EIGHT!

Christian turned eight last week. Can you believe it? It was quite the birthday. Celebrations lasted a week. Really. The highlight was his baptism on Saturday. I will blog about that soon. For now, I will tell you eight things I love about my favorite eight year old.

1. He has old man eyebrows. I can't stand it, I love it so much.

2. He has the best laugh I have ever heard.

3. He loves his family.

4. He's a Mama's boy.

5. He has such a good heart.

6. He is affectionate. He gives fantastic hugs and loves to snuggle.

7. He is hilarious.

8. He is so very thoughtful.

I'm so grateful he's my boy! I love you, Christian!

National Self Appreciation Day?

So, I'm behind on my blogging. Way behind. I've been busy. I'll catch up at some point. I promise. I think.

But, I read my friend Annalia's blog and she posted some self-appreciation. She got the idea from her friend's blog who got it from her friend's blog. (I followed the links because I was curious.) Anyway, I started thinking, what would I write? I could make a list a mile long of the things I don't like, but the things I like? That's hard! And then, I thought of a few things and then thought, I can't put that! What if someone reads this and they disagree? But, that's not OK, is it? That made me decide that I should do this. No matter how uncomfortable it makes me. So here goes. Here is what I like about me:

I'm nice. At least I try to be.

I'm strong. Not physically (though I'm working on it!). I can do hard things.

I am a daughter of God. I have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am willing to do what I believe is right for my family. Even if it makes me weird.

I'm LOVE being a mom. I think I'm a pretty good one, though I want to be even better. I doubt I'll ever be completely satisfied on this one, but I like how hard I try.

I LOVE my babies.

I'm pretty smart. Sometimes.

I am generous. I love to give money or gifts whenever I can to friends and charities.

There you have it. Girls are too hard on themselves. I know I am. We should love ourselves for the wonderful people we are. When did it become so unacceptable to be confident and secure? It's a shame.

So, now all of you should make your own list. What do you like about you?

Close Encounters

The other night, as I was getting ready for bed, Doug called me to the kitchen. He had been outside and out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a moth fly in to our house. He pointed to the curtain. "But, that's no moth!" he said.

No. Definitely not a moth. A beetle. The size of my head. Sort of.

He told me to try to find out what kind of beetle it was. I hopped on the computer. In the meantime, he tried to get the beetle out. It hissed at him. Did you think you misread that? No, you didn't. IT HISSED AT HIM! Twice.

So, I googled hissing beetle. Guess what came up. A whole lot of pictures of that very beetle. It is actually a ten-lined June beetle. It took a little work, but he got it out. Now, our home is, to our knowledge, hissing beetle free.

This ends today's entomology lesson.

The Fifth of July

Most of the fun stuff happened on the fifth around here. Christian and I got up bright and early to run the one mile fun run. The whole family tagged along for support. What troopers! I appreciate that!

It was great. I hope the race will become a tradition. I told him I want to run the 5K next year. He said maybe. But, about half way through the mile, he huffed, "Mom, are you sure this isn't the 10K?" Well, maybe the 5K will have to wait another year or two.

Sophie was particularly supportive.

We even got "medals." (Everyone who participated got them!) Christian thought Sophie should wear his.

We went to the parade with friends. It was great. I don't have any pictures to share.

We visited colonial days. We ran into this guy.

Should we tell him that he was not colonial? Odd. Anyway... Ashton and Roxie got their names written in calligraphy.

Roxie was pretty pleased about the whole thing.

Doug and Christian played colonial games.

We had a great time celebrating one of my very most favorite holidays, celebrating the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The Fourth of July

This year, the Fourth fell on a Sunday. We went to my brother Matt's church for the blessing of his new tiny Thomas. Then we went to a park for a picnic. It was so fun to visit everyone.

Here is Matt and Thomas. Sweetness.

Here, Christian and cousin Kate have a little visit. I think Christian is everyone's favorite cousin.

For some odd reason, my cute daddy likes to comb baby hair. He parts it down the middle. It's not darling. I think he did it to his own babies and now he does it to his grandbabies. I'm not sure I ever took a picture of it before, but am glad I have one now.

Everyone loves Mumsie.

What a perfect day! Well, except for Sophie screaming the whole two hour drive home.

The Third of July

Have I mentioned that Independence Day lasts for at least three days around here? Well, it does. We started on the third. We went to festivals and carnivals and such, but I had no batteries in my camera. Well, I did but they were dead. That night, we bought batteries and then went to Namma's house because she lives right next to the fireworks. The kids and Doug sparklered while Sophie and I snuggled.

Here they are in all their sparkler-y cuteness.

The fireworks were fantastic, as always. And I win the prize for making sparkler, a perfectly unassuming noun, into a verb and an adjective in this brilliant post. The end.

Roxie's Big Day

I have many Fourth of July things to post, but first things first!

My Roxie has wanted her ears pierced ever since she discovered my earrings. She LOVES them. My rule has been that she has to be old enough to understand that it will hurt and still want it. Well, the begging began this morning.

"It hurts really bad," I told her. "Do you still want it?"

"YES!" she insisted.

I let her beg most of the day, reminding her every time that it would hurt really bad and that she would have to take very good care of them. It did not dissuade her.

So, off we went to the mall. The girl at the store was sweet as could be. First she drew dots on her ears to make sure they would be even.

Then, she and her friend each grabbed a gun and pierced both ears simultaneously. Not a tear was shed. There was a look of shock. (I decided not to take a picture of it. I think I felt too guilty. I did warn her though...) It was soon replaced with that light-up-the-room smile.