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.

Some Photos

Here are some random fun photos:

Itty bitty princess...

A cool tower (mostly this is on here because I love that Christian got his feet in the photo!)...

A squishy face...

Sisterly love...

Handsomeness...

Chubs!

Future hairdresser...

Reading 39 Clues...

The end.

'Tis the season...

...for summer carnivals!

Last Saturday, we went to one. I was grumpy. I didn't want to go. It was hot. I was grumpy. There would be crowds. I was grumpy. Sophie would be difficult to feed at a carnival. I was grumpy.

But, I went anyway. I bought some tickets and asked the kids what they wanted to do. Roxie saw the carousel horses and that was the end of that. So Roxie and her grumpy mom gave the nice man two tickets. I helped Roxie onto a horse and the giggling began. Then, the ride started. And the giggling turned into squealing and this face appeared:

Followed by, "Mom, I love you!" in between squeals. I wasn't grumpy anymore. The carnival was the best place on earth.



Christian and Roxie rode lots of rides. Ashton wasn't so interested. She wanted her face painted, but face painting was $5, which I thought was ridiculous. So, she said if I give her glitter toes instead, she will be happy. I owe her some toes.