Oh What Do You Do In The Summertime

What we've been up to this summer...
-free movies at the mall
-lots of friends/cousins sleeping over
-the circus
-spending the night in Bellevue and enjoying yummy food (cheesecake factory and pf changs)
-birthdays
-parks, parks, and more parks
-the tractor show at Berthusen park (love the candy scramble)
-beading has surfaced again
-the Windermere family picnic (all you can eat snow cones and a huge jumpy castle/slide)
-hot tubbing (it was broken for a few weeks, but going strong again)
What we are still looking forward to...
-Aunt Heidi and her family coming
-the fair!!
-the water slides?
-more family birthday parties
-corn on the cob
-another night in Bellevue for Wynden's meeting
-finding out who Lexi gets for a teacher (Hunter got Mrs. Hoekstra)
-And finally Hunter's first day of school

Don't lose your pictures

So our computer crashed :( For those of you who have pictures on your computer copy them now!! I have about a years worth that I have not printed yet (Disneyland, Diesel's birth). Chances are slim for recovering them without paying a fortune, which I am contemplating very seriously.

Five kids...Don't worry I'm not losing my mind, but I am losing my...

HAIR!!!! The dreaded time has arrived it is coming out by the handfuls. For those of you who have never experienced this consider yourselves very lucky. Every time I have a baby about two and half to three months after i start losing my hair. I guess from hormones or something. I don't lose very much during my pregnancy, but then after I sure make up for lost time. My showers are longer because I stand there and run my fingers through my hair trying to get any loose ones, so I won't have to deal with them later, which takes forever because there are a lot of loose ones. After my shower it looks like a cat is dead lying on the drain when in reality it is half the hair from my head. The joys of picking up Diesel and there on his face or in his hands is one of my hairs. Hallie is all the time saying "mommy a hair" while she proceeds to stick out her tongue and pull one of my curly locks off of it. Oh and the best of all bests when you are in conversation with someone and a little tickle starts that is very annoying and impossible to ignore. Yes you guessed it a hair in the bra. "Please excuse me while I reach down my shirt and get this annoying hair out of my bra, but please keep talking, don't let me interrupt you" I am a little blessed to have curly hair where the new baby hairs that come about six months later can hide in already crazy curl that already sticks out everywhere compared to those that have straight hair where new little baby hairs are hard to hide. But in the end, it is worth losing my hair for a sweet little bundle of joy.

Can't you see I'm changing a diaper here...

Funny story...The other day I took my kids and 2 nieces and 2 nephews to the free movie at the mall. I met my sister-in-law Kaitlyn there with her two kids. It was a full house as usual, so we made our seats off to the side on the floor (I actually don't mind this we've done it every time). Well Karlee, Hallie, and Blaine had had enough about five minutes into the movie :) So Kaitlyn decided to make things easy and take them to the play area in the mall. I stayed with the older kids and Diesel. At intermission I realized that Diesel needed a diaper change so I took the kids to the bathroom , which was a zoo, and had them wait for me at the table right outside the bathroom. While inside the bathroom, I realize that there is no changing table that I can see anyway, so I randomly say out loud to anyone who will listen "is there no changing table in here" and two moms who were close were so nice to answer me "I don't think so" The one mom disappeared back to the movie while the other mom was instantly by my side for any assistance which I might require. She at this point had no idea that I had a million kids with me waiting for me outside the bathroom, so it was a little weird that she wanted to help me with one child :) I told her I could change him on the table outside where so conveniently the other children were waiting and didn't need any help. I walked out of the bathroom and she followed...I laid Diesel on the bench on the side of the table closest to the wall, so no one would be able to see (not that I care because if they aren't going to provide me with a changing table then it is a free for all) and there she continued to stare at me and smile (a little creepy I am thinking), so I started taking Diesel's pants off and kind of kept glancing at her trying to figure out why she was staring and what her intent was I wanted to wait to take off his diaper until she left, out of courtesy to Diesel of course :) She finally speaks saying "can I just tell you that you look amazing" ok so now I am like what the heck. Then she starts talking about being a mother and aren't children amazing and blah blah blah. I did change Diesel's diaper during her monologue I mean how long do you keep the kid waiting. Finally she gets to the point "I sell Mary Kay and would love to pamper you" She continues to give me her business card and got my phone number to set a date for "pampering" She let me know that she just got a car from Mary Kay and if any of you know anything about Mary Kay that is a big deal and I'm guessing that I am not the first mom she had ever chased down changing a diaper :) I kind of found it amusing the way she gets her customers. Well the moment I walked through the door at my house the phone was ringing. Guess who? I told her I was too busy and so she told me that she would call a different day. Different day = the next day. I proceeded to give her my address and set a date for my "pampering" I will explain "pampering" now. It is when they help you find the colors of make up that best fit your coloring and skin care that matches what type you are. Not bad not bad at all except they only do half your face so you can see the difference. So you can walk around all day with half your face made up or you can wash it all off and do it all again with your own products covering your whole face so you don't look like an idiot. I told Wynden the story when he got home from work and he was like "she's coming? You're not going to buy anything are you? We are in a recession don't you know and I don't know where you get all your money, but you sure have way more than I have." Something to that effect. After I thought about it I was like I don't want anything I don't need anything. I've used Mary Kay before and it's ok, a little overpriced. I know that if she comes she will definitely make me feel pressured to buy something, so I called and cancelled hoping to get voicemail (shouldn't she be out pampering some other lucky mom) of course she was home. She thought about getting funny about why I was cancelling, but I didn't let her and now of course it is just a funny memory. Moral of the story: Don't ask about where to change diapers because chances are if you ask for a location of a changing table they're going to want to pamper YOU!

A Weekend of Happies

This weekend was Wynden and my 11th anniversary and Hunter's 6th birthday. On Saturday we had a friend birthday party for Hunter, which was a lot of fun and on Sunday we had leftover cake and ice cream with family. As you can see by the picture, Hunter (along with everyone else in our family) was very tired from Saturday's activities and hot weather that we all took naps Sunday afternoon. On Monday, we kept to tradition and went to Red Robin for dinner and of course the Happy Birthday song and sundae.

Memories...

I totally am cracking up over an old memory after reading my friend Courtney's blog, which of course reminded me of it. I was at my first year of college (SPU in Seattle) and homesick of course after only two weeks of being gone :) Anyway it was a homecoming football game at Lynden High School and a lot of my friends were going to be there, so I decided to go with my good friend Kristie. I am a born and raised in Lynden girl and if anyone knows anything about how Lynden girls used to be we were well known for blond hair and big hair. Well I am not originally blond, but I could get my hair pretty poofy ( easy to do with curly hair). So we are all standing around talking and of course my friend and I spent a lot of time trying to look good because we knew there would be a lot of people at this game, so I guess you could say my hair was pretty curly and big. Out of no where this bird comes flying at me and lands right on the top of my head no joke. Craziest thing ever. I guess he thought looks like a comfy bird nest and a nice place for him to take a rest. I shook my head and flailed my arms about and the bird took off pretty fast, but needless to say I wanted to die!!!! It's funny how other people's stories can spark a memory of your own. I certainly wasn't laughing about the bird that night, but sure am tonight.

Such a Sweet Boy!

Every milestone with babies is fun, but I love it when they start cooing, smiling, and giggling. Diesel is such a good baby. I am truly blessed to have had five pretty easy babies.