These Girls

 

These girls though

 

 

 Am I right?



I am in love

 

 

 

 Simply and utterly in love!!!



Recap and Moving on: June

The June summer breeze didn't feel quite so summery when stuck in

air-conditioned year-round school. June felt like he should have been placed somewhere else on the yearly calendar. Somewhere more school oriented. Every so often I get a glimpse of him hanging out on the freshly cut, school yard grass. As the kids I work with slid down the slides, I would slip my sandals off and bury my toes in the fragrant grass and let the sun warm my cheeks. That's when I would shake hands with the month of June.

 

 

 

Books I read this month:

*The Poisonwood Bible by Barbra Kingsolver (I failed this month at reading. This was the only book I picked up this month and I'm not even close to finishing it. June was way too busy to enjoy one of my favorite past times) 

 

 

This months tune

*I mostly listened to my ipod on shuffle

*A little bit of "Local Natives"

* I dabbled a bit out of my usual genre of music with "Sam Smith" I saw him play on Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago and couldn'y decide if I like his voice or not so I looked him up. SHHH don't tell, I think I like his music.

 

Things Nora has been up to in June:

 

* Eating snow cones.
* Doing her favorite 2 chores everyday. Feeding the cats and watering the flowers.
* Picking out 3 books and 1 movie every week at the library.
* Getting her first x-ray. Finger. Not broken.
* Talking in robot voices.
* Gardening.

Things Evers Has been up to in June:

* Crawling on all fours.
* Pulling herself up to a standing position.
* Eating apples in sacrament meeting.
* Getting into everything.
* Saying DADA and MAMA.
* Not loving the jets that fly over our house.

 

 



  

Improper Use of Shopping Carts

Our little house is overflowing with rule breaking. It's just what we do around these parts. We live on the edge and we don't follow the rules. We never have and probably never will. (Just ask Chris's mom. Don't ask my mom, she has too many stories).

Old school teenage Chris has been on a few too many, cross country midnight runs through the snow, without permission. In my day, I may or may not have skipped young women's to go skinny dipping in a friend's pool. Yikes. 

Maybe, just maybe, we let Nory watercolor in the front room without putting newspaper down between her canvas and the floor. Occasionally she might get to watch cartoons while eating lunch. I'm pretty sure her and her mama like to garden without shoes on. Don't even get me started on my absolute disregard for the English language. Run-on sentence anyone?

Some rules seem pointless. You know, like commas. periods, and spelling correctely.

But some rules should just not be broken (don't worry, it's perfectly acceptable to start a sentence with a conjunction word like "but". Don't believe me? Look at this). We found out the hard way.

Sometimes in our family, we struggle with the proper usage of shopping carts. 

 

Remember this. A little side note. I hate my toes and am super self conscious about that one crazy long toe. I might as well post a picture of these freakishly long toes for all of internetdom to see.

Anyway, back to the improper use of shopping carts. We broke the rules and let Elanora ride on the bottom of the shopping cart (who hasn't done that?). Dragging her cute little finger on the disgusting floor, she was having so much fun. Laughing and singing. Getting crazy amounts of germs on her hands. Well it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt or your mom runs over you hand with the shopping cart wheel.

I have never felt more sick in my whole life until I felt the shopping cart bump into her little fingers. I grabbed her and looked at the damage.

(FYI, this picture was  taken the day after the incident because, of course I wasn't even thinking about taking a picture of my sweet hurt girlie. I was just thinking about my poor little lovie, how horrible I felt and how I could make the pain go away)

 

It was horrible, just horrible. Three fingers that I had scraped the crap out of. One minute we were singing, looking at flowers and lawn chairs and the next, my girl is crying and I'm trying not to cry because I need to be brave so she knows everything will be okay.

Resting her head on my shoulder and sobbing hysterically she was saying between deep sobs, "I. Need. A. Band-aid" over and over again.

Oh my poor girl. I'm not sure how I will handle a more grievous injury. On the outside I was calm and collected but on the inside I was sobbing as hard as her, wanting a magic band-aid to fix her up. 

She is a lionheart and feeling much better. While her pinky heals, I think we will try a little harder to follow the rules. You get points for trying, right?

 

 

School's out for Summer

School's out for summer!!! Unless, of course, your school is on a year round schedule. Boo!
We may not be able to party it up during the week but you can bet on the weekends we will be enjoying the almost-summer-goodness. 
Even though it's not even officially summer, I find myself already longing for cooler weather. I wanted snow and Nory wanted to go fishing, So Chris pulled this out of his magic hat...SNOW!!!

And FISHING!!!

We woke up one fine Saturday morning and wanted to go on a spontaneous trip to the Uintah mountains. We decided, and in five minutes we were on our way. Well, maybe 5 minutes might have been a little more like 3 hours. With 2 wilds we need a lot of equipment and prep. 
 Both girls fell asleep in the car. One girlie woke up like this

And one woke up like this

 

 

 Little Evs loved the cool wind on her checks and big sister Nors perked up pretty fast. Nothing like a pit stop to cheer a gal up

 Nory will hate it one day, when I bust this little gem of a picture out to show people, but oh how I love it so! Chris is focused on tying a lure on our little fisherwoman's pole, Evsie is crawling around on the blanket, looking for rocks to stick in her mouth, and Nory Bug is, well I guess I don't have to spell it out. We carry that little potty everywhere we go. You never know when nature will call.

It was a fun day of perfect 56 degree weather and catching the "big one"

 

 

The big one just happened to be a stick. A day of beautiful waterfalls

 

 

A little hiking

 

 

A couple of rays of sunshine

 

 

(Maybe a little moon)

Chris and I love the outdoors and hope one day the girlies will also share our love of nature ( Ahhh, sappy much? )

 

 

Recap and Moving On: May

May blew in with the fluffy clouds. Full of hope and change. She left with the heavy fog of disappointment. We're looking forward to the clarity and understanding that comes after the storm. Sometimes, you just have to trudge on sightless through the thick unyielding smog. When we exit the dense fog our eyes are opened and anew and the beauty found within the trees is breathtaking. *"...The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged..."

 

Books I read this month:
* Runes by Ednah Walters (It was a free kindle book. I don't even remember what it was about. That's how good it was)
* Strength Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath (Very interesting. I took a little test and found out what my core strengths are)
* Dream Animals, A Bedtime Journey by Emily Winfield Martin (It's a children's book but I am absolutely in love with her art work. So in love that I bought 2 of her prints to hang on Nory and Ever's wall)
*  The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Just started it. Ive heard good things. We'll see)


Music Mania
I have been streaming "The National" a lot this last month. With a dash of "MGMT"

Things Nory Bug was up to this last month:

 



* She is loving camping and fishing and asks to go every single day.
* Eating the inside of oreos and then dropping the "lids" of the cookies where     ever she happens to be wandering at the moment.
* Swinging, the only thing she wants to do at the park.
 * Playing with her cousins.

Things little Evs was up to this last month:

 

 

 * This baby loves to eat and is not afraid to throw a fit if we are eating and she isn't.
* Crawling around.
*She loves animals. When the cats come to her, her entire face lights up and she grabs handfuls of fur, laughing.
* She loves feeling the wind kiss her cheeks.

* The quote came from THIS talk.



Rain Splattered Camping

It's that time of year again, intoxicating, rain splattered nights, lightly toasted noon day cheeks, warm cotton filled breezes and CAMPING!!!

 

 

We started our camping season on the right foot with the second annual Downata Hot Springs exploit.

It was little Ever's first camping trip. Safe to say she had a good time.

 

 

It's still a little early in the camping season which made for cold nights. We managed. We went to bed bundled up and cuddled close

 

 

 and woke up each morning with red noses and smiling faces.

We had all kinds of excitement. Days filled full, full of swimming

 

 

 

and crazy hair dos

 

 

Days full of soggy nature hikes,

 

 

and bug collecting.

 

 

  Not just any old bug collecting adventure. We were lucky enough to have a fearless Grammy, who pointed out all the best places to find critters and treasures.

 

 

We had bug boxes that apparently doubled as binoculars

 

 

and bug boxes full of real mice or maybe just one little, fuzzy mouse.

 

(What a cute little mouse, don't worry we put him back)

 

Days full of cousins

 

 

and nights full of campfires

 

 

to roast marshmallows over

 

 

and rain lots and lots of thundering, tent flooding rain. The rain made for a beautiful morning. I, of course had to go to the bathroom at 4:00 am. It was freezing. At least the pounding rain had stopped. I unzipped the tent and stepped out into this

 

 

I ran to the bathroom and then grabbed my camera. I couldn't resist. Even at 4 in the morning the quiet, breathtaking beauty was too much for my wandering soul. I had to be awake and walk through this beautiful valley

 

 

This was just the first of hopefully many more camping trips of the season.

 

 

 

 

 

 





32 and Counting

32. What? When did this happen? 32, you heard me right people, 32. No worries, it's cool. I'm not too worried about it. I can face that number in the mirror. The reflection that stares at me doesn't feel 32 although the semblance has a few more wrinkles than I remember.

 

I forget sometimes that I'm not that slightly wild, free spirited 18 year old any more. I'm much more grounded...sure, grounded, we'll go with it.

 

For my birthday Chris surprised me with Ellie Goulding tickets. The concert was golden. She sounded so good live. That night my slightly wild, free spirit collided with my mildly grounded, mom of 2 persona.

 

We got to the concert and first thing headed up the stairs to get a good, less crowded spot to relax and let our ears take in the vocal stylings of the blonde songstress .

 

Watching the youngsters below it became very clear I was no longer that 18 year old.

 As I watched those crazy kids, the salt flavored nastalga hit me hard. I remember the excitement of my first concert. It happen to be at that exact venue, the Saltaire.

I was doing extremely well keeping that free spirit in check. And then Ellie Goulding stepped on the stage. Her voice, like a siren's song, calling my inner teenager.

 

And suddenly, there I was pushing my way through sweaty, tightly packed bodies. My kind, supportive, strapping hubs following that slightly wild 18 year old me.

 

The number attached to this body may read 32, securely grounded wife, and mother of 2. But the fine print definitely reads with a heaping serving of free spirited spunkiness.