Backpack

Soren loves to be in the backpack. He giggles and kicks as we try and get him situated, then sits up there content and quiet for as long as Brandon's back can take it.

Unless Brandon has a Clemson ball cap on--then Soren giggles even more as he pulls it right off, over and over.

He's been known to go for the glasses too.

Anyway, I'm so thankful both pops and babe are happy participants in this activity, because Soren has reached the point where he just cries and cries at my feet if I'm not giving him my full attention, and sometimes I just need some space.

Plus, it gets them outside. That is a very good thing.

And because I like to be with them, it gets me outside too.

Except wait, aren't I supposed to be doing whatever it was inside I needed to do that had the baby crying at my feet?

Forgotten. Instead? Pictures.

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Notice how I have to try and not over-expose two bald heads now:

Wait, did someone say crookneck squash? Aren't those supposed to be JULY veggies? And is that a flower on our cucumber plant? 

This whole gardening in warm weather thing is totally awesome.

 Well hello, ladybug on the watermelon. These plants are probably doing the least well, so seeing this little critter was welcome news. 

Because you know, if the ladybug likes it, it's got to be good:

I still can't help but look up in awe:

Luckily I don't only have to look up to see pure beauty: 

Yahoo for little boys and borrowed backpacks.

Blossoming Flowers

We have this towering Magnolia tree in our yard. I think it's 4 stories high. 

It too has begun blossoming.

The flowers are large from the get go, yet polite and compact in their opening presentation.

But don't be fooled. Just a couple of days later, they open wide and spread all the way out, petals reaching as far as their capacity allows.

And then, they are seriously huge.

Like Hawaiian plumerias on steroids.

 I can't help but draw similarities between these beautiful magnolia flowers and my own little blossoming Annie.

Last Friday was her last day at pre-school.

Her petals were stretched out as far as they could go.

Annie started preschool with a big heart and a lot of shyness. But as the year went on, she quickly opened up, enjoying every minute of her time in the "whale class," learning and growing by leaps and bounds.

She was almost the oldest and tallest in her class (side story: I finally met her first school crush who turned out to be almost 5 inches shorter than her--I could suddenly see what she was talking about when she would tell me "he's just a cute little whale") and I could tell that her teachers used her as an example and a friend throughout the year.

Even in the end-of-year program, Annie spoke first, introducing her classmates and the "fruits of the spirit" they'd been learning all year.

Her line: When we ask Jesus to live in us, His spirit stays in us, and gives (she said "gaves") us these fruits as we grow.

True words to ponder on from my fully blossomed little preschooler.

Annie, we are so proud of the beautiful gal you are, inside and out!

Kindergarten, here we come.

Annie happies pt. 2

One morning I came out and saw Annie doing some artwork on the front room table. 

Then I noticed she'd already done some artwork on the front window. Can you see it?

Sigh. Love that lady.

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We've done a second round of dancing this spring.
 Same teacher, same little dancer buddies, this time a bit less structured with an in-house-workshop-esque recital at the end.

Someone was still a little excited. 

I kinda think she looks like a superhero with body armor. Buff little lady.

How fun it is to watch your children thrive.

Soren came along and Stitched.

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A bonus Zane funny. He's taken to listening to my itunes (which is a total random collection of who knows what). I interrupted this one day to ask a question. When he was finished answering, he said, "Can I get back to my rock 'n roll now?"

Rock on, little buddy.

Magic

Remember that miracle-gro I mentioned? I think it worked.

Here's our devout gardener sometime last week.

And lo and behold, here are the front bed plants as of this morning.

We have fruit, people.

Oh I love the process of blossoms-to-fruit. The decay of the flower seems beautiful in its own right, as it passes the baton to even more exciting prospects.

 Annie, of course, is thrilled.

When she saw the little baby green peppers, she sighed and said, "Look, they're so cute, like little babies in a cradle!"

Nature is so cool.

Stitch

You know Stitch? I think Soren looks a bit like him.

You see he does this crinkle nose/show all (two) teeth thing. He kinda snorts too.

I hadn't mentioned the ears before, but now that I see it, hmm...

Soren's gone sports-pro on us. He loves this frisbee (and pot lid?) and will shake it, chuck it, bounce it, retrieve it, etc for many minutes. Also see that stuffed gator football in the far right corner below? Brandon got it for Zane when we lived in IDAHO and he went there to a football game, pre-grad school.

Sigh. We were always destined for Gville.

I'm off topic. Somehow that gator ball has remained in our repertoire of toys for 5+ years and now Soren LOVES to "shake shake shake let go" that thing towards anyone willing. 

I kinda forgot how fun this phase of little boydom is.

Ha! I just said "fun" on a day when this little prince woke up before 5am then cried whenever I wasn't holding him. For the rest of the day.

Oh except when he was great for Brandon who watched him at home this afternoon while I went to the dentist. They came and picked me up afterwards, Soren heard my voice, and cried again until we got home.

I am supposed to be the helper, not the enabler, right? It gets muddled.

Anyway, he's {finally} sleeping once more and therefore so must I.

 Soren you're maddening! Don't give me that dimple!

**

A nice gal here gave me these cute striped-and-kinda-like-jail-bird onesies and somehow Soren ended up in one for each of my photo shoots this week! One's dark blue, the other's light blue--I promise I didn't mess with the lighting THAT much.

 More crinkle Stitch noses. And big hair.

Beauties though, eh? 

Boydom. It's cool.

Creatures in the neighborhood

I forgot one story.

Yesterday morning I was driving out of my driveway and around the curve of my street when I spotted a furry animal diving into the large drainage pipe by the road behind my neighbor's house. My initial reaction was "BRAKE!" because there are a number of cats in the neighborhood--but then almost immediately I realized, no, too darkish brown to be any neighborhood cat I would recognize.

My tired mommy brain then went through other possibilities.

Beaver! No. Not big enough. Porcupine? Armadillo?

Otter! It must be an otter! It was jumping into the water in the drain pipe, after all! Wow, a real ott--wait a minute--could it really be an otter?

What's that you say? Oh, a GROUNDHOG. Of course! My mistake. 

You see, I didn't realize those were actual real animals that lived in neighborhood sometimes. That's what I get for growing up in the land of scorpions and coyotes. Not a lot of GROUNDHOGS around.

When I was retelling the story to my laughing husband later, even my five year old pointed out that "Mom, otters don't live on dry land."

Well, it looked like an otter, that's all I have to say.

It could have been an otter.

ps--this picture is not the actual animal, although we have seen it a time or two since.  For this story, I googled "groundhog" and looked for one that resembled an otter.

I am unique.

Funnies lately

Part of Zane's homework every night is to read for 15 minutes. Lucky for us he loves reading and this is an easy task, but occasionally he runs out of novels and has to go looking elsewhere. If Tilly were still with us, she would be delighted that his first option is almost always the archaic-but-charming Childcraft Encyclopedia collection she bought for us long ago and we've been carting around the country ever since (with love). However, if those aren't readily available, I usually find him cozied up on the couch with a blog book in hand. 

Best part about this? He giggles as he reads. Guffaws. Says stuff like, "Oh man, mom, you gotta read this!" 

Zane's laughter is like gold; it is pure, enthusiastic delight and includes wonderful sighs to catch his breath at the end.

Tonight after reading he said something like, "Man, these blog books are so great. When's the 4th one coming out?" Awesome, Z. Your praise does wonders to fuel my blog writing fire.

With all that in mind, here are a few funnies from our past couple of weeks:

Remember Z's past self portraits? Here's another for the books:

Hello I'm Zane. Please excuse me, I seem to have swallowed a very large BOX.

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Z says almost all things correctly these days, but I did hear him say "You're my right hand-ed man!" while adventuring with his legos last week. Apparently right handed men are a very good thing!

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Also from Z, last night we were talking about how the Lord uses imperfect people to do his work on earth. We talked about how Jesus was the only perfect person. Brandon said, "So yes, there was Jesus, but has anyone else been perfect?" "NOOO," came the reply from the peanut gallery. Brandon continued, "You're right! So what about the missionaries today? They're not perfect right? They make mistakes and still the Lord trusts them to do his important work!" Annie pipes in, "So the missionaries do bad stuff sometimes?" And before we can reply, Zane says, "Wait, so if I become a missionary, I'll turn evil?" 

Not what we had in mind, people. 

Luckily we still have 10 years to sort all that out.

*** 

Speaking of Annie and church things, turns out she's quite into equal opportunity these days. We've been memorizing scriptures for family home evening (trying to counteract the false doctrine we apparently teach somehow!) and anyway there's this verse in 2 Nephi that says, "Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy." Well, Annie thought about that for a little while, then said, "Hey what about Eve?" So now she bookends our recitation with, "And Eve fell that women might be; and WOMEN are that THEY might have joy." You go girl, miss Annie.

Speaking of Annie, she leaves drawings rolled up all over the house these days. I found this one the other night and couldn't pass it up. 

Makes me wonder what that little lady is thinking! And I mean "!"

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I think that's all I've got tonight. Happy sighs. Life is sweet.