Holy Cow I'm all Full...

Wow - this blog is full!  I guess it's time to start a new one....and print this one off into a lovely big book like I've been saying I would do for so long.  My new one is lesliandbrandon.blogspot.com

The Keukenhopf

I need to post these so I don't forget all about it!!  When we were in Amsterdam last spring we went to the Keukenhopf Gardens the day before we left.  I can't quite remember how I figured this out, but I know the gardens aren't open for very many months and because of the weather last spring, the time the tulips opened and a few other factors I can't remember I figured that we were there on the most ideal weekend of the whole year - woot woot for us!  This was why going to Holland in the spring was on my bucket list - to see these very flowers and holy cow they didn't fail to impress.  I think this is what Brandon's heaven looks like.  We were awestruck.  I think Graham was too.

Even all of the cherry blossoms were in bloom!

 the planters were amazing.

 surrounding the gardens were field after field full of tulips to be harvested

 some of the tulips were as big as Graham's head!

Some areas of the garden were kind of unruly and natural looking.  They even had a few places where they had dandelions mixed in with all the bulbs and they looks beautiful! The smells and sights were almost overwhelming.  We were in sensory overload a few times - it was that amazing.

A couple more pictures and then I'll be done - one afternoon after B got done with meetings we went out to this little village (can't remember the name?) where there are a bunch of old windmills that have been restored.  It was kind of rainy and cold and while we were walking I asked B to turn around so I could take a picture.  He had graham under his wind breaker (he was asleep in his baby carrier) and they wind was whipping it up so he was all poofy.  He started grumbling about how he looked like a giant blueberry and how this wasn't a very opportune time to be taking a picure (and was saying all this while he was turned around and smiling, waiting for me to take the darn picture!) - well, the whole thing was so funny that I all the sudden got a bad case of giggles and couldn't stand up straight and had to keep my legs crossed and try to take a picture all at the same time. What an obliging husband I have!  Here is his blueberry picture...

 (I think he decided it was a little funny too)

We got to go in some of the windmills and this one was my favorite!  This was a spice mill and that huge stone behind me was grinding cinnamon while we were there.  The smell was amazing!  

this baby

A baby kind of feels pretend sometimes - pretend when you close your eyes one minute and open them the next and the baby they were when you closed them is gone and a new bigger one took its place.  A new one that's not quite as small or as cuddly or as dependent on you --- and for some reason it just kind of hurts.  Why are you an adult for so long and a baby for so short?  I love Graham -  he brightens my whole life.  It's odd the connection you feel to your baby - like their very soft and chubby body isn't really their own but just part of yours that runs around outside of you that you just love so much it hurts and sometimes feel like you need to hug it so hard it will melt back inside of you so you don't ever ever have to be away from it...... unless it's late......... and you're really tired:).  I think I could win some kind of perfect muddy baby award with these pictures.....

  

messy

Sometimes I feel like my house is being lived in by someone other than myself.  I would never let myself live in a place like mine looks sometimes!  This morning I went outside to throw a dirty diaper away and when I walked back in the door I just kind of looked around in shock.  How does a house implode on itself so fast!  Grady had gone to get the mail for me and brought it in the family room and just threw it up in the air for all the little val pack coupons and grocery store ads to come raining down on him.  Awesome.  We slept in this morning so Clara and Gray hadn't taken their pj's back upstairs, but they had made it to the living room floor - along with their dirty underwear (and blankets and stuffed animals and a box of legos turned upside down, etc. etc.).  I used to see underwear on peoples floor and think, "really?", how hard is it to keep underwear off your living room floor?  I guess it can be a little tricky.  The table was still set with our half eaten breakfast - the sink was full of dirty dishes, my cupboards are covered in random garden produce that is wonderfully spilling out of our ears which means there are fruit flies everywhere and then AND THEN lets just talk about Graham.  This kid is crazy - he is constantly being given an apple or a cucumber from his thoughtful brother and sister and lately he doesn't like to eat it he just grins at you then takes a little nibble and spits them out all over my floor.  Little trails of drooly half chewed food were everywhere this morning.  He takes everything out of every cupboard or drawer he can open - pulls handfulls of dirt out of the house plants every time he crawls by and he found my oils book open from a zone last night and took all of those out for me too.  My floor looked like someone had taken their dinner plate and very carefully crunched it up in there hands and sprinkled it all over my floor.   My other thought when I would see houses like this was, "man where did the mom disappear to during the hour it took for all this to happen?"  Not hours - minutes!!! I never knew.... and this isn't even taking into account the bedrooms and bathrooms!  Clara put half a roll of toilet paper in their bathroom because she's a little anal (no pun intended) about making sure she's done a good job and clogged the toilet and grady was working on some project involving about a half cup of hand soap, some tea lights and several paperclips.  Little brown chunks of soapy wax were all over the counter and the floor.  Who lives in a house like that????? Gosh - what can I do but just laugh!  Laugh and be glad I get three of them to pick up after.   I just have to clean up what could cause a hazard or get stinky (and the dirty underwear) and get on with my day!


I'm looking at this muddy little face staring up at me on the porch (he found some dirt and started to eat it) and just thought (and I'm not gonna lie and say that thought didn't instantly bring big fat tears to my eyes) how horribly horribly terrible it would be to have to have to walk in that door and find a perfectly clean, quiet home.  I choose this disaster any day.


.........tmi..... Gray just came out to tell me his sister forgot the toilet was still plugged and needs some toilet paper.  super cool......

looooong days

I am done with summer.  I never ever in my whole life thought I would say that.  But I am - it's been so long and hot and busy and hot and I'm ready to be done.  And ready to put my kids to bed before 9:00. And ready to open up the windows at night and breath in cool air. B is out building us a pizza oven.  Our very own pizza oven in the backyard with a fire place underneath even.  Wow - not sure where he comes up with this stuff, but I'm pretty excited.  I finally got Graham to sleep and fell asleep myself rocking him and got startled awake when Brandon turned the spotlight on outside Grahams window so that he can keep working in the dark.  I watched as Clara and Gray ran outside to swing in their matching gray pajamas (clara really likes to match - her pants are two sizes to little and her shirt is a hello kitty one turned inside out, but she's in all gray just like her brother.)  I should go get them because I know they'll both be covered in mosquito bites, it's just nice to sit in a quite house sometimes.

We took Clara over to the school today to see who her kindergarten teacher is.  We walked through the halls and found her classroom and as we walked in my chest got all tight and I got big fat tears in my eyes and wasn't quite sure I was going to be able to do this!!!!  Why is a few hours a day so darn hard?   Because she's big and she will do her own thing and there will forever be parts of her life that I don't know about and that she doesn't share with me and that are just hers and that kind of hurts my heart a little bit and makes me miss her even though I can hear her laughing right outside the window.  And makes me all teary again just thinking about it.  I just have to think about how wonderful that minute will be when she is at school and i drop Grady off at pre-school and come home and put Graham down for a nap and I -  holy cow- I what?????? NOTHING!!!! YAHOO!!!! I will have that for a few hours twice a week!!!! It will be okay won't it?  I'll just have to figure out how to make Clara talk a little more and we'll be fine. okay, she'll be fine.  I have lots more about summer to post some other night.

I might have to post one more thing - my amazingly talented friend Brooke (and my old BYUI roomate!!!) called several months ago and said she was coming up from Vegas in july and wanted to get together and what would I think about taking a few pictures????  I was soo excited and honored - she's extremely talented and so busy and never did I think we would get the chance for her to take pictures for us - but she did and we had such a fun night and it was so fun to meet her kids (and her husband Cody again) and catch up.  it's funny how just hearing her voice and talking made me feel like a little freshman in college again.  I miss you so much Brooke!  I will love these photos forever.  More to come another time......

   

4th of July

The 4th of July was a little crazy but we saw and did a whole lot of fun things.   Including;
-Fireworks at Lundstrom park with my family,
-Boating at twin lakes the next day with my Mom, Jo, Carter and Myah,
-Stopping at lava hot springs en route to Rexburg,
-BEAR WORLD!!! woot woot - I have wanted to go to bear world since the very 1st time I drove to Rexburg - now 11 years later my dreams have finally been fulfilled:)
-Making a TON of pizza in Byron's awesome pizza oven - their backyard now feels like some fancy resort and the pizza was sooooo good. Some of the best I've ever had.
- The awesome splash park in Rexburg - coolest I've ever seen
- Messa falls en route to Island Park
- Harriman state park and the lovely yurt.  I really can't get enough of the that place.  So pretty and so fun to camp with a bed and a wood burning stove and a plexi glass window in the roof so you can see the stars at night.
- Church in Island Park - they had two chapels full, a big grassy hill full of people, the gym, and several rooms all packed for sacrament meeting.  I've never seen so many people at church in my life.
- Big Springs - beautiful. And the little historic cabin built right by them was amazing.
But I think my favorite part of the whole week was taking a walk one morning while we were at the John's down by the warm slough and just sitting by the pretty river and listening to nothing but quiet morning sounds.  So calming.  I needed that after all of the above mentioned busyness.

 Clara's festive glow stick hair -

 That bag to the left is chuck full of my mom's caramel popcorn... yum

 The hot pools at Lava felt nice on a rainy day

 "Wo! Did you just seeeeee that!" Gray's reaction from the back seat while driving through bear world.

 A little grizzly bear rompin' around behind my baby's head.

 B pretending to be as excited as I am to finally be driving through bear world!

 look at that tiniest cub...... geez

 Messa falls - beautiful

See those huge sticks Gray's got?  That's what he intended to roast his hot dog with.  Clara was more interested in styling my hair than roasting hot dogs and Graham was more interested in stuffing as much dirt into his mouth as he could get in his chubby little fist. 

Clara's Heaven - a field full of wild flowers.

Hmm - I have a few more but blogger isn't too excited about me downloading them.   So I think the question isn't what did we do over the 4th, but what didn't we do.  Whew.... I really love doing new things with my kids though.  Watching them have new adventures is so exciting to me.  That's what we called this trip - one big adventure.  After each day they would ask what adventure we were going to have the next.  One story about Clara I don't want to forget;  When we went boating Clara decided she didn't like the boat too much.  I know she really does like it, but Myah doesn't and whatever Myah feels, Clara usually has to feel too.  So me and Max were out on the tube and Brandon was driving us around all crazy and flipped us right off.  Joanna watched as Clara went underneath the little seat in the back, kneel down and fold her arms and close her eyes.  When she came back Jo asked her if she was saying a prayer.  She kind of smiled and said no, and then said she was - she just needed to make sure Heavenly Father would keep me safe.  Brandon asked her what she was praying for a little later too and she told him the same but added, "I also asked him if he could please keep her safe right now, cause you know how some prayers he can't answer for a long time?  Well I needed to make sure God knew he needed to answer this prayer right now."  Gosh I love her.  So what does any good mom do after their sweet little daughter does something like that and then won't go for a tube ride?  Agree with her dad to pick up her crying little body and put it on the tube with him, whether she wanted to or not.  She'll like it once she starts right..... darn't?!!! After listening to her cry for two spins around the lake I finally stopped and let them come in.  Hmmm - in our defense she had just ridden the colossus and the white roller coaster the week before and LOVED them.  The made up mind of a 5 year old is a pretty strong thing.  Grady decided he didn't like the boat this year either, too bad. Oh well, it was still quite the week.

DInosaurs

Last night we were eating dinner and Grady wasn't putting much in his mouth.  We don't eat  a lot of meat but I know my little ones need it so I've been trying to make more of it lately.  I asked Grady why he wasn't eating and he said it was because there were these weird brown chunks in his spaghetti.  Clara told him it was meat and you should have seen his face.  He put his head down in both hands and made a sound of disgust and then looked at me with these huge wild eyes and said "MOM!!! ONLY DINOSAURS EAT MEAT!!!!"  What in the heck was I thinking:)