks to my friend, Kelli--you can actually see my pictures now! Makes me want to go change all of my previous posts. Okay, maybe not. But it's still pretty awesome (and easy)!

They ate Popsicles together, chased butterflies, and petted Cali cat.
The kids even thanked me for letting them come into the house and
were sad when we had to part ways to go visiting teaching.

Staying two more years for a post doc.
Buying the house.
Brycen's friends right next door.
His wonderful dentist and swimming lessons.
The awesome library.
My volleyball.
More ALDI.
Life seems to be aligning just fine.

Which is so grand since I LOVE it here.

Now....to convince the Mr that he is too....

You is smart.

(Pink toothbrush in the pocket of the passenger seat. T'is the norm, right?)

Swimming lessons started yesterday morning for the Brycen man. 

He has yet to change clothes. 

and proclaimed he won't be for the next 9 days. 

 

No complaints from Mt. Laundry. Cian, though, refused to comment.

I've been happily married 5 years and love alot of things about it.

Like having my own toothbrush.

Mine runs on two double AA's.

Mr.'s is rechargeable. 

Mine dies every 1-2 weeks and is weak sauce.

His is turbo.

1 whole year of secretly envying.ONE whole year.

And last night, it hit me. Just change out the heads. 

One whole year to finally figure that out?

I'm losing it...

In other news: took the boys with me to my weekly girls night of volleyball. Setting up and running it, is after all, my job. 

 Brycen L-O-V-E-D it. Gym full of girls. His kind of night.

Cian wanted to so desperately to fly off the stage. Head first.

I do love my volleyball.

 But my love for my boys is more. 

And Cian made sure of it.

Dear...

Dear Rizzley (our family van),

It's been a rough day. 1st, I drove you into the car next door (see post below)--so sorry about that.

Battle wounds. You were a champ--took on the monster fearlessly and kept us safe.

Then I discovered that the dreaded, (we think) carpet beetles from last summer have returned!

We thought we successfully baked them out...but apparently not their eggs.

As a result, you spent your afternoon soaking up some good Vitamin D sunbathing rather than good ole garage storing.

At least the boys are safe, right?

To finish it off, Cian--who adores exploring and pushing your buttons, got creative and had his first "Buddy, the elf" act while I was mowing the front yard.

Mommy stops lawnmower to check on him. So innocent...

BAM!

You have been SO good to us. At 10 years strong and pushing 190K miles (only 7k and 1.5 years from us), you have had a good run. Our wallet has really appreciated your need for only oil changes and gas. But please don't give up on us. We really do love you. In exchange,

ahem, we promise to treat you better and not sell you because of your carpet beetle invasion (like we--I-- suspect your previous owners did).

Love,
The Bs and Cs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Bryce,

You are missing out on a ton of fun. I sure hope that Conference is making up for it and teaching you lots. Oh and the Florida paradise.No hint of jealousy. At all.

You remember our, "monkey see, monkey do" adorable, next door neighbor (his direct quote)? You know the, "you mow, I mow an hour later". "You plan a garden, I plant a garden a month later (after living here for 20 years and never planting a garden)". Maybe an alternative way of looking at it, we INSPIRE him! Haha. Well, his grass was looking kinda long and out of concern for him against the neighborhood code patrol--I saw them driving by on Sunday!--, I decided to jump start his mowing-of-the-grass juices, for him. It also so happened to be overcast and the conditions to be as good as they are going to get this hot, humid Indiana in June, week. Anyway, while doing so, I came across our suicidal frog from last Summer. Let's call him Spot.

Spot performed his trademark hop right in front of the lawnmower. If I had sneezed, he would've been gone. (side note:I think I may be allergic to lawn mowing). He has doubled to tripled in size. And picked up some polka dots. He sure made (after scared) Brycen's night. 

Oh and that same neighbor. He cut the front yard. His SON (remember, not much younger than you or I) cut the back yard. It was monumental. I had to take a picture.

It couldn't be too obvious, of course.

Cian, your head-to-toe true and through Daddy's boy, is crazy as ever. Still drags around his snow shovel...in June, I can only imagine what neighbors might think, 

does his own war paint, 

and is his very own stunt performer.

 Remember this shirt you gave Brycen?

It's continues to be as adorable the second time around. 

Bedtime is rough though. He sure misses you.

And well, Brycen does too but he can be reasoned with and understands that you are indeed coming back.

In other news, Brycen's love for somersaults landed him in his bowl of cold cereal tonight. Yup, that's right: our menu for the day "Cereal, raman, cereal". It was classic. Anyway, milk got all over the couch, carpet, me, and his hair. I know, I know, food belongs in the kitchen. I was desperate. They wanted to sit on my lap... and read books.... and eat and really, the couch beats our kitchen chair comfort any day.

How do you feel about leather couches and wood floor?

After the cereal incident, a bath was made mandatory for Lil B. He was thrilled. But after the bath, he claimed he could NOT find anymore underwear in his drawer. I knew there were some as I had just done laundry so to try to inspire him to try again and me not just do it for him, I ignored his claims. After several attempts to get my attention, Brycen exclaimed, "MOM! I am very...very....very NAKED!"

Aren't they great? I love you. Alot. Can you come home yet?

Loves,
Your Christi

P.S. Our grass could use some weed whacking/edging. I know I've mowed two weeks in a row but that's where I draw the line. That weed whacker is just plain scary.