I Miss My HH

That's "Hot Honey" for those who don't read my other blog.

This morning Kayli said, "Last night I dreamed I was with Daddy. It made me sad cuz I miss Daddy."

Amen, Baby.

We're having a blast, but I can't wait to be home and all together again.

Say a Little Prayer for Me

I know I switched up the last word there, but does that make anyone else think of Rupert Everett and smile?

Anyway, the kiddos and I are about to commence on a 1769.84 mile journey.

Yeah, you read that correctly.

And that's just the first half.

I'm not good at math, so we're going 1769.84 miles x 2. That's why I married an accountant.

And if you're trying to read between the lines, read this: If I'm not nuts for thinking this is a good idea, I will be by the time it's done.
So, pray that they stay this angelic the whole time.

And don't judge us for buying new couches while our baby sleeps like this.

Kayli does have a real bed of her own.

We're not that neglectful.

And one more thing:

I am hopelessly behind on all your blogs.

And now I'm going to be pretty much absent from the blogging world for about 2 weeks.

Please, stop blogging! Please?

I'm missing out on everything. Can't you just wait until I have some semblance of a normal life again?

The world does revolve around me, right?

Mish Mash

I'm in a huge hurry to get ready for our next HUGE adventure, so this is going to be quick.

Hopefully, with less typos than yesterday's post. I will try to fix those.

Eventually.

Introducing:

OUR FURNITURE!!!

These are our couches, with coordinating pillows.

My favorite is the 1 1/2 chair with ottoman.

Except that it doesn't really fit in the room.

And Bryce thinks it's a great launch pad for his many tricks.

This is the living room. If you could look up, you'd see the sweet leaf ceiling fan.

Kayli is excited to have a "thing for Santa to come down". I'm excited to not hang our stockings on the couch this year.

Our dining room table!

This picture doesn't quite do it justice though. You'll have to come visit to see it in it's full splendor.

I love it!

I love this too

And this.

But please don't ever start dating. Please?

Don't I have the sweetest children?

I don't love this.

We thought we had mice burrowing in the (dead) rose bushes out front. Turns out it's giant wasps.

!?!?

And now a belated 4th

Bryce requested cherry cake for breakfast. That sounded patriotic, so I obliged. It was a breakfast cake, of course.

I still haven't decided where to put our energy efficient bulbs.

Then we went to a patriotic event at our park. We thought the kids could be in the bike parade, but I think we got there too late. It didn't happen while we were there.

But I did yell to Blake during the patriotic prayer.

I didn't know.

The kids were not at all interested in patriotism, so we didn't last through much of the morning's schedule.

We did make another long fruitless drive in our quest for furniture. At least the place gave the kids free hot dogs and popcorn.

We bought fireworks on the way home.

And then tried to burn down our new house by lighting some in the garage.

It was REALLY windy.

Don't try this in your own home, though

Look what firework fumes in the garage do to your face

Fortunately, the wind died down and we were able to light the rest outside. I don't think the parachute things would have gone over well inside the garage.

O Ma, Ha!

That's where we went to get our furniture. Ever since we got here, every time we mentioned "furniture" people would say, "Oh, go to The Nebraska Furniture Mart in Omaha, Nebraska." So, we obeyed.

It's a bit overwhelming at first. It's like a large shopping mall. Except it's all one store. With several different parking lots, depending on what you're looking for. Basically, it's HUGE.

I want you to try something. Got to Google search and type in "neb".

That's all you have to do for it to automatically bring up "Nebraska Furniture Mart". It's that BIG.

Anyway, that is where we bought our table and couches.

And then where we bought our second table when we realized our lovely first table was too wide for our kitchen.

But first we made the mistake of driving all over the place to find a new table elsewhere because we didn't want to have to drive all the way back to Omaha. Did I mention that was a mistake. Because it was.

But I digress.

After spending years sitting in couches and discussing steel versus wooden frames and then eons checking out the removal and storage of leaves and discussing vinyl versus microfiber, we made our decisions and headed...

To the zoo!

We are zoo going folk.

Did you know Blake and I even went to the zoo on our honeymoon? True story.

Whenever people talk about furniture, they mention the NFM; when they talk about zoos, they bring up the Omaha zoo.

That must be why Nebraska is such a popular place.

Oh, wait.

Anyway, I give you The Zoo:

We were kind of limited on time, so I couldn't believe how long we stayed right here at the entrance feeding nastyfish Cheerios. Just because some guy was dumping the box into my little kiddos' hands. And my big kiddo's hands too, as you can see.

Finally, I pried them away from the nastyfish. That's how her hand compares to a polar bear paw.

That's the gorilla habitat behind us. All the gorillas were chilling smack up against the wall where you couldn't really see them, trying to avoid the rain. So, Kayli asked if she could take a picture of us.

Does anyone else do weird things with their necks when they pose for a picture for a 4-year old?

Then she wanted a picture of her, of course.

Bryce didn't feel like getting in on the action. He apparently knew that the gorillas would be fairly boring and thought this a better use of his time.

I must say, I am really impressed with his decision making skills.

The indoor gorillas were more visible, but had some serious attitude problems. One kept pounding the window where tons of kids were standing to look at it.

Not that I wouldn't pound on the window if tons of kids were standing there looking at me. I'm just saying.

These guys were all about the entertainment, however. One kept reaching his open hand through the fence and then kind of shaking it at us, as if to say, "Come on! Give me something!" So, someone threw him a flower. And he ate it.

Ever heard of a Skyfari?

It's a little tram that takes you above the zoo.

They wouldn't let us all ride together and for some reason, that totally threw me for a loop and I was terrified.

We made it on safely and Kayli kept reassuring me that it was fun and not scary.

Does anyone else do weird things with their neck when their posing for a picture that they're taking of themselves while terrified?

It took a long time for me to muster the courage to actually turn around and get this shot, but I think it's a very cute one.

I just love and adore my guys.

I was thinking of you when I took this shot. I thought, "I bet my blog readers have never had the opportunity to see a rhino from this angle."

I'm so thoughtful.

Like every good zoo, they had tons of bronze statues for the kids to climb on.

I bet you've never seen a shark from this angle either, huh?

They had this sweet shark tank that they let us going diving in.

Just kidding. I know I totally had you fooled.

They had a cool aquarium that actually arched over our heads.

Now, I want you to imagine with me.

Imagine you are walking through a fun bug exhibit with all these cool bugs in boxes. Like orchid mantids that really do look like orchids, huge millipedes, tons of tarantulas, etc.

Now imagine that you read a sign that says, "Look up to see our silk orb spiders spinning their webs! Don't worry, they never leave their webs."

WHAT!?!

So, you look up.

And this ginormous guy is hanging right above you and your babies.

!?!!?

Yeah, I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I'm not buying that they never leave their webs.

The butterfly pavilion was much more relaxing and enjoyable.

Just chillin' on the komodo dragon's back.

We also saw lions and tigers and bears (Oh, my!). We went in this cool swampy area that was dark and had a creaking boardwalk and random snakes hissing with crocodiles, beavers, and other fun stuff. I thought it was really cool. Kayli was terrified. And there were all the other usual zoo folks as well--zebras, giraffes, elephants, Cheeto eating monkeys, etc.

You might think we'd be tired after a long day like this.

But we're party people.

So, we headed home for the next party.

It was July 3rd, after all.

Some friends invited us over for a little fireworks shin dig. Here is Kayli keeping her sparkler as far away as possible.

This guy isn't ours, but he is just too cute not to post

Bryce wasn't sure how he felt about the fireworks

He had this response

And then this.

I'm never quite sure what that face means.

Or this one.

But I like them all.

It's been a long time since I've done fireworks, but I don't remember having any that dropped out parachutes. These guys had a bunch of fireworks that did just that. They were a huge hit with the kids, as you can see.

And then, suddenly, I was exhausted and decided it was time to head home.

So, we did.

FINE!

Here are a few random pictures of our house. More to come. Especially since they delivered our new furniture on Friday!


This is the kitchen. You've already seen it, so I thought you'd appreciate how lovely our card table looks in it.


And these super yummy strawberry kiwi popsicles we made. Delish!


But we got a new table today. And it looks like it was born in our kitchen. It just fits in so perfectly!


The Basement:


Well, this is our family room. There are also two storage rooms (one with a sump pump--say it out loud any time you're feeling blue. "Sump pump." Isn't that just fun?), a bathroom, and a fourth bedroom/office.


This room will one day be organized. One half will house the kids' toys. In a neat and orderly fashion. But right now, this keeps them happy while I unpack, clean, make phone calls for all the billions of things we never anticipated going on right now, etc.


The other half will be for our TV and couches and such.


And our "mini wet bar" (a.k.a. a sink with some cupboards) and a tube for a fridge. It's awesome.


I'll show you the living room once I upload the photos with the new couches. For now you get the super sweet ceiling fan. I hated it first, but it's really grown on me. Blake is still undecided. I really like it.

You never want to have to wonder where your pantry is.

Never.

This is our Trex deck. That we never have to stain. That has a fabulous drop shade for when it's sunny.

It just needs a grill and some furniture.

Usually, we keep those toys down on the grass. And Bryce says (while pointing out back), "Mom, can we go to that park today?"

I love having a park in our backyard.

And I love that two toys make a park.

See how well the neighbor mowed our lawn? I mowed it yesterday with my new baby, though:

So, I typed up this post last week, and I was going to insert a photo of my new mower here and maybe even some pics of the new furniture. But then absolute chaos hit last weekend. So, if you want to know what I've been mowing with, you'll have to look here:

My Awesome Mower

If nothing else, I hope you enjoy the intro jingle. This thing is so fun to use and does a really great job!

She's a Fish!

That's what her instructor said when a friend of mine asked if she knew Kayli.

That's the cutest fish I've ever seen!

These girls were instant friends and seemed to giggle and play the whole

Getting ready to play fetch with those diving rings. Not to brag or anything, but Kayli would retrieve her ring about four times by the time any of the other girls brought theirs back to the instructor.

Who knew "Ring Around the Rosie" could teach kids to swim? Or at least trick the timid ones into splashing under the water.

She's swimming!

Those yellow floatation devices make it much easier for the kids to learn to float. Kayli graduated from hers before the course finished, though!

Still not bragging.

Going down this huge slide was her reward at the end of the session.

That and graduating to the next level. She was a Pike; now she's an Eel! Way to go, Baby Girl!

Baby, You Melt My Butter

Here's to Six Wild, Crazy, and Wonderful Years!

This one is for the man I love:

I love waking early on Saturdays

And I love college football games

I love not acting my age

And a good pasta dish

Yeah I'm a fan of Grisham books

And anything my Mama cooks

Abiding Joy has got me hooked

On Sunday afternoon

Yes I love good cold water

And salt on my fries

I love a good action flick

That plays on Friday night

And heck yes, I love my bike

But I want you to know

Honey, I love your love the most

Man, I love how brownies taste

And dang, I love my triathlon race

Any song sung by Brad Paisley

Is country at it's best

Yes, I love good cold water

And salt on my fries

I love a good romantic comedy

That plays on Friday night

And heck yes, I love my bike

But I want you to know

Honey, I love your love the most

I love

Yeah I love shiny black boots

And cute, sexy jeans

Four wheel drive

Living bucks

And peanut butter cup ice cream

And heck yes, I love my dog (well, I will once we get him)

And lemon in my water

But Honey, I love your love

Yeah, I love your love

yea

I Love Your Love The Most

For the original, look up Eric Church. But be forewarned: Eric has a bit of a potty mouth!

Hurry! We're Catching Up!

At least, I'm going to start trying to catch up.

The last weekend in June our stake (that's a unit made up of several congregations of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in our area) had a patriotic celebration.

You may recall that is also the day we moved into our house. We thought the break would be nice so we headed over to the party.

We didn't find anyone we knew for about 30 minutes. That was fun. But we saw people wearing BYU apparel, so we figured we had the right group.

Kayli wasn't really worried about not knowing anyone, she just jumped right in on the cookie walk.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you, but this was positively thrilling.

Then we played some croquet. I haven't played this since I was 10. I'm still just as bad at it.

Then we found the craft pavilion. That would have been great to find a couple hours sooner. It was about to close, but the kids still had time to make these star wands, color a picture, and make a personalized bracelet. Very cool.

But this water spigot was definitely the highlight for many of the kids.

Blake took this shot. I love it. That is a picture of pure joy in my sweet little girl.

Bryce didn't really get in on the water fun. He was much too busy with his own highlight.

Remember his obsession with Cheeto-weedles? (I'm not really sure how that name happened. It's all his own.) He was beyond delighted to discover Cheeto-weedles at the picnic.

I'm doing such a great job raising my children. Kayli gets pure joy from wasting water and Bryce gets it from eating foods containing red-40 and artificial everything.

Watermelon is another matter entirely.

A very very serious matter.