Smoking

While waiting at a light today, Bryce says "mom, why is that man putting that like crayon that's on fire into his mouth?"

The absurdity of smoking through a 4 year olds eyes. 

Bryce-isms

Since school is starting this next week I bought the boys some new socks and underwear and told them they could pick out their own super hero underwear. You would be surprised at the amount of enthusiasm this generates in our house. I noticed a few days later that Bryce had neatly kept his new underwear in the package and wasnt wearing it yet. I asked him why he didn't want to wear his new underwear and he said "because I'm saving it for birthday parties." Wasn't exactly sure where to start with a response to that but assured him mom would wash his underwear and he'd have a pair when the next time came for a birthday party. He then started telling me in order which pair he wanted to wear first, next and so on until he got to the last pair of ninjago, blue underwear and said he was saving that pair for the last day. I said "the last day of what?" To which he replied with a creepy like intensity "the last day of all the days." I told Andy that conversation was one for the record books and at least we can say Bryce knows how to delay gratification.

Trying to keep cool

This has been the hottest week yet in Maryland with high humidity and the heat index in the 100s. Almost all of my kids playmates are on vacation, including nana and pop and all of our babysitters are at Girls Camp. It's a survival kind of week. I'm all ears for suggestions for restless boys who are cooped up in the house because its too hot to play outside. 

Garden Pizza

I like to make garden pizza every summer when I have a lot of veggies from the garden to use up. I have this idea that its a way to get the kids to eat vegetables too but they always pick them off and just want plain cheese. I think they liked helping make the pizza though.

Utah!

We had a great 10 days in Utah. Here are some of the highlights:

Bike rides at Bear Lake. These things are harder to pedal than they look.

Our little cowboys rode horses for the first time. They were a little nervous at first but loved it and were  so proud of themselves for getting on it.

Jonny brought materials to make these cool rockets out of pvc pipes and duck tape. Bryce loved it and shot off his rocket over and over again for hours. He also carried around his backpack filled with toys from home most of the weekend. 

After we left Bear Lake, we stayed at Shelly's for two days in Lehi and then Andy's parents in Provo. We went to Tara's pool one day and Miriam loved this little kiddie pool. She screamed and showed us some of her best tantrums when we had to take her out. 

Watching movies at Grandma and Grandpa s with Bella and JJ.

The Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. The kids were acting scared of the shark.

All good things must come to an end. The plane ride home. Although they don't look it here, Bryce and Miriam came down with fevers on the way home and consequently slept and peacefully laid on my lap the whole way home. It made for a much more relaxing ride home. Miriam was quite the busy tornado on the flight out.

Lots of Bryceys

Bryce was playing with my Ipad while I was in the shower the other week and  a few days later I discovered about 30 pictures of Bryce like this on my Photo Stream. Andy later sent me this pic with the message "Julia's nightmare after a hard day with Bryce."

Summer Gardening: Tips and help from my kids

     My garden has done surprisingly well so far this summer. The constant rain storms and moist air over the past several weeks have definitely helped.  I've already picked a few pounds of green beans and had a zucchini too. Unfortunately my spaghetti squash is getting so large its growing out and over the fence making it susceptible to all the critters in my yard to chomp away at each evening. I feared it was deer initially and was told that urine around the perimeter of the garden would keep them away. My boys were quite excited when I told them for the remainder of the summer they were allowed to occasionally urinate around the edge of the garden when they needed to, making sure to tell them not to do it when company's over or their friends. I kind of regretted this open invitation when I watched four different times Tyler and Bryce walk out into the yard this afternoon and walk around the garden urinating with their pants down around their ankles. I'm grateful we at least have a private yard. 

  Tonight as we ate dinner I watched our resident ground hog who lives under our shed run out and start eating away at it again. I opened the back door and he quickly ran off. For the third summer in a row, I said how we really need to get a trap for our friend the ground hog and find him a new home before he ruins all of our hard work. My animal loving boys are always dead set against it. I decided to ask their advice on how we could keep the ground hog, but still protect the garden. These were some of their ideas:

1. Put up a big wire bubble over the entire garden (Tyler). wasn't sure how we'd actually get into the garden to pick vegetables though

2. Build the ground hog his own house next to the shed and put food in it every day so he wouldn't have to go eat out of our garden (Bryce)

3. Make a trail of food leading away from the back yard and into the front yard so the ground hog can live in our front yard and leave the garden alone. (Tyler)

4. Plant another garden in the front yard thats just for the ground hog to eat out of (Tyler)

5. Put out a trap to catch him but then let him be our pet inside the house (Bryce)

Last day as a kindergartner

A few less teeth, a little bit taller and a whole lot smarter - Tyler had a great first year of school. 

My Little Climber

Miriam's new favorite "perch" and a snack date with Daniel

Freezer Jam

As Bryce watched my mom measure the 8 cups of sugar required to make this batch of strawberry freezer jam -

"That's a lot of sugar, Nana....I think that's enough.....you're kind of wasting the sugar....."

Baby Curls

Bryce quotes

After looking at a picture of me when I was little - "Mom, who was my mom when you were a baby?"

While wiping a kiss off his cheek "I don't like to get kisses, I only like to GIVE kisses."

A nurse with lids

So everyone in our house is sick this week. Some more than others. After two trips to the doctors today we found out that Andy has pneumonia and Bryce has an ear infection. Since I'm less sick than anyone else I've been playing nurse all week. Andy and Bryce keep hacking up gross phlegm while sitting on the couch so I've brought them Tupperware containers to hack into (sorry if this is TMI for some). Well my observant little 15 month old has noticed me going into the Tupperware drawer and wants to be a nurse too so I noticed a pile of Tupperware lids on the couch too. 5 Tupperware lids ought to do the trick.

Fun with cousins

Sarah and her family are visiting this week. It's been almost of year since the cousins have played together. The contrast between gender dominated households is best described in the following conversation while driving back from lunch with Nana and Pop:

Anya: I had my hair done at a beauty parlor this morning (Sarah spent hours trying to untangle an accident with the bubble machine).
Bryce: Don't say beauty, it's a potty word.
Anya: (very curious now) what's a potty word?

Miriam's 1st birthday!

In my haste to catch up I guess I won't so severely neglect my third child's first birthday by not giving it its own post. Miriam is such a sweet little girl. She's a daddy's girl and has Tyler wrapped around her finger too. We love her dimpled smile and shy peekaboo games. She's observant and notices what the big kids are doing and wants to be a part. She's a climber but doesn't shy away from trying again after she's had a good fall.We love her excited baby chatter. She reminds us of boo on monsters inc. Chattering away to anyone that will listen in her own baby talk. Excited to see what the next year brings.

Andy's New Frederick office

Andy moved to a new office in Frederick at the beginning of March. Here's some pics now that its all put together. No, Bryce and Miriam aren't usually hanging out at the office during sessions.

3 year old antics

This kid wears me out. It's a daily battle over things as small as cut up pancakes or his hands feeling too sticky. Screaming for help because he can't reach the light switch in the bathroom and he needs to pee. He thought the trunk of the van would be a good place to catch stink bugs was his explanation after my frantic search of the house and yard. He likes to finger paint with toothpaste all over the bathroom mirror and regularly dumps out trash cans to flip over and use as stepping stools. His just-learning-to-walk 15 month old sister is his favorite bowling pin and its not 4:30 on a weekday without a battle with Tyler over which cartoon to watch. Dumping cups full of water out on the kitchen floor to make puddles to jump in always seems like a fun idea at the time and bath time is always better if the water splashes the walls and ceiling too. All in a days work for a 3 year old.

I keep telling myself this stage won't last forever. Some days I tell myself just to make it to bedtime and then I can rest.
I'm always a sucker for the bottom lip and "but I just want you to snuggle with me" line at bedtime (after he just screamed for the dinner he never ate and mooned his sleeping brother).

I have to remember that one day he won't ask me to snuggle with him anymore either. I guess I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Maybe I'll start blogging again?

Every time I have thought of this blog in the past 6....8 months I have feelings of guilt and neglect. Since this is the only place I record keep with photos of my family the last half of 2012 has gone unrecorded. Since the task of catching up on all of those months has seemed so daunting I will try to do a fast catch up and say ill be better now. I must admit in the fast easy convenience of my smartphone if I don't have an app for that... I don't get around to it as much. But recently I found.... A blogging app! Since most of my pictures are on my phone I'm hoping this will making blogging easier and more frequent for me. So here's the end of 2012 in a snap shot: we went to Utah, Tyler started kindergarten, Bryce started joy school, we went to North Carolina, celebrated Halloween and Christmas!

Cape Cod

  

 Once again, we were lucky enough to spend sometime on Cape Cod up in Massachusetts the first two weeks in July. I spent many summers here as a kid and love being able to bring my family back to enjoy the same things. The boys enjoyed swimming in the water more this year which made beach time a little less relaxing for me since I had to constantly watch them. They also liked digging holes with Andy. He's holding a horseshoe crab here. We found lots of these around.

 On the fourth of July, all the kids, including my sister's daughter, Anya rode in the neighborhood kids parade. They did a great job waving their flags and looked very patriotic. This is us, in front of my aunt's beach cottage that we stayed in.

I like this one of Bryce at the National Seashore. We took a day trip here with my sister's family. Its a beautiful spot. One of the beaches looked very inviting if we had boogie boards, but not so kid friendly. This was a small pond near the visitor center that seemed a little less daring and we didn't need to worry that a big wave was going to come along and sweep one of the kids into the ocean.

 The boys also spent a lot of time at the creek in our neighborhood (more pictures below). Andy and Tyler spent about 4 hours over at Squaw Island one afternoon catching all kinds of stuff. They brought home these buckets full of crabs and sea snails. All of which died the next day and stunk pretty bad....

 My favorite time of day at the creek is the early evening. Here's the boys throwing rocks in the water.

 I like this one. Sitting on the bench at sunset and high tide.

 There are so many pictures of my family members taken on this rock that go back generations - to when my Grandparents were probably my age. I love that the tradition has stayed strong. We all love this place.

 Bryce and Anya were good buddies during their week together. Anya's about 9 months younger than Bryce. They played pretty well together. My mom got them these chairs to sit on at the beach. The other pic was taken on a little hike at the National Seashore.

 Saying goodbye is always hard, especially since we don't see my sister's family very often. I'm glad the cousins could spend a week together. We all miss Anya.

 One night after everyone else had left, my mom took me up to St. Andrews by the Sea. (a Catholic church) There's a gorgeous view of the water here and a plaque with my grandparent's name on it, I never knew was there. Bryce Richard is named after my grandfather, Richard Franklin. His name is listed on the plaque right under my elbow's shadow. Bryce wouldn't cooperate for the picture but I'm sure someday he'll appreciate it.

 We also went down to Hyannis Harbor to look at the big boats. My boys like this one the best cause it reminded them of a pirate ship. (Yes, they're in the pjs in all these shots cause it was after dinner and they'd fall asleep on the way home.)

Case in point. A long day in the sun always wore them out by about 8:00. Falling asleep in the car made bedtime very easy.