On a jet plane

We’re headed to the rocky mountains. Today will be a day filled with pile making and book returning and grocery cart pushing.

We cannot tell you how excited we are to see our friends and family. We have 2 neices to meet and 22 cousins to introduce Gage to.

So let’s introduce him properly:


This crazy man is still army crawling as fast as he can. He’s got 4 teeth. He gives the best kisses. He giggles, squeals, claps and loves to hear the Itsy Bitsy spider. He is climbing on everything, the couch, chairs, train table and most of all: me. His first word was "Momma," at 10 months followed real closely by "Dadda" and "Nunu" (for Noah). He waves "bye bye", furiously waves "all done" and says "nigh nigh" when its time for bed. He is just learning to walk while holding onto something and could walk around all day if we let him. He loves water: lakewater, bathwater, sinkwater, anything. Give this boy a cup of water and something to pour it into and he's good. He's getting into cupboards now and loves to dump things. He loves to stack things and push cars and trucks.



Now, what to do with this wiggler on the airplane? Yikes. We'll just hold our breath until the flight is done.

Happy Fourth

David McCullough has forever changed American History for me. After reading "1776" and "John Adams" my image of the American Revolution moved past the old men with powdered wigs and tights. It is now a fascinating and unbelievable time. I get it now. And I'm a little more grateful for what we have. Here's what we did to celebrate Independence Day this year:

Noah rode his patriotic big wheel in a bike parade. The kids followed an ambulance around our friends' neighborhood and ended at the park for popsicles.

We spent the afternoon at the lake filling up moats and splashing off our sandy toes. The kids LOVE this. And the best part was that Daddy could come with us. He digs the best holes.

Of course we grilled some dinner. And I have officially entered a new culinary realm; I made Fourth of July Jello. Here's Dave lovin it, and I'm sure my mom is very proud.

The kids were exhausted from all the celebrating and were out by 7:30pm. Dave and I listened to the fireworks from our couch with a movie in the DVD player and ice cream in our bowls. Happy Independence Day indeed.

hAirCuTS

Everyone got haircuts at our house this weekend. We got out the clippers, the suckers, the ipod, buzzed our afternoon away and came out with some pretty good looking boys.

This was the first haircut for Mr. Gage. There were a few traumatic moments for him and for Momma (always sad to lose baby bits) but it was worth it to have a mullet free family.

Gage's first haircut

Noah's first haircut

The boys are about the same age (2 weeks different) in these pictures. Can you say brothers?

El Padre

"In the small constellation of our family, [Mother] may be the sun, but [Daddy] is our moon. His is the face that lights the night's shadows." -Susan Carol McCarthy

We had a couple of sickies this week. N had a stomach bug and fever that kept him up all night and poor G had a noisy cough that didn't let anyone sleep. They were miserable and left their parents with foggy heads and heavy eyelids.

Dave takes on most of this midnight work. Changing sheets and pjs, taking temperatures, giving tylenol, and hushing babes back to sleep. So when N wakes up at 2:00am with chills or when he has gotten out of his bed at 3:00am and can't find his way back its "Daddy!" that he calls for. And "under [Daddy's] soothing lunar light" he drifts back to sleep.

How do you show appreciation for a stud like this on a holiday such as Father's Day?

First idea - breakfast in bed of course. But David had early morning church meetings and happened to be fasting.

Next idea - get out the whipped cream and strawberries for pancakes for lunch. But again, David was fasting and had a couple EQ visits to make.

Next idea - nice big dinner with some kind of red meat. But instead of confessing all my culinary weaknesses I will tell you that we happily accepted an invitation to dinner with friends. And did have a nice big dinner with BBQ ribs.

So we managed to show our love with a handmade Father's day card, a handpainted Father's day story, lots of hugs and.....

our customary Monopoly game. The one day a year that I will play with him. But see all of Dave's mortgaged properties?.... this might change things.

Happy Father's Day David.

And a big fat Happy Father's day to my Daddy, who taught me how to drive a car by showing me the power of Zen and who helps me to remember to open my eyes....To Dave's dad, who forever won my heart after fixing up my poor little Nissan Sentra after it left me stranded in Provo....To Grandpa Brown who gave me so many great childhood memories on the river and looking through his telescope....And to my Grampee who reminds me to laugh and to enjoy it all while its here.

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home.

Glad as I can be.

We don't get as much time with SuperDave around here as we would like lately. He's got a big deadline at the end of the month for part of his dissertation. I'm trying really hard to be supportive and not act martyr-ish. (And I do realize that in saying that, I am). But we're still happy and that's what's important.

Boys are in bed, I'm off to sit down with Leo Tolstoy.

A party for Noah

We had a party with some friends for Noah's birthday. One of Noah's favorite favorite things is to go to the lake.

The day was super windy. I was sad because my matching party tablecloths, balloons and cute plates would NOT stay in place. And Noah was upset until we re-sang "Happy Birthday" with a "dear Leo" appropriate to his character for the day. But that did not stop us! The food, the friends and the sand definitely made up for it. Thank you to everyone who came! Noah loved it.

Noah opening birthday presents with the boys.

Brother Gage really wanting to eat those birthday presents.
Noah still digging. All the guests have gone home, the party is cleaned up, the lifeguards are leaving, but Noah is still digging.

Weekend fun

Noah was so excited to help Daddy pack up the Volvo. We'd been talking about this all day long and he had made quite a mountain of "things to go camping." Sleeping bags, mosquito repellent, flashlights, soup, a bucket and shovel, Lightning Mcqueen, a balloon, and more.

Noah says, "Only the boys are going camping." "What about Gage?" I say. "He's pretending to be a girl like you." was the reply.

They had a blast. Played outside, ate hot dogs, and SLEPT IN A TENT. Noah loved it.

With Noah and Dave off, that left Gage and I alone to find our own adventure. Which we did. We munched a fabulous Panera sandwich with some of my favorite people, got rained out of an outdoor concert by the lake, and hit the garage sales in the morning. Both of these boys really needed this one on one time.