The Quality of Day-to-Day

We've been busy doing more of the same--gym, park, gym, peach pie, sprinkler park, gym, shopping, peach pie, gym, girls' night, gym. It's been fun busyness.

It's been chilly in the mornings and we discovered Kayli's slippers were too small, so we got some new princess ones. She was so pleased about them she wants to wear them all the time. So far, this is my favorite combo.
Look at me! Drinking his veggies?
Hanging out with some friends last week

Mommy, take a picture!
Going out with Daddy vs.

(to his credit, clean matching shorts had not yet made it to her drawer)

Going out with Mommy

There is a big park called the Polish Falcon near our house. They have a big bash there every weekend. This week we ventured over there to see what it was all about. They had some live Polish music, a couple of kickin' mechanical horses, and two bouncy castles. The kids loved it!

Looks like the kids put a spot on the lens again. It looks like I was a little more excited about this than Bryce.
First time in a bouncy castle!

Blake and I lived in downtown Hartford for a summer while I was pregnant with Kayli. We didn't realize beforehand that downtown isn't exactly a nice (or safe) place to live. I worked a few hours a day, but was stuck home alone in our apartment the rest of the day. I worked in our building and was too scared to go anywhere else by myself (I was a paranoid hormonal pregnant lady!). So, when Blake came home in the evenings we would go out and walk around downtown before it got too dark and sketchy. On most walks we walked through Bushnell Park and the 1914 Carousel there. And I would imagine taking my little one there to play all the time. Maybe that's why Kayli has ALWAYS loved carousels.

Today I finally did it. Thanks to Natalie for setting up this super fun playgroup! First, we stopped at the deli, of course, to say hi to our friends and to get a delicious sandwich, pickle, and some cookies for the picnic. Yum!

Does it get better than this?

After our super fun ride!

Mr. Manners

It kills me that almost all of our extended family live way too far away and don't get to see my adorable children on a regular basis. So here are more of Bryce's words. It feels like he talks all the time. He even has a couple made up words and phrases. The one used the most is "Dees ah!" That means, "I want that now!" But the real phrase that he uses the most is "Dee doo!" (Thank you) It's so adorable! You can kind of hear it on the video. He says it ALL THE TIME. For example, here is a typical conversation every morning and night while get him dressed:

B: Tuck! Tuck (stuck)!

C: Let's pull your hand through the sleeve. (I pull it through, thus "unsticking" it).

B: Dee Doo!

Repeat for the other arm. Every single time he gets dressed.

The other day, he held my hand while walking up the stairs and thanked me after climbing onto each step. It's so cute! I wish you could all be here to witness the cuteness firsthand. Sadly, since you cannot, the video will have to suffice.

Roper Family Expansion Plans

Kayli and I had a very interesting conversation a few days ago. It began with Kayli saying, "Mommy, I fink we're going to get a baby sister." Oh, really?Kayli--5 days old

It was a long conversation and I was very involved in it, so I didn't get the whole thing written down, but here are the finer points:

• We'll get the baby from my tummy
• She must have had doubts about that because then she suggested that we get one from my friend Liz and then put it in my tummy. Liz is due to have her baby any day, so is obviously successful at growing babies, whereas my ability is in question
• Then I learned that we'll actually be having two sisters and a brother
• She said, "you pick one out, then I'll pick one out, then you'll pick one out, then I'll pick one out.."
• I stopped her to ask where we'll be picking them out and was told "from Target". Oh, of course, where else?

Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Me

That's right, folks. It's orchard picking time again! Actually, we've been meaning to go for weeks but finally found the time. We picked 18 pounds of peaches!! We couldn't believe it and I thought it was so impressive until my friend told me the next day that she and her kids had picked 70 pounds! Yowza! Anyway, we are thoroughly enjoying our peaches. So far, I've only made a pie with them and we've eaten plenty just plain and fresh. The pie was totally yummalicious (thanks to my s-i-l Mel for the recipe!), but I had a little difficulty with the top crust so it was not exactly photogenic enough to make it to the blog. Or even the camera.

Blake picked high (those peaches were especially gigantic!), Kayli picked low, and I picked in between.

While Bryce slept. What a blessing! I really didn't want to chase him around the orchard.

Kayli took this. We could tell she wasn't going to get our heads, so we scrunched down. I thought it turned out pretty cute.

We also picked blueberries. We really lucked out because they're at the end of their season. But what we got was delish!

This is just one of Bryce's many weird faces that Blake was able to catch on camera. We haven't totally figured out what it means yet, but we think he's trying to have an under bite.

I was trying to pose so you could see how many berries we'd picked, but I got robbed (just one time of many)!
This guy was hanging out on the covering over the blueberries. Blake wasn't sure if he was real because he was HUGE, but he was.
After picking, we met up with our friends the Ryders at the little store there at the orchard. We debated sticking around for the peach pie eating contest, but our kids were too tired. We did have fun hanging out on the grass and seeing a woman just walking around with an African Grey Parrot on her shoulder. Pretty cool. Until it pooped on her black shirt. Yuck!
Blake plays with the kids whenever he gets the chance. Lately, he's been into building towers with blocks. Bryce makes this a true challenge because he'll knock down a tower even if it's only one block high. He thinks it's his duty. Well, on Sunday, Blake somehow managed to build a tower taller than Kayli. He was so proud.
Can you tell she's debating whether or not to knock it down? Don't worry, she did! (Pay no attention to the little man pulling her panties down. We're not really sure what he was trying to do!)

About Those Crayons

I wrote that crazy long post and I forgot to thank you all for the encouragement and advice with the crayon crisis. It is completely out of about half of the clothes and mostly out/very faded in the rest. And my beloved Colgate got it out of the dryer. Thanks again!!

Where to Begin...

I've got so many thoughts running through my head today. I'm not sure where to start off. I guess I'll just let the pictures be my guide.

Remember when life was more simple and you thought these were just as beautiful as any other flower? One woman's weed is another's bouquet. Kayli picked this for me today, so we decided to help it last a little longer.

Kayli got this "new" bike from some friends of ours. She begs to go outside all the time now--it's fantastic!! And Bryce thinks he should get the Barbie trike now, but his feet still can't reach the pedals. He sits on it so proudly anyway!

Blake had an internship in Hartford four summers ago. We lived right in downtown Hartford and had some crazy experiences with that. I was barely pregnant with Kayli and working a very part time job at a fabulous deli. Blake was working full time and I was afraid to go outside by myself during the day (the deli was on the bottom floor of our apartment building). So, I had a lot of time on my hands. I did a variety of things, but being a food lover and pregnant, I spent a lot of time thinking about Hot Tomato's just down the street. Blake and I finally went there on Wednesday. I was taking my parents to the airport so we left a little early, dropped them and the kids off at Bushnell Park, and Blake and I had a fun little lunch date.

Blake's office is in the building with the black roof. Although, he hardly ever works there. This is us at Bushnell Park. Very sunny.

Well, the reason we went to lunch Wednesday was in honor of my birthday which was yesterday. For as long as I can remember, I've gotten really weird on/around my birthday. It wasn't until recently that I was able to figure out exactly what caused the weirdness. Basically, I don't care about presents or other details. All that really matters is that people remember and do something special for me. I rarely remind people of my birthday because then it doesn't count. When someone asks what I want to have or do for my birthday and I say "I don't care." I mean that! I want other people to do whatever they feel I deserve. Pretty much, I just want the world to revolve around me--just for a day, but without me having to tell it to. But it never has (not that I blame it), so every year I end up disappointed. And frustrated with myself for feeling that way.

(I just want to apologize here to my mom for being so frustrating as a child. She always went to great lengths to make my birthdays spectacular, but since I hadn't really figured out what I wanted, I usually ended up frustrating both myself and her. I'm sorry, Mom. The parties and cakes and gifts were ALWAYS fantastic!)

Anyway, so I've been dreading my birthday for weeks now. And this year there was an even greater pain because most of my family would be together on my birthday--in Idaho. Without me. It's a long, complicated story but we weren't able to make it to my family reunion this year. Although, we didn't officially decide that until just about a week ago.

Why do I get so detailed in telling these stories? I don't know. If you're bored, I hope you stopped reading a while ago and just looked at the pictures.

Okay, moving on to yesterday. The world DID revolve around me. Just for a day and it was perfect. First, Blake decided to take the day off of work (possibly because I had a pathetic pity party the night before involving tears. Embarrassing). Then I went to the gym and had the best spinning class ever. I actually thought I might lose my birthday breakfast at one point. I hadn't pushed it that hard since my triathlon two months ago. It was fantastic! Then the kids and I met Blake (who was supposed to have gone to his gym) at a sprinkler park. Fun. While there, my parents called to wish me a happy birthday and tell me to keep my phone close. We went home and I discovered that Blake hadn't gone to the gym, but had spent the morning getting some surprise gifts (my real present is very big and to spare you another long story, we don't have it yet) and setting them up for me. So sweet! We just chilled the rest of the day while my phones kept ringing off the hook. My amazing mom had set up for a family member to call me every hour to wish me happy birthday. Those of you who know me might know that I can be a little chatty, so some of those conversations lasted about an hour. Meaning I would hang up only to be on another call within 5 minutes. I talked to almost every single member of my family yesterday, including the nieces and nephews. It was so fun! And a few of my in-laws called as well. I really am blessed to have married into such a wonderful family. And I randomly checked my junk email account last night and discovered that a bunch of people had sent me messages on Facebook. And I got another email from a friend this morning, but she sent it late last night. And cards, of course. So, I'm feeling so very loved right now. Thank you all so so so much!

It must have seemed like a bit much to Kayli. Blake told her we were going to have banana splits (I don't like cake) and she asked "Why?" When he told her that it was for my birthday, she responded, "It's still Mommy's birthday?!" Yep. One long day of love.

Here's a hint at my real birthday present.

It doesn't look like much in this photo, but they were delicious!

Thanks again to everyone who made me feel so special!

As I explained my silliness to some people, I discovered that I am not alone in feeling this way. So, I have vowed to do my part in making everyone else feel just this loved on their birthdays. No more late cards or forgotten phone calls! I'm sorry! Please help me out though and tell me your birthday here or email it to me. Unless you grew up in the same home as me or Blake. Then I know it.

When You're Hot, You're Hot

I can't believe it's Monday already. And what a Monday it's been! But we'll come to that later.

The most exciting news from Friday isn't really mine, but my great friend Linsey gave birth to another adorable little boy. CONGRATULATIONS, Lins! 8-8-08, pretty sweet!

The other fun part of the day was watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. At least as much as we could stay awake for. It was pretty impressive, but we turned it off after the U.S. athletes marched into the Bird's Nest.

Saturday was mostly not exciting, except that I decided to try "Group Groove" for the first time at my gym. My same friend Linsey took dance aerobics with me in college and she is the only one who can possibly imagine how painfully awkward I must have looked in this class. Everyone else seemed to have no trouble groovin' and shakin' it. As for me, I just tried to not fall over. But it actually felt really good to be completely out of my element and so focused that I had to forget everything else. Especially at the gym where I'm normally completely in my element.


That evening we me my parents at one of my favorite restaurants, Bertucci's. Yummy! That's what I was thinking as we were walking to the door anyway. But before I had a chance to get much past that, Bryce stuck his hand on one of the lights lining the walkway and BURNED IT!!! Really badly. We hurried over to a little store across the parking lot to get him some Tylenol, but the real damage was already done. The top of his palm is bright red and his fingertips are blistered. I realize that I should have been watching him closer, but usually when lights are down that low, they have some sort of protective covering over them. It was so sad! We talked to the manager and he told me he's going to work on getting it changed. We'll see...

For those of you who've had the treat of dining with Bryce, you know it never goes well. Even at home. Saturday night was actually about the same, only this time he had a legitimate reason to cry. We all took turns walking around outside with him while everyone else ate. So fun. They are one of those nice restaurants that don't sing, but they did give me a free dessert. I ordered the "Bomba" and it was divine! It's ice cream covered in dark chocolate. It's like it was created for me. Oh yum! We all shared it and it went pretty quickly. (Can you tell how tired I am?) Grandpa was kind enough to let the kids entertain themselves by styling his hair.
Has your stylist ever posed like this? While doing your hair?
And here is how I hope I look in 30 years. Isn't she so beautiful?!

Yesterday passed smoothly, as Sundays should. Except Bryce had a bit of a fever when we put him to bed. He seems a little prone to fevers, so we gave him some medicine and put him to bed (I promise, we RARELY medicate our children!). I'll just sum up the rest of the night by saying that we didn't get much sleep last night. Most of the sleep I got was with him on my chest because that's the only way he would sleep.

So, this morning came WAY too early. I knew I wouldn't be safe driving to the gym, let alone trying to workout, so I just went straight to my Monday chores. Everything was going fine until the laundry. Blake fixed the dryer on Saturday--blessed day! It felt so luxurious placing my wet clothes inside and closing the door without having to find creative places to hang everything. It felt so not luxurious pulling them back out only to find red crayon melted all over everything. EVERYTHING!!! Why couldn't I have done just one more load without the dryer?! Grr... So, now I get to clean out my dryer and figure out how to get crayon out of some of our favorite clothes.

Here's to a better week!

For Grandma

This is for all those who rarely get to see my cute kiddos--especially Grandma. Bryce is talking more every day and it's so fun! I wish you could be here to see it first hand because it's cuter and he's not great for recording, but here is a small sampling.

These Cats Rock!

I figured I'd better blog about last weekend before this weekend starts. As I mentioned, it was pretty eventful. First, here is some awesome artwork from Kayli. These are portraits of me and of Blake. See if you can tell who's who:

This is Blake (and a ladder and a bean). She decided to draw his legs first, to mix things up. So, she drew two long lines and then said, "Now, I need to draw his hair." I expected her to draw his head so she could put the hair on it, but that wasn't the hair she was referring to. She finished drawing his hairy legs and said she was done with her picture of Daddy.
This is me. Pretty. She said that I'm sick (that's the line coming out of my mouth), a baby, and a ballerina. So, talented. She has since added bright red panties with bugs on them to my bum. I look g-o-o-d!

Friday evening we headed out to the ballpark to see the Rockcats play. They are our local minor league team. It was sponsored by Blake's firm, so we had a fun little dinner first and all the kids received baseballs. Kayli went around and had all four mascots sign hers--definitely the highlight of the night! As anyone who knows Bryce can guess, we didn't last too long. I don't even know if they won. No one had scored by the time we left in the 5th inning.

Kayli showing off her ball, pre-signatures

Blake and I are the Cub Scout Den leaders for our ward so, Saturday morning we set out with our little Scouts to earn the Outdoorsman. We did a 3.2 mile hike around Wadsworth Falls State Park. It was really pretty and the boys had a great time finding tiny frogs, brightly colored slugs, and some bright orange mushrooms.

These are the three that were able to make it, showing off their freshly "whipped" ropes (that means the ends won't unravel because they're wrapped in minty floss). You can tell how much fun they are to work with. (c:

After the hike we lit a fire. Well, we tried for a very long time, but eventually succeeded thanks to some birthday candles Blake inadvertently brought along. Everything was very wet, including the air, so this was nothing short of a miracle. We were all able to cook hot dogs but we had to postpone the S'mores because the sky finally let loose and started POURING rain. Thankfully, we were done with everything else and it was a very successful outing.

That night we headed to Waterfire Providence to meet some friends and enjoy the sights. It's hard to describe the scene if you've never been. Basically, the Providence River runs right into the center of Providence and they light these huge bonfires up and down the river at night. It has a bit of a cult-ish feel because they've got chanting playing all the while, but it's fascinating! Blake and I went four years ago during his internship and we thought it would be fun to take kids, once we had some.

So, we all loaded up in the car and headed out. Bryce screamed the last 1/2 hour of the trip, but I thought it was just because he was tired (it was already past bedtime). Unfortunately, when we got there and Blake pulled him out of the car, we discovered he was crying for a different reason. I'll spare you the details, but he needed a whole new outfit. Kayli had also been busy on the drive down and had dumped a huge cup of water down the front of her shirt and it was completely soaked. The good news is, that we were parked at Providence Place, the 7-story mall. So, we hurried inside, avoiding eye contact with people staring with amusement at our naked baby (I did leave Kayli's shirt on until we were able to replace it with a dry one). The awesome news is that we were able to get Bryce a pair of pants (super cute!) and a t-shirt and a t-shirt for Kayli all for $8 at The Children's Place. I was SO excited about that! Once the kids were clothed again, we headed down to the water and to find our friends. The kids really enjoyed it. We couldn't even get Bryce to turn around for a photo. (We have a really cute one of Kayli and Blake but I somehow just deleted it off the page. Does anyone know how to upload photos in the middle of a post? Because I can only get them to go at the top and it's very frustrating at moments like this!). However, Blake and I decided this was better without kids. It was very romantic and simple the first time. This time we had to maneuver our horrible double stroller through the massive crowds and we were constantly busy preventing Bryce from jumping into the water.

So, even though it was a lot of fun, we were glad to be heading home after just a couple hours--or so we thought. We got to the car only to learn that although we had three copies of the key to my car they were all, unfortunately, inside my car. My locked car. Just an hour and $35 dollars later, we were back in and on our way home! Fortunately, the kids were awesome and stayed happy through the whole ordeal. Pretty amazing, considering that it was 11 PM!

Sunday evening we went for a casual family walk on a beautiful path nearby. Kayli asked if she could bring her stroller and we thought it was a great idea. She had so much fun pushing it alongside the big stroller.So proud!
And of course, Bryce needed a turn too. He still has a lot of work to do on steering straight, however.

Monday we met friends at the park. Tuesday we met some other friends to go fishing. We hadn't ever tried this before, but my friend Robin is an awesome mom and is always coming up with fun activities for the kids. We didn't catch any fish (apparently, you need some sort of bait, and the fish don't think that frozen peas count). But we had a great time trying, picnicking, and hiking around. Until we encountered an old man with a snapping turtle. We thought the turtle was really cool until the man informed us that he kills them every time he catches them because they bite (he had it flipped on its back so it couldn't go anywhere). He then flipped it over and proceeded to whack it with a huge log. RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE KIDS!! We quickly told him to stop and tried to hurry away before he traumatized them any further, but the damage was already done. Kayli told Blake all about it at dinner that night. Crazy old man! Poor turtle. We feel bad that we didn't stick up for it, but we were more concerned about getting the kids out of there right away.

Yesterday I woke up feeling horrible. I was so disciplined while training for the triathlon that ever since, I've been rebelling. And we are just way to exhausted from staying up late and not taking care of ourselves. So, Blake stayed home to take care of me and let me rest. While Bryce and I napped, he and Kayli went to the bank, Dunkin Donuts (they even brought one back for me), and picked up the parts we need to fix the dryer (yay!). He did a ton more and just took really good care of me. He's such an awesome man! I love you, Sweetie!

Today I met my mom at Stew Leonard's, for a little break. We had a lot of fun, as usual. They've got the farm animals out and Bryce could hardly stand it, he was so excited. They had an overwhelming amount of samples today--wonderful! I know, but the holes were REALLY tiny. I thought Bryce Chicken looked so adorable, so I just had to share!

And lastly, I just wanted to share an epiphany I had during my spinning class this morning.
It is on the topic of striving for perfection. For those of you not familiar with my faith, I believe that this life is one small part of an eternal life and that each of us has the potential to reach perfection and to live with God forever. I often get caught up in how far away I am from perfection and sometimes I feel that I must be a disappointment to my Heavenly Father. But this morning, this idea suddenly formed in my head that brought me comfort and hope. I thought about how we so often refer to newborn babies as being "perfect". I know I felt that way about both of mine. However, I don't think of them as perfect in the sense that they should stay newborns forever. But they have their 10 little toes and fingers and big blue eyes and everything else I could hope for them at that time. So, the connection is, that right now I am perfect, or at leaste I have everything I need to become perfect. I am a daughter of God and as such, I've inherited the qualities to become like Him. So, when He looks at me, I think He sees (because He knows) what I have the potential to become and not my failings right now.

So, it's nothing really new--at least not if you believe the same things I do. Just a new way of looking at it, for me. I don't even know if I did a good job of putting my thoughts into words. That's always a struggle for things like this. But, I'm sure it will at least be useful to me again in the future.

Going Public

Well, I recently sat down to read my July issue of the Ensign and read an article based on a talk Elder Ballard gave at BYU-Hawaii. It's about using the Internet (i.e. blogs) to share what I believe. And I realized I could do a much better job at that if I went public again. So, welcome World! Okay, not that I flatter myself that the world reads my blog. But it is tighter security this time around. Hopefully, no more weirdo comments.
Anyway, we had a very eventful weekend. But Bryce just woke up, so I'll have to post all that later.