It doesn’t matter that it is literally 100 degrees outside, it’s never to warm for a fleece hat!

Willow found these shoes of Jayden’s back in a closet and the proceeded to throw a big fit when I changed her shoes so we could go outside and ride bikes.

And it’s not a headband, no, it’s a beautiful necklace!

…is the new color of Royal and my bedroom. Royal picked it out and I thought “exhale” was the perfect name for a color for a bedroom. :) Well actually, Royal picked white first, and I told him that wasn’t an option for me and if he didn’t care, then maybe I’d paint the room pink. Soon after that he had a bit more of an opinion. :)

We of course had plenty of help from our #1 helper in the house.

And since I know that looking at people painting and finished painted rooms isn’t exactly everyones idea of a good time. Here’s a random video of Willow’s evil laugh.

I just love this girl!

And so, I’ve decided to start a collection documenting Willow’s outfit/accessory choices.  I really hope she keeps her little opinions about her clothes going because they crack me up.  :)
We all saw the 4th of July church outfit

And then there was the turquoise shorts, pink flowered shirt, and polka dot rain boots… (don’t mind me in the picture, I’m just finishing up my workout and my friend who was next to me decided she couldn’t NOT take a picture of Willow’s outfit)

Then last weekend, I went running and when I came home, Royal told me Willow found this out in the garage and refused to take it off.  And it was true.  Lunch that day?  Eaten with a bike helmet on!

And most recently, there have been the random pair of goggles floating around our house.

It has been way too hot here. Way too hot to play outside for more than 10 minutes at a time. So, me and the kidlets have been chillin’ in the basement counting down the days until we get to fly out of here for some relief in “chilly” Washington! :)

We don’t watch a lot of tv around here, we don’t even have cable anymore and Royal and I both have said we don’t miss it at all. We can get our fix on netflix and hulu.com. ;) Jayden gets to watch a movie during Willow’s naptime, as long as he’s managed to behave himself that day, and every once in awhile we’ll watch a Baby Einstein when Willow gets up from her nap - or if the kids are crazy and I’m trying to get something done…like dinner. One of my favorite Baby Einstein’s is Baby Monet, which is all about the 4 seasons and there is a section of the movie when they are reviewing the seasons and it’s just music and the puppet zebra’s dancing all over the place. Jayden and Willow almost always get up and starting dancing all over the room and then they beg me to start the song over again and they keep dancing. I think this last time, we listened to the song and dancing part probably 6 times, which allowed me to video tape some of it. :) (please ignore all the toys all over the floor…we live here….and this mama gets mighty tired of picking stuff up all the time…and when i get more tired of stepping on things than picking them up, they will all get cleaned up and put away….:) )

I think I see some Fireball dance moves in here! Or as Jayden’s been calling him lately “Grandpa FireGoofball”

The kids and I were outside playing with the hose, finishing up watering the flowers, playing on the slides when I thought I heard thunder in the distance.  There were a few clouds overhead which I was glad about because it was helping cut out the intensity of the sun, but I didn’t see any storm clouds.  But, just to be on the safe side I grabbed the kids (and dog) and headed in the house.  A few minutes later I started hearing “tink tink tink” on the roof and windows and looked outside and saw we were getting pelted with hail (along with thunder and lightning) that seemed to come out of nowhere!  I’m so glad I took the time to water all my plants twice today! (sheesh)

And now the storm has passed and it’s super sunny out again - and even more humid…I wasn’t sure that was possible!

I know people are gonna have a hard time believing me that Willow is ever cranky, but if you need a witness call my sister Kaylee, she’s was on the phone with me today when nothing could go right for Willow.  She woke up in a bad mood from a too short nap, then she ran into a doorway with her head, then she decided to feed Sam her snack instead of eating it herself and was mad when I didn’t give her anymore, and she was clingy and whiny and cried about everything.  Nothing I did seem to make her happy.  Until, she opened her dresser and found something….

A new pair of shoes, slippers to be exact…

She perked right up…

She was happy as a clam….

For about 5 minutes, until one of the slippers fell off.  The way she was screaming, it might as well have been her whole foot…..

One of the main reasons I picked out Sam was because I was looking for a dog who could run some long miles with me.  It gets lonely out there on the road and I’m always a bit wary running by myself early in the morning.

Now that Sam has learned some much better leash manners, I’ve started taking him out running with me.  The first run we did was about 3.5 miles with a big pond at the turn around point, so he could get some water, and he did pretty good.  After a couple more 3-4 milers, we went out on a 5 mile run with no water stops.  He still had tons of energy at the end of the run, so this last weekend, we tried out a 6 mile run with no water stops.  Somewhere around 4.5 miles I stopped at an intersection to push the crosswalk button, and part of Sam’s training has been that everytime I stop walking/running, he sits down at my side.  Well this particular time I stopped, he sat like he was suppose to, I stepped forward to push the cross button, and when I turned around to check on Sam, he was all sprawled out in the grass like he wasn’t going any further….guess he needed a break and probably some water.  So, I decided to was time for Sam to learn what his real job was.  His job is to be my water dog on our runs.  He is going to have to carry water for himself and for me and tonight he got to try out his new backpack.

He’s not too excited about it yet….

But I’m sure once he associates the pack with getting to go for a run, he’ll probably love it.  And I’m gonna love not have to loop around by my house or car to get water on my long runs.

The start of the hard work of storing up food for the winter has officially begun.  Well, we really started stocking the freezer for winter a couple of months ago.  When it comes to berries Royal is like a little squirrel, he’s constantly putting them in the freezer, and they always seem to be gone just when I’m looking for them to put on the kid’s plates.  We had big plans this year to go to a berry farm and pick a lot of our own berries, but with the driving time, the amount of hard it work it takes to pick the berries, and the young ages of our kiddos, we decided we’d put it off for another year and re-evaluate next May.  But corn is a whole ‘nother story!

Last year, we froze 6 dozen corn and we ran out way too early, so since you can get the corn 4 dozen in a box, we just decided to get 2 boxes this year.  We started out the morning, by going and picking up the corn right when the stand opened, because on the weekends they always seem to sell out really fast.  Then we headed North to Newton to go check out the peaches at Beck’s Farm and find out what kind of pears she’s going to get in this year.  We were hoping to can a couple batches of peaches in the next couple weekends before we left for our vacation to Washington, but it seems like the peaches just might not be ready yet, they are pretty hard still, and I just don’t have the time or room to buy a bunch of peaches and then have to lay them around the house waiting for them to ripen.  I’m pretty sure the kids would think they were new toys just for them, and I’d have peaches hidden everywhere!  So, if they don’t ripen in the next couple of weeks, hopefully they’ll wait for us to get back from Washington!

Anyway, back to the corn.  Like I mentioned, we got 8 dozen corn this year.  That would be 96 ears for all you out there who don’t like doing mental math.  :) That’s a lot of shucking!  So, I made up a new house rule.  When we got home I said to Royal, “Well, it turns out just like I don’t do dishes, I don’t shuck corn either”  Ha ha ha, I crack myself up!  So, Royal sat out in the garage for about 2 hours shucking every ear of corn.

He wasn’t alone though, he had Jayden (and Sam) out there with him keeping him entertained with a measuring tape.

But don’t worry, it’s not like I didn’t do anything.  I was in the house, cutting all the kernals off the cobs.

and then doing some more…

Royal and I got smart this year.  The last couple of times we’ve done this, we cooked the corn on the cob and then stuck them in an icebath to stop them from cooking, and then we’d cut the kernals off as fast as we could.  The cobs were usually still pretty hot because we’re both a bit impatient and we didn’t want to wait until they were completely cool, and so I always left the project with burned finger tips.  But after complaining to Royal’s mom about my sore fingers, she oh-so-wisely suggested that we cut the kernals off and then cook them.  Genius!!!  And it took so many fewer batches of water as well!  We’re getting smarter over here folks!

I just am always surprised that all the corn fits into so few bags.  96 ears of corn, and we have 20 bags of corn to stick in our freezer!

I decided to forgo (or at least postpone a couple hours) Willow’s nap this afternoon, and the kids and I headed to the zoo for Friday’s Wet-n-Wild Days with our friends from StrollerFriends.  A firetruck shows up at the zoo and starts spraying water off and on for about 3 hours.  We had lots of fun and it was perfect weather for it!

Jayden was a bit timid at first.  The water was cold and you never knew when the firefighter was going to turn the hose on you, but he eventually followed Lunden into the puddle that the water was creating in the middle of the field.

I knew Jayden was getting serious about things when he came back and asked for his goggles.  The kid kills me!

(and I’m sorry, but do check out the outfit on the girl that Jayden’s arm is conveniently blocking the face of… i guess she’s taking wet-n-wild to a whole ‘nother level!)

Eventually, they turn the water off for awhile and let the kids play in the puddles around the field.

And thankfully I had a few dollars in my wallet, thanks to Royal always giving me his spare cash and we strolled out of the zoo eating a couple green sno-cones!

I love this girl and her opinions of what she if going to wear that day or if she will let me put a “pretty” in her hair.  Currently she is in love with a pair of polka-dot rain boots she found in her closet.  I think she would sleep in them if I’d let her.  :)