Alaina was chatting (naturally) about how excited she was for baby to come. She said, "I can't wait until I'm a mom, but don't worry, I won't be one for a long time. Not even when I'm thirteen." Yikes! As usual, I let her know that she should probably wait until she's done with college and married. "Oh yes. And I'm going to marry someone who is dark. Not dark like me, but really dark. So that I can have beautiful brown babies with dark brown skin and brown hair that smells like chocolate." Where does she get this stuff? I assure her that I would love to have little brown, chocolate-smelling grandchildren one day. However, now I was curious to know if there were any other stipulations for her husband to be. Yeah. There are. Alaina started rattling them off like a machine gun. It actually took me a minute to realize that I wanted all of this in writing, so I made her take a breath and started jotting everything she had already said down, before I let her continue. Fortunately, she was able to repeat most everything back to me. Prepare yourself for the most detailed list - ever. If she can find this guy, it will be like winning the lotto. (I must add, before you read this list, that I honestly didn't prompt, guide or lead the conversation in any way. These are actually the words that my silly goose came up with on her own. Once I asked the question, she was off...I still am shaking my head at the word 'synergies.' When I asked her if she knew what that meant, she sure did. At least she's a girl who knows what she wants out of life, right?)

alaina's future husband's list

kind to others
dark skin
dark hair
dark eyes with golden rings (very specific here)
good at any sport, except basket ball. (why? "Because basketball players are too tall.")
same height as dada
nice
a good listener at school
doesn't hit anybody
a good grade-er (gets good grades)
goes to college
gets a good job
go to church
believes in Jesus
and God
isn't mean to kids
wants to have at least 5 or under kids "cause I don't want 9 kids!"
is loving
is funny
is able to teach our kids about Jesus
has a book of mormon
is nice to play with
good sportsmanship
follows the seven habits for a successful kid (they learn this at school)
be proactive
take good charge yourself
think win-win
synergies
be respectful
responsible
always does his best

"And that's all, for now."

So. This one might take a bit of networking. I better start now. Anyone know of any, well, perfect kid around 8 or 9 years old? Keep me posted.

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The other night at dinner Robert was teasing the kids about Halloween. He was going off about how the kids will all get 'big booties' if ate too much Halloween candy. This made all of the kids giggle. Then he continued to expound on the subject. Like what types of candy with make certain types of big booties. It doesn't take much to get my kids, and I really mean, my boys...specifically...Ethan, to get into a conversation like that. Before we knew it he was standing up, shaking he bum at us, chanting, "look at my booty, look at my booty!" At that time, I knew it was time to calm the conversation down. I cleared my throat and said, "Alright guys. Enough about the booties. It's never nice to joke around about..." At this time Alaina interrupted. "You know Mama doesn't like it when we talk about booties..." The laughter starts dying down and her voice remains loud and clear. "Because Mama has such a BIG..." It is only at this point that Alaina realizes that the room is silent. That I'm staring at her with big, shocked eyes. That the boys are about to bust with laughter. That even Daddy is barely keeping himself together. Unable to figure out what about her sentence was causing such a reaction, she quickly decides that it was the word itself that was the problem. Slowly, she finishes the sentence. "...uh...Bum?" Laughter explodes out of all the boys. I shout out an indignant, "Laina!" Still confused she smiles nervously and mutters, "Bottom?" Alright. I can take it. Alaina is nothing, if not honest. Of course, after we all stopped laughing and I finally explained to her that I had a perfectly fine sized booty she quickly started to backpedal. And when that girl backpedals, she invariably goes to the opposite extreme. "Oh no. I mean, you have a perfect bum. A beautiful, perfect bum. Just the right size!" I'll spare you the rest of the tirade about my, now, perfect bottom, but let it suffice, that I'm pretty sure that from her lengthy description, we need to cast this little piece of perfection in bronze. Lots of bronze.

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Alaina got on student council. Are you shocked? She was so excited and kept trying to tell me the different positions that the council leaders held. She said, "Well, first there's the president. Then there is the advice president..." Not too far off.

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Austin was doing his chore and he got frustrated when all of us kept telling him different things to put away. He cried out, "Stop it. I'm so complicated!"

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While we were watching conference we heard a talk about a woman who was a nurse on the Titanic when it sank. Instead of going on a life-boat to save herself, she chose to help the wounded who were on the ship. The kids weren't listening... something that I made clear with some grumpy comment. Without looking up from his lego-creation, Austin said, "yes, I was listening. There was a lady who didn't have a light-bulb and so she drowned." Close.

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Austin is having a hard time at school. His best friend is also friends with a girl he likes to refer to as 'my enemy.' The way he says it, it sounds like a super hero talking about his 'archenemy.'

This girl, from what alaina and austin have both said, has, in fact, started to tease both of them. Alaina responded to it in a perfectly Alaina way. "She called me 'Weird' and Molly (her bff) double-weird. I just ignored her and said, 'oh well' after she left." Austin, of course, doesn't handle the teasing so well. What made it harder for him to take was that after the girl teased him, she talked his best and only friend to join a pretend cheer-leading group. When I finally got him to talk about it, he was inconsolable. He was a sad, puddle of angry tears and no matter what I said, he wouldn't calm down. Alaina, who usually has a way with him, didn't seem to know the right thing to say to him either. Our unlikely hero of the day ended up being Ethan. Without any hesitation, he came over and told Austin exactly how he was going to solve the problem. I didn't exactly agree with all of his tactics, but I held my tongue. Slowly Austin started to calm down as he listened to Ethan's game plan. It was a definite take-charge situation and Ethan couldn't have been more sure of himself. I wrote down the main ideas as best as I could remember them.

1. I'll come over there and talk to the lunch lady.

2. I have a new friend who is nice to everyone and he does whatever I tell him to do. He would be nice to you if I told him to be. I'll play with him the first recess and you can have him the second recess. (poor child doesn't know what's coming to him.)

3. if you play with him I will give you two of my toys. the ones I don't like anymore. actually I don't like most of my toys so I will give 100 of them to you and you have to play with Taylor for a week.

4. I know another guy who will come over and break up the group by yelling like this, "na na na na na na na na!"...and he won't stop until everyone wants to leave. He is really good at that.

5. I'll come and meet you at recess with Taylor at the red bench.

While Ethan was talking, I imagined him at age 20, leaning over to Austin with a Boston accent saying, "Don't worry. I know-a guy." As funny as some of Ethan's ideas were, the main point that came across loud and clear was that Ethan was going to protect his little brother. I guess that was exactly the thing that Austin needed most.

After school the next day, Ethan told me that he walked straight over to that group of girls and told them what was what. I reminded him that he should never threaten anyone...especially girls. He smiled and told me. "Well, I didn't have to say anything. They just saw me come over and knew that I was a big strong boy and I stayed there until they left." In actuality, Austin told me that he went to the recess lady himself and she came over and broke up the group. I think I can let Ethan believe he handled this one himself. And if anyone else needs to break up a pretend cheer-leading group of elementary girls....I know-a guy.

Here are the kiddies ready for the first day of school. (yes, a little late, but I'm catching up!) They looked so grown up and they were so excited to be 2nd & 3rd graders.

Enough pictures already! Let's go to school! (notice how both of my boys are dentist's dreams come true. Just like daddy, they have what I like to refer to as the muppet mouth. Ethan is only half-way open for this particular picture. Poor Alaina got my tiny mouth, but it never seems to stop either one of us from talking.)
When I was growing up, we would spend every fall with my Mom in the kitchen, canning. She would can everything from tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, to jams and jellies. But the things that she canned the most were peaches, pears and applesauce. We all would help out here and there (now that I have my own little 'helpers' I realize how little we must have done.) but Mom would work for weeks getting everything done. Once she was finished, she'd line us all up at the pantry and we would spend a moment admiring just how beautiful it all looked.

Every time I go home, it brings back good, tasty memories when we open one of Mom's applesauce bottles (or peaches or pears...). For some reason, canned fruit from the store just never tastes anything like the real thing.

Well. I'm 37 years old now. It was about time that I give canning a try for myself. I have to admit. The pears stressed me out. for some reason, I remember doing all the fun stuff with the canning (loading the jars, turning the applesauce crank) but I couldn't seem to recall all of the hard work that went before. Even fitting the pear halves into the bottles proved to be a challenge for me. My first bottle only ended up being half fruit and half syrup. I quickly gave up on the pretty halves and cut the pieces bite size, ensuring that I at least filled up each bottle with fruit. The fruit itself was very good. I've met a farmer here, just outside of our little town that sells a whole lot of organic fruit and veggies. He is extremely involved in the community and loves selling his food at an affordable price so that everyone can afford to feed their families organic food. He must be one of the last of his kind. Anyways, he sells his apples at two different prices. The big beautiful ones are about 60-80 cents a pound (can't remember exactly) but he sells what he calls his 'applesauce apples' at 40 cents a pound. These are apples with some scab on them (markings on the outside but perfectly beautiful on the inside.). I got myself 4 boxes for 20 bucks and ended up making 22 bottles, not including the giant bowls of applesauce that we all had, piping hot with vanilla ice-cream on top. (Another good memory from mom passed on...)

The kids liked turning the crank as much as I did.

And because I am my mother's daughter, I am now going to make you all sit for a moment and admire how beautiful it all looks.

OOoooooooh.
Aaawwwwwwww. So purty.
Here are some extra pictures of the kids goofing off. Austin.
Ethan. Rock on.
And a stolen moment watching Laina out with her Bella.
And last, but not least...Here I am on my big 37th with my favorite three kids in the whole wide world. Look at that fudgey-ice-cream cake that Robert got for me. I had one giant piece and baby had another. (we didn't want him to feel left out!)

This is a little blog dedicated to Austin. Again.

First, here is his rendition of recreational coloring.
No rainbows. No house. No family holding hands. A loading signal. For a child that is only ever allowed to use the computer to write on his blog...he always has computers on his mind.

A week before school started, Robert gave the boys a couple of short, short haircuts. This is really his time/money saving idea passively aimed at me. Robert figures that if he can cut the boy's hair short enough, it will be a good amount of time before I threaten to actually take them to a super-cut again. Anyways, Austin was ready. Then a few days later, I look over and notice that a big chunk of what was left of his hair, was missing. It didn't take much pressure to get Laina to confess as the impromptu stylist. Apparently, the idea was to cut a 'bolt' image into the side of Austin's head so he could be a little more like Bolt. They were both pretty proud of the attempt and only felt bad about it after we mentioned that now we had to cut Austin's hair even shorter before school started.


While getting the kids bags ready for school, I asked Austin if he wanted me to get him a water bottle in case he got thirsty. In a surprisingly adult tone he replied, "No thanks. You know, I used to be a drinking man. But now? Not really so much anymore." Well, I'm glad that phase of his life is already behind him. (and in elementary school, even.)

Betcha thought our summer activities were over? Well. Almost. School doesn't start here until the second week of September, and so we decided to go on one last fling to...Seattle. The kids had never been and we heard that the impossible was going to happen there. Sunny weather over Labor Day weekend. So we packed up and drove down.

We went to the Seattle Aquarium, which was fun (Monterey is still our all-time favorite, but this one wasn't bad.) My camera ran out of battery about 10 minutes in, so you get what you get.Yep. That's it. The aquarium is built directly on the Puget Sound, which means they just pump all their water in. We had fun the rest of the day, checking out the salmon run they had and the two huge octopi they had in a big, H shaped tank. We also ate salmon fish and chips which was pretty good.

The next day we found tickets to cruise out on the bay, ranging between 30 and 100 bucks per person. So we decided to get the same view from a $7 per person, 30 min. ferry ride to the island Bremerton. The kids had so much fun. It was sunny and pretty but pretty chilly out on the water.
Ethan loved being out on the ocean. He kept seeing orcas that would mysteriously disappear or turn into driftwood whenever we looked. The only thing Ethan didn't like was when they blew the horn. I think all three of the kids just about jumped out of their skin when they heard it. The island of Bremerton is tiny. We walked up pier and made our way to the local park. On our way we passed huge blackberry bushes and picked berries until our fingers were stained red. Once we got to the park (a sad little place) Robert took the kids on a couple of geocache hunts. We were able to walk up to the main strip within two minutes. After a little window shopping we found a good place to lunch and an even better place to eat ice-cream.

On our way back we had a beautiful view of Seattle.
We also had a beautiful view of Lainy.
For our last day, we went to the Space Needle. The kids had been dying to go ever since we arrived.
And here we are on the top.I wasn't quite sure what Austin was looking at here. I think he just didn't realize he was too short to get the telescope to point at the ground.
From there we went to Pike Place, the famous out-door market that takes up an entire, cobble stoned street. Robert, amazingly found a parking space right at the very top of the street. Most of the fish markets were closed since it was lunch time, but we did find one that was open. The kids weren't impressed.They lasted a whole minute before the smell made them want to go running back into the street. I thought it was pretty fun, though.
And to finish off our trip we headed a couple miles away to the society of wooden boats, which wasn't as impressive as the website claimed it to be. (One of Seattle's hidden gems, my foot.) However, we did rent a small paddle boat for an hour and the kids loved taking us out onto the lake. I have to admit, with the sail boats, and speed boats all around, it was a pretty amazing view. It is also very calming to be on a paddle boat. Especially when you don't have to do the paddling! Ethan and Laina were determined to keep us going for the majority of the time. Austin enjoyed pulling the rope to steer. I just sat on the back bench and enjoyed the ride. (Notice Rob and Austin with the same exact haircut :)
There must have been a water-plane tour of the city based on the lake because every ten minutes or so, a plane would land or take off very close to us.
Lainy and her Daddy.
All in all it was a very fun and relaxing visit to Seattle. After we took our boat back, we loaded up into the car and headed home. I guess summer vacation had to end sometime.