Mark's Ark

Our apartment complex is great at hosting events for us to take advantage of. They hired Mark of Mark's Ark and he brought a hedgehog, king snake, some tree frogs, a Jersey Giant rooster, and my favorite was the baby alligator. He was letting each child hold Irwin (the alligator) and had some very specific instructions on how to do so. I wasn't sure that Bruce could handle it, but Mark presented him to Bruce and he did great. How cool is that!

Kirk and I looked through the pictures I took and noticed some hilarious facial expressions in this one. What is going on here?!?

My Chi! My Chi!

It's broken. The cord where it attaches to the plug doesn't work. Apparently this is a common problem, especially when you wind the cord around the appliance when not in use...guilty! There is a company that sells the cords. This is what it looks like when you take it apart. I am getting a bit frazzled. Well, actually my hair is getting less frazzled (less heat damage), but more so mentally...anyway, I need to go order a replacement so I can get my Chi on!

Priceline FTW

Our fantastic ward arranged a trip to the Chicago Temple, complete with willing individuals watching children while we were there for a session. We drove up Friday afternoon. The boys slept most of the trip. Kirk bought us an I-Pass, which was worth it with all the toll roads. Chicago has a lot of congestion, seriously. Hooray for priceline...I bid low, then a little higher, and a bit higher and finally scored us a room at the Hilton for about half what they normally cost. Our room worked out great. It had a long hallway/entry which was perfect for Henry's pack and play. Bruce slept on a rollaway and we were in a comfortable king size bed. That morning was a rush to get breakfast, the kiddos dropped off, and get to the temple but we made it and had a great time. Panda Express was our farewell meal. What was daunting before is now do-able.

Love having a great hair day!

An Appropriate Work Surface

Bruce gets to play with
When he
But the carpet is not suitable for such play! I priced some
but couldn't find what I wanted. I found this and had a vision of a solid table that could serve many purposes and match his room.


I messed up the paint job. And don't love the black glaze. It's in Bruce's room and will stay while I decide whether to start from scratch or leave it as is.

Yumm-O

Henry is finally ready for baby food. Unfortunately his bowels don't love the carrots as much as he loves eating them.

Confessions of an unkempt housewife

Our bedroom truly feels like the family dump. Any miscellaneous stuff usually makes its way there. Of course today's collection includes laundry, Kirk's guitar and amp, my crafting/decorating supplies, gift wrap, Wii guitars, boxes of clothing, stationary supplies, and more clothes. Its drabness has put it next on my decorating list.

Exhibit A...displays said room after an hour of picking up and folding. You'd never realize from the looks of this room that I love an organized space. Earlier in the week I felt like moving stuff around from our entry closet to a hall closet so our coats and shoes would be easily accessible and our games could be unpacked.

Exhibit B...see, I can be orderly. Order definitely takes time. Or maybe I just take a lot of time getting things organized. I get lulled into complacency living in a mess and then bam! I have to do something about it, now! Thank goodness for those jolts of clarity!

Front Row Seats

Hooray for the fourth of July! I love singing patriotic songs at church. I wish we could sing them ALL year! We barbecued with some friends. It's inevitable that Christy will end up holding Henry. That's fine by me, we're happy to hand him over! On a serious note, Bruce adores Christy. Even to the point of shrugging me off at times. I'll admit it hurt my feelings at one point. This particular interaction was followed only a few days after Bruce only wanted daddy to play with him, get him a drink, etc. Now that I've had time to think about it I'm okay with it. I should be glad that there are people in my children's lives who are kind, generous, and loving. Of course I want those types of interactions for them. Talking with Kirk helped me recognize another point. Henry does the same thing to a certain degree. He is all smiles for me if Kirk is holding him and vice versa. It's not extreme by any means, he's smiley to us as we're holding him but I see the correlation. I can take it. I get em forever!

A college campus adjacent to where we live puts on a great fireworks show. We made it home just in time to see em. It was nice sharing that little moment together.

And Kirk, why are you stringing a bunch of firecrackers together??


So the moral of the story is that one mortar lighting up the sky is better than two mortars lighting up the sky and one lighting up your neighbors house.

What's Been Going On

Kirk and I have both noticed the increased togetherness we've felt as a family lately. A blessing of our current situation I guess.

Bruce is fighting naps, but once napping will sleep for 3 hours. Crazy kid! He is understanding more about the world around us. Things he often says..."I'm so proud" "Poor Henry" We often talk about using the potty, but we're waiting for him to want to. Today we had the following conversation after I heard him toot.
Me: Do you need to go poop?
B whispers: Yes
Me: Do you want to use the potty?
B: No then he runs behind the couch to do his duty, even coming to grab two of his cars and then returns to his hideout

Henry is a light to our family. He has his trying moments, mostly related to sleeping, but he's generally such a happy baby. I don't know why it drives me nuts, but when Kirk comes home and picks up Henry he usually has to present Henry to me who 99% of the time smiles and fawns over me. Henry is just starting on rice and oatmeal cereal. He's just not into it, but we're still trying it every day. He rolls over with ease and would chew on his brother's cars or our electronics (phone, remote control, etc) if he could.

I stay busy. Taking the boys to the park or zoo during the week, spray painting items to decorate with (my new hobby), getting all the good deals, and playing computer games with Kirk. Did I mention I like to read? We have a fantastic group of libraries in town. We go to story time each week and we're always checking out books. I've discovered that the Young Adult section has some really great fiction. We are still trying to sell our house in Kansas City.

So the moral of the story is that some brands of spray paint are better than others.

Good Old Blocks

I love these blocks. They are great for learning colors. They can be stacked into a tall, tall tower, a race track or even Radiator Springs.

Tonight, Tonight