Caterpillars, Grasshoppers and Ladybugs

I walked outside this morning to find the boys sitting on the porch with a mason jar full of murky water. As I get a closer look I see a slowly swirling extravaganza of baby grasshoppers, ladybugs..and one juicy yellow caterpillar. As I pour the wriggling,wet contents of the jar on the warm, dry cement, I explain to the boys that generally bugs can't swim. I rescue the caterpillar(which was a supposed to be a gift to me from Jared last night) and put him back into the empty jar with a nice green leaf to nibble on. He now sits in the jar on my desk as I work...a reminder of my beautiful boys..a reminder of my own childhood summers. I sent the boys off to Grandma's house today with high hopes of accomplishing some editing and business duties. Now here I sit with a squirmy baby girl on my lap, not really getting much of anything done, but enjoying every moment of her cooing and jibber jabbering...knowing it doesn't last long and soon enough she will be outdoors with the boys taking part in whatever naughtiness she comes upon. Summertime as a child is such a magical, exciting time, I remember summers as a small child so fondly, playing in the dirt with spoons and empty yogurt cartons and catching potato bugs and grasshoppers..I can still remember the smell of humid pickle jars that imprisoned dozens of spitting grasshoppers...I remember the sound of their bodies hitting the glass as they attempted their escape. I can still feel the heat of the pavement on my skin as I lay in the sun drying off from a dash through the sprinkler, with a root-beer flavored popsicle melting slowly in my small hand.These are the things I remember when I watch my boys playing in the sandbox, or playing in our canoe filled with water in the backyard. To a parent, it's just dirt and wet underwear...but to our children...it's magic. They live in a paralleled dimension..one which we cannot see or feel..fueled by imagination and energy..Oh how I miss the carefree days of summer as a child..but feel so blessed to be able to witness the joy and excitement as I observe my own children experiencing it. So, thank you, chubby little yellow caterpillar, for being a reminder to me today...that life truly is.. beautiful.

And, speaking of beautiful...isn't she?

Our Summer Checklist

 Before summer began, we had a lot of things we wanted to accomplish by fall. Here is what we've managed to check off our list so far..

• CAMP IN THE BACKYARD

(Look at my sexy husband who can put up a tent while holding a baby.)
Nothing like laying in between my two little guys in a tent singing lullabies and telling "not too scary" stories.

• EAT A WORLD RECORD AMOUNT OF POPSICLES

..wrappers all over the yard is a sure sign that it is summertime, keeping the ice cream man in business, and loving those "otto pops" as Ashton calls them..(he thinks they are like "Auto-bots")

• ENJOY WATCHING PEPPER GROW

She loves the excer-saucer, hates tummy-time, and loves being outdoors. She's beginning to coo and giggle, which is way too much fun for our boys.

• HIT THE LAKE INSTEAD OF CHURCH AT LEAST ONCE

We love porcupine dam. Went there last year and it quickly became one of our favorite places. Jared calls it "porkypine". This time there were butterflies everywhere having a "butterfly party". Last year we picnicked under to the big tree, and this year it was under water because of all the rain we've had. 

• SPEND MORE TIME WITH MY SIDE OF THE FAMILY

We spent the 3rd and 4th of July in Stansbury Park with my brother's family. On the 3rd we got to attend the ward I grew up in..ERDA WARD! I haven't been there in YEARS and it was so great to see so many of the people that affected my life in so many ways for the better. My sister had a darling baby boy the week after I had Pepper and she was having him blessed there in Erda. Afterwards we all got together at her house in Stansbury Park and hung out. Here is before mentioned darling-ness: Ryan.

This is Shrek baby, Ethan. 

Pepper and her cousin Taylor just kickin' it. 

 It's so weird. In my family, it seems like babies are born in threes. It's kind of a different feeling for me, having a baby around the same time as my two sisters...I was like 8 years old when Jodi got married and I'm 7 years younger than Katie. I guess I just caught up with them! (Not really, these are both their 4th babies...I'm not going there!!)

 My brother is just a big kid. He jumped with the kids for about 3 hours. They had so much fun playing crack the egg...

...until Jared "broke" his back. 

I'm so glad Aaron is back from his mission. Now he gets to be in my blog posts! 

On the 4th, we went to the good 'ol Granstville parade. I finally had an opportunity to say "It's raining on our parade" when... it rained. It was great, nice to cool off. Pepper slept through the entire parade, with this annoyed look on her cute little face..

• TAKE JARED ON A SHOOT WITH ME

 My friend was having her family sealed in the SLC temple and Jared begged to go, and since I didn't love the idea of driving 2 hours by my lonesome, I took him. The only problem was, we got there an hour early. We walked around the temple grounds a bit and had some fun, but by the time the family came out of the temple and I was doing photos, Jared was bored. He was hanging all over me and kept asking when we could go wish in the reflection pool..his cute little orange head photo-bombed quite a few, and I am just glad they are friends and not paying clients. The picture I WISH I would have gotten, was the one where I look up from taking reflection pool photos of the family only to find MY little redhead...pants rolled up, shoes off, WADING in the middle of the pool with the happiest grin on his face I think I've ever seen, collecting pennies. How do you say no to that?

•  HAVE THE BEST BIRTHDAY PARTY A SIX YEAR OLD EVER HAD

Ok so I didn't take pictures. There were ten, count 'em, TEN rambunctious 4, 5 and 6 year old boys at our house and I guess it just slipped my mind. It was so much fun!! I didn't even do anything fun this year, a sprinkler, popsicles, cake, ice cream and crocodile hats...topped off with a helping of Megamind=best day ever! All I have to show for it is this invitation. I used to be really into digital scrapbooking a few years ago and so I pulled it(along with my mad rhyming skillz) out for an invitation design. "Crocodile" theme.

• GO TO CABELAS AND GET POP GUNS

Dave's niece got married on the 8th. It was in Orem and I was doing the photos..Wedding was in the morning and reception was in the evening so we had a lot of time to kill in between. We went to the Dinosaur Museum and the boys were totally into the gift shop, having so much fun, that when we saw the price of admission for the actual museum, we about choked. Yeah, I've been in there and it is worth it, but on our income right now, not feasible. So we drove across the way to Cabella's where the boys had pretty much the time of their lives shooting pop guns at the stuffed wildlife..so sad...I'm getting soft. I don't enjoy looking at dead stuffed creatures like I did as a child, but my children are heathen males..so yeah..they love it:)

• TAKE LOTS AND LOTS OF PICTURES OF OUR PEPPER

I've only sort of accomplished this. It seems like every time I decide to get out the camera to take her picture, she's ready for a nap, and super cranky. Remember my last post about how she's cries a lot?? WELL, my sister gave me a DVD on the 4th called The Happiest Baby on the Block and I didn't get around to watching it until last week. I wish I would have watched it sooner!! I learned how to trigger her calming reflex and get her to sleep fast, and get her to sleep longer. She has been so happy! I think she just wasn't getting enough sleep and now she is. It has been so great. I insisted that Dave watch the video too and now we both know the tricks to put her right out. (And no, it doesn't involve chloroform) So here is my attempt at a 4 month photoshoot with Pepper, again, this is why I do mostly weddings and less babies:)

And here are two random photos from tummy time. She can roll from her tummy to her back so far..as of today, she weighs 13lbs 12oz and she's 25 inches long. She is in the 75th percentile for height(go figure) and 50th percentile for weight. Dave and I don't make no sissy babies. ;)

Well, that's that. It took me three days to write this post so read it slowly and make it last. I have a really hard time sitting at the computer in the summer let alone blog about fun things I could be outside doing. I'll save the blogging for the dreary winter. Happy July everyone!!

Summer

We are having a fantastic, busy summer! I can't believe I haven't blogged in a month. Trust me, it's not because I don't have anything to blog about, I do, I do! We have been so busy with David in school and me *trying* to run our business as well as be at home with the kids... it's not easy, but totally worth it. I can't believe how much harder 3 kids is than 2. Two was CAKE! I've got two busy boys and one fussy little lady and I'm still learning how to balance it all out. June was a really hard month for me. Pepper cried and fussed all day every day. By the time Dave got home in the afternoon, I was DONE. I don't know ANYONE who can handle a screaming baby all day long and not go crazy! (if you do, please don't hold out, I'd be willing to PAY!!! No, seriously, like HIRE the person) But really, she is getting better. I'm learning how to deal with it better when it happens as well. 

I also found out I was fat in June. Ok, I knew I was still a bit chubby, I just had a baby 4 months ago, it's cool, but I had no idea. Someone took pictures of me a couple weeks ago and I had the misfortune of seeing them. Come on ladies, I know I can't be the only one who feels this way. You see a photo of yourself, or your reflection in one of those damned mirrored elevators and you wonder why nobody told you?? LOL It's like when you go all day with a big huge nasty bogey hanging out your nose and nobody bothers to inform you. Although, after thinking about it, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want someone to come up to me and whisper "Hey, just thought I'd let you know, your ass is still pretty huge." I'm not really the kind of girl that cries about something like this. I get mad. (Then I buy an elliptical and I have angry workout sessions while blasting the Black Eyed Peas) I am actually pretty blessed to be able to lose weight pretty quickly when I want to, and especially when I'm busy and active like I am now. Well, I leveled out in May and haven't gained or lost even one pound since. I couldn't figure it out until I started looking into the birth control I'm on. Bingo! I found out that one of the most common side effects is weight gain. I'm very happy that I'm not gaining, and I only have one month left until the shot wears off, then it's hello IUD and bye bye booty!! 

So that's that. I've got a bazillion gajillion pictures to post but also a quadrillion photoshoots to edit and send out(which I am grateful for, so blessed to have work!) so I will have to delay posting all our summer adventures *so far* until later. Thanks for reading friends!