thursday

Elizabeth is really into flip flops and jeans lately.  I tell myself it's because she wants to be like me.

Brady loved dressing up at the gym today.

when the weather is rainy or thundering or something then you have to go in the school to get your kid.  it makes zero sense and I hate it.  it's on my to do list to contact the district about finding a better way.

glasses that Abigail did at school.

Brady was reading to us.

Brady set out this outfit to wear to soccer tomorrow.  it's been set out for almost an entire week because he's been so excited.

keepin' it real.

oldies but goodies from the Brady quotes note.

Brady's stuff from preschool.

and today was my sweet mother's birthday.  she is the most wonderful person I know and I believe in myself because I know that with those genetics and that kind of nurturing and upbringing, I'm going to turn out to be pretty awesome.  I think that about my siblings too... because of course.  happy birthday to my mother and many more happy birthday's to come!

Weekend with mom and dad

Mom and dad were here for the weekend and it was perfection. They got here around 4 on Friday (with balloons in tow... princesses for abigail and sports balls for brady) and we hung out and then went to the Hilliers for Nate's birthday dinner. Delicious steak and potatoes for dinner and make your own pies for dessert. Hanging out was so much fun. Especially seeing Steph. And at the end when dad was helping Klaudette with her phone and "hallie" and "bongo."

Saturday was a day of work. My parents earned their keep this weekend... Especially Saturday.  we did have an amazing breakfast.  christopher made us french toast and we topped it with some delectable peaches that mom and dad brought and added cream cheese to the mix.  along with the regulars... butter, syrup, powdered sugar.  it was heavenly.  but after that it was a whole lot of sweat and hard labor.  mom and i worked in the yard pruning and hacking at dead branches and pulling out bushes and tree stumps and just totally going through the backyard.  we made three enormous piles of branches that dad and christopher hauled down to the tall grasses near the water retention area.  it was amazing.  dad also fixed our upstairs toilet that would sometimes run too long and dad and chris [with quite a bit of trouble] managed to reverse the doors of the fridge/freezer in my garage since they opened toward the wall and it was tricky and annoying to get to things.  we started working sometime around 10am i think and we didn't stop working til late afternoon around five or six.  brady was a gem and slept in til 1pm.  so it was super nice to have that uninterrupted time to work in the yard and not worry about having to put him down for a nap.  the kids just kind of floated around the house while everyone was working and it was all great.  we went to texas roadhouse for dinner and then chris took the kids home and got them to bed while mom and dad and i stopped by home depot for a few things (spider spray, caulk and gun, razor blades, and a saw).  after the kids were in bed, we played sequence and ate kettle corn.

sunday was great.  we had ward conference and i didn't even try to put brady in nursery.  i just took him with me to second and third hour and i loved actually hearing lessons in sunday school and relief society!  amazing!  after church, we came home and binged on random food from the fridge and later, honey grilled hamburgers for us.  as mom and dad loved to comment... we ate a whole lot of red meat that weekend.  our adventure of sunday afternoon was that abigail's balloon escaped to our great room ceiling.  dad and abigail had this plan to turn on the fan so it would fly to the side of the room closer to the stairs.  well, it just got tangled in the fan instead.  luckily, my dad can solve anything and devised a plan that involved hockey sticks ("double hockey sticks" as he liked to call them) and masking tape.  it worked like a charm and with mom dashing to the rescue, we were able to secure the princess balloon once again.  fun was had by almost all.  ; )

monday, we woke up and got to work.  mom and i did some sorting of boxes in the basement to get a bunch of stuff together that we could throw out with recycling.  dad's big project was my master shower.  out with the old and in with the new.  old caulk is a disgusting thing.  i would never have been able to stomach that by myself.  also, the drains for my master shower and sinks... they're perfectly clean now.  i spent most of my last hours with mom and dad convincing them that they needed to come back before and after their conference trip.  they're such lifesavers... it would have taken me absolutely forever (if ever) to accomplish all of this stuff without them.  it makes such a difference for my mood being able to knock out some of these big/long standing projects that i've had on my mind for the longest time.

so yes, it's a little sad we didn't get to go to the pool or go on bike rides or go hiking or see the chihuly exhibit at night or do any of the other fun activities we thought of.  just call me crazy, this was just way more satisfying.  i gave a talk in church recently about what i learned from my parents growing up and i focused a lot on my dad and how he was always working and getting things done and being productive and enjoying it and now i didn't enjoy it as a kid but now i do.  well, this just sealed it.  i'm a convert to the pleasure of a little hard work.

crossing my fingers they come back next month.  ; )

last day in atlanta

i woke up and got packed and ready and we were actually out the door by 11!  once again experiencing almost no travel/packing anxiety!  i truly never expected to see progress in this area of my life but for some [very unexpected and unknown] reason, it's been happening... even if it's temporary, i'll take it!  it's AMAZING!

brady saw this picture of my dad and kept saying "chase!  i want chase!"  ha.  chase is my cousin's kid... family genes run strong.

we went shopping for toilets at lowes.  my biggest regret of the trip is that mom and i didn't have more time to run errands like this or tackle any organizing projects.  i blame brady and that i had to take a 2-3 hour nap with him every afternoon instead of having that alone time with my mom.  maybe next time?

brady was sooo tired all the time (i think waking up during the night and cosleeping with me the rest of the night left him as unrested and tired as i felt.  he fell asleep as soon as we left lowes and was still out cold when we arrived at fat matt's to meet dad for lunch.

so even though people are getting arrested for this sort of stuff these days... we chanced it and left him in the car.  see that rolled down window above abigail's head?  that's brady semi photobombing the picture.  lunch was superb and abigail was well behaved and brady slept through the entire thing.

still out when we got back to the car after lunch.  don't worry... we checked on him VERY frequently while we were eating and were within earshot of him as well.

not sure how we lucked out with such pleasant weather in the middle of july but it was amazing!  so so pleasant!

we went to the atlanta botanical gardens for a few hours and it was wonderful.  all of my pictures from that are on my big camera and will have to be posted later.  like every other time, abigail wanted to be pushed in the stroller and brady wanted to be held.  we had our arms full.

we stopped in the cell phone lot to feed both kids (mostly brady) before the flight.  lots of mandarin oranges.  i had to wake brady up to eat and initially he was so upset that he wouldn't, but when he did... man, the kid downed so much food!  a full belly = a happy brady.  also, i rigged abigail's beach bag (from her wonderful aunt bekah) so she could carry her own snacks and entertainment and it worked pretty well.  abigail and brady were both really well behaved during the whole travel experience.  in the airport, on the plane, and in the denver airport.   

abigail shared a brief but precious friendship with this girl when she complimented abigail's shirt and sandals.  they sat next to each other on the train and talked about their trips.  this girl was several years older and probably four times abigail's size but neither of them cared.  i love kids' lack of prejudice in that regard.  i was sad they couldn't visit more at baggage claim.  as i said, it was a very brief friendship.

brady and i were feeling pretty amazing about how well our travel experience was going.  and he totally rocked it on the airplane and both kids got tons of compliments on their excellent behavior.  the last 30 minutes of the flight the kids were having trouble breathing from laughing so hard and i kept thinking "what? we're almost landing?! i could do another two hours if i needed to!"  that doesn't frequently happen.  ; )

i got one of our bags and they instantly sat down to rest their wearied traveled feet.

and they thought these things were the funnest things ever.

so that entertained them until christopher arrived... which took him a while due to airport traffic and once again i was thinking... we could do this for another hour if we needed to!  but luckily we didn't and that was great too.

it was a really great day.

puppet show and girls night

brady woke up sometime during the night and ended up in bed with me.  it's difficult to get up and showered when you awake entangled in a sleeping babe.  when i finally freed myself, he squirmed his little body over the edge of the bed.  so then i just waited and watched while he got closer and closer and closer and then i grabbed his leg as he was falling head first off the bed.  ; )  he was like a little sleeping inchworm.  see, these are the specifics i wonder of people that cosleep with mobile children.

brady was a little frightened by the situation and still really sleepy.  his cuddling has been out of control lately.

since abigail had a cousin sleepover, it was just mom and brady and me.  we went to the puppet place and met up with liza and all the kids.

while we were waiting, brady decided he was keen on crawling.  mom and i were just cracking up.  seriously so random.

the puppet show was peter rabbit and it was really cute.  the kids were all wonderfully behaved and it was a lot of fun.  abigail is temperamental about pictures... but i swear she only put on the frown for the picture.

cousin love

sister love

abigail was getting pretty whiny about wanting these angry bird graham crackers i wouldn't let her have at the time.  i started taking pictures of the mean faces she was giving me while she was complaining and once she saw i was taking pictures, it was a split second of silence followed by "cheeeeese!"

cheeeeeeese!

 i told her she couldn't have the angry bird crackers because we needed to eat lunch first.  but my parents' pantry is too tempting for me as well and i made kettle corn that we all shared.  very nutritious.

since brady's sleeping is so terrible lately (i'm nearly positive it's teething), i had to lay down with him to get him to nap.  which led to both of us napping in my bed for a few hours.  when we woke up, we all headed to walmart for some birthday shopping for abigail.  abigail picked out princess themed plates and napkins and a table cloth for her party.  abigail wanted every single thing we saw and it was great to see the things she was interested in/became easily bored with.  we lost track of time until mom said "oh my goodness carrie, it's almost 8!"  crap.  the plan was for me to be at lynell's at 8:30 and there was no way i was going to be able to finish my shopping, check out, get home, feed the kids, get them ready for bed, spend 30 minutes getting brady to fall asleep, and drive to lynell's house in less than two hours.  we quickly finished our shopping, i helped super fast at home with the kids and then ditched my mother with two grumpy kids, one being a baby that cries endlessly and refuses to sleep.  give me the dual mother of the year award and daughter of the year award.  my mother is a saint.  thank goodness for her.

i got to lynell's house and let myself [and a few cats] inside.  and then i sighed and smiled at this sweet sight.  so excited to meet little baby harper and so excited that lynell is a mom now!  warmed my heart.

we ate cheese cake and danced some irish jigs (lynell, want to email me that harper video?  i laugh just thinking about it) and talked about life.  so. much. fun.

lynell is an avid baker.  a true baking enthusiast as evidenced by her cake stand.

and then we took this little picture.  i got to be the photographer because i had the longest arms.

and then i came home and admired by little girl in her last moments of being three.  i kept looking at her like "when on earth did her legs get so long?!"

and when did she grow all of this hair?!

sometimes she just leaves me speechless.