sixteen pounds of sugar

Oh my, so much to blog about. Summer is so full of fun and I literally have thousands of pictures that I've taken of all that we've been up to (4th of July weekend, camping, our boy's third birthday, swimming with friends, more fishing, etc. etc.), but it is so hard for me to find enough time to sit down, go through the pictures, organize them into something resembling a post, and then press publish. I am determined not to completely lose focus and get TOO behind, so I am starting off small today with some of the hundreds of pictures of the baby Pea.

You guys. This little baby of ours is edible. I don't even mean that in the "she is so beautiful" way (though, of course, we do think she is pretty easy on the eyes), as much as I mean it in the "she is so squishy, and delightful, and full of brightness and joy" way. I cannot resist smothering her with a sort of crazed affection whenever I see her because she is really just such a little roly-poly ball of happiness. Sixteen pounds of pure sugar, I tell you. Here are about eleventy-billion pictures of proof.

The strawberry jammies kill me.

I was pretty happy to have caught such a fantastic sneeze with my camera.

These pictures were taken one right after another, and I love that you can see how fast she went from happy to sad. Probably because I was making some scary face to try to get her to smile or something.

She is loving the discoveries of her hands and feet and can be entertained by her own limbs for quite some time.

My mom got her a little poodle ensemble that is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. Obviously I had to take a million pictures.

I just love that little face and squishy body so much.

This is a picture of her wearing the shirt that her daddy picked out and bought for her all by himself. That will likely never happen again, so it had to be documented.

Baby girl is fond of her tongue. She has it out (usually licking things) almost constantly these days.

Little yawns followed shortly by sleeping baby. I love that she is still small enough to just fall asleep wherever and whenever. Those days are numbered, I know.

I didn't think I would like head bands like this, but I do. The little flower child look totally works for her, and I love it.

Also love those blue eyes and dark hair. I would LOVE her to keep the dark locks, but I don't think there is a chance in the world they won't lighten up.

Remember what I said about licking? Constant. Her shirts are always soaked from the drool that accompanies such behavior.

She must get sick of me pulling out my camera daily to take pictures of her. It is a hopeless obsession I have, and I don't see an end to it any time soon.

On Sunday a dear friend of ours (okay, it was actually his mom) asked me to take photos of his family (which most definitely freaked me out, by the way). Of course we brought Pear girl along, and Jer held her for some of the time while I was taking pictures of the other families. At one point Jerrod's wife mentioned I should take a picture of him holding Pearl so I snapped these two pictures of them and I love them so much. Quintessential, handsome Jerrod, holding my round, pretty little girl.

Check out this amazing kimono onesie that my mom got for the baby on the streets of San Francisco. Also check out Baby Girl's awesome windblown hair.

You could try to tell me that there is something cuter than a blue ruffled swimming suit around chubby baby thighs, but I would not believe you.

And since I am on a roll, I am going to go ahead and post the rest of the photos from this slip 'n slide family night.

Love these boys. Just as much as the baby girl, if you can believe it :).

G didn't quite get how to fling himself forward on his tummy so his daddy threw him instead.

This occasionally resulted in a little too much inertia and G ended up face first in the lawn a few times.

At first the baby and the mama just watched...

...then we got a little closer...

...then we got too close. She was decidedly not a fan of the cold water on her.

So we settled for just putting her feet by the water, and I think I am in love with these pictures of those chubby little leggies.

She soon decided she wasn't a fan of the water hitting her at all, so we put her down and let her play peek-a-boo with herself and her blanket.

She is a good hider.

While she layed there the boys kept sliding.

G wanted to go at the same time as his daddy which I did not think was the best idea, but it actually worked out okay most of the time.

Except for when he would fall off and go flying at the end.

After a quick rinse in the freezing hose water, G was declared grass free.

And I was left with a cold, wet boy, and a chubby little girl.

So of course, I put them together and took a few pictures.

And somehow G ended up with more grass on his face. Love these kids. So much.

saturday is a special day

If you are familiar with that primary song you will know that the next phrase is, "It's the day we get ready for Sunday." Yeah, that's not really what Saturdays are like in our family. Our Saturdays are more like a frenzied effort to shove in as much as we can-- sometimes this is house work, projects, yard work, or gardening. Other times this is playing together from sun up to sun down. The latter is what this post will document.

Morning started off with a bath in the sink. You guys, can you stand the chub? Seriously. Some might think that this picture is a little immodest, but hello! She is an infant! A good 12 + years away from puberty, thankyouverymuch, and I am so in love with all of her squishy rolls that I can't not post these. The chubbiness is going to melt away all too quickly as far as I'm concerned.

After getting ready, watching a World Cup game, and a little lunch, we headed east to John's family cabin in Midway. The highlight of the drive was watching our boy persistently try to keep shoving strawberries in his mouth despite his body's overpowering attempt to fall asleep.

We always love going up to the cabin to visit with Grandma and Grandpa and any other aunts/uncles/cousins that may also be up there at the time (and there are almost always a few). It is such a beautiful, peaceful, happy place to be. Grandma had Georgie help shuck the corn, and you had better believe that the one ear that he was able to finish (in the amount of time that dozens were done by others) was completely picked clean of every little fiber of that corn hair stuff (anyone know what it's really called?).

Other highlights including the kids roasting hot dogs, the boys gathering wood for the stove, eating a yummy lunch that Grandma prepared, and passing Pearl around. We love going up to the cabin and hope to visit many more times throughout the summer.

We had to race back down the canyon to get home in time for dinner with our neighbors. I think I've mentioned it before, but we seriously lucked out when we moved into this beautiful family of neighbors. I can't tell you how much I love the people that we are surrounded by here, and I feel so blessed to have made such dear friends. Our neighbors that live directly north of us had two other families and us over for a summer dinner in their backyard. It was everything that I love about summer-- fresh food, warm wind, water balloon accidents resulting in wet pie and people, children running through hoses, and being with good people that I love. Thanks for having us over, Bucherts. Here is a random smattering of pictures from the night-- mostly posting them for Angie and Becca (I have about a billion more, too).

While the adults ate and socialized the kids were up in the bathroom feverishly filling water balloons. After dinner the kids were ready for war. (After explaining to George that he had to be okay with being hit by a balloon if he wanted to throw the balloons he gracefully bowed out of the competition.)

Eden was out to get Joel after he popped a balloon right over her.

I love that Martin is using Soren as his human shield.

The hose was introduced by Soren to get revenge on his dad for getting him wet, and then the kids (plus Martin) ended up playing water games with it the rest of the evening.

I loved watching George try to commandeer the hose all night. He doesn't know that he is the smallest one out there and pretty unlikely to get his way :). Water limbo was a big hit.

And here are my personal favorite ways that kids "limboed" under the hose.

While some kids got wet, others got silly on the trampoline. This is by far my favorite picture of the night.

Daddies with their cute girls.

While Martin manned the hose, and I took pictures, the other adults watched the fun (and held my baby-- thanks Angie!) while chatting...

... except for Becca who slyly popped a water balloon down a very unsuspecting Angie's back. Becca maintains that this was a complete accident, but I am not buying it :).