Malia is 6 months!

Malia turns 6 months today and is the sunshine of our lives! 

Here a a few of my favorites pics.  I still haven't 

managed to get some decent professional pictures of her though.  Morgan has come up with a few more names for her.  Some include: little statue of liberty, tasty little pina colada baby, and combining the words delicious with Malia forming Malicious.  

Her laughter is my favorite, hearing a belly laugh out of an infant cures all ailments!

Faith of a corn seed.

Sometime after planting a garden Morgan  got the idea of taking Orville Redenbacher kernals out of the cabinet and planting them in the front yard.  I told him it wasn't too likely that they will grow but he planted them anyway.  Sure enough, a few weeks later, little corn stalks began to grow.  I said, "Wow Morgan, how did that happen?"  He said, "I prayed for them to grow."  Once again I was put in my place by one who's faith comes before logic.  He knows anything is possible. The other day he was trying to squeeze through the fence, and I said it's too small.  His reply?  "I can do it, I have faith!"  Sure enough, a few minutes later he was free.  

Oh me of little faith!

lovely day at the spa.

yes, and I am lucky to say this is a typical day for me.

First, a new hair-do.

I awoke to my fantastic three year old twisting my hair in knots, it is a habit and he does it while he's half awake, sneaking in my bed as not to wake me...needless to say I had 3 good knots to untangle.

Next, the milk bath.  I was holding Malia above my head. need I say more.

Following that, Morgan and Carson proceeded to play doctor, I, the patient. "At least I can lay down for a few minutes," I thought.  Morgan took the blood pressure toy and said he needed to do CTR on me.  So he took out his toy chainsaw and proceeded to cut my leg off.  Luckily he had to rush to the potty and left Carson in charge.  He yelled from the potty, "Carson!  I need you to giver her the electric shock while I'm gone!" So Carson did, and I pretended to cry out in pain.  Morgan came back and said, "did you give her the shock?"  Carson said,  "yes but it hurt."  Morgan said, "well you forgot to put it on the no pain level!"

Then they were nice enough to give me a back massage.  This is where they walk up and down on my back. 

Then Morgan made lunch while I was nursing and was so proud of his PB and honey sandwich.  (Which also showed up on 18 different spots on the kitchen floor.) He had also managed to make chocolate milk using chocolate syrup and pouring it into the gallon of milk. Also, being the kind brother he is, poured a whole bowl of the syrup for Carson who, of course, had it all over his face.  How else do you eat chocolate syrup from a bowl? 

I even got to stay in my jammies the whole day.

How JULY rolled.

Big Sky and West Yellowstone

So I am attempting to catch up on the blog all at once.  Better late than never I suppose.

We decided to go to Yellowstone on Friday and left the next day.  It was quite spontaneous but great fun.   Wes went up to help one of his friend on a job up there so we all went along for Father's Day.  Carson loved seeing all the animals and Morgan loved the paint pots.

But for Wes and I the best part was Big Sky. We drove up there to get away from the large masses of tourists filling their bags with knick knacks to place in their hutches at home.   Big sky defineatly lives up to its name- it is by all means so beautifully breathtaking.  We rode the chairlift to the top and went on a little hike to a spot on the mountain that had a picnic table perfect for lunch.  There was also a large patch of snow where the boys could not resist a snowball fight.  Morgan mentioned we should move up there,( I would have no problem with that.)  When we returned to go back down the lift, it had closed!  Apparently they had decided to shut down a half hour earlier than their signs suggested.   It was a 3 mile hike back down, but we decided to check the restaurant to see if there was anyone there.  The chef actually was just getting ready to leave and was happy to have some company to drive down the bumpy hill with.  He gave the boys some cookies and chips and they climbed in the back of the truck with Wes.  It was then that we saw the fox, and the Grizzly Bear.  It was such a beautiful setting, the bear was down in the valley about 100 yards away. Wes had never seen one in the wild before so this was such a treat for him. Sadly my camera died just an hour before and I didn't get pictures!!! But isn't that how it is?  Some times though, I believe we are given experiences that are just for us, to remember the moment as our own.  They are opportunities to create mental snapshots, to appreciate the quiet naturalness of our surroundings.  Then are we better prepared to recognize these moments as small gifts from God.  

So missing the last chair ride down was a good thing.

We decided to take the scenic way home after our time in Yellowstone and hit Jackson Hole.  We passed the Tetons at sunset, and the beauty of those mountains was truly amazing! People were getting out of their cars to take pictures.  I managed to take some on my camera phone as if that gives them any justice at all.  I will post them when I get around to getting the pics of my phone...

Regardless to say I have never been a real fan of road trips until this one.  It was all pretty spontaneous--we passed Bear Lake and the boys wanted to go swim, so we did! That was actually what made it so fun.  Yes planning is always prudent but  some trips will never be made unless you just go. 

what happened in June. (the condensed version.)

I'm not sure how to get the text under the right picture so they're all a  bit mixed up...anyways

Malia starts laughing and is such a pleasant little peach!

Swim lessons at 8 inthe morning and COLD!
Jenn visited from Florida with her baby Gracie

Morgan graduated from preschool and played the part of the moon in "Hey diddle diddle." I asked him what he wanted to do when he grows up and he said, " I am going to build a huge building with a great big sign 

on it that says robots!  Inside I will build robots and people will come watch. Then I will make them all dinner and a birthday cake for each of them."  I asked Carson the same question to which he replied, "I am grown up."

So I said, "Oh and what are you?" He replied, "I am Carson with the curly hair!"  They are soo different yet best of friends.  Carson will pretend he is some wild animal and Morgan is his trainer and they will play like that for an hour or until Morgan says, for example, "okay Carson I am tired of your frogness."

Morgan had a stuffy nose and always uses it as an excuse to have some mint gum so he said, "I need some mint gum to clear up my sciences." 

Carson loves nursery- the other day he ran right in and loudly exclaimed, "Carson's Here!"

We also started our garden-- Morgan picked out watermelon and Carson picked out Broccili.

No one would confess about the missing pumpkin seeds, but I soon found out they had been planted by sly little hands and were sprouting up all over!   On top of that, we had a wild rabbit come by and treat himself to our little plants.  I thought that only happened in children's books.

Our hands our full this summer, full of joy, messes, and little adventures. 

why I haven't blogged.

I had another work assignment come in for an anthropology lab manual which required 40 illustrations to be done in a month.  So pretty much all my computer time was spent drawing neanderthals and monkey bones.  It's funny because the author was soo particular and precise(not unlike a college professor) but still, how accurate can one draw a neanderthal which in my opinion never existed?  There has never been a complete set of bones found from a human millions of years ago.  But there are plenty of dinosaur bones, and other animals.  Makes one wonder. Personally, I find it somewhat insulting to think we evolved from apes, but who knows maybe some of us did!