::photo of the day 8-25-16::

Throw back a week to our San Deigo vacation.  Max somehow succeeded in filling the lower legs of his wetsuit with water--not sure how since they're supposed to be watertight.  But he did it.  And he did it while on an unauthorized last jaunt into the surf.  You know, when the rest of us are packing up and want to leave.

Anyway, he was really proud of his accomplishment and thought he was hilarious.  In truth it was super funny looking.  But in a "yikes" sort of way.  It looked like he had some sort of strange disease where he was only gaining weight on the front of his calves.

He walked all the way home like this.  Strange boy, huh?



This reminded me of the fancy outfit below:

This was from a few years ago.  He's a couple feet shorter, but still the same Max.

::sad all around::

See the sad face in this picture?  And the big pink splotch?  They're related.  This is a sad story all around.

I'll start at the beginning.



During Lucy's nap I thought I'd snag 15 min and fix my nails.  But of course, as soon as I sat down and clipped my nails, the Lucy was awake.  When I brought her out of her room she insisted on sitting in my lap.  Then she insisted on getting her nails painted.  Which I acquiesced to.  We did a really cute little pink and silver paint job.  She was very pleased with it.  She held her fingers very still and blew on them for a long time, so all of the nails looked great by the time they were dry.

She showed her hands to everybody, including Uncle Kelly.  She was very proud.

Later that day I went to the bathroom.  Now, the normal thing when I go to the bathroom is for sometnig awful to happen.  A fight, an injury, a lost toy, some other problem.  Usually whatever happens includes lots of screaming from one of the little people.

Well, screaming broke out.  I figured Lucy was just having a Sandy encounter.  Well after a lot more screaming she came running into the bathroom, showing me that three of her little nails were all smeared.

At that point I knew something bad had happened....either she got into the remover, or the paint.  Either way it wasn't good.

When I got out to the table I was greeted by a large deep puddle of pink nail polish on the quilt that serves as my tablecloth.

I'm all sad about the quilt.  What do you think Lucy is sad about?  Not the quilt.  Her smeared fingers.  She couldn't have been more distressed that she had smeared her fingers.  Give me a break.

So now I'm working on the quilt, we'll see how much I can get out.  And I definitely learned my lesson about leaving stuff in the reach of curious beauty-hungry little hands.  How did she even get that thing open?

What a crazy little girl.  This is the point where I'm supposed to say, "See, this is why we can't have nice things!!!!"

Oh well, could've been worse, my laptop was about 5 inches away from that puddle.  That would've been bad news.


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::this last week::

As per the usual, this was a crazy busy week with lots of work to get done.  Not the best week I've ever had (someone hit my car and dented it in a parking lot and then drove away, I almost had to fire someone, etc. etc.)  but it was also the kind of week where we got a lot of stuff done.

Week before last I got an awesome new cast iron crock pot for making roasts.  Sunday it got to make it's first roast.  A roast cooked in a yellow pan automatically tastes better than one in a boring old pan.

Right?

It really did turn out yummy.  I always feel like I did something right when I can actually manage to feed the kids something I made.  Not something that happens too often in my life right now, so we enjoy it when it does.

Here's Lucy and mom.  I think this was Monday afternoon.  Yes, that sounds right.  Sandy didn't feel well on Monday and so he was lying on one of the couches watching movie and after movie, and at this moment I was keeping Lucy company on the other couch while she had a snack.  Monday was a bit of a long day, but Sandy was feeling better by the afternoon, so that was nice.

Sandy did some awesome creative lego building this week.  This was a star destroyer.  I love all the details and small pieces he put in there.  In the back someplace is one of batman's throwing bats.  He was very proud of this creation.

I think this was also the day he decided to draw all over himself with a black marker--bones.  He's certainly not the first kid to do that in the history of the world.

I feel like I spent most of this week either working on work stuff until my eyeballs fell out, or cleaning up people's toys.  But I guess I did do some taxiing, driving people around to where they needed to be.

On Wednesday between school pick up and when we had to take Max back out to go to swim (which is only like an hour), we took a quick detour through the McDonald's drivethrough for some ice cream cones.  By Sandy's request.

This made Lucy very very happy.

Very very VERY happy.  And look how impressively long her tongue is.

It's honestly hard to say no to these cute little faces.  Max had already inhaled his, and was probably off doing something instead of his homework at this moment.

Later in the week Max and Sandy did some more movie making--This was while they were working on "Tickle Me Sandy."  It turned out super cute and hilarious.

I like it when Max includes Sandy and Sandy is actually willing to play along.

Max's cinematography and editing are slowly getting better.

On Friday Max didn't have school, which was lucky because we watched little one year old cousin Cole for most of the day.  Max was the one in charge of watching him, and was excited to work and make some money, as he's saving for a new ipad.

Unfortunately after a really great start at the babysitting job there was an injury.  Max had already started the day by taking Lucy and Sandy and Cole all in the living room and playing with them.  Then during breakfast Cole was wandering around.  Max went to retrieve him from the laundry room and on the way slipped on a baby toy and fell pretty hard.  He hit the back of his head on the door jamb when he fell and really bruised up the back of his head.

Youch!  And that was when it was pretty fresh.  When he was passing the sacrament today I could see behind his ear and it looked totally black and blue.  Poor guy!

This took all the starch out of him for a while and I had to nurse my babysitter back to health.  Eventually he got it back together.  He was a real big help for me that day because I still had a lot of work that had to get done (of course, as usual!) so it was nice to have such a helpful guy to lean on.

Saturday morning I got to go on a bike ride downtown which was super fun, then we ran a bunch of errands, did laundry and worked hard on a bunch of other saturday type stuff.  Ignore the toys all over the floor behind me!

One of our errands included Target where we found some mystery minifigure packs.  Sandy was such a good sport when he got this adorable ballerina.  He actually really like her (much to my disappointment--I was hoping to trade him for her!)  He took her right over to the lego table to play.  Max got an poor injured guy on crutches that had slipped on a banana peel.

Sandy spent most of the day Saturday playing with our playmobil collection.  This made me happy because they boys just don't play with those toys that much.  They're just so cute, they deserve more attention!

These kids were all out on a trip in the camper.  I think the one in PJs with bare feet is Sandy.  Not sure who anybody else is.

I'm glad we survived this week.  It was even a good one from time to time.  Mostly because of our cute little family.  They drive us crazy and they're a lot of work but they sure make life better--in all ways.

::speaking of...::

Speaking of little girls that love their daddies, we were taking some family pictures on Easter Sunday and some cute stuff happened.







































First of all, there were these cute little guys in their easter outfits. I have to say, one of the things I enjoy most as a mom is picking the kiddo's clothes and dressing them.  It's a little bit like playign with dolls I think.  I really love doing it.

Look at this little goofball!  He's cute and he thinks he's funny.

Then the Lucy grabbed her daddy, and it was all over for me.
Oh little Lucy, you sure do love your daddy.  And your daddy loves you.  So much!

Lucy kisses are the best.  Especially when she's laughing and kissing.  I was just snapping away as this happened, hoping desperately that it wasn't too bright out and that I was catching what I was seeing with my eyes!

Love these two.  So much!

::poor little lulu::

Poor little Miss Lu was so sad yesterday.  Dad came home from work and then took the big boys with him to guitar lessons.

Sandy told her she was too little to go, and that--on top of Dad leaving--broke her poor little baby heart and the big lip came out and everything.

I love little girls that love their dads.  Too cute.

::toesies::

 I got a piano book that has a bunch of songs from Tangled, Frozen and Enchanted.  Lucy was very happy with me about that.  She was thrilled that we could play her favorite song from Tangled (albeit slowly and badly).  After I got done playing (which didn't take long since she wanted to "play along" the whole time), I went to do something else.

When I came back to the guitar room, there was Lucy, trying her best to play the song.  In her little "Let it Go" nightgown and with her darling little toesies sticking out.

Think she might let me teach her to play piano at some point?  Nobody else has yet.  We'll see I guess.  Maybe if I ply her with enough Disney showtunes she'll have no choice but to learn.  I'll keep trying.

::sandy haircut::

We don't document every single haircut because not only would that be boring but it would also be silly.

However, a haircut like this one does deserve some attention.



Sandy had been cultivating the Luke Skywalker hair for quite a long long time.  He was very proud of it, and refused to even think of cutting it for a long long time.



As it got longer and bushier though, I had to insist on grooming it more often.  And I think maybe Sandy inherited a soft and tender head from his parternal grandmother.  He can't STAND having his hair brushed if it's in the slightest bit tangly.



So we came to a decision between the two of us.  It was time for the long locks to go.  So we went to see Patrick.  Sandy was pretty stoic about the haircut, although he did keep saying "I sure hope we're almost done."



And he may not actually trust Patrick at all, when it comes down to it.  But anyway, it's done, and the new haircut is cute and short and easy and he's delighted that we don't really have to do anything to it at all.



But I have to say he does look like a different kid, and that's always a little fun but also a little sad at the same time.



And then here are the goofballs.  Such silly people.



We went to see Zootopia together right after hte haircute and it was super fun.  I like these littles.

::::

On Weds I had to take the car down to the dealership in Albuquerque for some servicing.  Sandy got to come with me.  He's getting some special treatment as he tries to recover from his tonsillectomy.

We went to Target (of course, when don't we go to Target?).  He really wanted a hot dog, but it was breakfast time.



I offered him a slushy, but he turned it down.  It's insane.  He's been all treated out almost.  It blows my mind a little bit.  ANYWAY, we walked over to the cafe so I could get him a hotdog.  That's when we spied these delicious cinnamon pretzels.  He told me later that he saw them and thought they were doughnuts.  "So weird!" he said, "Who eats doughnuts for breakfast?!"



But really Sandy, the real question is who eats hot dogs for breakfast?

We got home in time to pick up Max from school, and the car is all refreshed, so it was a succesful trip.

::new building update::

These aren't even good photos, frustratingly, but they're the best I could do when I was driving down the road!  Or maybe I think Max took these for me?  Same problem though--questionable quality.

The walls and ceilings and everything are all up!  They put the stucco on the outside of the building which is exciting!  The scaffolding is up there because that big wall that sticks out there is going to be painted an exciting bright orange.



It's so crazy to see the building going up, to realize how humongous it is, and also realize what a frighteningly huge project it is!  Yikes!

We're excited because the location is awesome and super visible.  It should be great for marketing.  And the building is going to be so fun looking.

I'll try to get a few more photos next week, and maybe some interior photos!!