UH - OH

Keepin' Cool

Well, we've got just a little over a month of summer vacation left, and I have to say, that the heat is getting to me (and my electric bill). The other day Lise and I made our own lyrics to the "Phineas and Ferb" song. It went something like this:

There’s 94 days of summer vacation
Then school comes along just to end it.
So the annual problem for Kate, Lise, and Aly
Is finding a good way to spend it.

Like maybe
Swimming at a friend’s pool
Or taking art lessons,
Or going to the park

Hanging at the beach, Watching free movies,
Or fireworks in the dark

Library story time,
Playdates with Lawson girls
Going to playgroup (**who made Kylie’s bottle?**)

Splash pad and swim lessons,
Reading lots of books,
eating icecream scoops (**not before dinner!**)

As you can see, there’s a whole lot of stuff to do
Before School starts this Fall. (**Buckle up, Kate!**)
So stick with us ‘cause Aly, Lise, and Kate
Are gonna do it all!

Just stick with us ‘cause Aly, Lise, and Kate are gonna do it all.
(**Mom! I forgot to bring my shoes again --BAM!**)


But, despite the little jingle, here are a few things we've been up to the past couple of weeks to "keep it cool".


For one thing, we headed out for more family bowling. This is my favorite picture of Chris and Kate waiting for Kate's ball to -- finally. . . eventually. . . sometime -- hit the pins.

Chris also took the three oldest girls to a huge soccer field to shoot rockets (photo curtesy of Aly.) They ended up losing one rocket in the trees, :(, but still had a great time. Their faces were beet red when they got back though, and they left at like 9 in the morning!

Playgroup had a fun "Water Carnival" with a kiddie pool . . .

. . . noodle sword fighting . . .

. . . milk jug balloon toss . . .

. . . and more! (They even thought to have a "washing the dishes" station for the little kiddos.)

We've also been hanging out with a lot of other families lately. We watched two of the girls' friends overnight while their parents went to youth conference. As it was pouring rain for the entire two days, there was a lot of creativity going on (as with the whacky hair-do's), and a lot of Wii sports. Chris also took the older kids to play laser tag and then we went to Twirl, the girls favorite frozen yogurt place. To pay us back, they took our girls so Chris and I could go on a date - to see the last Harry Potter. Whoo, hoo! Good times.

We also had some friends from North Carolina who were visiting over for dinner - way fun to catch up - and then we went to another friend's house for dinner on Sunday. Whew! We sure stay busy!

And before I sign off, I've just a couple more things to share. The first is about the ongoing "clean up your room" battle I've been having with Kate. She will completely ignore me and continue playing when I tell her it's time to clean up - super buggy. So, I took away her toys in a huge tupperware bin. About a week later she asked for them back and told me she would clean them up. So I gave them to her and she did clean up, for about two days. Then came the following conversation:

Me - Okay Kate, I'm taking your toys away again because you didn't clean up.

Kate (in a super defiant voice) - I'm not going to cry about it. (Like that's really going to hurt my feelings.)

Me - Kate, here's the tupperware bin. Put all your toys in it.

Kate (still defiant) - Okay.

And she did! And the next day, when she asked for her toys back I told her she had to take the toys out of the bin and put them away in their right places before she could play with them. And she did. So, pretty much, in the name of "I'm not going to do what you say, because I'm independent", Kate ended up putting her toys away twice, once in the bin, and once in her room. She makes things so much harder on herself sometimes. But whatever floats her boat. I'm not going to cry about it. :)

And finally, here's Kate helping Kylie to have "a couple" gold fish. Love it.

As you can see, Kylie is totally lovin' people food, which makes me happy. The other exciting news for her is that she has her first word: UH-OH! It is so cute when she says it. I'll try to get it on Video so I can post it. . . until next time!

4th of July

Originally, Chris was going to have to work on the 4th of July (believe me, the irony of a soldier having to work on the 4th - the day we're celebrating our freedoms and those who fought/fight to preserve them - did not escape me). However, the stars aligned and Chris only had to go in for a couple hours. While he was gone, Aly orchestrated a "flag show" to show Dad when he got home, and had all her sisters practicing. It was great entertainment - flags flying in semi-unison, and red, white, and blue balloons being thrown over the balcony. Good stuff.

That afternoon, I made 7 layer dip, and we headed out to Lincoln Park for our picnic dinner, swimming for the girls, and the fireworks display over the bay.

It turned out great! The girls had a blast swimming, I got to hang out with my hubby, and, due to Chris' great foresight, we had the perfect spot for viewing the fireworks! Kylie was a little nervous about the big booms at first, but soon got over it and loved looking at the colors.

Happy Independence Day, America! May there be many more to come.

Family Home Evening Fun

Okay, so about 75% of the time our Family Home Evenings consist of plain, old, reading stories out of the Friend magazine. (I'm all about being consistent, but without the stress of having to come up with a huge production every week. I believe FHE should be as low stress as possible!)Occassionally though, we like to spice it up a little. A couple of weeks ago we finished reading about Lehi's dream in the book of Mormon, so we decided to recreate it out of Legos for Family Home Evening. It was awesome! Aly was in charge of the Great and Spacious building, Lise was in charge of the Tree of Life, and I was in charge of the Iron Rod/Straight and Narrow Path, the Mists of Darkness, and the River. (Kylie was sleeping, Chris was working late, and Kate was throwing a temper tantrum. So yeah, only 50% attendance at this FHE, but we still had a lot of fun!)

I was very impressed at how much the girls remembered about the story. Aly made sure that the people in the building were pointing, and that there was someone wandering over to the building. (Notice they wanted all the Star Wars guys to be the bad guys!)

The girls also wanted to make sure that the river was filthy and that there was someone "drowining in the depths thereof". I love how we ended up with tires, steering wheels, windows, and space junk in the river.

Lise did a great job creating the tree, making sure that the fruit was white, and wanting there to be a bunch of flowers. She also wanted Lehi to be bald, since he's so old. :) The girls also wanted someone who didn't cling to the rod, wandering off in the mists of darkness. The lego people on the path are Sariah, Nephi, and Sam. Hopefully the girls will remember this FHE and remember to "hold to the rod!"

Another fun family home evening activity we did when my mom and Jess were here was Balloon Volleyball over the bar. Very impromptu fun. (Sorry you didn't make it in the picture Jess. You can see the corner of your walker though! ;)

*And, if you're looking for other simple activities, here's some that have worked for us in the past: Flashlight Tag, taking a walk around the neighborhood, and lessons from the Nursery Manual, "Behold Your Little Ones" (these lessons are perfect for the older two girls to give.)

**Please share some of your own easy, fun FHE ideas!!**

The Puppy Phase

Kylie is now 11 months old - I can't believe she is almost a toddler! But she is definitely "acting her age" so to say. This is what I like to call "the puppy stage." She is getting into EVERYTHING! She can hear the fridge or dishwasher open from the other side of the house and will be over there in no time flat! She's so proud of herself when she gets there too. She just loves to "help". She also loves scrounging for food left under the table by the girls' messes. She is becoming a good eater with her baby food and is also really getting into people food - cheerios, Kix, and whatever she can beg off of the family whenever she sees us eating - Aly's banana, bread, rice, whipping cream, you name it. She's got 8 teeth now though, so I guess she can handle it. Oh, and *happy day* Kylie has figured out how to drink out of a sippy cup. Oh yeah!

**Sidenote insert!!** - okay, so I know this post is about Kylie, but this picture goes with the one below it and I couldn't resist including it. When we went to the park, Kate really wanted me to push her on the swings, but I told her I would only do it if she let me take a picture of her in front of the castle. So here she is doing it - while bawling her eyes out.

30 seconds later on the swing . . . complete joy. Ah, the trauma.

Kylie just experienced her first ride on the swings at the playground and LOVED IT! She was laughing and squealing her head off.

Here's a picture of Kylie with the off-center mohawk that Lise gave her. Hopefully there are some mini pigtails in her near future.

Kylie has also been acting like a little puppy by using her mouth to carry things around while she's crawling. It's hilarious.

Sadly, I think those days are soon coming to an end because . . . Kylie has taken her first steps!! She loves to practice and gets so excited when she walks. She always looks to see if we're looking and wants us to clap for her. Soon she'll be walking all over the place. It's time for one stage to end and another to begin . . .

Gotta Love My Girls - the secret to my success

So, while my mom and Jess were here, we ended up looking through some of my old yearbooks and my sister thought it was funny that I voted myself "Most Likely to Succeed", since after I graduated from college I only worked for 18 months until Aly was born. My response? "Hey, I'm exactly where I want to be in my life: a stay at home mom with a great husband and four wonderful kids that keep things interesting. I feel pretty successful up to this point!" Being content where you are, finding joy in the journey, and striving to focus on the good amidst the challenges of life, that is my definition of success. What is yours? My girls. They can be wacky, crazy, silly, messy, funny, exasperating, helpful, kind, obnoxious, sweet, insightful, giggly, and just plain normal kids. And that's why I love them. Here are some recent things my girls have done that make me love them . . .

* Aly's primary teacher related to me the following conversation when her class was having a lesson on the parable of the talents:

Teacher - Oops! Well, my talent is forgetting things, because I accidentally forgot to bring your treats this week.

Aly - Hey! That's my mom's talent too!

(Nice.)

* Lise and Kate can play together so well sometimes. Recently they have gotten into playing "giraffe families" with the Duplo Legos. I love the creativity.

* Aly and Lise have decided that the microwave timer - or any other buzzer: laundry, oven, etc. - are bomb detonators, and so if you're standing in the kitchen whenever it beeps, you blow up. So, whenever we are heating food in the microwave or cooking dinner, we end up with a lot of mad scrambling, duck-and-cover techniques, to avoid getting killed. It's very entertaining to watch. I almost always kick the bucket, as I cannot leave the dinner I'm preparing to hide behind the bar every 30 seconds.

*Lise's constant obsession with getting a pet continues. I caught a lizard outside for her (kinda hard to see through the mesh), which was super exciting. So she had a pet lizard, which she named Splash, for 48 hours. We tried to feed it lettuce and crackers and water, but we couldn't catch any bugs and we didn't want it to die, so we decided to let it live in our yard instead. But Lise isn't ready to give up yet. For her daddy daughter date, she had Chris take her to the pet store to scope out her options. She'll have to pay for 1/2 to prove it's really worth it to her though, so I think I'm still safe for a little while.

*My girls are getting older! We had a combined family birthday party to celebrate Analise turning 7 and Kate turning 4! Love that Lise dug out her birthday crown that Mrs. Shugars gave to her in Kindergarten to wear for the occasion. That crown has now been ripped and taped twice, once by Kate, and once by Kylie. (Also notice the awesome cake, my first time ever making a Jell-o cake. It was a huge accomplishment for me - like how it would be for a normal person to make a 7 tiered wedding cake. Everyone scarfed it up too, so I was happy with my creation.)

* Here's Kate using batteries for eyeballs. 'Nuff said. Kate is on a Rapunzel kick lately, and has informed me that she looks just like Rapunzel - when her hair gets chopped off at the end. So now we're working on growing her hair out like the long hair Rapunzel - no more self hair cuts!

*Kate also made our lives more colorful when she decided to have a butter and blueberry yogurt sandwich, which she made herself. For weeks after, we were spreading butter with little chunks of yogurt in it onto our toast, veggies, and rice.

*And last but not least for Kate, we went to our Stake Conference, which was broadcast to our ward. On the screen you could see the top of a bald man's head that was sitting behind the podium. So Kate says to me, "Why is there a Jelly Fish at Stake Conference?" Love it.

* And finally, I am so proud of my girls for how awesome they did in swimming lessons! Their swim teacher said that Lise was the most improved student - she can hold her breath for a long time and is super strong at the backstroke, front stroke, and breast stroke. Kate went from being completely terrorized by the water, to going under to get rings and jumping off the diving board all by herself! And even though I didn't sign Aly up for swimming lessons, she came in her swimming suit anyway and the teacher let her mooch and be a part of the advanced class, perfecting her strokes and learning how to rescue someone. Hopefully the videos I imported in will work below, so you can see each of them in action. Good job girls!

* Oh, and by the way, I did not forget about Kylie. She's been plenty busy herself. She's just going to get her own personal post - 'cause she's special like that.

Fun with Chris

For Father's Day, the girls came through and did a great job, as usual. They each gave him some of his favorite candy, along with a card:
Aly gave him Riesens with a card that had "10 Reasons You are the Best!"
1. You give us ice cream
2. You wrestle with us
3. You're funny
4. You tease us
5. You have a cool phone
6. You play wii with me
7. You take us fun places
8. You help us with tithing
9. You grill the Best BBQ chicken
10. You are fun to swim with


Analise gave him Reese's Pieces and a card that she bought with her own money! Inside she wrote, "dad is great, he gevs us chocklit cake." (Chris is always singing that to the girls. Totally funny.)

Kate gave Chris a box of Whoppers and promptly declared "Dad, we both love these! Let's share them."

Hmm, Chris surrounded by beautiful women. That's every man's dream, right? We just love our Man. (Unfortunately Kylie was sleeping for this picture.)

Also, while Jess and my mom were here, they let Chris and I go on a couple dates while they were here - thanks guys, you rock! Chris and I had a great time - it was just like our pre-marriage dating! Loved it!

For one of our dates we took a picnic lunch to the beach where we watched the sunset, talked, and watched the fireworks they do every Thursday night at the harborwalk. We also had a fantastic time figuring out Chris' phone on his camera. Notice Chris giving me a wet willie in my ear!

After the fireworks we headed over to the Harborwalk to check it out. We actually saw someone coming back from a fishing expedition with a 6 ft shark they had caught! It was crazy. We window shopped and just enjoyed the evening. It was such a great date!

We were also able to go out for a dinner on the patio and a movie - so nice to have time to talk with my best friend. I am so glad to be married to someone who I can have just as much fun being goofy with and hanging out with, 11 years later, as I did when we first got married. And thanks to great family who made that possible!

June Staycation

This summer, instead of going away on vacation, we let the vacationers come to us! My mom and my sister, Jessica, came out for almost 3 weeks in June. We had a BLAST! Here are some of my favorite highlights (with a couple of lowlights as well): * A game of RIPPLE a day (or three or four). Aly and Grandma are obsessed!

*hitting the splash pad and going through the "car wash" with Jess.

*hours spent trying to get rid of Kylie's diaper rash, then finally having an antibiotic clear it up!

* Giving Jess her birthday present on Father's Day and having her push it away with a "What-the-heck-are-you-doing, I'm-not-a-father" look on her face. :)

*Swimming at a friend's pool.

*A girls shopping day at Old Navy - and watching my mom get all the same shirts as me, just like the good ol' days. :)

*hitting the beach a couple of times and getting to swim with the girls & Chris.

*Aly losing her retainer in the ocean, everyone searching, not finding it, but finding other stuff (a hair thing, a snorkel mask, etc.)

* Yummy frozen yogurt at TWIRL after the beach. The best time to get frozen yogurt!

* playing out on the boogie boards with Kate.

*Watching the most amazing sunset I have seen in a long time. Even through the trees it was gorgeous.

* Going to see Marmaduke for free (we got what we paid for), knowing that my mom and Jess weren't all that crazy about the movie, but they were crazy about hanging out with me and the kids, so that made it fun anyway.

*Grateful that my mom would take Kylie and rock her to sleep, then watch the rest of the movie in Jess's wheelchair, so that I could be completely hands on with Kate in the theater.

*Going to see Cars 2 for Kate's birthday, but not really seeing hardly any of it because of trying to keep Kylie from eating popcorn off the floor (ew!), and passing popcorn, candy, and drinks back and forth the entire time!

*Watching Kylie have a blast pushing Jessica's walker around the living room and kitchen. Excellent walking practice, I tell ya. (Um, yeah, that's why it's called a walker.)

*The YMCA pool. It was perfect for everybody: zero depth entry for Kylie, 3 ft max depth for Jess, water slide for Aly and Lise, and Kate was all about swimming to and from the stairs to demonstrate her new skills from swimming lessons (more on that later.)

*Splash pad at the YMCA for when the life guards took their 10 minute break every hour.

*Watching Kylie trying to catch the drips in the waterfall.

*The late night talks with my mom and sister, analyzing and solving the problems of the world. :)

* The general craziness that always ensues whenever a bunch of Jackman/O'Gwin girls get together. (Above picture taken at Michaels, as my mom was trying to entertain the kids while I shopped.)

We had a TON of fun when they were here and miss them terribly now that they're gone. Come again soon!