Mmmm, cereal

Lately, when I am feeding Logan his rice cereal, Ella will come up with her mouth open wide and say, "Mmmm, mom, can I have some?" I will then attempt to give her some and she will run away laughing, thinking it is hilarious Lincoln then will come up, "Mmm, mom, have some?" I will again attempt to give him some and he runs away giggling. What a fun game, they thought, that is until this morning when I was faster than they were and they both ended up with a mouthful of rice cereal. Mmmmm, delicious.

Two

Lincoln turned 2 on Saturday. We had a family birthday party for him and wow! he brought in some serious loot, more than any 2-year-old really needs. I made him his favorite dinner, spaghetti, and then he asked for a fishy (Nemo, I assume) birthday cake, so I did what I could. I'm no artist. He did great opening all his presents and never once seemed overwhelmed.

Lincoln blowing out his candles.

Ella dresses up all the time in her princess and fairy costumes. Lincoln loves to play with her and so usually ends up wearing Ella's pink supergirl outfit. We decided we better get him a costume of his own to dress up in, hence the batman costume. When Jeremy put it on him after all the guests had left, he ended up wearing it for about an hour and a half. I think I'll miss seeing him in the pink cape.

Lincoln and his loot: batman costume, shirt, workbench, megablocks, toy puppy, glue markers, cool waterbottle exactly like aunt Michelle's, backpack/suitcase, smarties, toy truck, soccer ball (he slept with it that night), Mr. Potato Head.

One word...spoiled. Okay, two words...spoiled, happy!

Happy Birthday

We celebrated Jeremy's 31st birthday last night. Wow, 31, doesn't look a day over 30. :) I'm not helping his self confidence any when I stick my foot in my mouth like I did the other night while watching the Olympics and told him that he just didn't have a swimmer's body. I tried to cover, but the foot just kept going further in. I attempted a make up for it the night after by telling him that he had more of a gymnasts body. Ehh, make me stop.

Ella was intent on making everyone a party hat for Jeremy's birthday and was even set on us wearing costumes, which somehow she forgot about by the time Jeremy got home (sigh of relief). She decorated a beautiful party hat (or is that dunce hat) for each of us. The kids picked out a present to give their dad at the store earlier. Ella chose to give him a toy gun that shoots these flying disks in the air and Lincoln chose to give him a toy 4-wheeler. He loved them, as did they.

Birthday Boy!

Our attempts at a family picture.

The rest.

Bees

Life this past week has been normal - insanely busy. We cleaned apartments for Jeremy's parents Wednesday through Saturday. We'd spend 5 or more hours a day cleaning up gross college student living and then come home to our own messy house and have no desire to clean it. Let's just say by Sunday morning my house stunk from dirty dishes and there wasn't a clean pair of underwear to be found. (Too much information, I know.)

My kids were angels. They were so great during the apartment cleaning. They would just play on the lawn or follow me around and jump on couch cushions. Of course, the bags of candy bars and donuts provided by Grandma didn't hurt matters any. They are so cute tagging around with each other, always together, making up games, only occasionally scratching and biting.

I now know Lincoln's enemy in this world...BEES. He has been stung 4 times already this summer. I can't even remember getting stung 4 times in my life. Poor kid. I'm afraid he's developing quite the fear of bees now...can you blame him?

Future Olympian

Don't you just love the olympics? Jeremy and I are way into them. Jeremy is a very loud cheerer, especially for Michael Phelps, but it is so exciting, who wouldn't be? Logan surprised us with an athletic skill of his own last night. I laid him on the bed on his back and then sat down behind him a few feet away. He watched me and then purposely rolled over and then tucked his legs up under him and scooted forward with his cheek pressed against the mattress until he reached me and could bury his head into my leg. He got just as loud of cheers as Michael Phelps.

Scooters, scooters, everywhere

A few weeks ago my dad found one of his great deals where we could get scooters really cheap if we mass ordered them. So here we are a few weeks later with 14 scooters delivered to my dad's house. His garage looked like a bike shop as all the guys worked on charging the batteries, installing the mirrors and windshields, and pumping up the tires. Jeremy was the most persistent and got his running the very night they arrived. He illegally drove it home and to work the next day. I was pretty excited to drive the scooter myself so John and I went and took the written motorcycle test so that we would at least have our learner's permits. Yesterday after dinner I went outside to test out the scooter, never really having driven one, on a quiet road by our house. Unfortunately, the first thing I had to do was get it off the dang double kickstand, no easy feet. As I followed Jeremy's instructions of pushing it forward off the kickstand, I was not ready for the weight of the scooter (or maybe it was lack of muscle) and it fell on its side. So, yes, I am officially the first one to wreck one of the scooters and the first one to get an injury (small, bleeding scrape on my shin). Jeremy was obviously not too impressed and wondered aloud if I really could handle driving.

Of course I can.

Anyway, look out for large groups of red, blue, silver, and black scooters, I could be one of them.

Brenda, Margo , Lulu

I came upon Ella playing with her dollies. She had them all laid out on various parts of furniture around the room with a blanket over each one. She told me that they were taking naps and that Lulu, Brenda, and Margo were really tired. First time I've heard of Brenda and Margo (she knows no one by those names) and thought they were pretty sweet names for her to come up with and I told her as much.

Love

As I was working at my computer this morning, I started to hear little giggles and whispers coming down the hall. "Let's scare mommy." "Yeah, monsters." Giggle, giggle, etc. I purposely kept my eyes on the computer, but out of my peripheral vision I see two little monsters creeping into the room with their hands up like claws. Then, suddenly, "Roarrrrr." Of course I acted completely scared and surprised, screamed, and that made their day as they ran out of the room giggling with glee.

I have to say, I do love my kids.

Ella: I love her "great ideas." I love her bed- head in the morning, serious lion hair. I love her huge squinty-eyed smile that she uses to get Logan to laugh. I love her excitement about learning and doing anything new.

Lincoln: I love his bashfulness. I love his comfort position when he is a little nervous or shy (finger up nose). I love his constant mimicking of anything Ella says or does. I love his big squeezes.

Logan: I love his big blue eyes. I love his huge toothless grin (I think I could fit my fist in there). I love his cuddling.

And, of course, Jeremy: I love his "funny jokes," especially when he's in the zone. I love how he makes time to play with the kids every day, no matter how tired he is. I love him. :)

Hula Hoops

Jeremy has been working like crazy this week...seriously, I'm talking like 18 hours a day. When Ella found out he had to go to work today as well, she came up with a great idea to go play hula hoops with Grandpa Smart, a game which my dad came up with and I have tried to document below. The kids had a great time playing in the sun and water with Grandpa. Thanks, dad!
p.s. I apologize in advance for the lack of clothing. We forgot swim suits.



My baby, Logan, enjoying the show on Michelle's lap.



Water fight with Grandpa. Ella is fearless.



See pictures above. I'm still trying to figure out the whole picture posting thing, especially with collages, so they aren't where I want them to be. Note the huge diaper. Lincoln ended up wearing a pair of Michelle's underwear (sorry Michelle) pinned around him the rest of the time.

Oh, Wal-Mart

So I took the kids to storytime at North Logan Library this morning, which was delightful by the way. This is the first time we've gone since Quakers moved away. Anyhow, decided to make a "quick" stop at Wal-Mart on the way home. We cruised through the store getting the things we needed then headed to the front to check out. I couldn't find a line that had less than 4 or 5 full carts waiting in line. Long story short, after waiting in line for at least 40 minutes we made it to the front and by then Logan was screaming and Lincoln had also reached his limit of waiting patiently. Just my luck they decided to change cashiers right then, obviously I was not thrilled about that. The new cashier takes a look at my 2 kids screaming and says, "Oh you got 2 screaming now, huh?" By that point I was feeling extremely sorry for my kids and not having such happy thoughts about Wal-Mart. I replied, "Yeah, that's what happens when you have to wait in line for almost an hour." Don't be alarmed, I didn't say it rudely or anything, just kind of in a tired, get-me-out-of-here sort of way. I am starting to feel a little bad about it anyway because it really wasn't her fault. Oh, well.

My saving grace for that morning was being able to have my favorite conversation with my kids when we were home. This is something that happens at least once a day, often many more times, and both my kids do it.

Lincoln/Ella: Mommy.
Lincoln/Ella: Mommy.
Me: What?
Lincoln/Ella: Love you.

Need I say more.