Cousins, cousins, and more cousins

1. Gage
2. Jake
3. Emma
4. James
5. Grace
6. Taylor
7. Katie
8. Spencer
9. Lincoln
10. Jamison
11. Laura
12. Parker
13. Whitney
14. Natalie
15. Ashlyn
16. Claire
17. Courtlyn
18. Tessa
19. Sarah
20. Noah
21. Sam
22. Benjamin
23. Rachel

Big Family Trip up Spanish Fork canyon in Utah 2 weeks ago. Grandparents and 6 families all under the same roof. Can you believe it? What a blast. And what great memories....

the canoe on the pond
the paddle boat
the horses
the fishing pond
the sand pit
the testimony meeting
friendship bracelets
face paint
Taylor's movies
great conversations
a trip to the urgent care
airsoft
kickball
watersponge fight
the trampoline
SCRABBLE
the toy room
great food
astronaut rides
tickle fights
TOO many desserts

What would you add to the list?

We sure missed Ali and wished she could have been there! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for putting this together! We miss all of you already!

My Birthday

I'm still trying to burn the mental image of my birthday into my mind. I have a picture in my head of Noah flying his kite by the pond at Music in the Park. There was no one else around him, just the boy and his kite. Of course my camera battery died. Does anyone know how to save these mental pictures for good? I'm trying to file it next to Noah running down the hall Christmas morning and the expression on Gage's face the very first time I saw him. I'm afraid I won't be able to remember where I put it.

My boys made this a wonderful birthday. Breakfast in bed, too much time with the birkenstock salesman drooling over these, a picnic in the park with dinner from one of my favorite spots, a concert next to the water, and sweet notes from family and friends. Thank you. Thank you.

Baby's 1st Birthday

Cousin Natalie was born the day before Gage. They were due 2 months apart. She was 6 weeks early, he was 2 weeks late. We celebrated together in Utah with the entire fam.
We took him to Gateway Discovery. He loved it. We fed him chocolate cake. He loved it. When we got home we gave him birthday presents. And Noah loved it.

Happy Birthday baby Gage. We love you.

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.